Baking Spree!!!

Yay!!! It's a long weekend again!! Monday is a holiday 'cos it's Labour Day... And I finally passed up my research proposal! So no more mucking around looking through journals and fretting over statistics and methodology...

To commemorate this fine occasion, I've decided to go on a baking spree. Got this wonderful book of cookie recipes. There's like 500+ recipes so I probably never finish baking them all ever. Both erm.. cookies came out alright, the only thing was one didn't look too appetizing.... Heck, I've only started baking a couple of months back. It's a far improvement from back in Malaysia when I couldn't even bake to save my life. So I guess I'm allowed to stuff up half the time. :P


Part 1: Dog Shit meringues

Yes, as its name denotes, they're brown, spirally globs of cream-like stuff. Would have turned out more normally had I not been so kiam siap. Hehehh.. didn't want to waste money on buying a piping tube for the meringues, so I used a 60ml syringe instead....

Behold! The BD Plastipak 60 ml syringe. :P

The syringe only sucked up a small bit of the meringue at a time, so I had to keep refilling and squirting. And when the stuff came out, it was like little diarrhoea-like curls, so I decided to make the best of it and make tiny little shit mounds on the baking tray...

Had to throw away the first batch 'cos they were burnt. But overall, they tasted like meringues, only wish I could make them 100% crispy, not cripsy on the outside and gooey on the inside.-_-"

Part 2: Vanilla, Honey & Milk Cookies!

Ok la, this is the not so gross part. :P Woke up the next morning itching to bake something proper. There was a recipe for Vanilla and honey cookies in the book, but I decided to modify it a little by adding in milk. Personally, I felt that it turned out pretty okay. Though Ken (dubbed 'The Household Food Critic' by Xian-Nian, of as I prefer to call him, 'The Guinea Pig') thought it was alright, but a little bland. So I sprinkled some caster sugar on the second batch before baking. I prefer my cookies to be not too sweet. :P

Ahh... the aroma of honey.... itadakimasu! :)

OMGWTF how could anyone do this

Even animals don't do this.

Was reading my sister's blog when I found out that last Monday, a sports bag containing a dead child was discovered in PJS1/48 Petaling Utama. This poor girl, Nurin Jazlin was only eight years old. She was raped, tortured and disposed of in such an inhumane way. She was found with a brinjal and cucumber stuffed up her private parts. Yes, there are countless rape cases going on in my beloved home country, but this has been one of the most disturbing yet.

According to my mom, there was a case a couple of decades ago where a girl was found with a wooden pole shoved right through from her privates and up out of her mouth. There is a Malay term for that, and it's called sula. Something useful I learnt from Form 5 Malay literature.

There are people who believe that it is the woman's fault that she is raped. Especially women who wear so-called 'revealing' clothing. Men cannot help but lust after women, so raping a sexy woman is only giving into their 'natural urges'. There are some who think that "pretty women shouldn't work, they should stay at home and be good wives". This is because their 'beauty' is an unholy lure and it causes men to fall into sin. Some have gone as far as to establish gender segregation in public areas, lest a male and female commit some heinous act of indecency. Come on, think about it. Who gets raped? Women (mostly). Are all of them 'pretty'? Are all of them wearing 'sexy clothes'? Infants, old ladies, even defenseless, innoncent little girls like Nurin were raped! In what way do you think these victims deserved their fate? There is no way one can blame them for this. If men truly are the 'stronger sex', how then can they put fault on the weak?

I know no one has voiced this in regards to the Nurin Jazlin case. I'm just ranting based on past events, since we're on the topic of rape and brutality against females.

Nurin Jazlin's family have finally accepted her death. Though we all share their grief, most of us will never truly comprehend the depth of their anguish and pain. May this inhuman killer be be brought to justice, and may he receive the consequences of his brutality.

Rape is a crime of violence, NOT lust. I hope that Nurin, along with the countless victims of the past have found peace on the other side.


Articles: Child found sexually assaulted and killed
Dad accepts DNA results

Do birds go to heaven?

Psych viva is over!!! Yay!! Was pretty lucky to have gotten the clinical vignette on suicide. Thank goodness... if I got some of the other questions I would have just froze there. Like Steph got asked exactly which antipsychotics to give and their DOSAGE. Which 4th year student memorises the dosage? The second part of the viva was a little unexpected: CBT. Had to dig deep into the sparse recesses of my tiny brain to find something back from my IMU days to answer that. What's done is done, didn't get a callback yesterday, so I assume I've passed. :P

Went to Sheng Kai a.k.a. Sean's 23rd birthday party at his gf Quinnie's house yesterday night. Suffice to say, Quinnie did a fantastic job with the food and organising. Not much photos, but yeah, it was a much-needed break from psych.

Anyway....

The morning before the psych viva, something weird happened. Woke up and had breakfast as usual... was just starting on some notes in my room when *BANG!!!* what sounded like something crashed/broke a window pane on my balcony. Peered out and saw this cute little pigeon sitting demurely on the balcony.

No broken window pane, no fallen objects. So I assumed that this bird must have flew smack into my window. It didn't fly away when I touched it, so it must have been injured pretty badly (but of course, since a bird smashing into a window pane is like a guy getting hit by a brick wall). Picked him (or her?) up. Looked ok. Eyes open, but not very responsive. Heart was beating etc.

Then 30 seconds later, his eyes rolled over. And the neck went limp. His heart beat was getting faint. I was like: "OK... shit. what to do. Erm... is he going into shock? Uh... chest compressions!!!"

Which I did for a few cycles. No, I didn't do mouth to mouth. How to do that on a bird? He did jerk a little after every few compressions, but then he eventually passed away...

Felt bad for taking photos of him like that, and didn't want to just throw him in the dustbin. So I dug a little grave for him in the backyard. Went back after the psych viva and decorated his 'gravestone'.

Rest in peace, little bird. May you be happy in pigeon heaven. Sorry I could not prevent your passing.

Medical Specialty Aptitude Test

Did 130 questions in like half an hour. Hehe... I've always found reconstructive surgery cool. :P But I don't know if I have to stamina for it.


Rank - Specialty - Score

1 plastic surgery 41
2 dermatology 41
3 anesthesiology 40
4 occupational med 40
5 ophthalmology 40
6 otolaryngology 39
7 physical med & rehabilitation 38
8 pediatrics 38
9 radiology 38
10 psychiatry 38
11 rheumatology 38
12 med oncology 38
13 hematology 38
14 gastroenterology 38
15 endocrinology 38
16 radiation oncology 38
17 pulmonology 37
18 allergy & immunology 37
19 colon & rectal surgery 37
20 general internal med 37
21 general surgery 37
22 emergency med 37
23 orthopaedic surgery 37
24 nuclear med 36
25 neurology 36
26 neurosurgery 36
27 preventive med 36
28 cardiology 36
29 infectious disease 35
30 urology 35
31 obstetrics/gynecology 35
32 pathology 34
33 nephrology 34
34 thoracic surgery 33
35 aerospace med 33
36 family practice 32

http://www.med-ed.virginia.edu/specialties/Home.cfm?CFID=2768254&CFTOKEN=2a25a6e986e70fa6-72CE10E6-BCDF-D829-784E85BC2D229599&jsessionid=5430c4caec732f192911