CK's Hellhole

Naughty boy

2005-06-24T03:31:00.000+08:00

Haha.. I did something bad today. I'm currently not supposed to do any form of exercise whatsoever as it will make me strain and cause me to clench my jaw muscles. Supposedly this can move the mandible fragments causing malunion. But it's been a whole month of avoiding the gym and frankly I've been feeling strange, like I'm missing something. The inactivity seems to have contributed to my visibly shrinking muscle mass and rapid weight loss refractory to increased caloric intake. So today when nobody was home, I bladed out to the MRT to deposit some cash and reset my IB password. (good excuse huh?)

It was a good day to blade albeit a little hazy with a PSI of 74. There was a light breeze though. I was done in probably under 20 minutes. On the way back I picked up some low fat milk at NTUC without taking off my blades! Surprisingly, nothing untoward happened when I tried this stunt. No middle aged aunties scolding me for endangering their poor kids who are entitled to run around like monkeys who've contracted SSE (the simian variant of BSE?)

The fresh air and exercise certainly felt good. My exercise tolerance is still low though - felt exhausted after coming back and the medial aspect of my knee joints were hurting. The knee pain was probably due to bad form.

Thankfully, this random act of recklessness did not result in any mishaps. I almost fell down once but regained my balance. I should probably stick to my ban on exercise from now on - I might not be so lucky next time. Bad ck!!

Room rearrangement

2005-06-21T19:14:00.000+08:00

Spent most of today shifting my room furniture around. Yet again. This time, since I'm planning to keep constant track of my inventory (aka possessions. haven't played role playing games (RPGs) before? welcome to the modern world, Mr Cro-Magnon. mozzies and roaches? still around.) I've been categorizing all my junk, selling the unwanted stuff and junking the worthless trash.

For some weird reason when we moved into our current home, I decided somewhere along the line that I need two tables in my room. One for the computer and one for studying. And I stuck to that over-indulgent, greedy and wasteful thinking despite the shopkeeper telling me that perhaps I needed only 1 table (this really goes to show how redundant two tables were - the thought was so stupid even the shopkeeper was willing to lose profit to make me wake up my idea). And so we bought two tables and shifted them into position. Predictably, one of them ended up being a white elephant. And neither of them were really good at what they were meant to do.

The computer table had a special feature which allowed you to hang your CRT under the table and look down on it as you worked. I remember being quite impressed (in fact i thought it was cool & unique.) While it seemed alright in theory, the actual implementation left something to be desired. There's a reason most monitors are placed flat on tables. At least the monitor bracket thingy worked fine albeit a little weird when I was using my 15" CRT. But my 15" died and I replaced it with a 19" behemoth which predictably didn't fit the damn holder. So I placed it on the desk itself, left the holder to rot and ended up paying a premium for a useless feature. Damn I am an idiot.

The other table didn't fare very well either. This table was much simpler in design. But it was not meant to be. Despite my good intentions in buying a study table (to study on of course), I failed to take into account my own needs. I ended up spending all of my time at the computer table and turned the study table into a convenient parking space for all my junk.

I took like half a decade to realise the enormity of my retardation and hence was in a hurry to salvage whatever I could of the situation. How? By listing the computer table for sale (since it had such an extravagantly redundant feature, I was hoping to find another person who fell for such gimmickry). Sadly, all the bids were way too low.

So I handed it down to my youngest sis since she didn't really have a proper study table (hers was quite small). She didn't seem very happy about it - "okay lor.. can lor.. whatever lor.." - in fact she seemed to be positively sulking. Hmph. Wonder what's up with her. But I must give her credit for being sensible - we were going to buy her a K700i but she is still thinking about whether she needs to buy a handphone! That's rather good thinking from a 14 year old - judging from my past record, if it'd been me at 14, not only would I have bought a new one but I would have picked an expensive model with useless frills. Like with the tables. Urgh! Thinking about it makes me mad.

Oh well now that I've cleared some more space in my room I can rearrange it again! More fun..

In the course of packing my room, I've really discovered lots of unwanted things that I spent money on without thinking about whether I truly needed it. So I wrote down a few points about how to buy things in future:

Buying

List and prioritize.
Buy only if it's really really really needed.
Do research before buying - make sure you get what is suitable for you. Don't regret later and change because you lose money with every transaction.
Consider how much you can sell it for before buying it then try to get it lower or as close as possible to the selling price eg if buying a handphone, look at the trade in and resale prices - pay less or close to these prices.
Buy second hand if possible
Buy bulk & wholesale if possible
Don't buy if you can't get a good deal

Selling

Always keep your stuff in as mint a condition as possible - you'll get a better price when you sell it plus it lasts longer too.
Have an inventory so you know what you have at the moment.
Always file your receipts, warranty cards, packaging and documentation nicely - you'll get a better price plus you can check your records easily when you need to.

Long winded huh? There's plenty more where that came from. I've been creating many lists. I find that they help me to make decisions faster and easier. If there's anything I've learnt over the past few weeks it's that it pays to be organized. Being organized improves efficiency, freeing up time to do the things you like. I'd rather get the boring stuff over with fast than spent hours tormented by doing it slowly. It's like venepuncture - the faster and surer your needle, the less the patient suffers.

Blog migration

2005-06-19T09:41:00.000+08:00

Still thinking about whether I should migrate to MSN Spaces and abandon Blogger. Shall sit on it.

