Monday, January 08, 2007

Sloooooowdown

The earthquake near Taiwan that occurred on the Tuesday after Christmas, clocking a 7.1 on the Richter scale, meant many things to many people. To Taiwanese residents, the earth under which they had walked all their lives, secure in its fixedness, suddenly betrayed them, shaking buildings, killing two people and injuring at least 42 more, according to this BBC report. To people all over the rest of Asia, the severing of underwater communications cables meant they were cut off from one another. Businesses went into panic, governments scrambled to contain the crisis, and banks rushed to make sure their foreign trading activity was not affected.

And in the midst of it all, somewhere in a sleepy town north of the capital of Malaysia, one lone medic was typing away at his computer when suddenly an error message popped up and ruins his day.

"Connection Lost. Retry?"


That's the beginning of my latest post over at The Differential, Medscape's medical student blog. Do pop over and give it a read. Fortunately for me, my earthquake troubles are over, but for many people in Asia, the efforts to rebuild carry on. My heart goes out to them.

Also, the new season of The Apprentice launched yesterday! I was planning something special here to coincide with the premiere, but unfortunately I haven't seen it yet because my, uh, 'channels' aren't yielding results.


Until then, anyone (and I mean ANYONE) who so much as WHISPERS something that MAY be a spoiler will be killed. Violently. And painfully. I know someone who has a fetish for raccoon-skin hats, long trenchcoats and AK-47s.

Of course, if you have any idea how I can get The Apprentice from way over here, then kindly email me. I might even send over some delicious Cambridge fudge. Pretty please?

P.S. The good doctor over at NHS Blog Doctor has put up his first BritMeds of the year. How he manages to rake up so many British medblogs I have no idea, but one medical student has made it into the year's first edition:
When Dr Crippen was a medical student, he found it embarrassing having to inflict examinations on patients for his benefit rather than theirs. Nothing has changed. This medical student was taken apart by an elderly patient.
Congrats to Calavera of Of Short White Coats And Stethoscopes for doing us med students proud. Go read how she handled a difficult patient in a sterling manner. Faced with the same patient, I would probably have ended up bludgeoning her with my clipboard. (Disclaimer to My Lecturers and Future Patients: Haha I'm kidding, that was just a joke, haha, it's a bit early in the morning, haha, don't kick me out please haha? --Editor)

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

just to let you know, the new season opened with it's lowest ratings ever in the US... I haven't seen it yet and I live in Canada, i.e. The US's 51st state.

Anonymous said...

Dear Earthquake victim,

I too was badly affected by an earthquake. There was a crash, a thunder and panic. It me particularly bad, I spilled coffee over my labcoat.

I hope you have the strength to recover from your ordeal like I did,

With you always,
Prof Scrub
http://www.scrubbingup.com/blogs/profscrub/blog.asp

The Angry Medic said...

Adam: NOOOOOOOOOOOO! How can The Donald NOT attract viewers? They must all have been drunk from partying the night before.

Or is it because of the Donald vs Rosie spat?

Prof Scrub: Oh you poor thing. I wonder how you ever managed to regain normalcy after such a terrifying ordeal like that. (Well, normalcy as it applies to you, anyway) :P

Nice new site! I like how you used the picture I used
here
.

SeaSpray said...

I am sorry for anyone that has been affected by the earthquake and glad you weren't affected seriously.

So - you say you want to know everything that happened on the apprentice? Ok, let me tell you...just kidding! :)

I critiqued it on my blog and am really trying NOT to give my opinion now. Hope you get to see it soon!

The Angry Medic said...

Seaspray: I just watched the opening episode! Now I can carry on with my plans. Check back here in a day or so to see what I have planned.

I agree with much of your review, actually. It did smack of sensationalising to me...as if they were trying a bit too hard. I've been DYING to find someone I can discuss them with, and I wanna know--do you think the ratings fell cos of Trump vs Rosie?

SeaSpray said...

Good question A.M. and I don't really know. I think it could've worked in his favor as well because conversely - not everyone is a Rosie fan.

it will be fun to discuss some of the reality shows with fellow bloggers.

I commented more to you on my blog. Thanks for stopping by. :)

Calavera said...

Aww, thanks so much for your mention too!

You know what, everyone says I handled it well, but I cannot explain to you how close to tears I was.

I rarely blush or cry, but when I saw my SHO after this, I literally had to splutter that this patient "was having none of it," and then I stumbled out of the ward to stop myself from crying, cos for some reason, I had this massive lump in my throat! Arrgh!!

The Angry Medic said...

Seaspray: Well I still think Rosie asked for it. She hit out first.

Have read your full comment on your blog. Have also posted a reply--thankies. Hold on a whilst longer for my Apprentice blog post!

Calavera: Aww, I had no idea it affected you so! *virtual hug* You handled it admirably anyway. I posted a longer comment on your blog.