Kids are Quick

People say children are a blessing. They are adorable, childish, cute, and often humourous, some are impish, and the most common thing amongst children is that they are ignorant to anything around them. They learn to talk, often babble, and they yell or shout and destroy nearly everything comes to them. Children are mostly recalcitrant too, which is what burdened most parents. Most children are really.......adorable. Read why:

TEACHER: Maria, go to the map and find North America
MARIA: Here it is.
TEACHER: Correct. Now class, who discovered America?
CLASS: Maria.

TEACHER: John, why are you doing your maths multiplication on the floor?
JOHN: You told me to do it without using tables.

TEACHER: Glenn, how do you spell "crocodile"?
GLENN: K-R-O-K-O-D-I-A-L
TEACHER: No, that's wrong.
GLENN: Maybe it is wrong, but you asked me how I spell it.

TEACHER: Donald, what is the chemical formula for water?
DONALD: H I J K L M N O
TEACHER: What are you talking about?
DONALD: Yesterday you said it's H to O.

TEACHER: Millie, give me a sentence begins with 'I'.
MILLIE: I is....
TEACHER: No, Millie....Always say, 'I am.'
MILLIE: All right, 'I am the ninth letter of the alphabet.'

TEACHER: Now, Simon, tell me frankly, do you say prayers before you eat?
SIMON: No sir, I don't have to, my Mom is a good cook.

TEACHER: Clyde, your composition on your 'My Dog' is exactly the same as your brother's. Did you copy his?
CLYDE: No, sir. It's the same dog.

TEACHER: Harold, what do you call a person who keeps on talking when people are no longer interested?
HAROLD: A teacher.



If you want to be a primary school teacher, think twice. The consequences might need medical attention.

House Quotes (3)

All quotes are taken from season 3.


House: If I leave her alone can I have my carpet back?
Cuddy: No.
House: If I forget about my carpet can I have her?

House: Infectious or environmental. All we have to do is check out parasites, viruses, bacteria, fungi, prions, toxins, radiation, chemicals, or it's internet-porn related. I'll check the internet, You cover the rest of the stuff.

House: You can't bet when you know the answer beforehand.
Dr. Foreman: We could spend all day arguing whether you can bet when you know the answer beforehand. Give me the two hundred bucks.

Tritter: People who are innocent tend not to try to hide their arrest.
House: Is that based on your years of experience of arresting innocent people?

Dr. Cuddy: You blow stuff up, makes my life miserable, makes me need to make your life miserable.

Dr. Foreman: Doing nothing is not a plan, it is specifically a lack of plan.

Judge: Dr. Cuddy, what do you think of Dr. House? Is he as big a jerk as I think he is.
Dr. Cuddy: Bigger.

Dr. Foreman: You just don't want a cancer diagnosis because then you have to deal with Wilson.
House: Lung cancer is a lame diagnosis. Avoiding Wilson is an added bonus.

Dr. Foreman: If she wants to talk about the weather, talk about the weather. She wants normalcy. She wants to feel like the world didn't end. House: Yes. I will tell her everything that went on without her. Babies were born. People got married. Thousands of people celebrated the day she got raped as the happiest day of their lives.

My Review on The Exorcist (1973)

Based on the true story, this 1973 movie was released in USA during the winter of 1973. People lined up in front of building just to buy the tickets, and the line was said to be long enough to surround a building. It wasn't unprecedented, but it was unexpected. Since then, the movie has said to be the scariest movie of all time.

Paramedics were called to theatres to treat those who collapsed due to shock. In fact, a man was so shocked that he fainted and knocked on the chair in front of him which then caused him to have a broken jaw. He then sued Warner Brothers!

Haha. Watching all the reviews on the internet and reading people's comments and their responses to the film was really engaging. Many people said the film was so terrifying till the film was imprinted permanently in the mind. They couldn't get the scary images out of their lives anymore, living in horror for the rest of their lives.

Feeling excited, I tried to dig the movie from google. And I successfully watched the film on YouTube.

Here's my review: The show begins with an archaelogist discovering something in the land of Iraq. It was a statue, or something I guess, with Pazuzu's face on it. Then later, the film set on America. Chris MacNeil is an actor and a mother (Nope, the name wasn't wrongly typed, it's Chris). Her daughter, Regan, is 12 years old. Ragen begins to exhibit strange, unnatural power including moving things telekinetically and levitating. It all begins when she started seizing, and her mother brings her to meet doctors. When all the doctors come out with nothing, they recommend exorcist. Saying that if she thinks she is possessed, an exorcist might make her think she is cured.