MSN Spaces

Pros:
1. Neater - easier to edit layout, design
2. Linked to MSN Messenger - automatically informs my list when I update, possibility of limiting access
3. Easier to manage - photo album, music, custom lists, built-in trackback support

Blogger

Pros:
1. Much more customisable, not limited to dull and uninspiring templates - can edit template directly, many custom templates available
2. Direct url - "evilck.blogspot.com" vs "http://spaces.msn.com/members/evilck/"
3. Management options not built in but can definitely be added with some effort - trackback, photo album, etc

So the only real difference is the MSN Messenger integration? Have come to a decision - shall stick to blogger and update MSN Messenger via RSS feed. Time for breakfast!

KFC porridge?

2005-06-19T04:22:00.000+08:00

Sneaking in a post while I defrag my C:\ drive - it's been quite stressed out with all that backing up, restoring and file moving. The free space is getting quite fragmented. Now's a good time to tidy it up since I've finally finished straightening out my HDD contents. Yay!

So anyway, I got quite bored of the usual food today so I decided to try something new. KFC porridge! You heard me right - just blend in the chicken meat like any other meat. Turns out the spicy version is extremely salty and spicy. It was quite tough to swallow down and I ended up having to dilute it quite a bit. But it was interesting to try.

I think my fondness for KFC has decreased even further. When I was young (primary school?), my parents were quite strict about fast food and we hardly ever got to eat it. One of the rare occasions which warranted such unhealthy food choices was the birthday of either of the 3 kids. We would all troop down to the Toa Payoh KFC (think it is still in the same location) and stuff ourselves silly with chicken. The Toa Payoh branch used to be one of the better branches in terms of chicken QC (a term that I think Andrew the purveyor of fine chicken rice will be familiar with). They also had nice big tables that could fit our larger than average family. Anyway, I think we kids soon outgrew our infatuation with fast food when we could have much of it as we wanted in secondary school. Forbidden fruit when made freely available somehow loses its sinful appeal. The fact that Mum cooks really nice healthy food (i love her vegetables) also helped a lot. I think you'll find that I don't really have a taste for unhealthy food, maybe a very occasional craving for ice cream or Chinese sausages at the maximum.

But I really need to increase my caloric intake right now: my latest weight is like 10% off my pre-operation weight. 5 kgs weight lost in 2 weeks - definitely significant. definitely envy inducing (for girls who think they need to lose weight ie all the fairer sex). The combination of dexamethasone, physical and mental stress from the operation and blood loss as well as reduced caloric intake sure is effective. No wonder those cancer patients look so cachectic.

Hmm I guess I'll have to take more meals.

My plan:

1. 4 meals a day - breakfast 9-10am, lunch 1-2pm, dinner 6-7pm & supper 10-11pm
2. Ensure x 0.5l x 3 - breakfast, lunch, supper
3. Half boiled eggs x 3 at breakfast, fruit juice + low fat milk at lunch, porridge and Fybogel drink at dinner, milo at supper
4. Stick to the damn timings, eat in 15 min and brush in 5 min - I am the king of procrastination and dragging out my meals.
5. Proper meal preparation - Blend, sieve, repeat x1. What doesn't go through the sieve ain't gonna get through my wired up teeth - mai tu liao throw it away

That should give me about 3200 Cals at least. Should be enuff. Hope my weight goes back up, but it'll most probably be fat because I am not exercising. Can only walk around. *sigh* walk more lor...

P.S. Think I might be shifting over to MSN Spaces if I can be bothered to copy this site over. It's neater there but not so customisable. A big plus is that you can limit viewers to those oKIV la.

Tidying up

2005-06-17T18:31:00.000+08:00

Wow, it's only been 4 days since my last post, but it already feels like an eternity! Many things happened. Right now, I'm in the midst of restoring the backups for my computer after I formatted it.

Backing up 50Gb of data sure is no mean feat. Took me more than a day to accomplish. Even copying it back to the harddisk is a hassle. It takes so long! I can't even play DOTA while waiting because there isn't enough free disk space for me to install anything. So I'm stuck here typing while taking a break from packing my room. Yes, you heard me right - the usually messy and slack ck actually bothered to tidy up his room after millions of failed attempts. I must say that I am in fact progressing quite well and fast! The room already looks quite tidy. I think the main reason why it's so simple this time is because I've had time to think it through.

I think going for the jaw operation and the subsequent bed rest (house arrest?) has really been of great benefit to me. For some unknown reason, I started thinking about the direction my life was taking. Had many many brilliant ideas, (If I do say so myself, heh heh..) so much so that I only slept 4 hours from Monday to Wednesday 2am. That was quite weird. I would feel quite tired (physically, not mental fatigue) but whenever I tried to sleep, I kept getting great ideas! Bizarre, isn't it? It was almost like I had tapped into some enhanced mode. At one point I started to suspect that I was bipolar and this was in fact the first presentation (mania). Luckily I finally settled into a more or less normal sleeping pattern last night (2am -> 9am). Such a great disturbance in the Force - must be the result mental and emotional stress from the operation. So anyway, my thoughts are now quite well prioritised - shall post them when I've polished them further.

Oh, not to forget updates on my healing status! I am glad to announce that I have graduated from Syringe School! It is with great disdain that I throw aside these flimsy implements (they kept getting stuck towards the end) and embrace the culinary progress afforded to me by the cup! My blending powers have also leveled up. Eating is great!

Only B to C need apply! Haha.

Follow up with the surgeon today - bad news - the wound is infected with heavy growth of E.coli (the doctor took a sample and sent it for culture on Monday). I bet it was injected into the wound from a dirty syringe. Syringes are really difficult to clean. *sigh* Change of antibiotics to Ciprobay tablets which taste really bad and are damn expensive. Should have asked for the generic syrup version, damn!
Proceeded to collect the sisters' PC from my cousin (he's a damn nice guy, always helping with computer problems) at Funan then went to TTSH to buy Ensure, gargle and paracetamol in bulk. Also closed a deal yay! Quite a fulfilling day, shall finish up my study table tidying!

