Summer!

It's all very exciting now, with graduation only 6 days away, and with social events piling up to the height of a termite nest. Not to mention a spontaneous trip to Spain with my lovely fei po!

To top that, a massive Asian trip, in which I, the self-proclaimed tour guide/organiser am drowning in the rough sea of planning. First up, Borneo, which will involve Mt Kinabalu (obviously), Rungus Longhouses and a trip to the tip of Borneo, and perhaps just some beach activities at the TAR park. Next on the list, Krabi - yes we love our beaches, and thai food + Bangkok, needless to say, a must-visit city. Whilst I recuperate from all that for several days in KL, my two friends will head off to Siem Reap to witness the spectacular Angkor Wat, before the three of us meet again for China.

Planning China = suicide. Almost impossible to plan, but I'm coping. Let's hope it turns out alright! Needless to say, the all-knowing future housemate of mine and her far-too-brilliant fiance have been very helpful in my attempt to sort out our trip to China.

Part of me feels guilty for splurging and also for slacking my summer away-but, I constantly remind myself that it is, afterall, my last long summer. I'd be better off enjoying it to the fullest.

Purpose

Once again, the typical scenario of this blog being revived over summer term. never really do have enough to say since nothing overly interesting deserves to be mentioned.

With a couple of my friends graduating, our conversations are frequently focused on the major take-home values from our 3 years in Cam, and to be honest, they haven't been overly optimistic. it hurts and annoys me to listen to those statements, especially when it highlights how most of them have, in my opinion, completely missed the point of university life. the sheer competitiveness that slowly reveals itself as they share their thoughts on cam reinforces the necessity to analyse and be wary of friends you make. at the same time, i may be unfair to impose my own principles on them, and expecting them to share similar ideals.

Having gone through an asian education system, some friends remain delusional of their main aims in life, still placing tremendous emphasis on academic brilliance with minimal development of emotional intelligence. A friend of mine claims most of her compatriots have become cynical over the three years, but I opine that as a figment of her imagination ie believing is seeing. To me, that judgment is derived from contemplation of one self, and the awareness that she has in fact succumbed to the viciousness of competition.

I won't deny that Cam shatters one's confidence, acknowledging the fact that most students here probably were very established and successful students in the past, but would now have to settle for brutal mediocrity. It is only natural for them to feel so. I then asked, how much more confident would she be if she were to obtain a first class honours, and she replied with great certainty that it was the only thing she ever hoped for in Cam, thus would give her an overwhelming sense of self-satisfaction. Fair enough, you exaltation. I, on the other hand, feel that these successes are too impermanent to cling on to and rejoice, and that even though each success deserves a pat on the back, serious damage can be done when one basks too long in their glory.

I raise these points for several reasons. One, as a reminder to feel grateful for the fact that I lived through the competition and have become stronger, not exactly in a 'survival of the fittest' manner, but rather as an individual that is mentally and emotionally more ready to face what would be a rougher sea when I graduate. Two, as a motivation to pursue my interests and to gain skills outside of the medical field for it draws in a huge amount of satisfaction when I apply this in my career. More importantly, it pleases me to be ensured that I have achieved (so far) my main target in university, and that is to enjoy what I do, and do what I truly enjoy. It reminds me of a very encouraging (and flattering!) comment my teacher once made about me. She claimed to be surprised that I remained optimistic and enthusiastic in a suppressive institution and attributed that to my ability to value the positive and learn from the negative, to my ability to find the silver lining of every cloud.

I intend to keep things this way. But with an added twist. I am keen to revive that building competitive spirit in me and to see the impact I can make by perfecting the necessary skills as a doctor. The past three years have involved a conscious effort to achieve moderation. I want this to change, on several different levels, that I can easily summarise into passion, direction and perseverance.

I have lived my life the way I intended to the past three years, and I hope to accomplish my resolution for the remaining three years.

Tibet [break] Nepal

After about 3.5 weeks of lovely hospital attachments, I rediscovered my love for medicine. or at least I finally saw the whole point of thorough sciences. I promise a detailed post on my attachment as soon as time permits!

