I return with Day 2 of my hospital attachment. Because I think writing a report about it will be good. The Prof/The Good Doctor says that it'll help in my Med School interview. I didn't mention that I'm most probably not taking the Med School interview because Australian universities require you to apply for Med/Dentistry by July, and my Mid Term results suck, AND I'm sitting for my SATs in about 2 weekends, so... Anyway, I think it'll be great to write a report for myself, it MAY help with my college application essay(s), so you never know!

So this morning, I arrived ridiculously early, since I followed Mum. I waited outside the Pharmacy for a while, pretending to be someone waiting for the Pharmacy open (PS. KACHE! Best times to avoid traffic at the Pharmacy: When you go for checkups, ie. ridiculously early in the morning, or around 3pm/4pm. YOU COULD TOTALLY DRIVE THERE NEXT TIME). Then at about 730am, messaged The Prof and received instructions as to where I should go... which was the Clinical Trials office thingy on the 2nd floor above the Pharmacy.

The Prof was dealing with some paperwork, so I indulged myself in daydreaming a little bit, then we went off to a conference room somewhere in the hospital for a Radiology/Paediatric Oncology Department(s) Conference. I swear, I thought some of the people there were med students. They were all professors. I think.

Anyway, the Conference is a weekly thing, when doctors from the 2 departments review scans of patients and get input from the Radiology Department as to what the results are like and stuff like that. According to my scribbles in my notebook, the doctor who was reading the patient summary should not have mumbled, and should have spoken with a clearer voice. Oh, me. So attached to English. xD

SO, the first patient reviewed had a pretty morbid condition - he has lymphoma, and then he has/had lesions in the liver, kidney AND spleen. OH, and gallbladder polyps. And the lesions on the kidney? All the way through to the adrenal gland. And his polyp biopsy cultures came back positive for TB.

Where's the Salk vaccine when you need it?

So then the poor boy has had I don't know what. Basically, poor guy.

Then there are lung CTs, brain CTs (Patient presented with tumour along the cerebellum, pretty big, and had Burr holes), MRIs, and you can actually see the shape of the bones of the spine as we reviewed the scans.

The Conference, though only about an hour long, was really, really cool.

After that, The Prof dropped me off at Paeds 4 to follow a Houseman/House Officer around. To make things simpler the ladder is - Medical Student, Houseman/House Officer, Medical Officer (MO), then Professor/Consultant. Basically, the Housemen do the rounds in the wards first, then the MOs would join in.

So Paed 4 had about 18 rooms or so, with about... 23? patients? There were 3 cots at the end. Anyway, Paed 4 is for the Paediatric Gastroenterology department. The Houseman was good, and nice. In fact, the MOs were awesome too. There are 2 housemen and 3 MOs. At least, when I was there in the morning. One of the MOs looked like my Bio lecturer. When the Houseman I was supposed to follow around had to discharge a patient/deal with boring appointment paperwork, the other Houseman suggested that I follow him to draw blood from a baby.

Poor baby. Her veins were all poked at. Well, okay, not all, but bad enough. And the Houseman tried drawing blood twice, but no blood, so he had to call an MO (Housemen are only allowed 2 tries on a baby, then they have to call a more senior doctor. But of course, there are some who'll be all Jesus-complex and whatnot and keep poking a poor baby. Anyway, this Houseman was good). The MO also needed 2 tries, but her 2nd one, at least, got a better flow of blood. Along the way, I discovered that the MO used to study in SAM too, hee. And she asked me, "SO, WHY DO YOU WANT TO BE A DOCTOR? AND DON'T SAY 'BECAUSE YOU WANT TO HELP PEOPLE' BECAUSE THAT'S A LIE" HAHAHA. Then the Houseman was like, "Aiyoh, even I still don't know the answer," so I went with the conventional, "Oh, haha, I DON'T KNOW" omitting the fact that... I'm not good enough to be a doctor.

CONTINUING ON, went back to meet up with The Prof, and had lunch, then rushed off for an Oncology Department meeting. Prof Hani was there. When I was a kid, I used to think that Prof Hani was Prof Honey, a Chinese, since she's VERY fair. Anyway, there was Prof Hani and a Prof? Dr? Chong? (No idea what her name is), some other professors, my Prof's MO, Dr Hannah and Prof?Dr? Vivek, the Orthopedic surgeon.