Stuffed!

2005-06-13T02:10:00.000+08:00

Just a quickey post before I go sleep! Man am I stuffed, just had my supper which was unexpectedly bad. You see, this afternoon I blended some Campbell's soup to prepare for supper but just now when I tried to drink it, it was horrible!! It was really too salty, even after diluting it numerous times with water. In the end, I gave up after finishing about 3/4 of it. Campbell can you please wake up your idea? I get enough salt from soya sauce already. Hmm then again maybe I shouldn't have added all 4 pieces of ham into the blender. I even tried washing it down with Pepsi to get rid of some of the salty taste but guess what? Turns out carbonated drinks are not suited to be sucked up into syringes. Apparently the dissolved gas just comes out of solution due to the pressure differences. So the syringe ends up only half filled. Pretty inefficient huh?

Speaking of syringes, my Dad bought a brand spanking new 60ml syringe today! Woohoo! Now I can gulp down my Ensure in 1/3 the time (I was using 25ml syringes which were starting to malfunction). It's my preciouss.....

Tonight's supper: Looks better than last night's?? BUT it tastes like shit! Also in the picture, my precious 60ml syringe!

So, after that horrible experience I had to force myself to down more food. Why? Because I checked my weight before supper and horrors, it had dropped 2kg from my pre-operative weight! Man, and I thought I was gaining weight with all that eating and inactivity. Must start stuffing my face. And what better time than to start now? So I gulped down an extra 500+ calories (estimated) from a super thick Milo + 3 half boiled eggs.

I'm really starting to get sick of half boiled eggs. Sure, they're nice, fast and easy to cook. For those people who don't know how to make them, let me teach you. Just boil some water and put the eggs in it for about 2.5 minutes (depends on the eggs that you're using really). Too fast and the whites don't coagulate. Supposedly the heat helps to inactivate an antivitamin factor also. Too slow and too much white coagulates, getting stuck on the shell and wasting precious calories!

Maybe I'm overdoing it on the eggs. I wonder how many chicks I am killing daily. Today's count ~ 10 but theorectically they are just gametes right? So it doesn't hurt to kill them since they're technically just like sperm. Anyhow, shall alternate with Ensure binges lol.

Gotta run now, selling my phone to this dude early tomorrow morning. Byebye Siemens S65!! Good riddance and stop hanging. Ooh, gotta pee again. Damn!

2005-06-12T15:11:00.000+08:00

Saihei: One of the cutest pictures I have of her so far!

POD 5

2005-06-12T14:39:00.000+08:00

I'm so bored I've turned to blogging again! Thankfully the weather isn't so hot today, otherwise I'd be too pissed off to do anything at all. I spent the whole of yesterday doing pointless things like playing DOTA again. It's just too restrictive having to stay at home and not go out for fear of knocking up my broken jaw bones.

Speaking of which, I am really paranoid about the jaw bones getting displaced. I keep feeling that they're going out of place. And for good reason I guess: Last night I had some weird spasm of the right side and this morning I woke up with some extra clicking of the right temperomandibular joint (TMJ)! Hope this doesn't affect things much.

I have been getting more gungho with eating and cleaning my mouth since the surgeon seemed quite confident that the thing won't move out of place. He gave me the impression that everything was stable although I feel really insecure about the fixation. I mean, just think about it! The jaw bones are basically cut into half, with one end fix at the teeth and the other fixed at the TMJ. In between, it's just hanging there!? Just thinking about it gives me the creeps.

This phobia is not the only thing affecting me. The swelling of the jaw seems to be going down to be replaced by a yellowish bruise over the jaw and neck but I'm not too concerned about it. It is mild and just a consequence of operating I guess. The liquid diet is okay also and I am getting my energy back. The headaches and congestion are slowly disappearing too - I suppose you could say I have more or less recovered to pre-op status if it weren't for the fact that I have broken jaw bones and can't bite at all.

This brings me to main and most irritating thing - how fast I keep getting hungry! Last night I had to get up at like 3am just as I was dozing off to sleep because I was too famished. How sad is that?! Had to blend up some Campbell's soup. And the best thing was, once I was finished with the meal and cleaned up ready to sleep, my stomach started growling again. *sweat* Didn't have a choice but to ignore my tummy.

Campbell's Corn with Mushroom: Not very filling!

Not to mention the occasional cravings for solid food I get.. everytime I see something solid and yummy I feel like stuffing it down! Especially vegetables. I had no idea I like vegetables that much. Or meat for that matter. For now, I'm trying to thinking of it as an extended braces adjustment session and just try not to freak out on myself.

At least I'm discovering some nice liquid foods like half boiled eggs. The constant peeing (from all the liquids I'm taking) must be helping my kidneys too. At least I won't be getting any kidney stones, not any time soon..

Perpetually late..

2005-03-23T19:45:00.000+08:00

It's only the third day of school and I've already fallen back into my old pattern of lateness! Or maybe I never left that pattern at all, hurhur.

There was a lecture today at 8.30am and I woke up at 6am, but somehow all that buffer got sucked into a timesink and by the time i was ready to get out of the house (face washed, hair gelled) it was already 8am. Since there was only one lecture in the morning and even if I went for it I'd end up missing most of it, I decided to skip the lecture.

