Last Day Of 2006

Time flies. It's the last day of 2006. Deja vu... I thought I said the same thing last year too! ;)

Covered A&E for the morning shift, as there are many people taking leave for the Xmas and New Year season. Well, my department is famous for being the "kind-hearted" one, and so if any dept needs relieving, the Pengarah knows who to contact! So much so that my own department is down with scarce of MOs, and yet we are still covering other department or districts. Can u imagine we also need to cover Bintulu Polyclinic? Just imagine spending hours of bus ride to Bintulu, and work at the polyclinic; whereas in actual fact, the Bintulu Hospital can just easily fork out 1-2 MOs from their side to cover, just minutes away from the PK? So, talk about efficiency in the govt service!

Well, enough of my ranting. It's the last day of 2006, I should be recollecting all the nice memories of this year long, and summarize them here... What have I achieved this year?
1. Passed my part One exam
2. Got married and had a nice honeymoon trip on cruise
3. Visited Taiwan during the CNY holiday
4. Bought a new house
5. Covered 3 districts (namely Daro twice, and Kapit once)
6. Helped out in the Old Folks' Home
7. Attended Paediatric Refresher Course
8. Fully sponsored trip to Sabah by a drug company (for cardiology update)
9. Bought a new PDA phone (iPaq rw6828)
10. Bought a new Dell over-killed desktop
11. And last but not least... my first Blog on April Fool's Day! :)

Many more, but I think this year is a really fruitful one. I cherish every moment throughout the year, and I think I am satisfied and happy with 2006! What about you guys then?

Rainy Season

It has been raining a lot lately, and the worst fear is that my laundry won't dry in time, and load after load coming its way; no more place to hang my clothes!

There is a very good mobile site for weather forecast -- Weather Underground. So far it has been pretty accurate for my place here in Sibu. I hardly find a weather site which includes Sibu; most of the time it will be the major cities in Malaysia, like KL, Penang, JB, Kuching and KK.

As we can see in the forecast, there will be rain everyday from now on... let's hope there won't be a flood here though!

My Next Dream Car

This will be my next dream car in list... :)
Seriously, I love Toyota cars!

Merry Christmas!

It's 25th Dec again.... Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone! :)
Can I have a light saber this year as my Xmas present?

DongZhi

Today is DongZhi (冬 至), and it's raining heavily here in Sibu. According to the ancient belief, if it rains on DongZhi, there will be no rain during Chinese New Year! :) Looks like quite true for the past few years I observed.

According to Wikipedia, the traditional East Asian calendars divide a year into 24 solar terms and DongZhi is 22nd solar term. It begins when the Sun reaches the celestial longitude of 270° and ends when it reaches the longitude of 285°. It more often refers in particular to the day when the Sun is exactly at the celestial longitude of 270°. In Gregorian calendar, it usually begins around December 21 (December 22 East Asia time) and ends around January 5.

In China, Dongzhi was originally celebrated as an end-of-harvest festival. Today, it is observed with a family reunion over the long night, when pink and white tangyuan (glutinous rice balls) are eaten in sweet broth to symbolise family unity and prosperity.

I am really craving for tangyuan... but it's hundred miles away from home. Mom, could you please courier the tangyuan to me? Any of you enjoying the tangyuan at the moment? Nowadays, there are many types of tangyuan with different flavours; I still prefer the traditional ones, pink and white, plain tangyuan cooked in sweetened juice! :)

Busy Day

Post call today... my brain could barely work properly. But Murphy Law always holds true in my department; when the rain was in the midst of flooding Johor, the workload was almost toppling all the MOs in my department today! To compound that further, one of our MOs had a bad accident yesterday while going home (raining day, slippery road, eyes ptosis), and so gotta take emergency leave to settle the police and insurance thingy (luckily he escaped unhurt, that's more relief!) And another MO down with very bad flu, but few days away from her wedding day (hence, the importance to be resting at home and minimize work stress! Need to be well prepared for the BIG day... so she takes emergency-cum-sick leave)...

And when you think it should be ok to have just adequate MOs to cover each ward, more premature babies will come out; with 4 in one morning, 3 of them intubated at birth for RDS. Then, there have to be another 2 duodenal atresia with one of them Down syndrome and severe polycythemia! Hell... one MO to do the venesection, while another one arranging for the Paed Surgeon to fly in for the op. Then another 2 severe pneumonia patients just have to arrive at the same time at A&E, and so another MO although not on call, gotta rush to intubate them at A&E.

You think that's all? Well, not quite... just at lunch time, another baby sent in from postnatal ward for exchange transfusion... but heck, no fresh whole blood! (rather common happening in this place) and so gotta reside to using packed cell and FFP.

Lunch at 4pm. Most of us nearly pengsan... including the specialists, even clerking the cases which continuously pouring in! Luckily I am happy to have such a non-calculative team, and the on call doctor is the luckiest today to have so many helpers to ease off her workload.

She promised each of us a kari-pap tomorrow! :) Shall see...

Are PDAs Overpriced?

I was reading the blog by Dr Chan ("Doc") about PDAs being overpriced nowadays, and that the question is "Is the PDA more useful than a laptop?"

I still think that as a doctor working in a hospital, PDA is still one thing which is indispensible. Can't live without, in other words. For me, at least, a laptop is not quite that essential, becoz whatever I need to do at home, I will use the PC desktop, then save the whatever files in my handy drive (mostly only Word doc, Powerpoint kinda files) to be used in hospital the next day.

As for a PDA-phone, I know it's expensive, so for those of us who can't afford one, I would recommend to get a basic handphone -- just for phone feature; and then to get a cheaper PDA (probably without WiFi) like Zire 72 or a second hand palm TX for its full PDA functions.

PDAs are very essential nowadays. There are so many things we can do with it. It used to be just a PIM diary; but now, it has grown to be a laptop replacement. With a wireless keyboard attached to it, like the ThinkOutside Bluetooth KB I have, my new PDA phone (the rw6828) has largely become my mini-laptop!

Twelve Ways To Mark Up A Book

Came across this interesting article, although many of us are already practicing it, I still think it's nice to put it systematically in bullet form.

Twelve Ways To Mark Up A Book

Books are a fantastic way to gain knowledge. With books, one can learn new techniques, gain new skills, and learn from role models who have been to where one wants to be and can show the way. There are many different ways to read books and just as many ways to remember their salient points. One of the most effective ways to get the most out of a book is to mark it up. There is no standard way to mark up a text, but below are a few ways that students have found effective in marking up a textbook so that one can see the important points quickly, make it more memorable, and make it easy to pick up years later and re-acquaint oneself with the major concepts.

What Not To Do

• Don’t use a highlighter – Quality marking isn’t done with a fat-tipped highlighter. You can’t write, which is an important part of marking the text, with a large marker. Get yourself some fine point colored pens to do the job.
• Don’t mark large volumes of text – You want important points to stand out. Although we all know that everything can’t be important, we often highlight all of the text on the page. You want to find the 20% of the text that is important (remember Pareto?) and mark that.
• Don’t take the time to mark up items that you read on a daily basis – (e.g., magazines, newspapers), unimportant or irrelevant items.
• Don’t mark the obvious – Don’t waste time marking up things that are already in your knowledge-base or skill set. If you already know it, you don’t need to mark it.

