Prece*torship - Day 3

First week of the P-ship was quite... well...

The place where i work is very busy, it has been likened to fighting a war. Toy soldiers, that's what we are: i take the lines from Martika's "Toy Soldiers":

(Chorus)
Step by step, heart to heart
Left, right, left, we all fall down
Like toy soldiers
Bit by bit, torn apart
We never win, but the battle wages on
For Toy soldiers

Well u get the idea. We get about 70-80 p-forms on an average day, so i guess i've already fulfilled part of what i should - learning how to key in the p-forms - by day 3. HAHA. Can't say i'm some ace in keying in, i still have a problem counting (e.g. 2/52 = multiply by factor of 14!!! 1/12 = factor of 30!!! om, on = factor of 1!! bd = factor of 2!!! and the best: requires 50mg of the pill but we only have the 100mg type: factor of 0.5!!!)

slow, slow, slow. haiz. my hands were trembling whenever i key p-forms, especially if one comes in with 10 items.

well, i have en tian (gwyneth) with me during this sojourn. so not too bad, have a companion. but not much chance to talk to her, we have separate lunch breaks, and we come in and leave at different times, about 1.5 hours apart. this is such to stagger the manpower.

other stuff we are doing like invoices, ordering, restocking goods.. pretty ok la. pretty much like what other guys do in retail. those are during the slack times.

...and my legs are sick of standing. there's only TWO chairs - one inside the phar**cy, one for the cashier - and you guessed it, none of them are for me.

up till now, haven't revised ANYTHING yet. appears like all the stuff we learn in school, are USELESS. gotta throw POM stuff to the phar*acists, P stuff we also throw to them (cos i really dunno!) and OTC stuff we can just SMOKE. like there are many instances where people ask me which one is better. All have the same ingredients, but u just gotta give an answer. The thing about this is just to look confident as possible.

sigh.

my prece*tor said something about work attitude... in life, during work, it's not how well u do in your exams or what type of honours you get. some people would not employ a first-class honours student cos they might not stay on in the company for long... as in they will go and do Masters or other studies. and some of them may not be as proficient or work-savvy as other people with lower grades.

hmm.. so there's hope for us all then?

***

200th day anniversary. hooray.

Back from India

Quite an experience. But many similarities with Philippines.

Gathered enough information to kick start some stuff - can actually work out a rough timeline.
What's on the table are plans for a high school and a elementary school like installing a water purifier / filter, providing them with CDs (they already have computers) to learn English, teach the teachers there how to teach English, and painting a whole lot of walls. And others. Not confirmed yet. I'll have to work up a proposal decent enough to get approval to start the project.
Back to the present. During prece*torship, my spare time (if i still have spare time), will be split among resting, homework, doing stuff for YEP, and nuan. *sighz* a bit no life.

Everyone else is working or in prece*torship anyway... this holidays is soon coming to an end.

*sighz*. praying that prece*torship will be at least peaceful, if not good, but i'm not hoping on that.


***

Sometimes i wonder why i wanna do all this. I've given myself the answer many times already, but yet the question still pops up. Why don't i be a nice student just mug all day and strive for cap 5, instead of mucking around like this?

Something i got from Leonard.

IS THERE A SANTA CLAUS?

As a result of an overwhelming lack of requests, and with research help from that renown scientific journal SPY magazine (January, 1990) - I am pleased to present the annual scientific inquiry into Santa Claus.

1. No known species of reindeer can fly. BUT there are 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified, and while most of these are insects and germs, this does not COMPLETELY rule out flying reindeer which only Santa has ever seen.
2. There are 2 billion children (persons under 18) in the world. BUT since Santa doesn't (appear) to handle the Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and Buddhist cihldren, that reduces the workload to to 15% of the total - 378 million according to Population Reference Bureau. At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that's 91.8 million homes. One presumes there's at least one good child in each.
3. Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seemes logical). This works out to 822.6 visits per second. This is to say that for each Christian household with good children, Santa has 1/1000th of a second to park, hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left, get back up the chimney, get back into the sleigh and move on to the next house. Assuming that each of these 91.8 million stops are evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false but for the purposes of our calculations we will accept), we are now talking about .78 miles per household, a total trip of 75-1/2 million miles, not counting stops to do what most of us must do at least once everey 31 hours, plus feeding and etc.

   This means that Santa's sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second, 3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man- made vehicle on earth, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second - a conventional reindeer can run, tops, 15 miles per hour.