Another lecture was due to start at 2pm and I could reach there in time if I left the house at 1pm.

So I whiled the time away surfing the net, all the while not knowing that the 2pm lecture had been shifted to 12pm!! By the time I found out, it was already freaking late.

I went to school anyway and ended up skipping that lecture anyway because I was too embarassed to walk into the conference room 45min late for a 1 hr lecture.

To top things off, the last lecture of the day was a horribly incoherent one given by a German lecturer, of no use whatsoever.

I have no idea what I went to school for! My brain is just so fried, I can't think straight nowadays..

At least I got my free UOB Campus debit card activated.

Back to school..

2005-03-21T17:30:00.000+08:00

First day of school today, start of the unending posting barrage again. We got attached to Diagnostic Radiology at NUH for one week. Heard that it's a slack and pointless posting, and the best part is ours is 20% shorter due to Good Friday. Thank heaven for small mercies!

Felt pretty good today, had badass spikey hair, uber tan from tennis, shiny new shoes and no breakout. Spiffy. If spikey hair could kill people, mine would have topped the frag list today. Although it could be a little too spikey like JZ said. Oh well I think it looks pretty edgy and cool.

Anyway, despite looking better than normal today, I still freaked out when facing babes. Argh. Wonder how some people just seem to glow. Despite dressing unassumingly, they just radiate feminity and purity. Saw one of my crushes today, she made my heart leap for a moment. Then my courage faltered. I always feel that I am lacking and inferior, making me act like an idiot.

Just as I was about to make some small talk (probably going to be some banal stuff, seeing as I am such a boring shit), I looked to my right and saw another one of my crushes coming along. Two babes are more than I can handle so I quickly humji'd and rushed into the Dean's Office to collect the BCLS manuals.

Yes, I have a lot of crushes and they're all the same type. Sigh, why am I such a failure? Don't look good, no talents to speak of and can't even speak well. Don't see why any girl would like me and that's why I can only look from afar.. Sigh.

Scorching hot tennis game! Whoosh!

2005-03-18T18:06:00.000+08:00

Had a really hot tennis game today with Hon Xi, Guanhao and Cunli. Joline was supposed to join us but she couldn't make it because:
1. A series of unfortunate events the night before
2. She had to meet Dr Koh

Thankfully, she brought two rackets so that we could play doubles. It was really really hot and I am definitely going to get a sunburn thanks to doxycycline and tretinoin (photosensitivity). I probably would have gotten a sunburn anyway but this just makes it worse. Anyway, tennis was fun, I managed to master the serve (overhead). Next I'll be trashing Federer at Wimbledon

All your base are belong to me, Federer

After showering, we had lunch at the canteen beside the swimming pool. Joline and Clinton came to join us and we had a gossip season. Well, sort of a gossip season, because nothing actually got revealed. They were pestering me to reveal one of my crushes, but I resisted. Of course, Hon Xi and Cunli know about it but they better not tell. This kind of private thing, should be up to the person to tell whoever they want right.

Clinton's cute new mole

Went shopping for Dad's present after but postponed it to the next day after walking a lot. They should build the malls closer together, it's tough shopping when you have to walk so much.

Blading to Sembawang Park

2005-03-16T19:29:00.000+08:00

Remember I said I was bored? Well, my digital camera was miraculously revived when I fiddled with it while trying to avoid studying before the Pros. And I hadn't bladed in long while because I was waiting for JT's ECP blading outing which somehow got scuttled. So between my itchy fingers and itchy feet, I decided that the best way to satisfy all three was to blade to Sembawang Park and take some photos there. Logical right? It'll probably help to make my ultra boring life slightly less dreary if I decide to do something a little nuts for a change.

Well, I woke up at 5.30am in the morning to print out some maps from the streetdirectory and pack my pouch and then strapped on my blades to set off. I managed to leave the house around 6.15am but not without being spotted by my Dad (I hadn't informed my parents of my plans, which is usual). To his credit, he didn't freak out about the craziness and idiocy of blading at such an ungodly hour. In case you were wondering, I wanted to catch the sunrise at Sembawang because it faces the east. Might as well make the most of my outing if I was blading there.

Finally, reached the park! All that uphill blading was killing me.

The route I took was fairly straightforward, I followed the MRT track all the way towards Sembawang until it hit Gambas Avenue, then I followed that until Chong Pang Bridge, at which point I went up Sembawang Road till its end. The journey there was quite alright with lots of cool morning breeze tainted with a little smokey haze smell. Unfortunately, I had overestimated my blading speed (I blame the uphill terrain!! ) and missed the sunrise. Still, it was quite interesting.

I may have missed the sunrise, but I can still take crappy photos of the sun!

Sembawang Park is a secluded park beside the Boy's Brigade campsite. It is rather small compared to East Coast Park, maybe about 1/2 the size of West Coast Park?

Pink bougainvilleas!

Tree with pink flowers; the dice are all over the park, must be some poor designer's idea of chic

There are many colourful flowers and trees there. Someone must really like pink because that colour was highly over-represented in the park. Pink bushes, pink trees, they were everywhere. Parts of the park were also rather creepy and isolated, looking like scenes out of LOTR.

Huge tree with dangly vines, looked kinda creepy

Lazy morning

A small strip of beach plus a jetty for fishing complete the park. Thankfully there weren't many people there on a Tuesday morning; I think I looked kind of stupid blading around the park taking pictures of things. To make things worse my digital camera was low on battery because my sisters copped my rechargeables. Urgh.

Hibiscus?

