Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Sex Strike

There's hunger strikes, there's work strikes, there's also three strikes in baseball.

Sex strike is the ultimate. The final solution. If ye threaten no sex, the men will be like lambs. Ready to do thy bidding.

And the demand for today is simply to stop playing fireworks.

Might as well they ask the men to stop becoming boys.

For married couples, this is indeed an act of Nusyuz. Rebellion by wives. 

I wonder really if this will work. 

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Advising on Quitting Smoking: Can Still Maka Difference.

Granted, I very seldom advice patients to quit and stop smoking (guilty). (Guilty again).

But here's an article which says that docs still may make a difference! Click.

How can change be when no attempt at change is to be? 

Goes to yourself, myself, the person on his bed (or the hospital's).

When there's no will there's no way (sounds familiar, huh?).

So quit and dump those habits!

Start slow. Start fast. 

As long. There is a start. 

To ensure a happy ending.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

My New Year

New year is always about new resolutions. Out with the old in with the new.

Therefore it is my best intention to not do exactly, perfectly that. But a slight modification of the phrase.

Out with the old...

Not everything old is to be discarded. No. Only the rotten and rotting. Those are to be trashed, never to be seen. Those old antique trophies you keep because you earn them, that you keep. The shiny thing that keeps you motivated everyday, that you keep. Whatever is still good, it will never be rotten. That - I keep.

Some of the old needs to be reviewed, remodeled, reinvented, rejuvenate. In fact not some but most.

...in with the new

Only selectively allow allowable new things. You know what I mean. Don't let things corrupt you all over again. Never again. If you can help it. Knowledge is welcomed.

Learn. READ! as has been proclaimed!

Throw away ignorance as much as possible.

As for self: review, remodel, reinvent, rejuvenate. Remake everything. Revolutionize.

I pray for my brothers and sisters, and myself, that we not fall into the unforgivable pits of no return. I pray for all that we take the straight path. To where we are suppose to be heading.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Terima Kasut, Bush

Saw this one in the morning. Already making my day

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7782774.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7782422.stm

That's right Mr. Bush. He's getting your attention to wake you up from all the lives you've taken.

Terima Kasut, Bush! Patut baling slipar.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Med Students and the Rain


That was the first MSC Family Day Ive been to.

Kudos to the organizers as it was also the first Family Day which succeeded in gathering all the current 5 batches to one program even though not everyone was present. But that's just minor setback.

Today we have first years to fifth years participating in the games. The organizers did wonderfully to mix us together so that there weren't any batchship today. We first played Galah Panjang and Baling Slipar, followed by Muat dalam Bulatan and Garis Panjang. Many more games were in line but the rain spoilt it.

But the rain didn't spoil the fun.

People had a good time mandi hujan, pulling dry people into the mud. Too bad couldn't get pics in the rain. In the end it was good fun.

The main event for the guys was Tarik Tali, classic team game. But hilariously, at the final event, the rope snapped into half. The game was a draw.

Then more shoving and playing in the rain and mud.

Me having rootbeer and roti telur.

There was no proper closing or prize giving. Just a few speeches by the organizers, Amir, Nazhan and Ayob. The Family day has served its purpose. There was no real need for competitiveness today. People had a great time and that was all that mattered.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Severe Snogging


WARNING ! KISSING MAY CAUSE HEARING LOSS NOT RELATED TO NOISE. WHEN NECESSARY PROCEED WITH EXTREME CAUTION!

or you may end up like this poor person in China... Article linked below:

Chinese girl gets 'kiss of deaf'

BBC News

Monday, December 8, 2008

"Manlihood Enhancement"

Penile Size and Penile Enlargement Surgery: A Review
Medscape Med Students.

Sorry if the title is misleading but I had to store this article somewhere hehe.

Bangun pagi je bace pasal topic ni.

Well, if you wanna do a study on the subject, here's where to start for your Lit Review. You have to admit, it is a very important topic :p

Saturday, December 6, 2008

The Power of Mom

As I sit here preparing my seminar on Issues in Palliative Care, I can't help but eavesdropping on my mother making important phone calls to important people (Tan Sri, Menteris, Aunties, they're powerful too, and now shes trying to get to the local MP) though I have no real idea who exactly she is calling.
My house is situated right beneath a construction project on top of a hill behind my house. They are building an 8 unit apartment. Originally they had a meeting with the residents to discuss the issue. My house was not included as originally the construction was not suppose to take place anywhere near my place.

But it started right above my place.



She is now organizing a horde to deal with the situation. Protests? Lawsuit? I've already photographed a few pics tho none of them good enuff i think.

All this triggered by the recent spate of landslides occurring across the federal state.

But I understand her concern. And its damn right unfair for them to put up a building without consent.

Im just wondering if Im able to participate in the action.

Shahrukh Kan bodo, knapa bagi Datoship?

