March 2, NIght Cylcling

I have never attempted night cycling until yesterday night. Night cycling took cycling to a whole new level. The darkness of the night and the cool air make night cycling a enjoying ride. It was not completely dark as my faculty is welll lighted but the night air was cold.

February 24, Let Me Be

Some people just can't get the message. I want to be left alone where I can day dream with my books. Maybe I should paste this on my face.

Why do you want to disturb me?

Feb 12, Letting Go

I think it is time I learn to let go. Enough said.

Feb 12, No More Mr Nice Guy

Sick of being used. I am sick of being Mr Nice Guy. No more Mr Nice Guy. Period.

Jan 17, Playing Doctor

A game which we played when we were young, and now it came back and haunt me. =_="
The name of the game is : Playing Doctor

Jan 5, One of The Longest Day

Yesterday was one of the longest day of my life. Waiting and waiting for the time to pass until it is my turn.



Being the last batch is a horrible experience. The anxiety of waiting and what is coming next takes stress to a wbole new level.

Because what comes after next can determine whether you pass or fail the whole sem. Combine that with oversaturation of reading the same stuff over and over again from 6.30am to 1.00pm and runny nose, the product is a experience that will stretch and test your patience.

Jan 3, The Calm Before The Strom

Ever heard of the phrase above? It means a quiet period just before a period of great activity or excitement.



That was the environment in my hostel yesterday before the exam. There were on occassion the sounds of plucking of the guitar by the Indonesian students. Other than that, the hostel is as quiet as a tomb.

Like in every storm, there will be occassion thunder and lighting.

Pray that I will endure this 3 weeks storm. :)

Nov 4, Something sweet :)

I am having an exam the next morning and here I am blogging (12:49 AM GMT +7). The exam consist of 200 MCQ and will run for 3.5 hours...

Anyway here is something sweet I found that I would like to share with my readers (if I have any).

Boy: I broke up with her.
His Best Friend: What happened?
Boy: She’s just too much for me.
His Best Friend: What makes you say that? What did she do wrong?
Boy: Well,…for one.. She only cared about her appearance. Always had to look good, always took forever to get dressed! So insecure..
His Best Friend: So, you broke her heart because she wanted to keep your eyes
locked on her? She wanted you to see that you have the prettiest girl
under your sleeve and not think otherwise? I see..
Boy: Oh.. Well.. She’d often call me or text me asking where I am, who I’m with, telling me not to smoke, not to drink. She’s so clingy!
His Best Friend: So, you broke her heart because she cares about your well being? Because she cares about you a lot? And her greatest fear is losing you. I see..
Boy: But..Uhh.. Well, she’d always cry when I say something slightly mean. She can’t handle anything. She’s a crybaby!
His Best Friend: So, you broke her heart because she has feelings? And because she just wanted to hear you say you love her? I see..
Boy: I.. Well! You know, she’d get jealous easily. I could barely talk to other girls! She’s so annoying! I had to hide it from her.
His Best Friend: So, you broke her heart because she just wanted you to commit to her? She thought you were faithful, but you lied so she could find out later and hurt even more? She just wanted the guy she loves the most to love only her. I
see..
Boy: Well, she..
His Best Friend:You broke up with her
because she’s good for you? She just wanted the best for you? She’s
broken now because you were selfish. Are you proud?
Boy: I broke her heart.. Because I couldn’t see what was happening.. What happened to me?
His Best Friend: You lost the girl that loved you like no one else could. You see? You didn’t want her when all she ever wanted was you. THAT’S
what happened..

Signing off.

August 23, New Phone

While some people change their phone every year, my old phone have never been change since form 1. Scrathc that. I just remembered I change it in form 3 because it spoiled. My phone until recently was a Nokia 1110. Man that phone is an antique but yet a super durable phone. That phone have been dropped by accident numerous time and is till functioning. They don't make phones like that anymore.

So why the sudden need to get a phone? I am going to Indonesia and I figure I will need a better phone. In my old phone, the speaker wasn't very good. I was told to get an iPhone 4 by my mother. The price was not an issue. iPhone was recommended because that phone is a must have tool for doctors as it contain medical refernece books, calculators. But somehow I didn't feel safe walking around with a RM2199 phone inside my pocket.

The way I figure, a medical student doesn't need an iPhone. Besides owning an iPhone will obviously make you an instant target with the neon sign "Rob me. I am loaded".