Two courting pigeons: The black's the male, keeps trying to buaya the white one

After getting bored of taking pictures and blading, I trudged onto bus 167 with my blades still on, giving the bus driver a shock. hurhur. Got off at Sembawang MRT, ate breakfast at Macs, opened a Campus account at Marsiling UOB. Still waiting for the damn debit card to arrive.. 3 weeks is too damn long!!

Looks like my spikey hair! Coincidence? I think not!

very, very bored

2005-03-16T18:24:00.000+08:00

Wow, I can't believe I'm so bored that I'm resurrecting my blog yet again! Despite the fact that the holidays are super short and rare, I'm still feeling supremely unstimulated. Maybe it's because everyone's overseas, leaving me with no one to go out with. Buggers.

Anyway, I downloaded Picasa 2 (which is free from Google) which is great because it not only helps me keep track of my photos but also lets me post images to Blogger really easily! So at last I can spam my images all over blogspot.. whee..

This means you'll be seeing a lot more crappy photos soon.. yay!

Trek to MacRitchie treetop walk

2005-03-11T19:03:00.000+08:00

Had a route march into the depths of MacRitchie reservoir, that bastion of cross country runs. Only this time, I went there entirely volunteerily to see that new treetop walkway that was in the news recently.

Also, I was really bored and looking for something to do.

Thankfully a whole bunch of people including the HXs, Lil, SH, Wj & gang were also damn bored. So off we went to see the MacRitchie monkeys..

The weather was really hot that day, which together with the haze, made it less than ideal for any sort of outdoor activity, much less wading 11km into the tropical jungle with its assortment of biting insects. This is particularly offputting to me, considering that I am uber attractive to mosquitoes and sandflies. In my army days, all sorts of weird insects would congregate under my basha tent to feast on my gourmet blood. I even had a weird cluster of 3 spider bites on my right hand. Shiver me timbers, it makes my skin itch just thinking about it. Anyway back to the trek before I get hives from the memories..

Super hazy day at MacRitchie reservoir

So anyway, we walked and walked and walked and walked. Wonder why they have to build the walkway so deep in the jungle. *sweat*

One of many tortuous paths

Along the way we did come across one or two nice sights, like these nice white flowers outside the ranger station (was really bored waiting for the girls to finish using the restrooms).

Nice yellow and white flower outside the ranger station

Two headed flower !?!

Most of the time, however, there was really nothing to see. The girls, especially Hx, were really excited to see insects like a particularly big ant (yawn). No offense, but I think we already saw too much during NS. Had enough of bizarre looking freaks of nature to last me forever..

Huge ant with a red butt; we saw these all over MacRitchie

After a really long drudgy trudge through the forest, we finally reached the walkway. Phew!

The walkway itself: pretty standard

After the loooong walk, we were kind of expecting more but maybe the monkeys and birds were having a rest day. The walkway was quite solidly built though..

Nothing much to see here, only a chopped off tree stump, heh.

Had lunch at some Thai place near Coronation Plaza, went home to crash after that. zzzzzZZZ

No more nature walks for me in the near future! Oh well at least it was quite fun and I got a tan plus much needed exercise out of it.

Playhouse!

2004-10-23T23:59:00.000+08:00

Went for Playhouse at school today. I was really late as usual and missed the M3 play because I only woke up at 3pm!! Argh, I feel bad just thinking about it, not only because I didn't manage to give my support to the participants but also because last year's play was really good and I was looking forward to it quite a bit.

So anyway I got to LT13 just as the M3 play ended (from the looks of it). Chatted a little with Hl (who had a tan and a scrapped left knee), Sf (new haircut), Jon Ong (father's on leave so can't play pool today?), and other assorted people. Met Hx & Lil who also missed the M3 play because they had a hot lesbian date watching 2046.

Luckily I was in time for the M4 play which was hilarious! Ian M is really funny with his funny Bhangra accent. The script was good too and had some clever political commentary amidst all that humour. Overall I really enjoyed the play but I felt that there were too many scene changes resulting in long periods of darkened stage interrupting the flow of the play. I also missed some parts of the dialogue because of the loud laughter of the audience but I supposed that's a good thing =)

The M5 play was quite a good effort, considering that they have finals soon. It was more of a recap of the 5 years of medical school and a call to cherish it by treating our peers better. The cast was really extensive and the seniors' strong bonds really shone through. At the end all the M5s took a photo together and they fill the entire stage! Haha I also spotted my M5 chio bu there looking chio as usual.

At the end was the prize giving ceremony which was nondescript except for the terminally bored announcer who sounded like she was going to die and could we just get this over with? Shan't go into the details of the individual prizes but M4 won the FMS.

On the whole I felt Playhouse was really worth my rushing all the way down from home to NUS, what with the laughing fit inducing M4 play and the babe =) so I'll definitely try to go next year, for the final appearance (perhaps?) of Ian M haha.

pwned at dota

2004-10-22T23:59:00.000+08:00

Went to play dota at Paradiz lan shop with Jeff, Endrool and HX. It was a frenzy of last minute arranging and HX was damn bloody late because he was playing Generals with SY et al. I told him 2.30 but he arrived at 4+! Of course I can't really say anything because I'm usually the late person. So anyway, me and Endrool played vs Jeff n HX and we got 0wned. Twice. Ouch. Think I must really suck at games. I kept buying the wrong items. Jeff's stealth assassin was really irritating! Anyway after getting 0wned so much I'm pretty demoralized haha. Nevermind I shall get my revenge one day!

Nice of Endrool to give me a lift to YCK MRT!!

Stupid furniture men wasting my holidays!!