What To Do

• Mark the text with a pencil, pen, or, even better, colored fine-tipped pens – Remember, you are not highlighting, you are writing.
• Know your preferences – Some of you have an aversion to mark directly in the text. Books are precious things to many people and they want to protect them from damage and even the wear and tear of everyday use. If this describes you, grab some Post-It brand notes and do your marking and writing on them. This also gives you the advantage to move and reorganize them should you see fit. As for me, I like to mark directly on the page. I find that my books become more valuable to me when I add my contributions to the information that they contain.
• Underline the topic sentence in a passage – Remember, each paragraph has one topic sentence. The rest is supporting information and examples. Identify the topic sentence to find it easier.
• Use codes – Flag text with codes (e.g., Question marks to indicate disagreement, Exclamation marks to note agreement or to flag a strong statement, triangles to indicate a change in thinking, or a star for the topic sentence).
• Write the passage topic in the margin as a reminder – Just a word or two.
• Write questions in the margin – When you don’t understand something or when you don’t understand the author’s thought process on a particular topic, write the question in the margin as a reminder to settle the question.
• Circle new and unfamiliar words – Look them up as soon as possible.
• Add your or other author’s perspectives in the margins – Other authors have surely written on the same subject. What do they say? Do they agree with this author? If not, what do they say. Add these ideas in the margins.
• Add cross-reference notes to other works on the same topic – Use the author’s name and a shortened version of the other book’s title.
• Add structure to a narrative text – Use 1, 2, 3, 4…or an outline format I. A. B. C. 1, 2, 3, a, b, c…to add a structure that you understand.
• Draw arrows to related ideas – Or unrelated ideas…
• Summarize – Add your own summary after the last paragraph. That simple exercise will crystalize your thinking on the topic. If you can’t write it, you don’t understand it.

Extras

Post-It Brand Notes are great ways to also mark locations within books, much like bookmarks do. With Post-It Brand Notes, however, you can mark on them so you can see where you are turning before you start flipping through the pages. One can also use colored paper clips to identify pages or chapters that are important.

Free KFC Treat!

Christmas is near. KFC surprised my ward today with a free meal for everyone -- patients, patients' parents (coz it's Paeds ward!), nurses and not forgetting the doctors too!

Each of us got a 6-piece nuggets, and a cup of regular sized Milo Ais! Although by the time I received my share, the nuggets were already cold, and the Milo was already warm (ice melted!) -- should be the reverse though! ;) Nevertheless, I still enjoyed eating it together with my oncology patients! Nice moment!

Thanks, Colonel Sanders!

No Teh Tarik In Space

Felt better and more relieved after reading this piece of news update in the Star today:

No space for teh tarik

MOSCOW: There will be no teh tarik-making or roti canai-tossing experiments in space for our Angkasawan when he blasts off in October.

Instead, he will carry out at least 10 laboratory tests for serious research designed by 10 universities, institutes of higher education and government science agencies.

Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Seri Dr Jamaluddin Jarjis said the experiments were important as “they will have an important impact on our local food and medical industries”. ...more

I really hope that the multi-billion ringgit spent in this space project will bring progress and advantage to the nation. Frankly, I don't mind who the astronauts are, as long as they are chosen wisely and carefully under the stringent criteria. Well, hopefully it's another round of Malaysia Boleh! :)

Voluntary Service For The Old Folks

Today, it's me and my wife's turn to carry out the voluntary medical consultation at the Sibu Benevolent Society, for the old folks. This is a monthly basis voluntary service that my hospital is involved. There will be 2 doctors sent to the center every month, and will review all the old folks there. We mainly help them in medical problems, and to pick-up any new and acute illnesses, followed by necessary intervention/medications or referral to the hospital. Most of them are actually healthy generally and young at heart, but just for some reasons, they end up there. It's always nice to lend them your ears, once a month, and let them vent out all the stories, anger and frustrations... but of course, the saddest story is always about them being left there by their kids, who have grown up and moved to other places; totally forgotten about their aging parent(s)! Sigh, just can't imagine some of the human beings are so cold-blooded afterall!

Well, I look forward to going there again the next round, probably next year (rotational basis). Doing something good today -- Good Karma! :)

Another Convert!

Just realize that another colleague of mine (working in medical dept) finally bought a Palm TX for herself. Another convert, I say. Previously she was one of those who thinks that having a PDA is something useless and unnecessary. But now, look who's talking ..."Wow, having a PDA is really nice and make life easy!" That's what she said to me today!

Hmm... Having PDAs nowadays are not geeks anymore; this is exactly what was written here in PalmAddict today -- "We Are Not Geeks Anymore". Having said that, in my place of work, PDAs are still scarce, although there has been "improvement" for the past 3 years (more and more people are being "converted" to PDA geeks!). Now my role here is getting tougher, when it comes to the need to teach those newbies step-by-step to PDA usage. Probably I should conduct a half-day course in hospital seminar room, for every PDA newbies to grasp some basic in handheld knowledge. Cost is RM50 per person, how about that (better pay than doing a night's call)? ;)

Incompetent Public Health Service? Or Exaggerated Story?

Read this in LimKitSiang blog today:

This is Zara’s terrible story of an incompetent, unprofessional and even inhumane civil service:

On the 13th of December 2006, at approx 1.30pm a road
traffic accident involving a driver driving a dark
blue proton saga and a highway road sweeper of Malay
descent, male, approx mid 20s (the road accident
victim).

The location of the accident was about 150 – 200
meters from the Batu Tiga toll booth, elite highway in
the direction towards KLIA.

I chanced upon this accident which had just happened
while on my way back to work (Ampang via KESAS).

As I approached the accident site it seemed the victim
was already dead, the driver who had knocked him down
was standing near-by and nobody dared approach to lend
assistance to the victim, almost as if this was one
time were an invasion of privacy was taboo.

I stopped my vehicle and approached, upon examining
the accident victim I found him to be still alive but
heavily concussed, his pupils were completely dilated.

Suddenly the victim grabbed my hand and tried with all
his might to raise himself to his feet. I tried to
calm him and asked by-standers if an ambulance had
been called. I was told it had not.

In a firm tone I told the driver of the car that hit
the victim to call for an ambulance. He dialed 999, it
rang until it could not ring anymore. He rang again,
again it was not answered, he rang again and passed
the phone to me. Finally someone answered (a man).

I informed him that I am reporting an accident a few
hundred meters away from the Batu Tiga Toll in the
direction of KLIA. He asked me my phone number and my
name and which hospital was nearest. I gave the info
and added that the nearest hospital to deal with this
kind of trauma is probably Klang.

At 1.57pm I received a call from 03 3371 7989 the
ambulance control center at Klang Hospital. The guy in
charge of the control center asked to speak to me and
asked for the location of the accident, which I gave
adding that the victim was dying and that this was an
extreme emergency.

The guy manning the control center did not know my
location, so I repeated it clearly and concisely. It
seemed that he needed to understand it for himself
otherwise he could not pass on the information and
dispatch the ambulance. It was a frustrating
conversation. I repeated the details of my location
and he asked me if I was sure that Klang was the
nearest hospital. I repeated firmly, yes!

I told him the injuries of the victim hoping he would
feel the urgency, instead he wanted to know whether
“dia jatuh motor ke…?” I told him politely that his
question is completely irrelevant and hurry up with
the ambulance plus I have to hang up and attend to the
victim.

I called back at 2.06pm to ask if an ambulance had
been dispatched. The same guy told me “belum”. He
asked me the same questions…I answered them.

