Red Wall

PJ complained my blog entries are getting more boring. i think the internal filter must be working overtime, because if ya really think about it the days that go by cannot be completely boring. but i also wonder if every little wonder or petty disagreement or chicken wing consumed makes for good reading.

played a round with Stan and some random outsiders. lost the match but i got an offer to join clan RoTK. like... wow. the players i've seen in game arent too bad, above average actually. and he wanted me to join for competition purposes. his play was... ok though. the presence of an SA always turns a match into a gem party. had to do a lot of gem repo rounds. and i declined the offer. to have a BDS in my match account nick is all the clan i need.

My Vampire Heart - Tom McRae

Shady Crimbo Afternoon

so how did this holidays go for me? as the holidays evaporate away into nothingness, i can say that have not accomplished much. played enough, gone out enough. rested well. eaten good stuff. seen nice movies. but was it worth it? i hope so! im finally done with the musical. and i think it did leave its mark out there. but next year, im gonna be an usher. for sure.

Under The Old Raintree

another long overdue entry in a dying blog... seems like all the blogs that my class writes are dying by apathy. perhaps we're sick of seeing each ohter rant about our closed lives. or how tired we are in the face of all the nonsense that school flings at us. i know i could do with another holiday. spent on the beach with an enthusiastic puppy and a frisbee or sth.

its almost over, it really is. i guess this is gonna be the last pre-production entry about the musical. its been too damn long in its inception, and the labour of making it was troubled. its gonna be over soon and frankly it doesnt look to bad at all. hope that people dont fall apart on us as we hit the stage on the nights. hope that the cold air in the auditorium doesnt kill off my voice. hope i dont get winded moving and singing. hope Ben doesnt screw up her solo. hope the people i invited come!

went down to do an E-case yesterday. i swear... provis will be the death of me. broken provi, he said. and it was actually the metal of the stainless steel crown form coming apart. haiz... after smoothing that off and recementing, i decided to redo the adjacent provi that had awful overhangs what were contributing to gingival inflammation. at 4.30 i figured that i was dying and had to go to the DC for help. at 6.00 the patient was discharged. i now have a new idol in Dr Lim Boon Kuan, who is like amazingly fast and efficient as she works. one day i will be bloody fast like her. such economy of movement... and i still hate doing provis in live drooling patients.

翼の計画（花王ラビナスＣＭソング） - Do As Infinity

Songs Of The Future, Lyrics Of The Past

i must be going through some bad-ass down-period if i simply don't feel like writing for long periods of time, especially if writing has always been so therapeutic. but somehow in the life that ive been leading for the last month or so i simply can' find anything nice to write about. and the bad stuff has been axed by my internal privacy filter. i wish it wasn't this way. but thats life. there are times when there will be problems but you just can't scream them into the north wind, or in this case the Net, because there is just too much at stake. you never know who's down south. and i have so much to learn, so much to do, and so much to grow into.

infections suck. this pharyngitis just doesnt want to bugger off and i wake up every morning with bits of phlegm waiting to be coughed up. as an aside, the Nokia dictionary doesnt have the word phlegm. and i fell a bit sick every day but not sick enough to go to the doctor. this is just annoying.

just ripped a CD off of Anqi. this is the first Jay Chou CD to actually make it to my hard drive, and it doesnt disappoint. good melodies, though i cant comment on the lyrics. wish i could just have the time to lie down somewhere and fall asleep with my music collection playing in my ears softly. bugger this...

夜曲 - 周杰倫

A Little Bit Late For That

why in the world would Do As Infinity disband? i'd say their career was still going strong, and their songs were always good to listen to. maybe they got bored and wanted to start with something new and unprecedented. wonder how Van Tomoko will sound as a solo singer? they will be sorely missed...

watched Harry Potter and i've got to say that the thicker these books get the more time they'll need to cover all the points in the book. i mean, for goodness sake, kids may have short attention spans but the movie felt so... rushed! Krum didn't quite look they way i expected, the Triwizard challenges felt so short and Voldemort didn't look threatening enough. it was really just an okay movie, watched for completeness.

Under The Moon - Do As Infinity

Dessication

who the heck has my Jack Johnson CD? i'm supposed to lend it to Debra the violin girl, and i can't find it anywhere!

finally fitted and issued my F/P, and im so happy its out of my hands and into his mouth! all those evenings spent a-grinding and a-cussing, and now i get to see my little plastic labour make it into a mouth. we'll see how it does at the 1-week review, hope it isnt covered with muck and gross stuff. still have his old one in a plastic bag, goldfish-style, in my cupboard as a failsafe...

dance practice for the musical has finally started. woke up on the morning after hurting in the arm cos of heaving the lead actor around. like... hey! he's supposed to be lighter than me... the absence of some of my chorus is disturbing, because they will have a lot of catching up to do, being able to sightread is one thing, but dance cannot be sight-read.

so is OKC really a neoplastic entity?

牙關 - 五月天

Alpha Strike!

its been way too long since i blogged. what things have passed since my last entry that would have been worth mentioning? what have i done with my life?

today i taught 4 people how to play CBT. its amazing how long its been since i played, i couldnt even find my dice and record sheets. had an early morning heart attack searching my room for my damn stuff, thankfully they were just safely boxed away by my mum. but i managed to get the box set, shitloads of dice and the RS out the door by the time i had to go for orchestra. and then off to Shafiq's for the Great Hari Raya CBT initiation. players: Mao, PJ, Clement and Shafiq. they all got random mechs and set right to it. it was a bit rough-going, because i was rusty, and we couldn't finish the game due to time constraints, but everyone had fun! and that's ultimately what is important. and at least they had guidance instead of my baptisms of fire jumping straight into L2 rules. mebbe some day we'll play again....

Catch The Sun - Jamie Cullum

Only Sadness

i have no idea why but James Blunt has become the singer of the season. he sings melancholic, slightly gay songs which grab your brain and refuse to let go. frankly im afraid of overplaying his stuff but nothing else seems to do anything for the moods ive been in the last week.

im seriously starting to wonder if another half year extra is in the works for me. i feel so damn inadequate in the face of the great work that is my profession-to-be. and the prostho stuff is not coming up fast enough. and the way my out-of-school life is going, i'm enough of a wreck now for 2 men.

No Bravery - James Blunt

There Would Still Be Music Left To Write

somehow havent had the incentive to blog for a long time. my life lately has been a mess of burring and flaming, and tempers have risen and fallen in a steady synchronity with how my patient's teeth are lining up. its frustrating when work slows because of lack of the proper items, and uncertainty about how to proceed. i need to find Mohammad stst on monday morning cos the teeth i've been issued for my Yellow File Ah Pek are too tiny. and setting him up with 3 or 4 anterior diastemata is just gross.

latest hot topic in the local sections of the paper has been aggressive proselytising of patients by the Christian members of teaching and healthcare professions. our nation has been miraculously glued together despite its diverse creeds and cultures, and religion has always been a touchy thing. a disturbing factor is that by nature, Christianity is made to be spread. its methods seem agressive next to the other religions where the usual mode of entry is birth. there is, and i will categorically state this, no such thing as a person born into Christianity. we gain our converts via, you guessed it, conversion. decisions made as conscious, convicted, consenting individuals. so the question is, should doctors be allowed to practice and preach? should they care for the soul of the patient as well as his body? should the dentist have a tract rack in the waiting room and bible verses on the wall where the patient can see as he's stuck in the chair, captive and rubber-dammed? when are lines crossed? where are the lines? how can a healthcare professional be so insensitive? i think amongst all of these the Christian healthcare worker should be sensitive to the call of God. ask nicely before proceeding, and back off if the patient is in pain, just like any other procedure. no preaching during venipuncture, definitely.

How Many Hearts - Travis

I Wanna Give This Imagery Back

the days seem to be flying by in a draining blur. library infestation is in vogue again, and 7 other classmates sit scattered around me in various states of awakeness trying to study Oral Pathology. i have no mood for this. the notes are crap, and i've read through Neville enough times to bore me but not enough times for it to absorb. since when do books absorb into my memory by reading anyhow? there are so many other things to fix up in my life, like my back-dated lab work and patient management and christmas musical and messy messy messy emotional life.

backdated movie review of the weekend is for The Corpse Bride. Tim Burton does not disappoint this outing with the animation, which carries enough subtle touches to show the work of a master. plot is sufficient, not exactly intellectual fodder but easily accessible to kids and adults while able to keep both groups stimulated. charaters are well thought out and mesh well. the musical score and songs by Danny Elfman are excellent work as well, at times giving the movie the feel of a Disney movie gone wrong. this one's worth watching!

picked up Jack Johnson's In Between Dreams from Sembawang before the movie. was impressed by a music video of one of the songs while over in the UK, and the CD did not disappoint. folksy guitar and intelligent lyrics carried on excellent melodies make this a worthy addition to my CD collection. and the music is calming me down even now as i try to refocus on my OP...

