What an MRI scan reveals about back pain Spinal alignment Disc height and hydration Vertebral body configuration Intervertebral disc - how does the disc appear? Is it normal, bulging, herniated, dehydrated or degenerated? Spinal canal size - is it sufficient to comfortably accommodate the spinal cord and nerves? Is there spinal cord or nerve root compression? Nerves - are the nerves “pinched” (compressed) or inflamed anywhere? Abnormalities - are there any abnormalities near the spine that might simulate spinal pain? Spinal cord - is the spinal cord normal in physical appearance? If post-surgery - has anything changed since surgery? Is there another disc herniation, postoperative scarring or infection?
"plak!";
x 6:33 pm
Divinitus - from Rome:Total War
hope u enjoy this graceful piece as much as i did. from rome:total war.
Divinitus
hellatorius victorialis (warlike; victory)
erastus necessitas (lovers; death)
honararius despondeo (honour; despair)
spiritus obdormio (life; death)
patriota gladiator (country; fighter)
afflictio ommento (pain; waiting)
divinitus salutaris (heaven; salvation)
furtivus libertas (furtive love; freedom)
"plak!";
x 1:31 am
watch a play every single day! if not, act your own.
my good friend, ling jew yueh is reading his O level history textbook. I just had to ask why didn't Hitler exterminate him. Afterall he's a Jew(literally in name).
then, he wanted to say throw the blade into your flesh. his pronounciation, being substandard, led to it turning out as throw my brain into your flesh.
he wanted to look up 'malingering' in the dictionary. i just chanted ma-LING-gur-LING.
we wouldn't have had so much fun if not for his LINGuistics.
today a guy with the initials W S Ong came in. my twin. his name? Ong Wee Siang. haha.
yesterday a guy cried, threw tantrums and went mad. well, to me, he was merely over-reacting and exaggerating his emotions to get what he wanted. which was 'excuse stay-in'. he's such a whiner. and a loser. i just have to say it.
and the day before, this reservice corporal came looking for my boss. he appeared polite and well-mannered. the minute he entered her office he started shouting at her. really dumb. he's getting charged , probably for disobedience of general orders and insubordination.
alright, there's no reason for me to use profane language anymore. my office is made up of civilised people, where i speak proper english, without needing to add in singlish to make myself fit in. afterall, the requirements for the CO or RSM Personal Assistant is A level and fluent English. i need to stop being a beng. i can look like one, but i must not be one. yes, that shall be my resolution over the month. i know i can do it. because if i look like beng, i will surely be dragged to be RSM PA. good thing about that is, anyone who treads on my toes, suffers a horrible death xD but at the end of the day, if i dun become a PA, i'll wanna work as R&D clerk. i had thought it to be Research and Development, but non siegneur, it means Regimentation and Discipline. It basically means, i'm in charge of filing charges and sending the offenders to the Detention barracks, located somewhere in Yew Tee. hehe. when i told everyone i can then laugh in their face they called me a sadist. hehe.
but firstly, i must get downgraded to pes e, get revocated as a clerk, get retained in my camp. if this dun happen all my dreams are dashed. simple. and chee wei, get well soon. im a brokeback driver and you're a brokeback soldier. let's be clerks-in-arms. haha.
"plak!";
x 6:52 pm
Vo-la---reeeeeeee!!
When a physician orders an MRI scan, there is specific information that he or she is looking for. Information that is typically gleaned from MRI results include:
Often, based on the patient’s medical history and physical exam, the treating physician will already have an idea of what he or she is looking for on the MRI scan results.
so i did my MRI on wednesday. the process is all about lying still for half an hour. the moment it started, my right rib muscle started cramping. always happens. there's lots of thumping, banging, knocking, heat-wave weaponry sounding devices and all sorts of science fiction sound effects. i was quite afraid if the mri turned out negative; i'd be charged for malingering and the sentence is kinda steep. but after talking to a few colleagues i realised my problem is rather bad it can't be faked. after reading about mri and back pains and leg pains i still arrive at a possible diagnosis. call it a slipped disc, bulging nerve, ruptured disc, herniated disc whatever you will, maybe even pinched nerve. they all sound as scary with the debatable exemption of pinched nerve. but pinched nerve is what i fear the most, because its the manifested pain in the leg. bummer. hurts so much i'll be on painkillers until i get diagnosed accurately and maybe get a surgery.