Rasenye sebab the govenor tu lagi bodo kot. Wife watches hisdustan, a big fan of the dude and persuades his hubby to present datoship to him, hoping she can get as close to him as possible. 

Im just SPECULATING ok? Hope its not true tho.


Here's the pic of the man. Saw him on the news tadi wearing full Baju Melayu with songkok that would make you and me very ashame. He is more melayu than any of us. The songket he wore I heard cost RM3000. Gila babi.

Anyway, why the hell give datoship to a bolly actor yg even rejected his first invitation????! dia ingat dia sape?! The gobenor pon klabu asap nak gak bagi datoship tu despite the protests. 

I don understand ar these people with power. Might as well give Datoship to me.

Dato' Dr. Zaim Hazim Onn.

Bunyi cam bess je. :D

Landslide

No im not gonna write about landslide election win.

This is the fatal and sad kind...

Due to the recent rainy season, many areas have been involved in series of natural events. The landslide at Bukit Damansara (not reallly near my place) and most recently Bukit Antarabangsa which (Inalillah) has as I write claimed 4 lives.

These events makes me grateful that I am as how I am now... Safe, Insyallah. 

the landslide at Bukit Antarabangsa involved not Kampung people but KLites who live in quite rich bungalows. I cannnot imagine these people now being forced to relocate to a balai raya to spend their night until who knows how long.

Makes me realize we must count our blessings, always, and be prepared for misfortunes. Nothing is ours. Everything can be taken in the blink of an eye (Nauzubillah).  

Hope that no further unfortunate events will occur...

How to Learn Ethics?

Nothing new here. In fact age old.

Doctors, like it or not is required to practice ethically. So where does ethic come from and when is it best to "learn" ethics?

Much effort has been made locally and internationally to provide standard requirements for ethics in medical practice. International code of ethics, much derived from ancient Hippocratic Oath has been made and many universities has attempted to integrate these code into their curriculum. 

The Q: Has it succeeded?

How are ethics being taught currently?

Most universities have official classes on ethics. IIUM's curriculum comes in the form of Islamic Input classes as well as pre-clinical extra curricular sessions. Then the informal teachings, during ward rounds, when clerking patients, when scolded by specialists, senior preachings and so on.

Few other Qs: Are these the right people? Are these the best methods? Are these methods effective in producing ethical doctors?

These are some of the questions that were raised in today's Seminar on Medical Ethics. 

It starts from selection of students before entering medical schools.

A Story: Servant's Heart

A student from California applied to become a doctor in one of the state's distinguished university. His problem: he himself is not distinguished. Nothing special. Not even academically. There  any application forms that did not meet standard requirement were dumped into the trashcan (rejects). Lucky for the dude, all trash applications were rereviewed over there - just in case they accidently missed something. The referee discovered the dude's form and in doing so discovered one other thing: It was mentioned in his application form that he had a Servant's Heart. The referee thought that based on this alone he was qualified to enter the university as a med stud. So he did and now he is a specialist.

Problem with selection, which is also age old is to weed out uninterested students. Currently all over the world, selection is based largely on academic excellence, which might not necessarily be a bad thing since it was quoted that most students that quit housemanship or had problems were later found out to be low achievers. However it is not fair rather that people with pure interest are not given the chance they deserve. 

However, selection based on character alone is very subjective and no standardize or good system has been implemented so far. Some of the proposals were to screen for extra curricular involvements, character screenings and so on. However these are very subjective and very risky.

Story 2: The Boy With Wealth On His Mind.

A boy was interviewed to become a doctor. 

Standard Q: "Why do you want to become a doctor?"

Not very standard reply (or mebe quite normal): "I want to be rich." (something like that la the answer).

Now... The intention is not good you to become a doctor. Everyone knows that money should not be a factor. But - the boy answered honestly, a trait sought in the medical profession. So he was recruited, drafted or whatever the word.

What they conclude is that a better system of selection must be made to select potential students and doctors.

Everybody agrees that role models are essential in imparting good ethics. Students spend most their time in the wards not under their lecturers, rather more with HOs, MOs, specialists, nurses and consultants. Students often perceive the norm as right and acceptable. However that's not always the case as has been said in the seminar. The norm now is that consultants do not look at patients in the eye when doing their rounds, the norm now is delegating patient referrals to junior HOs, the norm now is to write sloppily on tickets. Unfortunately these norm are mimicked and inculcated into these future doctors. 

So there is a need to change the norm. The current doctors now have to make an attempt to change themselves. 

But its hard to teach old dogs new tricks, especially good ones. Bapak rintik anak lentik. Something like that.

Another phase important in imparting ethics is all the time. The teachers have the responsibility to constantly groom and shape their students macam anak sendiri. You leave them on their own and they become naughty boys and girls.

One more thing is that universities are doing their best in having ethic classes. However as one of the speakers noted (UM's Dep Dean of Education and Research Dev Unit), many students tend to skip these classes as it was deemed not important. These subjects were only minimally introduced in examination if there are any. They pass their exams anyway. Why should students bother with boring topics such as ethics?