Do You Remember - Jack Johnson

Oh Well, It Seemed Like Such Fun

my holidays are now officially over since it's crossed midnight and it is now monday with a vengeance. i officially spent the last hour or so of my hols playing DotA, thrashing some noobs with Mangix the Pandaren Battlemaster, which i think was pretty okay. granted, they werent the most cerebral of opposition, save one decent Medusa player, but i just wish that the rest of the guys were playing too. clan BDS-in-Exile is practically defunct now.

what else have i done with my holiday? went to london, didn't see the queen. learned that even if materials and methods differ, dentistry is still dentistry and standards are required of you even in poor working conditions. saw once again the sad truth of how our class has grown cold to the point where they will not meet to celebrate the happiness of one of their own. clarified and confused myself so many times over... and now its back to the little corner of the lab where i try to work magic and sometimes fail. my little field of dreams, where wax turns to gold. wish the damn ortho wires would turn to gold too, but they just confuse my eyes and hurt my hands.

Little Wing - JAM Project feat Masami Okui

Take This Chance, I Won't Repeat This

the cast and lower Hawley bow lie on my table, half-bent. my brother is lyin on the mattress behind me tryin his darndest to out-sing my laptop blasting Love Psychedelico. all in all, a pretty good morning! the only thing spoiling it is the niggly feeling that school is just waiting to bushwhack me on monday. haiz... how the hell does one bend the wire to be evenly 1mm over the cast anyhow?

here's an overdue movie review. The Brothers Grimm is a bit of an odd concept... fairytales, disillusioned men, action, evil witch queens, comedy, psychopaths, horror and a few beheadings all rolled into one. and somehow it succeeds at entertaining. i guess this was in line with my conjecture that Matt Damon has yet to make a bad call at role selection. set design is right in line with the fairytale-gone-wrong concept, cobwebby, grimey and muddy. the stock villains in the form of campy frenchmen and a whacked italian mercenary are so over-the-top they're actually funny in themselves. and there are enough comic moments to act as stress-breakers, even in the midst of scary scenes. not exactly high-brow art, this movie, but good to watch to de-stress!

Move This Mountain - Sophie Ellis-Bextor

Every Beginning Is Another Beginning's End

censorship is a bitch, innit? and yet sometimes for the good of society, and to uphold the morals of the common man who cannot differentiate art from real life, censorship is necessary. and so... unless you saw the blog entry for the half-hour or so it was up you'll never see it. for the good of society!

僕らはヒーロー - Kiroro

Never Further Than Right Beside

im finally home! very thankful that the journey home was much less eventful than the journey there, that i can get a nice shower and a clean bed, and that the room doesnt smell of feet that arent attached to me. and that i dont have to live out of a suitcase any more.

DotA 6.16 is out! that means that i have been out of the loop since... too long. randomed Bloodseeker, and got my ass handed to me. granted, the other team were lanners, but still it was a very painful game. really wish to get the rest of the clan back so that we can train again.

柊（ドラマ「恋文～私たちが愛した男～」主題歌） - Do As Infinity

Know That You Need It And Try To Believe It

i am finally going to bugger off from this wonderful little country. it has been 12 days and 2 version releases since i arrived here, and there are so many things to do back home. wire bending, Behavioural essay, studying for OP and FP, distributing the distressingly huge mountain of souvenirs and shit... and hopefully watching a good movie or 2 at the now relatively affordable SG prices. Pride and Prejudice... Kiera Knightly awaits...

my mattress calls from across the sea
it yells out loudly 'come lie on me!'
and if e'er there were a place to be,
t'would be on my mattress, worry-free .
-Jonathan Ee 2005

Ozymandias

i think Singapore would do well to start importing Walker's Crisps. the Walker's Sensations range is widely advertised in the tube, and i was wondering how, in the adopted homeland of the crisp (known elsewhere as the chip) this product would stand up against other established chips from america like Lays and old series Pringles. the crisps did not disappoint. a small 40g bag of crisps set me back 40p at the Spit, the unofficial GKT ang moh mamak shop. upon opening (which was not easy, as having no centre spine or pre-perforated tear point, one is forced to grip and rip the seam open along its cleavage plane) it was immediately apparent that the crisps were of remarkable thickness. under normal circumstances this would spell instant fatality. but i shit you not, these crisps have excellent crunch. they are brittle like any other american chip. flavourwise, these do not disappoint. Chargrilled Steak & Peppercorn Sauce Flavour Crisps really taste as advertised, and the flavour selection promises to bring a whole new range of subtle, classy flavours to the market. lets face it, heavy cheese a la Cheezels is so Primary 6. now i just have to stop myself from licking the empty bag...

Latex-triggered Anaphylaxis

almost a week has gone by in London. to compress everything into one blog entry will be complicated... so many things have happened quickly and yet slowly its just amazing. got to really be thankful one of the Yr4 students latched onto us and has been taking us around. sure, i miss aspects of home. like a towel rack where my towel wont get wet when im showering. or a room of my own with a door that doesnt auto-lock and have people (potentially drunk) pounding on the door asking to be let in at 3am. i miss my friends. but there are perks. the people lead free-er lives. theyre not afraid to speak out and be who they want to be. theyve been generally hospitable too (apart from one asshole who will be mentioned in la grande revue when i get back).

frankly, if i won like 3 million Yusof Ishaks i wouldnt mind doing post-grad here. sure, the facilities look a teensy bit more dated, and the exchange rate is rapacious, but the pace is so much more relaxed. fer goodness sake, they did in one full day of paedo tech what we would have done in half. the public parks look great to wander in on a cool evening, and the buildings are so varied compared to our relatively young and hence homogenous city.

funny enough, we havent seen any Singaporeans around. even though there are Singaporean medical students out there, no sign of any so far in GKT. im kind of developing a chinese version of what Nijam calls the Indian Radar... anyone looking remotely Han i'll spot and analyse... Chinese? Mainlander? Heung Gong Yann? Korean? Cute?

Settling Dust

just finished typing up all the base charting that i could find for my patients. another term has come and gone and the draining feeling still hasnt lifted. in 30 hours i fly for London. and i just feel so unprepared. no idea whats happening to me there, no idea who to meet or what to do. what i really want now is my bed.

last night's Densoc AGM was the most amazingly rigged AGM i have ever seen. now Yeehau has been left with the unenviable task of heading a student society the student body doesnt give a rat's ass about. and all because some people wanted something before its time. it was just disgusting.

しゃぼん玉 - Kiroro

Angel From A Fairytale

one more week and i'm outta here! the date draws near, and hopefully things will fall into place nicely. i still have 2 tests to do, a shitload of wires to bend, and my clinics to line up for next week. money hasnt been changed, DPH proj hasnt been printed out, and i havent started even thinking of what to pack.

got a new phone! and to increase the happy factor, its not a Samsung! im back in the Nokia fold with a cute little black thingy. i have some suspicion its a girly phone though. it has a girlified pinball game in it... ewww... and not very fun to play either. got a Tong Hua ringtone for my SMS, happy like banana!

for some weird reason, the Yr2 movie is still sticking in my mind. must be the amazing power of mush behind the MTV... and the fact that its actually a pretty decent song. wish i could compose like that, and play like that.

Tong Hua - Guang Liang

A Happy Sky Is Blue

just survived buffet night 2005. while funny enough i was dreading going, in the end im glad i went. i think buffet night symbolises to me the subversive side of dental students, when we take a stab at the deanery and have a good laugh all around. was really very impressed by the work that the years put out. without going into details, even though there were so many rough edges in the presentations, the sparks of genius that shone through just made me yearn more for a life outside dentistry. and yet at the same time, noone else quite understands what it is that we do and go through.

for those of you who missed the shows, you missed some good stuff.

Infraction

has my life really been so messed up these last few weeks? yeah, i've been in a rut since round about that last RP session on a thursday, but still... dont know if its hard to believe that im actually paying attention when it looks as if im not. and whe i t looks like i am, i i really may not be. surest sign is to see if im drooling...

Anime review for the week is Peace Maker, the latest offering from Gonzo Studios to grace Arts Central. this one gets a general positive review, artwork is of the level of excellence expected from Gonzo and general plot, although starting stereotypically so far, seems okay. the general feel, on the other hand, is that this is pretty much a lower-age Shonen kinda show, with dark bits showing through. the protagonist is a bratty 15-year-old, of course, and theres a pig that acts like a dog and torments him. yeah... general high hopes for this series though, because the lack of maturity of the lead leaves a lot of room for plot and character development. and chopping people up!

Jon's Wishlist Of The Moment:

1) sirloin steak, medium rare, done with black pepper sauce and mashed potatoes

2) personal labtech

3) better hands

4) 36 straight hours of sleep

5) some way of thrashing the med DotA players

6) a big hug. of long duration.

