Beginner's blog

Insomnia

2007-07-15T04:05:00.001+12:45

Ahhh my second late night in as many nights. Why do I always feel like I never need any sleep immediately after my exams? Yeah that sounds familiar. And so is waking up the next morning regretting how I felt the night before. Alas Im rostered to serve in church tomorrow and therefore I really can't afford to pull any unearthly stunts tonight. I should have been in bed ages ago. I apologise for my misbehaviour.

I had attended an awesome prayer meet earlier this evening before retiring to my friend's place where a smaller group of us just sat around and chatted. The prayer meet reminded me again of how much God loves my family. Well... and how much he loves everyone else family for that matter. I have never prayed so hard for something before. And I have cried more over my parents and brothers than everything else in my life put together. The verse that He gave me was simple but powerful. Something God wanted me to stop knowing in my head and to start experiencing.

Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
And lean not on your own understanding
In all your ways acknowledge him
And he will make your paths straight.

Prayer items tonight:
1. Family
2. Launch of Hope for Herbertpur
3. An expectant heart for church
4. Smooth ushering

Deep Down Inside Im Actually Very Superficial...

2007-07-14T04:21:00.000+12:45

I was walking home from a friend's place late last night while carelessly munching on a piece of donut when a girl standing at the side of the road said 'Yummy'. I turned around to acknowledge her and went 'Yeah. It is pretty good' to which she replied 'Yeah? Well that's good. You have a good morning' and I gave the standard 'Thanks. You too' and continued on my way.

As I was walking I started to wonder if I really cared what her morning was like. Surely if I were to wish anyone a good morning it was because I honestly wanted their morning to be good. But then I realized I actually couldnt care less how her morning went. And I was pretty confident that she had as much concern for my morning as I did for hers. So why did we find it necessary to exchange such pleasantries?

It is strange that we sometimes tend to say things that merely sounds nice or is what we think the other person wants to hear rather than what we actually feel. But I suppose 'Thanks. You too' is highly preferable to 'Thanks. I wish I could say the same for your morning' even though that is decidedly more accurate. But I can't shake off the feeling that our paths may never cross again. And now I could only wish that I had something more substantial to say to her than that.

Elective 2008

2007-07-13T18:09:00.000+12:45

After 4 months of deliberation I've managed to cut the list down to 10 and thought it deserved an entire new post of its own. From here on a single destination country would be removed every other week until I make my final pick in mid-november. Cost has yet to be taken into consideration and I am still in the midst of working out my means of funding.

Shortlisted Countries For Elective 2008 - 11th Round
1. China
2. France
3. Kenya/Tanzania
4. Peru
5. Tibet
6. Turkey
7. United Arab Emirates
8. Zambia/Zimbabwe

Eliminated
1. Brazil
2. Egypt

Tauranga 2 Weeks

2007-04-20T19:22:00.000+12:45

It's shocking. And this coming from a self-confessed non-movie person. Those who know me well enough knows that I fall asleep in literally every movie that I sit through. But since arriving at the famed Bay of Plenty the boredom that is Tauranga seemed to have well and truly trumped that.

The day after I touched down I took out 6 DVDs and 2 days later I had taken out another 6. Following is what I think of them:
1. Kingdom Of Heaven --9.1--
2. Ladder 49 --9.0--
3. Jerry Maguire --8.9--
4. The Shawshank Redemption --8.8--
5. Pride And Prejudice --8.6--
6. A Few Good Men --8.2--
7. The Perfect Storm --8.2--
8. Meet Joe Black --8.0--
9. Good Will Hunting --7.9--
10. 300 --7.7--
11. Flyboys --7.4--
12. Saw --7.2--
13. Sunshine --7.2--
14. Hannibal --6.8--
15. Mercury Rising --6.8--
16. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind --6.7--
17. Pan's Labyrinth --6.7--
18. V For Vendetta --6.6--
19. Saw II -6.3--
20. Shooter --6.3--
21. 7 Years In Tibet --6.2--
22. Sleepless In Seattle --6.1--
23. The Skeleton Key --6.1--
24. Pathfinder --6.0--
25. Red Dragon --6.0--
26. The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen --6.0--
27. The Reaping 6.0
28. Take The Lead --5.8--
29. The Dark --5.0--
30. The Silence Of The Lambs --5.0--
31. Mr Bean's Holiday --3.2--

Pathfinder, The Reaping, Sunshine, Flyboys, Shooter, 300, Mr Bean's Holiday and Pan's Labyrinth was inserted to help offer some perspective relative to newer releases.

Elective 2008

2007-03-28T21:58:00.000+12:45

So I managed to do some research and came up with the 25 most attractive countries to spend 10 weeks in at the end of next year while completing my elective. Cost has not been taken into consideration but I reckoned that if I was really keen to go somewhere I would figure out ways to fund it. In line with trying to keep my options open for as long as possible I would trim the list every other week until only one remain.

Shortlisted Countries For Elective 2008 - 8th Round
1. Brazil
2. China
3. Ecuador
4. Egypt
5. France
6. Kenya/Tanzania
7. Peru
8. Tibet
9. Turkey
10. United Arab Emirates
11. Zambia/Zimbabwe

Eliminated
1. Saudi Arabia
2. Puerto Rico
3. South Africa
4. Russia
5. Chile
6. Italy
7. Japan
8. Spain
9. India
10. Poland
11. Israel/Palestine
12. United States of America
13. Jordan
14. Australia

This Is Spinal Tap

2007-01-23T06:49:00.000+13:45

I don't know how much you guys would like this but I found it absolutely hilarious!! Watch it and let me know what you think. Classic.

Purest of Pain - Son By Four

2007-01-22T20:11:00.000+13:45

Continuing with my youtube obsession. Has anyone else seen this video? Its awesome.. one of the better sad songs out there. And I like anything sad so this is just me.

Chorus
Baby give me back my fantasy
The courage that I need to live
The air that I breathe
Living without you
My world's become so empty
The days are so cold and lonely
And each night I taste the purest of pain

Yep here's the live version. Son By Four and N'SYNC singing Purest of Pain and This I Promise You in spanish. Wasn't aware the boyband knew a second language.

Petaling Jaya - Summer 06

2007-01-22T15:12:00.000+13:45

Celebrity Big Brother

2007-01-22T05:19:00.000+13:45

Is this racism?

Well somebody was lying right from the beginning. Shilpa ordered more than her fair share of groceries on the shopping list (thus depriving others of what they could order) and now suddenly the only thing she ordered was oxo-cubes? Why make such a big fuss over a couple of oxo-cubes?

And who was to blame for her making an uncooked chicken for lunch a couple of days ago? If you make a mistake then be prepared to have someone point it out to you. The least you could do is to graciously apologise and attempt better in future. Or maybe as an actress she has never been taught that.

Many things could have been said to have happened throughout the course of the show; culturalism, classism, actressism. But racism? Not one of them.

Sorry blog...

2007-01-21T07:08:00.000+13:45

So it has been brought to my attention that my blog had been severely neglected for the entire duration of my stay back at home. My weekly verse has turned fort-monthly and my chatterbox was once again threatened with extinction. In less than a week I will be back in Auckland never again to return for a full 10 months.

These were among the events that stood out during my 7 long weeks back in Malaysia:
1. My entire family turning up for Christmas Service
2. Thrown in the deep end at church - leading worship and a bible study within 2 weeks of touching down
3. Shocking exam results
4. Alleged racism on Celebrity Big Brother
5. 800 minutes spent watching Grey's Anatomy with family
6. Massive flood in Johor Bahru
7. 50 hours spent on FF XII

So a short blog while I gradually hone my muse back to perfection after a long break. And once again sorry blog for not doing my job well. I will attempt better in future.

Exam Rants

2006-11-23T16:55:00.000+13:45

Over and done with Paper A!! Woooootttttttttttttttttttttttttt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was a 3 hour paper and I started really slowly at the beginning, making my way through less than 1/3rd after the first hour. I then realized I had to speed up and somehow managed to finish the rest of the paper within the next 45 minutes.. -_-''. I have such crap time management skills....

Just 2 more papers to go now. Below is all that I can remember of paper A.

Anesthetics (5 marks)
List down the common methods of oxygen delivery in the ward. Compare their advantage/disadvantages

So basic nasal prong, hudson mask, venturi mask question.
Also we were told by kam Cyle this would be coming out :)))

Locomotor
This was more like an ED question rather than a orthopaedic question. A young male crashes into a passenger while on his bike and suffers a fractured right femur.
1. What is your immediate management? (5 marks)
2. He starts to develop fever & hypoxia. List down 4 causes.
3. Can't remember what 3 was... Oh investigations to rule in/out your differentials.

I don't think I did very well here... dang and I spotted red flags/yellow flags which have obviously been asked too many times.

Cardiovascular (10 marks)
Yay a repeat question I read up on right before entering the hall!!!!!!!!! Thanks Shalina!!!! And one that my buddy spotted right on :))

Explain the rationale of using ACE-Inhibitors, beta-blockers and spironolactone in heart failure patients.

Opthalmology
This was a mix of very hard and very easy questions.
1. A whole paragraph for us to fill in blanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!
Cataract is a disorder of opacification of the (blank). Patients usually presents with (blank) visual loss. Surgical treatment for cataract is normally performed under (blank) anesthetic.

Yeah you get the idea... until it got to this part - The most common cause of cataract is (blank). Erm.... is it aging???? Dieded.... its either aging or.... couldn't think of anything else so I said aging... -_-''

2. Explain each of these conditions and give an example of an ocular condition that illustrates it.
Variable expressivity, genotypic heterogeneity, phenotypic heterogeneity, limited penetrance.
4 marks ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????
And who said ocular genetics doesn't get tested!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Another -_-''

3. A diagram of an eye is given. Mark out the cornea, lens, optic nerve etc. Woottttttttttttttt!!!!!!!!!!!!

4. Clinical examination of strabismus. Explain your findings for a child with left esotropia.
?? Gave it my best shot... Hirschprung/red reflex and swinging torch light test?

General Surgery
A couple of repeated questions from osce and past years!!!!!!!!! Wootttttttttttt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1. A pyloric obstruction question mixed with fluids I'm sure many would remember. Something about an immigrant from Hong Kong throwing up and losing weight for the past 4-6 weeks.
List your differentials (2 marks)
Pyloric obstructions secondary to gastric cancr or large peptic ulcer.
What would be his metabolic abnormality be (2 mark)
Hypokalaemic hypochloraemic metabolic alkalosis
What fluid would you use to replace/maintain him? (1 mark)
Normal saline with 20mmol K+
How would you monitor the fluid input? (2 mark)
Urine output, JVP, blood pressure, skin turgor etc

Can't remember what the last mark question was....

2. 4 scenarios about breast disorders e.g. fibroadenoma, breast carcinoma, abscess and gynaecomastia. The last question was funny. A 21 year-old guy presents with bilateral enlargement of his breast.
1. What is the diagnosis?
2. What would you consider before treating him surgically?
Erm.... Is he fit for surgery? erm... is he on hormonal therapy....? -_-''
Still don't know what the answer is. I'm guessing they're trying to elicit if the guy wants his breasts enlarged or not. Or maybe its something about liver disease?

Next was another pseudo-ED question. A motorcycle rider slams his bike against a lamp post. He had slurred speech and was confused etc
1. What is your initial management? (4 marks)
2. Hm... can't remember what this was.... I think it was about him getting fever and deteriorating with hypoxia. List 3 possible causes.
3. He is found to have both an extradural hematoma and significant intra-abdominal haemorrhage. Which one takes surgical priority?
4. How would you assess the level of consciousness in a comatose patient? What are the components in your assessment? (3 marks)
Tricky tricky.... I initially thought it was a neuro question. So my answer went something like this:

We could assess his brain stem reflex which comprises his pupillary reaction to light, dolls eye and caloric eye reflex. (hm... doesn't sound too suited to the question -_-''.... I better add something else.....)

Or alternatively we could obtain a Glasgow Coma Scale score. The components involved are eye movements, verbal response and motor movements.

Almost ran out of space on this one....... -_-''

Rheumatology
Again it wasn't SLE :((((((((((((((( I would have hammered that down to a T. What I thought was Reiters turned out to be AS instead -_-'' + :(((((
Well at least that's what some people said.

Part A: She presents with lower back pain and some arthritis.
Part B: Explain her diarroea. !!!!! (Enteropathic Reiters!!!!!!!!)
Part C: She presents with an acute red eye. What complication has developed and how would you manage it. (SCORE!!!!!!!!!!! Conjunctivitis as part of the Reiter's triad! Manage with ? Chloramphenicol).

Well in the end it wasn't Reiters so boo.

Endocrinology
You are a GP and you diagnose somebody with Impaired Glucose Tolerance.
1. What are the appropriate figures for this? Fasting and 2 hour Glucose Tolerance Test.
SCORE!

2. Name 2 clinical and 2 laboratory findings consistent with the metabolic syndrome.
I knew this one but almost tripped up. I didn't know where to put high blood pressure and initially had it under laboratoy findings with gout under clinical features -_-''. But then I changed that to hyperlipidaemia and hyperglycaemia so it was good. Clinical features truncal obesity and hypertension?

Next was a thyroid question. Someone presents with typical symptoms of hyperthyroidism.
1.What are the 2 most common cause?
Grave's and subacute thyroiditis

2.What two test would you do to distinguish between them?
Hm... I wasn't sure what they wanted so I had
a) Thyroid Function Test
b) Thyroid Peroxidase Antibody/ Thyroid gland isotope trapping rate
LOL I hope its not cheating...

3.What 2 classes of drugs would you start management initially?
CARBIMAZOLE & PROPHYLTHIOURACIL!!

These were all hinted (not too subtly....) by Braedvedt to be in our finals :))) Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!

Lab Med
Contrast the serology for hepatitis b between:
a. Acute vs chronic infection
b. Post-infection vs post-immunization.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Isn't this a 5th year question??????? And I'm just irritated cause I skimmed through this case a couple of days ago but couldn't remember the answer. ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it was frickin 4 marks -_-''

2nd question was about anaemia. Go. (4 marks)
A middle-aged woman presents with low Hb and MCV.
1. List your differentials - Fe deficiency, chronic disease, dietary insufficiency, ?pernicious
2. Appropriate investigations to rule in/out your differentials - Gastroscopy, colonoscopy, antibodies to intrinsic factor, parietal cells.

ORL
I completely left out ORL and was relieved no SAQs was asked. Alan Fraser was a bit ambiguous regarding the form of ORL questions coming out earlier. Thank God............ :)

Pyschiatry
We got an email the night before from Tony Fernando informing us of the psych questions the next day. Thanks Lydia for letting me know!!!
1. Psychosis diagnosis and management
2. Anxiety disorder diagnosis and management
3. Primary insomnia diagnosis and management
4. Dementia/delirium diagnosis and management

And everything came out just as he said!!!!! Wootttttttttttttttttt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A 10 mark question on schizophrenia (very vague question - just one! A 1/4 page history followed by what additional information would you like, what test would you do and discuss your medical and non-medical intervention.)

A similar 10 mark question on panic attacks

Compare and contrast delirium/dementia

Define primary insomnia and list the non-medical management.

MCQ
HEAPPPPPPPPSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS of repeated MCQs from past years. I only hope I can remember the answers.....

***********************DISCLAIMER*************************
The answers given are mine and I refuse to be held responsible for their accuracy.

