I suppose this is what you call a bonus strip eh? Nah, I just have too many ideas running amok in my head and this is one of them that eventuate into a strip. For the next few strips I think I would like to focus more on the background of MM so as to give the characters a base to build subsequent gags upon. Its hard to squeeze a character background into 4 panels you know! 

Results for this semester examinations are out. I am disappointed in what I got but I guess I received what I deserved. Sigh. There goes my graduation with honours dream. Poof! But anyhow, life still goes on. Still being delivery boy and manual labourer of Shuan Shin Trading Pte Ltd. We specialize in bulk bags and plastics bags of all sorts of shapes and sizes! 

My grandma's adventure in hospital takes on another twist. I hope it is a false alarm. 

Amazingly I still haven't managed to meet up with my high school buddies. I can't believe it. This is really one of the busiest holidays I have ever had. Sometime this week perhaps. No, I am going to arrange a gathering this weekend for sure. A supper outing maybe. Hmm... something to look forward to. 

Have to think about what books to buy for my next semester study. Will be doing rural health, RAPP, psychiatry and emergency medicine. Anyone of you guys who had done this block can advise on what books to get? Or even better, wanna donate your books to me?

SARS better not come back now or else I can kiss my elective in Singapore goodbye! Why can't lab researchers be more competent in their safety precautions? 

It's good to be home nonetheless. Home.

A little background knowledge: As medical students we spend most of our time clerking the patients in hospital. By clerking I mean taking a history (by taking a history I mean talking to them and asking about all the details about their condition) and performing a physical examination on them. These findings are then consolidated and (using a bit of brain-power) we then try to think of the possible causes and how to manage the problem. 

Ok, now, for the rant: A record-breaking week! First of all, I arrived safely yet again back home in Singapore! Secondly, I created this week's strip on my brother's constipated PC with only 128MB of RAM! Amazing! Never knew it was possible. Never knew that I could withstand 7 hours of rigid upright seated posture, slowish-hang-on-me-PCs, hot and humid Singapore weather. A human being's tolerance can reach surprising levels. 

So far since I got back I have been most busy as I can be. There is so much to do! Mostly being a delivery boy and manual labourer for my parent's business. While I'm away in Melbourne for 10 months of the year, they slogged away hard for me to keep living my lifestyle. So this is the least that I can do to help out. But things have not been that bad. Most of the time I have the company of my most beloved. I really enjoyed these past 6 days. With her around so much, 6 days seemed like a month and that's the most incredible bit - There are still 8 weeks left! 

When I'm in Melbourne, I lived a life of luxury, being cocooned from all the not-so-pleasant side of life. And spending 10 months continuously there had made me lost touch with the reality of life. The harsh reality of life. Being back here now, I realized what the rest of my family have been going through all this time. Everyday you are confronted by the uncertainty nature of life. Everything hangs by a thin thread. The situation is so fragile, volatile and precarious. Just the other day I felt like screaming out to implode my brain or something to that effect. Actually I did. But too bad my brains are still around. I have to learn to cope with all these challenges again.  

I will be going to buy a pen-input device for the PC soon. I can tolerate the slow PC but not the cranky microsoft mouse! Just need some moolah to drop from the sky for me now. 

By the time you read this, I'm probably halfway on my 6300km journey home! This week's strip: Just so you know, it is purely a work of fiction and imagination on my part. It is not based on life and they do not imply any questionable actions on me or my friends. In real life, we are rule-abiding, obedient, meek, and shirt-tucked-in medical students ok! We go to hospital to learn medicine solely. We don't abuse the hospital's facilities. Yup. That's right. Enough said. Just enjoy the comic. 

On Tuesday night it rained like it never rain before and my entire living room was flooded. Oh, and did I mentioned that our flat is carpeted? Turns out that due to our negligence and laziness, we have allowed the drainage inlet in the balcony to become choked full of leaves and rubbish. And so that's how the water seeped into our house. So, right in the middle of the night, putting on our jackets and armed with umbrellas, me and my housemate had to withstand the pelting torrential rain and clear the gunk out of the drain. Looking on the bright side thou, we've got a new newspaper-design carpet and a room fragrance matching that of a rotten drain smell. And my exam was on the next day. Hmmm... I need to go buy some lottery. 

It's been a most outstanding year. The past 10 months spent over here in Melbourne. Finished 4th year, did O&G and paediatrics (wow, I almost feel like the ever so elusive goal of graduation is finally coming within my grasp!). Survived the long and cold lonely nights, death-inducing boredom, annoying people, hypocrites, assignments deadlines, the spider-hiding-behind-door, and so many many other adversity! Looking back now, it really puzzles me how on earth did I manage to bum my way through the course and exams. And this is not a new phenomenon; it happens every year! I guess partly its gotta do with my tendency to overestimate the challenges and underestimate my own capabilities (if any). So, have I changed in any way? For the better or the worse? I don't feel any different. Perhaps a little bit more weary of the world? Well, no matter what, boy am I so so so sooooooo glad that its all over (even though I know this happiness will only last 2 short months before we all go back into the loop of suffering again). For now, all that matters is I'm going home!!! 

