Death Note

My interest in anime has decreased significantly since I last watched Cowboy Bebop, as the quality of recent animes are lamentable. No, I do not mean the technical side, which is more glorious than ever. However, I'm juz not interested in the 'all style, no substance' trend that recent anime has increasingly adopted...

Until I finally found this series... Death Note.

Alright, to be honest, the premise sounds lame at first. A brilliant but eccentric, world-wearied high school student came across a 'Death Note' one day, which he discovered that he can kill anyone he has in mind so long as he writes the name down in the notebook, and picture the person's face in his mind. Experimenting the "Death Note" on 2 criminals, he was at first shocked that it really worked, but soon becomes obsessed with passing his righteous judgement upon the wicked, and crown himself a god of a new world. But the serial of 'killings' of criminals caught the attention of the police & crime investigators worldwide, and soon a mysterious, faceless detective known to the world only as 'L' begins his hunt for the mysterious mass murderer behind all these killings, nicknamed 'Kira'.

Now if you think the plot description sounds shallow, you're DEAD wrong. Even only after watching the 1st 3 episodes of the series, each episode continues to astound me with its depth. The existential themes explored in these episodes are intriguing, and I'm reminded of Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, especially the protagonist Raskolnikov. The cat-&-mouse game between the 2 lead characters are incredible suspenseful (an adjective you'll hardly link to anime), and the lack of gratuitous action sequence & annoying chibli cuteness are incredibly refreshing changes to your everyday anime, to say the least. Coupled this with the high quality animation plus the seductively dark tone of the anime, who in their sane mind could have possibly overlook this gem?

The series seems incredibly promising to me, and you can bet I'll be following it for the next few weeks. If anyone is interested, head on to this link and judge for yourself!

Medical Aplitude Test

Taking the medical aplitude test after Keat's example... Here's my results:

1 emergency med 40

2 dermatology 39

3 med oncology 39

4 orthopaedic surgery 38

5 pediatrics 37

6 obstetrics/gynecology 37

7 psychiatry 37

8 nephrology 37

9 gastroenterology 36

10 allergy & immunology 36

11 aerospace med 35

12 radiology 35

13 nuclear med 35

14 neurosurgery 34

15 general surgery 34

16 plastic surgery 34

17 hematology 34

18 otolaryngology 34

19 endocrinology 33

20 general internal med 33

21 family practice 33

22 preventive med 33

23 urology 33

24 rheumatology 33

25 neurology 33

26 pulmonology 32

27 ophthalmology 32

28 physical med & rehabilitation 32

29 thoracic surgery 31

30 infectious disease 31

31 colon & rectal surgery 31

32 radiation oncology 30

33 cardiology 30

34 anesthesiology 28

35 occupational med 28

36 pathology 28

Well happily emergency medicine is my current favourite specialty, but disappointedly general med & general practice are so low down in the list as I do include them under consideration. I've practically ruled out surgery as one of my future career path, so it's quite annoying to see them so high up (probably bcuz of my tendency for more immediate results seen), and I absolutely hated orthopaedics. Psych is among the top ten which is cool, as I do have some interest in it. No idea bout paeds & O&G, will only have the runs next year.

On a side note, pathology is the lowest in the list... the direct opposite of Keat's list lol

I'm in my general surgery run now... Stuck in a field I have little interest in... Can't wait for this to be over and get started on Psych next lol.

And so it ends... (No spoilers, promise)

July 21st, 2007. The day the classics of our time concluded. The seventh installment of the Harry Potter series is finally out.

And here I am trying to catch up the entire series again starting from book one. Barely started Chamber of Secrets today. I'm crossing my fingers that no one will spoil the ending for me till I finish the entire series myself.

And for that purpose I'm turning off the comment box lest anyone post up the spoilers on me... And I'll probably avoid checking comments from other posts as well just in case lol.

Better catch up fast...

I'm Better Off Dead

Nearing the end of my General Medicine run... and I'm feeling I'm about to burn out as well. An incredibly exhausting run really. And guess what run will I be having next? Another 6 weeks of General Surgery (something I have zero interest on)...