The Prof first warned me, "Oh, this may be a bit boring - we're only reviewing patients and stuff, so not much". Well, she doesn't know that I generally like what people think are boring, so... hahaha.

In the beginning, The Prof was like, "OH, I ALMOST FORGOT. EVERYONE, THIS IS S'L. She wants to be a medical student, so she's following me for the week" Dr Chong giggled, "HEE HEE, YOUR SHADOW"

Anyway, IT WAS HILARIOUS. The meeting, yes, may have been boring at moments of "Patient's name - stage of chemo", but I tell you, those doctors. Are FUNNY. The Orthopedic surgeon was there on a consult as to whether his patient should continue chemo after a major surgery, as he's already responding well, so then they were talking about the patient. HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY, I TELL YOU. Here's a paraphrasing.

DR VIVEK enters. PROFESSORS welcome him in. They continue with the meeting.
THE PROF: Oh, Vivek, you wanted to review your patient?
DR VIVEK: Oh, yeah!

Medical terms, blah, blah, basically the patient had a tumour in the bladder or the bones or whatever, and the cancer metastasized (Sorry, Bio terms) to the bones in his lower body (Guy's 21), and another surgeon had told Dr Vivek to do a lower half AMPUTATION, and...

DR VIVEK: And I was like, "WHAT? NO WAY I'M GOING TO DO A LOWER HALF AMPUTATION ON A 21 YEAR OLD"

OTHER PROFESSORS look rather shocked

DR VIVEK: And the patient actually agreed! Anyway, after reviewing the stuff, I decided that the guy could have a pelvic replacement, since his lower half is PERFECTLY FINE. We'll just remove the masses, the pelvis, genitilia and bladder, and reconstruct.
SOME DOCTOR, I DON'T KNOW WHO: Genitilia? How's he going to excrete?
DR VIVEK: Aiyah, we're removing his bladder as well, he'll be in a bag anyway
THE PROF: His sexual health isn't as important as his life, so...
DR VIVEK: So, yalah, give him a new pelvis
THE PROF: What kind of new pelvis ah? Those plasticky ones ah?
DR VIVEK: Oh, no, I ordered something from China. Metal pelvis
THE PROF: METAL?!
DR CHONG: So, you took an MRI of the guy's pelvis then they mould one of the exact shape ah?
SOME DOCTOR IN THE ROOM: No lah. Comes in Small, Large or Medium. MASS PRODUCED.
DR VIVEK: It's like a puzzle lah! Just assemble the pieces and stuff along the way.
THE PROF: IMAGINE HOW HEAVY HE'LL BE WITH THE METAL HIP

DOCTORS LAUGH.

THE PROF: And when he plays football or whatever, and starts butting people with his hip - HE won't be injured, his opponents will

MORE LAUGHS. Among the commotion...

PROF HANI: *Still laughing* Does it come with a ASSEMBLY MANUAL?

DR CHONG is still laughing her head off.

DR VIVEK: Aiyah, orthopedic surgery - is almost always experimental lah. We always cut the patient open, see what we need to do...
PROF HANI: So, how many of these sort of surgeries have you done?
DR VIVEK: None.
DR CHONG: Observed?
DR VIVEK: None.
THE PROF: ... IN MALAYSIA?
DR VIVEK: ... ... None?
THE PROF: HUH? NONE? In that case... the world?
DR VIVEK: Oh, quite a number in China lah.
THE PROF: Quite a number? What's the number? Don't tell me 3 or 4

GENERAL LAUGHTER AROUND THE ROOM. I mean, SERIOUSLY, we have some of UH's best doctors in the room laughing. It was hilarious. In the end...

THE PROF: OH, HEY, VIVEK - WHEN YOU'RE DONE WITH THE PROCEDURE, TAKE A PICTURE, YOU KNOW?
PROF HANI: YAH, YAH, SHOW US!
DR VIVEK: NO PROBLEM.

HAHAHAHA morbid doctors. Anyway, other cases reviewed in the meeting were stuff like sinovial sarcoma and orthosarcoma on the sacrum.

