Speed-Waxing

i think i've developed the fastest way to set teeth to conform to an opposing prosthetic dentition! this example assumes a f/p situation...

1) wax up upper arch to ideal setup.
2) grind contacts, adjust for inter-arch alignment issues
3) take first lower molar of desired side, put a column of utility wax underneath. place in region where tooth will eventually lie. close articulator and make fine adjustments.
4) holding articulator closed to maintain position, add wax to cover utility wax, stabilising the molar.
5) add subsequent teeth until all desired teeth are placed. interproximal grinding may be needed to adapt mesial-most tooth against abutment/framework.

this method allows one to get achieve fast positioning of the lower arch teeth without messing around with heating and reheating wax. it also eliminates wax shrinkage and tooth slip as the wax holding the tooth in place cools down. the wax which comes free with the rack of teeth is actually pretty decent, havent tried with the standard-issue rope wax yet.

Logic vs Evidence

logic is never enough, there must always be evidence. for while logic is a valuable decision-making tool, sometimes logic is faulty, or does not factor in every possibility.

On an unrelated note, i hate Fuji I. i mean, yeah... it sticks stuff okay, but it also clings to mucosa. at least i'm getting a lot of experience with it cos of all the bloody FP i've been luting with it. seems like ive stuck down as many units with ZnPO4 as i have with Fuji I. now it better hold well...

729

in all the chaos that swirls around my life, im glad that i have Peijun. she's been the greatest comfort to me during the days at school when she was around, and then in the days when she wasnt. guess it wasnt the easiest thing when i was left behind and she had to move on to work. but im glad to have her, even if i cant see her as often (by quite a drastic margin i might add). im glad for all the times we spend together, the laughing, the crying, the happiness, the sadness, everything. it seems so alive with her around, much better than being a drone in the lab and clinic with no aim but to discharge, no joy but to close up for the day. sure, things havent been easy due to all the stresses from school, home, NDC now and other sources, but i'd rather have lived this with her than not have had the chance to be with her at all. because its been the greatest happiness in my short little life. and i hope for much more happiness for the 2 of us in the years ahead, as we walk the road of life hand in hand, stopping to peer at the little flowers along the way.

Peijun, you're my little Gunslinger Girl.

The Light Before We Land - The Delgados

Gunslinger Girl

i think i've found my latest favourite anime. Gunslinger Girl features an Italian black ops group composed of cybernetically-enhanced girls and their handlers, and the trials, fights and emotional upheavals that they go through. its dark, contemplative, its got good soundtrack, and you just feel for the girls who have been plucked out of the dire straits they were in only to be put in another set of trials. unfortunately, i surmise it may never reach Arts Central. angsty pre-teen girl assassins with big-ass guns, especially after Dave Teo? more's the pity...

Dopo il Sogno ～夢のあとに～ - Yoshitaka Kitanami

Thunderbolt

seems like my life is a life of upheaval. just when you think things are working out, events come along to shake your world and prove you wrong. and thats when you have to get on your knees and pray, and then rush off to save that world from collapsing, with only great faith to guide you. if Job could say 'Though He slay, me, yet will I trust in Him', can't we? even when it seems like failure will make life unbearable...

Let's Fighting Love - Trey Parker

A Story

heres something lol-worthy i read on CBT.com:

"Once along time ago after pining over a girl for several months I was at a bar, still pining, when my best friend put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Dude, just rest your head on the table." Feeling so low and sorry for myself over a girl I put my head on the table with a big sigh, knowing that my best friend was about to fill me with his sage wisdom. And he did. He smacked the back of my head so hard it bounced back of the table and blurred my vision, made my eyes water and gave me a headache so blinding I thought I'd pass out. i looked at him and said "WTF did you do that for you ******. That hurt! You just about busted me skull open!" He just smiled at me and said "Head hurts doesn't it" to which I replied "Goddamn it hurts I just told you that. I think im gonna pass out. I'm gonna have a bruise on my head. You're an ass" He smiled at me again and said "Your not pining over your poor little broken heart anymore are you, because now you have a fractured skull to complain about"

七色の明日 ~Brand New Beat~ - BoA

The Coming

the CBT box set is out in PI now, along with Tech Manual and Starterbook: Sword and Dragon! and i have to receive the news online while casually perusing the PI website... dammit! want want want! im stuck here in the frigid science library (while, funny enough, its damn hot outside) and my box set is lying alone in the PI back room waiting for me to pick it up and open it lovingly and play with it. oh when shall that happy day be?