2004-10-21T23:59:00.000+08:00

Argh was supposed to go play pool today after the stupid furniture men stopped by to adjust the alignment of the bed and change the spoilt bookcase but they changed it at the last minute from 12-2pm to after 4pm, completely ruining my plans for the day. Oh well, but luckily I didn't go otherwise would have ended up as a gooseberry =P

So, anyway the boss of the furniture shop stopped by around 3.30. Wow Dad must have scolded him good because he was apple polishing like crazy. He must really have very thick skin omg so old and he's using all these sucking up terms blatantly on a kid like me. Ugh makes me squirm just thinking about it. Besides the blatant effusive praise about meaningless things like my smsing (wah u smsing ah, got join the competition anot, i think if you join sure win, wow beautiful man so fast ugh ok this is the max i can go, the rest i erased from my memory because it's too disgusting), he also kept saying that the cupboard is still stable. Crap, I don't care if it's stable, when I buy something it better be brand new. Stupid fella. He probably told his lackey (the same Malay guy from before) after leaving about how powerful his customer pacification skills are. Yeah he's powerful alright.

After that, the workers from the factory came to replace the spoilt cupboard. They were way more professional than the workers from the shop and really knew how to set it up. They took pretty long to ensure the doors slide properly though because the outer sliding door kept jamming halfway. They tried all sorts of things like changing the rollers, hammering at the bottom groves, changing the whole sliding door, but I noticed it looked more like the upper grove was the problem. But I kept quiet because I didn't want them to blame me if anything went wrong. So eventually they managed to figure it out and the doors slide perfectly now.

No more dealing with idiot furniture men for me I hope. Argh.

After that played dota till 5am. I must really try to quit dota, it's taking up too much time.

Table tennis and badminton

2004-10-20T23:59:00.000+08:00

Went to Huixin's house to play table tennis today.

I took the 169 bus from Woodlands which passes by her house and wow, the driver (some KL Koh) is really irritating!! He drove so slowly that even the army truck with a maximum speed of 50km/h overtook us. And he was so blatant about it, whistling an annoying tune, slowing down at traffic lights and wasting my precious time!! Grrr... what an idiot.

Table tennis was quite fun but I didn't really play long enough before they decided to play badminton at Yio Chu Kang Sports Hall instead. Hx's pretty good at table tennis although she doesn't play regularly. Must be genetics because her whole family plays table tennis. Anyway had a great time at her house - even had yummy curry puffs (I had 3) and green bean soup. It's almost like a primary school outing lol. Hx's a really good host, must have more primary school outings at her house in future. =)

After that it looked like it was going to rain so we went to YCK Sports Hall to play badminton. I was kind of off form because my butt was still sore from tennis last Saturday and my serves keep hitting the net in a bizarre sort of musculoskeletal incoordination. Quite embarrassing!!

Dinner was at this restaurant near YCK MRT where we ordered claypot noodles. The waitress didn't tell us that the $8 portion was more than enough for 3 people so we ordered the $12 size and ended up leaving a lot of leftovers despite gorging our faces to the max. Wasted money argh.

On the way home, went to the furniture shop to tell them about our problem. They're really quite annoying. Saw the Chinese delivery guy there, he's probably part of the family. The more I see him, the more I dislike him. He actually went back and told the boss of the shop that I had actually worsened the damage! Please, if in the first place the screw thread wasn't damaged I wouldn't have been able to even move the screw. Idiot. And the colour of the headboard is totally different from the photo! Grr.. anyway Dad did a good job screwing them over the phone. Ha. Serves them right. Next time I get a budget and do more intensive research instead of deciding immediately. This shop is so full of poo.

Stupid delivery men and white chicks..

2004-10-19T23:59:00.000+08:00

My new bed and bookshelf was supposed to arrive today. Nice daddy took half day off to help me shift around the furniture so that we could position the new items properly. He did most of the dirty work actually which I'm really thankful for while at the same time being a little ashamed of myself for being such a spoilt brat. Heh heh. So anyway, he left for work before the deliverymen came so I was in charge of receiving the goods.

Fell asleep on the sofa (still sleep deprived) and was woken up by Ying when the workers (1 young Chinese man and another older Malay man) came. At first all went well. But, when they started adjusting the shelves to my specifications, to my horror I found that they were using a power drill to insert the screws which totally spoilt the grooves in the bookshelf. And when they couldn't fit the shelves onto the screws, they started using brute strength causing even more damage!! Next, I inspected the bed which was super misaligned. At this point, I was really at a loss as to how to proceed. Though I tried calling Dad, he wasn't picking up his office phone and for certain reasons didn't bring his mobile with him today. So I was stuck with the spoilt furniture and the 2 deliverymen. The Chinese guy kept trying to persuade me to just overlook the flaws and accept the bookshelf by proposing certain amendments but, to my credit, I stauchly refused and decided that I was absolutely not going to tolerate damaged goods when I'd paid so much for the furniture. At this point Ying finally got through to Dad (he hadn't reached his office before) and Dad told me to tell them to bring everything back. So I did what he instructed but the Chinese delivery guy said that they're rushing for time for the next customer so they'd leave everything here without collecting payment and leave us to settle the issue with the shop. Phew at least I wasn't conned into accepting poor workmanship! Luckily I watched those damn deliverymen do their thing, if not I also wouldn't have discovered their negligence and the resultant destruction. After that Dad kept calling the shop but there was no answer at either number. He thinks their rest day's on Tuesday. Perhaps. I hope everything's settled soon so that I can tidy up my room in time for the start of my next posting (Orthopedics at TTSH).