The Shadow Of Your Smile - Astrud Gilberto

Blaze Of Glory

guess my life has really been managed q badly. i managed to forget today was scheduled for a technical recall. and guess what? they decided to activate 417. this mean that i had to make a mad dash from church (just before service, so zhun) to go home, find a smart4 and beret and boots, and then go to New Kiat Hong. actually managed all this in 1hr. which is why im damn glad i dont stay in Tampines or sth.

was pleasantly surprised by PJ getting her section of the DPH project on critical analysis of the school dental system out to me this afternoon. shall save the critical reviews, but hey she did the essay and all pretty quick. on a lazy sunday afternoon i would have taken forever. now i have to jazz up my section, and we have to fill in the first section in the worksheet before we can submit. and then we can get this damn thing out of the way!

Amazing Kiss - BoA

Another Groove, Another Jive

from a conversation with Anqi in the clinics a few days ago, i was inspired to get my hands on a BoA album. been wanting to get one since my bro DL'ed some tracks from the net, and hearing the same track on Anqi's laptop was the breaking point. so far so good! need happy happy beat-filled stuff to keep things going for me.

term is ending so fast and i feel as if things arent falling into place for me. the lab barring is screwing things up even more cos i cant prepare for my RP sessions properly. i mean... come on. the staff have to realise just how the 5-day week is affecting us. and if our batch passess through school despite the handycap they'll probably see this as proof that such a rushed system can still work feasibly.

still need to finish the damn DPH project. PJ popped by my place friday night to try and finish it, but due to the lack of information, she ended up doing her mail while i did my research.

LISTEN TO MY HEART - BoA

I Know You Hate To Hear/ That I Adore You, Dear

Tiong has just turned 23, and in a generous gesture, he decided to treat some of us to dinner! really good to break the monotony of school life with something a bit different.

food review today is Munchy Monkey, the eatery located in YIH. as befits a student joint, the pricing is competetive for a place with aircon. 6 Yusof Ishaks will net you a main course, dessert for a few bucks more. and a big-ass ice water dispenser lies waiting to cater to the dehydrated. food quality is acceptable, the lasagna i tried was competent enough, but not especially outstanding against the benchmark of Mum's cooking.

issued Grandma's repair denture today. i think mebbe my rotten luck can be extended to all prostho. there i was, happily thinking that because the denture fit the cast like a freaking glove, even after fixing both the major connector fracture and adding a tooth, that it would pop in and sit down and not rock and the world would be bright and gay. yeah right. patient sent off without the denture base making full contact with the palate. like, what the hell? it wouldnt even sit down all the way, and of course that brought concommitant rocking. Prof Keng had a look, bent the clasps a bit with an Adams and then said that was as good as it gets cos repairing partials is messy business. oh well.. TD'd a distal carious lesion in the remaining 20min or so before discharge. and yeah... denture repair is dirt cheap, $5 to be exact. viva la sweatshop.

U Boat - Kasabian

And You Were Once My Sunshine?

sometimes reality bites and you realise that youre not that good at something which you really like and spend quite a bit of time doing. Clan BDS lost 2 consecutive matchups with medical irregulars. granted, it was 5.84c, but nonetheless... we need to get down to working together again. the synergy is officially gone.

looks like the aftermath of our labwork extensions have caught up with us. early lab closure for next week. i mean.. this is not good. dentures wont get made in time. and it all falls back on us. for some flimsy reasons the staff do not see fit to extend hours for us... oh well. half of dentistry is working miracles. the other half is making people see the miraculousness of it.

Czardas - Klazz Brothers feat Cuban Percussionists

By The Seashore/ You Mean Sur La Plage

weekends come and go, and this one is in the going phase. not too bad actually. besides the traditional icecream i managed to get me a new book and ten Yusof Ishaks worth of lab food! and in my post-prandial stupor the lyrics and music of Cole Porter guide my thoughts into tonights blogging.

book review for this week is Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett. in all honesty i think im not the most critical of book reviewers. i read Phoenix and while i got a little upset that Sirius Black was bumped off by Death Eaters, i still liked the book. im also quite a fan-boy of Terry Pratchett, having read his books since i was a wee lad of 14, wearing bermudas in ACS(I). Monstrous Regiment gives enough immediate laughts and later thoughtfulness to be worthy of his stellar line of Discworld books. the general premise of this story is basically a Discworld variation of Hua Mulan, a girl who signs on to look for her missing brother. there are enough plot details and pop culture references to keep the older and more knowledgeable writer chuckling a little. deep issues involve women in men's roles and being true to oneself. a recommended read, but then again so is the whole series.

All You Need Is Love - The Beatles

Truth And Reconciliation

now that Jo is back from State-side, my regular movie kaki is back. kinda celebrated by catching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at Suntec, our usual fallback when orchard has no tickets or is just ridiculously full.

the subject of the aforementioned review is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. but of course. it would be worth noting that the book, written by Roald Dahl, is one of the best-loved children's storybooks. the adaptation of this beloved book was however excellently handled by Tim Burton. characters in the book were updated without losing their character and plot relevance, and Willy Wonka was given a back story. one which i find professionally distasteful, but nonetheless one which the public will love... the whole tone of the book was also shifted slightly and given a dark edge. enough fleshing out was given to the original plot to deny the chance to create Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, which i saw as an unusual move. visuals were excellent, as expected from a Tim Burton opus. characters were solidly portrayed, and well fleshed out by the mostly-unknown cast. music by Danny Elfman, a long-time Burton collaborator, was infectious. this movie gets my recommendation!

just burned my new Bossa Nova CD. need a bit of new music to lift the spirits. and so far its good stuff!

Fly Me To The Moon - Astrud Gilberto

Why Is It You?

seems like of late my blog updating has been very infrequent. stress of school has been getting to me, and my mood has been goin downhill.

i got to tell myself not to touch FP cases, for even pre-prep work, because they seem to make life very shitty for me. treatment plans get overturned, trays i dont anticipate get drawn, and i end up overtime, feeling very low. the only thing which actually went okay for me this morning was my IDN block. doing crown preps in real patients is shitty, because youre worried that when you want to run an interprox bur through, you'll slash off half his freaking tongue which in its stupid overactive way is happily feeling over the lingual margins. and for craps sake, whats wrong with a heavy chamfer?! patient is root-treated for craps sake. core could have been straightened, but nooooooooo... had to put it at some gay tilt requiring a heavy chamfer to get 6% taper. this case is gonna be the death of me. these are really the times you wish thay someone could give you a hug and make you feel just that little bit better about life.

Dearest - Ayumi Hamazaki

Purple Pills Of Perplexity

sometimes you think you can sit down and blog and check yer mail and multitask some admin stuff, and something comes along to just piss you off beyond belief. mebbe i have a hairtrigger temper. actually, skip the mebbe. its proven beyond a doubt. but there still has to be a trigger to get me to flare. like people who ask why they arent in the loop when theyve damn well gone and submitted the wrong email address, or havent checked the mail in the address that they supplied. and they try to hurry you to tell them the gist of the mail (with 2 whole attachments) over MSN cos they have to run off to dinner. makes you wanna beat them with an aluminium baseball bat... dont even have a mood to write down all the things i thought through on the way home. damn this.

You Know That I'd Go Anywhere

heres a song for a sick classmate of mine... heard it on the radio yesterday in Weisong's car on the way to Sentosa. great lyrics, nice tune! sounds weird if you imagine me singing it tho... female lyricist.

We Could Be Together For A While

.

If I were an only child

I would be a lonely child

But baby we’ve got nothing to lose

I’m standing tall in my own shoes

I’ll take this chance, I’ll make this choice

I’ll right this wrong, I’ll raise my voice

If it means we’ll be together for a while

.

I have never had a doubt

But for you I’ll take time out

I’ll push his love far away from me

And then I’ll be completely free

I’ll give up my security

For just the possibility

That we could be together for a while

.

And if you said “Jump” I’d say “How high”

If you said “Run” I’d run and fly

Just for the chance, just for the moment

Should the moment pass us by

And if you ask once I’ll tell you twice

I’ll ignore the world’s advice

If we could be together for a while

.

I am taken by your strength

I’ve thought about it at great length

I thought that I was happy now

But there are things that I found out

Happiness means greater things

I’ll sit here till that telephone rings

Then we could be together for a while, oh

.

And if you said “Jump” I’d say “How high”

If you said “Run” I’d run and fly

Just for the chance, just for the moment

Should the moment pass us by

And if you ask once I’ll tell you twice

I’ll ignore the world’s advice

If we could be together for a while

.

Wait’ll I tell my guy [What’ll I tell]

Wait’ll I tell my other friends

They’ll all think I’m crazy and ya know what

That depends ‘cause I’m crazy in love with you

.

And everyone’s best won’t do

They’ll say my hopes will not come true

I’m taking the chance

Because you only live once, only live once (You only live once)

.

And if you said “Jump” I’d say “How high”

If you said “Run” I’d run and fly

Just for the chance, just for the moment

Should the moment pass us by

And if you ask once I’ll tell you twice

I’ll ignore the world’s advice

If we could be together for a while

.

There are no guarantees

But if it means there’s even a possibility [Possibility]

Then I’ll give up whatever it takes (Whatever it takes)

I know I’ve made some mistakes before

It may be just another closed door

But we could be together for a while

.