Pieces - L'Arc en Ciel

Lizard In The Fridge

holidays are here again, an im spending them in the beloved science library. i miss the medical library. its probably a matter of familiarity, seeing old faces around, having a favourite corner next to the dental shelves, being able to yell out to the guys to go for lunch/beg the guys to bloody hell listen to the call of the stomach and go for lunch. guys, i miss you all! this is a unisex designation btw...

i guess it kind of hit home during Buffet Night. sure its an annual affair, the same old damn thing year after year, with D1 skits sinking to new lows in terms of off-colour jokes and banana placement. but amidst all of that, i miss sitting round with the class and talking with them, hearing the guys crack jokes. i wish i could have taken a walk on the pier with Peijun (im sorry Geng, you just dont look, feel or sound the same) to feel the sea breeze in our hair. but this is the reality of life i guess. and to the D3 and D4 juniors who were at the dinner, thanks for inviting and old man to join in your photo shoots. it means something to me.

watched Ratatouille (damn that was a challenge) on Sunday. this movie is good. id say that it could stand proudly beside The Incredibles. it was american animation which was intelligent, had a story and a message, was not afraid to show characters with real flaws. in short, marketing potential for toys aside, this show is more than just kiddy faire. watch this movie.

SNOW KISS - NIRGILIS

Boot To The Head

why does it seem like the world is getting colder? not exactly in the most literal sense, but the air conditioning in clinic 3, which for years has lagged behind that of clinic 2 in terms of sheer cooling power, seems to have been fixed/upgraded/pimped out. coupled with the cold weather, sometimes its actively bloody freezing! the science library is also more frigid than, urm, a fridge i guess.

i think the guys are changing. they look the same, yet different. more confident. happier. in some cases, more prosperous. changes in circumstances, fortunes and mindsets. i want some of that!

single crown competency mounted and ready to send down. endo competency to be stuffed up tomorrow. whats left for me to take care of?

One Half - Wu Jiahui

Things I Learned Today

i found out the key to feeling lymph nodes on the cervical region today during an OS tutorial. press against the nearest firm structure, they say, and we futilely grope away. for the submandibular and submental glands, the nearest hard structure is the body of mandible. and for the neck, the next best thing to bone for the superficial nodes is a tensed sternocleidomastoid...

i cannot lose the will to press on. fatigue is setting in, the pressure doesnt want to go away... sleeping for 10 hours or so the day before yesterday helped immensely, but theres so much to see and do.

一色 - 中島美嘉

Barometer

pressure? frankly it sucks. to be pressured from so many directions while being told to be focussed is hard. especially when you cant just tell the sources of pressure to please take a queue number and wait for the recep to call them in. there have been times when i wished that i could sprout wings, flown out the window and lived on love and fresh air for the rest of my life. not going to happen. i find myself more and more tired, wishing i could find a nice corner to curl up and sleep. somewhere safe and warm where i can leave the world behind for half a day or two and surrender to the obliviousness of unconsciousness.

Debra the Violin Girl is back from america! seems like the longest time since i saw her around. unfortunately, no time to catch up. as an aside, wonder if i can scrape up the funds to buy the Mika Namashika CD going for ten bucks at Du Yi. looks worth it, even tho these days ive been listening to my radio so much.

think friday was my best endo session ever! restored my faith in the discipline somewhat. working under TLC is damn fun! showed us how to nuke voids, and even let me play with using chloroform to make a custom cone. hope i get that competency settled quick, not much time left.

我可以 - 蔡旻佑

Song of Truth

the world is a messy place, especially as the YouTube generation grows up. im not going to repost the long letter i sent out to my class, that remains in Dental circulation. suffice to say, its stupid to think that what you mail around or sent to the national papers will have no repercussions. to the freshies, i'd say im sorry your intro to the world of the faculty had to be so rough. normally its a time where you bond by the sweat of your brow, sharing fun and frustrations. the petty machinations and inconsiderate actions of others have marred this experience. and to the Taleban 3, please go find a quiet corner and commit seppuku. you can form a little triangle and second each other if you so wish.

真実の詩 - Do As Infinity

Under The Covers

right now, i'd really like to be asleep. warm blanket. aircon, not to cold. bolster. clean sheets. good pillow. absolute darkness. it has occurred to me that drinking Red Bull and doing labwork after midnight is like living on borrowed time. sure, the energy drink at 9.30pm will give you one hell of a boost in about 15min that lasts for almost 3 hours, but the next morning? you're buggered. so yeah... drink Red Bull responsibly.

have finally finished off the f/f patient. not in an amicable way, and i hope he doesnt come back to haunt me, but at least HT has signed that clown off as completed, and unsuitable for UG Tx, with reasons. its really quite something to be told by a patient that his denture is uglier than the last one, that people will laugh at him, that the other operators were better, and why do the instructors keep changing? the sheer stupidity of it all is phenomenal. and to top it off he refuses specialist care, saying that student treatment is better (with the notable exception of this operator). ass.

i find myself becoming more and more attached to my Nokia earpiece. i think having 93.3 playing semi-permanently has a kind of calming effect on me when i have to do work. it is weird, however, taking phone calls have having people look at me like i belong in ward 12...

