I finally managed to fix my broadband connection, which had not been working for 3 months, courtesy of my brother (younger one, of course!). We have 2 PCs at home, the stronger one being in his room, because he studied Computer Engineering. But he's not good enough to maintain the PCs -- I'm the one that does that. And I bought the PCs and most of the hardware too. Logically, my ADSL connection goes with the stronger PC in his room.

He always messes up the computer and needs me to fix things! And he used to use my email account to email (without my permission!) or put in forms so that he is unaffected and anonymous. So now my SingNet account is always full of spam!

And he infected the PC with 2 viruses! No wonder he's not an engineer now...

I guess that's the way it always is with little brothers...

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My car looks something like this... A lilac blue Hyundai Getz.


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In Singapore, you simply cannot drive at the speed limit. Everyone would horn at you! I get a bit annoyed when I'm not allowed to be a good citizen!

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My ambulance attachment in 1993 was a bit of a washout. It was boring. Once, the bell sounded, and I hopped into the ambulance with the my crew and we moved off. But a suddent storm developed and lo and behold, our wipers were faulty! Because of that, we had to slow to a crawl on the PIE. Disgusted, the AO radioed in to say she was unable to reach in time, and requested another ambulance to take over the call. Then we returned. That was the only time I went out.

The ambulance carries a maternity pack on board. Erm... There's an episiotomy scissors in it -- I was told they rarely used it. I know of an ambulance attachment friend who took a maternity case. Mother-to-be went into labour with 2nd baby and wanted to wait for hubby to return home before going to hospital. When he came back, she was in heavy labour. So they called for an ambulance. When the ambulance crew came, she was in 2nd stage with imminent delivery. So she was prepped for delivery, and gave birth soon after. My friend (a male!) described it as if "the baby did not want to be born"! Did the mother suffer? Yes, she looked like she was suffering a bit, but did not scream and writhe in agony like on TV. Erm... Did the mother-to-be consent to a guy looking at her giving birth? "Of course lah!" Anyway, it was just the AO (female as usual) and the Crew (male) and my friend (Driver was in the ambulance). Now that's a good ambulance attachment, not like mine.

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My birthday is coming up! I seldom have any real celebration -- the only time I had real birthday celebrations was when I was in university. When I was a student, school would have ended (school ends before national exams), and so no one would know. Of course, now I have students, but not a lot know when my birthday is.

I ran some errands today and managed to succeed in all! I paid my Road Tax and made my photo-card licence. I topped up the car after that. And went to Taka Kino to spend my last $10 voucher before it expires (6th Nov). [I had $50 Kino and $50 Borders vouchers last year courtesy of my College.] I managed to do that, which is a feat considering that I spent 12 hours in total over 3 days browsing the store to spend the $50. I also looked around in Borders, but nothing caught my eye. Luckily, the Borders card expires next year...

And I managed to get my phone's GPRS settings done. The settings were correct, and GPRS activated, but somehow, my phone could not connect. The M1 staff were perplexed too. They tried to download settings (which I tried before) but received no response from their server. After discussions with 1627 and their technical support, they finally managed to get it to work after 30+ minutes.

I also took a look at the Impreza Challenge at Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza. Wow! 57 hours already and still so many survivors, including 3 ladies!

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When I was doing my A and E attachment in 1993, I managed to see quite a few things. It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience, unless you get to work there, of course. 3 dead bodies during my 2-day rotation. One was a cardiac case: when the doctors gave up, my friend took over to practise CPR. Another was quite sad. The old lady had a fall and got a head injury. Could not breathe, so was put on a respirator. She was in her 80s, and the doctors decided not to give resus treatment. After she was disconnected, they doctors went out to tell the relatives. The nurses left too, leaving us there. So there we were with her lying there not breathing, but her heart still beating. No wonder they all left us there alone -- no one wanted to see her arrest and die. We stuck around for 2 minutes, she still had not arrested, and we decided we could not take it anymore, and left her to die alone.

The third one was a gunshot wound. I could not believe it when the call came in that a gunshot to the chest was coming in! Robbery? Accident? No! From Pulau Tekong! Shot by M-16! The shooter shot himself afterward! We were told to prepare for 2 guys coming in. We went out to the helipad and the Super Puma came in and I rushed forward to help unload the casualty. Aircrew hands over the BVM and I continue bagging him. I thought: Oh my, he has a resus face! And quite a dead one too. I knew he wasn't going to make it.