Google Determines The Fate Of The Earth

2006-11-10T11:14:00.000+13:45

So I wasn't with the game and managed to discover the single most amazing site on the internet just last week. For those of you equally clueless or whom has yet to designate this as only the coolest site ever (is it just me or did that sound blonde to everybody....) I present to you: Googlefight - A web service that allow users to establish which of two entities are superior to the other. Period. With its vastly complicated and advanced matrix this is a site that will resolve century-old squabbles for good. There is no reason to doubt its findings or even to question its flawless system. Everything that it says is correct and must be fully accepted. Thus the might of Googlefight.

I started off with an encounter between Googlefight and Yahoofight. The result?

It wasn't even close. Google walks all over yahoo disposing its dead body in the trash. Does this make google the new yahoo? Is google now in and yahoo out??? I formulated the next clash between google and yahoo and....

Yahoo wins round two and claws its way back in!!!! They are now tied... but round 3 is just round the corner. Who will finally be crowned as the superior seach engine??

Its unanimous!!! Google is obviously vastly superior to yahoo!!!!!!!! Everyone should stop using yahoo and switched to Google (notice how I capitalized G for Google but not y for yahoo. This is obviously meant to degrade yahoo and ridicule anyone who insist on utilizing it).

Next I determined how people around the world spend their time. Are we now at a crossroad where most people are becoming progressively more intellectual and are aware how important it really is to put aside time for boardgames? Or are most social outcasts who find their special place in sports?

Oh please help!! What freaks we have around us!!! No wonder the world is in the sorry state its in now... if only more people would hop over we would all be living in a better place.

Where do most people spend their time?

Close one. Looks like we've still got some work to do.

And names.. what about names.

Score. I've always known I was called something special. A second clash confirmed this beyond all doubt.

And the most watched tv series?

Obviously escaping from prison is far more exciting. Who wants to watch a drama about body parts?

Ah but wait a second... what about the characters themselves? Who does the public actually want to be?

The surgeon hands down. Why settle for a psychiatric engineer turn inmate when you can be the best neurosurgeon in Texas? Wait hang on... he's my guy. And he's saving his innocent brother from prison... this is all wrong!!!! Doesn't morals mean anything to anyone?

Now what about the ladies? Who is the fairest of them all?

Clearly the public disapproves of Meredith's entangled personal life. This goes to show that even in our fallen world sometimes having just one partner can be better than multiple.

Now lets move on to food.

One for the Asians. I love rice.

Hm... looks like the Italians won't take this lying down. 1-1. We need a tie-breaker.

WOWEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!! The Italians receive a hiding and its finally settled for good. Asian food rules. Good ol' chow mein.

Hm... close one. But is it really accurate? Oh wait a minute... we're not suppposed to question.

Next we try to pick out the more superior of 2 countries.

Dang. The Kiwis are one up. But fear not. Coming up we have our extremely capable capital watching our back.

This is shocking!!! Has nobody got any respect for our country?!?!?!?!? Things aren't looking good as New Zealand pulls ahead. However after a round of intense strategical discussion between the races of Malaysia we decided it was time to pull out our secret weapon. Those birds won't know what hit them!! The once tallest structure in the world versus an aged casino.

Is this country invincible???? Is nothing we have good enough???? What is this? A conspiracy??? And the tussle comes to an end as Malaysia is left licking her wounds. There's only one more thing left to do now: if you lose at least do so by a reasonable margin. And there's no time to breathe! With the score now at 3-0 and Round 4 taking place the next brawl involves the ultimate clash of civilizations. A humble drink found by the road is matched up against a franchise of beans. The Milo Ice vs Robert Harris's Coffee.

And what a match it was!!!!!!!!! The meek Milo Ice in typical Malaysia Boleh style almost wrangled victory from the hands of its posh opponent!! Alas a win is a win and Malaysia succumbs to its 4th straight defeat in a row. Can the Kiwis now complete a clean sweep over the once proud nation? Finally.... last but not least.... coming face to face with each other for the 27th time.... introducing the most notorious districts in both cities... Chow Kit vs K Road!!!!!!!!!!!

And yes... finally... the torture is over as the Kiwis walk away from a match that was theirs right from the beginning. Who was I kidding... the Malaysians never stood a chance against this small but burly nation of 4,000,000. Maybe next time... in a couple of years... we would be better prepared to face off with our Australasia neighbour. But until then New Zealand has all the right to bask in the glory of its victory, but only for 4 years before it is once again summoned to compete in the next Googlefight World Cup 2010 in Heinan, China.

Now time to do away with the circus and move on to more serious matters.

Its good that people know how to live properly.

All the fault of sitcoms the likes of Grey's Anatomy, Scrub, ER and House that glorifies medicine. Not all consultants look like Shepherd. And no interns look like Izzy.

Ha. Just wait till YOU get voted off.

Agree.

They will catch him. You just wait.

This is just wrong.

Even worse.

I wouldn't mind either.

Poster boy wins.

Yeah.

And finally I posed Googlefight the ultimate question: Can we even believe anything you say?

Global Board Game List

2006-11-07T21:27:00.000+13:45

Most of you would have figured out by now that I like figures. I like numbers and I like handing them out to just about anything (television shows, boardgames, housemates....). Next I tend to arrange them according to the value given with the assumption that if A>B>C>D, then A>>C, B >> D and A>>>D. And then comes the fun part; I stratify all items and crunch my numbers in any way I can think of, await the final result and then come up with all sorts of presumptious theories on why the figures appear as such. Sometimes the result can be totally unexpected, and that is why I like numbers so much. Because numbers don't lie. Attaching a figure to any subject gives it an objective value that is comparable to its peers.

And this is such a list.

It is a Top 10 list (gasp!) but this time on a global scale.
1. Each game's rating is broken down to figures from individual nations.
2. The average rating from 5 countries are singled out.
3. The average from each country is totalled together with my rating for the game and an average is obtained effectively giving each country (and me....) 1/6th of a voice i.e. the 20 gamers from country X has an equal weight to the 3000 gamers from country y combined.

This eliminates all possible political/cultural/socio/economic/moral/ethnic/medical differences tipping the ratings in favour of nations with numerical superiority (I did say it was presumptuous). Naturally not all countries are considered and so a carefully selected few is chosen and assumed to represent the rest of the world. Again because I'm grandiose and like to have my say I am deemed a nation and given 1/6th of a voice.

So which other fortunate nations have been seen as being sufficiently significant to be incorporated into the 2006 Global Board Game List and why?

America
Because they are cool and rich and obliged to meddle in any and everything. Well actually its because the United States dominate Boardgamegeek, and with 52% of the ratings coming from US geeks (at least 5000 of them) the American voice is hard to ignore.

Canada
Just north of America this country with the second largest population on the geek provides 8% of the ratings data by at least 700 of them.

Germany
Germans make up the 4th largest population with 5% of the ratings data and over 300 geeks. But the more fundamental reason is that most games are produced in Germany, and with their designers dominating the annual board game awards year after year it would be clearly unwise not to consider the influential German trend.

New Zealand
Sitting at no 17th with approximately 80 geeks barely totalling 0.7% of the geek population, Kiwis are hard-pressed to create even a small ripple in the boardgame community. But their views are important because this is where I am presently and hopefully will be for the next couple of years. I love Auckland!

Malaysia
Malaysians don't currently have sufficient numbers to justify an assembly of its own and as of this moment is lumped together with other countries under 'other nations'. Hopefully the opening of a new Settlers Cafe in Mid Valley and our first convention at the similar venue last year paved the way for more geeks to jump aboard. Their views are important because this is where I was from and where I will be going back to at the end of the year.

Those interested in visiting Settlers Cafe please send me a notice. From what I understand it is a coffee place (ala starbucks or coffeebean) with heaps of boardgames within its premises that customers can play. Friendly staff are always present to assist customers in learning new games and will be more than happy to get in on a game themselves at any opportunity. Now this is one place I can work in over the summer. Maybe even for free :)

Myself
The newly established nation of me with me as its president, vice-president, treasurer, secretary.....

Anyway having explained all the hypothesis and principles that regulate this statistical list, without any further delay let us now move on to the actual basis for this post: The pilot Global Board Game List. And among the questions that our research will be waiting to answer include:

What games are indisputably adored the world over?
How will each country, now given identical weightage, influence the final order of the list?
Will there be noticeable differences in the manner each country rate their games?
Who generally rate games higher?
Who generally rate games lower?

And after years of study by our globally renown group of international researchers, we are now finally ready to answer these questions. It was a gruesome task and on many occasions we have had to claw our way out of tough challenges (e.g. lack of funding, poor numerical skills, contamination, spies), and at times we thought we would not be able to make it. It was a dangerous job but somebody's got to do it. And finally as a direct result of our hard work, we have now before us a list of the top boardgames in the world; the creme of the crop, the very few that is held with as much esteem as is each country's very own president. But patience is required as we embark on a short journey with each game, as we learn of their personality, appreciate what makes them unique, identify what makes them tick and ultimately understand what puts them at the pinnacle of the Global Board Game list. And starting right from the top, at no 1 is....

P.s. Format undertaken: country/total raters/average rating

1. Caylus - 8.43

New games are designed and published all the time - some are appaling, many are mediocre and a few are really good. But every 10 years or so one game comes along that blows away everything in its path. A game that has everything - a good theme, a wonderfully produced board with excellent bits, and brilliant mechanics that fit together flawlessly. Caylus is that game for this decade. Centred around castle-building in France and ranked 2nd in my Top 10, 3rd on the geek and top in this list Caylus was introduced last year and shot up the charts to settle at no 3 within weeks. With hardly any peers Caylus is exactly what makes me so proud to be a geek.

2. Power Grid - 8.43

Despite mounting a remarkable challenge for top place Power Grid eventually had to settle for second spot trailing Caylus by only an impressive 3/1000th of a point (8.430 vs 8.427). This was a game I fell in love with just reading the rules. An auction scheme for power plants, area control while competing to power cities on the board and a fuel market in which prices fluctuate throughout the game according to supply and demand? Checked. However despite all its strength this isn't a game for everyone. An average session last 90 minutes with plenty of tough choices throughout - and winning Power Grid the first time around is an achievement not easy to forget (I won mine one game short of my 20th game).

3. Age of Steam - 8.41

If ever there was a game that is mean, cranky and incredibly bad-tempered then this one is it - clocking in at number 3 is the notorious Age of Steam. A train game in which you compete to link-up cities and race to deliver goods across the United States sounds rather harmless. But a brutal economic system in a contest where money is everything means finances is hard to come by and in a classic 6 player game, 2 players will be eliminated via bankruptcy within the first 2 rounds. One of the most competitive games on the market and trailing the joint leaders by a mere 2/100th of a point, Age of Steam packs a punch and rounds up our Top 3.

4. Die Macher - 8.33

Sitting at no 4 is a game few as yet has had the opportunity to play - myself not included. But rave reviews have been heard from those who have. A game concerning seven political factions in different regions of Germany, players as rulers of national political parties attempt to manage limited resources to help their party to victory in the upcoming elections. And like the predecessor Die Macher is a mammoth - 3-5 players are required for the game to kick-off and each session on average runs for the next 240 minutes. Pretty impressive for a game published in 1986. And the primary reason only a handful of the more privilege gets to attach a number to this game? Its been out of print for the past 10 years. Presently the only means to get your hands on this beauty is to search for an aged copy. And although old games occasionally do get republished, I wouldn't be holding my breath.

5. Puerto Rico - 8.31

Finally the finest game on the geek makes an appearance at no 5. Masquerading as plantation owners in Puerto Rico and attempting to grow up to five different kinds of crops: corn, indigo, coffee, sugar and tobacco, this is the first of 3 games in which players compete on a common board while simultaneously managing separate individual boards out of their rival's reach. Published in 2002 Puerto Rico catapulted to the top of of the geek displacing at that time Tigris & Euphrates and raking up the crown over 3000+ other games and holding on to that position since. As you can deduce I'm probably not one of its biggest fan but unfortunately the rest of the world seem to be. So when that happens what do I do? I jump on the wagon and say 'count me in'. Because all these people can't possibly be wrong.

6. Princes of Florence - 8.30

Debuting at no 6 is the 2nd game in which players compete at least partially on individual boards and falling behind Puerto Rico by a mere 1/100th of a point - Princes of Florence. Set in the renaissance era players develop medieval cities to attract citizens of various professions (such as astronomer, painter and architects). These citizens goes to work in their respective residence producing art, map, buildings etc which help enrich their cities. Individual board represents the city and points are totalled after seven rounds. However after playing online at least 5 times I have yet to see its brilliance shine through. Nevertheless unlike Puerto Rico I never go 'mehhh' when I'm playing but again nothing spectacular jumps out at me and yell 'great game this one!'. Maybe there are some subtle attributes I have yet to discover but will with repeated playings. Or maybe I just have something going against all game with individual boards.

7. Tigris & Euphrates - 8.15

Known as part of the Knizia tile-laying trilogy and widely regarded as Reiner Knizia's best game Tigris and Euphrates holds on tight at no 7. Boasting an almost royal bloodline coming from the same designer who brought us Ra, Modern Art, Amun-Re and Through the Desert anticipation for its release reached almost fever pitch back in 1997. When it was finally published Tigris & Euphrates catapulted to the top of the charts and remained there until one faithful day 4 years ago. Set in the ancient fertile crescents of Mesopotamia players advance their civilizations through tile placements in four different categories (farming, trading, religion, and government). Leaders are employed to watch over the workers and help build up their kingdoms but with a twist - your score at the end is the number of points in your weakest category. Alas this is another game which I do not hold up with as much esteem as my fellow geeks. After multiple playings I have yet to grasp how everything fits together. However because it is ranked 2nd on the geek and because it is designed by Reiner Knizia and because my housemates seem to be such big fans Tigris & Euphrates will keep on hitting the table until the day when I comprehend and fall in love.

8. El Grande - 8.12

One of the more elegant games produced and trailing Tigris & Euphrates by 3/100th of a point stands El Grande. Set at a time of political upheaval in Spain this is a subject I have written on previously and there is in reality nothing else to add to a spectacular game. Published more than 10 years ago and settling down comfortably into 5th position on the geek El Grande has proven its worth beyond the most trusted of all denominator - time.

9. Ra - 8.11

Following close behind El Grande at 1/100th of a point Ra makes itself noticed at no 9. A pure auction game with an Egyptian theme, players as pharaohs compete to advance their individual kingdoms. Farms are irrigated to provide food, astronomers and religious leaders add culture to civilizations while constructed monuments dedicated to the sun god Ra brings eternal glory. This continues over 3 epochs with the pharaoh accomplishing the most crowned the new Prince of Egpyt. Initially produced in 1999 Ra went out of print within the year and remained so for 6 years - however a high demand and continuous calls for reprinting finally came through. Last year Ra was given a lifeline and 6000 new copies were produced dropping them into the hands of eager geeks the world over. Currently sitting pretty on the geek at no 8 Ra is one of my most played and admired game.

10. Diplomacy - 8.07

And finally rounding up the list at no 10 is my most esteemed game of all time - Diplomacy. In this classic game of pure negotiation, deception runs rife and the one frustrating question you're always asking - whom do you trust? Trust and treachery are the entertaining ingredients in this international game of intrigue as each player represents one of the great European powers prior to World War I. To gain control of Europe you must forge alliances and advance with the co-operation of your neighbours. However at the other end cunning and cleverness are required to combat the deception and betrayal that surrounds you. For ultimately to rule Europe one must stand alone. The trouble is - when do your allies become your enemies? The first time I played this with my university mates a hugefall-out occured and the group split into separate factions of 3 and 4 for lunch. This is the degree of emotions involved in playing Diplomacy and why it is the absolute perfect game in my mind. Chance plays no role as it boils down to your ability to negotiate your way out of any challenge you face - it is the art of giving people what they think they want. For the record I have never brought Diplomacy back to that same gaming group. For this is an adult's game and if you can't be old enough to differentiate a game from reality, even in the midst of being brutally back-stabbed and attacked by 4 of your closest mates, then Diplomacy is probably not the best game for you.