There are several strategies to get around this:

MAKE IT A BIG PART OF EXAM

Pls ar wei. Why is everything be made into exams? Haih. Cant students be less exam oriented for a change?

Anyway, UKM has another method. They have what they call PPD (Personalized and Professional Development) camps to force students to participate and in the process inculcate team building skills and make group discussions regarding ethical issues.

Other Universities overseas (kalo x silap) have 2 solid weeks for just ethical studies by which they assign students to research designated topics, prepare slides and 3000+ word essay and teach their colleagues. 

Another university encouraged Medical Debates, most notably in Glasgow so that students will be more interested with ethical issues.


Banyak benda to discuss regarding ethics.

One last thing needs to be mentioned. Medical students when seeing a doctor (regardless or rank) doing something wrong or unethical should not keep quiet. They should voice out. In the process, they may educate themselves and the doctor. But be prepared la for any "SUKA HATI AKU LA" answers.


Lastly as has been mentioned, Ethics should not be just taught. Rather it should be inculcated into an individual. So whichever methods used, this should be brought to mind.

Anyway I found going to seminar like these beneficial, though expensive. But hey! if you can spend money on phones and cameras and movies, why not invest a bit for your education?

Now banyak ideas. I feel elated.   




Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Rase Pilu Tetibe

Whatever pilu means.

Mood towards listening to sleeping with ghosts, anthem of a dying day, it's been awhile.

Why am I doing this I still wonder. the random readings. the push to do something.

why not let it all go to waste? let it drain.

Need some small achievement to keep me going.

Keep going.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Hum tee tum

Need to make my blog look more appealing.

Hum tee tum.

Monday, November 17, 2008

The Dying Breed of Teachers

We all sat in class awaiting for our teacher to come.

Some of us prepared the computer and projector for the teacher's use.

When he arrived, we expected him to upload his slide presentation of the lecture and start with his 'usual' bout of lecture. However we were instead approached with a different method of learning... He asked general, non-specific, thought provoking questions which admittedly none of us really knew how to answer...

Why?

It wasn't that we didn't know about the subject in question. Rather, there is a 'thought block', a wall that obstructs the connection of one part of our neurons to another to allow us to freely THINK.

The teacher's intention of teaching is to impart, the popular word, his knowledge in hope that we may assimilate, analyze and apply his teachings. In 'modern' times, we have all sorts of gadgets and technologies to assist us. These utilities are meant to make the teacher's purpose of imparting his knowledge easier. Rather today, I (and probably he) witnessed that all the technologies available did not at all help achieve his objectives.

The teacher's purpose of teaching is not really to directly transfer his knowledge. Rather in his own words, he wishes to initiate, ignite the students to gain that knowledge on his own. 

This is the part where we fail to realize. Knowledge in the end has to be earned and requires our own initiative and our own spark ignition to comprehend to understand what we have learned. That will then be knowledge. Without the will from the individual to learn, to gain knowledge, we will in the end fail to gain anything...

This aspect of learning needs to be realized before the principles of it disappears completely. Then what will be left is learning purely by forcing to retain 'what was said' and not really to attain knowledge.

Our teacher today realized this. Which is good. Teachers like this fortunately still exist.

My worry is after. Will this type of teacher continue to exist? Will the numbers continuously reduce and eventually fade? Will the true objectives of teaching and learning be reduced to mindless fact gathering without trully appreciating the knowledge behind it? 

  


Sunday, November 16, 2008

Learning too much?

Met an old friend (quite old at 60) at the Mamak place. I didn't recognize him at first until I got closer (whata severe case of prospagnosia). 

He invited me over for bfast.

I was saying, " I didn't recognize you at first glance."

Coverline: " You sure lost a lot of weight!" :D

He answered," Yes, I did... Do you know the reason why?"

"Why?"

"Women"

He opened up to me and told me about his recent divorce, marriage proposals to 4 different women, and how he was turned down by each individuals -- because of other men these women were still clinging to.

I didn't have to prod at all to listen to his story. He told me everything!

Now, I appreciate the accounts he gave me as I thought that it would make my little mind open up a bit to the cruel cruel realities of the world. But sometimes I do wish that I didn't know too much bout anybody's personal life. Cause then it becomes a responsibility to actly keep it a secret. Which is hard!

Im blogging about it right now!

But, yeah, really, there's just so much you wouldn't like to know about someone sometimes... But when you do know, it makes you a bit wary of the things that may happen to you, or the other person.

Some of the methods you learn in life.   

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Title

Went to the sea today at 6.30 am.

Took off my Asadi crocs, shed my t-shirt, walked to the sea, swam a bit, floated spread eagle, and I saw the blue sky.

I was for a moment free.

For a moment soaring.

A part of the expanded blue.

Deprived of weight.

Bliss.

Then McDonalds.