So Father Damien Karras is sought after by Chris. Father Damien has recently lost her mother. He is now devastated, and refuses to perform exorcist until further symptoms like speaking in foreign language is exhibited. But he changes his mind when the word 'Help Me" is seemed to be written from the inside of Ragen's body and protruding outwards. Terrified, he seeks after the Church's help and an experienced father assists him in the exorcism.

Frankly, after watching the movie, I find this movie only average. Here's one thing: I don't find this movie creepy. Some scenes are disturbing, like the scene where the girl masturbates with a crucifix, the spider-walk and her contorted face and whatnot were disturbing. I can't deny that. But if we are talking about horror, the film is average to me. What I like about this movie is the drama. This film contains drama and story which will make you stick to your chair and finish the film. So what's so ironic about this film is it is intended to make audiences to freak out. Most people who freak out don't finish the film. Not till the end. Or at least leave their chairs for a moment and come back later. So trying to stick to your chair and freak out at the same time is pretty much a difficult task to do. But I managed to, haha!

The Exorcist will definitely freak you out if you are easily frightened. Many unexpected scenes shown up for no reason. But overall, to me, the film is average. Good drama, but not scary enough. Is it just me, or am I just have a steel heart?

The end is satisfying, deserves an A-. The drama is great, at least not haphazardly planned like Ju-On: The Grudge 2, therefore it deserves a strong A. The scenes-to me-are not scary enough. The only thing that deserves to be eulogised is the director managed to create a chilling atmosphere without gore. But alas, I don't have an accelerated heart, therefore it gets a weak C-. The acting is superb. The scenes where the mother waits with a grim of foreboding and breaks out with despair, the scenes where the girl yells at pain, the shocked look at the priests and more are great. Deserves another strong A. Overall the film scores a strong B+ from me.

Credit

I finally got a credit for ICAS English. I got 32/60. It wasn't very good, but it is satisfactory. At least I'm in the top 23% in Malaysia.

Realise I use the word 'Malaysia'? Yeap. My result is only compared to students in Malaysia. I'm pretty sure the standard is much higher in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and other countries. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Malaysia has the lowest standard among all countries.

But still, being able to get 32/60 correct is, as I said earlier, encouraging.

School Life is Boring

I was sleeping in class this morning. After the final year exam nobody bothers to study and no teacher bothers to teach us. Well....actually some teachers do, but how many? Ok, my biology teacher does, she is a hardworking teacher or else tell me how could she be the panitia? TPS does too, but does she have any choices? She is the so-called pro in the school and she has published numerous books that have hit the market with good reception. Unless she decides to have her reputation goes to oblivion or else she is going to teach. GCL has finished the Physics syllabus. Even if she wants to continue teaching it would be a tall order. What else can she teach? Nuclear bombing? MAG does too. But....umm.....you can say he is being lackadaisical. He finishes a chapter of sejarah in two lessons. It normally takes two weeks to do so, but he does it in 2 lessons. He's on speed!! MTAM teacher is trying hard to finish the syllabus, but as everyone knows, it will be impossible because we have been behind for 2 months. And even if we have the 2 months back it would be hard for her to finish teaching.

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The others? Nothing. There's why today is so boring.

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7.15am. I was sitting in my class with my eyes fixed at two groups of people. As I mentioned earlier, my class is highly polarised. I watched them gesticulating, I listened them bantering, and I glanced at my watch waiting. Finally, at 7.30am, it was confirmed 17/44 people were absent.

Irrelevent picture.

It wasn't the highest record. It was - in fact - the second highest record, which was, or wasn't (I chose the formal one) something 4S3 should be proud at. NPL was flabbergasted too. Could you blame her? 17/44 people, imagine how many zeroes she had to draw on the attendance book.

What did we do? Simple, we did nothing. Sivik teacher wasn't in school, and we just walked around in the class, bantering with each others, tattling about the latest gossip, discussing the latest video. BI? Nothing again. SEJ? Yeah he finished the chapter in 25 minutes. I have lost count how many points he skipped. He was more desperate than us to finish the syllabus.

PHY? Well, we (by we I mean me, TZR, TWX, CMH, PMF, LTN, SJY, TZJ and NKW, who did I miss?) talked about entertainments with GCL. GCL has a surprising knowledge about the world of entertainment, but she appeared to be ignorant to any Hollywood-related entertainments. She preferred Chinese movies. But still, listened to her talking about the actors and actress made me to look at her differently now. We spent two lessons jabbering about entertainments.