I also left for Chengdu and Tibet not long after the attachment came to an end. I truly appreciated the company of a friend of mine from Cambridge and her fiancee from Princeton, especially after all the local delights they introduced me to!

Tibet met my expectations of being truly mystique, with clouds so close they seemed reachable, mountain ranges of marvellous shades laid out like thick layers of curtains, mirror-like, reflective lakes not to mention stunning architecture with the distinct black window frames, red/green ornaments and a tinge of Chinese yellow to everything else.

The food, disappointingly left my entire family travellers' diarrhoea, myself still feeling unwell as I blog despite having returned for about 4 days now. The melting yak butter, fuelling the candlelit temples left me feeling nauseous, and their oil-drenched fried rice/noodles didn't do any good to my GI tract.

As a result, I had to postpone my 6-week stint at Nepal and will only leave for that region of the world this Sunday. Am hoping to feel better by then! In the meantime, I've been keeping myself occupied with fun times at MMHA, whilst recuperating! Met an interesting bloke doing psychology at UTAR and almost met with a car accident, with him in it! I'd be pleasantly surprised if he requested for a lift tomorrow after the nightmare earlier this evening.

Day 1 - A&E

Slightly erratic at the start, but things got better later in the day. With almost zero-experience, the tiniest case admitted sparked my interest and caught me feeling inquisitive. The first case witnessed involved (today's theme: poisoning):

Organophosphate poisoning-malathion, I believe
Ah, chemical warfare. I think the doctor mentioned this was a suicidal attempt (quite obviously), and being cautious of the possibility of chemical aging (I presume the patient had delayed admission), atropine alone solved the problem. He did mention the clear parasympathetic symptoms, bronchorrhea (hypersecretion with excessive ACh), and an exception, sweating (excessive neurotransmitters).

Gastric lavage followed by administration of activated charcoal via nasogastric tube. The following case observed was similar, anti-psychotic poisoning-believed to be lamotrigine.

Major take-home lesson: Methods of dealing with poisoning and observing the common symptoms of these two types belonging to the umbrella theme.

The Bhutanese bloke doing his masters in EM also elaborated on an ECG showing lateral ischaemia, and mentioned other cardiac markers such as CKMB and troponin levels as possible diagnostic tests. He introduced aortic dissection to me and explained the possible appearance of an X-ray scan showing widening of the mediastinum and hints of pleural effusion as well as the plausible obliteration of the aortic knob.

That's hardly anything, but I'm certain there's more to come and that I'll learn more. Hardly did much besides cleaning up some emesis remains and giving the patient a change of clothes.

Voila, so I finally had my law interview yesterday night.

And what can I derive from the 30-ish minute conversation? I can't do law. I should just stick to medicine. =)

For keepsake, this is the brief case we discussed over the interview:

"Z, who is 16, conceives a child as the result of aone-night-stand. She keeps the pregnancy a secret. She wants to give the child up for adoption immediately after birth and therefore contacts the local authority. Neither the father nor her parents know anything about the pregnancy.

Article 8(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights states the following:

Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence.

In the light of this provision, should the local authority have a duty to identify and inform the father and/or the Z's parents?"

Please read the question carefully. (end)

The interviewer rang 12 minutes after I received the email, and the torment began

Nevertheless, it was great fun. Haven't used my brain that much in so long.

Written test/assessment up soon (apparently it's just an informal exercise). I don't expect it to be any easier than what I faced yesterday.

On a positive note, at least it isn't a scientific essay! I've written an incalculable amount of science-y essays since I embarked on the medical course. At last, something different.

I'm determined to only spend 10 minutes on this.

I've revamped my music playlist and it is this list that has been supporting me through the uphill battle of a certain examination we call Tripos, which makes me wonder really about the effects music exerts in our lives, what with the widely acclaimed Mozart effect, and something I stumbled upon more recently, the Beethoven effect.

To be honest, I don't really understand how music taps into our health; a possibility of establishing synchrony with brainwaves subsequently altering our attention span and ability to concentrate, somewhat similar to how the thalamus and ascending arousal neurotransmitter systems regulate our sleep-wake cycle. If that is true, this is bound to have physiological effects, perhaps observed changes in our breathing and heart rates considering their connections with the autonomic nervous system. But this really is too fuzzy for my liking. Nevertheless, there isn't much to lose by believing in this, bearing in mind the potential placebo effect like how complementary medicine most certainly produces its results.