After the meeting, The Prof and I went for another professor's Inaugural Lecture in one of the LTs. Okaylah. I mean, it was an interesting topic (Relation between body and mind), but... okaylah. Hahaha. SAM totally teaches students to be effective presentation givers. After that, I went home.

OH, KACHE, I think I saw Prof Fatimah after the lecture. I mean, looked like Prof F, but I didn't see her tag, so anyway... SHE KNOWS YOU, NOT ME, SO WHATEVER.

IN CONCLUSION:
- Today was an interesting day, with the Radiology conference, Paed 4 and best of all, Onco meeting, and the lecture.
- There's no way a doctor's life really is this fun. But the Houseman I followed admitted that today was a slow day, and Paed 4 is sort of a cut and dry ward, not many complications, so pretty straightforward, despite the severity of the cases
- Lunch? What lunch?

TOMORROW:
- I'm supposed to go straight to The Prof's office tomorrow morning. Hope I don't get lost, hahahahaha.
- I don't know what's happening.

THURSDAY:
- THE PROF IS GOING TO HAVE A BONE MARROW HARVEST SESSION IN ONE OF THE THEATRES. SHE SAID SHE'LL BRING ME.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAA!

More tomorrow! :D

Well, not really Day One. More of Day 0.5 of my Hospital Attachment.

I spent my half-day there today following a paediatric oncologist around! We will now refer to her as The Good Doctor, because it's more fun that way. And no, cancer kids aren't like Wilson's Cancer Kids, either. Apart from the bald heads.

So I got to UMMC this morning, and the first place I was brought to was... the Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) ward! The 'new' BMT ward. I call it new because the last time I was there, I was probably about 4, and that was before UH/UMMC had a renovation/new tower/new block/something new. Anyway, the BMT ward in Paed 6. 4 patients in isolation (Read: Post-transplant, shot immune systems). Not going to talk much about these patients, especially since I'm not too sure about patient-doctor confidentiality and stuff like that.

When I walked in, there was a senior nurse, and the doctor I'm following asked her, "I don't know if you remember Shu Yin, but this is her sister" Haaaaaaa. And the nurse was, "Oh! Shu Yin's sister!"

Anyway, a kid in there had Acute Lymphoblastic Leaukemia (ALL) (Shoutout!), another one had some other kind of leaukemia, and someone else had thalassemia and someone else had something else, they were all young kids (Paeds, duh), from 3? 4? years old to 10.

Seems that there were only 2 doctors then (Doctor I'm following and a Dr Hannah, a Medical Officer. Don't be fooled by her English-sounding name. Dr Hannah's a Malay. Hahahaha. She seems good, though. She's training to be a paediatric oncologist). I wasn't allowed to put on the gowns and stuff to go into the rooms to look, but I didn't mind. If someone gets an infection, I don't want it to be my fault, hahaha.

Since it was Monday, The Good Doctor had Clinic Duty. No, not House-like, typical cough-cold clinic duty. Monday's the Hematology/Oncology Clinic, so the patients The Good Doctor (and me!) were going to see were pretty much post-transplant/treatment/long-term survivors (Eg. Someone I'm related to). I didn't know 2? 3? months post-treatment's considered 'long-term', but at least they fit in one of 3 of the given categories. Hahaha.

SO, SINCE I ONLY HAD HALF A DAY, I think I only saw about... 10? patient? I KNOW, THERE'S NOT MANY AND HOMG HOW COULD YOU LOSE COUNT OF 'THAT MANY', BUT, WHATEVER. THIS IS MY HOSPITAL ATTACHMENT, NOT YOURS.

The Good Doctor let me read the patients' reports before they came in. These reports are basically brief summaries of the patients' diagnoses/treatment/complications/transplant info and stuff like that. Familiar terms included 'Prednisolone' and 'IV Augmentin' and 'IV interferon' and 'chelation'.