4. The payload on the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium-sized lego set (2 pounds), the sleigh is carrying 321,300 tons, not counting Santa, who is invariably described as overweight. On land, conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that "flying reindeer" (see point #1) could pull TEN TIMES the normal anount, we cannot do the job with eight, or even nine. We need 214,200 reindeer. This increases the payload - not even counting the weight of the sleigh - to 353,430 tons. Again, for comparison - this is four times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth.
5. 353,000 tons travelling at 650 miles per second creates enourmous air resistance - this will heat the reindeer up in the same fashion as spacecrafts re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer will absorb 14.3 QUINTILLION joules of energy. Per second. Each. In short, they will burst into flame almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them, and create deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team will be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second. Santa, meanwhile, will be subjected to centrifugal forces 17,500.06 times greater than gravity. A 250-pound Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of his sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force.

In conclusion - If Santa ever DID deliver presents on Christmas Eve, he's dead now.

School of Physics, University of Sydney

Issues on my mind

1. Trip to Genting. yup i know this sounds a bit selfish... but what the heck.. if you think i'm selfish, i can go and find another more selfish person out there...

Yup, finally. I've not been on one (do you count the recce in Bangalore one? YES...) decent trip in the whole of holidays. Partly cos of the attachment enrichment program, and partly because of the lack of $$. yup... i wonder how much my money will stretch until... it's really scary to see all your $$ going away like that...

The plan was to go sightseeing around Genting and perhaps KL, then maybe a few rounds around Johor area... Malaysian friends (particularly: Yeelian) you know i'm gonna need your help, since i'm not taking any tour packages... Need some help on the bus routes and fares... and where to eat.

I'm making only $150 this holidays... and i'm spending like 15-20 times that much. Already.

2. Trip to Bangalore and Tumkur. Yup this one is the main killer. Lots of cash thrown into it... 5 days to check out the place with jingkai, go and chuchut the locals a bit, and then have some beers in bangalore. haha...

however, all was good until yesterday, when the Indian Airlines workers had to strike. And they had to strike a good 3 days before i fly!!! wth. wth. wth. stupid~

sometimes, too much democracy is not too good. especially when you are the innocent party. like me now.

now i'm really wondering whether will i have a flight on saturday to catch. whether will there be just an empty plane on the tarmac without pilot and airline crew. like Lost. i'm like expecting flight delays - that's the least - to entire cancellations. The phone lines in the Singapore office has been cut. There is no information at all, to which flights have been delayed, or cancelled.

And God bless me if i'm caught in India without a flight.

Lesson to learn: never, NEVER, choose an airline who has had a strike two months from the day you're travelling. (Indian Airlines had a strike on May).

3. YEP. All my other resources are now poured into YEP, mostly planning. Glad to say that the structure is finally taking place, and we can at least answer some of the questions that everyone has been asking. We are going to Tumkur, Bangalore, India, in Dec 2007, and we have a rough idea of what we plan to do over there. Now it's just the negotiations, the recruitment phase.

4. Prece*torship. After i got information from an alternative source, i found out that my prece*tor wasn't too bad after all. According to the source, she "fights" for our rights. Lets see how true is that. I don't mind being very busy, at least the day passes by very fast; but there's no opporturnity to explore and learn. A bit looking forward to it. I am, however, not revising for it.

5. Secret Project 2. There's been nothing much on this thread, emails have suddenly stopped. And i won't be here watching them execute it on Sunday, that's a pity. Maybe i'll be back after Tumkur.

6. Emed. Nothing much here too, except that one brown bagging session remains, just have to take pictures for that, and present it appropriately. No more trips to SGH, please.

7. Rag Dance. I guess i'm gonna axe this, sorry eesang. Reason being: read point number #1. and secondly, there's been no activity at all. Really i wonder, is six weeks gonna be enough. And i was so stupid not to put down "Rag Dance" when i handed in my prece*torship form, and i got batch 2 as a result. Hence, better not be a part of it as well, rather than be running places after work. I am selfish. And very tired. Sorry.

8. Mum coughing. I wish i'd followed the doctor's orders and given her Dhasedyl. But she said she had problems coughing out her phlegm, so i asked for Benadryl... and she's coughing away now. Sigh.

Fool

Sometimes i wonder, if is it really worth it sacrificing time, money and effort for people who don't even appreciate it..

...who take it for granted...

...who think little of it...

...who despise it.



YEP. Emed. Pharm Camp. etc...



at the cost of my own time, which i can use for many other activities.

at the cost of my own money, which is running out, and nothing is going in.

at the cost of my own effort, which is seen as worthless.

Prece*torship

Like returning to army. It all seems too familiar...

People mentioned in this article are purely coincidential and do not reflect anything.... whatever.