Post 5th-Year Paper B Con

2006-11-04T14:58:00.000+13:45

Hosted a pseudo Boardgame Convention yesterday when some of the 5th years came over following their second paper. It was a gruelling 9 hour marathon running from 9:00pm-6:00 am with hardly any break in between. We played 9 sessions of 4 games (if I recall correctly.....) and the exam was a taboo subject throughout. Below is a brief summary of the events that took place during Post 5th-Year Paper B Con.

There were 5 of us present (Kevin, Kim Zhuan, Kit Chung, Zhi Yi and myself) and we started off with what was quickly shaping out to be a crowd favourite, the pet game of seemingly everyone I game with.

Shadows Over Camelot (SOC)
Designer: Serge Laget and Bruno Cathala
Published By: Days of Wonder (Ticket to Ride)
Players: 3-7
Playing Time: 90 minutes
BGG Rating: 7.44 (Total raters 2556, standard deviation 1.47)
My Rating: 8.0
BGG Ranking: 71
BGG Link: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/15062

SOC ultimately turned out to be the game of the night, and at 5 plays accounted for half the games we plowed through. This wasn't completely unexpected as SOC is richly themed and unique, and standing out from my collection with its exclusive co-operative mechanic - in almost all other games, players compete against each other to achieve individual victories. But Shadows over Camelot proposes a journey of a very different kind, where you and your fellow players as Knights of the Round Table collaborate to jointly defeat... the game! At first glance this task seems simple enough. After all should not a band of young and noble Knights - fleet of foot and sound of mind - easily defeat a game that plays itself? Alas the quest was further complicated by the ever-present possibility of a Traitor in our midst, bidding his time and waiting to strike at the worst possible moment...

We started off without the traitor in our first couple of games, and successfully defended Camelot on our first but completely over-ran by evil in the 2nd. Some of the knights then feeling strangely bold yelled out for the inclusion of the traitor in our next game which unfortunately turned out to be myself. Again the forces of evil proved too strong and though I was unmasked by KC, the knights slowly but surely collapsed one after the other. The knights were down 2-1.

We then proceeded refusing to eliminate the traitor, and for all the good that it brought he didn't show up anymore - but a fair amount of suspicion was rife around the table. Accusations were thrown around with KC finally being officially accused. Of course he turned out to be loyal and a precious white sword was turned over into hands of evil. The knights made it through game IV hanging by a thread, with most down to our final life point and surpassing evil by a single sword (if the traitor had been present it was my opinion the knights wouldn't have stood a chance). Game V fared much better, with the knights all finally learning to work together for the common good and winning all three quests (Quest for the Holy Grail, Lancelot's Armor and Excalibur) for the first time that night.

RESULTS
Shadows over Camelot I
Winner: Knights of the Round Table

Shadows over Camelot II
Winner: Forces of Evil

Shadows over Camelot III
Winner: Forces of Evil (Myself - Traitor)

Shadows over Camelot IV
Winner: Knights of the Round Table (by a razor sharp margin)

Shadows over Camelot V
Winner: Knights of the Round Table

Intrige
Designer: Steffan Dorra
Published By: Mayfair Games (Modern Art, Tigris and Euphrates, Settlers of Catan)
Players: 3-5
Playing Time: 60 minutes
BGG Rating: 6.69 (Total raters 467, standard deviation 1.67)
My Rating: 7.0
BGG Ranking: 455
BGG Link: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/265

Game no. 2 came in a tiny little box I had ordered from America. I don't rate Intrige very highly although it does have its place in my collection. You need the right crowd to really hit it off and ZY suggested alcohol to further aid that.

Intrige has a reputation: and a really bad one. This pure negotiation game pits the players as Renaissance era families engaging in rampant nepotism. Players seek positions in other families' businesses and to further that pursuit each player offers bribes. However once accepting a bribe, the 'bought' player is under absolutely no obligation to honor the highest briber or any other verbal deal i.e. the player who paid the highest bride in exchange for the most lucrative position could end up with nothing - this is solely at the discretion of the 'bought' player. In other words this game is vicious.

Everyone started off really cautiously, with the exception of ZY who screwed me over a $15,000 bribe. The game then slowly took a turn and became nastier as it progressed, with everyone being stabbed at least once (and me multiple times lol). KJ apparently missed his turn toward the end of the game and then missed it again when he was given a chance to redo it. Still it ended pretty close with KC topping the group acquiring a total of ? $169,000 and KJ ? $160,000. As for me... I had successfully earned $60,000...

RESULTS
Intrige I
Winner: KC
Runner-up: KJ

El-Grande
Designer: Wolfgang Kramer and Richard Ulrich
Published By: Rio Grande Games (Puerto Rico, Power Grid)
Players: 2-5
Playing Time: 90 minutes
BGG Rating: 8.14 (Total raters 3231, standard deviation 1.34)
My Rating: 9.0
BGG Ranking: 5
BGG Link: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/93

Next was a game familiar to all of us as we had played it twice roughly a week ago. In this game players take on the role of Grandes in medieval Spain. The king's power is flagging, and these powerful lords are vying for control of the various territories. To gain influence you draft caballeros (knights) into your court and subsequently move them onto the board to help seize control of provinces. After every third turn the regions are scored, and after the ninth turn the Grande with the most points is deemed the winner.

El-Grande is a game highly regarded on the geek (placed 5th of more than 3000 boardgames), and in my opinion truly deserves its high ranking. It is masterfully made with brilliant bits but more importantly it is a game that plays flawlessly. If I could use just 2 words to describe El-Grande, it would be classy and elegant. And in that respect none of the other games come close.

We made our way through this fairly quickly as everyone has had sufficient time to familiariaze themselves with all the cards and order of game flow, cutting game time down from 90 to approximately 60 minutes. It started off pretty close with all grandes within 5 points of each other after the first round of scoring. Towards the middle of the game however, ZY started pulling away with multiple special scorings and before long all of us were left playing catch up trying to avoid last place. A notable fight-back worth mentioning was staged by myself (lol) towards the end of the game, but it wasn't quite enough as I clawed my way up to 2nd place finishing 7 points behind a comfortable winner.

RESULTS
El-Grande
Winner: ZY
Runner-Up: Myself

King Me
Designer: Stefano Luperto
Published By: Mayfair Games (Modern Art, Tigris And Euphrates, Settlers of Catan, Intrige)
Players: 3-6
Playing Time: 30 minutes
BGG Rating: 6.49 (Total raters 490, standard deviation 1.23)
My Rating: 6.5
BGG Ranking: 624
BGG Link: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/7806

Next was a game I managed to purchase in IMAX at 25% off because it apparently had a damaged box. I gave it a good look through and couldn't spot where the damage was so I bought it anyway. In King Me the King has finally announced his retirement, and the pirouette for succession begins! All of his subjects from cobbler to cook, painter to paladin, debutante to duchess bustle about the castle in preparation for the succession. Your aim is for one of your favorites to attain the throne. But beware! Competing subjects unable to win the approval of the people face assassination. It requires clever maneuvering and selective positioning to be in the right place at the right time to achieve the crown!

We played our way through 2 quick sessions of King Me, and I can't even remember much of what happened in the first game as it was merely a quick filler between the four of us while waiting for ZY to get off the phone. I have a feeling I won but I can't be sure lol The second game was more notable as the game ended with KZ firmly in the lead, but with KC shooting for the stars and pulling it off an additional 29 points gave him an invincible lead.

RESULTS
King Me I
Winner: ? myself
Runner-Up: ? KJ/KZ/ KT

King Me II
Winner: KC
Runner-Up: KZ

By the time the 2nd game of King Me ended, it was close to 6:00am and a tinge of light was visible in the horizon. The guys decided to head out to McDonalds for breakfast but I was too stuffed and decided to head right off to sleep. Looking back now after waking up at 1:00pm the next day, I'll have to say it was quite an experience (I've never played boardgames for so long before without a break lol) that provided some good entertainment. I'll be looking forward to Boardgame Con II with more people and possibly more games :)

Middlemore

2006-11-03T11:01:00.000+13:45

Just a quick blog to inform everyone of my whereabouts (not that anybody's interested lol.. but I'm writing it anyway!). I'm currently sitting in the psychogeriatric ward in Middlemore Hospital and going through the case notes of one of the patients I had just seen. She's a 71 year old caucasian lady who had overdosed herself on sleeping pills after her alcoholic husband refused to discontinue his drinking habits. For close to 50 years she was made to endure aggresion and verbal abuse until she finally decided she wasn't going to put up any longer - and attempted to end her life. What a scary thought. And definitely not the husband I intend to be. I can only hope being made to play boardgames every night for the next 50 years doesn't quite have the same effect.

Reef Encounter

2006-11-02T01:09:00.000+13:45

Designer: Richard Breese
Published By: Z-Man Games
Players: 2-4
Duration: 90 Minutes
BGG Rating: 7.72 (Total votes 957, standard deviation 1.34)
BGG Ranking: 36

So I've been struggling trying to learn this new game on www.spielbyweb.com for the past few days and thus far I've yet to make much sense out of it. The game itself has an unusual theme which doesn't exactly help. As suggested by its name Reef Encounter is about the fascinating rich world of corals, shrimp and parrotfish. Players use tiles to attempt to grow different types of corals which they then protect from attacks by judicious placing of shrimp counters (apparently in real aquatic life prawns do have a role in protecting corals....). Ultimately the harvested coral is fed to one's fish and the player who feeds the most wins. I did mention before it had an unusual theme...

Anyway what made Reef Encounter that much more difficult to learn than other games were probably nothing more than its poorly written rules. There are plenty of options for players to pick from each round (ala Caylus, Puerto Rico), but these are badly explained and poorly illustrated. There are sufficient bits in the game to allow you to keep track of where its headed and yet not overwhelm the board, but again details were glossed over and I hardly know what some of these bits look like let alone figure out what they do. And to top it off most of them have rather foreign names e.g. larva cyclinders, alga cube, polyp tiles... what in the world are they????

Nevertheless with 2 days worth of reading up my sleeve I decided I have finally had enough and signed up for a game anyway without knowing completely how to play it. I figured that would be the best way to learn and couldn't care less if I finished dead last. Hopefully I'll be able to locate a mentor dedicated enough to run me through each turn of my game. I will report back in the next couple of days when I've made my way through enough of the game to form my own preliminary opinion.

The progess of the game can be followed at http://www.spielbyweb.com/game.php?games_id=14623&action=auth Remember it can take a while to load :)

I Love You Jesus

2006-11-01T00:41:00.000+13:45

This is to the one person who has stood beside me and lifted me above all my trials and tribulations. What could I do apart from You.. I really love You Jesus...

I've been listening to a particular song over and over again recently. It's called Why? by Nicole Nordeman and its a song that reminds us of what our Saviour had to go through before we could receive from God His gift of eternal life. And sometimes I believe it is too easy for us to merely delight in the joyful fact that we have been cleanse of our sin, and forget the cost at which it was bought. Nothing in the world is free, not even salvation. But it is free for us now because someone paid a huge price for it. Let us not forget that someone.

Why? by Nicole Nordeman

We rode into town the other day
Just me and my daddy
He said I’d finally reached that age
And I could ride next to him
On a horse that of course was not quite as wide
We heard a crowd of people shouting
And so we stopped to find out why
There was that man that my dad said he loved
But today there was fear in his eyes

So I said daddy why are they screaming?
Why are the faces of some of them beaming?
Why is he dressed in that bright purple robe?
I bet that crown hurts him more than he shows
Daddy please can’t you do something?
He looks as if he’s going to cry
You said he was stronger than all of those guys
Daddy please tell me why
Why does everyone want him to die?

Later that day the sky grew cloudy
And daddy said I should go inside
Somehow he knew things would get stormy
Boy was he right
But I could not keep from wondering
If there was something that he had to hide
So after he left I had to find out
I was not afraid of getting lost
So I followed the crowds to a hill where I knew men had been killed
And I heard a voice come from a cross

And it said Father why are they screaming?
Why are the faces of some of them beaming?
Why are they casting their lots for my clothes?
This crown of thorns hurts me more than it shows
Father please can’t you do something?
I know that you must hear my cry
I thought I could handle a cross of this size
Father remind me why
Why does everyone want me to die?
When will I understand why?

My precious Son
I hear them screaming
I’m watching the face of the enemy beaming
But soon I will clothe you in robes of my own
Jesus this hurts me much more than you know
But this dark hour I must do nothing
I’ve heard your unbearable cry
The power in your blood destroys all the lies
Soon you’ll see past their unmerciful eyes
Look there below
See the child trembling by her father’s side
Now I can tell you why
She is why you must die

Boardgame Jargons

2006-10-31T12:18:00.000+13:45

Since I've recently been doing a whole lot of write-up on boardgames, I thought maybe it would be practical to give people a heads up on some of the terms I might be or have been using recurrently. Some of these lingos may initially appear confusing, but all are used freely in the creepy world of boardgames. As always familiarity comes with practice so use them often even when you're not gaming and before long you'll know them like the back of your hand.

Analysis Paralysis (AP)
n. Overanalysis increasing the downtime in a game beyond a desirable level. AP can potentially spoil the game for everyone.

Downtime
n. The time that a player spends doing nothing while waiting for other players to complete their turns.

Games with (potentially) high downtime - Tikal, Power Grid, Caylus, Age of Steam. This usually involve games in which players are presented with a myriad of options, setting the stage for AP to set in.
Games with (potentially) low/no downtime - Diplomacy, Apples to Apples, King Me, Shadows Over Camelot, Santiago. In these games though your turn don't always come by quickly, you ALWAYS have something to do in between them e.g. table talk, trash talk, discussion of strategies/alliances.

'Potentially' refers to the nature of individual players. E.g. a single player with AP will significantly increase the downtime for everyone, without it neccesarily being due to the design of the game.

Non-gamer
n. A person that does not spend every waking moment thinking, talking, playing, and breathing games a.k.a. a normal person.

Newbie
n. Someone who’s new to gaming. These people are generally very welcomed at boardgaming circles, and are expected to pick up a game or two of their own after a couple of sessions.

Kingmaker
n. A player, with himself in a losing position, and having the power to decide who wins a given game, especially if the decision is made irrationally or unjustifiably.

Example of games with possible kingmaking elements: Age of Steam, El Grande, Intrige, Modern Art, Struggle of Empires. These are games with high player interactions, where the actions of one player can potentially result in a significant shift in other player's position. Kingmaking can potentially spoil the game for everyone and is a reflection of poor game ethics.

Metagame
v. To use reasons not strictly related to the game at hand to change one’s playing style and attitude towards other players. Choosing to attack player A instead of player B simply because player A owes you money (in life, not within the game) is an extreme example of
metagaming. Metagaming can potentially spoil the game for everyone and is a reflection of poor game ethics.

Family Game
n. game that typically has simple rules, a short playing time, relatively high levels of abstraction and player interaction, and requires three or more players. A large percentage of these games originate in Germany.

Example of family games: Carcassone, King Me, Settlers of Catan

Party Game
n. A game that is designed for large groups of people and emphasizes social interaction, creativity, and/or volubility.