So, some of these patients has had some form or other of leukemia (It sounds like Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leaukemia's pretty rare - 2 patients had it, but their reports show that they actually went to Singapore for a second opinion/The Good Doctor called some other doctor in Singapore for a second opinion), one? case of Aplastic Anemia (Thank you, House, ER and SAM Biology), and mostly Beta-Thalassemia Major (The Good Doctor's 'Pet Project', she's doing some sort of research on cord blood/stem cell treatment for beta-thalassemia major in our country. I have a feeling that her role in the local medical scene is a lot bigger than the impression I'm getting).

Things I did today:
- Tail people/a person
- I DREW BLOOD. AHAHAHAHA.
- Checked a patient's BP. I ACTUALLY FORGOT HOW TO DO IT. HAHAHAFAIL.

ELABORATION ON THE STORY, "I DREW BLOOD TODAY!!11!!"

No, I'm not as awesome as I make myself sound, and no, it was not as impressive as my multiple exclamation marks and capslocked words made it sound. So this girl came for her checkup, right? With her older brother - they both have (had) b-thal major. Checkup with boy went by fine, then the girl (She's skinny. Like I used to be. Hahaha. At least, when I was a kid. Although I don't think I was that skinny any more when I was... I think she's 9. I cannot remember) needed to get 200cc/200mL s of blood drawn. 20mL was to go to the labs to check for ferritin (If I recall that's what it's called/how it's spelt), and the next 180mL... to throw away. So we were using these 25cc/25mL syringes, and then The Good Doctor went, "OH, HEY, WHY DON'T YOU DO IT?" and I was like, "WHUT?"

The Good Doctor set up a line with a butterfly, and did the first 40cc, I did the 3rd syringe, failed at changing syringes (LOOK, I'M NOT A TRAINED MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL, OKAY? And I never really followed my sister for checkups when she needed blood to be drawn), but all went well after. Except for the fact that it took forever to draw blood for the 4th syringe, and as I started the 4th, The Good Doctor was like, "OKAY, I'M GOING TO LEAVE YOU HERE. I'LL BE NEXT DOOR. HAVE FUN!" while I'm thinking, "WHUT? WHUT? LEAVE ME - WHAT IF I KILL THIS PATIENT?" No, I was kidding. You can't kill the patient by drawing her blood. It's just that I was really worried if I moved the needle, because my sister always whined about how some new MO's/nurses would move the needle ALL THE TIME AND IT HURT LIKE SHIT (and then we'd sekritly chuckle about their incompetence). And it's actually really, really hard to SUCK BLOOD out of a person. I mean, seriously, you're SUCKING BLOOD.

If you know me well, I have no problem with GETTING injections, but I'd never try INJECTING SOMEONE. Nor do I have a problem with blood. Anyway, continuing. The Good Doctor (Okay, I'll call her The Prof now. Good Doctor's getting too long) came back and asked, "So, how's it going?" and I'm all, "Uh, we're still kinda at the 10th cc of 20" "Huh? So slow?" and she came by and went, "Oh, no, you were to slow, blood's clotting" *cue panic sounds in my head* "Nevermind. It's normal with this girl. Her clotting factor is really, really good."

So then The Prof asks Fierce Clotting Factor Girl if it's okay if she set up another butterfly on her other arm, and FCFG nodded okay. So we did, and drawing the next 6 syringes of blood was a breeze. And it was fun!

Did you know that, because there's such a thing as internal body temperature, when the blood is drawn, you touch the syringe and it is warm? Anyway, I hope I didn't suck too bad at drawing blood, and that Fierce Clotting Factor Girl doesn't go home and evilly giggle at my incompetence at drawing blood with her brother.

--End Story--

So I actually met even more interesting patients in the clinic today, but I don't think I have the right/liberty to elaborate, so I won't.

IN CONCLUSION:
- I am suddenly fickle, therefore, my mind has suddenly gone back to, "If I'm applying to Australia, I'll apply for Biomed, and if I work really really hard, I'll still consider bridging to Medicine" Well, the first part is actually still the plan. The latter part was kinda dropped for I-don't-know-why reasons. Also, I just remembered that, if I do Medicine, I'll actually get the Chia Family Financial Aid Package. Hee.
- You know that past patients will be very nonchalant about getting blood drawn when they reach about age 10. Need to inject you? Okay. Need to draw blood? Whatever. Growth hormone treatment (Okay, moving to Endocrinology for a moment), requiring injections every night? Sure.
- And past patients' siblings will be relatively nonchalant about needles as well. Looking at blood/people getting injections/whatever? Hm. Freaky, but, whatever.

