Hari Raya is coming to town…

It’s been three months since I’ve entered the life of a doctor. Fortunately, I had not been dropped into the deep end of the pool of Obstetrics & Gynaecology or Medicine, and instead am wading through the chest deep waters of Orthopaedics. In the beginning there were 6 house officers. Lately though, the number of house officers have been increasing and there are  now 15 house officers in Orthopaedics. With 2 house officers on call a day, we currently have on-calls once a week, which is extremely great for I for one, am not a fan of RM100 for 16 hours of work, and would rather be RM100 poorer but have a good night’s sleep.

 

Having to report in to work at 0715H every morning, save weekends where we need to be in by 0800H, it means that at 0545H, my alarm clock goes off. I groggily come to, then start to rationale why I am not fit for work today :a tummy ache? feeling warm – fever? sprained ankle? Finding nothing really wrong with myself, I then try to think if it was possible to pretend I was sick and get a MC. By then 5 minutes would probably have passed, the angel and devil inside of me busy sparring away. Realising that I probably would be found out if I fake a MC, and not to mention that I have only 8 days off including MCs in 4 months, I usually reluctantly stumble out of bed about 10 minutes later. Rinse and repeat the next morning.

 

Hari Raya is round the corner, and the festivities have begun. Ward work has slowed to a crawl. Everyone’s in the Raya mood. Faces are aglow, congratulations are in order whenever a staff finishes his/her shift and goes back for the Raya holidays. Cookie jars start to build up in hidden nooks and crannies. Flashing light chase each other in circles. The air is atingling you can feel the crackle in the air.

 

In a matter of days, I’m gonna have to say goodbye to the short queues in McDonalds during McValue Lunch though. I’ll be sorely missing the times I could breeze through the queue, place my order and start chomping in just 5 minutes. Back to this?

 

To all who celebrate Hari Raya though, Here’s best wishes and a Selamat Hari Raya to you! I’ll be celebrating it too; in Ward 5A, Ampang Hospital.

 

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Digi Music Unlimited

A few weeks back, I happened to browse the Nuffnang.my blog, and noticed a contest for a Music Revolution Sneak Peek. Entry passes were to be given to the 1st 50 respondents. Noticing that the blog timestamp as a mere 15 minutes before, I decided to take the chance and sent off an entry. Several days later, an e-mail in my mailbox congratulated me on my successful invitation.

 

 

The Nuffnang.my announced that a hot concert was coming up and that it would be a 4 piece band formed in Stillwater, Oklahoma (read: All-American Rejects). Naturally, there was much speculation on the group, and with the picture showing a head watching the band performing with the work sneak peek , we thought we were going to be treated to a near private function; ie 50 guests only! Imagine the collective disappointment of all 50 guests when what transpired that night was a merely a short performance by a local group of 4 dancers, and the organisers mentioned that All-American Rejects were to be brought down for a concert, but not on that day, and that by registering for the Digi Music Unlimited package, we would likely be able to get tickets to the concert. Naturally, there were a lot of muttering and discontentment that night.

 

The Digi Music Unlimited package is a new offering by Digi. By paying RM5 a month, you would be entitled to download an unlimited number of songs from digimusic.com.my onto your handphone and your PC. The music catalogue promises to be large, as it is supported by Universal Music and Sony Music. There will be no data charges levied for browsing or downloading the songs.

 

Several personalisation options include the ability to create your own playlists as well as several Facebook-esque features. You can update friends with a status feed (extremely Twitter-like) as well as find people with similar tastes in music as well as share playlists and songs. Several benefits extended to Digi Music Unlimited subscribers are invitations to exclusive Digi Music Showcases, of which the next performers are to be the All American Rejects and Black Eyed Peas.

 

There were several questions of note, which I raised up. The first of note was about the DRM system. The tracks downloaded are in 256kbps wma files with DRM. Upon non-renewal of your subscription, they go up in flames aka Mission Impossible and you’re no longer able to play them after your subscription has expired. Each month of your subscription entitles you to 5 DRM-free songs though. In addition, as the songs are DRM enabled, you will not be able to stream them through you home network, which has pretty much made this a no-go, for my home entertainment is completely dependent on the streaming of songs from my main server to the DLNA compatible clients scattered around.

 

All in all, this is a good proposition for those whose mobiles do double duty as their main source of music, as they will be able to download songs anytime and anywhere with no data charges even. Imagine hearing a funky new song on radio, then browsing over to digimusic.com.my and then downloading the song immediately! The possibilities are endless. However, for those who plan on building up a large library, then transferring them around for use in iPods, in car entertainment systems, etc, the DRM tracks make this impossible.

 

Technorati Tags: Digi Music Unlimited,All American Rejects,Digi,Digimusic.com.my

District 9 Premiere Screening

Made it for the premiere screening for District 9, and boy was it a treat indeed. Mark my words, this will be the movie that propels it’s South African director. Neill Blomkamp into the A-list. A different beast from the run of the mill summer blockbusters, District 9 is a complex story that turns the aliens vs humans saga on its head then adds his interpretation of the apartheid regime into the mix.

 

A brief synopsis of the story - Thirty years ago, aliens made first contact with Earth. Humans waited for the hostile attack, or the giant advances in technology. Neither came. Instead, the aliens were refugees, the last survivors of their home world. The creatures were set up in a makeshift home in South Africa’s District 9 as the world’s nations argued over what to do with them. The aliens were generally looked down upon by humankind, and referred to as “prawns”, a derogratory term relating to their similarity to the crustaceans, albeit human sized.

 

Now, patience over the alien situation has run out. Control over the aliens has been contracted out to Multi-National United (MNU), a private company uninterested in the aliens’ welfare – they will receive tremendous profits if they can make the aliens’ awesome weaponry work. So far, they have failed; activation of the weaponry requires alien DNA.

 

The tension between the aliens and the humans comes to a head when an MNU field operative, Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), contracts a mysterious virus that begins changing his DNA. Wikus quickly becomes the most hunted man in the world, as well as the most valuable – he is the key to unlocking the secrets of alien technology. Ostracized and friendless, there is only one place left for him to hide: District 9.

 

What happens next is a story of human greed, alien selflessness and self sacrifice. Not one to spoil the ending, I shall proceed no further. Rest be assured for the sci-fi geek, there remains enough explosions, mechas and spaceship scenes to satisfy the geek in you, while for the deeper thinkers amongst us, there are enough lines to be drawn between the movie and the apartheid regime of South Africa. Shot mainly via a first person perspective, the filming holds many similarities to Cloverfield, though the atmosphere seems to be more Blood Diamond like.

 

Technorati Tags: movies,premiere screening,district 9,neill blomkamp