Having said that, it is also heavily dependent on your choice of music, which then again relies on the different social groups, early exposure and upbringing. Some people find relief in suicidal music, and some in techno. Unfortunately, I fail to understand where they are coming from as I never shared their interest in music of those genres.

And then we come to the popular belief (with fairly solid scientific ground) that Mozart makes your children smart or more intelligent (really, semantics). Putting aside the flaws in assessing one's IQ, and assuming we all subscribe to the Stanford-Binet IQ test, surely researchers have to consider the other existing factors contributing to the results they are obtaining.

Temporarily enhanced spatial-temporal reasoning. hmmm. Perhaps certain pre-existing neurons fire in response to specific frequencies played, and perhaps this corresponds to the region responsible for this momentary spike. Mozart's pieces , if I remember correctly often revolve around a certain frequency range, I wonder if this would explain why a wide range of his pieces, and only his compositions would have triggered the observed response.

I suspect these enhancements may be an artifact-maybe generated from enjoyment arousal. Somewhat like a spillover effect of enjoying your environment? I shouldn't even attempt to challenge this really. Oliver Sacks discovered the association between music and Parkinson's, quoting several examples and citing that even mental rehearsal of a particular piece by patients who are music-enthusiasts creates a temporary effect of being 'released' from Parkinson's. I find that rather interesting, and possibly exploitable. Enhanced performance in the presence of something you enjoy. Projections to the substantia nigra from regions such as the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex (?, I really am not too sure about this), and efferent connections to the thalamus. And if that's true, what will happen if we play music patients do not appreciate, or children do not enjoy? Will similar results still surface?

An interesting study on epileptics I once read mentioned that besides Mozart's K.448 and Piano Concerto No. 23, only Yanni's Standing in Motion had a similar effect of reduced seizures. Rhythm, tempo and predicatability are possibly the shared factors. I wonder at times if these effects will be produced if Asian contemporary music was used. One has to admit that these are not sufficiently researched upon, and we may be far from realising its potential.

Mozart has certainly received a lot of attention. Beethoven is however easily forgotten, probably because of his temperamental, dramatic style. I am rather ignorant with regards to this effect, but I'm certain it has to do with vibroacoustics, and this will probably come in handy in disabled individuals ie channeling music therapy even to those who are deaf. The proposition that the subtle vibration exuded from Beethoven's composition (especially the celebrated 5th Symphony) can be delivered into and throughout the body, affecting the cells (TOO vague, I know). Disruption of unhealthy cells through resonance? No clue.

Alright, so I spent 20 minutes, and produced trash. That's what I do. It's time to hit the sack and pray I wake up in time to fetch my sawo from the airport. Meanwhile, enjoy the music and my apologies for the K-pop dominance in this updated series.

Really, how important are good values in life when what we have witnessed thus far suggest the dominance of the other extreme? We know for a fact that our education system isn't doing enough, and having experienced (for a measly period of 2 years) a foreign system, I'm not sure if they can claim the prize. My humble opinion is that every education system, regardless of how holistic they label themselves to be, is lacking in something crucial. I'm not sure what, and I doubt many do. After all, none of us were brought up with a truly 'complete' education system.

Oh yes, how did our education system even come into the picture? oh. yes. values. priorities. i think we place unnecessary emphasis on paper qualifications. period.

just sheer superficiality.

i am bored. yes. i can't sit at home and do nothing (which encompasses reading 'introduction to law' and summarising my pfp interview) even for a day. i am officially becoming a couch potato.

i despise the fact that i refresh hermes every 5 seconds, desperately awaiting replies, in which my future depends on (well, it isn't as bad as it sounds-i just need to know if i am allowed to do law in my third year-hence, my future, but only for a year)

but when one spends her time surfing the internet by reading zunar's comics (imustcommendhimonhiscreativity), trying to enhance her intellectual reservoir or at least feel like she's attempting to, discovering the link between sociology, anthropology and law, and questioning why she is doing medicine of all subjects in the world, you should take pity on her.