I was put off by buying an iPhone because Digi said you must take the plan or we won't sell you the phone. Maxis said you must have a number with us. No number with us, we won't sell you the phone. They have a customer that wants to buy the phone but they refuse to do business with me. Below is the total price of the iPhone with the plan.





As you can clearly see, if you use a plan with the iPhone, you are actually paying more for the phone. Many think "Oh, the price of the phone is cheaper if I get a plan"  True. But what about the total price that you will pay after 1 year?

The phone that I am going to buy must have the following specs :
i. Able to install medical apps/medical reference
ii. Great battery life (> 1 day)
iii. Minimum a 5MP camera that is able to take good photos.
iv. Good speaker and microphone to ensure both ends are able to hear clearly each other clearly.
v. Have the ability to connect to WiFi.

In short, I was looking at iphone 4 or Android phones.

or

I decide to choose an Android phone as it is cheaper and the features is similar to the iPhone. Although the medical apps aren't as rich as those found in iTunes for the iPhone, I believe Android phones will one day be on par with iPhones when it comes to medical apps. This is because the Android communtiy is open source. Which means easier for people to develop their apps. There are some medical apps which was design for iPhones are now available on the Android Market for free.

What phone did I choose? After reading up on reviews, I finally settle on HTC Desire S. Below are some pictures of HTC Desire S taken from the HTC site.

Nice right the phone? The phone fits my criteria perfectly.

The specs can be found here :

http://www.htc.com/sea/product/desires/specification.html

The only downside is I can't get the gps to function without WiFi or an internet connection.

So how about the price? As the phone is phone of the year, I am guessing the price will be expensive. True enough. This phone is sold only by Maxis form RM1799. I called up all HTC shops and they said they don't sell the phone. What a bummer. Add extra few hundred ringgit, and I can get an iPhone already. After digging around Lowyat Forum, I found this shop in Subang Jaya that sells all kinds of phone.They even sell iPhones without plan at a price of RM2050/contract. They have HTC Desire S in stock.

Of course I was suspicious as the price they offer was low. But upon further reading, I found out that the quite a lot of Lowyat Forum members buy their phone from this shop. They recommend this shop. This shop even courier you the phone if you cannot come and collect it.

The price of HTC Desire S was RM1250. Way way cheaper than what Maxis offer. 1 year warranty by the shop. I pay an addition RM60 for a case with screen protector. The case is a Case Mate Tough. The price of a Case Mate Tough in Malaysia if I am not mistaken is RM69. Although my HTC Desire S is build with a Gorilla Glass (a new type of glass that is scratch resistant, and very durable), it is better to get a screen protector. Case Mate  protects my phone in the even my phone drops.

Below are what apps I install into my phone:

Medical Apps:
1. Medscape (The most popular iPhone must-have medical app that provide medial reference and news) - Free
2. Calculate by QxMD (Clinical calculators & decision support tools for healthcare providers)- Free
3. Dorland's Medical dictionary - Not free but I found the free one online

Apps :
1. Barcode scanner (To scan QR Codes) - Free
2. RealCalc (A scientific calculator) - Free
3. Timeriffic (A Timer that allows you do specify certain action at certain time) - Free
4. Viber (Free calls and SMS to anyone in the world using VIber provided there is WiFi) - Free
5. Dictionary.com (Reference) - Free
6. Exchange rates (Know the exchange rates even when offline) - Free
7. GpsFix (Helps to make the GPS lock faster) - Free
8. Evernote (To Take notes) - Free
9. Silentboot (Shut the awful sound at boot) - Free
10. Opera Mini (A browser that is faster and use lesser internet traffic than the default browser) - Free

Games Apps :
1. Reversi
2. Action Chinese Chess

I guess that is all I have to write about my new phone.

July 12, Doctor of Medicine (M.D.)

As per requested by my friend, Cindy. Sorry that it took so long. Here are your details regarding my last post.

Doctor of Medicine (M.D.). That is the degree I am graduating with in 5 years time. When the results for my STPM were out, I knew no way I will qualify for local university for medicine. Local private university require that I have CGPA of 3.0 which I have but there was a catch. They want my CGPA of my science subjects to be 3.0 or 3Bs for science subjects. General paper is not counted. I admit. I mess up my STPM. I have no idea how could I mess up my Bio paper considering that the paper was always my scoring paper. Mistakes happen and I will admit them.