BM? Pongchu never entered the class. But the weather at that particular lesson was particularly windy so I was standing outside, trying to be 'Jack' in the class. Unfortunately no 'Rose' suited me. MTAM? Nothing. Privacy continued her teaching, and I continued my working. MM? OSM had finished teaching, so we continued jabbering. BC? NPL joined us and talked. And CMH continued to badger her into giving him 2 marks, and NPL continued to say she couldn't give anymore mark. She remained headstrong. It was interesting how CMH made the illogical logical. God you are a genius!

2.00pm. Class dismissed.

Results

I have got all the results for all papers except IT, but since IT is negligible so I am not counting it yet. Here's the result

BM: 68. Shockingly I got better than what I had expected. I hadn't touched Malay or used Malay for 3 months and turned out my result wasn't a complete disaster.

BI: 78. Getting 78 from LAT's hand is already considered superb. I have nothing to complain.

BC: 71. Finally I got a satisfactory result. 61/100 for paper 2! My best result so far!

MM: The subject I am satisfied the most: 87.

MTAM: I could have done much better: 64.

BIO: If only I was careful and not sleeping, I could have scored the 5 marks I lost. 65.

CHEM: 83. The paper is easy compared to Bio and Phy. But getting 83 is already out of my expectation, so I am satisfied with myself.

PHY: 60! As long as I passed the paper I don't really care what mark I got.

SEJ: 77. My result has dropped. But it's still satisfactory.

PM: 82. ACS's is lenient in marking, so I'm not going to whine about anything here.

SV: I remembered I suffered from stomach ache before the exam and I didn't read anything because of the pain. But turned out I got a satisfactory 73.

IT: Negligible. Any subject that is not included in SPM is considered negligible because I only pay attention to those I am sitting for in November 2011.


My purata: 72.42 so far. I estimated if my IT is 60, my average will drop to 72.14. Still the average has exceeded my expectation, so again, I'm not whinging anything.

However I am disappointed with my MTAM and BIO. I could have done better for MTAM (my favourite subject). As for bio, I'm taking Biology for form 6. So if I am not doing well for Biology in SPM how can I cope with the form 6 syllabus? I really need to work hard for Biology!

Piranha 3D

This is my review.

A small magnitude of earthquake might only crack the bottom of the lake. It seems harmful, but what if a school of piranha is released?

Directed by Alexander Aja (The Hills Have Eyes), this 84 minutes long movie is about a school of piranha released after an earthquake strikes. The piranhas begin to scavenge for food, eating whatever flesh comes to them. This movie begins with a man fishing on a lake, and when the earthquake hits, a whirlpool is formed and he gets sucked inside. Before he is drawn down he is suddenly attacked by what seems to be piranha.

If you love nudity, watch this movie. The first 40 minutes is basically a pornographic. Women showing their breasts (seriously), women having sex, women sucking each other's cleavage. Sorry ladies no penis is seen. When a group of researchers go down to the lake, they are suddenly attacked by the piranhas. They all successfully escaped, but alas with one seriously maimed. A piranha is also caught and brought to a scientist and it is revealed that that particular species of piranha is supposed to vanish 2 million years ago.

Realising a mayhem is going to break out, sheriffs begin to evacuate the scene. Unfortunately, it's spring break. Teenagers are frolicking around the lake, swimming in the lake, sipping in the lake. Teenagers are usually rebellious and recalcitrant, hence their effort to no avail, until a lady begins to get bitten and blood begins to flow and piranhas come rushing to them. Of course, there is a stampede. People begin to run around. Bla bla bla.

Julie Forester, Jake's mother and the sheriff on call, begins her duty and is later informed that her children are on a boat, sinking. Panic, she drives a boat and tries to rescue her children. Hence the story centres around 2 place. One on the seaside, where the lake water turn into a pool of blood, and the other is at the centre of the lake, where a boat is sinking with Julie trying to try her children from a school of piranha.

The first 40 minutes, as I said earlier, is full with nudity. Good for people who like to be horny. The next 44 minutes is full with gore. This movie is probably the most gory movie I have watched. Imagine these: All leg muscles gone, bones are visible. Body splits into two upon moving, victim still alive. Parts of bodies bitten off, private part gone........Gosh.

This movie ends with a cliffhanger, foreshadowing a sequal will be made.

If you love nudity and gore, trust me, this is the perfect movie for you. But if you think nudity sucks, go watch The Hills Have Eyes. If you only like nudity and hates gore, go buy a pornographic. If you like both, watch this movie. Highly recommended.