But if you said “Jump” I’d say “How high”

If you said “Run” I’d run and fly

Just for the chance, just for the moment

Should the moment pass us by

And ask me once I’ll tell you twice

You know I’ll ignore the world’s advice

If we could be together for a while

.

And if you said “Jump” I’d say “How high”

If you said “Run” I’d run and fly

Just for the chance, just for the moment

Should the moment pass us by

And if you ask once I’ll tell you twice

I’ll ignore the world’s, the world’s advice

If we could be together for a while

.

Don’t you know that we could be together for a while

yeah... its really been a week since i last blogged cos bloody blogger server ate my last entry which was like a bazillion pages long and really good and i was somewhat pissed. and then a busy week rolled by. really hope next week is good. OS postings... got to squeeze in an exo patient to try and make up lost time.

We Could Be Together For A While - Debbie Gibson

Into Another Mirror

looks like the oral path test was a rape. but then again, im used to horrifically inaccurate estimates for how much people will actually score. all that matters to me is that i get higher than PJ because we have a $10 bet going.

went out to NYDC after a long, shitty day at school. and this provides my restaurant review for the week. NYDC HV had the ambience of your average NYDC... this aint saying too much. split-floor seating due to being a retrofitted shophouse neatly partitions the eatery into a lower, more accessible and happening area and an upper, more private but ulu-fied area. food was... acceptable. not the best NYDC i've ever eaten. i'll guess that a major part of why i like to go to NYDC is the company... good friends make food taste better. chio girls do too, but that's beside the point. service was... weird. the waiters seemed more concerned with tidying up for the next customer than taking our order. and to add to that our meatballs were cold. not exactly the best of NYDC experiences...

been kinda upset with the way my ortho rep-hood has gone so far. i really wonder why i cant get something as simple as giving out pencils done with ease. i seem to get ignored, people dont do things i need promptly, and hence things dont flow smoothly. am i being pissy? or are our classmates becoming too self-centred to see beyond their own immediate needs? it once again gives me reason to pause and reflect on my use of the pronoun 'our' in the sentence above. i still see myself as part of a whole which should work together. am i just naive? i sometimes think i have the character quirk of giving too much of a damn about the things that i shouldnt let bother me. the little acts of selfishness that poison my day.

Brave Heart - MEGUMI

From The Murky Depths

another day, another patient. things are starting to settle into place. i found my missing lab keys and returned the loan set. found my RP book, so i can get everything signed up by tomorrow. cant think of too many more good things i want to happen. mebbe my bro's com mysteriously fixing itself so he doesnt have to compete with me for my laptop.

jon's wish list for the next few weeks or so:

One Meeellion Dollarrrrs!

a set of colouring pencils for RPD

a box for my crown wax

lifetime's supply of chicken wings

a secretary to organise my hideous patient scheduling

a pet fox

a more kick-ass laptop

and someone to enjoy it all with...

Happy To Hang Around - Travis

Happy Puppy

been a great 2 days so far... glad that sch is over for the week! had dinner w PJ at Werner's yesterday. was the viable alternative to lightbulbing Stan and Lulin... anyhow, restaurant review for the day is Werner's Bakery. its a little german joint in Siglap, located approximately opposite Gelare. yours truly had been under the impression since like half a year ago that Werner's had folded, and was pleasantly surprised that it was still there. ambience is very homely, the kind of place you can kinda sit down and be comfortable in. with me being okay-starved and PJ being mildly hungry, we made the wise decision to split a Pork Knuckle between us. $18.50 of pork knuckle can quite literally feed 2 ppl and the pet dog. excellent roast pork, goes down well with the mustard and sauerkraut. good mashed potatoes, and the staff dont mind people doggy-bagging the knuckle bone after the meal. so this restaurant gets mucho props. beats eating runty over-priced knuckles in Marche...

got new CD from Debra the Violin Girl! nothing like a spot of L'Arc En Ciel to brighten up a day! new stuff to frag to as i try out DotA 6.10. the Invoker returns, Faceless Void has been remade, and various balances and fixes. should be good stuff sia!

Killing Me - L'Arc En Ciel

Mix And Match

a week of clinics is about to be over. could say i've had my most trying clinical session ever on tuesday. demanding patient, horrible working conditions. to any person who bleeds profusely when scaled by me, ITS YOUR BLOODY FAULT FOR NOT BRUSHING PROPERLY! i swear, how can anyone be in a romantic relationship and have great wall calculus? it's absolutely disgusting, an inhibition to proper osculatory technique... i hope that after placing those temp crowns they stay in place. really horrible when a patient has to travel and is out of supervision. 3 months! who knows what he'll have done to my polycarb crowns by then... need to get his perio cleaned up, make sure his crowns stay in place and then see about a bridge for him. and add on the fact that he's been pre-prepped... not a lot of working space for me. need to redefine his margins! and cut down his lateral crown prep too, there isnt enough occlusal reduction due to his chipping. arrgh.. too many complications on this case. and E&D hasnt even been done yet...

Goodbye Little Dream, Goodbye

at this point in time i really should be rushing out my biblio for my damn perio essay, but sometimes events just compel you to blog. the event in this case is the ending of a small but impacting story arc in the life of me. a week or 2 out of my comfort zone, out of the way of my usual routine. a trip into the lives of other people who dont do teeth for a living, who have the time to invest in the passions that differentiate life from mere existence. major thank you to the SMU ppl who put up with me for the while when i was crewing them. i learned how to operate a sound board a bit. i learned that rigging, focussing and programming lights for a musical is a bitch. i learned that following spot op is actually a degree course in some japanese university, and im glad that the people who worked on Sing To The Dawn think i did a good job the last time i touched a spotlight. i learned that last-minute change is something that happens all the time in student productions, and you just have to grin and bear it. i learned that your female leads wireless batt pack is acting up just before a major duet, serenity and presence of mind will attenuate the freshly precipitated disaster. i learned that with some people, beneath the professional and potentially bitchy exterior lies a sensitive soul. i learned that when you see people doing something that you used to be halfway competent in but are now totally out of practice at, you miss the old days and wish you were good enough to stand tall beside them.

i also learned it really really sucks when your friends have supporters coming to see the show and you have none. the crew are the unseen performers of the production. their artistry is in the operation of the light board, mixing the sound, hauling the props on unobtrusively. hence people will not notice their skills, only their screwups. only people who have crewed musicals know what to look out for when a production is crewed well. so the next time you see some musical or play or dance recital, spare a hurrah for the crew. they truly are the unsung heroes of the theatre.

later in the morning i have school. the Red Bull i rammed in about an hour ago is still keeping me upright... its kinda hard to tear myself away from writing this, or listening to the London Cast Recording of Anything Goes. the songs have grown to me, and speak to me still.

curse the perio.

heres the song that's been on my mind...

I Get A Kick Out Of You

Composer: Cole Porter

My story is much too sad to be told,

But practically ev'rything leaves me totally cold

The only exception I know is the case

When I'm out on a quiet spree

Fighting vainly the old ennui

And I suddenly turn and see

Your fabulous face.

.

I get no kick from champagne.

Mere alcohol doesn't thrill me at all,

So tell me why should it be true

That I get a kick out of you?

.

Some get a kick from cocaine.

I'm sure that if I took even one sniff

That would bore me terrific'ly too

Yet I get a kick out of you.

.

I get a kick ev'rytime I see

You standing there before me.

I get a kick though it's clear to me

You obviously don't adore me.

.

I get no kick in a plane,

Flying too high with some guy in the sky

Is my idea of nothing to do,

Yet I get a kick out of you.

I Get A Kick Out Of You - Cheryl Sia

Hot Pants

seems like every day i have to learn some new thing. i am now the sound board guy. with 18 freaking wireless mikes to mix at various points. LN has taken over the light board because that side is even more of an orgasmic mess. its headache enough when the cast fiddle with the mikes and mess up the EQ... just hope that noone dislodges or breaks his mike on the day itself.

still trying to do the damn essay. i know i've hit minimum word count, but it would be nice to turn over something more than a steaming pile of shit to Prof Ong. and it looks like that might not be possible given my fatigued state and none-too-high state of mind. my holidays are melting away. looks like i wont be able to watch Initial D before the hols end, damn sad sia. Char asked me if i wanted to meet for supper or sth this week, and i told her about my busy life. oh well, thats the way things go.

Sound Of Tears - Kiroro

Tweet Tweet, Tra-la-la, La-la, La-lah!

had a pretty surreal taxi ride down to SMU today. took aforementioned taxi cos it was raining like a cow and i didnt fancy a trudge in the rain. the taxi uncle, once we had gotten as far as the buona vista junction, began to expound on his favourite hobby. he's a digital broadband radio junkie. the radio in his taxi was playing the chinese central radio station, and he was explaining about how his set could recieve signals from all over the world. conversation then turned to the workings of a long-wave vs short-wave carrier system vis-a-vis atmospheric effects, and finally trundled on to the reason why our army signal sets dont work too well in vegetation. he was so into it that i let him talk on for 2 minutes after the taxi reached my destination and stopped. but hey... pretty fun. wish i had a business card for him. needs a p/- at least...

monday is bump-in. supposed to meet my lighting boss LN at somewhere around Bugis before entering NAFA and getting the lights set up. very crash course... which is what makes life interesting. hope the cast can get their stuff right. todays practice seemed very raw. the orchestra had some songs firmed up, but the cast, even though they seem to have recovered from the flu, seem very tired.