I warned him that the next time I make a call will be
to the Menteri Besar’s office to complain about his
shoddy professionalism, so he’d better send out that
ambulance immediately. I called Salamat Dollah at
2.08pm and he helped call Klang Hospital on my behalf
to request they send out an ambulance immediately.

I waited and called the emergency control center at
Klang Hospital at 2.36pm and asked the same guy if an
ambulance had been dispatched, same answer, “belum”.

He requested me to repeat the accident location again
which I did. This time I told him that he need not
understand it just write it down and give it to the
ambulance driver along with my hp number.

I waited again. The victim was rolling in pain on the
road, his head had a gash about 10cm long on the back
of his head, the skin on his head was beginning to
peel off. His left leg was completely broken and
hanging by the flesh but the main artery was not
severed, he was not loosing much blood. His workmate
was cradling him in his arms and asking him to
mengucap kalimah syahadah.

I tried to stop further damage to his left leg by
securing it to his right leg. I told the few people
around that he is going to die if we don’t get him to
hospital. Everyone was reluctant to put him in there
car, all kinds of excuses… ada barang, kotor la,
berdarah la… Meanwhile the victim was grabbing on to
my clothes and body in pain, unable to talk possibly
due to his head injury.

Finally the driver who knocked him down allowed us to
use his car to send the victim to the hospital. But he
was too shaken-up to drive. Another gentleman offered
to drive but did not know how to exit the Elite
highway to get towards Klang Hospital. I asked him to
follow me and so we drove off as fast as we could head
towards USJ - Federal Highway – Klang. We had to go
through so many toll gates, some paying, some after
explaining briefly, let us through.

On the Federal Highway despite our attempts to notify
motorist that we were in a state of emergency many
blocked our path and only relented to give way when I
practically sat on my car horn.

We arrived in Klang and I called the emergency control
center guy for directions to the hospital. I was by
this time quite distressed and pronounced the name of
the hospital wrongly. The guy in the control center
told me there was no such hospital in Klang, so I said
to him. “Have you sent out an ambulance to the Batu
Tiga toll accident site ? No, right? So since you
cannot understand were the accident is we are sending
the victim to you. This is an emergency can you give
me directions to your hospital or not??”

Finally he did.

When we arrived at Klang Hospital I had a hard time
looking for the staff to bring a trolley to remove the
victim from the car. I asked for assistance from two
nurses but did not receive a response. I took a
trolley and pushed it to the car, suddenly a hospital
aide appeared, then another, as we tried to remove the
victims body from the car, it was then that the
co-worker who had been cradling the victim in the car
said that he has stopped breathing.

The hospital aides rushed the victim into the A&E room
and I followed, as he was wheeled in there was no
immediate response from the doctors, it was obvious
this young man with his whole life ahead of him had
died in the car on the way to the hospital.

I was so angry, my words were simple –
“Kecuaian pihak hospital menghantar ambulance membantu
mangsa ini telah mengecewakan rakyat.”

The aide asked me to be calm. How could any human
being be calm when face with such stupidity and total
lack of regard for human life? The aide showed me the
IC and asked me to confirm if this was the victim. I
confirmed. I briefly saw the name Mohd Yusry and his
age was somewhere in his mid- twenties.

As I walked away from the A&E room in disgust I saw
the control center. A guy was sitting in it with a
female nurse looking at a computer (very close and
comfy).

I approached him and asked if he was the person who
took my calls, he knew my name and I asked him for
his, he declined. I asked him why he did not dispatch
an ambulance to which he replied something brash.

I asked him if he was happy as the victim was
unnecessarily dead and that I am going to ensure that
his lackadaisical attitude to his job was brought to
the public attention. I asked him for his name again
along with the nurse who was sitting next to him
“playing” with the computer. He refused to give it to
me. Feeling very frustrated I called Salamat Dollah
and informed him that regretfully the road accident
victim a young Malay man had died in the car on the
way to the hospital and that no ambulance had been
dispatched.

This is not the first time I have called for an
ambulance and used the 999 services. Every time I have
called for an ambulance it has never arrived, never.
Why??

This is the first road accident victim I have helped
who has actually died. Everyone else I have helped
before this has survived.

THE ISSUES THAT NEED TO BE ADDRESSED ARE:

1) The strategic location of a free government
hospital able to deal with serious road accident
trauma in Shah Alam (densly populated area with much
traffic activity).

and/or

1.1) Emergency response centers created where the
Balai Bomba have special ambulances and police squad
cars for dispatching purposes only to accident /
incident locations and to the nearest hospital / balai
police (ambulances need NOT be parked permanently at
hospitals).

2) Road signs giving clear and proper directions to
hospitals (there are hardly any such signs).

3) Special Emergency Exits through toll gates. And
signs declaring their existence + a phone number to
call ahead so that they can be opened.

4) The name of the Highways, Elite, Kesas, Federal etc
clearly advertised so that road users are able to
identify their location under emergency circumstances.

5) Professionally trained personnel with various
languages who have true empathy and value the human
life, manning emergency response centers. Who
consistently answer calls on the first or second ring.

6) An emergency station located at the emergency
parking lot with a big sign above it (similar to the
car jockey service at hotels) to receive patients.
That is manned 24 hours a day, never ever left
unattended.

7) An ISO reponse time from the time you send out an
sos call to 999 you will receive the assistance you
need within 15 min.

These are my simple suggestions. Life is precious and
should be preserved above all else. Without regard for
one another what kind of country are we leaving for
our children to inherit ??

Is this yet-another-incompetent-govt-service highlighted in the media? Or is this just an exaggerated story?

I personally think that there should be two sides of the stories heard, and a thorough investigations done to reveal the truth; if there is negligence in the A&E service, by all means, sack that "dungu" receptionist! However, if this is not the truth, I wish the media will clarify this to the public, and that the businesswoman Zara should apologize to all of us -- this indirectly reflect how bad the public hospital service is, and since I am one of the KKM employees, I am indirectly affected too.

I need to know the real truth, all truth and nothing but the truth...

My New 6828

Hoo-ray! Just received my long awaited iPaq rw6828, replacing my O2 mini. Since my brother got it at a cheaper price (thanks to HP's CAP pricing), and therefore I only paid RM1888 for this brand new unit. So far tested out for one day, and I must admit that the iPaq is much better than the O2 mini. Whether be it the built, the aesthetic look, the speed, the screen or the weight! Everything iPaq wins hands-down!

I bought a anti-glare screen protector from Brando, and it is really working as advertised! Thanks Brando. And I got myself a 2GB Apacer Mini SD from Lelong, and so far it is fast and stable.

Well, let's have a quick look at the pros and cons of this rw6828.

Pros:
1. Light weight
2. Gorgeous screen!
3. Nice plastic screen cover
4. Classy
5. Speedy
6. Stable
7. No issue on stylus drift
8. ROM upgrade is easy
9. Speakers in front (hence, louder and stereo effect)
10. Good and fast WiFi connection
11. It's an iPaq!

Cons:
1. Plastic-feeling (compared to O2 mini)
2. Camera is awfully slow!
3. Mini-SD slot (why can't they just make a normal SDIo slot?)
4. Slightly thicker compared to O2 mini
5. So-so battery life...
6. Ringtone is soft!
7. Need to remove stylus first, before opening up the plastic screen cover (otherwise it will block the way of the stylus silo)
8. Not fully compatible with my iTech Clip II Mini bluetooth headset --> Correction: Its FULLY compatible with my iTech Clip II Mini!

