Meifang!

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Wow! our assistant classrep is ALSO very hot! heh. when colin first saw the photo, his knee jerk reflex was "holy mama... thats one hot mama b*tch!"

we agree... hehehehe

and to think she said... "aiyah... take already can just delete the photo.. its take for fun only. :)" right....

PHS 2006

DSC_0024, originally uploaded by oyclubsnap2.

Its that time of the year again. PHS is now on at the toa payoh hdb hub... more updates when the event is finally over. (tmr)

Zoo-ed!

DSC_9861, originally uploaded by oyclubsnap2.

Yay! another successful trip to the Zoo. Didn't get to catch Ah meng or get a good photo of the white tigers so the practical (photographic) utility of the trip is kinda suspect. However, discounting the photog considerations - it was a pretty fun trip due to the really fun company.

Travel companions were stephen, thomas, junwen, jocelyn and eunice (pictured: right to left) In notable absentia was Glenn who shall now be publicly known as the "pangseh kia" -instigator of the trip and the ah guah boy who passed over a free lift to mandai because he was *tired!*... hey im an m3 and i slept at 4 too. what on earth were you doing glenn which made you that tired hmmm?

We had quite a few cheap laughs at the start of the trip by pretending to be really obnoxious Honkie tourists...we *unfortunately* attracted stares by our loud and really excited calls of something along the lines of:

"WAH! hou leng ah! hai mouuse deear ah! thomas-ah.. leh hai bin dou!?" utterly brainless fun!

we got to see most of the exhibits but missed out on all the shows save one because it rained halfway in the trip. we caught the polar bear feeding show but that was only because we were huddled in the polar bear gallery to get out of the rain. :)

the rain also killed photog for the day because the light levels were effectively zitch for my telephotos which were all around the 300-750 mm range. even with my large aperture of f3.5, i still missed alot of shots due to poor focusing and/or shake. The fact that i didn't bring monopod just accentuated the general failure of the day for phototaking. All the photos that were taken were all with an unacceptable iso of about 800 - 1250. The only reason why they appear to be rather grain free is because i admit, they have been heavily processed. Nikon in this respect has really frustrated me by the lack of grain management. I would gladly trade my megapixels for better grain handling.

As for todays body of work, most of the subjects (animals) have also been photographed in the previous zoo trip. the only excuse i can venture for not attempting other animals is simply the design of the zoo. some enclosures are just not meant for photography. also, the animals were as usual -sluggish, sluggish to the point of almost drug induced. most of the time the animals were either hiding or turning their backs on the crowd. It think its an almost uncanny ability of theirs to frustrate with lovely views of their bums smack in the faces of the eager tourists. :) its really was a far cry from the "nature red in tooth and claw picture" that national geographic paints from their documentaries.

Conversation throughout the trip was kept quite irreverent with stephen, thomas and me providing constant barriage on poor eunice who had to bear the agony of hearing how mathematically she was less significant or that her boobs weren't perfect - nevermind my dear, we still love you. and we were kidding about the boobs.

junwen didn't join in as he was otherwise engaged. *hahaha*

the day ended on a high note with all of us trooping down to the friendly neighbourhood KFC for dinner. I also had my first pineapple pie in months. mhmm.

Its ZOO-ing tmr!

Gosh i haven't been this excited since a long time! i get to take pretty photos of ah meng again and i get to meet up with the cinderella bunch. positively bliss. Its a nice end to the extended holidays. :)

anyways, to celebrate this period of freedom, im going to commit some of the moments of pure jollidity down to text. memorable highlights from the past week include 2 marathon dota sessions with the guys and two excellent and *free* concerts at the yong siew toh conservatory. especially the one on saturday which played summertime for its encore piece. the violin was just so soulful! i was actually almost moved to tears by that particular rendition... gah! live music beats my old beat-up speakers any day...heh. anyway, the violinist was apparently some 4th year honours student who also played gershwins 3 preludes which contained an incredibly *gay* segment at the end of the 3rd prelude, after a blitzkrieg of crisp pizzicato rolls, he was double stopping in harmonics and playing octaves: jaw drop incredible technique!.... All things considered, im a big gershwin fan.. yes, *thats* how gershwin -should- be played! personally i think he did a better job than yoyo ma who also has a recording of those pieces. it was that good. mhm. its a real pity -you- weren't there to hear it.