New adventures await in Singapore! 

PS: Aeroplanes are not crash-proof.

It'll will be a short rant this week. I'll be having my first written paper on next Monday. It's been revision revision revision all week long. Thank god for those scheduled revision lectures... but I know its still not enough. So, I shall go back to my studying now. Wish me luck! See you guys back in Singapore next week! Hurray!

There's simply nothing quite as exhilarating as doing a new comic strip. More generically, it's the creation process I'm talking about. Be it writing an article, drawing, making music, etc, I think the magic lies within the whole concept of coming up with something original, something that you can call your own, something that you can be proud of! I feel like I have stumbled upon this secret formula to happiness and I can't stop myself from announcing to the entire world! Something missing in your life? Feeling in-satisfied with what you are doing? I have the answer! And it doesn't involve you giving me your credit card details or any evil-evangelistical nonsense! Here is the key, no strings attached: Start your own webcomic! Weblog! Create, conceived, generate, fabricate, invent, something of your own! In today's unavoidable world of mass- produced, profit-motivated conformity, why not stand out with at least one thing (or more) of your own? We all need an identity and I'm sorry to say but owning a pair of Nike shoes to go with your funky attire does not make you anymore unique than being an avid Man U supporter.  

I still remember an incident back in 1st year when I went for one of those fortnightly clinical attachments to a doctor. Now this guy is a surgeon (and for obvious reasons I shall not divulge anymore details about him) and he's really one of those older generation types. Really well-respected and pretty big-shot. So there I was sitting through his consultation sessions like a sotong (ie blur-headed, come on, what do you expect? I was only 1st year then... wait, I am STILL blur thesedays) and at the end of the afternoon, he asked me: "so, why did you choose to do medicine?" WHOA! I was totally caught off-guard by that question. Amazingly, up to that point in time, I had never thought about why I wanted to do medicine. So, in the heat of the moment, I foolishly adopted the honest and sincere approach and said: "Coz it pays well."

The surgeon then gave me a cold hard look and said: "well, did you know that in Russia, the doctors are paid less than the cleaners over here?" And what happened next was sketchy and vague in my memory but somehow someway I managed to extricate myself from that awkward situation and escape! Boy, I bet I must have just reinforced in his mind his impression of all Asians being money-grubbers!

I guess my real view on this age-old question of why is really about being personally fed-up with all those people who have a rehearsed-to-death script of their desire of the utmost benevolence towards their fellow man.  *puke* I mean, some things have just been over-exploited and have their meaning totally destroyed in the process. People shouldn't have to need to declare their wish to help someone in need. I believe this is an innate instinct. Unfortunately, for the purposes of medical school admission interviews, this is sadly the case. 

This has to be the best reason I have ever heard: "because I like the irregular hours." You are the best dude!!! (or dudette, to be gender-correct)

Meanwhile, the countdown to my untimely death-in-examino draws closer and closer. My Paediatrics rotation has officially ended. It's been one of the best one so far. Next week is 1 week of revision lectures. And then its 1 week of exams after that. And then its 9 FULL weeks of pure unadulterated bliss. The only thing driving me on thesedays. 

Added links to the 2 new webcomics that I chanced upon this week. Real Life and Her!

Oh, and the usual: please vote. Thanks to all of you readers so much for your kind support! You guys have given me the encouragement to keep on going with this whole thing! I really appreciate all your comments! Keep them coming! And just watching the visitor counter rise each day tickles me positively pink with joy! What an achievement! Ha-ha... 

Enjoy your weekend! Cheers!

Today's strip was actually finished 1 day ahead of schedule! I did it on Thursday night after getting overdose and nauseated by the previous few nights of study. Not that its a lot anyway. Still. Its a reflex mechanism to prevent me from doing the same thing repeatedly. Had a little more time to think about the things I wanted to say on today's blog so perhaps there will be a bit more quality than the usual rubbish. 

A quick update on what has happened so far since the last update last Friday. The weekend was spent doing some past-year questions papers with my usual gang of friends. This is really the first time in our course that we actually have past-year papers to practise (I'm the 1st batch of the "new" course in case you're wondering)! All of a sudden, I feel like a true-blue Singaporean again - it's all about mugging and being exam-smart. 

Also, finally managed to have the crispy skin pork on rice that I have been craving for the entire week. Apparently being on a diet of canned food and other similar carbohydrate-based convenience foods gives you such a craving. Meat. Fresh meat! Watched Matrix Revolutions and what can I say? Its got such a open-ended style throughout that it's almost immune to criticisms. Anyone can interpret it in their own perspective and still be right. It's kinda like the Bible. That sucks. I was looking for something more definitive. Still, the computer graphics were gorgeous.

