The many chapters of 4eVeRRiVeR
Monday, February 28, 2005
8 more study days.. Tatz all there is to it..
Returned all e op tech stuff and #14 unit keys this morning.. Bet will miss the working place where I had spent for 2 yrs liaoz..
Guess its part and parcel of life things come and go..
Monday, February 21, 2005
And today 21st Feb '05 marks a turning pt or rather, check point in my dentistry career to be.. I saw my very first patient! And e honour goes to....... Mr Ong Wenkai Jason! Or better known as Hai Zi Shu to all my army mates since he's really very small and cute and e movie came at e rite time when we were acquainted in School of Signals. And en in our unit in 42 SAR HQ signal platoon, I had e Misfortune of sleeping next to him ah; i.e. he became my best buddy ever since.. And pls people, do not, NEVER, judge a person by its cover.. Althou he may be small, and demure, and looks shy, but his mouth is surely NOT.. At times he can kao pei and kao pei and kao pei.. Well u get e idea.. But even so, he remains my best buddy and we juz clique I guess.. Maybe e child in me comes back to life when he's around? Haha..
Anywae back to today's clinic session..
Oh.. But first wanna thank Diana for sacrificing her whole endo session for being my lab partner today.. Shall hereby award her with a free wish heh..
And thou today's session being e 1st session is e relatively simple examination and diagnosis, I had quite a few surprises as well. I had tot Wenkai's case to be a pretty straight forward, simple case with nothing much serious since he had no outstanding complaints and he told me he only had "a few metal fillings at e teeth behind". On examination, there were tell-tale signs of recurrent caries and initial caries in e grooves and fissures of other posterior teeth. On a particular tooth- the left lower first molar, there r 3 separate carious sites - on e mesial, buccal and occlusal surfaces ah.. Still straight forward, but with much more cavities for me to play with.. An excellent restorative dentistry's case actually.. And with at least 6 cavities in sight, he can be one of my long cases liaoz.. A totally win-win situation for both of us since he would be free aside from his NUS science lectures and getting cheap and ideal dental treatment plan eh.. Anywae I definitely enjoyed this very first clinical session ah.. Wenkai was pretty impressed when I took e x-rays on him heh.. But think he's more impressed with e dentistry girls haha.. Esp since when we were taking e lift up to e clinic and saw yr 4 Sherine.. En a few whispers to me here and there along e way as we walk ard e school which I can't divulge here haha..
Yup.. All in all today's been a very nice, happy day for me..
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Saw a couple of news articles tat r pretty interesting to me and some of u as well.. Those who read Straits Times' Home pg 2 2day and saw e picture of a lady standing against e back drop with e company name "KOEI" and knew instantly wat KOEI is abt; harlow to u fellow gamer of Romance of e 3 Kingdom I/II/III/IV/V/VI/VII/VIII/IX/X!! Good news for all of us! E Japanese game developer has opened a studio in Singapore's chinatown and developing e first and only online version of Romance of 3 Kingdoms (ROTK) ! But gonna wait until 2007 thou.. Nvm.. there should be a ROTK movie by Liang Cao Wei as Zhu ge liang and Zhuo lun fa as lui bei? in 2006? Can't remember liaoz but damn good things to look forward to.. Btw, to all fans out there, Koei means 'glory' in japanese and is founded by Mrs Erikawa and her husband in 1985.. Cool~
2nd article: Forum H7: The beauty and ***** of Singlish:
quote: 'Communication between people exists not only through speech, but in writing as well. So Singlish should be considered only as a dialect- an alternative form of an established language. Speakers of Singlish should not be deemed to be of lower social status any more than should those who speak crisp and "correct" English be seen as pretentious. The way a person chooses to speak should be respected by others. Singaporeans should not be ashamed of Singlish; even author Melvyn Bragg observes in his book, The Adventure Of English, " it (Singlish) fits the tongues and the traditions and the vocal rhythms of the people of Singapore much better than official English". '
So there! To pple who find Singlish a disgust or to pple whose surname start with T and name ending with Y, pls WAKE UP UR IDEA!! Ha.. K lah.. Atleast she haffn't been disturbing me lately.. And yes, thou I prefer to speak in Singlish which I believed is a much more personal and more-efficient-ideas-conveying language-to-fellow-Singaporeans, I do and can speak in proper english. So there again!