Zhao Long lent me a patient for S&RP competency next week on thursday under MT. lets hope this goes well! apparently he took the easier quadrants for his own competency. then again, what one really needs is sharp curettes and a good ultrasonic, not a simple patient. if i pass because my patient is easy, am i truly competent? its a question running through my head more of late. i hope i graduate well and dont screw things up outside...

深い森 - Do As Infinity

MP3, not for listening to

school has tottered into week 4. what have i gotten done?! *panic* at least i got some of the staff looking out for me. Prof Foong sent me a pair of brothers to do up, even specified which one was competency and which one was for requirement. got HN to see the my dearest darling f/f for 1st recall, hope he doesnt pull stunts. and im freaking gonna take my single crown under the most sympathetic staff i can find!

in other news, pre-order for the new CBT Box set is now open at PI! got your copy now! bask in plastech goodness!

watched Paprika at the Picturehouse this weekend. for the people tired of Hollywood formula shows and lame edits to HP:OOP, watch this please. sure, its a teensy bit confusing, but when part of the plot is centred on mentally disturbed people it all makes sense! the fish and the frog swim in a storm of confetti! government spending in the year of the radish will increase!

Runner - Susumu Hirasawa

The Word Of Jon

1: and after RDTPS, jon sat in contemplation for a minute, and then spake:
2: consider the squid, my brother, and be wise
3: for the squid, when it is confronted, doth squirt a cloud of ink and flail its arms. and when the ink hath dissipated, behold, the squid is not there.
4: but when the squid is surrounded on all sides, and hath emptied its ink pouch, then is the squid found in plain sight, and there shall be no escape for it.
5: verily, i say unto you, the squid is truly buggered, and fit for dinner.

Parodontitis Gravis et Complicata

got me a complex perio e&d case! looks like a GAP too! been a good chance to learn about the diagnosis and treatment planning for an aggressive case, hope this all works out well. hope it works out for the patient too cos we'll be throwing away at least 2 teeth.

2 movie reviews! first up we have Transformers. contrary to popular fanboy expectations, this movie wasn't slaughtered. for some reason, the way this movie was shot made me more charitable to the artistic liberties they took with the storyline. so yeah, Bumblebee has transmogrified from an VW Beetle into a Chevrolet Camaro. Megatron is a plane! Ironhide isn't a van! Shockwave looks like a little freak! but is had big stompy robots, and that warms me to the core of my being. guess im easy to please that way.

Hooked on you was the girlfriend-friendly alternative to Die Hard 4.0, and after watching it i'll recommend this one. good plot, good character, and a strange Hong Kong sense of humour in a careflu, not-over-the-top-Stephen-Chow way. it captures the zeitgeist of the people of Hong Kong going through a hard point in their history, and the lives of 2 people in particular. watch this movie!

Project Little Plastic Locust is finished. Click here.

Difference

operation Little Plastic Locust is under way! a much-overdue project, i have decided to take the time to repair a 3rd ed plastic LCT-1V from the Settlers Katong shoe box, and record my progress in photos to be made into a little guide. blame Inrepose if you want, that Archer paint guide was t3h r0x. so what do i have to do?

i have on hand:

-1 3rd ed plastic LCT-1V missing both arms
-1 right arm loaned from JT, with a request to make a new left arm for his LCT in addition to the 2 new arms i will be making.

both the locust itself as well as the detachable arm have some pretty impressive flash problems.

predicted steps to be taken:

1) de-flash the parts using
a: burrs
b: scalpel

2) clean up the parts with soap for good bonding

3) sculpt a greenstuff spacer between the left leg and the body to make up the 1mm discrepancy in thickness

4) create a reusable mould system so that i can make 3 of the bloody arm things in decent order, with options for left or right arm usage. deep thought on the bus home has lead me in the direction of a 2-part mould, with a 'male' die-stone member and a 'female' suck-down thermoplastic member. sprues may be required to minimise void formation. damn this is going to be fun!

5) cast the arms in plastic material. plan A is to use clear Orthacryl because of its original fluid state and lack of colour that could interfere with painting. plan B is TBR. plan C is greenstuff, far too stiff for what i want to do.

6) clean-up of the casted pieces, and dry-fitting to the dis-armed LCT mini

so yeah, lets see how this goes!

Go West - Eldissa

Life Is Peaceful There

patients booked, cephs traced, table tidied. what more could i want for the new term? besides Bill Gates dropping 60 million greenbacks in my lap in a big paper bag...

Peijun will be starting up work in NDC on the 2nd level. im still here in NUH on the third level. wish i was in NDC, even if it wasn't the 2nd level. dont want to lose the interest in what i do...