Well, but overall, if I rated the O2 mini 4 out of 5; this babe I'll give her a 4.9 out of 5! :)
No regret having it!! Love it.

Spam Mail

Saw this news in the Malay Mail's headline yesterday:

"Cheap prescription drugs on-line - BAD MEDICINE"

And I am pretty shocked to know that there are actually people who purchase pills like Viagra or other so-called-health-products over the internet! I always think that people will just swear or curse whenever they see such spam mails in their mailbox, and the next action will be deleting all of them. I have never opened up any of the spam mails or mails from people whom I don't know, in fear of getting unnecessary viruses into my PC. And furthermore, I think it's a waste of time looking at those spams -- I seriously think these people who spam, should get on with a more meaningful life, as life is short and precious; seize the day, and make it an extraordinary one.

Another Myth...

After blogging about Human vs Cow, here is another myth greatly affecting majority of the Chinese population here. They think there is a NEED to feed all newborns with plain water (sky juice) -- preferably alternating with each milk feeding; for they fear that if they don't give them plain water, and just give them solely milk, the babies will get dehydrated and become heaty! Then the consequences will be constipation, followed by abdominal distension, vomit, poor oral intake, jaundice blah blah blah.... A long list of complications!

It's pretty hard to convince those young mothers to just give milk and no other plain water -- even the young mothers are convinced to do so, there is always a great force behind her to go against all these "western" advice -- the infamous Mother-In-Law!! So far i have encountered many young mothers, especially Chinese, have difficulties and in great dilemma because they are sandwiched between their personal thoughts, and that of their MIL's!

I even encounter jaundiced babies with serum bilirubin as high as 19mg/dL at day 3, but refused to get the babies admitted -- because the MILs have some "traditional herbs" to cure that "disease"! They refuse phototherapy, because they think that when babies cry a lot in under the photoRx, it is heartbreaking; if they bring the babies out of it, they get scolded by the nurses... So when some of them, according to my consultant with >15 yrs experience, end up in the cerebral palsy clinic, they beg the doctors to do their best.

The Simpsons Movie

The Simpsons cartoon series -- one of my all-time favourite, especially when I was still studying in Ireland. Even skipped revision one day before major exam, but just couldn't miss a single episode of Simpsons! Next year the Simpsons will be in the theatre... and I really hope it will be a great one! :)

Human vs Cow

After a few years working in this hospital, I realize an interesting fact about breastfeeding and bottle feeding...

Chinese : 9/10 bottle feed (cow's milk)
Ibans: 9/10 breastfeed

My consultant always advice the mothers: Cow drinks cow milk, human drinks human milk.
So if this is the case, with my observation here... who's the cow? ;) (just kidding though!)

Many people here are over-influenced by the milk advertisement about how early introduction of DHA, AHA, extra calcium etc... can help the growing child in every way. I know they want the best for their babies, but I think they get the whole concept wrong!

Breastmilk is still the best for your babies.

Microsoft FireFox!

Came across this humourous site and I think it's the best joke of the year! ;)

I wonder if Bill Gates will finally reach this stage!

Microsoft FireFox

I have not been using IE ever since I found FireFox...

Housemen Not Allowed To Do Discharge Summary

Recently my hospital has come out with a circular, stating that with effect from 15 Nov, all house officers are NOT allowed to sign any discharge summary for hospital in-patients. All discharge certs must be signed by ONLY medical officers of the respective wards! The reason given by the hospital director is that there are many medico-legal implication if housemen are allowed to write and sign the discharge certs.

So nowadays, in my hospital, at least in my wards, house officers are pretty lepak. Major procedures (like chest tubes, femoral lines, peritoneal dialysis, or even inserting CBD for neonates) are all done by MOs; referral cases from district or more difficult cases (like HUS, ARF, mixed AGN-Nephrotic etc.) are clerked by MOs; setting IV lines by MOs (if the nurses tried hard and still can't get it); setting long lines for TPN by MOs; preparing TPN by MOs; ward rounds, if the HOs are slow to finish, again will be reviewed and cleared up by MOs; clinics run by MOs (no HO in clinic!); chemo drug preparation by MOs; if HOs shortage, no EOD calls allowed for HOs, and so the MOs gotta do HO calls.... And now, even discharge certs must be by MOs!!!

Well, for those final year med students graduating next year, you can really really consider my hospital for housemanship posting! Good for you -- easy money, and easy life; unlike working in HKL or JB! ;)

Seriously, think about it!

Addendum: Now my HOD decides that all HOs can write the discharge certs, and sign them; but still need MOs to countersign -- responsibility still on MOs, should it turns up to be a medicolegal case later! Hmm...

Online Video Tutorial "How To Use a PDA"

Discovered this link at doctorsgadget.com which has a very nicely done Online Video Tutorials for newbies in medical (or even applicable to non-medical people) field, on "how to use the PDA" in daily work. They feature on the use of "Diary", "Task List", "Notes" etc in daily medical rounds. And best of all, they compare both Palm and PPC platforms side by side. So for those newbies who are still wondering which platform to go for, do take a look at how the two platforms work -- you might finally decide to choose from one of the platforms after looking at the video tutorials.

iTech Clip II Mini

Bought the iTech Mini bluetooth headset few days ago, and so far very satisfied with it.

Pros:
1. Light weight and small form factor
2. Cool looking when putting this on!
3. Ear piece fits nicely, and the rubberized edge gives extra grip when put on
4. Adjustable volume -- pretty decent sound quality

Cons:
1. Expensive (compare to non-bluetooth, normal wired headset!)
2. Wire not retractible (so it will dangle around... not so nice)
3. Delay in connecting calls (about 3-5 seconds after u press the button at the ear piece before connection established)

But overall, I would rate this headset 4 out of 5 stars! :)

"Ugly" Taxi Drivers

Read this in The Star today

Students pay RM250 for KL-PJ taxi ride

KUALA LUMPUR: In the wake of calls for everyone to be friendly to visitors from abroad, some students from China had a first-hand encounter with “the ugly Malaysian.”

The students had attended a talk on Friday about how Malaysians were friendly and hospitable and were inspired to tell their family and friends back home about it.

Their enthusiasm, however, was short-lived when they boarded two taxis outside Wisma MCA here and were allegedly fleeced by the cabbies.

One group of students claimed they had to pay RM250 to get from Jalan Ampang to the Stamford College in Petaling Jaya. The other group, travelling the same route, claimed they had to fork out RM200. ...

Well, I had similar experience back in college days as well. One fine day, I was rushing for the next upcoming lecture (I was late), and I fell down the steps and sprained my left ankle joint. I could hear the loud "crack" sound and I knew (at that time, I had no anatomy knowledge what-so-ever) my bones were broken (later I found out it was just ligament tear)! And the pain was so intense, that I had to call and inform my lecturer that I couldnt make it to her class.

I limped towards the nearby bus station, but knowing that all those buses won't travel to my house, so I had to wave at a taxi, and painfully I climbed into the cab and said,"Mister... I have a broken leg, can u please send me home at XXX garden?" The wicked man turned to me and grinned -- then he said "Well, sonny, 100 bucks, how 'bout that?!"

WTF! 100 bucks! Usually it only cost Rm15 to get home from college!

