pharmacology of the cofm-fried medical student's brain:

1) at steady "i can't seem to focus anymore" state,

rate of info entering brain (iE)= rate of info leaving brain (iL)

2) t-half of information preservation in brain is given by the equation:

t1/2= (ln2 x distribution of information in medical student's body*) / removal of information via food/ tv/ computer game breaks

*in a normal medical student, distribution of information is usually <0.01l/kg (ie at the back of the mind). however in profs/ consultants/ dean's listers, this distribution changes to >100l/kg ( ie at the fingertips).

***

one week more.

all the best to the fifth years!

random mumblings at t minus ten days:

1) after a while, all the drugs sound the same. they all have the same modes of action, elimination and side effects. so exciting man.

2) the oscars are tomorrow, and i wished i've watched at least half of the best picture nominees. haven't been going to the movies as often as i used to...and it's not as if i previously frequented the cinemas! note to self: i need more "brain unfrying time".

3) i received one of the most wonderful v-day/friendship day gifts today. never expected it, but i will treasure it for a long, long time. thanks zonc!

five days. can't believe that i gone five days without the internet. my monitor screen went kaput during chinese new year and i've only just figured out how to set up the internet on my mum's laptop. in those five days, my inboxes have exploded (eighty-nine unread mails in my yahoo account alone!) and my msn list looks so foreign to me. man, do i miss my internet.

american idol is back on our screens and it's been disappointing. it's surprising since last year the contestants weren't all that bad and the songs were good. this season, the guys are a big let down. the guy show was painfully boring and i actually turned off the telly midway through it. hadn't intended to catch the girls' performance, but i'm glad i did, because this season, the girls rule with their big voices and big determination. the only disturbing thing is that ryan seacrest seems to be openly flirting with them all while trying to retain his metrosexual image (that thing about having a pedicure while standing next to bare-footed, korean-american paul kim.) i guess we'll just have to see how the contestants develop, but i must admit that i'm fast losing interest!

less than two weeks to go. 'tis sad that i've got no holiday to look forward to after pros. argh.

just got off the phone with a close friend in the uk. it's always nice to know that despite having our communication reduced to emails and the occassional phone call, we are able to share so much about our lives. can't wait for you to be back, little miss sunshine!

it was a nice way to round up the lunar new year festivities. reunion dinner was a sumptuous affair, and i stuffed myself until i could barely stand. had some difficulty driving home after that, heh. then today was of course the crazy day, with lots of greetings and oranges and ang pows and laughter. no surprise then that chinese new year is one my favourite times of the year.

hope everyone had a good time too. gong xi fa cai!

there's a new wonder drug in town - havidol (avafynetyme). it's a pde5 inhibitor just like viagra, but is able to tackle Dysphoric Social Attention Consumption Deficit Anxiety Disorder (DSACDAD), which is a newly recognised disorder. check out it's website and have a look at the prescribing information leaflet provided. very good revision for our pharmaco exam. heh. now if only hsa would approve it...doctors in singapore would be rich. muaha.

happy lunar new year everyone!

the lunar new year is days away, and it's impossible to spring clean my room because there're notes strewn everywhere. the last time my room was this messy was when i was preparing for my 'a' levels and had, like, six subjects to study for. now there're only two, and i've got notes on my desk, computer table, bookshelf, bed, and under my bed. when a gust of wind blows, those loose sheets of paper from our therapeutic seminars will glide merrily into the living room and i end up hunting for it.

mugging certainly guzzles lots of brain juice. fortunately it's the season for eating, and it's not hard to find things to eat and drink. if there's one thing about cny i really love, it's the amazing assortment of food that pops up from nowhere and finds its way to my kitchen. heh. here's to all the bak kwa, love letters and kueh bangkit in the world!

(what a difference a year makes.)

nearly two months of chp is over. what was initially to me "just a project" turned out to be something like a bonding session with my classmates. it started off on a small scale, with just seven people on the literature review team before the entire group of thirty-seven medical students turned into survey machines and chewed our way through a suburb. then it was time to break up into smaller groups to crunch the data and turn them into digestable forms. it culminated in a presentation last week and the submission of our first (well, for most of us anyway) paper last week.

being singaporeans, at every step of the way, food was one of our top priorities. whether it was driving down to the new ikea to check out their cafeteria, spending time savouring the food at clementi hawker centre and chomp chomp, or heading to the various malls for burgers and pasta, we always got food involved, especially after using up our brain juice to explain our data. over sugar cane drinks and or lua, we talked and laughed and shared about our school life, our takes on tcm, our latent ebstein barr viruses and everything else in between.

one of my most treasured memories of chp would be heading to mind's cafe at boat quay to unwind. tried their pasta there which was not bad, to my surprise, and played crazy games like taboo and freehand. it's been such a blessing to work with this bunch of people and getting to know them in more ways than i could ever have imagined. am grateful for some of the special friendships forged. heh.

some interesting comments by two Very Higher Ups have been heating up the papers recently. they describe the dilemma our tiny nation faces - to choose between keeping our economy humming and finding ways to handle diseases unique to our part of the world. not an easy decision to make, since the big money is in the "western" diseases and not the "exotic" ones (some medical schools in australia view dengue as an exotic disease). as an up-and-coming research hub, however, perhaps we should take upon ourselves the responsibility in searching for breakthroughs in diseases like hepatitis b, and devote more resources to investigating local diseases. idealistic yes, but if we don't do it, no one will. then again, only time can tell us which path singapore should take in the long run. we'll just have to see how it goes.

an update: our exams have been shifted back to the original date. not sure what madness possessed the examiners but i'm glad it's been cured. yay.

with a click of a mouse, our paper is off and away to being graded.

chp is officially done.