2day some of our classmates brought in their first patients liaoz.. So exciting ah..! To me, e most interesting part of examination and diagnosis is e DPT- dental panoramic tomography, which is basically a full mouth x-ray.. From e x-ray film you can examine the status of any tooth, extent of caries, condition of restorations, root canals, width of periodontal ligament space, condylar, coronoid, styloid processes, floor of maxillary sinus, proximity of Inferior Alveolar Nerve, other extra-oral pathogenic lesions, etc.. So so so interesting ah.. And its a new case for every new patient and I find myself enjoying studying e radiograph with immense pleasure, hoping to discover something new each case.. I hope hope hope I'll have e same passion 2 yrs down e road thou..
Yup.. will be seeing either Tien Tien's friend or my own friend come next monday!! So exciting!
Monday, February 14, 2005
Haiz.. So sad e class singles' party didn't materialise.. Had hope it will be an traditional annual event haha.. Thou of coz not everyone aspire to be invited ah.. Anyway, its all thanx to our final yr exams on 9th March.. Less than one month ah, which means there r 2 more weeks of school to go and en 2 wks of solid study break.. Haiz.. I sort of dread e study break.. Juz want the exams to be over and done with ah.. Strangely I'm so so so calm and indifferent? to e exams this yr.. Abit surprised myself too.. Coz it was totally different from last yr, when I was scared, anxious and juz fall short of a full-panick.. Was damn worried I may fail e exams and kanna retained and waste 1 yr of my time and my parents' precious earnings of $16,500. Failing e expectations of my parents, friends and classmates. Scary.. But come 2nd yr, I grew wiser with every passing day and realise.. if you spent a decent amt of time studying, theres no reason y u would fail at all.. Of coz there r tons and tons of materials to mug, but guess I can do selective mugging better now, and following e lecturers' notes work wonders.. And I got back my mugging tempo from my jc days after e 2/1/2 yr of NS break.. Which actually includes weird study habits like breaking words into syllabus and making short stories for them.. And I still read aloud while I'm mugging and also, I still can't mug in libraries. But e biggest change is I'm much more organized this yr I guess.. Mangaed to prevent myself leaving too much unmugged stuff to e last minute ah..
I'm pretty proud of myself in this 2nd work year actually.. I've never study late into e nite 4 any test liaoz, which is totally different from last year when I would compete with GF to see who will sleep e latest.. Which is very damaging to e body ah, and defintiely no way to treat ur beloved body as such. And e tests' results thus far r pretty amazing! Feel like patting on my shoulder for a job well done.. I do not aspire to be in e dean list, believe you me, coz I dun wanna e increased stress with higher expectations from everyone else.. But I'm more than glad I haff made tremendous improvements in my studies.. Gd job!
Ha.. So farniee.. A totally non-romantic nor non-loving entry on valentine's day. K K.. Shall put something loving here.. I love.. my LOOKS! Y am I so yandao? Hahaha =)
Thursday, February 10, 2005
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Ah.. So happy to see Ojou today.. She has grown so big and strong! Indeed, she has reached adult size at 1 yr and 4 mths old.. And her long fur is still as white as snow.. And not forgetting her owner, my cousin Shu Wei (almost e same name as my great grand councillor Su Wei haha), has just took up a 4 mth pets' grooming course which cost $5k ++. Heh heh.. Next time when I got my siberian husky or alaskan malamute I nue who to go to liaoz.. And so it wasn't surprising Ojou looked exceptionally clean and also wore a red 'blouse' and a red ribbon on her left ear. Coincidentally I'm wearing e red top Stan bought for me for christmas present. Red is of coz e colour of Chinese New Year, but e main reason being it was e newest piece of shirt I got haha.. So thanx Stan!
Enjoyed Shu Wei's account of her 2 wks worth of training ah.. Made me wish I was in her place instead of doing dentistry.. Working with all various breeds of dogs is bound to be fun! Sadly there's no veterinary course in Singapore or tat will probably be my 1st choice.