Example of party games: Apple to Apples, Taboo, Cranium, Pictionary

Gamers' Game
n. Refer to games which are heavier, more mathematical, or otherwise less accessible (longer playtime, more fiddly, complicated rules) than standard games.

Example of gamer's game: Age of Steam

Fiddly
adj. Requiring lots of turn-by-turn maintenance which tends to bog down the ebb and flow of the game.

Example of fiddly games: Power Grid, Age of Steam

D6
n. Common abbreviation for 'six-sided die'. Similarly D8 refers to 'eight-sided die'. d10, d12, and d20 are also common terms.

Dice-fest - YUCK
n. 1. A game that uses a whole bunch of dice to determine game outcomes.
2. A game that has a very random nature because of die results.

Example of games where dice-fests are present: Risk, Snake and Ladders, Monopoly, Ludo. These are broken games in which the outcome is so random it doesn't matter how the game is played.

Broken
adj. (usually applied to a game) Having problems that result in a disappointing play experience. A game might be considered broken if even poor play can lead to victory, if it frequently ends in a stalemate, or if one strategy invariably wins.

Example of broken games: Monopoly, Snake and Ladders, Ludo

Random
n. –ness adj. When events or players’ actions in a game are very unpredictable. Often players will have little, if any, control over the elements that control their performance in the game.

Randomness is almost as bad as dice-fests, and fortunately I don't own many of these.

Example of games with randomness: Tikal, Carcassonne

Replay Value
n. A game’s capacity to remain entertaining after several playings.

Set-up
n. The first time period in a game, during which players ready all the components that will be needed for playing.

Games with long set-tup time: Puerto Rico, Through the Desert, Power Grid
Games with average set-up time: Caylus, El-Grande,
Games with short/no set-up time: Blokus, Apple to Apples, Intrige, Ra

Strategy
n. 1. The plan that a player uses in a game. adj –ic.
2. Requiring gaming decisions based on long-term goals.

Example of strategical games: Age of Steam, Caylus, Power Grid, Puerto Rico

Tactics
n. 1. Decisions that are based primarily on current situations and short-term goals. adj –ical.

Example of tactical games: El-Grande, Ra, Tikal, Struggle of Empires, Tigris and Euphrates. These are primarily games with high interaction in which the board can dramatically change from round to round, forcing you to adapt and to change your style of play according to the circumstances and your presently available resources rather than to strictly follow a plan perfectly mapped-out from the beginning.

Example of both strategical and tactical games: Diplomacy, Game of Thrones

Theme
n. 1. The topic or subject matter of a game. adj –atic.
2. Having rules and mechanics based on assumptions regarding the subject matter of the game.

Often considered the opposite of abstract.

Example of games with rich themes: Shadows Over Camelot, Diplomacy, Santiago, Amun-Re, Power Grid

Pasted On (Theme)
adj. A term given to a game where the link between the game's theme and mechanism is weak. Or in other words, the designer created the game's mechanism first abstractly, and then applied the theme afterwards.

Example of games with pasted on themes: Age of Steam, Ticket to Ride, Through the Desert, Tigris and Euphrates, Modern Art

Abstract
adj. Having greatly simplified concepts and actions, rather than strict attention to detail, in order to facilitate game play. Often used as opposite of thematic.

Example of abstract games: Chess, Go, Blokus, Reversi, Checkers

Dry
adj. Overly mechanical or lacking in thematic elements

Example of games with a dry theme: Modern Art

PBEM
adj. Acronym for Play by E-Mail, which is a descriptor of a game system that allow players to play against one another through e-mail. Often these games have graphical user interfaces, and uses e-mail as the only means of communication for their turn-based play.

Example of PBEM games: Diplomacy, Tikal, Amun-Re, Santiago. These games generally (but not always) play within a longer time period and may not always be possible to finish in one (face-to-face) setting.

Balance
n. The way in which elements of a game are equalized relative to each player. Often balance is established by giving all players similar starting positions and maintained by using mechanisms to hurt the apparent leader or help the likely loser if all players start out differently.

Whether each game is balanced or unbalanced is highly contentious, and designers can only go so far in placing perks (whatever they are) to actively compensate for the handicaps faced by each player in their position.

Example of balanced games: Chess, Checkers

Amun-Re vs Santiago

2006-10-30T16:54:00.000+13:45

With Tikal out of the picture, the race for my next purchase reaches a show-down between Amun-Re and Santiago. I've played halfway through both games and thus far really like what I've seen. Both games are solid Euros with familiar mechanics that bear rather similar resemblances to some others that I have, and as such might not be completely novel buys. But then again, maybe I just really like a particular group of games. Following is a brief description of both games so feel free to fire away with any suggestion/questions.

AMUN-RE
-A Game for Gods and Other Immortals

Everyone knows of the pyramids on the Nile - eternal monuments of a powerful and beautiful culture that still can take our breath away. Each player as a pharaoh aims to build the most pyramids. To accomplish this he must first acquire provinces where he can trade and farm, with the harvest size from his farm depending on the number of farmers he employ and the offering of sacrifices to Amun-Re. With his profits he can buy new provinces and ultimately building stones to erect the pyramids. At the end of the game, the player who best manages his resources and constructs the most magnificient of pyramids wins the game.

Designer: Reiner Knizia (Ra, Tigris & Euphrates, Through the Desert, Modern Art)
BGG Rating: 7.67 (Total votes 2078, standard deviation 1.23)
BGG Ranking: 32
Players: 3-5 (Best with 5, average with 3-4)
Duration: 90 minutes
Complexity: Medium (ala Ra, Modern Art, El Grande)
Theme: Pharaohs competing to erect pyramids in Ancient Egypt
Mechanics: Auction and Resource Management
Player Interaction: Medium - Bidding for provinces, sacrifices to Amun-Re
Player Confrontation: Low - No direct attack on opponents although out-bidding someone can mess with their plans in a big way :))))))) (Cash is an important commodity ala caylus - you can be totally screwed without them)
Luck: Nil (YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Components: Excellent - Good quality board with lots of bits and miniature pyramids!
Comparable Games: Ra, Puerto Rico
Replayability: Medium-High
My Current Rating: 8.0

SANTIAGO
- The Water Flows Where the Money Goes

Several miles west of the African mainland lies the Cape Verde Island of Santiago. The climate is hot and every drop of water is precious. The players are landowners bidding for plantations with specific crops on them (bananas, sugar cane, potatoes, beans or red peppers) and trying to connect them into large plantations. These plantations must quickly be connected to the canal irrigation system or else they will dry up and produce no yield.

To ensure that new canals connect your own plantations to the irrigation system, you have to bribe the current Canal Overseer. The sooner a plantation is irrigated and connected to other plantations of the same type, the more yield – and thus the more money – will be gained at the end of the game. The player who acquires, irrigates and connects his plantations most effectively will win the game.

Designer: Claudia Hely & Roman Pelek
BGG Rating: 7.60 (Total votes 937, standard deviation 1.12)
BGG Ranking: 57
Players: 3-5 (Best with 5, ?poor with 3-4)
Duration: 90 minutes
Complexity: Low (ala Ticket to Ride, Settlers Of Catan)
Theme: Plantation owners competing to farm crops in Africa
Mechanics: Auction and Tile Placement
Player Interaction: High - Bidding for crops, competing to position crops on board and ultimately what makes Santiago a star - Bribing the Canal Overseer!!!
Player Confrontation: Vicious (ala Diplomacy, Intrige) - Players can form alliances during bribery phase pooling their resources together to make the irrigation go one way. Sorry bro if your crops are on the other side of the field...
Luck: Low- Random turnover of crop tiles ala puerto rico
Components: Good - Good quality board with just enough bits to make the game playable without unnecessary distractions.
Comparable Games: Diplomacy, El-Grande, Intrige
Replayability: High
My Current Rating: 8.0

Television

2006-10-29T23:07:00.000+13:45

Since I was rating boardgames I figured I might as well ride the momentum and move on to rating other things - such as television shows and characters. Even the elders have to admit we get some pretty good stuff on the tube, but these are admittedly few and hard to come by, and most of them are rubbish. So how do we know which of all the programmes we have on television are worth our time and be able to separate them from those which are not? Well... me make up lists (and so to know you have to read somebody else's list).

I'll have to admit this wasn't easy to generate. It took a few days to come up with my Top 15 , and a couple more to narrow it down to 10. Finally I fine-moved and arranged the various shows on their respective positions until I had before me a list which I was satisfied reliably reflected my relative interest in them. Again I will be audacious and call them the best shows in the world, though they're probably not. So without delay, here is the painstakingly put together list of my favourite television shows thus far:

Best Television Shows In The World
1. Friends
2. Survivor
3. Grey's Anatomy
4. The Oprah Winfrey Show
5. Ally Mcbeal
6. American/New Zealand/ Malaysian Idol
7. Prison Break
8. Lost
9. The Amazing Race
10.Desperate Housewives

Notable Shows That Just Missed The Mark:
Gilmore Girls, The Ellen Show, Hi-5

Favourite Television Characters
1. Michael Schofield (Prison Break)
2. Christina Yang (Grey's Anatomy)
3. Ally Mcbeal (Ally Mcbeal)
4. Bree Van De Kempt (Desperate Housewives)
5. Sawyer (Lost)
6. Alex Karev (Grey's Anatomy)
7. Oprah Winfrey (The Oprah Winfrey Show)
8. Monica Geller (Friends)
9. Tweener (Prison Break)
10.Derek Shepherd (Grey's Anatomy)

Notable Characters That Just Missed The Mark:
Isobel (Izzie) Stevens (Grey's Anatomy), Fin (Grey's Anatomy), Joey (Friends)

And in no particular order, television programmes I am planning to watch and in all probability will during my holidays:
1. One Tree Hill
2. The OC
3. Dawson's Creek
4. ? CSI

P.S. Lol I don't know if anybody realized but looking through the list I noticed there's a common theme that runs through most of them. Romance and tragedy. I absolutely adore programmes that make me cry (Survivor, Grey's Anatomy, Ally Mcbeal, American Idol, The Contender, Amazing Race) and those in which love and adoration runs thick (Grey's Anatomy, Ally Mcbeal, Desperate Housewives, Lost, High School Musical). Oh and by the way feel free to recommend programmes you believe I might like based on what I already do like. I don't plan on wasting my holidays doing nothing :))

Tikal

2006-10-25T16:31:00.000+13:45

I have managed to play my way through 3/5 of a game of Tikal by e-mail and I've got to say I'm not impressed. Perhaps the fact that I was tied for last place clouded my judgement (I was tied at 24-24-29-35). Well not really because the game wasn't over yet. Well maybe just slightly. Anyway. To briefly describe the game; Tikal is a game of exploration within the Central American jungles in search of lost temples and the treasures within. Players (up to 4 each game) send their team of explorers into the jungle (the board), uncovering more and more of the terrain as the game progresses. Along the way you find temples which require further uncovering and treasures. Players attempt to score points by occupying temples and holding onto treasure.

Sounds simple. But how does the game play? Let's start with the board; I don't know how big it is exactly in life, but from what I see on the geek the board is beautifully detailed with tons of nicely coloured bits and when completed can be somewhat pleasing to the eye. Each player gets standard wooden markers in their own colour comprising explorers, leaders and camps. And as they track about exploring, the wooden pieces are easy to keep track of and stands out from the background without being drowned by all the intricate details of the board.

Each round players choose to perform actions:
1. Bring Workers To Camp (1AP)
2. Move Workers (1-6AP depending on terrain)
3. Explore Temples (2AP)
4. Uncover or Trade Treasures (3AP)
5. Build Camp (5AP)
6. Guard a Temple (5AP)

Players can choose one action repeatedly or a combination of actions. Once a player uses up his action points [(AP) 10 each turn] his turn is over and the next player goes. The game continues until the whole terrain has been uncovered and a final scoring takes place.

So how is the board explored? Each round before a player decides on his actions, a tile is drawn from a stack randomly and placed on the board. Problem 1. Ouch - Random Tile Placements. It isn't hard to imagine one player consistently coming up with good tiles, while someone else draws crap ones all the time. I for one do not want to be the latter. Granted you can put the crap tiles near you opponent's camp to mess with their plans, but having said that you're not exactly doing something to directly help yourself.

Among the stack of tiles are 3 volcano tiles that if drawn would initiate scoring. It would follow that scoring is random, and they can be as closed to one another or as far apart as the total number of tiles in the stack. And you have absolutely no way of knowing. Minor problem 2.

Problem 3 would be the manner scoring is conducted. Players score points for the temple they are on if they have the largest expedition force around it. In our game this lead to a build up of forces (along the lines of an arms race - up to 9 explorers each around one high scoring temple) between 2 players leaving the other 2 to roam freely around the board racking up majorities with a single explorer. In a game where players own only 15 explorers, that doesn't leave you with very much to do elsewhere on the board, except to look on in horror at what your competitors are unearthing while you struggle to build up a majority around your temples. Although to be absolutely fair, I could possibly see this one diminishing with experience, once you're able to balance beforehand the number of explorers worthy of a temple and the total number of points you could acquire from it. Know when you're outnumbered early and get out so you're still in a position to dispute the majority of the other temples.

Currently Tikal is in 52nd spot on the geek, with an average rating of 7.50. It has been rated by 2726 users with a standard deviation of 1.18.

My comments: Tikal is a solid 2nd-tier Eurogame. It plays fast (an average game last between 40-60 minutes) and is fun with really beautiful bits, but randomness and flawed scoring drag it down immensely. This is a game I would not buy, and would not ask for it to be brought to the table, but wouldn't refuse either if someone else wants to play. Oh and before I forget, Problem 4 is Analysis Paralysis (AP). Many of you who play games with me know what that means, and we all know who tends to do it. AP happens when players try their best to optimise his/her position each turn, and because there are so many means for them to achieve that (particularly in a game with tons of choices, and nobody could tell what the best move is so they probably can't either, but everyone just moves anyway with what could possibly be their 2nd/3rd best move), they get paralysed running every single option through their head and calculating down to the penny the benefits/detriments of each route to themselves and the other players and in doing so bring the entire game to a standstill for everyone. No its not fun. And its hard to tell AP-ers they are AP-ing because they just don't like it (stop interfering with how I play my game). And Tikal with its 10AP (Action Points) to spend as you will each round may just tip it over for susceptible players.

Final Verdict: 6.5/10 and way out of my Top 10.

************************UPDATE*****************************

I have just completed my earlier game of Tikal, and I'm glad to announce I managed to claw my back and finished 2nd, 7 points behind the leader and 3 points ahead of 3rd place (106-99-96-66). Unfortunately this does not change my opinion of the game, and my comments and rating remains. Below is a link to the finished game though I've no idea how long it'll be there. I will remove the link when the game is removed. Remember the page may take a while to load :)

http://www.spielbyweb.com/game.php?games_id=13920&action=auth

Board Games

2006-10-24T15:41:00.000+13:45

Logged on to the geek and finally updated my personal Top 10 games of all time. I have the audacity of calling them the best games in the world and though they're most probably not, I know they're somewhere up there among the world's best. Among the notable entries into the Top 10 include Caylus, El Grande, Age of Steam, and Tigris & Euphrates (all previously unranked) while Modern Art, Through the Desert and Settlers of Catan fell out of favour. Numbers in decimal represent my ratings (out of a possible 10) while numbers in parenthesis indicate their rank on the geek out of approximately 5000 games. I have thus far rated 54 games averaging 6.31/10.00

10 Best Board Games In The World
1. Diplomacy --10.00-- (145)
2. Caylus --9.5-- (3)
3. El Grande --9.0-- (5)
4. Power Grid --9.0-- (4)
5. Age of Steam --9.0-- (9)
6. Ra --8.5-- (7)
7. The Princes of Florence --8.0-- (6)
8. A Game of Thrones --8.0-- (36)
9. Struggle of Empires --7.5-- (27)
10.Tigris & Euphrates --7.5-- (2)

Notable Games That Just Missed The Mark
Shadows over Camelot -- 8.0 -- (72)

Hot Games Soon To Be Rated
Tikal ---- (52)
Santiago ---- (57)
Amun-Re ---- (32)

Falling Stars
Modern Art --7.5-- (22)
Through the Desert --7.0-- (39)
Settlers of Catan --7.0-- (21)

For more information on these games, log on to www.boardgamegeek.com . Search for Stevve15 and I should pop up. Say hi if you do decide to log in :)

Drowsy....