Just received word from someone that my prece*tor is not exactly very nice. i will not go into details, as it would not be ethical.

All i can say is that, the prece*torship has been perceived to be like army... which sucks... imagine: orders instead of mutual learning... hectic place... no room for discussion or bargaining... self-study..

haiz. sometimes i wonder, why did i get such a sucky place. why didn't i change, even though it was the lousiest deal i had.

why didn't i be more thick-skinned, cook up an excuse and be less humanitarian and put Group 1 on that piece of paper, work when nuan wasn't around, and have 6 weeks to enjoy with her, instead of spending one month alone. so freaking bored. i-

i should not say any more regarding this issue here.

all the stuff that people are saying about their nice prece*tors... will it ever apply to me? will i ever even enjoy it, as what LW said? Oh man, this student here is an epileptic. what a loser... whatever he does, just give him lousy grades, since he cannot make it anyway.

haiz...

Topsyturvy

what a week...

tues: the incredible lady touched down...

wed: dinner at her place... but =(

thu: went out to shop with her and her friends... bought my prece*torship clothes.. but super major quarrel with her.

fri: went for a formal apology... showed her the presents i made. touched... =')

sat: dinner for two at my house: soup with bread, Anything, Whatever, pizza, white wine... how time passes...

sun: went to bugis to get some stuff (fake gold crown). we tried some Peach Italian Soda (basically, sprite + peach flavour + syrup + alginate beads), and the new Shrek (Lime) Ice-cream from Macs. She said it tasted like the 70c ice cream with the outer lime-lolly layer and the inner milk layer. No, didn't buy any "support" (Shrek ears). She doesn't like Shrek very much.

mon: i went to wang's house for some good gaming... left feeling very shack... yeah and she invited me to her house for some of her mum's food..

tues (planned): brunch at her house with her and jialing, movie (Men in White) later in the afternoon, and Suki Sushi after that...

Just Between You and Me - Lou Gramm

Staring at each other with accusing eyes
Keep our voices low, don't act surprised
If the word gets out, yeah, that's alright

I know you're just looking for some sympathy
But listen you don't know how it gets back to me
You're getting reckless, girl, but that's alright

Now don't you know that one cold word is going to lead to another
And then we'll have nowhere to go

Even if heaven and earth collide tonight
We'll be all alone in a different light
I don't care what the world can't see
It's just between you and me

I see telltale signs of a love in decline
There should be something to say, but we don't take the time
And I don't understand, but that's alright

Now you can turn the page or you can tear me apart
Don't make an open book out of my private heart
You should know better now, but that's alright

Don't you know that one cold word is going to lead to another
And then we'll have nowhere to go

Chorus:
Even if heaven and earth collide tonight
We'll be all alone in a different light
I don't care what the world can see
Because it's just between you and me

If we don't work this out we won't recover
We'll lose this soulful love for one another
But with all I've heard and all I seen
I'm still lost in your mystery

Staring at each other with accusing eyes
Keep our voices low, don't act surprised
If the word gets out, yeah, that's alright

Don't you know that one cold word is going to lead to another
And then we'll have nowhere to go

The Incredible Lady Is Back!

...finally. =)

***

4:02pm.

the minutes ticked by, as the stereo blasted music right into his ears. yet he was fully conscious and aware. on his watch: he was late.

after getting off the metro at the airport station, he chanced upon the first panel showing the arrival details. shocked to see that her flight had already touched down.

immediately, he gave chase. legs of human muscle pounded down the halls of the metro station, up the escalators and to the airport shuttle waiting area.

impatiently those legs paced up and down, up and down. the furious music didn't help to calm his nerves. after what seemed an eternity, the shuttle arrived. a simple journey. but he was already behind time.

finally found his way to the arrival area. there's not a soul coming out from customs yet. whew. a bold idea crept up in his mind - he would hide behind one of the pillars and spring a surprise for her.

so he did. the minutes continued to pass by like the many people around him, transient. time and again he peeked at the luggage collecting area. no sign, no sign of her. nor her friends.

"what happened?" he asked. it's ok, there's probably a delay, as often as it happens. give them more time.

he waited until all the passengers on the plane have been at the baggage collecting area. as the baggage on the conveyor belt dwindled, to a point where there was only a few unclaimed baggage left, he still waited. and then, he still waited until those leftover baggage were gone.

4:50pm. still no sign of her. is she still angry? he thought that this might have been a cruel joke, played by some supernatural being. or a misjudgement on his side - she might be on the wrong flight.

he had checked the arrival times online the day before and there were 3 flights altogether departing from the same city. any 3 of them could be it, but he had a hunch it was the budget airline - the one scheduled to arrive at 3:45 pm.

