Chapter21- Army Museum

Went to the army museum recently with zhi lian and man I must admit that I am quite impressed by it. The view outside the museum itself is worth the trip IMO as the lake just outside the museum is so serene and peaceful that you couldn't not be captivated by it.(although I think this peacefulness is more attributed to the fact that we went on a weekday instead of a weekend) Furthermore, with the SAFTI MI just opposite the museum, it sure brings back lots of nostalgic memories of my BMT days when we visited the SAFTI MI for some kinds of exhibition. The inside of the museum is however quite bane and boring as there aren't too many artefacts on display with some of the displays still under maintanence as well. Nevertheless, you can still obtain some interesting facts about army(such as the birth of your previous units; mine was 1976 for my previous 46 SAR) from the numerous panels inside the museum. In addition, I particularly like this computer device in a section of the exhibit whereby upon entering your name and NRIC nos, you can get to register your unit to "connect" with your peers who might have visited the museum and entered theirs also and to view photos of the previous years of various graduating trainees from various units/schools such as BMTC, SISPEC, OCS and all the various SIRs, SARs, PDFs etc( I even managed to locate a photo of my brother when he was still a PS trainee in SISPEC back in 2002; too bad the photos for BMTC sch 1 is not uploaded yet or I might even spot myself in there!)

However, the thing that one must not miss in the entire museum must be the simulation show shown at certain times of the day, I was definitely lucky to be able to watch the show as it is just so damn NICE! In fact, I think this must be the nicest simulation show that I have watch up till now so I guess that if you have not watch the show, you have not really visit the museum...

Best Regards,
Yongster

Many more good years ahead!

Chapter 20-- Looking back at 2007

Now that the year is coming to an end, it is time to once again reflect and take stock of what we have and have not achieved in this particular year.





Studies


Year 2007 has been a rather fruitful year for me in term of academic results as year 2 sem 2 result was one of my best improved results in NUS up to date. The modules that I took in 2007 were also mostly interesting and enriching ones such as GEK2506-Drugs and Society, the 2 FST modules-FST2201- Introduction to human nutrition and FST3202-Nutrition and the prevention of diseases and of course not forgetting some of my own life science core modules such as LSM2103-Cell Biology, LSM3211-Fundamental Pharmacology, LSM3232-Microbiology and LSM3212-Human Physiology-Cardiopulmonary system. Personally, I feel that I have acquired quite a lot of useful knowledge and stuffs and would certainly like to continue this trend in year 2008 and beyond even after I have graduated. This year was also the year where I feel exceptionally motivated to study and it could be due to my ever increasing passion in the life sciences which allowed me to perform relatively well in most of the tests and exams. In a way, I feel sorry for my peers who seems to have a diminishing interest in study as times goes by. The 2 years spend in NS has however made me treasure school and study even more.

Year 2007 is also the year when I made quite an important(and hopefully correct) decision regarding my teritary studies and that is to do honours in year 2008 if my result permit me to do so. I have grapple with this decision for quite a long time ever since year 1 and it is really within this year that I finally made up my mind to commit to the honours year despite some negative comments that I have heard such as honours year being a waste of time and it doesn't really make a difference in the real outside world. Nevertheless, I feel that the honours year would be a really good challenge for me and I could also make use of the opportunity to gauge if I was suited for research work(which is a pivotal decision for most life science students) before regretting doing research related career which would be a even much worse scenario. Of course, at the same time, I am well aware of the risk that I may have to take such as doing badly in my honours project that renders all my previous effort frutile and graduating with a 3rd class honours( and hence contributing to being another statistic figure that honours year is indeed a waste of time and that not all people would perform well in their honours year).



Health



My health has been stable this year with minor hiccups and illness only occasionally and of course I am grateful for that and hope that it will continue this way. However, I am still not very satisfied with my health as there are so much things that could be improved on.

1.) Eat more greens and fruits

2.) Exercise more frequently

3.) Have a more regular sleep patterns

4.) Cut down on fried foods and potatoes chips

Although I know that the above mentioned are important to substain and improve my health, I still often fall prey to my own laziness and mental indiscipline and therefore I really hope that year 2008 could be the year when I finally shake off some of my laziness and achieve to a certain extent each of the above mentioned goals although I figure that point 1 and 4 would be a tremendous uphill task for me to accompolished.