Taken on 19/10/2004 23:02:36 with Siemens S65
Damage caused by stupid deliverymen! See how badly it's screwed in such that there's a surrounding crater of damaged wood. Even I could have done a better job. With such damage, I don't think the shelves which are sitting on the screws will hold up for long, especially under the uber thick and heavy medical texts that I was going to dump on them. And that bloody Chinese guy actually tried to hide the damage under the shelves. Idiot!!

A close up of the inner screw in that earlier picture. See how 1. the surrounding wood is totally damaged 2. the screw looks really unstable, which it is. I could even use my hand to shake it up and down like a loose tooth; if I'd tried harder, I would probably have been able to rip the entire screw out but I didn't want them to say that I spoilt the shelf myself.

After that traumatic experience I was supposed to go watch White Chicks with Jingting at 3.30 but I tried out the new bed and promptly fell asleep till 3. Quickly rushed out without eating lunch and had to take a cab down. Strangely Jingting offered to pay for my cab fare. Of course I declined. I thought it was pretty strange because it's my own bloody fault that I'm late anyway so why should she pay for my cab fare? Anyway I managed to get there on time and we met Sok Yan incidentally on the way into the cinema. She was there with someone (think it was either something -jie) from medfac. The movie was quite okay, really funny at some parts but overall I wouldn't say it was terrifically fantastic. Maybe because it tried to have a coherent and somewhat serious undertone. No idea. But it was still quite worth the six fifty. Better than 'The Quiet American" at any rate. After that we went shopping. I bought 4 shirts from fila (on offer) and we went to Toa Payoh to walk around after dinner. Jingting bought a lot of stuff. She really buys stuff easily.. Maybe it's a girl thing?

Annoying MRT people

2004-10-19T03:07:00.000+08:00

Think I've really got bad luck on the MRT, keep running into these irritating people. Like this guy, who I met on the way to SGH on my test day (last Friday 15/10). He had some problem with his breathing and kept coughing. Now, coughing I can stand but he's like coughing every 8 seconds!!! (Yes, I counted.) How annoying is that?! That's probably why I couldn't finish studying till pancreatic cancer. Damn you annoying chronic cougher!

Annoying cougher (in purple)! Stop coughing every 8 seconds you #)(!($$^)!@@

Oh and the other day I saw this woman blatantly digging her nose on the MRT. I mean, even if you have to dig, should try not show that you're enjoying it so much right? And maybe try to be more stealthy.. not like this:

Wonder where all the mined gold goes.. the guy on the right too disgusted to look anymore - see no evil!!

Super procrastinator ck

2004-10-19T02:28:00.000+08:00

Wow, I must really give myself a prize for putting things off man. Haven't posted anything for a week now. It's almost like when i tried to start a journal (the written sort) and I gave up after a few long entries each time only to resume months or years later. Of course, I always ended up stopping after a few entries again - probably the only consistent thing about my journal. I hope it'll be different this time. At least it's easier to type than to write - no smudgy ink and typing's faster. Not to mention that I seem to be addicted to using the computer, even if there's nothing interesting to do. Like now. I could play DOTA, but I'm trying to quit because it's quite a waste of time and anyway I can't play the Frozen Throne version on battle.net.

Okay, let's see what I've been up to this past week, starting from Tuesday:

Tuesday & Wednesday: Stayed at home to study, was still sick. Towards Wednesday I began to get my usual 'last minute mugging power' hence was able to cover a little. But, it didn't change the fact that i was going to end up woefully underprepared for the test on Friday, as I was to find out.
Thursday: Went to school early in the morning for Mr Ong HS's lecture on Surgical Nutrition. It was quite interesting and practical. But I kind of regretted going because I didn't sleep the previous night (I was on a roll and didn't want to waste the mugging momentum). I think there was a colorectal seminar by Sean but I left because I was seriously feeling the lack of sleep.
Friday: Test day, couldn't finish abdomen chapter in Burkitt, only covered up to stomach and small bowel cancers. And, as luck would have it, my case was pancreatic cancer which is just the next chapter. If only I had studied a bit faster or gotten my original case which was intestinal obstruction secondary to adhesions, I would have done better. As it was, I ended up unable to answer most of the questions. Juliana was nice, didn't look very fierce. However, the way she phrased the questions was very hard to understand and I often answered wrongly because of that. Plus she kept going off on a tangent midway through my answer so I never got to answer any question completely. Argh. Furthermore I was sleep deprived and pretty nervous - my brain was totally nonfunctional and I had a pronounced hand tremor & profuse sweating!! So embarassing. Sigh think I must force myself to present more in the future for my own good otherwise I'll just end up like that at all my clinical tests and vivas. I think I pretty much already screwed this one up. Pwned by Tr and Cl.
Saturday: Went to school for lecture which I didn't really listen to. Mostly spent my time copying my logbook from Hl's. After that we had a discussion session for the COFM Community Health Project (CHP) which we'll be doing in January. Speaking of COFM, I have yet to do my home visit. Argh such a hassle. Trust the COFM department to think of such ideas. Anyway the discussion/briefing was really draggy. A few people kept talking on and on. And the best part is that grading is by participation via peer rating and supervisor rating so it encourages "wayang" tactics. After the seeming interminable briefing, we went to PGP to play badminton. By the time we got there, we only had 30 minutes left to play but only one court was booked and there were so many of us wanting to play. So I played a bit then let the rest play. When our time was up we went to play table tennis and tennis which are both pretty interesting; shall try to learn more about them. Then, after that Hx gave me and HX a lift to Orchard so that we could join our "CG outing" which turn out to be a "jing & friends' karaoke session". Man I shouldn't even have stepped into the karaoke room. I thought I could just sit there, show my face since they said it's a CG outing and I was kind of sick. But apparently, you have to pay just for sitting there. Even if you don't sing, drink anything etc. Bloody waste of money. I should have just gone home since I still had sore throat from sinusitis and only slept 30 minutes the night before (playing DOTA 3.7). Oh well lesson learnt.
Sunday: Went to buy my new bed and bookshelf. Took very long to choose the designs and ended up spending way too much money. I feel a little guilty now since I'm probably the single largest money sucking source in the family especially due to my jaw operation and medical school etc. Also, since I wasted so much time deciding on the design, I was really late for the LAN session with bert et al but still managed to get in a few games. However I'm not really good at DOTA, quite disappointingly & not surprising.
Monday (today): Had a dental appointment then went to SGH to pass up my logbook. Bummed around with nothing to do (because that %@)($#* HX didn't tell me they were having a LAN session in town) until six plus when I met bert for dinner. Dinner was okay but I guess I have simple tastes, didn't particularly enjoy the food. But it's nice that bert made some time for me before he leaves for Australia. Really appreciate that he's such a good friend.

