Unplugged

I just finished my sessional exam today. Today's Surgery paper was just too shitty. Many of the question are so insignificant (as in it never came out in recent past years) till i don't even know what is it. Anyway, the battle is over as of now, but the war is still on. The final battle is in exactly one month time! In this one month, i must prepare myself mentally and physically and emotionally and spiritually equipped to face the battle. One month is not much at all, considering the number of books i have to "revise" and "remember". I must pass this final year exam!! i want to get rid of study life, once and for all (at least till my specialist course maybe). I dun wanna stay in this stupid India for another 6 months. One month of hardwork and no life! Just one month!!


This one month of study break will be further helped by the departure of my dear laptop. The Dell XPS M1530 has served me very well for the past 2 year (i still remember it reached me right on Christmas eve of 2007, it's the gift i bought for myself). Now, i'm getting tired of it not being able to play HD movies smoothly on my 22" LCD monitor. I think the extra resolution is too much for my nVidia 8600m GT graphic card. Also, those games that i bought can no longer be supported in full details and resolution (except 2004's Half-Life 2). Plus, i like to install all my favorite games in my hard disk, and 200GB for me is just way too little. Imagine my 1TB external HDD has 0% free space left. I need more power, more speed, more graphic rendering, more space (and obviously, more money).


Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours
So ya, i decided to list my laptop on eBay. Today, after 1 week of listing, it is sold for a whooping price of Rs 29500 (incl. shipment), which is roughly RM2100. It was a great deal, as it is exactly half of the original price of RM4500 2 years ago. I think it's a good way of getting the maximum out of laptop with the same value. See, i bought my first laptop Acer with RM4000, sold it after 2.5 yrs for half price, and i got this Dell with RM4500; now i sell it again for half price. I used the same RM4500 and get 2 laptops, at the same time have a powerful machine to keep up with my workload and gaming. Instead of buying a laptop, and wait for it to get spoil after 4 years, at the same time suffering from all the frustration of using slow and outdated machine. So tonight, i will be busy backing up my files, tomorrow reformat, pack it nicely and ship it with courier.


So, for the next 2 months, i wont be having a computer with me. I can study full time without any distractions. Besides, i can use the extra time i normally on exercising in my room and also play guitar, which is to me more healthy and less time consuming. I wont be able to keep up with latest football results, tech news, games releases, play facebook, chat thru webcam, or send emails (and obviously, wont be updating my blog for at least 2 long months). My iPod will play a BIG part in my life now, cz i can't live without music.

Homeward Bound
I will be going back home on 8th Feb 2010, till 12th Mac. I'd already bought my ticket online. I have all the plans i gonna do in this coming long holiday.
1) Build a new Small Form Factor gaming PC, costing nearly RM5k.
2) Exercise, or maybe go to gym to lose my tummy and build up muscle.
3) Have surgery on my hyperhidrosis problem (endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy), it'll cost around RM5k. I'd ask the doctors in HUKM, and he say i can do it at the OPD as day case.
4) Celebrate chinese new year 2010! Yo, the year of Tiger!!
5) Spend time with family and friends.
6) Eat, eat & eat.
6) Play all the PC games collection i bought: they're all greatest games of all time, all well worth buying and collecting and playing numerous times.


Hello Goodbye
That's all folks. This is it.
Say goodbye to my Dell XPS laptop. Say hello to my future super strong gaming SFF PC.
Say goodbye to surfing, chatting & gaming for 2 months. Say hello to textbooks.
Say goodbye to final year MBBS. Say hello to internship.
Say goodbye to India. Say hello to Malaysia.

OK Computer

Many things crosses my mind whenever i'm too bored of studying.. I keep thinking of what i wanna do next year as an intern in my one last year in India. I wanna buy this buy that, take plenty of leaves and travel around India as much as possible, or even go to South Africa for World Cup..
Recently, i bought a 22" LCD monitor, Dell SP2208WFP. It's the monitor i've been eying for the past one year, and so far i'd not found any new monitor model better than that.. This model is way too good in terms of performance, features and value till it's being discontinued, and luckily i found a second hand one on eBay India. The monitor is 6 months old, hardly been used, and still look brand new without any problem. Actually i bought the same monitor in July when i was back in Msia, it's still unopened in my home and i'm supposed to bring it over next year, but then i decided against it and wanna get one more over here.. The reasons I wanna have a monitor are so that my desk will be cleaner and have more space for books,; i can watch my HD movies more comfortably; have a better desktop experience in my daily windows applications; and also due to peer pressure cause many of my friends in the hostel already have one.. The monitor cost me Rs9000 (RM650), and i'm really happy with its performance.