I pleaded to him again hoping that he was a kind soul, "Please mister... I am really in pain, but I really don't have that much of money... can we go by meter instead?" And now he was angry,"Sonny, take it or leave it... there are better clients who can pay me this amount, get lost!" I was stunned by his rude attitude. I had to get off the cab, painfully and slowly...

Finally, to make story short, I reached home after transitting 2 buses, and walked another 20 minutes to my house doorstep -- 3 hours in total. My ankle was so swollen up that I nearly fainted then! So painful. (That's why nowadays I always give ample of pain relief to my patients, becoz pain is a very subjective experience!)

I could never forgive that taxi driver. I wish he ended up one day in the hospital (for whatever reason) and I could be there to return him a "nice treat"! ;)

MAS Domestic Fare

In the Star today:

MAS agress to relook its domestic fares following complaints

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia Airlines will look again into its domestic fare structure following public complaints that they are too pricey.

Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy said the national carrier agreed to re-look certain sectors after a two-and-a-half hour meeting at his office here yesterday.

“MAS and the ministry will look into the fares and come up with a proposal later. These involve only certain (domestic) sectors but in comparison, I must say that the fares are still quite competitive.

“Whatever it is, since there is a lot of public concern, MAS is quite prepared to look into it. The airline has agreed to meet up with my officers as early as next week,” he told reporters after a meeting with MAS managing director Idris Jala....

I really hope that the Ministry of Transport will look into this matter, and in near future there will be a reduction in the domestic airfare by MAS. Currently, I have to pay RM888 (cheapest) to travel from Sibu to KLIA. That's really expensive! But when comes to AirAsia, although it's much cheaper, there is always delay and strict hand-carry item policy imposed. I still enjoy travelling by MAS despite the expensive airfare.

Monetary Temptation

Saw this in today's The Star paper

Malaysian doctor jailed for selling drugs in Singapore

A Singapore judge today sentenced Malaysian doctor Yap Cheng Kwee to 12 and three months' imprisonment for selling sleeping pills without a licence and possession of illegal drugs respectively.

The sentences are to run concurrently and the judge set S$120,000 bail pending the hearing of his appeal. The court also ordered Yap to surrender his passport.

On Aug 17, Yap was detained by Central Narcotics Bureau officers in a car park in Woodlands Town Centre just as he was sealing a deal with a drug trafficker. He was found with 10,000 Dormicum pills and 16 triazolam sedative tablets. On Nov 9, he pleaded guilty.

Such a pity for him and his family members, must be very heart-broken. My parents always remind me not to be tempted by illegal ways of getting rich fast. Work hard, work smart; slow and steady wins the race in life!

VGA Pocket PC Phone

Saw this dream device today -- O2 XDA Flame at PocketPC Thoughts. And I think this is truly a device I am drooling over these years! Finally O2 is answering to the requests by all the PDA geeks. But just hope that they will shrink down the size to that of a O2 mini, and it shall be a perfect convergent device!

Running with an Intel XScale PXA270 520MHz CPU, 2GB ROM, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, USB On-The-Go, a 2.0-megapixel camera, SRS Mobile HD surround sound support, and TV-out support... What else can I ask for more! :)

Bilitool

Came across this site today, BiliTool, and I think it is a very useful tool for pediatric trainees in post-natal wards, checking on babies' serum bilirubin level prior to discharging them.

This nifty little freeware is also available in Palm platform. So for those with a Palm handheld, it should come in handy when checking SB for the newborns.

For those doctors with only PocketPCs, you can try Styletap, which essentially is a Palm emulator. But it's not a freeware though!

O2 Mini

Just received my second hand O2 Mini, off Lelong.com.my. Bought it for RM1k, and one month warranty. I thought it was still a little expensive, but I dislike spending hours and hours everyday, just to grab the better deal, probably just 50 bucks cheaper!

Anyway, after trying it out thoroughly for one full day, I realise a few things:

Pros:
1. A 2-in-1 device is really convenient! I dont have to carry a phone and a PDA anymore!
2. Small and decent weight when held in hand
3. Clear display (although cant compare to my x50v VGA screen!)
4. SMS using the built-in virtual keyboard or graffiti is just so simple and fast, compared to conventional T9 method in my phone!

Cons:
1. Digitiser drift problem...!! Really serious! Have to do the re-alignment 4-5x/day!
2. Soft speaker compared to other convention handphones
3. Still WM2003, and not WM5

Now that my wife is eyeing on it, since it is small and a convergent unit -- I might exchange this O2 with her TX! And so I might be out of the darkside again?!

Rule of Threes

Rule of Threes:
Can't live more than 3 minutes without air
Can't go more than 3 hours without shelter
Can't go more than 3 days without water
Can't go more than 3 weeks without food
Can't go more than 3 months without hope

My thought: It's for hope that humans strive to live on...

PDA in Education

Came across this site Globalclassroom.org and I am amazed to see this little girl (2nd grade student), using her Palm IR function to print documents! I wonder how many Malaysian primary two students know about PDA, let alone knowing how to activate the IR function and do printing!

But I am really looking forward to one day in near future, that all students use PDAs in classes -- no more cheating by rubbing off wrong answers, and then ask for marks from teachers! ;)

Disaster Drill

Today while conducting our usual ward rounds, the speakers of each ward started beeping with a monotonous sound for a few seconds, and followed by a voice announcing "To all HODs and MOs of every department, please be on high alert; there is a plane crash landing in Sibu Airport. Standby for Disaster Plan". Everyone then stunned. All ward rounds stopped. Patients who didn't understand English, started gossipping around, asking neighboring beds what was going on...

As Paediatric Team, we had to rush to the assigned clinics, to standby as Green Zone Triage Support Team. And other disciplines will mainly stay put at the A&E. We could hear the wailing sounds of sirens all over, and even the Pertahanan Awam ambulances are sent off to the airport too. Nurses and attendants getting ready all the resuscitation trolleys and equipment; security guards controlling the traffic at every point of entry and exit of hospital; and every doctor had their hands gloved up (nice to see this for the first time in my working career!) Everyone of us was anxious, and anticipating what worst scenario there could be, in such emergency disaster. Which plane could it be involved in this? AirAsia or MAS?

2 hours later, another announcement made "Thank you for your participation in this emergency drill"! Everyone was like WTF! and minutes later all of us started to disperse ourselves back to ward. Although it was just a drill, i think it was necessary to make it like real life scenario... otherwise, if it was announced as a drill from the start, I am sure the turn up rate will be probably just 50% or less... and everyone's mood will not be there too!

Interesting experience for me for today! And thankfully there isn't a real crash landing happening in this peaceful town...

Do We Really Need GPS?

I bought a GPS receiver not long ago, and was frantically using it whenever I went driving around town, especially when I was back in KL. Recently, I have stopped using it, partly because I am in Sibu (oh c'mon you don't really need one to navigate around... nobody gets lost here in Sibu!), and also partly due to the fact that my PDA recently gives me a real headache... crashes too often!

I happen to read this article in PC Magazine, entitled "Overrated GPS Annoys Dvorak". Very interesting, and I find it particularly hilarious in this paragraph...

One of the most annoying aspects of the GPS in-car system is the vocal directions. "Keep going straight" is one of my favorite commands. It's telling me to do what I'm already doing? Why? Surely it knows that I am going straight, doesn't it?

The voice itself needs to be changed. I think this is a wonderful opportunity for third-party vendors. For example, a bickering old lady would make a great voice for the thing. "Hey, don't you think you're going a little fast, sonny?" Or the voice of an out-and-out shrew. "Slow down, you idiot, there's a left turn coming up!" "Turn left now, you moron!"