My rating: 4/5. Can be better if it isn't filler at the beginning. The end is a twist and unexpected, therefore deserves an A. The drama is boring. Too much nudity, too much talking, less action, less escaping, less running. Deserves only a D. The gory scenes are spine-chilling. If you are looking for something disgusting and making your hairs stand, watch this. The most gory movie I have watched, but still enjoyable. It deserves an A-. This movie has not successfully made me scream my lungs out. I've watched more than 50 horror movies and not a single one has made me feel terrified. Ergo, to me, this movie is a gory movie, not a horror movie. It fails to make me scare, therefore deserves an E. Overall the movie deserves a B-.

It is only called a horror movie if I give it an A. So far, no horror movies deserve an A yet.

House Quotes (2)

All quotes are taken from season 2. The last two quotes are pedagogical.

Stacy: I met Mark at a fundraiser that happened to be held at a.....
House: You met me at a strip club!
Stacy: You were the worst two dollars I ever spent!

Dr. Chase: No lesions, no aneurysms. Ironically, the mind of a killer looks completely normal.

House: Oxygen saturation is 94%. Check her heart.
Dr. Foreman: Her oxyge saturation is normal.
House: It's off by one percentage point.
Dr. Foreman: It's within range. It's normal.
House: If her DNA is off by one percentage point, she'd be a dolphin.

Dr. Cuddy: Dr. Sebastian Charles collapsed during a presentation at Stoia Tucker.
House: Really? Crushed under the weight of his own ego?

Sebastian: There's people dying in Africa of a disease that we cured over...
House: Ya, I know, I saw the concert. Seriously, let's say you sleep six hours, that means every night you kill 1,440 people. I guess you gotta get some sleep, but come on, if you'd stayed up for another 10 minutes you could have saved 40 lives. Do you send notes to the families in the morning? That's gonna take another 10 minutes so that's another 40 deaths, and another 40 notes...why don't you go wrack yourself with guilt in your own room?

House: The air is keeping him from breathing air. Let's go with that for the irony.

House: Livers are important, Cuddy. You can't live without it, hence the name.

Cuddy: You induced a migraine headache to a coma patient?
House: Gave him a little headache. Similar to the one you are giving me now.

House: I don't know people read e-mails. The delete button is so conveniently located.

Alex: I was passed out, but I wasn't. I knew what was going on, but I couldn't move or talk...
House: Yeah, sounds like a medical thing. It's called cataplexy. Catfight and cataplexy on the catwalk. Cool.

House: So I have to wonder what could be more humiliating when someone calls your girlfriend a cow and not being metaphorical.

House: Are you the boyfriend? I need to borrow you.
Barbara: What's going on?
House: Don't worry. I'll return him in roughly the same condition.

Dr. Cameron: I'll page Cuddy.
House: No you won't.
Dr. Cameron: She thinks the kid has a stomach ache!
House: She'll come right up here and do one of two things: If she agrees with me I don't need her; if she disagrees with me I don't want her.

House: I fear for the human race. A teenagers claims to be the voice of God and people with advanced degrees are listening.

House: God talks to him!
Dr. Chase: It's not psychosis, he's just religious, the only medical issue that showed up on the blood work is low sodium.
House: No, you talk to God, you are religious. God talks to you, you're psychotic.

Dr. Foreman: I'm okay?
House: You breath stinks and you're peeing into a bag. What are our names?
Dr. Foreman: You did the biopsy? Thank you.
House: Names.
Dr. Foreman: Cameron, my dad, and the manipulative bastard.
House: You remembered!

House: She's my boss. If she gets sick the hospital might want to replace her. Especially if she dies. I'll have to learn how to manipulate someone new.

House: Idiots are fun -- no wonder every village wants one

House: How does someone who believes absolutely anything become a non-fiction writer?

House: So, what is she, Foreman? A light-skinned black chick or dark-skinned white chick?

Dr. Cameron: You just got shot, House. You need to rest.
House: I got shot. Diagnostically boring. Big fat tongue, on the other hand, endlessly entertaining.

Moriarty: You pretend to be a rebel; claim to hate rules, but all you do is substitue your own rules for society's. That's a nice simple rule: tell the blunt, honest truth in the starkest, darkest way; and what will be, will be; what will be, should be; and everyone else is a coward. But you're wrong. It's not cowardly to call someone an idiot. People are tactful and polite just because it's nice. They do it because they got an ounce of humility; because they know that they will make mistakes, and they know that their actions have consequences, and they know that those consequences are their fault. Why do you want so bad not to be human, House?