i think i have become more superficial in my learning. the whole process of rote-rehearse-regurgitate definitely isn't aiding my thought process and this has its ramifications-in my terms (though medically inaccurate), non-pathological-course-dependent-frontal lobe atrophy (completely fictitious).

so i hear of the U.S. Supreme Court extending gun rights; right to keep and bear arms for the purpose of self-defence vs. efforts to reduce role of firearms in American life; Chicago shootings and in the UK, Cumbria-and yet i do not seem to challenge this in a way i think i would have before reading medicine. i should have a stand, but i don't-that's probably because the majority in Malaysia aren't too exposed to our own laws and the society hardly has a role to play in changing law, so why care? we do not question the law since we know nothing about it, and we obey it out of a genuine worry about the consequences of disobedience, what not with our friendly, partial press reporting fates of 'criminals'. a habit of obedience, as Austin calls it, with the ever-present threat of sanctions (in which home has an incalculable collection of, repressive much?). punishable for acts we never knew were crimes to begin with.

then you hear of China-Taiwan bilateral ties (finally!) mostly achieved through new laws-all politically and economically-driven. and i still don't question its flaws, neither am i skeptical of this oh-too-samaritan-like facade.

at the end of it all, i narrow it down to just one thing-i have lost my brain doing medicine for 2 years. maybe not the entire brain-i am sure those required for sensory and motor functions are still intact, and one thing for sure, my hippocampus is probably as large as an elephant or perhaps a London taxi driver's. i've just lost the parts that make me different from an automaton.

hmmm. i should blog on asturias. yes, after i'm done with answering 'how one would assess the benefits of complementary medicine', and also after the Jap vs Paraguay match. asian pride.

I am sorry I let my gratitude sleep when perils have past. Thank you for walking through all difficulties alongside me. Your treasures, I am now aware of.

Impermanence

The fact is, you don't know what you want in life. You traverse a never-ending path, uncertain of your future, constantly praying you find your pot of gold. You rejoice when you do, you sulk when you don't. But these feelings do not last. In fact, nothing does.

You regret making certain decisions in life, but you move on and live with the fact that you have. And it is then that you appreciate impermanence because you know this torment is transient and in these situations, you convince yourself that it is. Equipped with this, you tread on, aware that at any coordinate of your causeway, every door is open for change. The only question that remains is, do you dare walk through it? To the question of your life, you are the answer, and to the problems, you are the solution.

I digress. Anyway, CARIF has been great thus far: mind-numbing work, but lovely people!

Hello, Again!

My first post since I've been at the UK. I'm almost done with my first year. Hmmm..have lost all ability of creative writing (if I had any to begin with). Medicine kills brain cells. It's so glaringly obvious-I can't write more than 5 sentences.

Almost done with exams! Woohoo-let's hope I don't need to re-sit for any 2nd MB papers *prays hard* Can't wait for Iceland! When I'm officially done with first year, and when I have nothing better to do with my life spending one month at Perth (in solitude), I shall write up on all that has happened the past academic year.

Bon Voyage!

I still remember being envious of seniors leaving college a year back, about how they could finally leave what I used to call a hoosegow. However, one year later, I find myself feeling nostalgic at the thought of leaving the country. I actually miss college! (yes, even I can't believe I'm saying this!) I miss that secret ingredient of togetherness we shared when we were thrown into oblivion in that oil palm plantation. In that 2-year period, I discovered and learnt aspects of mankind; the fact that this world does not revolve around just me and that I just can't have everything the way I want it, the brutality of those judgmental and that no one can be trusted. But also, I realised the world isn't as bad as many believe it to be. I used to think everyone was like me-individualistic, self-centered and denigrative. Pretty much the 'I don't care what happens to the rest of the world, as long as I survive-survive well that is' attitude. Thus, at the beginning, I despised the collectivisitic methods of college, its dogmatism and the egocentric behaviour of the administrators. But it was from the teamwork necessary in almost every activity we engaged in (except our assignments of course!) that I saw the goodness in others.