This week I had moved on from Surgery/ED to the medical wards. Tons of free-time. The time-table's virtually empty except for a few tutorials here and there. That's  supposed that's good coz that means I'll get the time I need to do my revision. Bad coz I'm not clerking patients and will probably not fare too well in my OSCE (practical exams). But in reality, I really spent most of my time trying to complete my 2-page elective report on general anaesthesia in kids. Being an anaesthetist is the BEST medical specialty you can ever hope for. You go into the theatre, switch on that machine, put the patient to sleep, and wake him up when it's over. In the meantime, you can surf the net (thanks to wireless LAN technology in the theatre!), read newspapers, chit-chat, muck around, whatever! The only catch is you mustn't be those types who demand recognition and bucket-loads of respect in your job. Ah... the almost-perfect job!

My website visitor counter just went past the 1000 mark the other day! Unbelievable! A very big thank you to Bobbin, who, with her massive readership numbers, had most kindly linked me! Go take a look! Great stuff she's got there!

To the lucky majority who will finish their exams before I do, 2 words: Stay away!!! Otherwise, you can help ameliorate my misery with the following methods: (1) Vote!   (2) Spread the word of MM or link me! (3) Leave a comment or two, (4) A hot meal with lots of meat, (5) invent a direct-neuronal-data-input device (6) or winning numbers for lottery. See? I'm a simple man who's easily contented. 

2 weeks till exams. 3 weeks till I get back to home sweet home!!!!!

Hey hey! This is another one of my anal-retentive gags. I apologize if you are unable to get the joke. I hope you do. My housemate didn't. So, that's quite depressing coz he's usually the first person to see the strip before i put it up online. To be honest, I didn't put much thought into this strip (like all the others). Was watching Simpsons cartoon and just briefly ran a few ideas inside my head and this one caught my attention. (the rest are worse, if you have to know) Anyway, remember to be vigilant for blood in your poo!

My exams are 3 weeks away. 18 weeks of material examinable. I almost took up a job offer. I am so indecisive! So easily influenced by others. Originally i had wanted to work to supplement some of my pocket money especially for paying rent over summer. Plus i need to buy an air tix to fly from Perth to Melbourne next year when i am doing my elective over there. That was about 1 month ago. I having been looking since. But it was only the last few days that a job opening presented itself. I guess i didn't really give it much thought before accepting it. I quite foolishly imagined myself to be capable of handling the exams and work concurrently. The doubts caved in eventually. No thanks to Jason who was the one responsible for that. The person who always provides me with a clear perspective to think things through. So the decision now is that I'm not going to work. I AM GOING TO STUDY HARD AND DO WELL FOR MY EXAMS AND ULTIMATELY GET A PASS WITH HONOURS IN MY FINAL YEAR! This is one of my longer term goals for now. And my plan for the remaining 3 weeks is to work hard daily and push myself, leaving Fridays night for Medical Mediocrity! I reckon this plan will work coz this way i have such an incredible incentive for me to look forward to! And so, watch out for a new strip very Saturday! And if you are really that keen, late Friday nights!

My bro is having his O-levels now and i wish him good luck! You can do it Joseph!

This week is the last week of surgery. Boy am i glad. Been so busy. And tired. Such long days. There was the case presentation, the ED on-call, the surgery on-call, the triage shadowing. My time-table was packed! So happy that the next final 2 weeks will be spent on the medical wards. Will have more time to do my revision. And I've got my elective report due next week too. Great. And let's not forget the development case report as well. Clerking patients is such a luxury these days. 

I hate annoying people. I refuse to oblige them. They can kiss my ass. 

Oh, almost forgotten. I'm gonna watch the last Matrix movie this weekend. Have heard bad things about it so far. I really really hope it will be good... sigh. Click here for an idiot-proof explanation of the matrix. Trust me, i read it and everything made so much sense (up to reloaded at least so far).

Its back to the begging bowl for me for now. Sorry dad!

I went back on my word. Right after my previous strip, right after all that hot air talk about wanting to do what i want to do, I decided to stop. To stop wasting my time on MM, to start revision to prepare for the oncoming exams. So I said to myself that the previous strip will be the last until the exams are over and then i can indulge myself. But alas, I broke down. I did do some revision though! But i got bored. And when that happens, I can't help but think about the more enjoyable things that i could have been doing. And then it hit me. An idea for a new strip. And once that happened, nothing can stop its creation! I am on creative HIGH! No need to eat, no need to rest my aching shoulder, no need to bathe, no need to sleep, no need to be a medical student! 

Today's strip is sort of like a mix bag of goodies. I don't think there's one particular strong punchline in any of the 4 panels. And also the last panel also builds upon the knowledge of Adeline's character as learned in Strip 7. I just hope that the overall accumulations of the various mini gags will bring some laughter to you when you read it. I really look forward to any comments and criticisms you may have! Especially coz most of the time i really dunno if its funny because i think so or if its really funny. But no matter what, the real joy of doing all these is the process in which i grow and learn new things as a comic artist! 

Buddhism Class resumes this week. Yeh! 

A little update on my Other Stuff section. Just posted something i drawn 2 years ago.

Yesterday i went to Rose Garden and gave myself a treat! Had spicy Sichuan chicken on rice ($6.50)! It was so goooood! Have been gorging myself with instant mee and canned food and biscuits and corn chips for the whole week! Really can't take it anymore. And too lazy to cook. Plus no food in fridge anyway. Nothing fresh. 