2 weddings to play for in a week! i guess i must be getting old, i find myself starting to take note of the way the weddings are organised to gain a better understanding of how i want mine to be conducted. at the very least, i want one that goes according to plan! no little kids-who-toss-petals freaking out or swallowing the ring or whatever. no unexpected catering problems. no screwed-up music.

Staying Alive - Eldissa

Every Time

council gathering at Suat's place yesterday night. guess ive probably detailed in earlier posts why i feel so strongly about my school and why i joined council. and now, so many years on, people i served with have turned into old friends with whom i can reminisce and play Munchkin with. people to relive the good old days with while we eat ice cream and brownies. people whom we can needle with old jokes as we lead into new jokes. people who im proud to call my friends.

Casa della Suat has some amazing stuff. a Wii as well as an XBox 360. and so i got to try out 2 consoles of which i have only been able to see in ads and on VGCats. the Wii is a fascinating thing. is it meant to be pronounced the japanese way as Wi-i or ang-moh style as Wee or what? and waving ones hands! how novel! now i understand all the crude rude mean nasty things from VGCats. they were absolutely spot on. played Gears of War with Meng as the rest indulged in a spot of bridge. the game sure isn't Halo, for one thing the interface is one heck of a complex. for another thing, i couldnt find a way to alter the sensitivity. running and shooting felt like trying to fight while drunk. slightly slow and disorienting. on the other hand, i guess the felon-soldiers of Delta Squad arent exactly as agile as Spartans. nonetheless, the puzzle elements of the game made it feel at least a bit harder than the usual point-shoot kind of fps or 3rd-person game. but will i ever get a Wii or a 360? yeah, dream on. maybe if the damn school decides to pay me for the help i give the juniors *broad hint!*

Winter Love - BoA

Taimu Reapu

please watch The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. its the freaking best movie all bloody holidays. its got solid plot, character development, spectacular director vision, and good soundtrack. support good movies. bollocks to Pirates 3: At Wit's End and Shrek The Turd. put your money where the quality lies.

Streptococcus

one week of holidays gone by. what have i achieved? what great leaps forward? what riotous fun?

watched Fantasic 4 with Peijun on wednesday. having not watched any of the previous instalments, i come to this series with a clean slate. and let me put it to you that this movie didnt seem to be worth the ticket money. a poorly-fleshed major character. a greater-evil type character as a mess of rocks. and ridiculous plot development. awful awful awful!

seems like i wont be getting my cluster allocation letters like the rest. Peijun got her email from SingHealth, but i'll have to wait until i come out before i found out what cluster i belong to....

went with Peijun to Settlers Katong to meet Pinfen, Siewping and John, and played Saboteur! looks like this really was a great christmas gift, even tho i havent had the chance to take my set for a spin. its the kind of game which can quite literally occupy you for 4 hours straight! decently fun because of the inbuilt hook of deceptive play, and it doesnt get stale because rounds are short. but of course it doesnt match up to my first gaming love of CBT. my dice still call to me in the darkness....

Nobody Knows - 伊藤由奈

Under The Moon

one day of holidays over, and for the first time since ive come to FoD, i'm struck by how little holiday we actually have. the date is already into 2 digits, and at the end of the month i'm back into the grind, and PJ is going to work. the transcience of life's little pleasures is at once a warning to treasure what we have, and also a warning to expect all good things to end at some point.

its kinda sinking in that i am now attached to a Dr Chia. and she'll have to move ahead of me in life as i complete my unfinished business in school. i guess the good thing is that anything that i experience when i go to work wont be entirely a surprise, since i have a 6-month early 2nd-person preview. at the same time i'll be having to support her during the adjustment phase. oh well, maybe better one than both at once.

bought Yuna Ito's CD. good shit! having heard it on YouTube doesnt take away from the fact that its good songwriting and good singing. just wish DAI were still together...

what to do with the rest of my holiday? what to do?

Precious - 伊藤由奈

Poco Voce

so my lungs have shrunk. got another month to grow them back before i play for Matt and Cheryl's wedding. need to regain my sightreading skills too. just feels like its been too damn long since i picked up my flute. if only there was some way to get in regular quality playing time... especially with a school schedule. and no, the Worship Team does not count as quality playing time...

what to do with the holidays?
1) regrow lungs
2) go and swim
3) organise for next term
4) do up patients' cephs
5) play excessive CBT!

really want some of item 5! my dice call to me to sieze them, ride forth and lay waste!

Stupidity is never more daunting

as when it is systemic. why do we do the things we do? multiple steps to nowhere? break our hopes and pray that they reassemble? and why am i here in the middle of the night blogging in the lab, a can of Red Bull sitting in front of me, when there is work to do?

sometimes doing the right thing just doesnt feel rewarding. i finally got round to bringing in a patient i havent seen in a million years. literally. i dont need any of this guy's requirements, but on the other hand it isnt honest to let him sit and rot. so i update his xrays, TD his caries, chart his resto, perio and even his recession. and suddenly noone wants a backup exam case. noooooo! 3 crowns to go, anyone? please? im even preparing provisionals in case the ones i put in screw up!

finally getting in an ortho patient. prescreened by the boss himself, no worries about a screwy indication. hope i can work fast tomorrow.

damn i wish i could be overseas...