*sighs* I don't have much time left. So let's skip the emotional heap and adopt systematic presentation. In a nutshell,

(i) Every cloud has a silver lining-why remember the bad and forget the good? As all men and women have both testosterone and estrogen present, both good and bad characteristics are there in all of us to be discovered. As Buddhism encourages one never to denigrate others and aggrandise oneself, learn to believe that it is the goodness we should live on with, and it is that pearl in which we should shine. As I've said before, flush down our egocentric side.
(ii) You are what you believe yourself to be-shove aside your propensity to pay so much attention to what people think of you. This will only hinder your process of self-development. Believe in what YOU want to be, and strive to achieve it regardless of whether or not people think you can. If you like singing, by all means, get yourself on stage and start singing! That's what I did back at college, and tada! It didn't turn out too bad! My maths teacher got me to record the official Maths website song with a very good compatriot of mine!
(iii) Failure is inexistent-You only fail when you stop trying. Never, at any cost, give up. NEVER. Because when even you think you yourself have lost all hope, there's nothing left to get yourself moving once again. You pass everyday hoping that you didn't. Bear in mind that regardless of what position you take in this hierarchal society, YOU HAVE A PURPOSE. Fulfill this purpose. The world depends on it. As Paul Davies stressed in The Goldilocks Enigma, all of us, I repeat, every single one of us, have a special place in the ticking of the Universe.
(iv) Aim for the stars-and..NO, don't think that it's alright even if you did fall. You won't fall to the moon. You fall to the dark, ether (scientifically wrong, just for literary purposes) space and drown in this organic compound. You shouldn't even THINK of failing. Believe in the Law of Attraction itself, because if you don't, practising it would be of no use. Believe it works, if not, the idea of attracting what you desire simply by thinking of it would be baseless. (Note: Apparently, this law of attraction has roots in quantum physics, but on this topic, we shall not elaborate.)
(v) Remember the first 4 under any circumstances. :)

Life is a bed of roses! Life is fair! It has been for me, at least. Many have told me that life isn't as idealistic as I think of it to be. But who cares, I'm the author of my book of life. I decide on what I want and do not want to think. I determine which path I shall traverse. And shall I suffer the consequences of my belief, I'll pull through the aftermaths by upholding my principles.

So, the time has come. Goodbye Malaysia :) *bah, I'll be back in 2 months anyway!*

*sighs*

We, advocates of human rights should all mourn for a country that still chooses to remain in the labyrinth of praetorian bureaucracy.

Free those with conscience and imprison the sycophants!

Mareishia Mareishia

Stalemates are always boring. Pre-departure life is lackluster despite the pressing need to pack. Have been procrastinating from accomplishing the list of basic science terms Cambrijee sent over. Hehe. Have been repeatedly advised to be slightly more apolitical hence my lost of interest in blogging recently.

I guess I misprize the importance of blogs in expressing oneself. Never was the eloquent type to begin with. *sighs* Anyway, it's great to know Teresa Kok's finally released from the 6ft*8ft cell-one can't help but to vividly imagine how claustrophobic that could get! It's worrying to know that RPK still is detained despite health complications.

Ooh! I know I'm outdated, but I just found out that our DAARRRLLIINNGGG 'albatross' baby proposed a Race Relations Act. *yawns* Another act to reinforce the fact that democracy, in Malaysia is but a facade. This isn't solving the problem at its core. We need to stop labeling each other according to race, forget our differences and work on our similarities. That's it! But for the power hungry, bangsa Malaysia is all..balderdash. Playing race-based politics, to them is the best method to ensure their survival, and their 51 (or perhaps more) years of tyranny. My hypothesis is that all Malaysians are at risk of racial riots every 20 years. It's pretty much like how the economy may trip into a recession in the postulated 10-year business cycle. 1969, 1988 and the most recent 2008. May 13th, Operasi Lalang and Malaysian 'squatters'! :D Whenever UMNO finds themselves losing support, they'd stir racial sensitivities.