Love Will Come Through - Travis

Dead In The Water

where has all my holiday gone? in the midst of whacking out some kind of plan for my perio essay. im seriously concerned about trying to get this essay out on time simply because next week will be crazy. the set has to be bumped in on monday. Lim Peh got promoted to the light board because 2 of my merry crew have holiday job commitments (one at NUH finance no less) and this means new things to learn. but hey, thats life.

got to admit though, this holiday, as dental hols go, hasnt been too bad. watched 4 movies so far, and had some good food. there have been some disappointments (no Sentosa!) but i think i really did have fun this time. good times with friends, some good DotA... wishi i could have more of this. every time i hear the SMU pit orchestra playing, and realise how much more kick-ass their flutes are than me i feel little twinges. but this is the path that i have chosen. sacrifices along a long road are inevitable.

watched A Lot Like Love yesterday! Ashton Kuchner and Amanda Peet both did an excellent job in this one, and the characters develop nicely. the interplay between the leads, and the little characterisation and directorial touches make this a movie to watch. preferably with person of interest sitting beside you. there are enough awwww factors in this movie, without being cheesy. heartwarming, funny, good stuff!

Hang Out - Do As Infinity

Measure Of A Man

spent the morning in Clinic 2 reprising my famous role of suction boy. PJ's patient had a perio abscess which was basically making life difficult. she nearly flipped when she found out that the perio staff on call was Dr Rashid... guess thats what happens when holidays roll round and they have a spread-out roster. but he was real nice. we achieved drainage through the pocket after scaling out a freaking great wall, and syringed out the pocket with chlorhex. pretty good sense of achievement!

this left me being disgustingly late for Batman with the guys at Plaza Sing. only time i've been grateful for long advertisements. i was 15min late and still got treated to like 3 ads before it started. the show itself was good stuff! there were minor things to pick on, like how Michael Caine had a pretty damn awfully wrong kinda british accent. since when was Alfred cockney? and Katie Holmes is not too hot... but Christian Bale did a damn good job. and good setup for a sequel in future. hope this means good stuff for the Batman franchise.

All Through The Night - Cole Porter

I Know How Pain Can Grow / When The Rock You Hold On To Is A Love Far Away

just went for the tech run of Anything Goes at SMU. its kinda cool seeing the people who i worked with in my pre-freshie break! looks like a project worth getting into. the acting and singing is still a bit raw, but with a little whacking and adrenaline, it should fall into place. esp since Prof Margaret Chan seems to be keeping a much tighter eye on this than Sing To The Dawn...

life's also gonna get busier because of the musical, and im hoping to see Initial D and Batman before school starts. see if we can get sth up an running. also got to get Lindhe from Queensway and check with the techs about whether we have Chinagraphs indented or we need to buy them. at least i finally got to buy my lighters. contemplating getting a sweet box for my crown wax now.

Twist And Shout

somehow due to my laziness this is going to be an entry of yesterday's events. the blissful laziness of the holidays are really setting in!

spent the morning at a Sinseh in Marine Parade. the Annie Tiang clinic seems to be a family practise, cos the 2 Sinsehs in the place have the same surname and all. his diagnosis agreed with the Orthopaedics guy... cept he was much less happy about the operation treatment plan the Orthopaedics guy had laid out. which is of course music to the patient. who wants to go for major surgery and not be able to walk for like a month? and so it looks like my mum will be going to him for treatment for her bum knee and back issues. after that we went down to Orchard to have an x-ray done of mum's back. pretty nice waiting room they have... funny enough on their services listing while there was the usual standard film x-rays there was no DPT.

off to see the SMU ppl today so that i can get my bloody scheduling organised! like... finally. think they just went up and forgot their ol' following spotster...

Cable Car Romances - Pug Jelly

Truth And Light

just got back from the wake. its not the best of circumstances to meet people who you havent seen in a long time. this was the most emotional, personal wake i've ever been to. more so that Pastor's mum or even my cousin Alison. how often do you see a wake so crowded that 40 ppl have to stand? one where half the mourners are quite literally crying, throwing stoicism to the wind? it wasnt just a christian funeral, it was one where his life was celebrated. his church, his school, everything. its the first wake i went to where the Anthem was sung, and i hope i wont have to sing it under such circumstances again. the Anthem has a unique quality of being able to sound triumphant or mournful according to circumstances, because the hearts, hopes and aims of the singers are truly one. and the Council Song... it was so powerful because it represents a dream that the 25th cannot see fulfilled because their council now lies incomplete.

suppose its a bit incongruous, but news goes on. saw Mr & Mrs Smith before going down to Kembangan. its pretty darn good! not as bad as the Life crew were making out, for sure. the chemistry is pretty tight, the action scenes generally well-choreographed (except for one point in a car chase in which the camera transition was a bit jumpy) and Angelina Jolie is the hottest woman alive. GF, youre just wrong. her screen presence is amazing, possessing a forcefulness that few women today can muster. this show is to be watched.

got a new shirt and tie while out shopping today! cant wait to try it out, when clinics roll around.

*RIP Yu Kangfei*

Shining Sky, Blazing Moon

sometimes the most sobering news comes at the funniest times. i was in the car on the way home from church when i got an SMS. my junior Kangfei has passed away, victim of leukaemia. be heading over to the wake tomoro with the 24th. its kinda shocking, esp since i heard he was recovering quite well. never underestimate neoplasia...

had Mao and PJ along with some church friends over for dinner. wonder why every time we have this kinda gathering we end up talking about either BGR or school. its like the oft-lamented saying that when guys meet the army will find its way into the conversation, much to the exasperation of the ladies who wouldnt know the business end of a rifle from the butt. BGR, on the other hand, is so univeral, and yet so universally misunderstood by even the best of us, that it remains a popular subject. oh well, thats life.

heres an overdue review of a restaurant. me and mum and dad went to the Banana Leaf Apolo Restaurant in little india on saturday afternoon. food was, of course, indian. freeflow rice and vegetables, and a good assortment of curries to choose from. beware the accompanying GI distress that can surely result after such a surfeit of spicy food... pricing is actually pretty good. the most expensive item, cost for volume, was our Lassi. the prawns and fish head are very competetevily priced, with good volume for money. good stuff!

Weeds - Do As Infinity

Adventures In Dentures

school is finally over! i can rot for 3 weeks and just recover from everything... my dentures and all left behind in the lab in my newly-reorganised upper cupboard. hope the hols are fun.

got my Grandma in on the chair today. a Kennedy Class 2 mod 1 over a Kennedy Class 2. come to think of it, she's be an interesting competency. but hey... i got to take the cases as they come. and she has major overbite and resorption to deal with. plus the perio... considering extracting a shaky tooth because of the lack of bone support. plus theres the amazing root-stump-with-silver-points-still-inside. just astounding...

really should get round to contacting Ber about rehearsal schedules with SMU. cant wait to do something that doesnt involve wax or signatures or anything i've done all term. it should be good for expanding my horizons too... my circle of friends is too small. sometimes that's good, sometimes thats bad.

wanna watch Mr and Mrs Smith! looks like good fun, not expecting anything too deep from it. see who i can get out to watch it this time...

Don't Worry Be Happy - Bobby McFerrin

Heretic

been a while since i blogged. a week has come and gone, things have happened, old theories disproved, movies watched, fun had, and now its time for a little reflection.

Madagascar was pretty good! it will definitely keep kids happy (c'mon, its like a visit to the zoo without smells) and enough pop-culture references to make it interesting for the older viewers. animation by Dreamworks was top-notch, voice work was impeccable, plot was pretty good too. a recommended viewing!

cref my last entry, the sickness has come and is going. its a unique experience doing Perio sessions, trying to record probings solo, and having to stop and blow ones nose. bloody irritating sia! the only upside is the blocked nose makes me unable to smell halitosis. even the 2-foot-aura-of-death halitosis was quite blunted until i tried blowing a tooth dry to check for caries.

got to thank God for all the little blessings in life. like dropping my laptop on my toe instead of on the floor. a repair bill would hurt more than my toe would (and it still does. IBM is tough stuff), plus the inconvenience of not being able to surf and play DotA.