so far the people in the army i've met have said that i'm smart. using my back pathology to put me out of course, to get out of my current vocation, to delay the period for revocation while pending my results, to have let me pretty much do nothing much military for the past 1 month (and the upcoming one too). regardless, its only because i wanted the army to pay for that damned mri, and i didn't want to have forked out a single cent because it wasn't worth it. and in the process of getting it, well, i got my break. i waited one whole month since enlistment just to get the mri. i'll be waiting a fortnight for the results, and maybe another two weeks for a very-likely revocation to the post of clerk. and i already know my boss wants me to stay put in her office; she needs clerks. i'm one of 4 LOBOs(informal term: left out of battalion orders) but its obvious she's doing her best to put them as fit for driving as possible while putting me as unfit as possible. they have medical conditions too, but she just doesn't want them. the reason is due to education. it is really just THAT. my other lesser boss, the chief clerk had thought me to be on the same level as 'them' too. but when i saw him at amk hub and told him i went back to aj for the funfair, his face betrayed him. literally glittered with a bliss of 'i didn't know you were from aj!' hah. now that's 2 bosses wanting me for the office. and i want to be in that office because its really one of the slackest places you can hope to work in, right in the army.
yes the army has done many things to me. it made me depressed, made me a demented soul, amongst other debilitating effects. but my office ppl are kinda helping me get back to life. my classmates commented that i'm now a person who's full of stereotypes. haha. i just can't help it now. with statements like '75% mat, 25% ah beng' i'm really going nowhere. company 'korm-per-nee' is another word i keep repeating to much self-amusement and delight. but rather than appearing as a racist because the differences really are everywhere and kind of accentuated, i think i've become more understanding of everyone.
its been a full year since i last went singing at kbox, and it was with hong zhi. yesterday i went with a few of my classmates, really enjoyed it alot. thank you for the music haha. though i can shamelessly proclaim myself as the most musically inclined singer wahahhaha. 6 hours of singing madness. 6 hours of screaming and uncommon expressions, all at the expense of caryn, charlene and jian qi. wee liang was my buddy in crime. the funniest part was when wee liang randomly selected a song called volare by zhang fei. its an italian song which no one ever heard of before, but i just took it up and started piecing the song together by noticing the chord patterns...i must have been possessed! i'm amazed at my own talent! ahahahhaha....shameless...i think i'll go buy the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion by the end of this week and pray it works on my comp!
"plak!";
x 12:51 pm
i miss my bunkmates on tekong :(
i called my bunkmates for the first time since i left about two weeks ago.
they were hurling 'niceties' and 'pleasantries' at me.
i was definitely too 'honoured' to have received their 'compliments'.
leaving the funnies aside, it was quite a thrilling experience for me at home and for them on their little island. everyone seemed enraged, according to jason, who did not miss a bit of me. but they were more probably excited that i FINALLY bothered to call them. yup. i did ask them to ask me along if they had an outing. they are going to :)
field camp starts this saturday for them i hope they do well. im worried about eugene, who got a recurring shoulder injury. it does sound serious, but he's not got much choice but to suffer it' be through with it while at training. bronco company became very harsh, treating my platoon mates like shit. far from the welfare. far from the neverlasting impressions. while me, i meditate about why i get to slack. nowadays i feel a sharp tinge of guilt thinking about my bunkmates. but i knew i'd get out of course. its like how u enter first three months and like it, but leave in the end because u knew u were supposed to belong somewhere else. that's the feeling.
i remember everyone treating me like godlike when i did just 5 pullups. i remember laughing at the 95% of ppl who came in at 14 min for 2.4km run. i remember laughing at how weak everyone was. but perhaps, this whole month has toughened them up. more so than me. if i really get downgraded to pes e, i'll be at the bottom of the caste already. useless, as i always say of the pes e. i'll be extremely useless.
