Sunday, April 30, 2006


Lousy day

After a day full of activities (biomed training in the morning, 2 tuition classes in the afternoon), I returned home, tired, sticky and thirsty. So the first thing I did when I got home was to go to the refrigarator to get a drink. Seeing some Vitagen in there, I decided to take it. The packaging was quite tight, so I used a bit of force. Unfortunately, the bottle decided to fly out of my hand and crash onto the floor. Purple vitagen all over the floor.

I went to the toilet to get some cloth and the mop. When I was unclipping the packaging of the detergent (my mother uses clothes pegs to clip the opening of the packaging close), the peg broke in my hand i.e. become 2 pieces. I threw away the broken peg.

After cleaning the floor up, I was still damn thirsty (as the liquid I intended to drink was now in the drains). So I decided to have an ice-cream from the freezer. Got the ice-cream out, unwrapped the thing, discovered a mess of ice and cream inside. Apparently someone had left the freezer door open or left the whole pack of ice-cream outside for too long. The ice-cream had melted and re-froze, giving a rubbishy mass. I threw the thing away.

Fed-up. Fell asleep on the sofa.

posted by nwxiang at 1:02 AM | 0 comments


Wednesday, April 26, 2006


Com-plications

Wad I've accomplished in one night as a result of my computers breaking down: (in rough chronological order)

2240: Came home from meeting with my platoon frens
2300: Started stripping and reassembling 2 coms, testing component by component
2330: Discovered that jumper settings were screwed up on one com. Rectified.
0000: Got one com online. Searched for clues on the internet to fix the other com.
0030: Discovered that SATA II should be given a higher priority location on the motherboard when used with a SATA I HDD. Recitified.
0100: Got the com online. Started formatting the HDD. While waiting for the formatting to finish, I kept the tools (screws, screwdrivers etc), tidied the room, cleaned out the dust from behind the coms, and mopped the floor.
0140: Formatting finished. Restored backup data.

I think I deserve a pat on the shoulder. =PpPpP

posted by nwxiang at 1:48 AM | 0 comments


Tuesday, April 18, 2006


Extinction Viva

Allow me to provide you some highlights of the interview, where I fumbled, stumbled, and mumbled. (Even at very simple qns) The following are arranged in rough chronological order.

***

Prof: Tell me about the compensatory mechanisms during emphysema.
Me: Well firstly, there is the lung response to hypoxia, in contrast to the systemic response, there is vasodila-
Prof: (interrupts) Let's go to the basics. What happens to the electrolytes in the plasma?
Me: (realises that I've gone off in the wrong direction). Well there are central and peripheral chemoreceptors....

***

Prof: Do you know of any common medical procedure that reduces the anatomical dead space?
Me: (Tries hard to keep myself from saying: HARRRRRR?)
Prof: (gestures to the neck)
Me: Oh. Tracheostomy.

***

Prof: Tell me about the causes of hypokalemia.
Me: Well, there could be excess aldoster-
Prof: (interrupts) Let's go to the very basics. What are the basic reasons for low potassium?
Me: (realises I've gone off in the wrong direction again) Oh. Decreased input and increased output...

***

Prof: What happens when there is an obstruction, say in the duodenum?
Me: There will be vomitting.
Prof: And do you think that will affect the potassium levels?
Me: (sensing trick qn, but unable to do anything abt it) I would think that there would be more of a loss of H+ and Cl- instead of K+...
Prof: (goes into lengthy explanation of renal mechanisms that I din really catch)

***

Prof: How is iron absorbed?
Me: (mumbles something abt ferritin and apotransferin)
Prof: But that's transport and storage. What about the absorption at the GIT?
Me: (damn..I heard this b4, but can't remember) Sorry, I'm not sure...

***

Prof: How is B12 absorbed?
Me: (Rambles about intrinsic factor, the stomach and the terminal ileum)
Prof: What happens after that? How is it then transported to the liver?
Me: (damn. again.) Sorry, I'm not very sure about that...
Prof: Well, thank you for your time.
Me: (walks out thinking that I've earned the right to the title - COHC. Clown of Hwa Chong.)

posted by nwxiang at 11:35 AM | 0 comments


Thursday, April 13, 2006


By popular demand

=PpPpP Anyway I dun have anything I wan to blog at the moment...so juz post something interesting for u all to see...For the past few days I've been locked in the vicious cycle (yang: spell correctly right? haha) of eating, watching tv, playing com games and slping...Probably the only thing I've done that merely qualifies as "useful" is dusting off my dusty flash skills... Here's something I made: click here (opens new window)

Juz 2.3 secs (8kb). Runs at 30fps (may slow down on old machines) Observe the nice line masking effect I juz learned. Hehe.

posted by nwxiang at 11:47 AM | 0 comments