Friday, April 27, 2007

Fashion photogish. :)


DSC_9678 copy2, originally uploaded by ou yang.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

lennard with lenseless photography


DSC_9681 copy, originally uploaded by ou yang.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Zhi yong and me on our last day with the GP


DSC_94402, originally uploaded by ou yang.

The belly of the beast!


DSC_9438 copy, originally uploaded by ou yang.

Just finished my GP clinic posting. (thats a glimpse of a consultation room)

It was a pretty fun experience and i particularly enjoyed the emphasis on the family centric model of care. Not that it happened or was required often - most cases were simple coughs and colds. But the cases which turned out to be a little more complex really showed how involved the GP could be with the patient. It was refreshing compared to the steamroller treatment dished out by the hospitals and polyclinics.

This holistic care thing is getting to me. mhm.

Regarding the smell in certain GP clinics... i've also found out where that *characteristic* smell comes from: Vitamin B12 injections. It seems that under the pressures of commercialism, money grubbing doctors either become professional drug dealers (benzos), erectile dysfunction Viagra whores, closet dermatologists, "weight loss" healthcentres or "AMPJ - All Must Pa Jiam" - vitamin B12 homeopathic quacks.

While the first money grubber tends to be more invisible to the public, warning signs from the next few money grubbers include heavy use of interior design in the clinic, multiple aesthetic skin or fat posters and the invariable scent of money.

The AMPJ doctors however lack all of those qualities, especially the invariable scent of money because the AMPJ doctors are still relatively poor as they can only charge a small premium on the Vit B12 jabs (afterall, Vitamin B12 sounds nowhere as energising as Viagra does it?) But still, take a quick whiff. And you'll identify your nearest AMPJ doc with relative ease. if you're in to that sort of stuff anyway.

the last category of doctors are the "shit poor but with integrity" fools. They exist in an untenable system thats priced itself excessively low. They have a particularly hard line to tread and many take puny earnings for the work they do. Whilst we must salute them for their dedication but we must also never glorify that evil. As victims of our own altruistic training, we have given up our command of price regulation and have pandered to the masses.

It sounds like good news to everyone but in the long run, this system will only serve to deteriorate the morale of doctors all around - its already spread with this current boom of money grubbing doctors all the way from professional drug dealer to the AMPJ centric physician. Its up to us to make sure that we don't make the system such that it makes systematic crooks of GPs - society should not turn good men into criminals.

Afterall, as one GP put it, if i charge 10 dollars per 10 min consultation, i will be charging the same amount as a hairdresser. in fact, its not even the highend hairdresser but the auntie who does pseudo-armani haircuts. How can such a system be sustainable?

Please fellow medics, do charge for your services - we are the only professionals that makes our living 20 dollars at a time. Be reminded that GPs are seriously underpaid in singapore.

Friday night dota with the newly made Drs


DSC_95602, originally uploaded by ou yang.

Its been great meeting the M5s (oops) newly made doctors in rather more slack settings like the lanshop.

Pretty much nothings changed since the last we met up over 5 to 6mths of radio silence in the run up to the dreaded MBBS.

Its a good thing. :) and i wonder if they'll keep up this Friday night tradition because its become a pretty integral part of my social calender. For this we should really thank elaine who promotes outings with tireless energy. god bless you i think.

Lunch with Viv @ Holland V Thai Express


DSC_95662, originally uploaded by ou yang.

The food was great but the service was horrible.

I complained so i guess i won't be returning there for at least the next month or so - just in case they decide to spit in my food. :P

but seriously, who takes 40 minutes just to take an order and another 30 to bring the food?

Thanks viv for the great lunch - i still can't quite believe i haven't seen you in a year. The very secret diaries are still splitting my stomach as are the richard simmons videos. heh.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Busy London Tube system


DSC_3540, originally uploaded by ou yang.

Classic Street! Drunk Bastards in a Punchup!


DSC_38212, originally uploaded by ou yang.

This is sight you don't see often.

it was new years day in london and understandably, everybody was pissed drunk.

Traditional Sleeze, Amsterdam


DSC_4649, originally uploaded by ou yang.

Metropolitean rail system, Amsterdam


DSC_4392 copy, originally uploaded by ou yang.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

close cropping.


DSC_9242 copy2, originally uploaded by ou yang.

look at the detail on the eyes!

Saturday, April 07, 2007

butterfly II


DSC_9214, originally uploaded by ou yang.

Scandalous!


DSC_91532, originally uploaded by ou yang.

Sitting by the poolside


DSC_93012, originally uploaded by ou yang.

Why i am an atheist.

Some time ago, someone asked me if i was a christian. To this i replied: "no, im an atheist, why?"

the person in question was so shocked he/she gaped and stared for about a full 30 seconds.

I wonder why i illicited such a knee jerk reflex from simply expressing that there was NO god. As an atheist, i profess the same amount of confidence that god-fearing folks have in that god exists. Why then have i chosen this admittedly aggressive stance?

In the past, i used to label myself an agnostic which was a far more neutral position. It was a position which allowed me to consider that God was an untestable hypothesis and therefore inherently outside the testable realms of science. It would hence be a hypocrisy on my part to assume the atheistic position that there was definitely no god. As scientific experimentation aims to elucidate natural law, we have found time and again that natural law obeys no law of man and scientific dogmas have fallen, only to be replaced by newer models of understanding that were tweaked to allow new phenomenon to be comprehended within the new framework. To say categorically that A is A and will always be A is therefore a contradiction to the spirit of science. Afterall, without the theory of electricity, even the simplest appliance like a lightbulb would definitely have fallen into the "impossible" category.