right now, im content with the office. though many see me as scheming, intelligent and political, i do believe i'm enjoying the company of everyone who takes care of me very well. i'm so glad. there are people whom i can speak proper english to. there is an aj senior, a cat high senior. both of them i can feel for. and they do so for me. a bunch of jolly bunch. as i told them today, why should i scheme against someone who treats me nice? most of the people here i will never scheme against, because most of them are nice, except for SOME. and we nodded our heads in agreement and gave wry smiles. silent acknowledgements, very possibly of a common nemesis. well, in fact u can even think of them enlisting me on their side even at such an early stage of my career here. despite the unflattering comments i occasionally hear, i do believe my boss is a reasonable lady. and my chief clerk, he does like harassing us, even me.
a financial conclusion i reached:
when i'm spending my dad's hard-earned money, i utilise it frugally.
when i'm spending my own money, i waste it like water.
and my mum stopped giving me allowances cos im drawing a salary! and u know what that means!!!
now, my enemy number 1 is the group of WHORES,read it dublew-age-ou-arr-e-ass who stop you next to the mrt station gates and demand to know if you're an nsf. and why? because they want your money, no matter how little it is. dummkopf me was stopped the first time, almost stopped the second, and the third? i totally ignored it when that bitch dirtied my epaulettes by touching me and demanding my attention. i just walked through her. that fucking dirty whore. i'm spending my money, before any of you gets to it! fwah-ha-ha! i just wanna scold some obscure obscenities right now but i can't think of any cos its just a waste of my brain cells. i do better saving them up for philosophical and sociological debates in the office. yes, and to indirectly make people feel inferior. i've got to change. its hurting people, and its hurting me eventually because i hate to hurt anyone except the posse of conwomen out there masquerading as financial advisors. i ain't need neone to teach me howta use my money. i'll just dump a few on the floor and i know you will pick them up just like you've been doing your whole sad life.
yes and im getting more irritable and uptight than ever. i'll be asking for a psychologist or counsellor soon, as long as it gets me a few offpasses a month. hah. i've lots of issues within me to settle. a score to settle with myself. i'm too busy fighting myself i dun think i'll be bothered fighting anyone else. i'm just going crazy. but there's no way out because you just end up in a tighter spot every turn you take. so just grit and go on.
"plak!";
x 10:41 pm
whining about whiners
i just want to bitch. its been a while since i left cat high as a relief teacher, but recently i have heard some very unpleasant comments by my students..its useless fighting back cos it makes me a retard. i've tried explaining my rationale, my reasons for the things i did and the way i was, and no, they don't get it still, leaving me seething with anger, but i'm letting go because they're just a bunch of ill-mannered angsty teenagers. yes, i'm judgmental NOW. yes, to put it bluntly the worst students in their level. academically and attitude wise, totally sucks.
some 'facts' i found out:
1. i taught nothing in cat high.
first sign of ungratefulness. they complained i was constantly giving out worksheet after worksheet. but hell, your teacher was slow in giving them out and that's my order to give them out and go through a bit. and what exactly do i need to teach for english, none of my superiors would say. they just referred to that pile of worksheets that was scaling a dangerous height. so that's for my side. for their side, i never received more than a quarter of the class's worksheets after the first assignment, which took like 4 days to get together. so i never went through 90% of the stuff. fair.
2. i'm the reason why half the class failed english.
haha, not quite, especially since i was there to mark. the first thing that was on my table were scripts i took the whole new year to mark. just a simple functional writing that took up maybe 20% of the whole paper. the other components were marked by their teacher. and which they did very badly in i must say. compre grade of 7/25 was kinda high for them. so anyway i marked generously, giving them a good 17 to 20/30 for each, for their kind of standard. and they still blamed me for them failing english!
3. i'm the reason everyone(mostly) failed their assignment component for mid-year.
seriously they were penalised badly for not adhering to the requirements. all i did was to go by the book and fail them accordingly. i told one guy i could have gave generously, passing everyone and like make their day, and be remembered as the best (relief) teacher. of course i know i could have. but they wouldn't have learnt. anyway that component was kinda minor and they were making noise like little girls do. not to mention my kind leniency in marking late work(1 week plus is more than late) and yet not penalising.
