Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Is my skin tone really *that* much fairer than most others?
Cos I'm getting it a lot these few days. Hmm..
The other day in my General Surgery posting, my tutor was saying that I looked pretty nerdy cos of my hairstyle and (you guessed it), my skin tone, which he attributed -- rather sweepingly -- to a lack of sun-exposure on my part, which then indicated a sedentary lifestyle spent merely on books alone. That's not true.. I jog.. sometimes. At night.
Today, my new tutor (Orthopedics at KTPH) mentioned that I look pretty jiak-kantang. Reason? Skin colour!! I swear, the adage of not judging a book by it's cover is wasted on these people.
Anyway, I had a random encounter at the MRT station on the way back home today. I was just walking to the bus interchange peacefully, when all of a sudden:
Singtel Salesgirl (SS): Hey, let me guess, you use Singtel, don't you?
Me: HELL NO, StarHub rules. /walks off/
Well, I wished I did that, but no. Y'see, the mind thinks of many a good comeback for these kinds of conversations that practically deserve sarcasm only AFTER the encounter has past. Can you imagine if the world paused for a few seconds while you came up with a decent comeback? Sigh.. But anyway, the girl had a really strange approach didn't she? You don't normally start one of those promotion thingys by demanding if the stranger you have before you already uses your services, do you?
In any case, here's what really happened:
SS: Hey, let me guess, you use Singtel, don't you?
Me: Yeah (Okay I admit I lied -- wanted her off my back fast)
SS: Oh, okay. How old are you?
Me: (Is this really necessary?) 21.
SS: Oh, I see.. Anyway, you're really white you know.
See what just happened there? Strike three baby. Right now I'm just sitting here worried that I really am the fairest of them all -.-
Cya around!
the dude
10/18/2011 12:03:00 AM
10/18/2011 12:03:00 AM
Tuesday, October 04, 2011
“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
-- Muhammad Ali
Came across this pretty nice quote and decided to post it.
In other news, I'm at the tail-end portion of my Surgery posting, and I must admit it is far more fun than I thought. Surgery is pretty methodical, so it's pretty easy to get the hang of:
The patient is getting intestinal obstruction? Decompress him.
Is he jaundiced? Find out if he's making too much bilirubin, if he has a liver problem, or if his biliary tract is obstructed.
Road traffic accident? Assess vitals, fluid resuscitation, antibiotics, ...
Not to say that it is anywhere near simplistic of course. You'd be dead wrong to think of surgeons as mere barbarians chopping out things from people the moment they feel that it might help. Even before picking up the knife, a lot of thought, investigations and management are put in place, etc, etc.
But today, I was reminded of why I probably would think twice about going into Surgery. Shima and I stood around in the OT watching op after op, and it got pretty boring after awhile.. Maybe I simply don't know enough to appreciate what's going on, but for now I really don't think I would enjoy picking away and slicing at someone's insides. Not that it's gory or anything -- it is, but that isn't the push-factor. It's more that it's..... monotonous?
Hmm... But I still have quite a few years ahead of me to make my choice, so for now I'll just keep my glasses un-tinted.
ciao
the dude
10/04/2011 10:52:00 PM
10/04/2011 10:52:00 PM