I spend the entire night yesterday tidying up my 2152 songs mp3 collection. My winamp 3 player corked up. It refuse to start. Actually I regretted upgrading to version 3 coz its actually a lot slower and hangs every now and then compared to version 2.8! So I decided to use Windows Media Player from now on instead. Never really gave it a try at all. Been a winamp user since i discovered the entity also known as mp3. So anyway, my point is, its amazing how i can spend 2-3 hours of the night just messing around with my mp3 files! Isn't it sad when you are afflicted with this horrible horrible disease of procrastination? 

Remember to vote hor! Thanks  :) 

Today's strip is a compensation strip because yesterday's one got only a lukewarm response from quite a few of you readers (wow, i make it sound like a got such a huge fan-base when its really just the people who know me who reads MM!). Many commented that the problem with yesterday's strip was that it was too wordy. I know that it's a comic, not a novel. And i can't say i'm that good with words either. But, let me explain myself first. I really wanted to do something about the interaction among the characters coz i felt that most of the strips so far are quite dis-jointed. Don't really have a continuously running thread other than just poking fun at the system in general. Wanna build some group dynamics. Anyway, that's why (To know the real reason, click here). And so, i hope that today's offering is truely better. (maybe it'll be another one of those that only I find funny!) Do let me know your feedback. Its really helpful to me! Much appreciated!

A little on today's strip. For those who know, either coz you are in the medical profession or you were unlucky enough to be in Mr Jones's circumstances, it's pretty much self-explanatory. For the rest, you see, as part of the examination of a patient's abdomen, the doctor has to perform a digital rectal examination (DRE). Basically this involves him putting his finger into the patient's back passage in an attempt to feel for any abnormal lumps or hardness in the rectum. Additionally in the male, the prostate gland is also felt. This entire process is uncomfortable, but it is over very quickly. (Gosh, i feel like i'm doing an OSCE!) 

There is a update in the Cast Section.

As the exams draw close, the absolutely obligatory need to study becomes more and more apparent. It's staring straight in my face these days everyday when i wake up, during the day and at night when I go to sleep. Boy I really hate it. I really really hate having to do this. This situation whereby I'm forced into picking up my notes and having to retain the information in it so that i can get good marks on a piece of paper. Arghh! I'm so frustrated. But i'm not going down without a fight. I'm staging a personal rebellion. I refuse to engage in this compulsory revision exercise! I will go my own way. I will continue to do what i love to do and right now, it's drawing MM. I still remember how i felt in the beginning when i just started this whole webcomic business: that it is just another whim of mine and like all other fads (eg RON, Rainbow six, etc), it will die off soon enough and then i can get back to studying medicine. But no. So far, i don't think i have ever found something so absorbing and captivating of my attention and interest and every moment of my waking time! I think part of the problem is also the fact that although i don't dislike studying medicine, i also don't particularly go all the way out to embrace it either! I know that having an attitude like this will see me getting bashed up by those people who genuinely want to do medicine (like it's been their lifelong burning ambition to help their fellow man since they learn to walk so something). Especially those people who had tried soooooo hard to get in, or those that failed to. I'm very acutely aware of this fact. And I would more than agree with them if they had said that i don't deserve to be in med school. It's true. I don't. Somehow some way, by some freak of nature, i slipped in. 

I just want to do something i love.  

On a less sentimental note... please vote if you think MM's the damn bloody best webcomic you have ever read. Oh, whatever... just do it lah! Less painful than a DRE guaranteed!

Apparently the discussion board feature that i added a while ago did not erupt into a crazy frenzy of intellectually-stimulating conversations and overload the host's bandwidth! So i guess here's where I shamelessly try to get some of you to go take a look and hopefully say something! Oh please.... won't you please go see our pretty discussion board!  :) 

Yesterday we had a dinner gathering for Jacky at Annie's place as usual. It was a pot-luck party. Correction, a take-away pot-luck party. Coz we all don't have the time. Not to mention that our cooking sucks. There were however a few people who did got their hands dirty and did some cooking! It was great, stuffed ourselves silly and cracking jokes that made me laughed so hard i felt like my lower oesophageal sphincter was gonna give way! Ouch. Pain man. Anyway, there was pizza, rose garden take away of roast chicken, some veggies, Hogan's yummy fried beehoon (ah, made me so homesick just by eating that!), Annie's fried chicken wings and what was supposed to be sotong (calamari) i think. And Andy's and Lyndia's wonderful red bean soup with grass jelly! Grass jelly man! No kidding! That's good stuff! You can see some of the fun we had here. 

Otherwise, i also cleaned up the room yesterday too! But wait, there's more! I cleaned the entire house too! The kitchen! The living room! Bathroom (ok, my housemate did that) Unbelievable right? Here's the evidence for you skeptics. Notice the ample amount of walking space! 

Daylights saving came into effect last night. All clocks in Victoria now are 1 hour faster. 1 precious hour lost. 1 more hour further away from Singapore's time (total of 3 hrs time difference now). Sigh. I feel so cheated.