1988-Political turmoil in UMNO itself brought about Team A and B, subsequently UMNO Baru and Semangat 46. What did the intelligent medical student do then? Ooohh, they never do the dirty work. NEVER. Get the young, naive and delicate creatures to do the filthy job! Senang je..Ah Jeep and Kimchi-san can execute his master plan and he watches at the comfort of his armchair. At least by doing that, he'd be able to secure some extreme voters, no? Hmm..Upon reflection, I just realised that 1969 and 1988 shared one hero. The Dreaded Man. It is a fact that the May 13 incident didn't occur spontaneously. It was a coup d'etat against Tunku Abdul Rahman, and he was well-aware of it. I believe I've stated before that TAR predicted the May 13 massacre on May 10th itself and announced it on radio channels worldwide. But not many believed him. I extracted this statement from one of the books a casually skimmed through:-

"You know Harun was one of those..Harun, Mahathir, Ghazali, Shafie..who were all working with Razak to oust me, to take over my place.."

To forget history is to repeat it. The non-Malays should not be insinuated by racial statements purposely made by politicians to instigate racial riots. Bear in mind that it's all part of Ummm-Nooo's plot to stay in power. Through this, nevertheless, we can almost be certain that it's topsy-turvy in there :P

Remember. Remain cool, calm and composed. We're an educated bunch. We don't fall for their games.

Platinum weiii!

I don't want to leave!! *sniff sniff* Ironic enough, I recall saying the exact opposite, even more passionately 2 years back! I immediately feel reluctant to pack upon thinking of the academic pressure that awaits me. TAK NAK! TAK NAK! :P My clothes itself already weigh 20 kg which happens to be my weight limit. That simply implies that I'd have to streamline my luggage once again.

10-12kg on clothes and the remaining for the miscellaneous. Enough about leaving the country. Let's talk about Cathay Cineleisure's Platinum Movie Suite! :P Get 2 tickets for the price of 1- That's RM 25 for two people! Valid everyday (including public holidays) before 6 p.m. It's definitely a deal never to be forgone!

The usual three musketeers (Sawo, Sayang and I) paid a visit to the Platinum Movie Suite for the first time and decided to watch...*drumrolls*

Which, by the way, got sayang all cuddled up and shivering

One word to describe the movie. Gruesome. We had blood spurting in all directions. Sensational murder. And a decent load of anatomy. Of pyramidal tracts, brachial artery..liquid nitrogen, asphyxiation..nitric acid and hyperosmolarity. Anoxia and Hypoxaemia. Not to mention a huge deal of snipping with enormous hand shears. Overall, demented.

Now, on how we spent the hour before the movie started. Sawo brutally snatched the Xbox from me and was satisfied with his comfortable couch and the temperate conditions of the lounge. Sayang and I however decided to pursue another luxury of life; massage. We got ourselves 45 minutes of a Swedish massage and discussed about the LHC, Big Bang, Higgs boson and even wormholes. Oh yes, and also the recent MRI image of orgasm. hehe!


We engaged in a light debate on wormholes (which I finally won of course! CHEWAH :P) and decided to even search the internet regarding the subject. We stumbled on this pic

Sayang immediately exclaimed, "Wah, ada throat lagi!"

I give up on him. Period. The reclining seats in the cinema were as usual, beautiful.


On another note, Aunt Mary, my singing teacher gave me beautiful hair accessories as my farewell gift. Will snap a picture of the gift later and shall update this post when I've done so. I'll definitely miss singing, and Aunty Mary..and vocal opening sessions :)

Ku Man Hae

Figure out what the title means yourself :P

Lose:

(i) Egocentricism
(ii) Abnegation
(iii) Fear
(iv) Judgmentalism
(v) Prevarication

Siapa makan cili dialah rasa pedasnya.

This post is not targeted towards anyone in particular but simply a matter of self-reflection.

Food For Thought

A Little Cherokee Story

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.

He said, 'My son, the battle is between 'two wolves' inside us all.

'One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.'

'The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.'

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, 'Which wolf wins?'

The old Cherokee simply replied, 'The one you feed.'

School rules are meant to be broken-only those who break them would survive after all :)

I've figured out a new way to express my dissatisfaction! Try understand me if you can! Buah kakaka!

Yi ka, ngo dei ke PM yiu pei ge kok ka zhi to hui yao lik liong, so yi hui yong ISA lei pik 3 ko yan yap kam. FINE. This isn't working.

Oh come on! The candlelight vigil is perhaps the most peaceful form of protest! You didn't have to disperse them in 12 minutes! I'm beginning to wonder..hmmm..who could the mastermind be?