I went back to the chopper to get the other one, but was told there was only one. Perplexed, we ran back to the driveway, but the ambulance had sped off. The police officer told us to hop into his patrol car, and he gave us a ride back to the A and E Department. Since this was a major case, we did not participate but looked from afar. Chest tube, after 10 minutes, they gave up and pronounced him.

I saw him after that when they cleaned him up. Then they rolled him out as if he was a patient. I bet no one looking knew he was dead! They rolled him to an empty room (not the usual DOA room so as not to arouse suspicion...). And then they did it: covered his head with the sheet. I remember his half-open eyes and mouth: that's how a dead resus case looks like.

The other guy was a mort. He shot himeself from jaw upwards and some of his brain went into the foxhole. He took a harbour launch to the mortuary instead of a Super Puma.

During the 2 days, I managed to see another chest tube (non-emergency) and a fracture case. I observed the triage work too.

I'm a little sick today, but I'm in the recovery phase now, thanks to quick intervention with antibiotics, Piriton and Dequa lozenges, which I have. I was tempted to take an MC, but decided that there was too much work to do. Besides, it is the last day of proper lessons.

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I have thought about trying to study Medicine, but NUS does not take mature students unless there are special circumstances. In any case, I was not selected during their interviews last time, so they will probably pass on me. Doing Medicine in the US or UK is very expensive. It is barely affordable in Australia, but there are admission tests, etc. In any case, enrolment for foreign medical students in overseas universities is kept low. So I think that's very difficult.

A Masters by research in academic subject is quite difficult, and frankly, quite pointless unless one is a researcher. Even most academic coursework Masters is of little use. All this is just to keep the education economy healthy.

I think perhaps I should start learning stuff that is of use. I think I can start with some software writing. And then some languages -- maybe Malay, Japanese, Cantonese, French?

Or perhaps I should go to Timor Leste and help them out for a year. It will be meaningful, but not financially rewarding.

I was on course yesterday and today. I seldom have the privilege of going on course during term time, and I must say that it was quite relaxing compared to what I do daily. I didn't really work yesterday night and tonight, so I guess I will surely regret tomorrow when I return to the meat grinder that is XJC.

You know what, I think I should take a JC2 student for tuition or something... This calls for a drastic change in my mindset towards the College.

I went to Sentosa with my students on Friday Deepavali. Saw the new musical fountain and took the cable car back.





Watched Kill Bill Vol. 1 yesterday. Really violent! To be continued in Vol. 2.



I went for a car wash today. I normally wash my car myself, but I thought it would be interesting to do a car wash at a petrol station. Anyway, only $6 for such an interesting experience from the perspective inside the car... I had a manual wash of course, since auto ones are supposedly bad for paintwork. It was a "snow wash", quite efficient! If I did my normal handwash without the benefit of a water jet, it would take 3 times longer!

Some people ask why I bought a car when I live so close to College. In fact, my brother has a car too. Well, I want to own a car some time during my life, and when the COE was down, I decided that it was now or never. When COEs cost $40,000, I don't think I can bring myself to buy a car unless I'm super rich, which is impossible...

It really has been quite a while! I've been most unhappy lately. I feel that I'm not appreciated by my school, I'm not appreciated by my Principal and HOD, I'm not appreciated by my students, I'm not appreciated by their parents, I'm not appreciated by my parents.

It always begs me to wonder, why am I doing all this? I have devoted a good portion of my life to the school, and to my students. My own form class students who took the A Levels in 2001 -- they were the best class of their subject combination in the end. But they were the worst of their combination throughout their career in the College! Where are they now? 2 DSTA Overseas scholars, 1 NUS Undergraduate Scholar, 3 SIA-NOL Undergraduate Scholars, 1 ASEAN Undergraduate Scholar, 1 LMS (Teaching) Scholar. And from my other classes? That's another 8 names in the College Day Handbook to make a total of 16. And my robotics students are mostly good in their studies. My care and concern for my students is unparallelled, and I train them like I would myself. My committment to my job is high.

I have never let the College down -- but the College has let me down more than once.