Jue Qiang - Mayday

Be Strong, Believe

being sick sucks. i've been coughing up weird-tasting phlegm all morning, and i can still sense it on my breath. it also comes with breathing difficulties and an incipent fever that i stopped from breaking with acetaminophen and a dose of DotA.

wish i could find company to see Madagascar. looks like a lot of fun! in fact, today would have been the perfect day to go if not for the rain. oh well... tts life

Believe - Yellowcard

Will That Be All?

really wiped... perio test coming up tomoro. have rammed in as much as i can. now all thats left is to watch shaman king and get some shuteye...

hope i can get setup of teeth approved by tomoro. aiming to get the waxup done as well. and next week i can invest and pack and let my damn dentures cure and it will be happiness for all! need to clear this so that i can start seeing my full patients... the management is killing me!

Coming Closer - L'Arc En Ciel

Blue Sky Surprise

once again, doing late blogging. saturday was a real tiring day, midnight DotA the night before combined with a whole day at Toa Payoh. but i think it was a day pretty well spent. besides all the OHI given, you really get to see the way people work... got persuaded by Shunting to check my blood sugar. ok... fair deal. basically it involves taking an auto-lancet and piercing a finger to draw blood, then using an automated machine to analyse said blood's glucose concentration. 5.9 apparently, inside the physiological range. and then she proceeded to wipe my finger with an alcohol swab. like... bloody hell! it actually hurts. and when i asked why she does this routinely, she said its because her seniors do it. not really the way i wanna practice... and haemostasis should not be achieved using tissue paper! it sticks to the clot, and when you try to remove it the clot will tear.

watched Star Wars III during the 2nd shift at Toa Payoh. seats arent too bad, the usual Eng Wah standard. the movie itself... 3.5 on 5 i suppose. sure, its got swooshy lightsaber duels and all, but the plot development was a letdown. like how Anakin is just so easy for Palpatine to manpulate. what a weak character! way too sudden... Natalie Portman was also rather under-deployed, basically just there to smooch and die. in the hands of another director, with a script more developed, this might have risen higher. as it is, there was potentially enough material in there for another hour of film time.

just got back from the HC String Ensemble concert. really does remind me of the days when i used to play in concerts. cant say i dont miss it... the music was competent but not outstanding due to a lack of dynamics. Alicia and Debra the Violin Girls got solos, and they were good! shoulda gotten more airtime, the other quartet and quintet performances were rather sub-par. but hey.. for $7 whos complaining?

Tempo Impetuoso D'Estate - HCSE feat. Alicia Boo

I Dont Wanna Go Back Home, But I Dont Wanna Be Alone

i think school is just making me feel lower and lower. besides not having a person to bitch to (yeah a blog is not a person) 2 members of my DotA brotherhood are out of play. GF's com is messed up, and Stan's TFT CD is not with him.

i swear, for the life of me, bilateral balance has me baffled. i seem to be incapable of making the damn teeth in the denture line up for me and touch where i want them to. its been way too long to balance the blasted, infernal contraption. crowns rock, man. they just touch and they work. invest and cast and youre on your way to happiness. but noooo.... stupid dentures.

Ber contacted me about doing following spotlight for SMU's production of Anything Goes. looked like some kinda vaguely fun thing to do in the holidays, so i'll be checking the dates tomorrow with Dean's Office to see if im free. hope it turns out good!

I - Pug Jelly

The Only Person Singing Me To Sleep Is Myself

the DotA brotherhood were having a little OT talk in BNet one night and the content of my blogs came up somehow. yeah... so mebbe i am a bit of a drama mamma. but i believe in writer's integrity, and i wont edit my blog contents after they have been posted unless there are spelling errors. and the feelings and thoughts that pertain to me are always from the bottom of my heart.

finally, a positive food review! Sin Hoi Sai Eating House in Tiong Bahru is the kind of place where restaurant chefs go to eat. i have yet to taste a bad dish from their establishment. besides their famed chilli crab, other dishes such as watercress soup, prawn-paste chicken and chilli kang kong are robust, flavourful and definite must-haves. please visit this place.

was surprised by a song playing on 93.3 on the way back home, cos its not often they play english songs, and this one was a classic. the chordwork just impressed itself on me as the song of the day...

It Must Have Been Love - Roxanne

Burnout

just went for dinner... it was a sad affair. the XO Fish Beehoon at HV tastes like crap! after a 6-month-long period of not going there, i was shocked. the beehoon had no bounce, instead breaking apart easily. there was way too much XO in the soup, masking the flavour of the milk. the only thing left was the fish, which was thankfully still okay. at five Yusof Ishaks a bowl... not really my idea of culinary value for money. gross.

why cant there be 30 hours in a day? theres so much to do, and not enough time to do it. and i really want to watch Star Wars III...

California - Love Psychedelico

Tugback

i guess it was the lonely dinner of Hongkong Mee in Enclave that kinda settled it for me. feeling too down to go for SF, feeling too down to do just about anything now. i havent had too many desperately low days in this term, but i guess this is one of them.

i really believe that i'm happiest by her side, and i cant apologise enough for all the screwups and mishaps that i visit on her through my clumsiness, ineptitude and bad temper. to see her smile is like seeing a rainbow, her laughter is like a sunbeam shining through the departing clouds of a rainstorm. so much stands between us, and yet it is all but idealogical. i may stand beside her and yet feel the great gulf that separates our hearts. am i destined to admire from the shadows for the rest of my life? relief has yet to come to me, the flame that lights my heart burns so strong that none other has yet to take its place to light up my black little heart. as much as it pains me to consider this, there is the part of me that doesnt want the flame to be extinguished, ever. and, perhaps, all i will have is the smiles and laughter of a blissfully ignorant friend whom my heart beats for.

Me And My Imaginary Friend

guess today was eventful enough to blog about! saw a yellow file patient, and got to play pool for the first time in like forever.

Dr Thean had some yellow file patients arranged for RP today. these are the comunity patients who dont have the cash to pay for NUS Student treatment even, a lot of the work they do is free of charge, except for, as i recall, fixed prosthetics. and these guys all needed stuff done. they came in in various states of treatment, from try-in of wax dentures to my one who had some e-stuff done, an exo to be exact, but requires a whole new upper full and a lot of perio work on the lower. and the perio... this is the first time i've ever seen a Grade 3 mobility. and i had to scale it... despite Dr Thean's offhand assurances i was a bit worried the damn thing would drop out while i was ripping Great-Wall calculus off of it with an anterior sickle, it was that shaky. and yeah, the calculus and plaque was just amazing. i found a massively deep carious cavity while prodding in the plaque while doing E&D, all hidden in the plaque. i dont know if we'll end up treating this one or just extracting. funny enough, its a lot firmer than a lot of the other teeth, which are intact but shaky.

went out with Char after school. dinner at Thai Express was ok... food was fine but the service... i think the staff dont like me, they seem to have a thing for ignoring my hand. and i got stalked by Mao and Shafiq and Stan. went for pool after, and damn well nearly won her. i need more practce dammit, my play is way too inconsistent. not like i'll be able to get any games in during the month she's in the US though. dammit...

Hopelessly Devoted To You - Olivia Newton-John

I'm Cleaning Out My Closet...

Happy Mother's Day!

and on that note, i'd like to write a bit about mothers. today Uncle Robert gave a testimony about his late mum. it was a different generation, the war generation to be exact but mothers are really the under-appreciated people in our society. they raise the children, and in the chinese family paradigm yer more likely to find people with impressions of their mums than their dads. not that this is the best or the healthiest situation but such is their power. even now i think a lot of the families are being held together by mothers who basically do everything possible...

was up on stage playing the prelude when Josh nudged me...

Josh: omg its teh GURMITZ!

me: simi? gurmit singh?! where?! where?!

and the dear chap had his back turned to me for like 2 min as i tried simultaneously playing flute without looking at my score while trying to spot him. it turns out that Gurmit Singh is somehow related to the aforementioned Uncle Robert, and was visiting for the week. he got mobbed by little kids at lunchtime asking for autographs lol.

Jo is in the states now, havent heard from her. according to her blog she had delays and missed connecting flights and all sorts of happening things. sheesh, all the fun while im here stuck w clinics...

Time Of Your Life - Green Day

*good luck for crown prep guys.. but then again luck has nothing to do with it*

To Another Sliding Step

think that even though things have been pretty rough, enough interesting things have happened that i should get down to the sadly neglected blogging.

i finally got to find out my crown competency results. in spite of the awful work, i passed. quite amazed because of the number of critical flaws contained therein. the endo test died though, and that means that my endo knowledge isnt up to scratch by a very large margin. so much to work on, so little time. at least something went right though.

the stress is still pretty bad. Lulin said that i lost weight, and i dont know if its the schoolwork or the food poisoning episode i had. or whether emotional matters have been weighing on my subconscious. i know that a lot of the class is still very withdrawn and many are in various states of sickness. so many are eating meagre packed lunches in the faculty... its freakish. and we havent even actually entered year 3.

For The Future - Do As Infinity

Tears Of The Road Ahead

i am now officially 2 years away to being a quarter of a century old. as far as birthdays went, it wasnt too eventful. but nice enough in its own way. got out of bed late, had a lunch binge at a hotel buffet, and got to watch a movie at night with Jo.