4. i'm inexperienced and so i know nothing about marking.
they couldn't stop whining about my inexperience, my age. of course i know i'm the youngest teacher there. that's why i never stopped asking how to do things i'm supposed to do. the way i marked, really was fair. and supervised by my superior. i even gave everyone extra marks lah. super generous can. i kept asking questions. and made damn sure they were done the way it was to be. and they were done in the same likeness. (in fact i was able to replicate the marking standard to a standard so high up experienced in my time, i was asked to be generous and add like 2 marks to every paper. that's when i knew standards had dropped drastically in the last 4 years)
so i dun want to go back to teach a bunch of ingrates anymore =/
i was quite keen on teaching in a girls' school actually. now i'm more certain i'd wanna do that. they are more empathic. so am i. i don't know how to deal with a bunch of lazy fools blaming everyone for their plight. but yeah, of course there are those who thanked me..for giving them better welfare than their teacher..cos they're getting punished right now for not doing work, all the shit that cat high boys do..after all i was one of them..sigh..just hope they'll learn. bitch about me all you want but seriously learn something while at it if possible. even if your debating skills and oratory can be fine-tuned when you whine about me...
"plak!";
x 9:12 pm
permanently damaged.
i wish you'll be nicer to me still. everyone of you.
"plak!";
x 8:48 pm
its been 1 month since i enlisted
now the WHOLE office is doing it : CAPTAIN SEOW! SIR! DR SEOW!
AHHHHHHHH!!! but they're nice la, many of them. especially since i'm 'the captain'. like, when its raining, they'll walk me with the umbrella. i dun even need to ask.
and when i need any clarification they'll just help me with it.
when i'm bored and i need to shred paper they'll let me do it.
when i need someone to talk to, there's always someone around.
on the other hand....
when they need an MC they come to me.
when they wanna look for someone to comment about, its almost always about me. and its like half the office is doing it.
omg this Cpt. Seow thing is driving me crazy. no doubt its fun, for them and for me...but i dun wanna get into trouble; what if an officer comes in and hears this captain seow.. haha but i'm sure they accord me more respect than a recruit deserves, all because i look like captain seow.
to disprove my alleged connection, i brought 2 aj yearbooks to show them. they could not find me. and were shocked to find that i'm so good-looking...as all of them put it. previously, i saw such comments as insincere etc. but i started to change today. i had difficulty with praises and encouragements. this time, i took it in earnest, though they still had to convince me they weren't lying. i guess this 2 years will be a waste of time, but not an excuse to degenerate in character. but it doesn't mean i can't develop traits to defend myself..such as political mastery...
this guy was smirking at me and said i look scheming today. his name is raymond choo, and he looks kinda plump. also known as Agent R by the Malaysian, jew yueh. i asked raymond to counterscheme my scheme. LOL. he also asked me who he thought was the harmless in the office, wanting me to say its him. obviously it's me, duh! jew yueh calls him ah bui. as in, R, for raymond, bui for FAT. ahahhaa...aka bui bui...while jew yueh has problems with english and even i take potshots at him now and then..i wonder why i'm still talking irrelevantly and without organisation.
oh another random point. more ppl point to me, especially young boys. today one indian kid of about 5 asked his dad while pointing at me 'is that a soldier' and asked if my uniform needed starching and other intelligent questions. totally wowed by him. and other infants in prams also look at me, in awe or in terror i dun know. there's always a certain reverence young boys have for soldiers but as they grow they will realise its not just about military training..anyway i enjoy scaring the poly guys with long stylish kim moh. this category of ppl never fail to look at me, and always go away looking dumbstruck. in the end, we're all ugly people.
"plak!";
x 5:59 pm
i'm a jc driver!!