Moriarty: You think that the only truth that matters is the truth that can be measured. Good intentions don't count, what's in your heart doesn't count, caring doesn't count, that a man's life can't be measured by how many tears are shed when he dies. It's because you can't measure them. It's because you don't want to measure them. Doesn't mean it's not real. And even if I'm wrong, you're still miserable. Did you really think your life's purpose was to sacrifice yourself and get nothing in return? No. You believe there is not purpose to anything. Even the lives you save you dismiss. You turn the one decent thing in your life and you taint it, strip it of all meaning. You're miserable for nothing. I don't know why you'd want to live.

Torn Asunder

So how are my friends handling their 'ordeal'? Let's see how my class students handled theirs.

Some got their result, sat on their respective seats, poker-faced, blanched, eyes bursting with tears, hands trembling, heart pumping, arteries contracting, emotions unstable and hence the breakdown, some on cloud nine, some whinged about the teacher's unjust marking, some pored over their papers trying to find some holes for marks, some simply sat disquiet, some piped down and then piped up. Noises were made every minutes. Some were annoying, some were amusing, but sadly most were annoying. Some sobbed loudly, alas no sympathy gained. Some isolated themselves, alas nobody offered any company. Fragile hearts torn asunder, weaken arteries broke apart, roused students went berserk, crestfallen friends whimpered annoyingly, stressed teachers went red. Interlopers barged in blindly. Such chaos! Such emotions! OMG it's worse than a catastrophe!

More papers to be given out. More emotions to be waited. More annoyance to be endured. And more hearts to be broken. Stay tuned for more sadness!!

House Quotes (1)

Few quotes from the medical series "House" that I find extremely interesting. Some are funny, some are insulting, some are pedagogical. Either one is what makes the series successful.

Dr. Foreman: Isn't treating patients why we became doctors?
House: No, treating illnesses is why we became doctors. Treating patients is what makes most doctors miserable.

Dr. Foreman: He probably just moved. Nobody stays perfectly still for their MRI.
House: Yeah, he probably got restless and shifted one hemisphere of his brain to a more comfortable position.

Dr. Wilson: You will lie, cheat and steal to get what you want, but you're incapable of kissing a little ass?
House: Well, we all have our limitations.

Dr. Cameron: Men should grow up.
House: Yeah, and dogs should stop licking themselves. It's not going to happen.

House: This ray of sunshine is Dr. Lisa Cuddy. Dr. Cuddy runs this whole hospital so unfortunately she's much too busy to deal with you. I am a board-certified diagnostician with a double specialty of infectious disease and nephrology. I'm also the only doctor currently employed at this clinic who's forced to be here against his will. That is true, isn't it? But not to worry, because of most of you this job could be done by a monkey with a bottle of Motrin. Speaking of which, if you're particularly annoying you may see me reach of this. It's Vicodin - it's mine, you can't have any. And no, I do not have a pain-management problem, I have a pain problem. But who knows - maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm too stoned to tell. So, who wants me? (everyone stares) And...who would rather wait for one of the other two guys? (everyone raises their hands) Well, I'll be in Exam Room 1 if you change your mind.

House: What's wrong with her?
Dr. Cameron: Him.
House: Him, her, does it matter? Does anyone think it's a testicular problem?

House: No. There is not a thin line between love and hate. it is, in fact, a Great Wall of China with armed sentries posted every twenty feet between love and hate.

Dr. Wilson: I love my wife.
House: You certainly love saying it.

House: You told me you hadn't changed your diet or exercise. Were you lying?
Samantha: Lying?
House: Does your husband have high blood pressure?
Samantha: My husband?
House: Yeah, see, if you're going to repeat everything I say, this conversation's going to take twice as long.

Dr. Cuddy: When I hired you, I knew you were insane. I will continue to try and stop you from doing insane things, but once they're done....trying to convince an insane person not to do insane things is, in itself, insane. So when i hired you I also set aside $50,000 a year of legal expenses. So far you've come in under budget.

House: Go ask him what he's on. When he says nothing, have him pee in a cup.

Dr. Cameron: I apologize if I looked like we weren't devoting our full attention to your daughter, but I assure you that we...
Mrs. Simms: Oh please, save your pathetic insincerity for your boyfriend.
House: You're wrong. She is in fact pathetically sincere.

House: Even if I'm Dr. House, physician-patient confidentiality protects me from annoying conversation.

Dr. Cameron: What happens to everybody lies?
House: I was lying.