Another 5 weeks to exams. I am starting to move from the contemplative stage towards the action stage now. Gotta start my revision!!!

Oh, please vote! A vote a day makes john very gay! (Note: choice of word is ONLY for rhyming effect)

The message board feature has been implemented and is up and running! Go on, go there and give it a try! Have your say! Changed the layout. No more frames. Hurray? And added a new banner! I have spent the past few days completely on attempting to build a guestbook of my own using CGI-Perl. At first, with my site being hosted for free at yahoo geocities, i thought that it would be impossible for me to do so. Because writing CGI involves touchy security issues so these servers who are hosting your site for free will never let you do that. But then came along this webhost called tripod who offers free hosting PLUS ability to use CGI! I thought i struck gold! Really. Then there's the catch. Turns out its a limited form of CGI, where all your files are restricted to a particular folder. Still, i proceeded and tried. Spent like hours and hours (even the free time when i'm at Sunshine hospital!) trying to teach myself PERL or at least rip the code off some site... BUT... yesterday when i thought that i got it all figured out, uploaded my own guestbook, crossed my fingers.. and i got the dreadful "ERROR" message! Sigh. So in the end... after considering several factors (1. spent way too much time (an entire week) on it already, 2. yahoo guestbook serves me just fine, so don't be too fussy, 3. Exams REALLY are coming...). So, therefore, we are back to square one!... not exactly coz there's the DISCUSSION BOARD! so make me happy and use it! 

21st October 2003 Tuesday - Strip 6

I can't believe it! Another new strip! And its only the next day! I just did the last one yesterday! I'm on fire!!! Woo Hoo!! What an immense sense of satisfaction! Actually the idea for this strip hit me at the same time as when i was doing the last one. So its kind of hard to ignore it! Just gotta do it! If only i could feel this way about my studies too. Sigh. Anyway, i let my housemate reviewed today's strip before i put it up. He felt that the not-so-obvious punch-line is...well, not so obvious! I dunno.. i guess its quite right coz this joke really started among me and my group members when we were doing our emergency rotation. Basically its about patient's continence, that's all i'm going to say.. go figure out the rest. As for those people that got it immediately, congratulations! You are now like me; a person who knows how to appreciate less-refined jokes!

For this strip, i learned more new things about photoshop! The "horizontal flip" function, which is basically a mirroring tool. So its particularly good for lazy artists like me! The other thing that you might notice is the use of the gradient background in the last box! COOL.... 

I know i am such a nag... but please vote for me! Thanks!!

That's all for now. Dunno what to rant about. Having just done it yesterday, i think I'm gonna start repeating myself if i do so.

Take care all of you.

PBL. More on this mysterious 3-letter monster for our more fortunate non-medical careered friends. Previously i had briefly explained what it is but i will say it again, if your memory is anything like mine. At the beginning of each week, the students in a PBL group sit down together and they are presented with a "problem-of-the-week". So there's the trigger, history, examination, and investigations components. Everybody present who had remembered to bring along their brains then do some brainstorming and come up with hypotheses (differentials) for the cause of the problem. Then we talked loads and loads of "theoretical" stuff and try as hard as we possibly can to look intelligent in front of the tutor, who is responsible for your PBL mark. So not only do you have to know your stuff, you have to make sure you show it as well! Great! Doesn't that just make life so much more easier?

I guess all along all the way back since 1st year i have never taken PBL seriously. Sure, i'll do some reading and stuff, but I can't say i have ever thoroughly did all the research on the case of the week and come out beaming with all there is to know about that particular case. Rather, its usually just some sparse pieces of knowledge that had osmosis-ed through into my brain from the lectures throughout the week. But that was in pre-clinical years. Nowadays, with no actual supplementary lectures or tutorials to guide your learning, it more than impossible to know anything about the case if you yourself don't do some reading on your own. I'm not one of those freaks who are so terribly excited about medicine that they can be talking about their patients etc etc in between tutes, lunchtime, all the freaking time! Its hard for me to motivate myself to learn. Excluding the fear of humiliation of course. Its just any other job anyway. Why drive yourself crazy to be the best?

That's Rise Of Nations screenshot in the third box by the way. I'm not really playing that game nowadays though. Used to. Now i just draw my webcomic and learn HTML! I'm thinking of designing a more decent banner for my website. Right now it's just a typed-out text using the Bottix font (from Blambots website). But i was lazy and so today you can see that i have only added a white background box to my banner at the top of the strip. What do you think? Nice or not?

Plus, a new picture gallery section! Just a few shots here and there. 

If it's not too much trouble, remember to help me vote in the Links section! And leave a comment or two so i know who's been reading this piece of crap called Medical Mediocrity.  

More Rants ahead...

This week will be my final 4th week at the Sunshine Hospital. The next remaining 4 weeks will be at the close-proximity RCH! Hurray! But i must give some credit to Sunshine, otherwise that would be unfair. It has exceeded my initial low expectations definitely. The patient access was good, the timetable was very structured, there were many tutorials (what every medical student wants!) and people there are nice! I would give it a 8/10! (the 2 deducted points are for making me wasting a total of $129.60 on train tickets!!!) 