S1 Branch-Manpower Office. This office which i am attached to always seems overstaffed, but everyone has a valid appointment, i wonder why. i described to my mum what i do there everyday: stone and rot, go for toilet breaks, go for breakfast and lunch breaks, read storybooks, talk cock and laugh until 5.30. oh did i mention i ask for work to do? and the worst thing is, there is NONE to be done! good thing, there is a jolly band to hang out with there. but i must admit the people there are weird. for me to find somebody else weird, that person must be weirder than me. right? their kind of weird is that they have at least 2 personalities. one moment, they are extremely caring, educating you in the style of work, how to slack off and other techniques. the other moment they will insult you(for fun i guess), and you'll be wondering HUH?
anyway there's no need for me to establish a presence there. they have done so for me. sembawang has only one Medical Officer for army personnel and his name is Dr Seow. Apparently, EVERYONE thinks i look like Dr Seow. and often fantacise that i'm him. so they will come look for me for MC. it doesn't help that the S1 ppl also introduce their 'doctor' to other personnel when they drop by. i pointed out that the similarity between me and him was the number of pimples on our faces! that's all!! but i heard he's a very caring doctor. and so optimistic, he declared me fit for driving despite my valid reasons for wanting out.."you never know until you try...instructor beside you at all times, you'll be very safe.." lucky my S1 declared me unfit. so for now, everyone should think of me as a nice guy, cos Dr Seow is one very nice guy.
i noticed weird looks and giggling from that bunch today. they asked me questions like 'do people throw stones at you when you go out" or "have you been assaulted while on the streets?" it didn't take me two moments to reply nonchalantly, "oh you mean i have a kiam pah face?" then they all giggled again. some guy wrote 'K_CK ME PLS' and handed it to me, asking me to fill in the vowel. i just told them, everyone i knew thinks so too, and they probably were amused again. some guy kept saying i dun look like a jc student. i found out that he thought i looked like some 'below O level standard of education' dropout or whatever.
but many others tell me 'you have the standard jc look. one look and i know you're from jc. it's obvious.' and i know that's not a very good thing. but i can't be too concerned with it, neither can i do anything about it. except acting both dumb and smart , which makes me appear dumb if you know what i mean. i'm letting them know i'm somewhat weird by giving incoherent responses. and its very deliberate. it's sometimes classifiable as dry humor, the things we laugh in common. for now, they're expecting me to play out the typical jc stereotype. haha. i'll see how i can keep up to that image of mine. and as usual, i've an aj senior and a cat high senior there, not that i know them, but it always helps. that's the good thing about army. somehow you'll find people that belong. even my section on tekong, has an aj and a cat high guy. its amazing.
lastly, they told me a jc driver is super rare. i used to tell my sis how the ITE graduates get thrown into drivers, the whole bunch of them. laugh, and get your just desserts. but i'm kinda proud of it now, at least i'm doing something none of my friends are doing. i'm like 70% sure i'll get revocated to a clerk though, cos army still sticks to educational level deployment. but a great guy in the office told me the conventions have been overturned recently. the ITE and ragtag mishmash now end up in the combat units, those requiring supposed higher education to understand, but i dun think so. while there's been a pioneer batch of jc drivers. at the end of the day it doesn't really make a difference so yeah nothing big. that's the reason why chee wei's the few jc guys in 3SIR, and the rest are the geylang-frequenters and such. i feel fortunate. not cos its slack, but cos my office has this thing called ren qing wei. i like my office. its one of the most comfortable and cosy ones. i've seen sparse ones. many of them. and i know office politics is something that is kept to a few and to a low level.
to summarise what i basically do everyday:
i reach 15 min before reporting time 7.45 am
i look at everyone coming back from fall in parade 8.05 am
i stare at random people 8.30 am
i go for breakfast 9.00 am
go back office relac one corner 9.25 am
(shred a few pieces of paper if there's any)
go for a super heavy lunch 12.00 nn
go to the learning cafe and sleep 12.20 pm
wake up go back office 1.30 pm
look for anything to do, be it pasting, filing, hole-punching, SHREDDING AND MORE SHREDDING! 1.45 pm
realise there's nothing to do, start talking nonsense and laugh 2.00 pm
feel excited that i'm going home in 30 mins' time 5.00 pm
go home! 5.30 pm
and it repeats everyday..and get this...not that i wanna slack, but there's really nothing to do! its kinda pathetic, that i beg for work to do. LOL.