My Review on House MD

This show centres around the misanthropic and condescending doctor, Dr Gregory House. Although he is well-known he relucts to treat patients and worse, he refuses to see patient. His reason? Simple. He assumes everybody lies. Which in reality pretty much true. I lie before. Everyone lies before. For the first three seasons, Dr. Cameron, Dr. Foreman and Dr. Chase are members of his team. Dr. Cameron always believes that the patient's family or lovers trust the patients. Especially regarding romance. She thinks romantically involved couples trust each other implicitly. Nothing to be judged. Nothing to be questioned. Too bad for her. It might affect her professional views. Dr. Foreman always disagrees with what House says and Dr. Chase, on the contrary, agrees with whatever House says.

Then there are another two characters. Dr Wilson is an oncologist and House's only friend. He is the only one House feels happy to confide in. Their background is complicated and explained in the episode "Birthmarks", my favourite episode so far. Dr. Cuddy is the hospital administrator. She is in charge of everything about the hospital. While Cuddy has the power to shut down the entire building and stops House from making impromptu moves on patients, she is too vulnerable to House's convincing lies. Dr. Cuddy is also House's doctor while House suffers from thigh muscle infarction, which is why he is having the cane and popping Vicodin

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At the end of season 3, House fires all of his team members. First episode of season 4 is by far probably one of the most interesting episode. Cuddy pesters House to hire a team, in which House refuses, and he remains headstrong even when his intimate friend, Wilson, badgers him to have the interviews. Trying to prove that a team is not needed, House accepts a case and diagnoses the patient alone. Hence, the title of the episode is "Alone". Although he manages to find the underlying problem, Cuddy makes him realises that a team would have diagnosed her earlier. Eventually House realises that, and begins to hire a team. But before he hires a team, he creates a game, where 40 people who come for interview are the games. Those who get the diagnosis correctly stays, those who don't, leave. But of course, House, being a misanthropist and pain-in-the-ass, is picky. He makes arbitrary moves and fires whoever he wants to fire, without an appropriate reason.

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Amber is named "Cutthroat bitch" because of her trait. She is annoying, but you'll find otherwise if you finish watching season 4. I'm not giving spoilers here. Eventually House narrows them down into 3 people: Thirteen (true name kept secret), Kutner and Taub. They are the ersatz 'Cameron, Foreman and Chase'. Their personality are completely different compared to them. Later, Foreman, because of violating hospital rule, gets fired and keeps being blackballed. He has no place to go and Cuddy, showing sympathy, hires him to be her 'eyes and ears' of House. Cameron becomes the head of ER and Chase becomes a surgeon.

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"House's Head' and "Wilson's Heart" are by far the highest rated episode in the series. In "House's Head", the episode opens with House realising himself suffering from amnesia. He then finds out his head is split open and he needs medical attention. Upon leaving the strip club he is unable to remember how he got there, he sees an overturned bus, and remembers he was on the bus. He remembers he saw someone dying, but he can't remember who specifically. This episode ends with a cliffhanger. "Wilson's Heart" continues where "House's Head" ends.

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Personally, I like this show. The first episode I watched was Sleeping Dogs Lie, in which the patient who hasn't slept for 10 days remains awake after popping down a bottle of pills. This scene engaged me. I wanted to know what the lady is suffering from that caused her to be unable to sleep. And it turned out to be Bubonic Plague. At first I dislike this show because I find this show quite similar to Medical Investigation, another medical series which unfortunately doesn't survive long.

House contains a lot of jokes. For example:

Dr. Foreman: I should sue you.

House: I'm pretty sure you can't sue someone for wrongful hiring.

House: You know another really good business? Teeny tiny baby coffins. You can get them in frog green or fire engine red. Really. The antibodies in yummy mummy only protects the kid for six months, which is why these companies think they can gouge you. They think you'll spend whatever they ask to keep your kid alive. Want to change things? Prove them wrong. A few hundred parents like you decide they'd rather let their kid die than cough up forty bucks for vaccination, believe me, prices will drop very fast.

House: Another reason why I don't meet patients. If they don't know how you look like, they can't yell at you.

House: I fired you.

Kutner: No you didn't.

Amber: He fired you. You're number 6.

Kutner: No, I'm number 9.

House: I approve of your shamelessness. You're still fired.

Jokes and the medical mysteries are what keeping the show alive, and now it has run for 7 seasons. The seven season is being aired in United States right now. Too bad Malaysia is not airing this series. Except Astro. I wonder why they never air this show, maybe because the show is full with jargon and the subtitles writers aren't able to translate them? Too bad for Malaysia. And yes, I'm being patronising.