Wow, long post eh? Shall leave some of the other stuff for the next post.

Ice cream and Bactrim

2004-10-12T23:42:00.000+08:00

I snuck out from the house just now to get some ice cream and ended up gobbling up two whole sticks of Wall's ice cream (can't remember the name - it was a vanilla ice-cream with lime flavoured konniyaku jelly). One of the good things about my neighbourhood is that it is so convenient. Just across the road, there's a NTUC, 24 hour coffee shop, 7-11, McDonalds and KFC, bookstore etcetera. and it's so near, I could probably run there, finish off one ice-cream and get back before anyone else in the house notices.

So anyway, my excuse for eating ice-cream so late in the night, besides the fact that I like ice cream, is that I was about to take some medicine when I noticed that the indications said to take after food. Of course, most people don't really give a shit about these indications but I'd been thinking about ice cream for the better part of the day, so any lame excuse would have been enough to send me running for the ding-dong of the 7-11 door.

Anyway, for those curious people, I was taking Bactrim for my sinusitis. Heh heh I prescribed to myself when I found some old medicine from 2003 in the cabinet. There was enough for a 1 month course and it hadn't expired, so I figured that it's about time I took some action to stop this buggerish infection that gives me a headache, makes me sleep like a pig and destroys my concentration whenever I try to study. Take that, stupid bacteria. No more folic acid for you guys! Hope it resolves before my surgery posting test this Friday (either way I'm dead because I haven't been studying much).

Darn, I'm hungry again, gotta go find something to eat. Man, I'm like a pig nowadays..

Continue or ...

2004-10-11T18:17:00.000+08:00

Hmm, I'm not sure if I should continue with this blog. To begin with, the address is totally self indulgent and arrogant - might make me look like a preening narcissist (which I am not, obviously). And secondly, the fact that I posted two entries previously but failed to follow them up is a superb testimony to my lack of persistence, m4d procrastination 5k!LLz and frivolous nature. Ow, my ego just took a hit there..

Well, I guess I'll just carry on with this blog. Perhaps I'll delete the first two posts at a later date, when I feel like a little bit of self delusion. For now, the l337 address and image hosting capabilities of blogspot (via Hello) are just too convenient for me to uproot and restart somewhere else. This new Minima Black template is also pretty cool, I guess.

Okay, first off, I suppose I should outline what my goals in (re)starting my blog are:

I feel that I've not been writing enough text since my secondary school days and that the standard of my English has been approaching Ah Beng levels recently. Many times when I've tried to write something, I've ended up either not knowing how to spell words, spelling simple words wrongly, committing grevious grammer mistakes, etcetera. Being able to express yourself articulately is an asset in society and hopefully writing more will let me brush up on my English proficiency. Hence, only proper English on this blog as far as possible.
It's also easier to keep in touch with friends this way, I guess. There's only so much time each week to talk on the phone and go out with friends - everyone is busy and much as we'd like to communicate there's often not enough time, resulting in some alienation. I don't hope to replace actual interaction with this blog, but hopefully it will allow my friends to have an inkling of what's happening to me, even when we're too busy to see each other.
Self expression. Sometimes I'm bored and sometimes I have interesting thoughts to share. Plus my new (more or less) Siemens S65 camera phone has photos so this is where I'm going to dump them (on a captive audience)! Muahahahah..

Okay that's about it for why I'm starting this blog. Kind of long-winded, aren't I? More next time, maybe an update on my situation at the moment? For now, I'll leave you with a picture of one of my family cats snoozing:

I call him the cow cat because his fur is the typical cow colour (black and white) and he's also as massive as one (look at his tummy!!) Favourite pastime sleeping - just like me!

2002-09-13T21:22:00.000+08:00

nuts, i can't post on my desktop, it's annoying to have to use my sister's laptop (as i am doing now) to post. maybe i should just screw the idea.. after all, i don't want what happened to cat to happen to me. fyi, her blog got discovered by her parents (whom she's been complaining about). now they know all her dirty secrets.

the holidays (recess... whatever) are almost over and i've done nothing of note. nothing at all. guess i can call this a wasted week.

2002-09-08T23:09:00.000+08:00

hey.. my first post... today sucks... i went to school to play soccer n it started raining like nobody's business... then i was off-form... so i got soaked for nothing.. a total and complete waste of time. i have this feeling i'm wasting my 1 week of precious holidays.... *sigh* may something exciting and nice happen to me soon...