Life's been more or less the same. No spectacular changes other than the exams drawing closer and closer each day. I worry but i don't do anything. The danger of doing poorly is not imminent enough to scare me into action yet. Used to get at least some work done by feeling guilty when i had been slack. But now, although I still feel guilty about not studying, I still adamantly refuse to pick up my books! I think it's due to the fact that spending time in the hospital gives me a false sense of accomplishment! My friend says its bordering on psychiatric grounds when you feel guilt when enjoying yourself (ie not studying). But what he presumes is that i do study at some other times. Which i don't. Sigh. 

Good day to you! Its been a hectic hectic week indeed! And we are off to a good start nonetheless! I am feeling this immense sense of satisfaction as i upload this completed comic strip that you hold before your eyes. This is the fourth strip now and from the looks of it, there's no stopping me! hahhahaa... yeah right. I better retain my cynical side and not make any promises to myself to see this comic through. We'll take it one step at a time yah?

Anyway, today's strip is once again sort of based on real life events. I shall not elaborate further and run the risk of losing fans, if any. I thought of the idea for this strip when i was at the train station waiting for my 814am Syndenham line train to arrive. Been itching to do another strip.. firstly coz i have already done 3 and the propagation of the story line also drives me to do the next strip! Also, being based at the Emergency department at Sunshine hospital this week has been quite draining.. not to mention getting sian. I mean, of course doing ED is great! You get to see acute presentations of diarrhoea, vomiting, febrile convulsions, fractures... but, after a while (and in my case, 1 week, haha), you sort of lose interest! Or maybe that's just me. So, all these while the right side of my brain has been dying to jump out and get its fair share of usage! And so behold, my 4th strip!

I've made several changes to the site's design. Not drastic of course. Just changed the background to this white starry backdrop. Made it using photoshop of course! I think it makes the whole site looks a lot cheerful this way with the use of lighter colours instead of the previous drabby colour. Or perhaps i am just getting bored of that colour scheme. I had also planned to make more content in the other sections of the site. But that's all just in the thinking phase still. My creative juices come in limited supply and i need time to replenish it.

The links page.. check that out and if you are so kind as to click on the voting links for me, i will be ever grateful. Also, i think it will be more fun if you can leave a comment or two in my guestbook. I welcome all compliments and criticisms! Let me know what you want.

I still haven't found a job. Had a few potential openings that just didn't quite make it in the end. You see, the only time that i'm free to work is evening. So that means the most likely job would be in a restaurant. But i've got no experience! So that means the only way that i am going to get a job is through recommendation via a friend. And so far, all the friends that i know that are working aren't able to help much. Sigh. Looks very likely that i have to shamelessly go begging for money from my dad again. 

My room is in a complete mess. haven't vacuum the damn place for 3 weeks i think. maybe 4. Thank god its carpeted so that means you can't see the dust. Out of sight, out of mind! And i have no walking space at all! But i am just too slack to tidy it up. Coz you think about how it will get messed up again and that really stops you from starting. Plus right now the reason why its so messy is coz i got my notes, textbooks all spreaded out on the floor. This is an attempt to motivate me to study by having those notes exposed to me. Only thing is, its probably not working as well as it should. 

This week Buddhism class has been cancelled.  :(  

Another 5 weeks till exam time. I haven't started to revise my O&G yet. YIKES!

Hey hey, i'm back with the 3rd strip! Yet another miracle! A cause for celebration. Another prime example of my mixed up screwed up priorities! By the way, just so you know, my exams are an exact 6 weeks away! Been so busy this 2weeks.. Getting up everyday at 7am to travel via bike/tram/train to Sunshine Hospital. My god.. i can't wait for it to be over and go to RCH, which is like 5min bike ride away! But so far i muz say my experience at sunshine has been quite good. Its definitely not as stressful nor competitive as it would be in RCH, where most of the students are based. Good for me, to say the least.

Oops, but i digress. Anyway, a little on today's strip. It was done over sunday nite extending over to the wee hours of monday morning! Horror! I still have a 8am class tomorrow! But heck, this is fun! I think my drawing speed is increasing. And getting more and more acquainted with Adobe Photoshop! I'm learning! So, i guess this strip basically is pretty self-explanatory. Assuming that you are not a medical student... What we do in the later half of our medical course is hanging out in hospitals and "clerking" patients. That means talking to them to ask about their story... how and why and when, blab blab blab about why they are in hospital. The point of which is to allow us to gain a clinical perspective on how various disease process present themselves! It all sounds good in theory, but in reality, more often than not, you get rejections. Especially when you are NOT the only medical student on the hospital grounds. It all boils down to your luck, your enthusiasm level (ie coming in damn early or staying damn late) and your progressive knowledge to make this activity of patient clerking all worthwhile!

i think i'm starting to get the hang of drawing my comic! I'm feeling positive! Previously, MM was on hiatus for the past 2 weeks as i wasn't really feeling quite up to the task of sitting down in my computer to get repetitive strain injury of my right hand from using the mouse to draw. Plus i also din think hard about what my next strip will be about. This storyline thingy.. its really hard. I would say harder than the actual drawing process itself! requires more talent that the art of drawing! Then i moved along and today (sunday), being couped up at home all day myself i got bored. That is even after watching a movie on tv and being online. And of course as usual i don't feel like studying so the only thing left is to play around with my comics! And so today's strip was created! I think as i draw more and more strips, the motivation for me to keep going will increase more and more! Coz as the story develops more, it grows in depth and i myself become attached to it and it will be such a waste then to let it go untouched! So, onward with the march!