As I watch this show I learn a lot of medical knowledge. For example, I learn the adrenaline is called epinephrine in the hospitals. Epinephrine overdose can cause cardiac arrest. I know that eating pork can promote the growth of tapeworm, or specifically neurocysticercosis in the brain. I know we can be allergic to light, it's a genetic disease call erythropoietic protoporphyria. I learn that an undigested toothpick can steal a person's life. I learn that a woman who exceeds 40 years old should not be pregnant or else risking the foetus's health (lowering expectation, like House did) and the mother will too suffer from maternal mirror syndrome. I also learn that when the brain is surgically split into two, a person may suffer from alien hand syndrome, a condition in which the hand seems to have a life on its own. And it may unbutton a shirt without the person's knowledge. And I know how horrible scurvy can be and I know that vitamin B12 deficiency causes guilt. What troubles me is I never dare to write 'guilt' as a symptom of deficiency of B12 in biology.

But of course, many medical errors are being done in the series. There's a website where a doctor writes reviews and post it. Apparently House doesn't know the difference between cardiac arrest and heart attack. Many more. The more season is produced, the more errors begin to show. That's the con as the show progresses. But I still love the show. I voted this show as the best show ever in history, and I hope this show survives without the jokes growing less.

Queensbay Mall

7 October 2010

This is going to be short.

PMR sucks for third formers, but it definitely brings joy to all form 4 students. As form four students, we are given three days holiday due to the lack of classroom.

As agreed, I'm going to Queensbay Mall today. Initially I thought only 5 or 6 people are involved. But as it turns out, more than 15 people are involved. The first group and the group I joined is 4S4 students while the second group is T class students.

We go there by a bus. The seat is comfortable.

When we reached there the mall is still closed. Guards are dutying outside, forbidding everybody excepts workers from entering. But teenagers are impatient, the T class students 'infiltrate' the mall and we do likewise. It is 15 minutes before the opening time, and nobody is in the mall. So we wandered around, playing hide and seek with the guards. LJX and CCY nearly got kicked out from the mall. Luckily, nothing untowards happen.

Then we go down and grab a meal. By 'meal' I mean 'McDonald'. I am not a fan of fast foods because the foods are exorbitant. Reluctant, I buy the cheapest set they have. But the cheapest food is still considered expensive compared to food outside.

Then we go skating. I pay RM18 for the game. When I first put the...umm.....shoes on, I lost balance. I nearly fell. So does everyone. And you'll never guess how many times I have fell. It hurts. I might have stunted growth later.

After one round, and multiple falls, my leg begins to hurt. So does everyone's. But mine's different. My skin has been rubbed off, and blister grows. I'm pretty sure I'll suffer on Friday. Because of that blister, I cannot continue skating. So sad. So wasting.

They continue to skate until around 1.00pm I couldn't endure anymore. My stomach is basically screaming for food. I tell them I leave (alone) and try to grab a food. I go to Chicken Rice Shop and order chicken rice and pepsi, and the service there deserved endorsement. Their service is good, servants are hospitable.

Shopping alone is, surprisingly, very enjoyable. After I eat I continue to walk around, even though I am alone. I walk to Popular and buy a bottle of water. Cannot find the books I want, I go to Borders instead. While I'm at Borders I found another book which is not in my list, but since I'm not a Borders' member I walk back to Popular.

Ok, if you frequent Queesbay Mall you will realise that I'm a nincompoop. If you don't know why, try to find out why.

At first I wanted to buy Dan Brown's 'The Lost Symbol", but before I pay for it my eyes caught another book. It's Audrey Niffenegger's 'Her Fearful Symmetry'. Every since I read 'The Time Traveler's Wife' I begin to be obsessed with her books.

Eventually I go back to the skating land and CCY says she is hungry. Nobody accompanys her so I agree to keep her company. After her lunch we go to Borders. I'm totally mesmerise by the books there. So many choices. So many books, and the best part is: the books are unwrapped and seats are available.

After that we go to Pizza Hut and meet SYJ and others. They order their lunch while I help them to eat whatever they can't finish. Ok, here's some thing: my wanting for food is insatiable. And no, I don't have a tapeworm. I just have a high basal metabolic rate. Or do I have a tapeworm? Maybe diphyllobotrium latum??? Forget about it.

After that they decide to board the bus, go back to Pacific and enjoy bowling. While me and CCY, afraid of being yelled at and stuck at the annoyingly long traffic jam, we leave around 4.00pm

And CY, you have an effervescent family. I envy your family's effervescence.

Triumph!!!

Forget everything for now. I finally got a credit for my ICAS english test. I scored 32/60!!

I know the result is pathetically low, i only got about 54% of the questions right, but still I show improvement. Something I have not foreseen. This is good enough!! On cloud nine!!!

Next year my aim: at least 40/60 correct! (I wouldn't want to aim distinction, I'm lowering expectation).