TOMORROW:
- Radiology Department is having a meeting/briefing thing. The Prof thinks that it's a good idea if I go.
- A new patient is coming in to the BMT ward, pre-transplant. Prof thinks that it'll be perfect, since I will be able to catch WHAT HAPPENS, BEFORE A TRANSPLANT
- I AM STOKED.
- I STILL FEEL LIKE I AM INTRUDING, THOUGH.

[Note: To Dear Sister: NO MENTIONS OF THIS ON THE PHONE. NONE. NO, "OH, YEAH, I READ IT ON YOUR BLOG". Okay? Please? Especially since we mostly talk *with loudspeaker on*. Hahaha. You totally blew my 4-year-old cover the last round. xD]

Min Shen mentioned about losing her blogging mojo.

She's not the only one.

Anyway, got some stuff to update before I go to bed (Definition of going to bed: Going into bedroom. Doesn't mean I'm going to SLEEP immediately).

1) My hospital attachment starts tomorrow!
- I'm supposed to be at the hospital at 8-ish in the morning. Prof Chan was like, "You know where my office is, right?" and I was like, "Uh... no?" Then,
Prof Chan: But your sister knows where it is.
Me: Ah... I only know how to get to Delifrance, the Pharmacy and... the Clinic. Possibly the Radiology Department - other than that, I'm hopeless.
- I'm going to be done early tomorrow, apparently, about after lunch.
- Prof Chan suggests that I hang back on one of the evenings to soak in the Accidents and Emergency (A&E) Department atmosphere. SOUNDS GREAT. Did you know that, when I had (once, long ago) thought about doing medicine, I wanted to do Cardiology... or Emergency Medicine? It's ER, I tell you. Although I know a real hospital =/= a TV show, it'll be cool.

2) Tennis
- The French Open started today! Red clay! It's frustrating, though. After years of seeing such beautiful clay court tennis, complete with sliding and great tactical prowess, all you see now is hard court style on a freaking clay court. SLIDE, PEOPLE. SLIDE. CLAY COURT IS A GAME FOR STRATEGISTS, NOT BESERKERS.
- I'm still pulling for either Kuznetsova or Safina to win this year's French. Kuznetsova's kinda hit or miss, and Safina's volatile and all fresh and stuff, so my picks are really... unpredictable and quite unlikely to win. Unlike last time. Bet on any final, my money would go to Justine.
- I saw a repeat of the exhibition match between Steffi Graf and Kim Clijsters. Steffi could still beat any current Top 10 players, the way she's playing. The angles of her shots! So breathtaking! I can't find a download for the Steffi vs Justine exhibition from 2 years ago - would've been a sight to behold. Steffi playing made me miss watching Justine play. Thank goodness for matches downloaded onto my computer!

3) Basketball
- GO LAKERS!
My goodness am I sounding like Nastia at the moment.
4) Damages
- UNCLE PETE! T_T
- Dear Damages TPTB: More Glenn Close, less Rose Byrne.
- I miss Zelkjo Ivanek on the show. He played very well opposite Glenn Close.
- GLENN CLOSE! I didn't post this when I had downloaded the Season 2 premiere back in January, but... WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY DOING WITH YOUR HAIR? IT'S ALL... FLOPPY! PATTY HEWES IS NOT SUPPOSED TO HAVE FLOPPY HAIR! YOU'RE PATTY HEWES! FLOPPY DOES NOT GO WITH CUTTHROAT BITCH!

Tomorrow, I will type a lot of nice, ranty things because I'm in a nice, ranty mood before my 'holidays' begin.

Time to sleep. Slept at 3.30-ish this morning, haven't had a shut eye since. Brain going to shut down soon. I'm amazed by my ability to stay awake. It's useful in SAM, I tell you.

Tomorrow, I go deal with my NS postponement nonsense. And hopefully I might be able to join my classmates on our original, post-exam plans before Mum decided to ruin it for me.

Yes, lack of sleep is making me cranky.

Goodnight, all.

