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.