Unchained - Love Psychedelico

Leaf On The Wind

seems like sometimes the world changes around us, and we're left standing wondering what happened to all that we found familiar. my lab is now populated by the incoming D3s, and while theyre a nice bunch, they sure arent my old class. half the class is overseas, and the rest are in the process of going. and me and ZX are left here pottering around in the lab chasing the dream of leaving NUS to spread our wings and fly off to some distant polyclinic where we can caries free in peace.

what is my role in life now?
1) i need to graduate. stat. the work i do, the things i study, must lead towards this eventuality. i must improve my hands and my mind to write well in my papers and stand tall during clinical dentistry.
2) i want to help my juniors not to end up like me. will this end up at odds with (1)? how much time can i afford?

擱淺 - 周杰倫

Left To Dessicate

after a bit of nudging from wanwah, i've decided to blog again. dont know how often i can do this, or whether i'll find it as therapeutic as i used to, but worth a try i guess...

im stuck in school for a while longer. guess me posting it on the net wont answer all the people who ask me about it in real life, this is more for me to vent. i didnt give up on my schedule at the end, i was having trouble early on and didnt recognise it. wish i did. but for now, i just want to focus on getting out of this place. 4 years is plenty long, and if its been predestined for me to hang about a bit longer, so be it, but i'm going as soon as i can. in the meantime, i want to learn what i can, do what i can, and help people onto a path that doesnt involve time extension. now that i walk this path, i know exactly how much it sucks, and i dont want my juniors to have to follow in my footsteps.

finally passed my p/p. happy as heck. but the fly in the ointment of my prosthetic career is my f/f patient. guess ive vented about him in real life so many times, but every visit is a new trial, a new frustration, a new aggravation. i have learnt so much about him, about myself, and about the little private hell a patient can create for an operator. i shall take these lessons and treasure them, because they were hard earned. and having discussed with my instructor, once this royal ass is issued his f/f of doom we shall be writing in the notes that he is unsuitable for UG Tx. so shall it be until all have fallen...

the other good thing is that Lady Boss appears to have passed her exams, we're 99% certain and just waiting for the results to seal the deal. now for my turn...

Endless Story - Yuna Ito

The Angels Are Singing Again

seems like i haven't had anything good to write about in a damn long time, but finally i have something to be well and truly publicly thankful for. Peijun is now a child of God! havent been this happy since, possibly, the day i was born!

Unfavourable

its been just over 5 months since i last posted. and i am tired!

just the other day Stan and me were talking about depression. i suspect every person in the class may be clinically depressed. people are starting to crack up under the stress. i know im not coping as well as i would like. delayed dentures, skipped slots, and now a pharyngitis. bugger this. i want holiday and i want it now! but not before i pass those 2 competencies on friday. pulling that off might just make me go down in history for most crazy competency stunt attempted ever, but all i want to do is get some of that junk out of the way.

contemplating a spare exam case. looks like it has a bit of a history, though. talked to the last operator, and not only does the patient speak only mandarin, he also started to find excuses not to see her just as exam time was drawing near. but in itself, the case is damn simple. so tempting...

http://singapore-btechers.blogspot.com/

JT has made up a blog to let us get the news on CBT and official events. so if you love battletech and need some action, get the hell over and check it out already!

浪漫手機 - 周杰倫

My Modus Operandi Is Amalgam

its been way too long since i last posted. too many things have happened in my life to recount, its just a big mess. and yet i find myself writing again. i hope i still find it therapeutic.

finally got round to watching the 4 episodes of Samurai Champloo that Debra the Violin Girl passed to me. it certainly lives up to the hype she placed on it, the standard of animation, the action, the themes are all excellent. its weird and wonderful. people get dismembered to the flashing of blades. got to get more...

its just so weird when not half an hour after you get your special tray looked at, you are informed that the patient for which you prepared it has departed this mortal coil. it seems like now i can rub shoulders with those who were among the legendary suay people of old. it just seems so surreal... the patient only sat in my chair once, and never had any time to make an impression on my psyche. and now he's gone, leaving a legacy of a ratty yellow file, a set of primarys and 2 special trays with no more purpose. a life, just gone like that.

they say knowledge is power, but to be able to use it wisely, that's another thing. on saturday on a crowded bus towards Clementi, i noticed a woman with a lesion on the left side of her upper lip. 2 cm by 1 cm, surface varied from a mole-like raised black to an ulcer on its inferior border. surrounding skin normal. my spot differentials include BCC and malignant melanoma. and what does one do with the information? is it proper for me to go up to a person and advise a consult, just like that? the 70ish woman had a companion, a 40-ish woman. was she her daughter? should i inform her? would that be inerference? i had no time to resolve my dilemma, they got off one stop after i noticed the lesion. we always say we're in it for the patients, to improve people's lives. do we have the power? do we have the courage?

i finally got off my ass and got myself an FP allocation for Mr Cho. to Prof Chew, no less. looks like major ass-kicking for me. thank you Dr Joanne. and damn...