Actually this is really true, you know... after a while, I get sick of that female voice, keeps on asking me to turn right, when there is no road but only a drain! Gosh!

Having said that, I must admit that the maps contributed by a bunch of enthusiasts at Malsingmaps.com are really good and afterall it's free! I have tried Navitech as well, but found that the Garmin-Malsingmaps combination is still the best for me!

Well, I don't use the GPS for now. But probably when I go back to KL someday, I need it again!

Palm Addict

For the past few months, I have been rather addicted to a website -- Palm Addict. It used to be only blog about Palm OS related hardware and software; but recently, there have been a lot of entries discussing about WM and Linux. Every morning, before I go to work, it is always a habit for me to surf the internet; and I usually will start off with Palm Addict. The updates are so frequent, and there are so many interesting write-ups by people all over the world. It is very enjoying reading people's usage of PDAs in their daily life, and in fact at times, I learn so much from them, as to further utilise my PDA.

There are of coz many other sites which I visit daily, but since I am blogging about Palm Addict today... that's why I am not mentioning other excellent sites for now. But afterall, I am a PDA-addict!

Back From Honeymoon!

Hi! I have been MIA (Missing In Action) for the past one month or so! Now I am back. Actually I was taking 3 weeks off for my wedding ceremony and also followed by a honeymoon trip on a cruise to Japan and Korea! :)

Now everything is over, and its back to work again. And I had my first call last Wednesday, after coming back from the long break... and true enough, as my friend always tells me "God is fair!" -- I had a terrible call, and one patient died despite all the hard effort trying to save him. And with the exchange transfusion in the midst of the crash team for the collapse patient... really was a bad one though. So it's not true to say, in my previous post, that calls during festive seasons are good...

Anyway, i enjoyed myself a lot before this, and now it's serious work again.

And oh yes, to make things worse -- my PDA crashed needing a hard reset, and I have not been doing regular backups lately (due to the honeymoon period), therefore, I lost a lot of precious data. Murphy's Law applies...

What Is Happening To Malaysia?

Recently there is turmoil here and there... in fact everywhere, in Malaysia's political arena. Today is Merdeka Day. But reading what Uncle Lim has to write in his blog, as well as all those comments by the blog readers, makes me go into deep thoughts -- What is going on in my motherland? Of all the comments there, I think the funniest (making me LOLROTF!) but probably true to a certain extent, is a comment made by the one who calls him/herself "ahbeng-in-malaysia"...

wah lau, i can cheat my gf 1 time hor, she don’t know, i cheat her 2nd time hor, she know a little bit, then hor cheat 3rd time, she slapped me and break-up. Now hor already 49 year, unmo and gang fool us for 49 years, we still like never wake up like that.. WE SO STUPID leh.. u vote your gomen and let him in charge for 5 years, then you kao-peh, koa-bu this no good, this not correct for 5 year, lau.. after 5 years later, you vote him back again. Then go another cycle for 10 times, STUPID right?

“Happy brithday, Malaysia.”

My wish for Malaysia is hor.. may his people wake up one day lor..

Well, sometimes it is really sad to know that Malaysia has arrived in this shape, after 49 years freed from the British empire. Where have all the prinsip-prinsip moral that we learned during the primary and secondary school days gone to? Aren't we supposed to have learned about equality (so that all races will live in harmony), honesty (especially admitting to hurting statements made, hence to apologise!) etc...

Whatever it is now, for this day of the year -- Happy Birthday Malaysia!

My New Toy -- Holux GPSlim236!

I got a call from the office yesterday, and was told that I have a parcel from Poslaju! Rushed down to the office, and whoalah... it's the GPS receiver Holux GPSlim236! I ordered it thru Practical Solutions on Tuesday @7am, and it arrived on Friday @11am! Pretty fast and smooth I must say! Thumbs-up for Practical Solutions! Bought it for USD99, inclusive of worldwide free delivery (a limited offer now still on)! I think that's a good bargain though! No problem with the Malaysian Custom Dept, coz the sender declared it as a gift of USD20! And so I think it went thru the custom check easily! Another thumbs-up for PS! :)

After reading thru the steps and info found at MalSingMaps, I have no problem setting up the Pocket PC, pairing it with the GPSr using bluetooth. A cold start of the Holux unit takes about 30-40 secs, and a hot start less than 10sec! That's pretty awesome! The pairing is swift and painless! I decided to use my ol' faithful iPaq 2210 for the pairing, becoz of two reasons: 1) i can install everything in the RAM, and this PDA will solely be "tested" for the GPS feature! And 2) my Dell x50v bluetooth is lately unstable... giving lots of "Bluetooth Expired" lame excuse... fed up!

I also got myself a cheap PDA holder for my car, and although it looks simple, it is rather solid and has a sturdy built (well, for a beginner like me, a cheap one will do lah!)... later maybe I will go for those branded ones like Arkon etc.

Today, I have been driving around town, and realise that many roads and POI are not updated in the maps provided by Malsingmaps. Probably there are not many (or in fact none?) people using GPS here in Sibu! Frankly no one needs a GPS here... nobody ever gets lost driving here in this town! ;) But nevertheless, it's cool to have such a gadget in-car, and drive around a non-busy town here, testing out the GPS features; so that in time to come, when I am back in KL, I will be familiar with this gadget, and the navigational system, and won't be distracted by the on-going heavy traffics there in KL while testing out the GPS!

This is a new hobby I am venturing in, and hope that in near future, after I have mastered it, I can contribute to the Malsingmaps for a more accurate Sibu map!

Bluetooth Keyboard For PDA

Have been rather quiet for a while. Today I thought of sharing with you guys my experience in using the bluetooth keyboard pairing with my PDAs. I have both the Brando Smart Bluetooth KB, as well as the Thinkoutside Stowaway BT KB! And I have both the Palm TX and Dell x50v. I did some research before buying my first KB, which is the Smart KB. That time, my decision to get the Smart KB was mainly influenced by a few reviews, and on top of that -- the price (cheaper than the Thinkoutside KB). After using it for a couple of months, I finally gave up!

I started searching for Thinkoutside KB online, and found a good deal at Gadgetino. And I bought it.

Both the KB have their pros and cons. But just a few obvious ones:

Pros of Smart KB:
-- light weight
-- easy to open up
-- on/off button
-- 5 rows of keys

Cons of Smart KB
-- flimsy design (at times cannot lay flat on table)
-- smaller keys (causing many errors while typing)
-- noticable delay in words appearing on screen after pressing the keys (more obvious in PPC, but better in Palm)

Pros of Thinkoutside KB
-- very well built, sturdy design
-- excellent keys (good tactile feel, and full sized keys)
-- lay flat and firm on table (can even be placed on my lap)
-- no delay in transmission (u see words appear as u type along)
-- many customizable function keys, minimizing the use of stylus

Cons of Thinkoutside KB
-- more expensive
-- no on/off button
-- 4 rows of keys only (but one can get used to it pretty fast)
-- difficult driver installation (esp in PPC: error message while installing)

In short, after using both the keyboards, I still think the Thinkoutside KB is the overall winner!

So for those of you who want to use bluetooth keyboard with the PPC, just go for Thinkoutside. Otherwise for Palm, either one can do! But if u really type a lot (i mean A LOT!) then its better off using the laptop/desktop to do that task -- still the best, IMO.