2006-10-06T13:22:00.000+13:45

I like med school computers!! Actually I like any computers where part of the deal is not to have to wait for more than a second for any page to load or to consistently view your gmail in html format just because your server wasn't quick enough. And what makes it worse is that it's not even my fault. Just because someone in my building spends half her/his time downloading large files (presumably those of scantily clad people... or unclad....) doesn't mean the rest of us have to slow down. I reckon a room-by-room spotcheck is required, and you just might be suprised what turns up in people's history box (now will someone please remind me to delete some of the stuff on mine when I get back....).

Anyway on a completely separate note, we've just sat through our year-end briefing on what is and what's not included in our exams (really important briefing, just got to have it aye). And for my own sake and embarassment, I'm going to put it up so everyone who comes along can have a look at all the stuff I'm expected to know but don't really:

Paper A - Sometime between November and December
Anaesthetics
Cardiovascular System
Endocrinology
Infectious Disease
Laboratory Medicine
Locomotor
Opthalmology
Psychiatry
General Surgery

Paper B - Sometime after Paper A
Behavioural Science
Biochemistry
Dermatology
Emergency Medicine
Evidence-Based Medicine
Gastroenterology
Geriatrics
Maori and Pacific Island Health
Neurology
Palliative Care
Pharmacology
Proffesional Skills
Radiology
Respiratory System
Therapeutics

Anyone reckon its time to do a bit of studying?

Anthony Robbins

2006-10-06T03:39:00.000+13:45

Finally made the bold move of asking Anthony Robbins to be my personal guide and tutor. But my hopes for a total life makeover ended after day 1 because of the crazy stuff he asked me to do e.g. waking up an hour before you're supposed to to exercise while chanting 'I LOVE MY LIFE' to psych yourself up for the rest of the day. Sorry Tony. I've no doubt it works, but right now I can't afford a minute less sleep than what I am getting. Guess the bottom line is you can't always trust the tele. Things projecting out of that box might not always be what it seems. Then again, I still want my magic bullet and winsome pilates.

Still I was pleasantly suprised to find some elements of Godliness in his tapes. He mentioned God in more than 5 separate occasions and went as far as to ask the listeners to pray. Well you could argue that praying is general, that it could mean pretty much anything. And I suppose it could, but it still trumps an atheistic view hands down. One main theme I picked up that permeated most of what he said was this: In whatever you hope to achieve, don't just work towards it. Believe you have already accomplished it. And it will be yours.

Sounds familiar? Well it's not too different from what a certain man said more than 2000 years ago.

Mark 11:24
Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Mid-Week Post

2006-10-04T15:40:00.000+13:45

Stayed up till 2am yesterday hammering out my thoughts on whether God wants us to be rich, and fell asleep in class this morning. As you can see I have difficulty sorting out my priorities. But then again child psychiatry isn't really the most thrilling subject either. We did manage to watch a couple of videos from supernanny so that was good. Though I've still got no idea why people voluntarily go on the show knowing full well the country is going to find out what bad parents they were. I talked to my housemate and we agreed it was a sensitive subject. But then I thought somemore and realized... well... maybe these people love their kids so much they don't care what people think of them (or their parenting skills). All they care about is how to bring up their kids so they will be good people. I love my parents :))

I was doing my devotion this morning and came upon this passage that talked about sheeps. And so it said that sheeps need restoration because they have a tendency to stray and wander. They can be very stubborn and strong-willed, and can roam off the trail that the shepherd had marked out for them. When that happens, the shepherd must restore them to the right path. And when a sheep does manage to wander, it is in tremendous danger. But the sheep (being a sheep.....), don't realize how much danger is out there. A wild beast can suddenly turn a sheep into a meal. Or if it wanders a few steps off the trail and continue trudging along, it might soon find itself on a precarious rocky ledge.

Honestly, I can't recall how often I've strayed off the straight and narrow, putting myself in jeopardy without even realizing it. The number of times I've decided to go my own way instead of following Jesus, and became conscious right next moment how complicated and difficult life can get. And then I turn my eyes back to the captain - which I can do because the captain first came looking for me - and I realize that while I'm on God's path, there isn't really anywhere else I would rather be. Because right there is the safest place in the whole world.

Matthew 7:13-14
''Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few''.

Does God Want Us To Be Rich?

2006-10-02T14:28:00.000+13:45

I have just paged through the latest edition of TIME magazine (September 18 2006) mentioned by Pastor Paul last sunday in church, and found it to be exeptionally interesting. You don't have to be a TIME fanatic to find the article; Splashed across the front page was a sparkling posh BMW with a cross at the end of the bonnet (the part of the car that extends from the front seat....) instead of the quintessential BMW logo accompanied by the big words: Does God want you to be rich? and a few obligatory short sentences explaining the title: Yes, say some megachurches. Others call it heresy. The debate over the new gospel of wealth.

The article started with a story about an american who lost his job and then proceeded to move his entire family to a different state just so he could attend a megachurch from which he had heard preached the gospel of prosperity. Inspired by the preacher's insistence that one of God's top priorities is to shower blessings on Christians in this lifetime - and by the corollary assumption that one of the worst things a person can do is to expect anything less - he marched in to the Gullo Ford company in Conroe and demanded to know what the dealership's top salesmen made - he was told that the average salesmen usually notch their first sale after 2 weeks. He got the job and banishing all doubts, he sold his first car within 4 days and was well on his way to buying his 25 acres dream house with horses and ponies, a barn, a pond and some cattles. And therein the principle of the gospel of wealth. Do you find such a view liberating? Or do you find it disturbing?

''Jesus died for our sins,'' he proceeded to say ''And that was the best gift God could have given us''. But is that all he would give us?

Matthew 16:26 asks
''What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?''

But why not gain the whole world plus your soul? Why would an awesome and mighty God want anything less for His children? The article states that for too long Christians have seen themselves as worthless sinners deserving of reprimands, which although is not wrong, sometimes takes us away from celebrating the fact that we are actually God's children whom He wants to bless. Why do some Christians look at the crucifix and mourn Jesus's death for us, while others see an empty cross and rejoice in the risen son of God, who hath takenth away the sins of the world?

Jesus says in John 10:10
''I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly''.
What does abundantly mean? Does it merely mean spiritual abundance? Or did Jesus meant material possesions as well? Would God bless our spiritual lifes abundantly and our physical lifes not so abundantly? Jesus did not die and get up off the Cross so we could live lives full of despair and disappointment. At the same time, I am not saying that we should always get what we ask for. But you cannot give what you do not have. If I am going to aid the impoverished man in getting a home or help the elderly woman feed her children, then I am going to have to have something with which to help.

Of course all Christians believe that wealth of any sort comes from God.
Deutoronomy 8:18 says
''Remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth''.

Joyce Meyer (we are all familiar with her, she came to our church a couple of times :)) was quoted as saying, "Who would want to get in on something where you're miserable, poor, broke and ugly and you just have to muddle through until you get to heaven? I believe God wants to give us nice things."

In the parable of the ten minas (Luke 19:11-27) Jesus upholds savvy business practice (investing rather than saving) as a metaphor for spiritual practice. But immediately before in Luke 18:24-25 Jesus famously said, ''How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God''.

And in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 6:19
''Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal''.

Was it really wealth that was frowned upon in both verses? Or was it the inability to understand its relative worthlessness as compared with the riches of heaven?

When someone says that God does want us to be rich, others listen with scorn and react ''Well, he's preaching that everybody's going to be a millionaire.'' I don't think that's it. Rather, what was meant was that everybody can improve their lives. I think God wants us to be prosperous. I think He wants us to be happy. God wants us to have money to pay our bills. God wants us to send our kids to college. He wants us to be a blessing to other people. As long as we remember where our wealth comes from and not impart on it a position of greater importance than it deserves, obediently fulfill our duty by tithing the amount (or more) that we're supposed to, never letting money get in the way of our relationship with our Father and going about our Daddy's business with the rest of what we have, why would being rich be such a problem? You don't have to give up everything to be a Christian. Instead, you just see it as a sign of God's blessing.

Malachi 3:10
''Bring the whole tithe into my storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room for it''

At the same time the bible warns of the dangers of success. What could possibly come from getting all that you want?
Deutoronomy 8:13-14 says
''When your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery''

and again in verse 31:20
''When I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, the land I promised on oath to their forefathers, and when they eat their fill and thrive, they will turn to other gods and worship them, rejecting me and breaking my covenant''.

So sadly, success can make dependence on God less of a need in our lives. For this reason, Moses kept urging, ''Remember!''. Remember the days of slavery in Egypt and God's acts in liberating you. Remember the trials of the vast, desolate desert and God's faithfulness there. Remember your special calling as God's own people. Do not forget all of these, now that you are a prosperous nation. And what happens when you remember? When you receive God's blessings and yet still remain faithful?

Luke 19: 26 says,
''I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away''.

Incidentally, one of the megachurches in America that preached the so-called prosperity gospel gave more than $1 million dollars in relief money to survivors after Hurricane Katrina. Now what could be so bad about that?

Boring Boring

2005-09-29T00:32:00.000+12:45

Was supposed to be reading up stuff on opthalmology but I am just so sick of it at the moment. Can't wait to go back to Malaysia at the end of the year, but that would preclude sitting through the end-of-year-exam so I would much rather time just stood still. Went walking through K-road this afternoon (It's a hounding place for prostitutes and strip bars) after I was told there was a boardgame shop there. More than my need to go look for games was my determination not to study, so I set off and when I reached there was greatly dissapointed.

A teeny-tiny shop by the name of 'Heroes For Sale' sat at the corner with it's teeny-tiny door slightly ajar and with 5% of the teeny-tiny room filled with games. I gave the shop a teeny-weeny (no puns intended) bit of my time and decided that it was not worth it so I set out again, this time to Queen Street (As the name would suggest, this is one of the major commercial areas in Auckland. Sort of like the most expensive property on Monopoly. I'm not sure if the Queen shops here, but seeing as to how she's always in England I would say not) I came across a Christian Resource Centre Shop and dropped by to pick up a couple of posters before heading off to Grafton. I couldn't shrug off the distant feeling that God didn't like them, as it started raining on my way back.

As usual, dinner was terrible and I had to go and make Indo-mee after fighting my way through it. It is stuff like this that makes me even more determined to move out next year. Well... besides the low cost and the fact that I'm gonna be staying with wonderful housemates :) I have 5 more minutes to bedtime so I'm gonna end here.

But before that, just to let you guys in on a secret; I've decided to change my sleeping habit. YES!!! No more late night siestas watching movies I did not have to watch and checking all my email accounts incessantly. No... this boy is now going off to dreamland by 12:30 and up bright and shiny again the next day at half past seven. My mum is going to be so proud of me.... someone please show her the link so she can drop by!! Even if it helps with nothing else I do hope it would help clear up my skin.. From what I've been hearing, pimples were supposed to fade the moment you touch down in New Zealand because 'Ohhhhh the air's just sooo clean......'. It's been hard though, as I haven't been sleeping well at all the past 2 nights. Hope everything goes well tonight. Nights everyone.... :)

Day Off From Hospital

2005-04-05T21:31:00.000+12:45

Woken up at noon today by the booming voice of one the people on my floor. Brushed my teeth and put on some nice clothes only to go down to the dining hall and find crap lunch. Was considering for a moment whether or not I should go up and cook my own noodles, but in the end crap lunch won cause I remembered I had already paid for crap lunch.

During the meal the 5th year seniors were talking about their usual stuff before derailing off to discuss about who their admirer's were.
CE: My admirer gave me a Korean sweet, so he must be Korean... hm.... there are only few Koreans in Grafton... hm.... since S and Ke didn't take part, and Han is a girl..... hm.... my admirer must be kg.
DC: .......................................... (Munching apple + not listening + doesn't care who her admirer is)
Rest of us: Sadly we do not have admirers.

Got a call from the International Students Coordinator in the middle of crap lunch. Apparently there is a communication skills class tomorrow that all of us are slated to attend. International students? Oh my gosh.. they most likely do not speak English where they come from. How are they going to adapt to life in Auckland? We should probably take pity on them and give them a few English classes on the last week of their first run so they won't feel lost. They probably won't mind if it interferes with their CAT and case histories deadline this friday as they likely can't complete them anyway with their current command of the language. What a sad and deprived group of people.

Anyway I've got only 2 days till my big presentation on thursday, and I still have much to do. Finished 2 rounds of train game earlier and finished dead last twice. My gaming buddies are getting too good. This has got to stop or I won't likely be buying anymore games.

Auckland New Zealand

2005-04-05T01:45:00.000+12:45

Two of my parcels finally arrived today! In them is everything from chinese tea leaves to underwears to my dear medical textbooks! Oh how I love parcels!

Attached to it was a note by one of the people at the office 'Stephen can I please have your stamps'. Well you can if you can spell my name correctly. I won't be going to hospital tomorrow as my consultant is going away to Wellington, so I can stay up all I want. My partner said it was because of the 69 NZDollar special discount rate that one of the airlines is offering. Did I mention he was my consultant?

Anyway I have to finish up my cat soon. Many thanks to all the seniors who helped me with mine!! I will let you guys know what marks I got when I get them, as long as I pass. Fat eeeeeee said that nobody fails their cats.... I hope I'm not the first!!!

Wow... It's a really great feeling to return to my blog after a year. I can still remember when we had a blog craze in our group where almost everyone started their own. Things haven't been as cruizy here in New Zealand as I would have thought. But then again, it hasn't been as rough either. I will be sending a note soon to let all you guys know my blog has been resurrected. Hopefully you all won't be too busy to come read them, and leave comments like how you use to.

I really miss all of you back in Seremban. Like how some of you have predicted, I have made some great friends here. Some are awesome, some are not but most importantly it is to stay true to yourself no matter what. All of us go through some rough times some of the time, and I guess we just take turns needing someone to point out to us just how special and wonderful each of us really are. I really hope that this will be the start of many more awesome blogs to come, and hope as well that I would be able to command as big amount a visitor as I did the last time I started this.

Many Cheers,
Steve

Zhong festival

2004-06-24T17:44:00.000+12:45

Reluctantly dragged myself out of my room and into my uncle's house earlier tonight to celebrate the dumpling festival. Up till right before we left, I still had about 1 1/2 lecture notes (about 6 pages) to cover. At that time I was still mulling over whether to go or not to go...... doesn't feel right sometimes to go off somewhere and be jolly without first finishing the notes...... the jolliness just doesn't come no matter how hard you try [In the middle of meal (Telepathic notes: SSSSTTEEEVEN !!! How can you go off and leave me alone at home and go out to have zhong dinner ?? Who is going to read me here.... ?? Which is more important now, your renal exam or zhong ??)].... In the end I decided to do both and just took my notes along. Was also considering bringing along the new digi-cam I got last week and snap a few pics so I could post them up here in my blog...... decided against it later when I remembered that my grandparents between the both of them had about 14 grandchildren, at least 4 of them were below 10 and nearly all of whom are going to be attending the same function as I am. Thought for a brief moment about how dinner would be like if I did bring it...... would probably be terrified to death + not daring to detach myself from it lest somebody mistook it for a kid's toy and do unimaginable things to it. Wouldn't be very pleasant either clutching on to it throughout dinner...... might find it to be a rather difficult position in which to eat.....