Tomorrow's the last day of my midyears, 2 papers, CALCULATING subjects which I dread.

Anyway, SHAWN WON DANCING WITH THE STARS! HAHAHA.

Yeah, so her win deserves a line on my blog. All she needs to do now is GET BACK INTO THE GYM. NO HURRY, SHAWN. NO HURRY AT ALL.

Anyway, someone posted this oWilde interview somewhere on LJ, and, HAHAHA, so LOLtastic.

"What is your definition of "hotness," and just how hot are you?

"Hot" has become a euphemism for all things positive, making it generally acceptable to use to describe everything from a jalapeño to a drum solo. It's sort of a useful word. We don't have to think of appropriate adjectives for people, places, performances, tacos, or objects anymore as they all fit snugly under the glorious umbrella of "hotness." So I don't know how hot I am but I'm honored to be considered as warmer than the average taco."

Hee, fit snugly under the glorius umbrella of 'hotness' and 'honoured to be considered warmer than the average taco'. The next question/answer was even better.

What do you make of the modifier "drool-worthy"?

My bulldog drools constantly so I'm not sure that term is too exciting.

Interview can be found at:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-05-19/femme-fatale/

Go read it. It's funny.

[Edit]
1. Damn you, economy, and damn you, CBS. Why do you keep taking away my favourite female cops? First, Kelly Hu runs off to do another show, now you DO THIS TO EMMANUELLE VAUGIER? MY QUEBECOISE? WHY? It's like Maxim Roy on ReGenesis again. Hmph. DO NOT LIKE. You could've done better with doing it to Adam instead. More fans would be devastated, but at least you don't have stuttery lab assistant and you'd have panas cop. Which reminds me, no Emmanuelle Vaugier in Maxim this year? >.>

2. I didn't know Emmanuelle Vaugier had a wrist tattoo.
3. Anna Belknap! <3
4. Hill Harper! <3
5. Gary Sinise! <3
6. MELINA KANAKAREDES! <3
7. ROBERT JOY! <3
8. This is what I call season-ending.
9. Oh, pok. 50-cal Desert Eagle. <3
10. Fierce, Flack. Fierce. I didn't know you had it in you.
11. I hate you, cliffhanger. IT'S LIKE SEASON 2 OF REGENESIS AGAIN. I TELL YOU. IF ANNA BELKNAP OR MELINA KANAKAREDES DOESN'T COME BACK NEXT SEASON, I'LL KILL SOMEONE. SERIOUSLY. GENDER BIAS, MUCH?

WHY?

WHY MUST THE WATCHMEN BOOKS BE SO EXPENSIVE?

WHY MUST WATCHMEN:PORTRAITS COST MYR170?

WHY?

WHY?

WHY MUST THAT JUSTINE BIOGRAPHY ALSO COST MORE THAN MYR100?

At least The Audacity of Hope has dropped in price. And at least I have ONE book to read when my sis comes back. She got me Scarpetta. Yay, her. Except for the bit where she wrote 'Scarletta' instead of 'Scarpetta'. Hee. Non-fan.

HOMG, MPH has 'Little Girls in Pretty Boxes'. But, ONCE AGAIN, IT'S FLIPPING EXPENSIVE. Oh, they have a Shannon Miller book too. I recall Yih Shan mentioning seeing the Nadia Comaneci book.

I will never be able to afford books in this country. ):

When can I go down to Singapore for book shopping?

I think my NS letter came today.
Hidden confession!
There's this slip with my name on it saying that I have a registered mail waiting for me.
The reason why I volunteered for MADU wasn't really because of my uni apps.
Maybe it's a US uni prospectus.
Well, partly, it is.
Nah, just kidding. The Princeton and DOE letters were through regular mail, not registered post.
But it was mainly because of Justine.
Oh, and Kar Mun called to ask if I got my letter yet.
I don't know how Justine got into the mix, but I think it was her the convinced myself.
IN CONCLUSION, MY NS LETTER IS HERE.
Or rather, I convinced myself and rationalized that it was Justine.
I WONDER WHICH CAMP I'VE BEEN DUMPED TO? THE STUPID WEBSITE GIVES ME THE STUPID 'CONGRATULATIONS!!111!!YOUGOTPICKEDFORNS!!11!AWESOMESAUCEONTHEAWESOMECAKE!!11" message.
Hrm.