The Interpreter seemed like the only movie in the whole of GV Marina worth watching. i had my doubts, not remembering how the reviews in the papers turned out. it was well worth the risk. Sean Penn is a true workhorse actor with credible emotions, who put in a good turn as a Secret Service agent with a very vunerable, human side. Kidman excelled in a role which didnt require glam-ness per se, and even had a cute little south african accent to boot. excellent plot twists, excellent casting, just excellent. please watch this one.

Who Will You Think Of - Zhang Dongliang

Only You

usually dont blog so many times in a week, but i just felt the urge to reflect on all the stuff that's gone on since we started term. i think the class is going downhill. i suppose its a common theme in all my rants, cos we dont go out and blah blah yakkety-shmakkety. and frankly i do miss watching movies and drinking coffee and karaoke and windsurfing and all that jazz. but the decline has gotten to a level where now everyone i talk to feels a sense of detachment from the class, as if they have been left to fend for themselves. please people, remember that your support network extends to all 34 of us. most of us have made the effort to at least bond with our cluster during year 1 and 2... dont let a friendship slide just because we are in clinics now. we cannot chain our souls to the lab bench. please leave when you should, and not when its past our time. pissing off the profs and supporting staff one by one has no good outcome. i know that there's the perfectionist urge in all of us, and if we didnt have that we'd make pretty poor dental students. but yet theres the ability to sense when something is appropriate, when it is time to cover the wax, wipe off the omega trimmer and walk out the door for the night.

i'd also like to say that these 2 weeks wouldnt have been so bearable without the presence of my Lab Partner PJ. working with her next to me in OD is like having an extra pair of hands and an extra brain. certainly much more comfortable because i dont feel so alone. and her buoyant sense of humour is a definite added bonus. i think i'd really be lost without her, she means a lot to me.

My Will - Dream

Pick It Up And Carry On

after the last week of gaming, i have come to the conclusion that any players from CA, US and TH have connections of questionable reliability. and NUS connection is abysmal. ping times are excellent diagnostic tools where available but not easy to obtain due to firewalling. and if i see any more CA players who insist on their connections being good, i will just request that they be booted. im tired of having precious gaming time wasted.

gonna do my first hand scaling tomorrow. should be quite interesting, cos ive actually never scaled a live patient before. i mean... Oscar sure doesnt cut it as a simulator. he doesnt drool or bleed or complain. hope i learn a lot.

think im getting used to clinics work. the bothersome thing that is exact. and i hope that things will lighten up for the class. everyone seems so disturbed and stressed by clinics. frankly, its gonna be a way of life. have to adapt, or die.

My Wish - My Life - Do As Infinity

I Cannot Recreate What Life Was Like Through Photographs

love lazy saturdays! spent a good part of it asleep, to make up for all the stress that i've taken in through the week. got a new Robotech comic too, shows the wedding of Max and Miriya. now the only major event left for the week is the health screening at Lot 1 tomorrow.

Prof Hsu said that when man is out of contact with nature, he gets more frazzy. suppose its true. when you cannot see the stars or feel the wind blow in your hair, life seems so much more desperate. i know that i feel really good going to school in the morning because i can cross the overhead bridge and see the bouganvilleas in bloom and feel the wind toss my hair. and it all disappears by 11am, when i start to get hungry and floppy...

had a reminder about how to keep in mind people's styles of work in 2 different incidents that happened through the week. its just something so important, but we still forget that our lab partners dont know everything about how we like to have things done, or our character flaws. its something we'll have to work with slowly as we go on into year 3 and 4.

Ci Niao - F.I.R.

Blott En Dag

its been so long since i blogged, and so much has happened in the week. it seems as if im too busy to even read patient files, which isnt exactly good... and everyone is amazingly tired.

heres a song that came up during SF...

Day by day, and with each passing moment,

Strength I find, to meet my trials here;

Trusting in my Father’s wise bestowment,

I’ve no cause for worry or for fear.

He whose heart is kind beyond all measure

Gives unto each day what He deems best—

Lovingly, its part of pain and pleasure,

Mingling toil with peace and rest.

.
Every day, the Lord Himself is near me

With a special mercy for each hour;

All my cares He fain would bear, and cheer me,

He Whose Name is Counselor and Pow’r.

The protection of His child and treasure

Is a charge that on Himself He laid;

“As thy days, thy strength shall be in measure,”

This the pledge to me He made.

.
Help me then in every tribulation

So to trust Thy promises, O Lord,

That I lose not faith’s sweet consolation

Offered me within Thy holy Word.

Help me, Lord, when toil and trouble meeting,

E’er to take, as from a father’s hand,

One by one, the days, the moments fleeting,

Till I reach the promised land.

is it not God and God alone who keeps me on my feet all day, and gives me the energy to do what i do? i couldnt do it alone, it would certainly be so much more miserable...

DotA v6.06 is out! gonna test-run it before i go crash. Sand King got balanced... see what else has changed...

Days Of Days Over You - Love Psychedelico

The Legend Of The Thornbird

i just got the new F.I.R. CD! its pretty good, good tunes and some thematic linkage to their last album. more thumpy music for my DotA playlist...

watched The Pacifier yesterday with Jo. it wasnt too bad really. coherent plotline, good comic work and Vin Diesel can actually look paternal. quite amazed by that. also a very Jacky Chan-esque fight scene in a nursery room. it was great to watch and de-stress to yesterday...

got a new patient today. a Filipina from church is having pain, Prof Foong said it looks like a pulpitis. i hope i can slot her into the Wednesday Perio session to begin E&D, and if there really is a pulpitis that requires intervention the OD doctor will have to step in... either way its a learning experience.

LOVE*3 - F.I.R.

No Way Through

one week of clinics gone by. got to say its been the most tiring school week ever! im actually quite amazed im still alive, all the clinics is just so sapping. and people can still stay late after school and do work. its just crazy.

got to go out for a while today. it woulda been longer if we coulda dislodged some people out of the lab faster... but it was good to walk the streets and see the sights, eat food not cooked on Kent Ridge and just have fun. on the one hand clinics are interesting, but on the other hand we still need to de-stress. at least my cluster isnt too would up... most of my new cluster people are okay workers.

Lofty Spires Of Ice That Pierce The Intense Azure Vault

day one of school has gone by. one patient seen, and i want to die! guess its pretty common all ard the class, for those who had to see patients. esp for A and B cluster, since we were solo-ing the session. at least i got my stuff banged into exact. i still have to rearrange appointments with a patient due to not knowing that RP sessions are meant to be spent working on more pre-clinical stuff. and theres all the E&D stuff to clear up! still have to find out wtf my patient is on. high platelet count? platelet depressor? what in the world? splenectomy? man... the things you never knew you never knew.

i miss my holidays already. studyin for the RP test tomorrow just highlighted that my brain probably atrophied with joy while i was on holiday. or shrank in the cold of Yulong Xueshan. that place was fun! even though the area at the top of the mountain was so small and restricted, snow is always great to mess around with (but not to live in, i'll qualify) and the view on the way up rocked. i think i'd actually willingly consider Yunnan as a honeymoon destination. places like Heilong Tang and Yulong Xueshan are really scenic. makes Singapore look so small and boring... not that this is a revolutionary statement.

i really should find time to finish off the paladin. the armour has been brown-washed and drybrushed and highlighted. work on the tunic has started. and thats it.

Nagai Aida - Kiroro

Take My Picture Off the Wall If It Just Won't Sing For You

here i am freezing my toes off in a Lijiang hotel room. amazing place, a low-rise hotel concept with amazing facilities, like a computer in my room! the china trip really looks like its a lot more fun than i thought it would be...

to summarise all of the places i've been so far would be to exhaust my infamously bad memory. i've skated in the middle of Kunming City, eaten dog ribs and roasted chicken heart seated on woven straw stools. i've strolled the streats of Lijiang Old Town and been in too many photos courtesy of my Dad. i've seen toilets ranging from long-drop-into-cesspit to amazingly nice public toilets in a historical district. i've strolled the park in HeiLongTang and the streets of Kunming after midnight. and yet...

every time i hear Sun Yanzi on the radio i think of home. every time i see the planet hanging out near the Big Dipper at night i think of the ones i left behind. guess im still a Singaporean at heart. because whats important to me is still there. my heart, my home, my life, my DotA clan. this place is great but at the end of it all i'll be glad to be back. even without the huo guo.

Ni Hao Zhou Jielun - An Youqi

Are We There Yet?

in Terminal One siphoning the free starhub net access from terminal thingy. its laggggeeeee! but its free, so not too much to complain about.

to my total amazement i actually managed to get 2 or 3 patients for Week 1! yeah, now i'll have stuff to do for perio and OD sessions. really got to thank God for all the calling that got done at the last minute. and even the perio patient who transmogrified into a partial denture case. when we bring her in we'll see how her perio status is lah... hope she can go straight on to the RD but if not we'll have to stabilise her gums lah.

without DotA for a week... scary thought. and no Anime on Central. tried smsing Charles to ask him to tape it for me but not reply. damn!