Battlecry - Shing02

So We Hear/ He's Just Coming Back/ From Half A Year Of Withdrawal

my holidays end in 2 hours... but it was good! possibly the best one holiday since i stepped into the faculty. watched movies, painted again, got to sun my ass even. and now the summer days fade away as clinics come round again.

Rent is an amazing movie. please watch it. disregard the Today review. they wouldnt be able to tell good movie material if they'd had it waved in front of their faces. as a musical, the point IS the music! but yet it's done in a way that doesnt break the pacing. Rent is energetic, harmonious, touching, spectacular even. the singing is tight, the acting tighter. and the plot is touching. please, go and watch this. on the big screen. with the surround sound. and a big barrel of popcorn, and someone who appreciates that good things don't need explosions or CGI to work.

Ice Age 2 was viewed with much lower expectations. it wasnt as lame as the newspapers projected, but then again all i was looking for was brainless laughts, which i found plenty of. torturing a flexible and dim-witted furry creature for amusement is fair game in animation! the animation standard is fair, good in the gross concepts but losing out slightly in fine textures light hair quality and ripples. but then again, how realistic do you want talking mammoths?

Tristan and Isolde, was by comparison, somewhat of a letdown. hunky men for the women? not really. hawt chicks for the men? not really. arresting plot? not so... i think Tristan's facial expressions just didnt quite carry it. and Isolde... lets not get started. a forgettable movie , while not bad per se it can only be mediocre at best.

i'm kind of wondering how this term will turn out. after the Great Scheduling Session, Shafiq, Adrian and yours truly ended up in the BK at Suntec having an amazing bitching session. it is most unfortunate that our class, as with any class, has started to show flaws during clinical years. i hope that this term will pass without incident. because i'd hate to be the peacemaker or arbitrator for a dispute in Yr4. there's simply too much at stake here, but by being selfish one merely gambles short-term personal gain against real bad karma. i hope that if anyone tries to play loopholes in the system the class will have the sense of solidarity to not let things stand and make the person see the error of his ways. it will be a sad day for the profession if the graduating class of 2007 come out into the word from a background of backstabbing and cheating.

楽園 - Do As Infinity

Neutral Red

FYP is almost done! its been a royal pain in the hindquarters, doing mathematics, trying to get SPSS (hence SPAZZ) to work and hunting for non-existant things on google.com. had so many ups and downs in the course of 2 days that it's been absoultely draining...

2 overdue movie reviews! the first is V for Vendetta. i'd first like to state that i think Natalie Portman looks better with hair. now with that out of the way, on to the movie itself. i've always been a sucker for good music usage, and Vendetta makes liberal usage of a popular piece of classical music, giving it significance. 1812 overture as a backdrop for the demolition of some of London's great landmarks was an excellent concept. the characterisation was well done as well, with the enigmatic V gradually becoming humanised, and Natalie Portman's Evie gaining some backbone. other minor characters, such as the comedy programme host and the little girl with the pink t-shirt added depth to the plot. visuals were excellent. considering that this movie is more thriller than action (please do not ever compare this to spiderman) there is much less fighting and exploding. but when it comes, it doesn't disappoint. V's showdown deserves to be ranked up within the best fight scenes ever. and if you've been paying attention to everything, it just gets better because you feel for the character by this time.

our second review is Failure To Launch. this might be considered chick flick central, but it does indeed have a story to it. it could have been developed more, especially concerning Trip's prior life, and his 'nephew', but this did not present any jarring loopholes at time of viewing. characters looked comfortable and believable in their roles, and watching animals bite Trip was always fun. the scene where ACE gives CPR to a mockingbird stole the show.

a few days ago i made the discovery that PJ can paint. and well too. dragged my poor neglected painting gear and some minis to her place, intending to give a painting tutorial. my student truly has natural talent. pictures to follow!

