A New Chapter

Today is the 25th of jan 2011.

The weather was a bit gloomier than usual, though nothing strange about it. Anyway nothing happen and the weird thing is I wasn’t late for class, which I usually would had to bike furiously within 3 minutes to reach target destination. Well, I almost did a drift that may be worthy of Dunkirk Drift as my ride was a bit wobbling than usual. It was actually a quite enjoyable ride; unlike the usual finger frostbite and hand epilepsy as I try to lock the bike. The weird thing was that I was looking forward to today’s 9am lecture, albeit it was the only morning lecture. Normally melanine would kick in and conspire with my alarm to make me a bad student, but I guess vacation do really has a somehow positive effect on a student’s mental outlook, maybe something like Panadol for the headache.

The class nemesis of all time, Mr SA was somehow a bit off today. He or she was having more white hair than usual and was actually waiting, I repeat, waiting patiently some more for the late students to find a seat.  I guess the test result might be a pointer on his current state, something like the calm before the storm perhaps? Then the curtain falls and night sets in. After a trance like session, I found that actually he was hinting on how to a critical way in his format, only if he tell us sooner, and could be another unpleasant pointer to our class critical appraisal result.

A critical appraisal is a step by step approach leading to a conclusion. Firstly one must identify the problem which is the disease and it current impact globally in the form of statistics and treatment availability. Next step is to research recent medical discovery on the treatment of the disease and potential ways it could help. Finally, one must weigh the benefits and costs for continuing the discovery research as to create a drug or treatment. It should be done in a way as if you want to convince you drug boss to pick up your suggestion. The lecture ended and I balik rumah.

The second lecture starts at 5pm, which is usually the time people took off to pick their kids from school back in Malaysia. Ah, the old days… anyway the traffic light seems to sense my diligence and it was a smooth ride till QMC come. Mr Toxicology was same as yesterday, with the ever enthusiasm in his speech. He started on how public perception can differ by much in contrast to evidence based research.

I learn two lessons from this session. MSG doesn’t make your hair drop like what everyone would like their children to believe so that they can save money on Maggi Mee. Secondly is that believe or not, drinking milk contains chemical named phenylsomething that can make u dumb, well if u accumulate too much I guess. That’s probably why cows don’t develop spoken language other than moo even after millennia of taming by humans.

The red book does suit the topic, indicating danger and I believe the next module would have a yellow book, if following the traffic like theory with the green MT. His lecture was interesting I do admit, from curry poisoning to anti-freeze drinking, who wouldn’t want to learn a few more ways of defending and terminating their peers in a calm and peaceful manner. Anyway the lecture was short as usual and it was fun.