Anyway such gatherings when they do take place are normally rather 'yit lao'(meriah). All in all there'd be one set grandparents so proud and happy to see all their offsprings and subsequent offsprings reunited again under one roof and having dinner all together (although we never really do it 'together', as we normally have to make do with 2 tables.... for obvious reasons.....), 4 sets of parents undergoing severe cranial ache from chasing after their kids and begging them to please behave, and the 14 blissful progenies terribly excited and pleased at seeing their cousins again after a lapse of an entire month (since mother's day last may) and behaving as though we were all at one time or another part of a herculean siamese hulk reunited again after forever.

The type of dinner that we usually have is the typical let's-all-come-together-and-celebrate-chinese-new-year type, with the chicken, soup, duck, pork, prawns, vege, we had fish yesterday, zhar choy (don't know what it's called in english..... its a vegetarian type of food with some mushrooms and meen seen fried together..... and I don't know what meen seen in english is either..... might be vermicelli.... although it does sound kind of french) and the dumplings all making their appearance. Coincidentally my cousins happened to have brewed some coffee especially for us, and that did make me feel like I would be terrible if I didn't take any..... Thinking it would be good if I could at least take a sip, I did...... albeit risking myself coming down with irreversible insomnia and staying up the entire night. The good thing about that of course, would be that it would give me the chance to catch back up on my drug notes, by now crumpled and stuffed into the back-pocket of my pants, completely forgotten by him-who-put-it-there.

Anyway when I reached home it was still rather early (10:00), and considering I normally stop flicking through my textbooks at around 12:15, I still had a good 2 hours left to dig up whatever I had left and hastily browse through them. Had the audacity to gulp down an entire can of energy drink (100 plus) half-an-hour before bedtime...... I'm starting to get the feeling now that I probably won't be falling asleep anytime soon......

Heaven

2004-06-24T17:35:00.000+12:45

In that place between wakefulness and dreams, I found myself in the room. There were no distinguishing features except for the one wall covered with small index card files. They were like the ones in libraries that list titles by author or subject in alphabetical order.

But these files, which stretched from floor to ceiling and seemingly endless in either direction, had very different headings. As I drew near the wall of files, the first to catch my attention was one that read "Girls I have liked." I opened it and began flipping through the cards. I quickly shut it, shocked to realize that I recognized the names written on each one.

And then without being told, I knew exactly where I was. This lifeless room with its small files was a crude catalogue system for my life. Here were written the actions of my every moment, big and small, in a detail my memory couldn't match.

A sense of wonder and curiosity, coupled with horror, stirred within me as I began randomly opening files and exploring their content. Some brought joy and sweet memories; others a sense of shame and regret so in tense that I would look over my shoulder to see if anyone was watching.

A file named "Friends" was next to one marked "Friends I have betrayed." The titles ranged from the mundane to the outright weird. "Books I Have Read," "Lies I Have Told," "Comfort I have given", "Jokes I Have Laughed at."

Some were almost hilarious in their exactness: "Things I've yelled at my brothers." Others I couldn't laugh at: "Things I Have Done in My Anger", "Things I Have Muttered Under My Breath at My Parents." I never ceased to be surprised by the contents. Often there were many more cards than I expected. Sometimes fewer than I hoped. I was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the life I had lived.

Could it be possible that I had the time in my years to fill each of these thousands or even millions of cards? But each card confirmed this truth. Each was written in my own handwriting. Each signed with my signature.

When I pulled out the file marked "TV Shows I have watched, " I realized the files grew to contain their contents. The cards were packed tightly and yet after two or three yards, I hadn't found the end of the file. I shut it, shamed, not so much by the quality of shows but more by the vast time I knew that file represented.

When I came to a file marked "Lustful Thoughts," I felt a chill run through my body. I pulled the file out only an inch, not willing to test its size, and drew out a card. I shuddered at its detailed content. I felt sick to think that such a moment had been recorded. An almost animal rage broke on me. One thought dominated my mind: No one must ever see these cards!

No one must ever see this room! I have to destroy them!" In insane frenzy I yanked the file out. Its size didn't matter now. I had to empty it and burn the cards. But as I took it at one end and began pounding it on the floor, I could not dislodge a single card. I became desperate and pulled out a card, only to find it as strong as steel when I tried to tear it. Defeated and utterly helpless, I returned the file to its slot. Leaning my forehead against the wall, I let out a long, self-pitying sigh.

And then I saw it... The title read, "People I Have Shared the Gospel With." The handle was brighter than those around it, newer, almost unused. I pulled on its handle and a small box not more than three inches long fell into my hands. I could count the cards it contained on one hand. And then the tears came. I began to weep. Sobs so deep that they hurt. They started in my stomach and shook through me. I fell on my knees and cried. I cried out of shame, from the overwhelming shame of it all. The rows of fileshelves swirled in my tear-filled eyes. No one must ever, ever know of this room. I must lock it up and hide the key.

But then as I pushed away the tears, I saw Him.
No, please not Him. Not here.

Oh, anyone but Jesus. I watched helplessly as He began to open the files and read the cards. I couldn't bear to watch His response. And in he moments I could bring myself to look at His face, I saw a sorrow deeper than my own. He seemed to intuitively go to the worst boxes. Why did He have to read every one?

Finally He turned and looked at me from across the room. He looked at me with pity in His eyes. But this was a pity that didn't anger me. I dropped my head, covered my face with my hands and began to cry again. He walked over and put His arm around me. He could have said so many things. But He didn't say a word. He just cried with me.

Then He got up and walked back to the wall of files. Starting at one end of the room, He took out a file and, one by one, began to sign His name over mine on each card.

"No!" I shouted rushing to Him.

All I could find to say was "No, no," as I pulled the card from Him. His name shouldn't be on these cards. But there it was, written in red so rich, so dark, and so alive. The name of Jesus covered mine. It was written with His blood. He gently took the card back. He smiled a sad smile and began to sign the cards. I don't think I'll ever understand how He did it so quickly, but the next instant it seemed I heard Him close the last file and walk back to my side. He placed His hand on my shoulder and said, "It is finished."

I stood up, and He led me out of the room. There was no lock on its door. There were still cards to be written.....

Renal isn't taking up too much of my time after all

2004-06-22T02:52:00.000+12:45

Reached IMU this morning at 9:00am, left at 11:00am and I’m back home now by 11:30. Had a good snooze during the first hour lecture (about something to do with drugs...... can’t recall much other than that....... can remember vaguely however, the lecturer’s voice starting to drown rapidly after about 10 minutes, but someone told me later it was because of a malfunction of his mike and not me......). Woke up after that and dragged myself down to the first floor and where we (PBL members + faci) had a rather lively discussion covering everything from Malaysian idol to Euro 2004 during the first 20 minutes and then rushing through the learning issues in the last ten.

For some reason I didn’t feel like going back up to the library and studying after that. Decided instead that I would drive straight home and take a quick nap before waking up in time for dinner at six. Was half-hoping then when I shut my eyes that the drugs lecturer would choose to reappear again while I hibernate and diligently provide me with a quick run down of what his lecture was all about this morning...... or even if he doesn’t at least there’s a chance my subconscious mind would be decent enough to provide me with a few flashbacks of what actually took place this morning in LT1. Had been wandering of late about whether or not the decision to place ‘2/3rds of our lectures in the first 2 weeks and open up the last two a little so that we would have time for revision’ would instead backfire. And not that I blame anyone, but with such huge amounts of time now on our hands and a record breaking number of students getting A for repro, IMU semester 4 students have no reason now to believe that they won’t be doing equally as well for renal now do they......................................... ? Well at least not without some hard work....

Good friday

2004-06-19T14:58:00.000+12:45

Collected my repro results today, seriously doubting if it would be possible for me to justify what I got. Can still remember the many mistakes I made in that paper, the most major of blunder of which was committed in the matching section, where I cretinously combined ‘Cervical in-situ carcinoma’ on the left with ‘The treatment of choice is mastectomy’ on the right. Not very difficult for anyone to envisage myself turning into one of those particularly distinguished type of doctor who never seem to have to wait very long, if at all before encountering their next subsequent lawsuit. It brought me back to just the other day when I had smugly dismissed as mental the incident related by one of our batchmates where he had said that one of his mum’s friend who was supposed to be admitted to a hospital for hysterectomy, had her bladder removed instead by the surgeon.

Was supposed to be having a session of tennis this evening with a few other batchmates after our csu at four. And much as our enthusiasm and gusto was to be commended, I wasn’t exactly sure how it was going to turn out if it did at all as out of the five of us only one had ever had any experience with the game. Of the other four, one had never held a racquet before, one had difficulty understanding how scores were kept, one wasn’t sure what the difference was between a singles game and a doubles and one had insufficient blood running through the veins and likely to collapse in the middle of the court ala a pack of cards and in serious need of artificial ventilation halfway through a match.

Mercifully our plans had to be postphoned when by thursday all five of us still were unable to find a court on which to play on, although i wasn't sure if we knew where to look in the first place. Hopefully in the coming few weeks at least one of us would have the blissful serendipity of being able to stumble upon one while the rest sits at home and continue in our epic struggle to pursue enlightenment on our presently negligible knowledge of the game…. and maybe then we would be able play tennis.

Renal is taking up too much of my time

2004-06-16T03:27:00.000+12:45

Haven't been able to do much blogging lately as renal has started taking up more and more time than I had expected.... 9 lectures a week, 2 lab sessions, updating my blog site, a few session of boardgames and a hospital visit this afternoon has left me exhausted and starting to feel like something's going to have to give. Very likely its going to be the one which is least useful + most time consuming + offering minimal benefit + takes a hassle to complete..... position all those together and its really not that hard to decide.... hospital visit hands down.

During our hospital visit excursions I try most of the time, being a G6PD deficient + thalassaemic student, to try and get some breather during our entire 1 1/2 hour odyssey all the way there and back. For once forsaking all social ties and falling into a deep coma if possible, and all the while remembering vividly the last time I did not and arrived in seremban feeling all tired and woozy. I did manage to secure however the much needed rest in the end when I passed out in the middle of the ward in the midst of a briefing by the head sister, just minutes after walking up 7 flights of steps as the elevator was 'AIYOOO !!!!! not for healthy young people like you all one lar.... for sick people oniii.... If sister so old 50 something years old still can walk so high up you all should be able to follow mahh...' When I woke up I was already supine on the floor surrounded by scores of nurses and patients, some of whom were initially sleeping or pretending to be when we waltzed in at 7:00 in the morning, lying in morbid fear of any of us approaching their bed to again badger them for their history.

However looking back on a few of my previous escapades, it seems to be an apparent inclination of administrators to sometimes disseminate students in such a way so as to ensure that nobody gets left out, in that each and every bus that leaves for seremban from bukit jalil is bound to be holding in it one or two hysterically distraught subjects who seem bent on not just trying their best not to fall asleep themselves, but whom appears to also place their utmost importance in ensuring that noone else around them does as well. And although all my visits so far this semester (including the one I had today) has been pleasantly uneventful, I can still recall graphically some of my earlier and rather less than placid visits that I've been on, with the babel occasionally going on throughout the entire journey..... although such hullabaloo sometimes do serve as a rather convenient destination marker if ever you feel like knowing where you are at the moment but feel apprehensive towards opening your eyes and looking lest you present these subjects with an opportunity to strike up a half hour conversation with you.

Busmate 1 : Eii look... we reach the tolls liao.... so fast horh.... but got lots of cars lar today... dunno why... why arr ?? (addressing entire ghost bus)

Busmate 2 : (Nudge nudge half asleep neighbour) Walau look we're gonna reach seremban in erm... (looks at signboard) 25km more.... ! Going to reach already lar.. don't sleep lar... why you always sleeping one.. ? (nudge somemore)

Busmate 3 : Hei can see seremban hospital liao from here... looks so nice one today... makes you feel right like you can't wait to go down and start taking history ??? (Beaming)
Neighbour : (In shock + looking out of window to see whether we've arrived at the right hospital)

Diplomacy

2004-06-13T02:41:00.000+12:45

For the first time since acquiring diplomacy last week, I managed to try it out with 6 of our batchmates yesterday. At the end of the game, and although I’m really not trying to be chauvinistic, I do somehow seem to have reached the conclusion that diplomacy is more of a game for guys (although players like France played brilliantly). But at the same time I have that much respect for the four of them who tried out and played the game with us (the three guys) right to the very end, even though some did say after it was finished that they weren’t ever going to play it again, and more for any of them who would look forward to taking on the game again the next time around.

As a preface, diplomacy is a game centred round Europe around the 20th century during the years leading up to world war I. There are seven great powers to be controlled by one or two players and the only purpose of the game is for..... well..... players to take over Europe, and the only approach to this is to eliminate the other six. The brilliance of the game (or atrocity, as some would put it) however, lies in the fact that this dominance is impossible to achieve all on your own. You will be forced to make allies out of the other six powers, and in doing so invariably choose to bunch up with them against those that you don’t, and herein lies the dispute.

As was expected during the game, alliances were formed (some were broken) but at least when the time came for us to stop, the core and concept of the game had gone through. It was a vicious game no doubt, and it feels awful during the session to be gang-ed up on, but in the end when the game has finished and the board and all the game pieces has been bundled back into the humble box from which it came, it doesn’t take very long to pick yourself back up and appreciate that that is just precisely what it was. I’ve played diplomacy quite a few times before, and lost equally as much. But somehow I don’t regret purchasing it, and all the time as soon as I finish playing one game I look forward with as much enthusiasm as to when I’ll be able to next play it again.

Potter mania

2004-06-10T20:36:00.000+12:45

Took a drive down to IOI yesterday to catch the latest installment of the potter films. Had the fright of my life when one of our batchmates (who was supposed to be leading the way) sped almost the entire journey there while i struggled to keep up, with the both of us in the end taking just a little over 10 minutes to reach puchong all the way from bukit jalil. Twice I managed to fall behind so far back i couldn't see her car (though i'm not sure she noticed as she never showed any indication of slowing down) catching up only during traffic lights, with her completely oblivious as to whether my rickety car was anywhere in sight and all while hurtling down the narrow road at a speed faster than harry's broomstick.

When we finally reached I went in with as little expectations as I could, both of the movie but even less of the cinema. Fresh on my mind was the experience of another of our batchmate which happened when she was watching the day after tomorrow a few days back. Seated right beside her was a lady who appeared to be rather bedazzled by the show, constantly yelping out comments or advice so loud it was audible by at least half the cinema.

Lady : (Somewhere in the show) Oi pao lar... !!! Kuai dian..... !!! Hai bu pao arr..... !!! (Oi run lar !!! Faster !!! Still not running ar !!!)
Batchmate : ..........
Lady : Kuai dian pao..... !!! ......Shui lai liao lar !! (Faster run !!! The water is coming !! In subtle reference to the seawater that swamped new york in the middle of the show, with waves so high it drowned out the sound waves coming from the audience, which apparently were critical in determining the fate and outcome of our fellow actors).

Needless to say during this movie our particular batchmate chose a seat at the very edge of the row, right beside the alleyway where people normally walk.