"plak!";
x 7:15 pm
what's a birthday without you singing me my song..
a very big thank you to si min waye ning mrs toh melvin marian jesper and hou teng for remembering :)
i got my transport badge. today it says reliable, efficient, professional leh!! and this unit still has all the vestiges of their previous home base, simon road camp. i mean, they even transplanted this bright orange sign "SIMON CRESCENT", and that's the name of the road leading up to my unit. isn't that too much!!
my somewhat official day as LOBO(dun know what it means, its just another term for an OOT like me) started, had a talk with my chief clerk. quite interesting. the other LOBO posted out, leaving me with this guy who keeps repeating 'fucking cheeee bye' amongst other stuff. in army u really meet ALOT of ppl. and by this, i mean ppl who are kinda screwed up. really fucked up ppl. okay so what i did today was to rot. and i finished all the yearbooks, magazines, leaflets, propaganda sheets, inspirational storybooks whatever not. i've read them all. good thing i have library books to read.
and i just bought rome total war for 9.90. its like a gamers' dream come true. even brothers in arms is 12.90. i will buy them up when i get bored of the ones i have. which will be a long time from now. haha.
"plak!";
x 10:06 pm
make war not love
fought a game of total war today.
my force of 300 was laying siege to a castle with a garrison of 100. but a reinforcement army of 700 arrived to assault my siege forces. and i still prevailed LOL???
here's how.
half my force was made up of archer militia, the others were light cavalry and spearmen militia. so i basically rained arrows on the castle garrison which rushed out so happily, using my melee force to wipe up the mess while waiting for the main enemy army of 700 to assault my 300. so i lay in wait in the forest, advancing my archers. the computer sends out the forces in several deployments that average my total strength. so all i had to do was to evade as long as possible, and lay missile fire onto the impending troops. they would be routed under heavy missile fire, and retreat to the castle while the other troops continue on their attack. my main melee force was sent upfront only when the enemies got too close to my archers. and so my light cavalry was rather extinguished, about 80% casualties. wave after wave i rinsed and repeated, hoping to inflict as heavy the casualties as could be to weaken the overall strength. turns out that the reinforcement army went on a retreat and after the battle all the forces were disbanded.
and i won the siege and got the castle on the enemy's turn!? the casualty percentage was about 40% to 60%. so for every soldier i lost, the enemy lost about 3 soldiers. go archers go! you can never go wrong with archers. medieval 2 total war is simply too fun! though i seem to have lost out on the enjoyment especially after i came back from that rock. hong zhi is coming back soon! and i got to chat to her online!!! so happy. haha.
xavier was probably being driven mad by me at the concert. i was throwing f-words at ppl sitting behind me, practising my newly acquired expletives and perfecting their usage etc...good thing my boss now is a woman, so at last! no more vulgarities from my superiors. we saw a hot girl at subway. she kinda knew she's hot, and probably used it well to her advantage. she's so hot that i saw an adult ogling at her, top to bottom, bottom to top. sorry for being so random.
and charis is still as hot as ever though i've not seen her for at least over a month. hot chick.
hong zhi should be becoming hotter cos she surely will have put on some weight. haha.
"plak!";
x 10:35 pm
dear girl
i've missed you so, my friend. all the times we spent idling on the phone.
which was what we could not do for the last one month half
but which i hope we'll always do when you come back..
2 years of boredom and insanity. and i hope you'll pull me through.
cos i've always let you do it.
please would you promise me.
i really felt so horrid without your company, your comfort.
you said you were a lousy girlfriend
you said you were a lousy best friend
you never believed in yourself
you never knew how much sway you held over me
bet you didn't know you have been the best friend i ever have known
you have impacted me profoundly
our lives crossed at some point
mine irreversibly changed as a result
for better or worse, i don't care but
i only want an eternal friend like you..
"plak!";
x 11:39 pm