I had only 4 choices.
1. Do a foundation and apply for medicine but there will be no gurantees that I can enter considering the competition is very high. But I have faith.

2. Pray and accept what the local university give me.

3. Apply to Russia. I already qualify. No entrance test nothing.

4. Apply for Indonesia. Apparently, there are entrance test, interview, IQ test and personality test awaiting me.

I don't feel like doing another year of foundation so what did I choose? I could have easily choose option 2 and 3. But I did not. Choosing option 2 and 3 means choosing the easy way and I always beleive that we should choose what is right over what is easy. Naturally, the only choice left is option 4.

Despite allegation that Indonesia and Russia are not good, I did my research. From my reseach, the doctors that graduated from Indonesia are better than their Russians counterpart. International students learning medicine in Russia are not allow any hands-on (practical experience. In Russia, there are 2 classes. One in Russian for the locals and another one in English for international students. The class conducted in Russian is of very high standard while the international class is below par what they tought their locals. But in Indonesia, you are allow how much practical experience you want until you are tired. Of course, if you have a Russian degree, you can practice anywhere in Europe because their degree is fully recognise in Europe.

Further reading on Lowyat forum (pay attention to the posts by memphis), sealed my decision to apply for Indonesia. In addtion, I found out that Indonesian universities are recognised by Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) the same year they recognise University Malaya that is in 1971. If Indoneisan university have entrance exams, interviews, IQ test and personality test, their standard can't be that low right? Russian universities don't even have entrance exam. I was right. Their standard was not low.

I thought that their exam was a push over. I meant how hard can a exam be after STPM right? As far as I know, there are no exams tougher than STPM. How wrong I was. The paper consist of Pre-U questions of Biology,Chemistry, Maths and Physics. The problem with the paper :

1. No calculator allowed. What a bummer. As Malaysian students, we are so use to our calculators. We have been using calculator since Form 1. Asking us not to use calculator is like asking ua to use left hand to write if you are a right handed. Nevertheless, I manage to overcome the obstacle by relearning how to multiply and divide the manual way.

2. No guessing the answers. For each answer you get correct, 4 marks will be awarded. 1 mark will be deducted if given wrong answer is given. How not Malaysian attitude. No "tembaking". Lol.

3, The numbers have too many digits. Not ideal for multiplication or division. Eg. 15.495 x 146.738 Do it like 20 times (different numbers but similar questons), you will go mad as I have mention you have no calculator and you have limited time.

The first university that I applied is Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM). Believe it or not, that university have higher ranking than our UM. The space allocated was 35 place for 140 students. For this university, there are entrance exam and IQ test. No interview. The questions are tough. Needless to say, I didn't pass their entrance exam.

Upon learning that I didn't pass, it worries me greatly as I had only applied for two Universities. That means I have to made it for the next one. It is do or die. I decided that what I have been doing all along is wrong. Without a solid foundation, no matter how tall the building is built, it will collapse. I went back to the drawing board and reread back all my form 6 notess from Biology, Chemistry to Maths. Focusing more on maths as that is my weakest subject. Strengthening my foundation in whatever time I have left in a month before the entrance exam. It works as after one month, I felt more prepare for the second entrance exam than for the first one.

The second university that I applied to is Universitas Padjadjaran (UNPAD).

For this university, it have entrance exam, interview and personality test. The personality test is based off a test done in the US. It is Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. The place allocated are 90 seats for 389 students. Much stiffer than before but I made it. :)

Universitas Padjadjaran is located 700m above sea level and is located 45 minutes away from Bandung. Located far from town, the air will be clean and nice. Form my research, the weather could be like those of Genting Highlands everyday. Nice.

The total cost of my degee is RM170,000 for 5 years. That is only tuition fees. For the first year, hostel is provided. However, once I enter the 2nd year, I will have to look for rooms myself as they only provide hostel to first year university students.

The weird thing about Indonesia is whoever who enters the country, be it tourist or students, upon exiting the country, one is require to pay tax of approxiamtely RM350. But if I have letter from the student affair department, the tax is waived. I will be flying off this Septmeber.

As I already have a place, I am going to give up my local university place for those who really need it this Friday. All the best my frineds!

P.S. I could not have done it without my friend Miss X which bombed me with questions which are relevant a few days before the entrance exam. Others may see it as criticism but for me, those questions that she asked and words that were spoken are words of wisdom and inspiration. And I intend to let it be my inspiration when I am over there. For that, I thank you. You have been a good friend.