Family and friends



Nothing major has happened to my family and friends in this year( thank god perhaps?) and once again, hopefully this trend will continue into 2008. My relationship with my paternal relatives still remains cold as I really could not find any common topic with them making me like a wooden block whenever we get together( and which explains why I hate chinese new year reunion dinner at my paternal grandparents house so much because I am kinda like a mute there and the whole atmosphere is just so damn fake) . I also hardly get in touch with my cousins this year as I would be preoccupied with tests and exams whenever there are functions for us to get together. However, I am shock and happy to realise lately that 1 of my younger maternal side cousin would be getting married next year at a young tender age of 21 making her only the 2nd person after my elder brother to get married in the entire family.

Having 2 treats in a row lately has given me relief that I have been a rather "up to task" friend for most of my friends and I certainly hope that I could do better than that in year 2008. IMO, I have always treat friends as something that is indispensable given my poor relationships with my most of my relatives and therefore it is always heartening to hear from my friends that I have been a really good friend to them. Hopefully, in 2008, I can establish a even more solid friendships with my current friends and at the same time acquire more new friends out there.


Yours Sincerely,
Yongster

Chapter 19--Review of Yr 3 Sem 1

FST3202--Nutrition and prevention of disease

This is the final of the trilogy of nutrition modules that I have taken and man it certainly does lived up to its level 3000 difficulties and demanding status. Come to think of it, it really was by chance that I get to study both FST2201 and FST3202 because both of them were fairly new modules that were formed just 1 to 2 years ago so if I have matriculated with the JC girls of my cohort, I would certainly don't have the opportunity to study these 2 fantastic modules and most certainly wouldn't have the chance to ascertain my interest in nutrition. Initially, I have thought that nutrition was a fairly straight forward and easy subject to study especially after my lectures in GEK1529 so imagine my "delight" and surprise when I discovered that it was something much more than that and instead of being a straight forward discipline, it is actually a subject filled with controversies. Studying nutrition also teaches me that I should always view things with a open mind for there are really no such things on earth that are only good or bad since too much of a good thing can easily translate it to become a bad thing. Anyway, after following the same lecturer for 3 CONSECUTIVE semesters, I daresay that Dr David must be the lecturer that I can most relate to. Although sometimes it can be a bore reading the same stuffs over and over again, yet it is at the same time a mystery to why I can always find a new idea or concept everytimes I revised through the notes, journal articles or textbook. Speaking of journal articles, FST3202 must be one of the top few modules( with LSM3212 following close behind) whereby I have lost count of the number of journal articles that I have had read especially during the period when I am doing the mid-term assignment. To top it off, because we have no real reference textbook for this module, we are EXPECTED to read journal articles for the final exam which is in essay format. And speaking of the exam, I have really used whatever knowledge I have gathered for the 3 modules to rough it out so I can only now crossed my fingers and pray for the best....


LSM3212-Human Physiology, Cardiopulmonary system


Hmm... Physiology(Human) has always been a subject that I enjoy studying and it is in fact the fundamental key reason why I like Biology so much in the 1st place( think O level Biology whereby about 60% of the content is actually physiology). I have always been fascinated with how the human body works and physiology provides me with some answers to that. Best of all, Physiology is like the bridge for many biomedical science disciplines such as Pharmacology, Immunology Nutrition and certainly Medicine. I was initally sceptical of my project mate comment on how she actually feel that she was reading story book even though what she is reading is actually the textbook for the module but I was soon convinced myself when I read through the textbook for the final exam. The practicals were on the whole satisfactory although I have to state that the practicals on the blood and blood pressure ones were relatively more fun as we have to pierce our fingers with lancets during the blood practical to examine our blood types( although I didn't get the opportunity to examine mine due to my very stubborn blood that just refused to flow out in sufficient quantity and I even pierce myself 3 times!) The blood pressure practical was fun and exciting because it is the 1st time in my whole 23 years of life that I finally get the chance to solve my curiosity of what listening to the heart sounds through the stretoscope is like. For that 1 day, I can really pretend myself to be a doctor hee.