as for today, i had a mini tutorial session with thomas, stephen, gerry and joyce. CVS 101. and im afraid i made two rather terrible mistakes. hmm. must clarify this.

firstly, the RAAS system. renin converts proangiotensinogen to angiotensin 1, not as i had orginally asserted as causing the release of ACE - which turns out to be consitutionally produced by the lungs. (in this respect, the notes are quite misleading)

secondly, the frank starling mechanism only increases the force of the contractions of the heart. it does not increase the rate of the contractions. the actual physiology of the FS mechanism is by two means:

increasing the cardiac muscle length by putting it under an increased tension results in the myofibrils being brought into a more optimal configuration - increasing the force of the contraction. secondly, the stretch itself also makes the cardiac muscle more sensitive to the actions of Ca2+ ions; which makes the tissue more excitable. neither of these actions increase the heart rate!

hope that resolves the issue. on the whole, i think the tutorial was pretty productive... at least i think i managed to cover most of the concepts involved in cardiovascular physio. what do you guys say?

after that 1.5 hour session, that i was sorely tempted to go listen to yet another concert (wind chamber) but my preservation instincts cut in and said that i should go study my lonesome orthopedic text. so after about 2 minutes of agonizing indecision, i spent another evening huddled in the library. a pretty smart choice too because i actually got quite a lot done.

ps. the physio mistakes are still bugging me. im forgetting a lot of stuff (it actually scares me). i think before i do any further tutorials.. i should go read up a little more first. i hate giving inaccurate advice. physios been a strong point for me, its time to get it straightened out again. :)

oh oh and oh! i bought 3 CDs from IMM on sunday; story of the yellow river, flowers and adolescent and lastly a fishing boat song at dusk! traditional chinese folk melodies so do it for me. i really love the sound of a chinese pianist, theres a very distinctive touch which i think sounds refreshingly raw compared to the slick (and might i say limpid) performances from western trained pianists.

theres a really lovely introductory piece on the flowers and adolescent album, a duet between the violin and harmonica - a very unusual combination...

nat pearlly, siying and claris!

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all waving their fire sticks! :)

and claris has this really cool t-shirt that reads "i love med students!" mhm. yes, claris we love you too!

much ado about nothing

cartoonfat, originally uploaded by oyclubsnap2.

It seems that clinics are playing merry hell with my blog life! every time an exam comes up, i drop everything in the name of sanity and head straight for the library to do a good bit of *catching up* (mugging doesn't quite technically describe my endeavor heh.)

Anyway, theres goes the end of another 2 months in internal med. i took the clinical test in AH and was rewarded by an AMI (long case), a plural effusion and lastly a murmur due to aortic SCLEROSIS (both short cases.)

the first case was easy enough, i was able to adequately get a decent history and diagnose the gentlemen concerned. i guess i must have impressed the consultant because he was all smiles at the end of my presentation. subsequently he allowed me to do my physical examination of the next case unobserved and gave me the A++ option of presenting freely rather than to stick to protocol after i had finished. I decided to go for the gold and went for the advanced option and was still managing to hold up quite well until the time came for the third and last case...the last case of aortic sclerosis, aortic bloody sclerosis...

this time i was majorly stumped. i had ascultated a PSM in the 2nd RIGHT intercostal space. it was a grade 3 murmur and it didn't seem to radiate anywhere. It was accentuated on expiration and it had the "wushing" quality of a mitral regurgitation.... damn. so i was considering 3 differentials, MR, TR or even a VSD. i had already pushed the possibilty of an AS out of my mind because there wasn't any carotid bruits nor was there evidence of pulsus tardus. so anyway... long story short, i completely missed the diagnosis, what a letdown.

oh well. at least the tutor was sympathetic when he realised that i hadn't thought of aortic sclerosis - which for the uninitated folks out there, is differentiated from aortic stenosis, on precisely the same grounds as my case, by a LACK OF BRUIT! nice information to take home heh.