Patience

got a little dosing of reality today. finally got my fat ass round to calling patients and 2 of them said straight off that they wanna be discharged! scum... i now have a serious problem with finding perio patients. was so sad i called Shafiq to bitch to him and din even call the OD patients. dammit... and this holiday is being a pain in the posterior. goddamn it... i dont mind going off if everything and i mean everything is all tied up so that i dont have to come back to worry about stuff. but obviously everything is not okay with clinics and patients. want to go and kill stuff right now.

got some personal clinic visit time down at Trinity Dental. was a pretty good insight into the life of a GP... dont know if thats the life for me yet but it looks workable... the kinda practise that you can grow into and watch your patients for all the years. its not the most glamorous work out in our field... but hey it cant be that way for all of us.

Lazy Gun - Jet

Swing When You're Winning

another week is swiftly disappearing into the nothingness of the past. and i am so running out of holidays! and the worst thing is all the clinics preparations... i so need to get all this clinic stuff settled... like how i need a freaking perio patient for the first week and all. going to go down to school and check on patient allocation tomorrow and see if i can get sth sorted out.

me and Shafiq got the sound recording done for the preventive project. managed to turn a time-wasting endeavour into quite a fun exercise. hope the voiceover does ok once Shafiq resynchs all the slides.

after the great dubbing adventure we + PJ went out for dinner at Suntec. discovered the joys of overeating at Fish & Co. specifically a menu item called Grilled Swordfish Collar. for basically one Yusof Ishak more, you get almost twice the fish, on the bone no less, and its good stuff! ate until i wanted to faint, and then ate some more. so if you ever find youself ravenous and with cash to blow, consider this a viable option.

today's Karaoke was very well attended. there were earsplitting moments, and there were moments where we were treated to the audio genius of Anqi and Wanyi... and i think i scared the class by remembering all the lyrics to This Love when the pirated karaoke had no subtitles displayed. what to do? the poor song got overexposed and it somehow went in. just like the wu ye tian which i kinda partially sang from memory since i couldn read the fan ti.

Qing Fei De Yi - Harlem Yu

He Lives, And Now I Know That I Shall Conquer Death

"there are only two kinds of people in this world, those who swing and those who don't" - Swing Girls

Easter is almost over! the musical is done, and now my throat can rest. got some kinda evil laryngitis secondary to a nasopharyngial drip. freaking irritating! it meant that even though i hit evry high F nicely i wasnt at max volume. the guys were quite dying... and having to do 2 shows was a killer! very heartening knowing a lot of hands went up after Pastor Mike's sermon though.

just to set the record straight, why do people think that the easter bunny and eggs have something to do with easter in the christian sense? had 2 people ask me if i was going to be in a freaking rabbit costume today. not funny. it was enough of a put-off to make me forget to ask one of those people to go for the easter musical. sigh...

went to watch Swing Girls in the evening. a japanese show that was an utter gem to watch. the characters are genuiely likeable without descending into pseudo-adorable cliche, and i swear they actually play instruments! not like the fake stuff you see people in TCS commit whenever they need to pretend to be musical, which is one of my pet peeves. the plotline is strong, and the gag sequences are funny without being overly hammy or show-stealing. this one is a show not to be missed!

Sing Sing Sing - Swing Girls

The Unique Solitude

another week of holidays gone by... coulda been more fun-filled of course but it hasnt been too bad all things considered.

got myself a little knight miniature from PI. something different to develop my painting with. and if the D1 vs D2 match comes through i can give it as a trophy. with like a bazillion layers of semi-gloss of course!

went to PJ's place after the Good Friday service to discuss clinic stuff, like allocation of the OD sessions and all that jazz. and ended up playing monopoly with her and Shafiq... it was pretty pretty good insight into our different game mindsets. when i get Shafiq up to scratch with DotA his meta-game may well be very kick-ass. if YH and gang don't keep raping the poor boy of course...

now listening to the CD which i got for PJ's birthday... burned it onto my HDD just now. it sounded a bit weird at her place, but its growing on me. very old-school crooner. perhaps it was a bit funny because the first track was bebop-styled Nat King Cole, who was taking some major liberty with the phrases.

She's The One - Robbie Williams

The Legend Of PrInCeSs_StArRi

yeah... so we were bored that saturday afternoon while DS was assembling Stan's new com. and so, in a flash of inspiration i decided to create a new BNet account and go trawl for desperate DotA players. and hence PrInCeSs_StArRi was born. success rate? one poor soul convinced i was a zha bor. he even asked to add mi to his fwenz list lolx *giggles*. and we lost the game, for the record. lag killed my ability to assassinate effectively, even as the Nerubian Assassin.

my new modem and router are hooked up! significant increase in surfing speed, and i can now put my feet up in my own room instead of at the study table! woohoo! no more booting my brother, no more fiddling with USB! happy days are here again!

need an outing... Stan's rigging up a Sakae binge on wednesday afternoon, and i need a good excuse to get out of the house. anyone interested please read yer mail!

broke the screw holding one of the silicone rests on my specs when i dropped it at night.... ended up with the distal end of the screw still stuck in the thread. the spectacle shop i went to couldnt effect a full fix cos they couldnt get the broken bit out, but they gave me a new pair of rests and screws for free! and then, left to my own devices on the way home, i hit upon the idea of using my pin-vise to trephine the broken bit out! score one for reading the textbook for pre-fab post removal techniques! worked out fine... though i couldnt actually pull the broken bit out on the end of the pin-vise, i managed to screw right through it and dislodge it from the threads so that i could put in the new screw all the way. happiness!

Come Around Again - Jet

Doing That Thing You Do

another long-remiss update. whats happened since my last update? plenty, probably...

DotA v6.02 is out! distributed to all of Clan BDS, and we had one trial run together. mixed reviews lah, really hope that the next few versions will be able to rebalance things and iron out bugs so that the community moves forward from 5.84c_v2. i mean... yeah old stuff good so far but life has to go on. and im developing a fondness for the mountain giant. Throwing people around is kewl!

got my modem and router but due to the phenomenal jack-up of forgetting my internet password, i cannot use it yet. damn. so much for better connectivity and surfing the net from the loo (yeah like hell i'll do that) and i'll be DotAing from the old modem tonight. will have it hooked up tmr morning though.. and then happy days are mine! no more kicking my bro off the com to play, no more hauling my laptop to the study table to plug in via USB, and hopefully no more of mum peering over the top of my screen at 2am and scaring the hell out of me.

Last Chance - Jet

Crop Rotations

finally i can blog after a few days of Blogger being bitchy and not letting me in. all that stuff to say, and im sure i'll leave stuff out...

got to watch Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events. the reviews were accurate. Jim Carrey is not scarey enough for a mail villain. the best thing about the show is the Baudelaire children and the visuals. the costumes look really funky in a period way, and the set design is pretty good. suppose i should go get the books... heard theyre really good.

DotA with Clan BDS has been a bit rough lately. oppo is either beyond easy or mad skilled. it ranges from games where i cant even get Power Treads by level 16, to a game where i got a Skadi for Rooftrellen by level 21! never ever been able to do that!

Standing Bird - Love Psychedelico

Hop, Skip And Jump

its the last paper of my 2nd Pro Exams tomorrow! and to extend my trend of disgusting happiness, i got to watch a movie and buy CDs yesterday!

caught Robots with Jo after orchestra. unfortunately, it wasnt quite up to scratch. visuals were top notch, excellent animation work. good voice characterisation too. but unfortunately this movie runs on individual gags without a string plot. the 2 female leads were not developed (see i cant even remember their names) and so we saw nothing happen to the rivalry between them for the male lead, whatever his name may have been. many many screwball moments from the character voiced by Robin Williams, and he goes home as he most memorable robot. nothing has topped The Incredibles...

listening to my new (old) Love Psychedelico CD. good stuff! in fact it even seems nicer then their 3rd CD, the one that i bought first. have yet to listen to the Kiroro, but im sure its gonna be good! and my fragging music collection is hereby declared to have increased.

washed, de-flashed and half-pinned a mini, waiting for it to dry up so that i can go and spray-prime it. i havent done this for so long! hope she turns out nice... was actually thinking of seeing if i can come up with a fantasy mini as a trophy for the D2 vs D1 DotA match... see if my generosity survives a meeting with my wallet.

I Will Be With You - Love Psychedelico

Cloud Age Symphony

its finally over! all the theory papers are done up, and i feel pretty good! just a patho practical on monday and im done.

a bit saddened tho by the small response to going out today. i guess its one of the more common laments on this blog but the class is really getting dead. and its extending to even the more fun people. the ones who used to bring a smile to my face are now looking so drained even after the last theory paper. its quite worrying really, we still have like 2 more years worth of time together. and if everyone is gonna go solo how will we survive? it's going to be miserable!

one game of DotA with clan BDS so far. it was a noob-thrashing festival. pity Mao and Shafiq werent able to pick up copies of TFT due to what looks like a bloody nationwide shortage of TFT. how is that physically possible?

Cloud Age Symphony - Last Exile