Last weekend i went to the temple again. They had a sort of thank you session for all the volunteers for the mooncake festival i mentioned previously. It was great. I went for an Introduction to Basic Buddhism Concepts class in the afternoon before that. Its 4 lessons in total and cost 5 bucks. Some of the things taught that day i have already been familiar with before. But it was good to hear the reverend speak. Pearls. Words of wisdom. Back to the thank you session... there was decent vegetarian food. Only gripe is that halfway into eating, the abbess started a "re-arrange-the-temple-furniture" activity. And being guys of course we were asked to do all the manual labour! Of course i felt a bit annoyed that i haven't even finished my meal. so move move move...until my urticaria reaction occurred. haha. We were arranging the furniture in one of the rooms and there was some screw-up. When the abbess (ie the boss) came in, she din appear too happy with the arrangement and so we went back to square one and had to re-arrange everything again. That was annoying. But in the end, one of the other reverends said something to me. She said. "Never is an action of yours wasted. At the minimum, you have left your footsteps behind". I probably am not translating what she said properly so as to capture the essence of what she meant. She said that in mandarin by the way. But it really make a lot of sense to me. Made me feel good. (of course, the other side of the coin is that i'm just a sucker to believe that my actions were meaningful. But i choose to believe her words in this instance) Its moments like these that make trips to the temple worthwhile. Moments of mini-enlightenment. 

29th September 2003 Monday - Strip 2

1st of all, i tink i deserve a BIG pat on the back for actually drawing this 2nd strip. Honestly, i thought my steam was gonna run dry with the 1st strip. This is amazing! I guess i really got down to drawing this becos i was quite bored today. Actually i did the rough storyboards last week, immediately after finishing the 1st strip. But then i was jus feeling over-dosed already. Ok, a little explanation. In case you din know, PBL, also known as Problem-based learning, is the new approach to teaching, studying, learning medicine that's taking medical faculties all over the world by storm! Some have totally integrated into their course (like mine) while some add a tinge to it so that they can claim to have a share in it too! This learning style is different from the old style (which i call old-school, ie mugging, cramming, lectures where old swiss-cheese-smelling professors tell you the undoubtable & un-questionable truth) in the sense that it centres around a clinical problem (der??!!) each week and instead of relying on their lecturers to tell them the answer (so-called 4th level evidence), they have to search it out themselves and study! Its supposed to churn out graduates who can think critically and analytically. (Cough...bullshit...cough!).

It was such a BIG woo-hah when i commenced my course coz that was the 1st time they decided to changed the old course (backed by a hundred plus years of history) to PBL! I can't help but wonder why in my whole life of 20+ years i have always managed to become guinea pigs! Anyway, so what happened was we went through 2.5 years of PBL pre-clinically on campus, and now (after 1 in-between year of research) have arrived into the clinical years of the course! The MOST disappointing thing that happened was being propelled from a new course where the things we did were all fully supported by the people who made the new course to an environment where ALL the doctors did things the old way! So in that sense, i feel that the entire PBL spirit has been broken. However, one thing remains soothingly true: no matter what approach you take to learning medicine, you really only learn it through humiliation by consultants.

Oh, and by the way, there's no such hospital called the Royal Victorian Hospital ( i think!). I'm really based at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. Right now am at the Royal Children Hospital and Sunshine Hospital for paediatrics.

More rants...

The start of the new week brings forth a rejuvenated refreshed mind, with new wells of bountiful energy to be tapped, to embrace life with zest and love. Yeah, whatever. As if that ever works on me. Maybe only 1% effect? Anyway, i really should try to sound more positive. Today's my last day at RCH before i have to make that dreary wee-hours-of-the-morning commute to Sunshine hospital. Sigh. So far. The more annoying thing is that the train station there is the 1st stop of Zone 2! Arghh! Make me waste $$$! Today was only a half-day. I went to the city (on my bike as usual) to get some groceries. Ok, correction, to get rubbish food. ie instant noodles and canned food. Boy am i the can food king or wat? I swear all these consumption of preservatives and whatnot will be the death of me 20-30 years down the track. But hey, this is also the only time when your body is at its "peak" to be able to withstand all these poisons that you throw at it!  I digress. So i was gonna say, bloody hell, it has to rain when i am just about to reach home! You should know that the rainfall in melbourne are scanty, comes in 10-20min waves and then stops and then starts again. nothing like singapore thunderstorms that go on and on and on. So the trick here is to get out and try to reach your destination during that small window of opportunity! Fun living in melbourne dun you reckon? The rest of the day was spent drawing up my 2nd (yes, second only) strip! Now i need to rest my hand. I tink i left my hand print moulded onto my mouse. 