Recently, Liew's laptop died and while he was going to buy a Dell desktop, i advised him to buy all the parts separately and custom build one, which he did. His new PC cost around Rs80000 (which is almost the same price as the Dell desktop he's gonna buy here but more than doubled its performance). His PC is extremely powerful (with Intel Core i5 CPU, ATI Radeon 5850 GPU), and is undoubtedly the strongest in our whole hostel right now.
Now, my heart is pumping to build one for myself too. I'm really pissed with my 2 year-old Dell XPS 1530 laptop cause it can no longer support any of my games in native 1680x1050 monitor resolution smoothly, even watching HD movies lag sometimes.. All these while i was planning to buy a Alienware m15x next year, but when i think about the price of it (RM6500) and how well can it support new games in full details, i decided against it.. If i build a desktop myself, it'll only cost me less than RM4000, and i can assure it will support all future games in full details in the next 3 years and will not die on me for at least 5 years. It's totally a bargain compare to a laptop, considering laptop's life span of 3 years.. Average laptops has a 30% of total failure rate after 3 years, and also each manufacturer has different failure rate. Check this out:


My plan now is to sell my laptop in eBay India for around Rs30k, scrap my budget for a PS3 and its games which is another Rs30k, and use the money to build a Small Form Factor PC gaming machine. I want a really small and cool looking PC case cause i'm bored of those tower casing and it's more challenging and fun building a SFF PC. Also, i can easily bring it back to Malaysia when i leave this place. I'd already made a list of all the components that i'll be getting when i go back Malaysia, and i'm really looking forward to it. Below is Thermaltake Lanbox Lite and Lian-li PC-V351 small form factor casing which i'd been eying:


specs i have decided on:

CPU: Intel Core i5
RAM: G Skill 2000Mhz 4GB DDR3 Dual-Channel
MOTHERBOARD: ASUS Maximus III Gene
PSU: Corsair HX620W
HDD: Western Digital 2TB Cavier Black
GPU: nVidia GTX 275
HSF: Noctua NH-U9B

So right now, my sole aim is to study well, do well for my exam and pass all subjects in one go, reward myself with a new PC, and then fully enjoy my last year in India as an intern.. May God bless me..

Bitches Brew

Whenever i'm in my posting, the word 'bitch' and 'pussies' will keep lingering in my mind.. This is going to be my one last posting as a MBBS student, and it's Obstetrics & Gynaecology, and it is one load of a hell.. Everyday something stupid happens, some of us will get screwed by the "b****y" lady prof.. Things had gone from bad to worse again this morning, which i wont elaborate here.. I really hate OBG postings, and it had also made me lose some interest when i open my OBG books to study.. i really cant stand that almost all (except a few) OBG profs are so unpredictable and PMS all the time..
Our end posting exam will be on the 30th Nov, which is the latest among all the units.. Some units have even completed their end posting today and can concentrate fully on their preparation for sessional exam, but we're still stuck in this stupid posting. Every morning is filled with fear of getting late or get screwed out of nothing or losing attendance. Life sucks under OBG posting.. Even though i know this will be our one last moments of posting as a student, and we're supposed to treasure all the experiences that we have there, but still, every moment of the posting is like living with an unexpected timed bomb, it can explode any time..

My final sessional exam is exactly one week to go.. I realize there are so much more to study.. The text books are like never ending.. There are just too much things new to me.. Everyday, i'd spent most of my time studying like a bitch. I think this is the period my knowledge in medicine improved the most among all my 4 and a half years of the course.. One dilemma i'm having is that many times when i flip through the pages, even though i know the topic is not in the question bank, i will still read it thoroughly just for better understanding of the subjects and for future use. I know it's time wasting in the exam point of view, but i think that particular 'extra topics' are more important in my daily life, they're not those big diseases but they're cases of which i will encounter more... Actually if I'm going to be really exam oriented and analyze the past years well enough, I only need to cover half of the book to pass. However, by the time i become an intern, i will not understand or remember a single thing.. The most important part of medicine is understanding the basics, as many of my profs stressed on.. If you do not, then there's no way you'll succeed as a good doctor.. So now the irony comes.. I have only 1 month plus before my university exam, should i spend more time understanding the subjects, or be strictly exam oriented and memorize only the FAQs.. How i wish i have more time studying properly, and pass out being a doctor who know the subject well.. But then again, if i was given more time, will i be studying seriously, or will i be too relax and start fooling around? (which i think most likely i'll be the latter.)
One more thing is, i really hate this place. Many things over here pisses me off.. If i fail this uni exam, i'll have to stay for another 6 months. Yes, i'll be much better in my knowledge within the 6 extra months, plus i do not mind staying longer provided i have the money to spend and all the entertainment and friends that i have here; but on the other hand, I also want to pass out my exam in one go and leave this stupid place asap.. So ironic..