However being an avid fan who has read all five books, I personally found it rather difficult myself trying to restrain from turning to whoever was beside me anytime a new scene came on, attempting to explain every detail I thought they might have missed, or to introduce each character everytime they came on screen, never mind that he or she was merely standing motionless in the background partially covered by hagrid’s head and playing a less than midgety role in the film, or even to predict what was eventually going to happen, from shouting out the incantation for every spell before they were uttered to voicing my displeasure everytime a scene came on in the movie that wasn’t in the book and endeavoring to explain to whoever was listening very patiently what was actually written in the text, in the process accidentally letting slip the twist of the show that wasn’t supposed to be revealed until towards the very end.

I don't know if this explained why the two biggest fans out of the five of us were bundled into the corner seats, separated by the F1 driver. Or maybe they had anticipated what was going to happen and just wanted to get themselves as far away as possible from all those who pride themselves on being an insufferable potter know it all..... or at least during the movie.

Inconstructive criticism

2004-06-09T05:56:00.000+12:45

Today for the unfathomable number of time somebody from our batch took it upon themselves to come judge and to make some judgemental remarks about the way in which I highlight my notes. Normally I do it by running a thin, transparent coloured line through the word I want to mark, sort of like this -I-M-P-O-R-T-A-N-T, but somehow this hasn’t gone down very well with our batchmates. And I must say this really isn’t something new, and among the more memorable scope of tirade that my highlighting has had to endure over the past 4 semesters include:

Batchmate 1 : (While flipping through one of my books ) AIYOH !! (As though she was witnessing the most vile and repulsive act of disfigurement) WHY YOU HIGHLIGHT YOUR BOOK UNTIL SO UGLY ?!?! ...... HAIH ......WANT TO PHOTOCOPY ALSO CANNOT......

Batchmate 2 : (Looking extremely concern) Eii you conteng your notes until like that still can see arr ?? Next time you want to refer back how ??

Batchmate 3 : (Upon replying very graciously that I could borrow one of her coloured pens) So..... going to cancel somemore words off your book ?? (Smirking)

Batchmate 4 : Eii Steven… the words that are cancelled......
Me : ..... errr..... actually...... they’re highlighted...... (Trying to smile)
Batchmate : Ok, the words that are smudged..... are they wrong arr ?

Batchmate 5 : AIYOH..... WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR NOTES LAR ?!?! How come like that already one.
Me : (Shocked + straining to see my notes are like what ?)
Batchmate : (Not giving chance to look) You want to borrow mine to photocopy or not ?? I think you better lar..... if not exam coming also you cannot study... (Shuff notes into my hand)
Me :.......

Sigh..... and actually these can even be considered among the more milder form of defamation that my highlighting has been subjected to. And I’m not even sure if this is a coincidence.... but now that I think back about it.... my handwriting seem to have gone through an almost similar heritage. Only difference is, for my method of inscribtion, deprecciation started way back in primary school.

Phone hazard

2004-06-07T21:24:00.000+12:45

Somebody related this incident to me this morning. It happened while he was on holiday with his family, and he was surprisingly upbeat throughout the entire conservation, considering that at the end of the story his sim card had been undermined and he had had to get a new one.

Batchmate : (Nudge nudge) Eii yeah I have something to tell you.
Me : (Look at him expectedly)
Batchmatte : Please remember not to call me the whole of today or tomorrow.
Me : (Waiting for him to finish sentence)
Batchmate : ........
Me : (What did I do to offend/ insult him ???) Urm... ok.... why..... ar ?
Batchmate : Because my sim card has spoilt.... have to go carrefour afterwards to buy a new one.
Me : Oh..... (very reliefed !!) urm.. what happened to your sim card… ?
Batchmate : Aiyoh (shake head), the other day lar while I was on holiday....

It was around afternoon that day when it happened. He was in the midst of some kayaking when suddenly somebody decided to make a phone call.

Me : Oh.... you mean in the middle of kayaking ?
Batchmate : No lar.... she wasn’t kayaking.... on the shore watching us only.
Me : Oh.... you mean you didn’t bring your phone along with you ar ?
Batchmate : Of course no lar..... bring the phone for what ? Want to call also cannot.... all water only what everywhere....
Me : (Nod head)
Batchmate : So anyway she took the phone and turn it on, want to call someone then she saw got pin number, cause I got put pin no. on my phone. Since she don’t know what’s the number right, and got three tries, she simply key in something but wrong. Then she turn the phone off, then turn it on again.
Me : Aiyah actually you go kayaking leave your phone on the beach also no need to switch off what. Switch off for what.... ?
Batchmate : ......... I didn’t switch off my phone ler.... (accusing look whether or not I was listening to his story)
Me : (Protesting) But you said she switch on the phone when she wanted to use..??
Batchmate : Ya.. but not me who switch off. I leave it on. She switch it off then want to switch on again.
Me : ...... why.... ???
Batchmate : I also dunno.... but anyway when she turn on the phone she saw ei still got the pin number again. So she try again… but still wrong. .. she try three times but all also cannot. Then after all three tries finish came the barcode number... and this one got 10 tries right ?? (Turn to look at another batchmate)
Another batchmate : (Roll eyes) I... don’t... know... I haven’t type my password three times wrong before....
Batchmate : ......... anyway..... since she still want to make the call right, she still continue to try to enter the barcode. After trying for 7-8 times that's when i finish my kayaking and then i came back up.
Me : Eii then good lar !! That time you also can enter your barcode back right ? (beaming)
Batchmate : No. Problem is i also don't know what is my barcode... so i also simply try pressing.. (giggle very loudly) then after few times cannot all the words went off and cannot use anymore.
Me: ...........
Batchmate : ......and now on the phone screen only got this words left... (bring handphone forward to show)
Phone : Simcard rejected

Second home II

2004-06-05T05:10:00.000+12:45

Woke up early the next morning looking forward to a quiet and relaxing day at grandma's house. Took my time while coming down the stairs, humming and singing all the way to myself... was just about to step into the living room when the first thing that greeted me was (horror of horrors) my youngest brother (who was supposed to be staying at my cousin’s house) blasting away at the playstation with the television volume turned 3/4s of the way up. Took quite some time to make sure that it was really him when I noticed that, seated very calmly right beside my brother and holding another playstation joystick in his hand was (gasp!) my 9 year old cousin.

Sigh... but really… it’s not that I don’t like spending time with my brother [(or my cousin…), on the other hand I always make sure I have enough time for him…. even when I’m extremely busy] but its just that sometimes when I’m not feeling very well... I just... would much rather prefer to spend the entire day all by myself. A quiet day at my sanctuary away from all the hustle and bustle, with no worries and with both my grandparents beside me was actually closer to what I had in mind…. not babysitting.

As I had expected, I turned out to be their messenger + playtool + errand boy for the rest of the day, taking down and assembling the toys they’ve identified to be worthy of their time, and putting them back 5 minutes later, being their goalkeeper when they've decided to play football [please lar.. yee koh (2nd brother) pleaseee... don’t have enough people lar (tug at shirt)... please... a while onnnniiiiii... PLEEAASSEEE (looking very pitiful)], and from bringing them to the nearby park so they can participate in an apparent meeting of all 9 year olds in the neighbourhood to buying them lunch (one wantan mee konlou… urm… no wantan... but I want 3 chicken feet... and err.. one slurpee also… I think I want urm… chicken rice… no cucumber... extra rice… and ... one bottle of soyabean), I turned out even more exhausted than I would have been if I had just stayed at home.

The only highlight of the day came when my mom called up asking if I was going to be free tonight, as she wanted to book tickets for the whole family out for a movie... never mind that I hadn’t been able to put in much time into my books… had been reminding myself anyway since wednesday that I was going to watch the day after tomorrow the day after tomorrow.

Second home I

2004-06-05T01:32:00.001+12:45

Discovered upon arriving at my grandma’s house that a potential tenant was coming over to view one of the rooms that had just a few days ago been put up for rent. My grandma had decided that that would be the best thing to do as one of my aunts had recently just moved out into a new house, and she thought it would be nice to have another girl in the house. Our neighbour (who apparently already had a few years experience at being a landlady) willingly volunteered to help, although actually I think all she wanted to do was just to make sure grandma got a fair deal, as knowing her she would agree to any request the tenant makes, probably even lowering so much of the initial start-out-rent that she would eventually be paying the girl to stay in the house.

Neighbour : Oooo this girl ar she’s a student… just called up this morning (she had taken the trouble to help grandma put up flyers and notes advertising the room wherever she felt appropriate) to ask when she can come over to see the house… so I told her tonight also can lar if she’s free.
Grandma : Of course she can come over tonight. All thanks to you ah souh (auntie), took so much trouble to help us.
Neighbour : No lar… don’t mention it…. It’s not so much trouble lar… I’m used to doing these things already (unless I am very much mistaken, she was referring to her own experience. If i remember correctly, she had been renting out rooms from her house ever since I was little kid)

The tenant arrived 10 minutes later, a sweet-looking girl around my age studying in UTAR about 20 minutes walk from our place. She came with a guy, and upon spotting him, the first group of rules that she (neighbour) immediately laid down for her was:
1.No boyfriends visiting the house
2.No boyfriends IN the house
3.Definitely no boyfriends IN the room

After making sure she understood, she was allowed a tour of the house, including a trip up to the room in which she would be staying.

Girl : Urm… is there anything in the house which I can use ?
Grandma : Sure.. I guess it would be allright if you….
Neighbour : (Interrupt + loudly + with fierce look) Why don't you just let us know what it is in particular in the house that you would like to use. Then we will let you know whether you can use it.
Girl : Err… ok... (eyes glancing hurriedly around before coming to rest on the huge tv + astro decoder in the living room) like.. urm… can I watch the television ?
Neighbour : Watch the television ?!?! (Very loudly and sounding as though she was asking for the moon) Definitely not.
Girl : (Ignoring neighbour, turning to grandma) You mean even if you guys watch, I still can’t sit and watch together? (looking very pitiful)
Grandma : Of course you can watch the television if you want to. I never watch it anyway. You can watch all you want. Just treat the whole place as though its your own home. (smiling)
Neighbour : (looking at grandma while shaking head)
Girl : Ok... urm… (thinking about what to ask next) do you all go out of the house very often ?
Neighbour : (rolling eyes) Can I just know why you are asking this ?
Girl : Oh no… no… er… I…er… just… wanted to know...
Neighbour : Well if you MUST know, she does NOT leave the house very often. She’s at home most of the time... so you don’t have to worry about being left alone in the house... IF that’s the reason why you’re asking...
Girl : No i err... (looking very uncomfortable) i think i'll go up and urm.. have a look at the room again.

By now she seemed to have figured out that the less she asked the better. She still liked the room anyhow, although I had a feeling I played a major role when I got through to her that this fierce, intimidating lady who was doing the interrogation didn’t actually stay in the same house.

Girl : ….. actually, I like the room very much…
Neighbour : Then you might want to pay the deposit first.
Girl : but still… I would like to think about it somemore first… before…
Neighbour : (interrupt) Then I guess we’ll see you again some other time then.
Girl : But I’m worried also… that some other people might come and urm... decide to take this place when I leave…
Neighbour : Well then let me assure you now that I cannot guarantee you that wouldn’t happen.
Girl : !!!

She paid up her deposit that very same night, all the while reassuring us that she would be moving in as soon as possible.

Sick guy

2004-06-02T23:14:00.000+12:45

Came down with fever and chills yesterday which dragged on till the next day, so i wasn't really in any particular mood to write about anything. Just pretty much lied in bed the entire day, awaking only during my favourite tv programs and when it was time for dinner or lunch. Had to even cancel our boardgame + pbl session we were organising in one of our batchmate's house (actually there weren't enough people anyway), and very nearly absconded from attending my granddad's 70 something birthday dinner, knowing full well how a big a fuss my parents would make if i did. In the end i just dragged myself out and went anyway, trying to look as miserable as i could during the entire meal. Other than that i was pretty much as sick as anyone who's sick can be.

Did manage however to catch the entire miss universe 2004 program this morning on starworld. As always, it turned out to be pretty entertaining, although one can't help noticing that the general trend in all these beauty pageants is that the contestants seem to be deteriorating every year. If this were to continue, in just a few years time miss universe would probably not be anymore different than miss jumbo in thailand.

Bad time management

2004-05-31T19:17:00.000+12:45

Woke up early today after a 6 hour sleep to join my parents for breakfast. Ended up sleeping all the way to the restaurant and back, regaining my consciousness only briefly during the meal. When i reached home, was still feeling pretty tired so i spent the rest of the afternoon lying down (sleep + watch tv + read newspaper + sleep somemore).

I guess we can never fully appreciate just how taxing exams can be until after it's finish... and there's always this feeling of relief everytime one passes. The same goes for this one, although actually this time its not so much because the exam itself is over, but because now people can't use that as an excuse anymore not to drop by and read my blogs.

But whatever the excuse, i still felt like it was a total waste of time. Could have spent the entire morning revising my respi but i didn't.... hard to believe i wasted the whole morning... sigh... feeling kind of upset with myself now.. so much so i don't really feel like studying anymore for the rest of the day.... maybe even for the rest of the hols.

Priceless game...

2004-05-30T03:28:00.000+12:45

Drove all the way to summit again to buy the board game i saw yesterday. Had run out of money the day before, from the RM20 steamboat dinner to the movie and tolls, just didn't have much left when i came upon them. Cost me a huge RM110 (that's my entire week's holiday money spent, and hols hasn't even started yet..) but it's going to be well worth it as long as i have people to play it with. Had already shortlisted quite a few of our batchmates to help try it out when everybody's back for classes, or maybe even during the hols if any of you guys are around.

Had actually planned on buying them both initially, but my mom balked when i told her so i hurriedly just settled for one... had a feeling then that if i didn't, i probably would have ended up with neither. Tried arguing that both these games (RM180 + RM110) were still relatively cheaper compared to those that i've bought before [civilization (RM250), settlers of catan : stoneage (RM200)] but somehow she didn't seem convinced... will probably try again next week... normally she never says no...

Home at last...

2004-05-28T21:49:00.001+12:45

Its 12:45 now and i just go back, completely drained from all the events that has happened today...

Everything started from the night before, when I decided to stay up a little later to do some extra bit of studying for the exam... took my first ever cup of nescafe hoping it would last me till at least a little past midnight but I ended up staying awake for the whole of the night, struggling to sleep even at 4:00am in the morning... dragged myself out of bed again at 7:30 and made my way down to the library, where I stayed put until exam-time, trying hard not to fall asleep.

When that time came and went, I then went out for a movie with some of our batchmates to celebrate one of our birthdays. By then i was already starting to yawn every now and then, although the movie was really good and that kept me on my toes for a little while... at least until the movie was over. It finished at around 8:45 but we continued to hang around starbucks for a little while before we left, and i still had to fetch two of our batchmates home.

It didn't turn out to be the easy drive i had thought it would be as, i was to find out later, the two of them stayed in almost completely different areas. Didn't help either that it started raining soon after i left Summit, fogging up the windscreen mirror so badly i could hardly see. Made my way back through the traffic to bukit jalil to drop one of us off before turning my attention towards the painstaking drive deep into the heart of KL... and when i got there i found out that it was as an absolutely secluded area i've never been to before (although to be fair, i've never been to any part of KL before... at least not when i'm driving), taking more than an hour just to get there from IMU. By then i was completely snuffed, closing my eyes trying to get whatever sleep i can everytime we came to a traffic light, with my passenger alerting me whenever the light turned green.