Really, I'm better off dead. (Thanks to Radiohead for the phrase, it's like my motto now lol).

1st time Rubik's Cube solved!

Bought a Rubik's cube yesterday out of the blue. After spending almost 24 hours trying to crack it (with online help of cuz), I've managed to solve it! YES!!! The very 1st time I solved a Rubik's cube! Another childhood dream comes true! Lol.

Who would have thought that such a small cube of a toy could cheer me up in my days of blue...

What I have for supper b4 I got my car...

I've Bought A Car!!!

I've bought a car! 2002 Honda FIT (known as Jazz in M'sia) Sport! 1.5cc Vtec, mileage 38,000km, 2nd hand, imported from Japan! No more boring weekends! Yay~

A Quick Summary of My Academic Life Thus Far

Alright it's time to update about my academic life here.

My 4th year starts off with 2 weeks of campus learning, i.e. lectures and labs discussions. I have to admit that I'm not used to the lecture time of 8 to 5 really, after having only 2 hours of lectures back in IMU daily. I'm still having difficulties communicating with my caucasian batchmates, compared to the asian counterparts. The weird accent and the figure of speech they used are sometimes just too different for me to comprehend.

1st run after the lecture weeks was 2 weeks of Anaesthetic in Middlemore. A really relaxing and enjoyable run on retrospect. Since the anaesthetist have plenty of free time to teach during surgery, I get to learn a lot from them as well as watch plenty of different surgeries. Unfortunately this run requires a lot of knowledge on pharmacology though, one of my weakest subject. But I'm glad I started off with this, as I have refreshed most of my pharmaco knowledge by the time of my next run.

4 weeks of Locomotor (Orthopaedics and Rheumatology) in Auckland comes next. Well, it was a BAAAAAAAADDDDD run for me. The consultants and registrars were much too busy to bother teaching anything to me, and most of what I learn during this period was self-directed. Ward rounds were so boring and useless I skipped it after suffering for 1 and a half week. But I did learn something in both orthopaedic and rheumatology clinics though. By the end of the run, joints examinations weren't as difficult as I thought it to be after all.

Next comes 4 weeks of General Practise posting: 2 weeks urban practise with Dr John Tseung in Epsom, 2 weeks rural practise at Dargaville. This was definitely the best run I have so far. Seen plenty of different cases and even learn a bit of simple suturing techniques. It was also fascinating to observe how closely primary care is linked to secondary & tertiary care in NZ. All healthcare records are keyed into a system that can be accessible by all of the patient's healthcare provider, making patient's medical background easily obtained. It's also interesting to experience how much more warm & friendlier rural practise are in comparison to Auckland.

2 weeks in the Emergency Department at Auckland came finally before my holiday. Being the field I'm currently most interested in, I have lots of anticipation in this run. Well it turns out that the ED in Auckland is much more quieter than I thought. In the 6 days I was attached there, I only get to see 3 potentially life-threatening admission. Others mostly concerns of fractures, sudden collapse & a long list of silly GP cases. I do like the work environment though, as the doctors here mostly work independently unless there's a real emergency, and when in doubt you can always consult the consultant in duty. Otherwise you don't have to tolerate any form of bossing around by your superiors as you work mostly on your own.

Holidays came next, and 14 of us IMU ppl (+ one outside boyfriend lol) went to Rotorua. But that's another post for another time! XD

The Secret Garden

I was walking back to my flats during my rural general practice posting in Dargaville when I encounter this unbelievably beautiful view. I snapped like a dozen shots of it, and this is my favourite among the series. I call it "The Secret Garden".

Like hearing the voice of God...

Probably the most moving description of Mozart's music ever. The following scene is taken from the 1984 movie Amadeus, directed by Milos Forman, where Mozart's jealous rival Salieri described the piece in a flashback scene. The piece is Serenade For Winds K. 361: 3rd Movement (Gran Partita).

And yes, that single oboe note near the beginning of the piece is probably the most rapturous note I've ever heard in my life.