My benefactress aka dentistry 4 yr bond guarantor- Shu Fang, Shu Wei's elder sis, is still in Chicago for business.. Think e 2 sisters r very capable ah..
One of e CNY's tradition is for e kids to sleep as late as possible on e lunar new year eve ( shou shui ) so e parents might enjoy longer longevity. And so I'm still here haha.. And as usual, my new year resolution is similar to last yr's, which is also similar to last, last and last, last, last and so on.. Guess I never grew fat all my life.. Haiz..
Visited my paternal side for tuan yuan fan today but looking more forward to 2morrow's visit to my grandma's side.. Coz there will be more cousins ard my age grp and there'll be much more things to talk abt. And not forgetting Ojou, e white and cute japanese spitz who will be 1 yr and 4 mths old liaoz.. Hope Shu Fang will bring her 2morrow ah..
K.. Think my parents will live to a ripe old age liaoz.. It is time to sleep..
And a very Happy Cock New Year to all.. Ha.. Doesn't sound very rite.. =)
Saturday, February 05, 2005
Went to watch finding neverland 2day.. It's sure a very nice show.. Very meaningful too.. And realised a few things abt e movie..
1) 1909 is e yr Peter Pan is born, in a play for e rich and wealthy created by James M Barrie. E thing abt e very 1st play is its striking resemblance to today's Peter Pan cartoons and movies- like there's e crocodile with e ticking clock, e light-glowing tinklebell, etc.. But dun nue how come got red indians one haha..
2) The london kids r over super duper sensible for their age ah..
3) And even e youngest kid can say better english than me ah.. (Lucky I can speak better english than GF ah..)
Basically spent e whole day crapping with Xl, Kenneth and Diana. And saw Yee hau with gf, Bran with gf and hey hey.. ll with a guy.. Haha..
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
Yeah! 2 tests down.. Only 1 more to go b4 cny break.. Really, really looking forward to this break ah.. Think that our class definitely deserve this break after 6 wks of hectic school involving lectures, pre-clincals, tests and more tests. And some of my classmates r getting abit tense-up..
I got quite irritated last monday also, e day we had this periodontal PI-GI ( plaque score- gingivitis score) test. And as dentists-to-be, we r supposed to be role models for our patients-to-be, so we had to keep our oral hygiene in tip top condition, i.e. PI-GI score under 25%and 15% respectively, for atleast consecutive 2 wks. And let me assure u tat this ain't really achievable even for a person who maintain relatively well oral hygiene. Brushing and flossing the teeth alone is NOT enuff. Most of our classmates went for scaling in private practices at their own expenses, 1/2 wks b4 e test. Me and Bran are fortunate enuff to get a friendly and generous dentist who charged us free! And en since I'm wearing bracers, flossing teeth is like 10X harder.. So 4 e past 2 wks, its brushing teeth immediately after breakfast and dinner. And its one thourough brushing session after dinner of no less than 30 min. It begins with 5 minutes of brushing with my ortho brush, followed by 10 minutes of flossing and finally e thorough brushing with electric toothbrush for 15 minutes.. No joke.. And juz b4 bed, its a dose of clorhexidine mouthrinse- a very potent antiplaque agent with 80% efficiency, but with severe side effects like staining of teeth, alteration of tastebuds and increased calculus. Ur usual listerine has only 50% efficiency.
So u do this for every day for 2 wks, and e chore becomes more of a routine. And en.. when u r all ready to take e test, u realise u didn't get a chance to take it.. Xianz rite? And so e next test is postphoned 1 wk later..
Reasons to get pissed:
1) Prof Grace Ong was late- so late tat she didn't come at all.. So there r only 2 doctors instead of 3, and unfortunately I'm in e grp of 4 clusters under 1 doc.. ( But Prof Ong sent an apology email to us later e day saying tat she was held up by a pre-lecturer b4 her who ate into her time.. Quite nice of her ah.. )
2) Some indian doc r so damn slow. And naggy.. And disorganised.. Xianz diao..
Anywae.. here r some of e dental procedures and charges.. Interested pple can have a look.. =)