It's already been one hour. He tried getting her on her handphone, but to no avail. Tried to confirm her flight details with her relatives, but it was pointless. Desperation was written all over his face - something clearly was not right. And if she was on this flight, and had not been out yet, even when all the baggage has been claimed, where could she be?

he racked his head for answers. maybe another flight? maybe someone did a bomb hoax and the flight is delayed and they're checking passengers one by one, body check and all? maybe something happened in Customs?

maybe.. she's still angry at me? the thought nagged constantly in his head.

5:10 pm. he gave up. he went to the other side of the airport to wait for the next flight. took the shuttle, defeated, dejected. wondering what had happened. he couldn't have been wrong about the flight details. and yet, here he was, not trusting his own judgment.

5:41pm. the second plane from the same city she was scheduled to departure from arrived. many families around the waiting area. many happy faces meeting relieved faces. many hugs.

but she wasn't there... no, it can't be this flight.. cos it's a premium airline and she's on a budget...

6:17pm. the last plane - the last hope - touched down. would she be here?

it took another eternity for passengers to begin trickling into the arrival hall. then the baggage.

no sign.

he looked around - duty free shops of liquor, perfume - no sign. no sign of her, nor her group.

just wait... i must get my answer. what exactly happened, how can 20 people suddenly vanish into thin air like that...

6:45 pm. a call. it startled him, and he put away his earphones to pick it up.

"I'm here."

End of Holidays Part 2

Well well so far... it's been slack and stuff, but that's gonna come to an end soon:

A look at the events:

May 2 to May 16: Part 1 of holidays. Mainly spent with nuan dear ~ before she flies off. Still add in time-consuming things such as the leadership course at Azure, and the sickening 103 drug test. And the dengue scare.

May 16 to June 5: Part 2 of holidays. This is the real slack part:

nuan is in phil (this period corresponds with her trip there),

my dad went to china for a business trip (and came back),

my good friend wang (who is the source of my holiday gaming) went back to china to visit relatives

bingxun went overseas for a holiday

well, it was really good to like, slack around at home doing nothing and see the batch 1 people working their hats off and getting near-varicose veins from standing too much. i can imagine, yes, myself sharing a similar fate in the near future, maybe worse. the karma comes back and hit you on the back of the head.

Went to see pirates 3 with weida. that was fun ~

Mostly going to national cancer centre to and fro asking patients to sign up for the brown bagging event that we're hosting. of all the negative replies (some even hostile), i'm still glad that there's still a good population that sympathizes with the 4 of us - me, laynee, kiki, lin qun going from seat to seat and 'selling' our project. Guess we could have asked about 500 people so far.
(and we might be asking more! shucks.)

then there was the smoking cessation clinic, where miracles sometimes happen... and jingwen's birthday, where i was the MC. jampacked saturday, that was. talking someone out of smoking is almost like evangelism (Christian friends, sorry for the comparison). You've gotta ask them to abandon their religion of Smoking and join us, the brethren of Non-Smokers.

Went for FOC07 dry run and advised them on stuff too... FUN!

Oh yeah.. went through Theme Hospital and Syndicate... but quit halfway. More important things to do, such as prepare for the three projects that i have now, especially... i guess i shouldn't write it down. Haha.

June 6 to June 24: Part 3 of holidays. This is the real shack part:

Things to do:

Secret Operations (1) - to finish executing by this week
Secret Operations (2) - Initial Phase
Plan for recee trip to india, and any other YEP stuff
Brown Bagging Event, Part 1 (9th June)
More brown bagging recruitment (try to find a way to siam)
Recee trip to india (16th to 20th June)
Return and have 4 days of revision: just good enough: one for Pharm Law, one for Pharm Prac, one for Pharmaco, one for consolidation.
Celebrate birthday for Dad.
Buy clothes, must make use of the GSS. Target: John Little or any cheapo-but-good stores - i don't wanna strangle my wallet.

Yup, this is the shack phase... everything flows so fast.. so many things to do in such a short time... wonder if there'll be enough time for everything that i wanna do.

Man, i really hate being in Batch 2. Long story, don't wanna talk about it. The feeling of not getting prepared enough is horrible.

June 25 to Aug: Part 4 of holidays. Attachment.

No life.
Prece*torship starts, basically i'll work 5 or 6 day weeks, with sundays off.
Not much i can really do here, it's another fight to stay afloat - to know whatever drugs that the customers ask for. And do well. Heard that prece*torship is like 10-20x more difficult than studies. That is wth...