Basically what i wanted to start off with was a strip which could convey the very essence of its title, namely, mediocrity. Believe it or not, there are more than many cases of patients being sent under the knife for the wrong operation! 

The other issue that i was grappling with was whether or not to use colour?! The thing is, i dunno if i had mentioned this before but I am freaking colour-BLIND! ok, maybe not that dramatic... just sort of a red-green blindness. Everytime i have to apply colour, i cant seem to get it right! the combinations, differentiating brown from green (tricky!), and most annoying of all is when i have to use back the same colour that i used before, i can't get it! so end up the same character will have different shades of colour t-shirt within 1 strip! 

And so that's why i decided to do black and white comic with a tinge of colour here and there whenever i feel like it as a bonus. I'm sure you believe me on the above-stated reasons rather than think that i'm just plain bloody lazy and mediocre right? Right. Carry on.

24th September 2003 Weds

This week has commenced me on my 9 week paediatrics rotation. God, i'm so apprehensive about talking to kids. You never know how they are gonna respond to you. This rotation also mean i have to stoop down to the level of acting silly, talking in a goo goo ga ga voice, and act cute basically. Can never stand the thought of having to do that. But i guess when in rome, gotta do as romans do. Sigh. 

The groupings have been causing me such a headache! At first i discovered i have been banished to the far far suburban Sunshine hospital. Then i realised jason is not in my group. The only consolation was lisa, whom i knew. All the others were angmo and postgraduates. Then just as i have psyched myself into feeling comfortable in this new group, today louisa asked me if i wanna swap with her. Coz she's in jason's grp and she wanna be with lisa. Initially i was happy too. then i realised the catch. Freaking BIG one. I had a look at the groups list and saw this: Ms "MC"was in louisa's group and was in fact her partner! (we are group into pairs within our own groups) NO WAY am i gonna team up with MC!!! AM i crazy? So later i manage to talk to louisa alone and told her about it. She said she actually was gonna tell me about it (she thinks i dunno anything about MC notorious KIASU and aggressive reputation) Yeah right, ok. Now i really dunno what to do. Lisa sort of gave me the impression she would like it if she can be with louisa. Because she knows her and also because she drives. Right now because i dun drive (ie no car ie no money ie please donate!) both of us have to take public transport with all the weirdos every morning and back! So, wat should i do? Arrgh....heck it. I'll jus let things resolve themselves out. not gonna do anything about it. i think i would like to remain in my current group. I tink i would appreciate a change, and lisa's company. also probably unfair if i change and cause edison to end up pairing with MC (which is the only setup that is gonna happen if i were to accept changing group)

Today's also one of my friend's birthday, back in Singapore of course. Only managed to send out the card yesterday. But that's ok coz he lives in hall and will only be back at the weekends. so i'm saved! phew! 

My PC died the other day over the weekend and i realised i dun have a life. 

Oh, and i am so POOR nowadays. sigh.

The other day (last sat) i went to the temple to help out with their mooncake festival thingy. Its been about 1.5 years since i made an appearance at the temple. Haven't dropped by since i got back to melbourne after my AMS in singapore. Just been too lazy to go plus not sure if i'll see anyone i know there if i just turn up like that. So that event last sat was the perfect opportunity for me to go back and see how things are like. Well, the abbess has changed not unexpectantly. Only a handful of pple whom i know are still around. the rest of them have all graduated and went back home to their respective home countries. I guess only pple like us hang around for so loong. The day itself was great. I had lots of fun. Made a couple of new friends, who all seem rather nice, at face-value of course. The event itself wasn't as successful as it could be due to the low turn-out numbers. I guess partly it has got to do with the fact that last year's one was poorly done (as reported by jacky who went). We had lots of things to do, to see, to try, and yes, to taste even! And food too. The best part i have to say is at the end of it all, we had this meeting where the abbess and all her nuns sat all of us down and talked about what we had done well and what can be improved. I always find listening to the abbess talk very enlightening. It made sense out of the whole busy busy day. Gave me meaning into the things we did. That's the part that i went for i tink, in going to the temple. Now i'm really considering going back on a regular basis weekly. I miss those talks. 

12th September 2003

• 1st entry, just for the record
• Doing  9 weeks of Obstetrics & gynaecology rotation. Rotation rotation rotation. What rotation are you doing now? What had you done and what will you do next? There we go fumbling along from one to another, hoping to make it to the finishing point
• Eating, drinking, sleeping, excreting, living, playing Rise Of Nations - best game ever created, so far
• Enjoying the cooling spring climate now while it lasts! (before the scorching heat of summer)
• Watching lots of TV to compensate for the past 8 months of TV-less life
• Been cooking less recently due to the above mentioned addiction. Which means a diet of indomee mee goreng instant noodle, canned food, and takeaway!