Pictures At An Exhibition - Modest Petrovitch Mussorgsky

Chaconne

in a few days the continuing saga of our class will reach another exciting climax. so why do i feel so apathetic about the exams? i think i'm just tired of the whole study routine. people keep saying i should be on the dean's list but i don't know anything! and the lack of DotA is driving me nuts. cant wait to get my computer repaired so i can enjoy the simple joys in life like non-laggy web page loading and fuss-free boot cycles. and yeah... its probably going to cost. far as i can tell the on-board chip is dead. Soh says its as good as 'hello new motherboard' which is so nice to know... that also means byebye to quite a few Yusof Ishaks. damnit...

went to the ACJC/ACS(I) concert today. amidst all the memories and inevitable comparisons of playing standard, i just wonder what it would have been like if i'd stayed current with my playing skills. like, say, if i'd been an ordinary science student with enough time to devote an evening a week or so to go down and play. it's one thing to spot the flaws in people's playing and another to realise that if it was me playing i dont think i could produce the same standard, or even that which i used to be able to put out. and for the record, i miss the days when they used to play the school anthem before band concerts. its a school concert, of course it should have the anthem. some things dont change, driven rhythm makes ACS players sound miraculously better.

need battletech... need to roll dice and blow stuff up...

Cao Cao - JJ Lin

Radeon

have just been wrestling with my computer for the better part of a day. yesterday morning, c/o laptop interrupted boot cycle w/BSOD re: ati2dvag.dll creating an infinite loop. presented to the IBM care centre, at which point my stupid laptop didnt wanna reproduce the problem; a desperate roll-back was (temporarily) successful. in the afternoon the infernal machine proceeded to die on me repeatedly, and rollbacks were instituted repeatedly to no avail. this morning, searched whole damn room to look for original windows discs so as to format C: and get on with life. com then revived itself again and i tried to reinstall drivers. discovered to my horror that ATI no longer supports my little on-board chip. bastards... reinstalled the IBM driver (4 years old, btw) from website. com proceeded to BSOD me again. finally, as of 30min ago, have used a 3rd-party fix that allows the more updated ATI drivers to run for my little, now officially-old, laptop. i'm tired now. and theres still the matter of the broken M key and the possible huge repair bill for fixing that. assholes... hope my laptop can last out until i can at least find my discs. i have a really bad feeling that this might be a hardware problem.

Move This Mountain - Sophie Ellis-Bextor

Beyond The Plane Of My Imagination

exams are up in 2 weeks. besides this marking the end of 1 year in clinics, and my utter lack of attempted competencies, the exams this year seem rather ominous. lets face it, the internal med and surgery admin don't seem to love us very much. lecturers not showing up, screwy ward round timings that mess with the doctors' work schedules... hope we all can pass this one. there's got to be more to this than looking for clubbing and splinter haemorrhages.

CBT looks like my latest greatest escape mechanism. my disciple's love of light mechs and maneuvre play seems to be developing quite nicely. in campaign, Warrick's Warriors have hit 2 lances and look all set to grow even more.

yesterday, Pastor Choo spoke of chicken curry. to paraphrase:
'chicken curry has an essential core which makes it a chicken curry. it must have chicken. it must have curry powder. but how each curry turns out depends on the values your family embraces. if your mum is health-conscious, your chicken curry will have no oil, and little salt. the chicken will have no skin. my mum wasn't a health freak. we were a Baba family, and the most important thing to us was that the curry be tasty...'
which sums up my feelings about food...

공중정원 (Garden In The Air) - BoA

Not My Cause

even with a rather wasted session Dr Yap still amazes me with new techniques and words of wisdom. i wonder if we really do make our patient's problems into our own, i usually try not to but this patient had a filling done which may not need to be there because it's indicated for RCT later. and even when i wanted to hold payment Dr Yap advised charging ayway. but i believe i have to be accountable, the patient is claiming from her company. on the one hand, another endo case is still manageable, but on the other hand if her tooth miraculously recovers i'll be happy too.

just over 2 weeks to exams and i can't find the motivation to study. the books are dry, and i need some nice coloured pens. this sucks.

Joanne has been in the hospital for about 3 weeks, absolutely record-breaking. amidst all her fears of TPN, as well as conversations with the patient today about pain, really emphasise how much of a patient's behaviour is influenced by fears of pain. which leads us to ask, can we confidently indicate RCTs, crown lengthening, double jaw surgery confidently if we're too scared to do it ourselves, and can't rationalise it out within ourselves to have it done. hope her GI gets back on track, cos she's basically been starving for 3 weeks. although not quite as damaging as a post-op catablic state, 8kg and counting of weight loss is quite powerful.

Para Machuchar Meu Coracao - Antonio Carlos Jobim

Who Needs Summer Days?

finally started proper work on my molar endo. working lengths determined for 3 of the 4 canals, and it feels good! TPH is my endo idol now, cos he taught us how to use a ZX and gave us a bit of rationale into obturation technique. hope that this endo turns out ok...

was reading some stuff online and found out that the song Summer Days by Do As Infinity is actually written in english. now because of Van Tomoko's garbled pronunciation, this wasnt apparent to me immediately. and so, i got hold of the lyrics and listened to the song again. it was freaking hilarious!

