what a way to spend the new year. woke up on chu xi morning with a dripping nose, and realised, uh-oh, there goes my cny. it was still ok when i had my reunion dinner but on the first day it got worse. and the weather was of no help. it was so hot that the road was shimmering. two hours of driving sealed my fate. it has been fever, runny nose and sore throat since last night. ugh! all the new year goodies on the dining table and fridge are just taunting me. it's taking a lot of self restraint to stop myself from stuffing my face with those delicious food.

happy lunar new year everyone. have a good break. heh.

it's the end of week two, so there's five more weeks to the third ca.

had my lymphoma/leukemia tutorial today, and it succeeded in confusing me even more. i tried to look through robbins with the help of prof spaniard's notes, but robbins has an odd way of describing the conditions. for instance they lump the acute leukemias together, and had small lymphocytic lymphoma together with chronic lymphocytic leukemia under the same heading. their explanation? "sll can be thought of as an aleukemic form of cll". so very helpful.

and coming right up is kidney, of which gn is terribly confusing. i did a crash course on it for pbl, and managed to answer my tutor with generalized answers, but i'm still hazy about it. wow. that's two patho topics that i can't figure out. whoot.

the man known as grandpa had his twenty-first birthday party at his place yesterday evening. nearly half the class turned up. amazing. watched american idol then listened to people sing karaoke for the rest of the night. he's probably one of the few who can turn a birthday party into a semi-class outing. heh.

'tis the year for parties eh?

everybody listen up! the new issue of pulse is out! do grab a copy from the library. this issue is about medical education, and we've interviews of dr vivian balakrishnan, dr goh lee gan, mr black and our dear dean, prof john wong. feedback is much appreciated.

was so happy to see the final printed version of the magazine. perhaps it's because the magazine is the only cca i've got now, so i really feel i'm part of it, you know? i didn't feel as delighted in my junior college's magazine, although i did have articles published. oh well.

this song is so apt:

lazlo bane - superman
Out the door just in time
Head down the 405
Gotta meet the new boss by 8 am

The phone rings in the car
The wife is working hard
She's running late tonight again

Well I know what I've been told
You gotta work to feed the soul
But I can't do this all on my own
No, I know I'm no Superman, I'm no Superman

You've got your love online
You think you're doing fine
But you're just plugged into the wall

And that deck of tarot cards
Won't get you very far
There ain't no hand to break your fall

Well I know what I've been told
You gotta know just when to fold
But I can't do this all on my own
No, I know I'm no Superman, I'm no Superman
That's right

You've crossed the finish line
Won the race but lost your mind
Was it worth it after all

I need you here with me
Cause love is all we need
Just take a hold of the hand that breaks the fall

Well I know what I've been told
Gotta break free to break the mold
But I can't do this all on my own
No I can't do this all on my own
I know that I'm no Superman,I'm no Superman,I'm no Superman

familiar? it's the theme song from scrubs.

remember our favourite anti-flu drugs? they're no longer useful. the cdc in atlanta has advised doctors to stop prescribing amantidine and rimantadine because they're ninety-one percent inefective in stopping the h3n2 strain now making its rounds in north america. to top it off, news out of turkey says that the strain that killed a child recently had a mutated protein to allow it to infect humans more easily.

oops.

feeling lazy nowadays. i mean, we started the term with an exam, and for me at least, it'd nice to have a break, but no siree, i'm constantly reminded to start mugging again. and to top it off, we have pbl, of which out of six units we've had so far, two tutors have stood us up. all the time for preparing, and money spent photocopying the materials all whoosh, gone down the drain.

and i've just found out that the producers opens the week before our CAs. argh.

first day back for a seven week semester. last semester i'll ever have. hmm. fish dropped me off at potong pasir today, and there was this group of first year jc students, all in their secondary school uniforms laughing and talking in the typically j one orientation way. remember how it was? the oh-yeah-i'm-all-grown-up-now-and-not-a-sec-sch-kid look. i kinda miss parts of jc life. the lectures i slept through, the practices all the way till ten plus, the train that always blows it's whistle whenever we have flag raising and how the whole building would rattle as the train went by, our bench which had a cute eraser as the "guardian", and the stacks and stacks of lecture notes the reps had to collect from the tiny photocopying shop. well, well, well.

the cas were all right. uhm, which translates to "microbee hope to pass" and "patho a lot better than microbee". except for the thing about squamous cell vs small cell ca. come to think of it, i should have written squamous. but eight marks for the histo?! heck, what's done is done. the next round of ca (which a lecturer kindly told us would be much harder than the first two) is only seven weeks away.

it's back to work guys, back to work. but don't forget to watch grey's.

fish's tag just reminded me again of les miz. here's the verse from the song, red and black.

GRANTAIRE
I am agog!
I am aghast!
Is Marius in love at last?
I've never heard him `ooh' and `aah'
You talk of battles to be won
And here he comes like Don Ju-an
It's better than an o-per-a!

and one of my favourite verses from the musical:

ENJOLRAS
It is time for us all
To decide who we are
Do we fight for the right
To a night at the opera now?
Have you asked of yourselves
What's the price you might pay?
Is it simply a game
For rich young boys to play?
The color of the world
Is changing day by day

i am agog, i am aghast.

why did they have to add three more lectures to our already packed timetable? an early day has become a late day, and a three hour breather has been reduced to two hours to accomodate a "classic" diagnostic bacteriology lecture. what's with the "classic" anyway? and a deadpanned reminder that it is our responsibility to check the mednet for the latest updates. i mean, how often do we change our timetable? not to mention the webpage used to hang my browser!

that aside, i do think it's my right to enjoy the last weekend of my december hols. so i'll just curl up in bed, with a hot cup of milo on this rainy day, and delight in the words of kumar, cotran and robbins.

it's better than an o-pe-ra.