Nevertheless, the workload for this module is IMO quite heavy compared to other modules or even the same module in previous semsters. This is due to the fact that the lecturer decides to try out something new at the expense of the students and hey viola! you can find quite a number of students complaining about the projects, essays and presentations that they have to complete. Luckily, the lecturer have at least the heart to spare us the agony of an essay type of final exam by having it in MCQ format instead. However, the relief was soon evaporated during the final exam when the MCQ questions that came out were really tough and tricky! My poor little brain was already tired halfway through the exam answering those irritating T/F mcq( which we have to answer properly as it has negative marking) and I barely have the time to complete the exam let alone check my answers.
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LSM3211- Fundamental Pharmacology

I like this module because half of the module is kinda like a revision of cell biology which I enjoy while the other half deals with drugs and their actions(pharmacokinetics and pharmcodynamics) which I also enjoy. For those who might not know, life science was initially not my 1st choice. Pharmacy is. However, because I was squeeze out of the course by those super irritating and disturbing and most probably a bit insane high scorers and achievers, I just have to settle for the 2nd best option. This is not to say that I did not have a interest in life sciences however as I still enjoy Physiology and other biomedical science subjects and in fact this interest have also been growing day by day so I certainly do not regret my choice. Nevertheless, there is still that passion in me to want to learn more about pharmacy and I am glad to finally have the chance to study a component of pharmacy which is pharmacology and man I must admit that I totally enjoy studying this module as it is pretty straight forward also but just that there can be still a lot of stuffs such as drug names, their MOA, side effects and clinical uses to memorise. However, I find people who comment that we should reduce the nos of drugs that we study quite dumb or even more appropiately idiotic as drugs is really what pharmacology is all about! Take that away and it is like asking for chicken rice without the chicken. Please lah, know which is really the "main actor" of the subject you are studying ok. Anyway, the practicals for this module were really super easy and relaxing to the point that it can get rather boring at times just adding the various drugs with different concentrations to organ baths and washing them at intervals. Throughout the whole experiments, you can practically hear only the phrases "add" and "wash". Finally, I would like to commend 2 of our lecturers for this module, A/P Fred Wong and Prof Philip moore for their teachings with the former really memersing me with his hong kong accent style English and his pace of lectures(though I understand that quite a nos of students hate him for his fast pace lectures).

LSM3232-Microbiology

Never really expect myself to fall in love with this module. I initially chose this module as it is compulsory for us 3rd yr life sciences students to chose 2 other modules that fall outside our own chosen area of specialisation( which in my case is Biomedical Sciences) and since there aren't lots of interesting modules in the other areas with that few interesting ones chashing with the timetables of my other modules, I really am left with not much choice and so chose this module. To my surprise, microbiology is not as daunting as I first thought it will be and perhaps credits should be given to 2 of the lecturers for making it such an interesting module. Kudos to A/P Sim whom is also the coordinator for making this module so enjoyable both in turn of theory and practicals. She liternally make me fall in love with wastewater treatment and most of the practicals for this module were highly enjoyable as well save for that occasional demostrations that often drag the practicals.

GE3221-Ecological System

The last of my breadth module that I have to take, this module ranked as 1 of the best arts module that I have taken to date. The lectuer, Dr Wang is kinda funny with her comments(and expressions) at times both during lectures and during tutorials/practicals. In term of content, this module is quite mangeable since coming from a science background myself, most of the concepts were quite simple to understand as they were well, mostly related to ecology which is something that I have learned before although they are also physical geography concepts particularly in the 1st half of the module as well. Overall, the practical assignments were easy to do and the 2 projects mangeable so I would recommend this module to other science students who might want to find an arts module that is not so alien to them although I must also mention that about half of the class are life science students hee. The only flaw is that the final exam for this semester are so hard! In addition, IMO, Dr Wang is quite strict in her markings so I really hope that I do not have to S/U this module as I would be left with no more S/U next semester making me quite "defenceless" and vulnerable to my CAP.

Yours Sincerely,

Yongster