Oxymoron

Have you ever heard of oxymoron? If you have, you might have learnt that oxymoron is something very interesting and very unique that you'll find yourself engage in it. As for me, I love oxymoron, that's why I post this article here:

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Oxymorons express ideas with two 'opposing' words.

Check this out: "...faith unfaithful kept him falsely true." This seemingly contradictory sentence (reminds me of Dzof Azmi's "Contradictheory" in StarMag) listed as an example to elucidate the meaning of "oxyomoron" (Concise Oxford English Dictionary/COED, 1995), has long fascinated me.

The term "oxymoron" is in itself an oxymoron - a Greek derivation from oxus ("sharp") and moros ("foolish"/"dull"). An oxymoron is: a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction (COED, 1995; P978); or more simply stated: a phrase that combines two words that seem to be the opposite of each other, for example a deafening silence (Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary/OALD, 2002;P908)

By the way, with a measure of qualified success, the term advanced learner is also rated an oxymoron.

All who are "mad about English" (and those caught in a love-hate relationship with it) will willingly vouch that the versatility of this quirky language stretches to infinity and beyond. It would therefore, make me a perfect idiot/moron if I tried to give you an exact estimate or a detailed summary of the stunts this language can pull. Yet being in active retirement, instead of doing nothing, I thought to explore a brief survey, this fascinating facet (oxymoron) of my favourite language.

After my shamelessly proud public courtship of "Partners in rime" (MOE, Aug 4), which now seems to appear invisible, I thought to make a brief foray into how this linguistic partnership can turn, as quickly, from rhyme to "crime" - partners they remain, yet strange bedfellows and honest cheats, in an act to tease - and hey, they deliver, that much is easier!

So, taking the only option available, I signed on the dotted line for an amicable divorce from my earlier liaison. Yes, why not? A divorce court with its sometimes pretty ugly proceedings comes to mind. Never mind the unequal justice. If you happen to be a local celebrity, you also reap while portions of negative gain like good gossip in the form of loud whispers of disparaging remarks. All of which leaves you feeling half-naked, both inside out. So, don't go making a deliberate mistake of courting an undesirable attraction in the first place.

Well, it all sounds vaguely familiar because an absurd truth of life is that it is a paradox. A "paradox" sits at a close distance to an "oxymoron" because of shared commonalities. In that, it is a seemingly absurd or contradictory statement, even if actually well founded. A common example to illustrate this is "more haste, less speed". Go figure. Another may be: It is a curious paradox that professional comedians often have unhappy personal lives. (OALD, 2002; P918)

Good grief! Clever fools aren't we? See how we almost always use exact opposites to make our point. Even trading secrets and affectionate insults in the name of friendly argument. A fine mess, actually. At times you feel numb just thinking how we relish pitting clearly ambiguous expressions against each other to create a typically unusual effect. A planned surprise, that's what it is, really! Clearly, we have already made an accurate forecast of its intended effect, of which we are almost certain. What a quite scream! A controlled chaos that celebrates our plying of this pliant body of language. My educated guess? It is an obvious secret shared by all conniving language lovers.

Permit me now to run on auto pilot for some randomly organised contradictory pairs scopped out from all of one days' (Aug 29) newspaper: artistic chaos, free gift, constructive criticism, organised mess, unsung heroes, bad/ill health, fair trial, casual intimacy, school vacation, home school, immediate future, minor disaster, science fiction, real potential, reality TV, and I best come to a rolling stop now but not before adding the ubiquitous road safety cautionary accident alert (if you are alert, you can avoid accidents, surely), to my found list. Of course, you can tease out a day's worth from any newspaper, any day.

Then there is Aloha - a Hawaiian expression used both of "hello" and "goodbye". It is popularly said to be the only self-contained (single) oxymoron. However, thanksgiving be to English, the classic language known to celebrate both theory and then "contradictheory".

I know you can think of thers besides eggplant and pineapple. With no intent to be rude, there is also the butt with its colloquial backside. Not forgetting wholesome is another English stand-alone oxymoron. It is a word wrought with bittersweet memories of how my (wholesome) love for the language was nurtured by a father who spoke impeccable English and who taught me early to pessimistically optimistic.

Before I say Aloha then, I don't mind confiding that my fetish for shoes saw me purchase a genuine replica of a catwalk designher pair. Dzireena Mahadzir with her "Sense of Style" would approve, knowing my easy problem - I may be an active retiree who enjoys tax relief, but one who is also afflicted with financial immobility. That should bring me to a full stop.


Written by Lucille Dass,
Adapted from The Star (Star Two), pg19, 29 September 2010

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