PDA at Lelong Site

Recently, I have been rather busy browsing through potential items to buy at lelong.com.my site. I have even influenced my colleagues into this spending spree -- And I am eyeing on either a Palm TX or a treo 650; as for my colleague, he is probably getting himself a Palm TX tonight! As a newbie, he sought advice from me, and I told him to get a Palm OS based PDA as it is more user-friendly and swift. No hassle! And I hope he will enjoy his new gadget once he gets it!

Tired Doc

There is an interesting topic over at MMR site, about "Tired of being a doctor". Frankly, I think doctors in Malaysia should be allowed to do calls under shift system, and each shift should not be more than 8 hours. And for every 3 night shifts, a doctor should be given days off to recuperate.

Just like yesterday, I had a bad call -- non-stop from 5pm till this morning 6am: 5 intubations, 3 periphery referrals, 1 emergency peritoneal dialysis for acute renal failure (but lucky to escape one exchange transfusion as the serum bilirubin came down at the right time!)... and there u are, I am still in the ward, with my zombified look, and bilateral ptosis, barely could think logically anymore -- so after finish preparing all the chemo drugs and discharge summaries, I am already half-dead here in my ward; luckily it is not so hectic in my ward today -- 25 patients, me alone, no houseman (my colleague needs to be at the Spastic Rehab Centre to help out in the weekly consultation).

Stomach growling, vision blurring, hands trembling -- luckily my nurses are nice enough to spare me with one piece of their roti canai they ordered earlier on! How pathetic! ;)

And worse of all, like what the MMR site states

“…The medicolegal position is that an error made while you are tired is still an error. Tiredness is no defence…”

So now u ask me, if my son asked me what he should be when he grew up, I would tell him anything except being a doctor! ;) Well... but if he somehow likes to be a doc, I will give him my full support too!

MyChingo

Just added MyChingo audio comment system to my blog. So any of you who would like to leave a comment, and let me hear your sweet voice... ur all welcome! :)

Daro Relieving

I was MIA for the past few days 'coz I was relieving at Daro Hospital for a week. That was my 3rd time going to this small town, 3-hour boat ride up the Rejang river. Very isolated place, but the people there are really nice and friendly. Broadband internet was something I missed the past one week; though the hospital has a dial-up service, it was like ages ago since i ditched the dial-up and got so used to broadband surfing experience! ;) But anyway, at least I could still check my emails... nothing more than that, the line was just toooooo slow!

This is the kind of express boat I took to Daro. RM17 per trip. But the aircond wasn't really working well, on my trip back home... Felt dizzy in the boat -- too warm! Like an incubator...

And this was a picture I drew with my Axim x50v, using PocketArtist -- at times, it could be dead boring there!

Wise Quote

The secret of getting ahead is getting started.
The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one. —Mark Twain

How "Malaysian" Are You?

I got this from a friend's website, and thought it is interesting and funny. Let's see if you are a true Malaysian! ;)

You Know You're Malaysian When...
1. You complain about the quality of the pirated DVD you just purchased. "What, RM10 for DVD5?! Aiyah, boss ... sound no good, cheaperlah ..."

2. You're willing to consume sambal petai and durian and gladly suffer the bloating and wind-breaking incidents.

3. You're exceedingly polite to the Mat Sallehs but you sl*g your own kind. "Hello, sir. Why don't you sit here, it?s got the best view of the city skyline." But, "Aunty-ah, your table is over there next to the kitchen."

4. You order Maggi goreng and fried chicken, complain about how oily the food is, and then proceed to finish it anyway.

5. You love to talk about food. You're already thinking about what to have for dinner while eating lunch. "I'm stuffed. What shall we have for dinner?"

6. You dive into a communal-style meal the moment the dish lands on the table only to hesitate at the last morsel of food on the serving dish. There are two possible explanations for this: the first is the pai seh (embarrassed) factor, while the other is the myth that the person who eats the last piece will be a spinster.

7. You hit the accelerator the moment the first drop of rain hits your windshield. "Alamak, it's going to rain. Sure traffic jam one. I'd better drive faster."

8. You seize the opportunity to make a U-turn anywhere ... especially where there is a sign telling you not to. Well, so long as the cops aren't in sight.

9. You feel a burning desire to send text messages and even have the gall to give your friend a blow-by-blow account of the movie to your friend on the handphone ? during the screening of the movie. "Okay, now that girl Lizzie is impersonating an Italian singer; she so doesn?t look Italian ..."

10. You forsake your loved ones for the all-important four letter-word: S-A-L-E. "Sorry, mum, I can't take you to Aunt Mary's because I have to go to MidValley before the crowd." You?re also more than happy to be part of the insane traffic jam that forms around malls during weekends and sale periods.

11. Reality shows Akademi Fantasia and Malaysian Idol dictate your social life. "What, no TV at the mamak? Count me out ? I'm staying home. Rinie needs my support."

12. You pepper every sentence with lah. "No-lah, I can't see you today-lah. I have to study-lah. You know-lah, the prison warden aka mak is watching me like a hawk"

13. You fail to function normally without your daily dose of teh tarik and nasi lemak.

14. You have owned at least one Proton in your lifetime. Cheap, cheap. That is until you start to make enough dough to buy that Honda you've been salivating over.

15. You slow down at an accident site to take down the car number plate, but won't step out of your car to help ? the victim could be a robber!

16. You'd rather park your car along the main road outside the mall, where there's a yellow line, rather than pay RM1 to park inside where there are adequate bays.

17. You plead, bat your eyelids and relate a sob story to the officer at the town council office to let you off the hook (or reduce the amount considerably) for the fine you incurred when you parked your car on the double line.

18. You make an appointment for 10am and conveniently show up a half hour late ? Malaysian time, what ...

19. You pop open the wet tissue packet at the Chinese restaurant by squeezing the trapped air to the top of the packet before proceeding to smash your fist into it. The louder the pop the better.

20. You greet your friend / neighbor / acquaintance on the street with "How are things?" or "Have you eaten?" or better yet, by stating the obvious: "Went to market ah?"

21. Ramlee burger is the "piece de resistance" of your growing-up-years cuisine.

22. You catch all major televised events at the mamak.

23. You have roughly six meals a day (breakfast, mid-morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and supper). Then there's the snacking ? keropok ikan, pisang goreng, muruku, jam tarts and the like.

24. You get the whole family dressed to the nines, jump into the car and head for the minister's open house ? and ask for styrofoam boxes and plastic bags to tar pau food.

25. Your accent and language style vary according to the race of the person you are conversing with.

26. You've got a friendly disposition. Smiles are abundant and your "Apa khabar?" is warm and sincere.

27. You exclaim loudly how expensive everything is, even though the items may in fact be going for a steal. "Wah! So expensive, ah? Hak sei ngor (Scare me to death)!"

28. You dig deep into your pockets to contribute to the latest appeal for donations in the newspapers.

29. You "dis" our country all the time, but as soon as something good happens (like winning the Thomas Cup), you morph into a proud Malaysian.

30. You never travel abroad without a bottle of chilli sauce, or sachets which you can sneak into restaurants.

I am proud to be a Malaysian! :)

The Art Of Getting Things Done (Part II)

I was blogging about David Allen's Getting Things Done quite a while ago. And I am still fascinated and addicted to learning more about the tips and tricks to manage my life and time better. Constantly improving myself is something I find worthwhile doing all the time. I come across this website by Sylvia, and she has quite a huge collection of GTD resources.