When we finally did manage to make our way to her house, it was almost 11:30 and i was not even sure if i could keep my eyes on the road. She took time to draw me a map pointing me home, although she needed more than 15 minutes to do it, which prompted her mom to come over to the car to lend a helping hand. The map didn't help though, as the road i was supposed to be on was blocked and i was diverted off into another one. By that time i didn't really bother where i was going as long as i was moving, and once or twice i caught myself losing it for half a second before realizing what i was doing and jerking back up. Was completely lost for the first 20 minutes, driving around aimlessly until i decided to stop at a petrol station and ask for directions, after which i was on my way again and this time managed to find myself in at least someplace familiar, although i was still more than a half hours drive away from home. Finally when i did make it back i was having difficulty trying to walk straight so i just had a quick bath after which i felt much better, and so here i am in front of the computer trying to pour out everything i remembered from today and the day before.

But now that i'm sitting back and thinking, i find that actually i wouldn't mind going through everything that took place yesterday and today all over again... as when i look back i realized that i did manage to have done quite a few things today... like spending time with my friends, stumbling upon a boardgame shop and finding two of the games (which i'm hoping to try out with you guys) that i've been looking for all over the place for a really long time, getting the chance to meet one of our moms, getting the chance to tour KL like i never would have done before... but more importantly on the way back i managed to spend some quiet time with myself, which was something that i haven't been doing for quite a long time now.. and that by itself made everything worth it.

Debatable....

2004-05-27T02:48:00.000+12:45

Something was brought up today during lecture that caught my attention. It occurred when we were being taught menopausal and its associated signs and symptoms, where we were told that sitting right at the top of the list of things that women undergoing menopause complained about was depression. And although many theories were put forward, such as the depletion of trytophan and the ‘empty nest syndrome’.... it actually seemed pretty obvious (and many of the girls are going to deny this….) that the main reason why women over 50 feel depressed is simply because they undergo atrophic vaginitis leading to the development of dyspareunia.

Banana leaves lunch... for the first time !!

2004-05-26T23:47:00.000+12:45

Had lunch today at steven's corner with the entire pbl group and our faci. It was a rather long, eventful lunch and if you were there it probably wouldn't take very long to figure out that most of us (me included...) had never stepped inside a typical Indian rice restaurant before... or at least not for a long time. By the time we left, i would say we left some sort of a lasting impression.

Everything was going rather well at the beginning. We were shown to our table and were sitting down talking like how any people would in a restaurant when suddenly there came a huge outburst from one of us who had just spotted the waiter approaching our table with a tray of banana leaves:
Batchmate 1: WAHHHH !!! Eii (nudge neighbour)!!, LOOK, LOOK GOT BANANA LEAVES LARR !
Batchmate 2: Walau got banana leaves arr ?! I didn't know we were having banana leaves rice for lunch !!!
Batchmate 3: Wahhhh banana leaves wei... cool...
Batchmate 4: (On closer inspection) Hei.. how come some of them got yellowy-yellowy colour one ??
Waiter : .............

There followed a rare moment of silence as each of us proceeded to (secretly..) admire our individual banana leaves. That moment of calm didn't last very long though and was completely shattered, this time by our faci, when she managed to detect out of the corner of her eyes the waiter returning back to our table to scoop some rice and sauces onto our leaves:
Faci : Eiii !! Can one of you quickly go down to the counter and get some serviettes onot ?! I want to wipe my banana leaves lar before they put things on it...
When the serviettes finally did arrive there followed a mad scramble by most of us (who were obsessively hygienic...) to attempt to scrub and polish and wipe our leaves as hard as we could because the leaves were
Faci : (Threateningly) VERY DIRTY ONE LARRR....you don't believe me rite, you wipe the leaves and then you can see all the dirt... don't believe ahh you try and see...
completely oblivious to the fact that the waiter was bearing the combined weight of the rice and sauces (enough for all 8 of us) for the entire duration of about 5 minutes before he was actually allowed to come any closer to our precious leaves..... and actually i think the very reason why he didn't just rest the bucket of rice and sauce on our table while waiting was simply because he didn't dare risk the entire bucket being toppled and knocked off the table, what with all the vigorous hand motions happening all around.. and now that i think about it, i really do not recall seeing any further for the entire duration of our lunch.

By the time another waiter arrived to take down our orders, the excitement from the previous flexion-extension marathon had somewhat subsided and everything went rather well until the end, although it did take us close to about 20 minutes just to order our drinks, as all of us (being very excited and not wanting to be left out) started shouting out orders simultaneously as soon as another waiter arrived which succeeded only in confusing him further... and unless i was seeing double, a third waiter was actually dispatched a few minutes later to our table to assist the second in listing down our orders...

At the end of our meal when the bill was presented, a huge scuffle broke out between the 7 of us and our faci over who was going to pay, although i wasn't sure we were trying very hard as the bill, by now completely crumpled and in pieces, ended up in the hands of our 40-something year old faci. An argument further broke out in front of the cashiers when each started accusing the other of causing the fiasco.
Faci : You ahhh... very embarassing lar you... fighting for the bill like that...
Batchmate : What me ??? You also what... YOU started it somemore...
Faci : Who say ?? YOU lar started it...
Cashier : .......

Overall though i would say it was a pretty fun thing to do, especially with the exams coming up, kind of took our minds off it a little. Can't wait now for our next faci to come along and take us out, although i probably wouldn't go back to the same restaurant.

Tiring day out at the clinic desa

2004-05-25T21:51:00.000+12:45

Had our clinic desa visit this morning. And although Pajam was nowhere close to Seremban Hospital in terms of its facilities or in terms of its size, it outshone itself merely by the warmth of its staffs and by the sheer simplicity of the place. At the end of the day when we left, i do feel like we had learnt quite a lot from this place... and although this really isn't fair, but i kind of gathered we probably learnt more here than if we were to have been in the wards. Lessons here were conducted partly through observing and practising, but mostly by laughing at ourselves.

I can still remember (vividly..) one of our batchmates trying to measure a patient's weight by using the equipment for measuring height, and another trying to inspect a patient's hair from quite a distance
Student (standing quite far away from patient): On inspection, patient's hair is clean and does not have kutu....
which immediately prompted the nurse to retort
Nurse: How do you know the patient's hair doesn't have kutu ?? You boleh tengok ke dari sana ?? You ada bionic eyes ke ??

As usual most of us couldn't get the symphyseal-fundal height right, and even less succeeded in detecting even the slightest presence of life with the fetoscope, despite the nurses continously listening and reporting incredulously after each failed attempt that the sound was still:
Nurse: Very clear !! Very very clear !! Even clearer than the last one.. Siapa tak boleh dengar ini mesti deaf..
And although i was among the group students who were supposedly deaf, i could gather however based on what the nurse was reporting that there seems to be an indisputable rule in Pajam where every mother who steps into the antenatal clinic have a louder and more clearer foetal heart sound than the last.

Came back to IMU feeling completely tired out so i just had a quick lunch and went down to the library. Managed to bug quite a few people to read my blogs before going off for my nap in the audi. Not getting enough sleep for the second consecutive night has left me feling slightly disoriented. Hopefully everything clears up soon or at least after exams.

A difficult-to-get joke.

2004-05-24T23:18:00.000+12:45

Today our pbl facilitator decided it was appropriate to share with us a..... rather.... actually it's indescribable... so she just.... shared with us a joke. I couldn't really get it at first, so let's see if anyone could. It was at the end of our session when all of us had already packed up our stuff and was just about to leave when:

Faci : Ei you guys wait lah !!! Before you all go ah, i want to ask you all a question...
PBL members : (All very excited!!)
Faci : How do you all determine arr whether somebody is a guy or girl ???
PBL members : ..........
Faci : Come on you guys, make a guess. How do you all know ??
PBL members : ...... (Looks at each other..) .......
Faci : Haiyah like that also you all don't know arr... You just take down the genes...
PBL members : ???
Faci : Aiyoh come on... (Getting very excited) then how do you all tell whether somebody is a guy or a girl ?!?!
Me : ....urm.... karyotyping...?
Faci : (Getting more excited) Haiyoh you all don't geeeet iiiiit aaaahh ?!?!?!
Me : (Whispering to nearest member while glancing warily at excited faci...) ... yes but... then what do we to the gene ??????
Faci : (Getting very frustrated) Haiyah you all very slow lahhh...
PBL members : (Mumble mumble + look at each other somemore...)
Faci : (Nearly out of breath...) You all rrreeeeaaalllyyy dddooonnn'tttt ggeeeetttt iittttt aaaarrrr ??? To see whether somebody is a guy or a girl... You just take down their JEANS !!!

Of library books and lecture notes II

2004-05-24T22:29:00.000+12:45

Grudgingly returned my embrology book today. The first thing the man said when he scanned my book was:
Man : LAMBAT !!
Me : Huh... apa?! (Looking very suprised)
Man : Buku you... you return lambatlah..
Me : ... Ei... ya ke ?!(Lookin very suprised + shock)
Man : Ya lah.. tengok tu (pointing at screen) ...
Me : (Bend down and squint eyes to look)..
Man : Sepatutnya you return last friday...
Me : Aiyah i mesti dah lupa lah.. (looking very pitiful)... i ingat due date tu hari ini...

He didn't really give me a chance to explain though.. got hit with a RM1.80 fine which (coupled with a previous long-standing one of RM0.50) adds up to the grand total of RM2.30. Well at least it didn't surpass RM5.00. But actually now that i think about it... can't really remember where the RM0.50 came from. Maybe some other students scanned it onto my account. who knows...

Was a little moody for the rest of the day after that, although i wasn't sure many people noticed. I'm not very good at being moody. Didn't help either that i couldn't get enough sleep last night. Put that together with a killer 2 1/2 hours lecture and a major exam in four days and you've got yourself the perfect guide to depression.

Of library books and lecture notes I

2004-05-23T12:57:00.001+12:45

I just realised that the moore's embrology book i borrowed was supposed to be due last friday... I don't know how much the total is going to come to now but i'm really hoping the fine does not exceed RM5 just so i can scrap through sem 4 and 5 without paying. And to think that just last thursday i had smirkingly put down while answering the evaluation questionaire that i think library fines 'should be upheld as they serve not just as a punishment, but also as a deterrent'. Its just that i very rarely return library books late and didn't really think very highly of those who did. However to be safe i guess i'll just bring some extra cash tomorrow in case i have to make that little trip down to the cashier's. Might have to be getting a new photostat card as well... mine's only got about RM2 left in it. Kind of looks a little overused too.. a little melted at the edges...

Anyway since we're already on the subject i must say there's something pretty odd going on with our IMU library. In the past week alone, I got to know of at least 2 of our batchmates who had had other student's books scanned on to their account. And although one of them was lucky enough to have had that book returned, the other however wasn't... but i'm really hoping he finds it soon.... and I guess although we can't prove that it really wasn't us who took the book out, at least we've got to be pretty clear of the books that we actually did borrow, so that in the event something like this happens you can be up-front and just tell the librarian straight on that it wasn't you who was having the book instead of looking unsure and saying things like 'saya tak pasti lah... balik rumah check boleh ??' which would immediately strenghten their already flawed assumption that you had lost the book.

Annoying karaoke contest

2004-05-23T01:42:00.000+12:45

I don't know just how silly this is going to sound but there is actually a karaoke-singing competition going on right now at the open-field outside my house. And although it's placed almost at the opposite end of the field, it wasn't quite far enough for the noise to drown out before it found its way to my room. It has been going on for almost 2 hours now and with every contestant that comes on it's becoming increasingly difficult to concentrate on my studies. Apparently it was organised by a certain association to raise funds for charity, so i guess i shouldn't complain. But REALLY... its not that i don't appreciate music.... but i just feel like i would be much better placed to appreciate the songs... if i can just figure out what sort of language the contestants are singing them in...

Pilot post

2004-05-22T18:11:00.000+12:45

Wow what an incredible feeling it is to finally have my own blog ! For the past few weeks all i have been doing is reading other people's blog (some of which were pretty good..) trying to get some inspiration and ideas for my own. But now that i do have my own blog i just don't know where to start.. Maybe a little about the place where i stay.. 'Old town'

Old town is as you can guess... pretty old. The houses here were among the first to be built in the petaling district and if you take time out to observe you can actually see that the houses here have more in common to those in Sungai Petani than to those in Kl. My family and i have been staying here for as long as i can remember and the thing about this place is that its a very small place and coupled with the fact that we've been staying here almost all our lifes just means that we practically know everybody. As such a walk out the door to say... out for lunch and back can take anywhere between one to one and a half hour. Included within this period would be the time taken off to greet the watch shop lady (who has been faithfully repairing all our watches everytime one ran out of battery or was accidentally sat on... which happens quite frequently actually...) or to ask the stationary man (who for the past 10 years has been supplying me with all my 13 or so coloured pens) whether he had had his lunch..

Today was no different as we went out for lunch at 2:00 and only managed to make it back by about 3:15.
However there was one conversation that popped up during lunch that nobody really could foresee. It centred around my 9-year old brother who innocently enough asked a rather unexpected question. We've been back for more than half an hour now and i still do not recall anybody giving him a reply. i guess its the perfect reflection of our reserved asian culture where certain things are still kept very much taboo and nobody's really too eager to talk about it. It kind of went like this :

A mee seller lady came to our table to collect some dishes after some of of us had finished our lunch and she struck up a conversation with my mum (she's actually a new seller, just opened her shop about few weeks back so we don't really know her as well as the others..)

Mee seller as she was collecting the dishes : Eii auntie how are you doing today arh ?? Good onot ??
Mum : ....... (Not too happy at being called auntie)... ok... quite ok..
Mee seller: (unpertubed) Wah auntie you have all boys arr in your family ?? 3 BOYS ARR ??Mum : ......(very insulted) .... urm..... yes.... 4 actually...
Mee seller : WAHHH !!! FOOUURR AAARRHHH ??? (Loudly and sounding as though she was witnessing a miracle)

Actually i dont know if there's any solid reason but there's just something about these people that keeps them fixated on the amount and the variation (how many guys and how many girls) of other people's children. And almost immediately they would proceed to offer family planning strategies (whether or not we were interested..) rivalling even those of our family doctor's. They would get tremendously caught up that they become totally oblivious to everything else.. such as the growing number of starving customers standing at their stall waiting patiently to order or that the entire congregation sitting at the opposite end of the shop was turning their head in our direction trying to see who was the so 'Houh choy' (lucky) person who must have a very 'houh meng' (good life..) just because she has 4 boys.. And in a family with all boys you don't have to be a genius to know that the next thing they're going to say is..

Mee seller: Wah so when you gonna try for a daughter ?? You got no girls worrr ?? Dowan girls meh ???
Mum : ... No... i have enough already... (Fiddle with handphone to try and look busy..)
Mee seller: Aiyah why don't you try and see ?? Maybe this time you can get a daughter leh...
Mum : ..... (put on reluctant smile) ..... No i really don't want already...

When suddenly..

9 year old brother : Eii mameee can choose one ar want kids or not ?? How arr you can choose not to become pregnant ??

Mum : (Handphone nearly fell off hand)......
Mee seller : ..... (nervous giggle)....

9 year old brother : (Louder this time) MAMEEE can choose one meh want to be pregnant or not ??? How to choose arr ??? How come you didn't get pregnant for so long ????

Mum : (Suddenly turned to me and started talking)...
Mee seller : (Quickly walk away)...

I dont remember anybody speaking anymore after that. The rest of just hurriedly finished our lunch and we left as quickly as we could.