Summer Days

CHORUS
Summer days, I can't stand the summer days
Frozen cocktails and night fireworks
What's so great about them anyway?
Summer day, let it be some other day
Seaside motels and sex on the beach
Don't be thinking I went all the way

I hate summer days!

Rushing down the traffic, to the beach,
That's jammed for blocks and blocks
They ain't getting nowhere,
Still miles and miles left to go
Strutting down the street, the girls,
they try to impress their boyfriend to be
I give up and don't try
Every day is a bad hair day
Guys, they come up with lame pick-up lines,
Desperate to just get laid
Damn, give me a freaking break!

CHORUS

Goddamn summer days!

Kate was the one, who said that life was made to be enjoyed
Stop crinkling your face
Everything will turn out okay
Serving table to table up and down the isle
Had on a face I'd never seen
Whatever happened to her?
Who has stolen your smiles away?
Who said that summer can brighten the mood of fate?
Nothing is going to change
Damn, give me a freaking break!

CHORUS

Who needs summer days!

Summer days, they have never been the same
Once you left and were out of my sight
Leaving no trace behind
Summer day, why oh why on a summer day?
You were gone without saying goodbye
Taking it all away
No more summer days!

Summer Days - Do As Infinity

Who Am I?

why do i feel like life in school is becoming purposeless? was suddenly struck by a sense of melancholy while doing suction boy and having a generally bad session. my grades are crap. i have no will to do anything about it. my health is spiralling down the drain. i make mistakes in clinic that are totally avoidable. my romantic life has enough landmines in it to stop an armoured battalion. i need a holiday bad. and a secretary. and 6 million bucks. and a big hug.

Creeping, Insidious, Slow Onset, Inescapable

i guess its a sign of age when people who are your contemporaries start to pass away. although i didnt get to attend the wake service of Dr Alvin Tan, i'll still treasure the few reflective moments i had at his coffin-side. i hope that when its my turn to be the grey thing in the box, people will be able to remember that he was so much more than the sum total of the present contents of the box. that he lived, loved, fought, prevailed, created, healed, taught, made his impression in the world and cast something good out of it. will people miss me when i die?

OS posting week got off to a good start. got an assistantship and a LA exo done in a patient who wanted a 4-by-8 clearance. first time using a Warwick James too. and after that got to see Prof Yeo do an IMF on a patient with a left mandibular condyle fracture. arch bars with 0.5mm wire, heavy elastics and a little bit of magic, and you can really see the fracture reduce before your eyes! cool stuff...

Love and Honesty - BoA

Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation

here i am resuscitating the old blog. time flies, and so do stress levels. even a lack of work is stressful, its highly weird having no labwork to do because my patients aren't ready for prosthetics. blame it on my E&D i guess... and thats the bloody last time i do E&D under an instructor who doesnt give a shit. 3 extra cavities undetected! blows the mind...

watched Memoirs of a Geisha on saturday. its kinda weird with chinese people doing japanese characters. and Mameha is a bloody hilarious name! apart from that... well, nice visuals. okay plot, even though the ending was like so obvious as to be visible a mile off. and Gong Li has like a 1 unit right upper midline shift! very disturbing when she smiles...

Soh dug up a voice comms program to enhance our DotA playing experience. now i have an excuse to use the pre-packaged telemarketer-style headset i have. and the rest of the guys have been urged to pick one up for ourcombined gaming pleasure. Operation Jue Dui DotA-Star in progress!

心の手紙 - BoA

Salvage Rights

school isnt getting any easier, i really hope that i can keep pace. the work load is pretty crazy cos of how sessions do, or dont, line up so as to facilitate our work.

had an amazing perio session, got to finish a class IV in one hour flat! it looks tolerable despite the lack of assistance, and while i think it could have been better aesthetically with an assistant to help micro-manage, the patient is happy. contours have been rebuilt. occlusion has been checked. and i can be confident of filling this kind of cavity.

the new battletech campaign is looking up. placed an open bid to sell off a salvaged JR7-D at 70% of cost, hope someone buys. need more firepower, and a VND-1R fits the bill. but need to ditch the unwanted mech to save on pilots. the unit really is picking up nicely, with a mix of mobility, speed and firepower in the medium weight class.

A Sea Of Blinding Light

new year is the time of year where we binge-eat and feel sorry after! after like 2 large dinners in 3 days i feel the bulge coming back with a vengeance. wont be long before all the musical stress weight loss is counteracted.

met up with the 24ths at Hui's place on friday night. pretty well attended with the right people to keep things lively. and none of the obnoxious people who would make things awkward. there was almost exactly enough food, and we played some amazing polar bear! i think im a real sucker for RPGs...

the post-production party at Turtle's place was pretty good too! more amazing food and a lot of fun. its just a pity that parties have to end and that i tend to run out of steam around midnight. and this time there was enough food to really make me bloat. wonder what happened to all the excess...

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