Let's say, erm..the discipline teacher conspires with the frequent rule-breaker at school to put some of his disliked students in detention. And let's say these goody-two-shoes are naive, idealistic creatures who would never expect such connivances.

Mr. Abdul, the discipline teacher promises Amat, the notorious student to exclude him from all punishments for his previous offences just so that he'd assist Abdul in achieving his ultimate goal. And so this is the plan: Amat is to claim that he smoked discreetly at 10.30a.m. earlier. Ah Lian, the ever-nosy school magazine editor reports that Amat admitted to smoking at 10.30 on a Monday morning (That day was a Monday mind you). Coincidentally, Abdul secretly despises Ah Lian for her somewhat veracious nature. Amat was then absent from school for a period of time and returned reprimanding Ah Lian for tarnishing his image, also demanding for an apology. He claims that the word 'earlier' in his statement referred to the day before, a Sunday which wasn't a schooling day. So, it was World War III between Amat's loyal 'konco-konco' and Ah Lian's eye-witnesses and supporters.

The school's renowned 'rant and rave' guy, ManMan could not hold back and spilt everything onto his blog. Abdul who regards freedom of speech with utmost disdain saw his opportunity coming. To appear rather just, he suspends Amat from school for the next few years; the students were generally glad (well, of course except for Amat's konco's). But next, he abuses his veto power and 'imprisons' Ah Lian and ManMan with the excuse of securing peace and tranquility at school. Apparently, they were creating too much hoohah and their schoolmates were beginning to lose focus on their studies.

For some reason or another, Abdul still wasn't satisfied. He was still..threatened by the more competent and charismatic Ah Wah. So, he decides to deter Ah Wah from even hoping for his position by capturing his compatriot, Cuckoo. Don't ask me about Cuckoo's abrupt introduction into this story. I do medicine, all I do is regurgitate.

Abdul, too pressured by all the vituperations decided to release Ah Lian. But poor poor ManMan and Cuckoo's condition are still unknown. And now, Cuckoo's gone! The plot deepens! Hehe! But how much longer will it take before sudden death takes place?

So, you tell me. As the chess piece, should Amat bear all the burden or should Abdul be responsible for this crackdown? Or worse, perhaps the fact that Abdul's predecessor allowed the breeding of Amat's species and even catalysed it should be taken into consideration?

If this case took place a decade ago, perhaps the students wouldn't bother that much. Ignorance is bliss. They wouldn't bother simply because they didn't understand the concept of collectivism. They didn't simply because Abdul's predecessor wouldn't elucidate them on this 'right' they were awarded with since birth. So, even if dozens of Ah Lians and ManMans were arrested, the students wouldn't be infuriated. But things have changed, and Abdul wouldn't have it the easy way.

The students wouldn't like Abdul's dictator ways. And Abdul would be shelled. His plans would only backfire and it'd only pave a clearer and easier path towards victory for Ah Wah. Abdul's initial plan to warn students that he doesn't favour himself being criticised would only be an action of positive feedback. The students know what they can and cannot do, and they have the backing of clubs and societies.

But is that enough? The students are still no match for the entire troop of Abdul's Kadet Remaja Polis or Kadet Bersatu. They can't use guns. When they opt candles, Kadet Remaja chooses guns. Tell me, who'd dare face gunpowder? We don't find many Master Jirans of Qixia Temple 1937.

Remember, at school, rules and regulations are meant to be broken. Facts are meant to be distorted. Ah Lian was detained to protect her from Amat's koncos. Cuckoo, for reasons proven to be untrue. Things just work otherwise at school here. If nobody sorts out these distortions, I'm afraid this school may be closed down soon.

Sediakan Payung Sebelum Hujan LORR

I've deleted some posts just to be safe lor. Better to be safe than sorry mah. Plus I'll be leaving in 15 days, so why put myself at risk?

It's sad that the comments go along with the posts though :(

ARGH!

OH MY GOSH! My uncle's stalking me *shivers* Aiyoyoyoyo..DIE LOR :P

GO AWAY!! Oh yes, if you're bothered to read this, we'll be visiting you soon, so brace yourself! Buah kakaka!