In other news, hols have started after a marathon 4 months of tough clinics! haha one week of holidaying bliss awaits! whilst i'll admit its already wednesday night, and ive already wasted half my hols, i can only hope that the 2nd half will be better. (this so totally brings out the blind optimist in me. heh)

the first day of hols started with a marathon dota session of 7 hours (owned as usual but never you mind...) and a really lovely session eating mooncakes at pearlly's place. Nat, siying, claris and pearlly cooked this most amazing salad and japanese soba!

i have to get the recipe from them some day! *hint hint! nat! hand over thy recipe yah!* We were also entertained by mark with a surprising medley of medical RAPs from the usually benign and really guai mark! Next, siying decided to give mark and me a a quick session on salsa 101 which proved to be really refreshing. im now proud to say that while i still have 2 left feet...i can at least do salsa basic step!

fast forwarding to today, i ran into wai jia in the library who really inspired me with her book which she published for charity. Its a really good read and her illustrations put mine to absolute shame! (see mine in comparison? bleagh!) and her treatment of watercolours totally captivated me with her rich tonal palette! All in all, for a good cause, please DO approach our darling wai jia, m1, with a minimum of 20 dollars in your hand and walk away with an autographed copy of a book of gold, written by a heart of gold. :)

anyway, time to go! haha some long entry this has been.

btw. for all the naysayers (ie i say im fat, and you still say nay.. *heh*) i HAVE gotten fat alright! couldn't even complete my usual 5km run with sunder and weesoon. looks like i'll be leaving off the big 'n tasty burgers from our friendly M for sometime. dammit! i love unhealthy processed food!

ACS boys have too much time

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yup, thats our hall six white board thats been taken over by the highly stressed guys. read the text, its hilarious. ;)

*in context: the hall door got loosened... sparking off an enormous debate.

The survivors of Junwens cooking!

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thanks once again for the chalet. its good to feel like an m1 again! :)
and whats a good chalet if its not marked by scandal? yes yes yes? JUNWEN hmm?

okay, im kidding. bah.

Time for an overdue check on life.

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Its been a pretty shit week for me with 2 tragedies that hover at the very forefront of my mind:

firstly, the loss of the Medsoc elections and secondly, the possible loss of my driving license (which argueably sucks even more.)
regarding the medsoc elections, its a bitter pill to swallow -im not going to reflect my personal sentiments publicly nor am in going to politicize this blog... i will however, for the time being, *take a break* from public service. so bugger off. read ayn rand's magnum opus, "the atlas shrugged" if you're so inclined to figure out precisely why im bummed.

btw, for all the cynics out there, i AM extending my congratulations to Hanboon, i think he'll do a good job too so don't you fret! :)

as for the driving license, well, i can only pray that the police were sleeping on the job. but even then, i doubt it. this is Sing-a-pore leh!

in a nutshell, changi coast road is IMHO too long and straight and traffic light freeish for my taste. methinks that the speed limit should be at least 90 instead of the miserable 70.

There were a few good highlights coming from this week though:

Howen treated me to lunch (which was a momentous occasion in itself), i tried the new KFC cheesy popcorn chicken bits (surprisingly paletable), turned up to cinderella's OG chalet (thanks JW, Glenn and Jos for organising it!), watched army daze (finally!) and also had a fabulous dinner courtesy of Esther.

Quite a hectic social weekend too with dota with the m5s on friday night, good games they were too! lastly, an interesting conversation on saturday afternoon which really made my week. cross my heart and hope to die! heh.

all this social activity is all good and well... except, im so going to fail my g.med end of posting test. heh. the mcqs are just impossible :( still, theres but hope for the hopeless; or so we'd like to believe.

portrait of a young lady...

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AKA, Esther the Effervescent!

after 21 years of cosmic radiation.. and egads!!.. shes still got perfect skin :)

black is the new black!

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heh. the obvious effect of overexposure is proof that the 3d matrix system for metering still can't beat the human touch. :)

Happy Birthday Esther!

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You have such a close knit family! im impressed.. and your youngest sister is so cute! :)

hope you enjoy rodney's and my gift. we must see you use it hor!