I have long held that position - however after reading richard dawkins excellent book, the "God delusion," Dawkins very successfully challenged some of my core beliefs about the scientific method.

I shall clarify my beliefs:

The first 3 statements pertain to my beliefs on conventional religion, the next 3 are expressions of my world view.

1)There is no God - God in this case is likened to a person, a spirit, a being, a benign metaphorical cloud or an energy.

2)God, according to conventional religion, must have an intention for us in the world. This intention can either be good or bad - ie, christians have a loving god and satanists have a god of brimestone and hellfire - they are both catergorized into belief in a supreme being with a purpose.

3)This being is of immense power and capability and further, constantly uses his powers to affect human activity.

4)My beliefs allow for a God, or natural force which is benign, cannot be detected and generally has no other concerns for us other than the fact that we are but specks in his peripheral vision. This vision of god may manifest itself as an appreciation of the natural order of the universe. Attempts to understand this god may itself be futile as there has always been a natural tendency for humans to give everything a purpose and a value.

5)I accept that life without god given purpose is still beautiful. In fact it can be every bit as purposeful. Arguments that life is essentially pointless without a guide are flawed as they taken in a very narrow context that typically flows as such:

"so, you believe that after you die, theres nothing?"
"yup!"
"so why do you bother to work or do anything? since ultimately, nothing you do matters, and by extension of YOUR beliefs, nothing that anybody does matters on a long enough timescale?"

To answer this, i argue that purpose is what you make of a situation. Just as the purpose of gravity is to hold us down, you could argue that in relation to gravity, we are essentially pointless. Afterall, it hardly matters to gravity whether we exist or not. Similarly, to state that life is purposeless is to ignore the proposition that life can simply be for living - and much productive work can be derived from it. I believe that within humans, there will always be certain traits which are worthwhile goals. These include the care of other human beings for example, with palpable results. These goals are tangible enough to be irrefutable. To argue otherwise is to pick a verbal argument over semantics.

6:Absolute morals are not necessary for the world to exist. The world conforms to our moral standards and knowledge of "morals" is only an expression of what we have come to be conditioned with. As a case in point, Is it moral to eat another man? to that we would certainly hear a resounding "NO" from most of the civilised world - yet the same question posed to a savage brought up in a culture of cannibalism would provoke a shocked reaction mainly because prior to the question, there wouldn't even be any doubt , to the savage, as to be legitimacy of the practice. His world view would not even have anticipated that "new" moral. Likewise, our morals represent an evolution of morals in which a perfect standard has never existed.

The first 3 statements will form the basis of my God seeking hypothesis. They reflect sentiments as given by conventional religions.

The latter 3 of my statements deal with a world post-god and how it can still be as beautiful as before without the blinkers of religion.

As mentioned before, it would be inherently unscientific to state that something is impossible. However, scientific thought cannot be understood in such simplistic terms. That understanding of the scientific method would by logical extension, propose that nothing is impossible. A quick mental exploration reveals that an extension of that mentality would be to state that it would be a plausible hypothesis: that tiny invisible and undetectable imps jump from my hand to push a cup as i move to shift its position.

No reasonable scientist would ever entertain such a notion. Clearly, to adopt a post-modern "there is no truth" attitude toward science is unsustainable. Instead, scientific thought must also contain an element of plausibility. It is this element of plausibility which has not been fulfilled in my god seeking hypothesis. To restate the scientific method, to the atheistic scientist: what matters is not the absolute plausibility of an event but that it possess a sufficiently high enough degree of probability to make it a valid hypothesis. This carries the caveat that lack of probability does not also automatically exclude further testing. Indeed to give scientists credit, globally there have always been efforts underway to prove the god hypothesis.

An atheistic scientist therefore says with conviction that god does not exist until the day comes that god becomes a likely probability. He says this with the same conviction that he pronounces all his other statements such as: gravity pulls objects with mass. No protest has ever been heard over such statements - yet they do not preclude physicists from constantly probing the gravity hypothesis. To date, we still do not understand what gravity is.

In conclusion, i believe that to limits of my own intelligence and reason, i will continue to reject religion or at least hold it in a position of such little probability that it would make any attempt to resolve religion into a position of agnostic "maybe," an attempt to run away from the true nature of reasonable science.

I have so much more to write. yet time is precious. in any case, many of my arguments are similar to those found within the "god delusion" so do pick up a copy to set you thinking. It contains arguments which are far more solidly constructed and well thought out than what is expressed here.

It has the advantage of being a full fledged attempt to honestly approach the subject of atheism and also includes detailed arguments over the implausibility of god on which my argument hinges.

However, should there be any objections that you might raise on my treatment of the subject, feel free to look me up to discuss them in depth. It is likely that i will be misunderstood here based on my quick and dirty treatment of the subject without further detailed explanation of my beliefs.

I have also not finished fully clarifying the second proposition of living without a god. Maybe i will get do to that one day.

*for people who will find this post offensive - it should be no more offensive than any of the other numerous articles that focuses on the greatness of god. i reserve no judgment on alternate belief systems.

The joys of biking!


DSC_92952, originally uploaded by ou yang.

nat in front, sunder and shihui on a double and lastly, me with victoria on another double...

Shihui contemplates biking...


DSC_92442, originally uploaded by ou yang.

Very different treatment of the same technique... this has a much harder and gritty feel to it.

Nat seeking refuge from the heat!


DSC_91442, originally uploaded by ou yang.

Bug caught in flight.


DSC_93192, originally uploaded by ou yang.

Sigma 105mm f.28 macro.


DSC_9226, originally uploaded by ou yang.

Yay! photog outing of sorts to east coast park!

I found this little bugger flirting around the lantanas...