So now if you have a Palm or Pocket PC, start making the To-Do list/Tasklist into various categories so that they look neater and more organised. Example:

@Agendas-Office: Items to cover with specific people at work.
@Anywhere: Actions that can be done wherever I am.
@Call: Actions requiring a phone.
@Errands: Things to do while out-and-about, such as on the way home from work.
@Home: Actions to be done at home, at places other than my desk.
@Home Desk: Actions that can only be done at my desk at home.
@Office: Actions to be done at the office, at places other than my desk.
@Office Desk: Actions that can only be done at my desk at work.
@Waiting For: Actions other people are doing that I need to keep track of.

Or we can actually categorise them in any other ways which we like or suit us. The sky is the limit to doing this. Try and see, you will be more organised from now on.

JPA Scholarship

Read this post in China Press today, about a Chinese boy who didn't get any scholarship despite having 16A's in SPM. So after appeal made to JPA, he was finally given a scholarship to study medicine, not in UK or Ireland, but in Czechoslovakia. I know Czech is a country with some of the finest medical schools in the world, and I believe a good doctor is produced not because he or she comes from a prestigious med school, but the personality and character of that person as a whole. However, in this issue, I just feel that this boy deserves a better treatment from our JPA. There are lots of other people with less than 16A's are sent directly to the well-known UK or Irish medical schools. But this poor guy will be sent to Czech, probably need to learn a whole new language, just to survive there.

He has 16A's man... not just 8As or 10As! When I got 8As in SPM back in my days, I already thought I was very good. Looking at those achievers nowadays, 10-15As on average... my goodness, I really salute them from the bottom of my heart! So why is JPA doing this to this poor guy? Why can't he deserve a better scholarship to pursue medical degree in USA/UK/Ireland, just like others? I know that could be expensive, compared to going to Czech. But at least let him enter a twinning program like those in PMC or IMU, where he will later have a chance to be in the USA/Ireland/UK? Double Standard, 'nuff said.

4th Dell PC

After blogging about "Dell Boleh" back in May, the nightmare of my Dell PC crashing didn't just end there. For weeks, ever since I purchased my first PC from them, it has always crashed upon me, for whatever reason I never understood. But luckily, Dell has been very patient with me, and for their extremely commendable service provided, I have been getting many replacement units, whether be it parts like speakers, processor chip, memory chips; or even the whole CPU getting replaced for me.

The funny thing is that, ever since I got the PC, it's been like a curse that I shouldn't own one of these superb machine! The PC will crash, and crash and nothing but crash in front of me, even if I havn't installed anything in it yet (so this ruled out any conflict in softwares). The whole PC would just go in a loop of booting-and-rebooting... endless! Occasionally it can go into Windows, but there won't be any sound. Other times, it would say my thumb drive is faulty (but in actual fact, my thumb drive is not at all the problem!).

So finally, the fourth replacement unit arrived at my doorstep yesterday. And of course, it is also an upgrade from previous model -- so imagine I am having an even more overkill machine now -- Intel Core Duo 3.2GHz! And true enough this time, I am the lucky star -- my machine works flawlessly till now (still keeping my fingers crossed!)... and it is so speedy and smooth -- never before I have played with such a perfect system! :)

Dear PC... Please don't let me down anymore, ok?

But anyway, thanks Dell. You're still the best!

MC For FootBall Fans

I received this interesting picture from a friend of mine: Doctor's MC for all football fans out there, during this world cup season! So go get one if you are too tired to go working the next day! :)

IT technician

Of late, my colleagues have been taking for granted, that I'm the gadget-man around whenever needed.

When they need to take pictures of either X-rays, CT films or clinical signs of the patients, they will look for me, as I carry with me an iXus 40 digicam everyday.

When they need to look up detailed information about complicated topics like Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia, during the departmental CME, they will all stare at me, while I flip out my x50v to search through Nelson Pediatrics!

During ward rounds, when my consultants forget about the exact dosages for ciprofloxacin or aciclovir -- they turn to me, and say,"Can you look up in your little computer for the dosages?" In fact I am just using the Frank Shann DrugDoses!

When they need to use the calculator while discussing about a patient by the corridor, no one has one in the pocket (coz the calculators are in the wards) -- they turn to me and ask if I could calculate for them the body surface area of that patient, again using my little computer!

When the projector is not projecting the images from the laptop PowerPoint, they turn to me and ask for my help "Err...how come no image ah? Need to press what button on this laptop?" is the usual routine question asked, to indirectly request me to help them get the images projected on the wall! ;)

So once I joked with my boss, "Besides on call claim, can I also claim extra for the IT services I provide for the department?"

Portable Apps

Recently I have been quietly enjoying the Mozilla Firefox and OpenOffice softwares installed in my hospital ward computer, without the admin people knowing it -- thanks to PortableApps making it possible. Most of us who work in big hospitals, will have access to the internet using IE, which is pre-installed. Many of us don't have the admin rights to install new softwares into the computers, because they are usually server based, ie. unless you have the admin password to do so! So even if you are a Firefox addict, you won't be able to install it to use in the hospital computers. But now, thanks to the PortableApps, we can surf net using Firefox anywhere, anytime. Very simple, just download and install the Portable Firefox into your thumbdrive, and bring your thumbdrive everywhere. Plug into the computer, and run the firefox from your thumbdrive. That's it, just so simple!

Some of the computers in my hospital do not have Microsoft Office installed, and the IT team is not willing to take the effort to install the Portable OpenOffice (which is a freeware) in them as well (strange people...) So again, with PortableApps, I successfully install the OpenOffice (inclusive of Word, Excel and PowerPoint equivalent) into my thumbdrive and use it in any computer with ease -- can even detect the default printer and print documents too! ;)

Try and you will enjoy it!

Da Vinci Code

Just watched the most controversial movie of the year "Da Vinci Code" last night. Actually I am surprised to see most people and papers rate this film "C-"! After watching it, I think it deserves an "A" or at least "B+". In fact I am thinking that those who give a low rating to this movie are people who are already "pre-judgmental" and bias of this film. They think that this movie is somehow "degrading" the Christianity as a whole, and also twisting the facts from what is documented in the holy bible. Well, it's just fiction, folks! I always think that if people are to be so naive in differentiating fiction from facts, then these people can't be the leaders of the future. These people are not firm in their teachings and faith. They need to re-read the whole bible! ;) There are even blogs which I read, about people condemning Tom Hanks for acting in this movie, aiyoh... c'mon lah, guys, be more sensible a bit! Come back to the real world!

I salute Dan Brown, not only because he writes great novels, but also he makes people believe that his fictional world and thoughts, are "facts" to many people -- causing unnecessary turmoils! Goodness gracious! Gullible humans! ;)

Minister Above Law

Sometimes when you see the double standard policy our country is practising, makes us really fumed and frustrated. The other day my friend called me up, telling me that he just got a summon from the police officer, for parking along the yellow line because his mum was sick, and he needed to get some medications from a pharmacy outlet. He couldn't find a proper place to park his car then. And upon returning to his car in less than 5 minutes, he already saw the summon clipped under his car wiper!

Now if we take a look at this picture posted by the public at the Hall of Shame Gallery... this is what I call Double Standard!!! ;(
Do you think the police officer dare to even go near this car?