Also, my classes officially ended today, but i din go cz i'm too sleepy due to the mental pressure in posting. Now, i do not need to wear formal shirts, go to class via the crappy school bus, walk under the hot sun, and listen to boring lectures and seminars, or get scolded or thrown out due to misbehavior, just for the sake of attendance. To me, lectures are over-rated. To me, taking attendance is stupid and time wasting. To me, sleeping in class or reading other books is a student's right. To me, yawning is only a reflex to take in more oxygen. To me, chewing gum in class helps students to be awake. To me, morning classes are meant to be bunked. To me, wearing T-shirts and short pants in classroom is totally alright.
Who have attention span of 1 hour sitting quietly in the classroom? (except those really nerdy students). My attention span is only 30 mins max, after that i get restless. I think most of my time in lecture hall are spent on sleeping, or day dreaming, or studying by myself. I'll only pay attention if the lecturer is really good or the topic is interesting and important. Yes, now i no longer need to suffocate myself inside classrooms (hopefully in my whole life) anymore, woohoo!
"We don't need no education,"
"We don't need no thought control,"
"No dark sarcasm in the class room,"
"Teachers leave us kids alone!"

Revolution 9

The Name of The Game

Last night we had a small gaming session in Wilson's room.. He just only bought a PS3, and had instantly bought some latest games.. Warrie also brought his Street Fighter IV and FIFA 09 for us to play.. I was able to witness new games like Batman: Arkham Assylum, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Kill Zone 2, which are all awesome; Later at night, we all played FIFA 09 and SF4.. The whole night experience is just unforgettable, and made me feel sick of playing PES 2009 and my 'slow' Street Fighter IV i have installed in my laptop..

Now, i'm feeling something is missing in my life. I am missing FIFA 09, and looking forward to FIFA 10 (the first time in my life i rate FIFA higher than PES), and finally, i made up my mind to get a PS3 Slim, sooner or later.

After some long thinking, thorough research plus a bit of peer pressure, i'd concluded that PS3 console is a much better choice for gaming instead of a gaming PC. With PS3, one can do almost everything in terms of entertainment. You can play all the latest high end games without any lag, play online with friends, earn trophies, watch BluRay movies, use it as a media center to view photos and play music on HDTV, browse the internet etc etc.. Even solely for BluRay player purpose, PS3 is already super worthy compared to other expensive BluRay players on the market. The only short coming is that i have to buy original games for PS3, which cost around Rs 2-3k each..
However for PC, i have to upgrade my PC at least every 2 years to keep up with the latest games, and each upgrade will cost around Rs 20-30k (which is like the price of 10 PS3 games already), while a PS3 console only cost Rs 15k and it last for many many years.. For PC, even though i can get all pirated games free from torrent, but i will loss the privilege of trophies and online gaming.. That why, i myself do buy 'original' PC games as collections (cz ori games in India is dirt cheap). Besides, there are so many games that i can't play till today on my laptop, like GTA IV and Crysis, when other ppl with PS3 already finished those games long time back. In addition, PS3 has a lot of exclusive games, and also games which plays much better than the PC version.. Like the FIFA 09 and GTA IV, PS3 version beats PC version hands down..


The newly released PS3 Slim is 30% smaller, 30% lighter, less power consumption, offer 120GB hard disk, comes with DTS-HD MA and TrueHD technology for BluRay, at a much cheaper price ($299). What a steal!!!

If it wasn't because i'm now in my vital final year, i would have definitely bought one right now. But back to reality, study is still more important, and i just have to wait till next year internship to get it.. I think i will chuck my plan of changing my 2-year-old Dell XPS 1530 laptop, and get a PS3 instead, which offer so much more in gaming purpose and is also so so much cheaper than a buying a new high end laptop.

Be super patience Chee Chung, study hard, pass your final year and reward yourself with a PS3 next year..