Instead of studying, I'm reading a SQUASH forum.

Sigh.

I miss my game. I wish I had time to play it.

NEVERMIND. 2 WEEK HOLIDAY COMING UP. I CAN CATCH UP WITH LOST TIME.

Drove to Glenmarie and the Subang Airport today. Was Min Shen-ing some turns (ie. Not really braking enough at turns) in the beginning, and Dad made me jam the brakes ("So that you know what it's supposed to be like")(I'm surprised it's kinda *slow*. Didn't expect brake-jamming to be like that). If my sister had an issue of being TOO SLOW when she drove, my issue is being a bit TOO FAST. Heehee. I know, it's not something to laugh about. I know, I know. NEVERMIND. 2 WEEK HOLIDAY COMING UP. I WILL POLISH MY DRIVING SKILLS TO ~*PERFECTION*~.

Now back to squash. Seriously, people. When I go to uni, I'm going to play squash there. I'll buy myself a racket there if I can't bring mine along (Sis brought her badminton racket with her. I should be able to bring my squash racket too! :D), and PLAY SQUASH. If I go to Australia I'll play for my college. If I go to US I'll play for my college. If I go to the US I want to try out for an NCAA TEAM. HAHAHAHA CRAZY. I CAN'T EVEN GET INTO THE MSSS SEMI'S, I WANT TO TRY OUT FOR NCAA. HAHAHA. AIYAH, CAN LAH. TRY FOR TEAM EVENT LAH. I'M ASIAN. I'M MALAYSIAN. THE WORLD NUMBER 1 WOMEN'S PLAYER IS FROM MY TURF. IT IS A CHIA IMPERATIVE TO BE ABLE TO PLAY RACKET GAMES.

Sorry. Trying to chill from all the studying. Maths... T_T

So I was in the library yesterday, since I stay back in the library to do some reading/studying every Friday.

I was sitting beside my classmate, and he had been reading a couple of magazines (Well, when Emily and I sat beside him he was kinda... asleep. LOL), and he told me that "this one is a really weird one, you might want to read it"

It was a magazine called Adbusters, and flipping through it, it was a kind of magazine I've NEVER, EVER read before. Not fashion/gossip/whatever, but it had a sort of... satirical view on politics and economy and stuff like that, but it's weightier than I'm making it sound right now. There was this really interesting article on Kevin Rudd, and the sheer action of reading about Rudd's apologies to the Australian Aborigines, the Stolen Generation, made the hairs on the back of my hand stand... But that's just me, and things like that get to me. Either that, or it was because the library's air-cond was blowing right at me and I was kinda lazy to move away/the library was kinda full.

Anyway, there was this essay which, at first, cemented Wei Shen's comment of "Weirdest magazine I've ever read" in my mind. After flipping through the magazine, I went back to read the essay again, because, though weird, it was really well-written, and one can only dream of writing like that. And I'm kinda on an inspiration-hunt for essay writing styles for applying to US universities. But onward to the story.

Before I begin the essay, I'd like to say that Adbusters IS kinda weird, but it makes a lot of sense, and it's a really interesting magazine. You should check out the website (I've linked it, hee), or look for it in your college's library. Also, there are some things I may or may not agree about with what is put in the magazine, but, like everything else in life, there's interesting things, and there are really boring ones as well.

---------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Editor,

This piece I wrote for a friend who died a very violent death this summer. I'm a youth worker for a film and video mentoring project in the Downtown Eastside, and the coordinator of the Purple Thistle Centre.

This piece is very close to my heart. A little long - 1300 words - but I think it's right up your alley. I would ask that you exercise your emotional sensitivity when editing it. I'd like to think that it falls under the 'spiritual mindbomb' category.

It's about imperialism, culture, youth, school and institutions, and the psychogeography of colonized lands.

My work has previously been published in Adbusters anonymously in the issue edited by Dr Matt Hern.

Thanks for your time.

Devon.

In the midst of a crazy schedule, I just remembered.

One year ago, on this date, Justine Henin retired from tennis.

):