Watch: Seiko Orange Monster

I’d been looking for a diver watch, and found the following:

The Seiko SKX781 Orange Monster

It’s an entry level automatic (translation: self-winding mechanical) diver watch by Seiko. It has all the requisite diver watch requirements: bright lume, unidirectional bevel, screw-in crown, solid stainless steel case.

Gear: Secondhand Floorball Stick

J. has bought a secondhand floorball stick from a friend. It’s a Fat Pipe Wolder 32. Flexible (32mm), quite suitable for improving the shooting strength of J.’s less-than-adequate physique. He will attempt to try out the stick more frequently.

Gear: Gerber Paraframe I Serrated Edge

This is NOT a review. J. has not time to properly evaluate the day to day use of this knife yet.

A couple of days back, J. bought a new folding knife. The Gerber Paraframe I, with a 3-inch partly serrated blade and a framelock mechanism. And the paraframe design, of course.

SingTel: “You move into new address, now we harass you for Ah-Long’s $20k”

SingTel is asking me to pay my handphone bill. Only thing is, they transfered over 110 dollars worth of debt from some other account to my account and demand that I pay it. What the hell?

Here’s the background. I started work in May, and received a corporate handphone with a corporate line with a corporate rate of about $14 a month. We would receive the bill at home, pay it and get reimbursed the money by the company with our monthly payslips.

Despite having informed them of a change in address, they sent the first 2 month’s bills to my own place… that had already been demolished. Okay.

The first bill I received was in August: $179.20.

W.T.F. In our line of work, receiving loads and loads of incoming calls is the norm… hence free incoming. There are 80 min free outgoing calls, and I used a total of… 19min. 500 free SMSes, of which I used 28. And that’s what I’d been doing every month.

Refusing to believe that I could spend so much, I took a look at the bill. Aha!

MISCELLANEOUS CHARGES AND CREDITS

Tfr of Acct Bal from A/c [RANDOM NUMBER] to [MY ACCOUNT NUMBER] 117.84
Tft of Acct Bal from A/C [WEIRD NUMBER] to [MY ACCOUNT NUMBER] 0.94

More background history. Apparently the number I took over for 4 months from when I started working for the company until I gave up the phone (with its number) on 1st September had been used by prior employees account a different account number. I’m guessing that the previous deadbeat user hadn’t paid his bills (the account is registered to Company Name) and now they want me to pay.

The Loss of Paeds Cards

Once upon a time, J. had a beautiful little set of cards. They were large, colourful with simple objects and huge lettering, packaged into a nice little bag in a red box.

Perfect for the Paediatics kit. Perfect for developmental assessment for kids.

J. lent it to someone. He went to Canada for 2.5 months. He neglected to write down who he lent it to, and seemed to have forgotten. In trying to recall, he could only remember one friend he had lent it to for the paeds test, but seemed to have gotten in back.

MBBS shorts is in one week, J.’s rummaged through his entire old house to look for it, and it’s not there. Disappointing, to say the least.

Remember, if you’re lending something to someone. Write it down. Get a contract, if necessary. Heh.

New Camera: Canon PowerShot A590 IS

This is not a technical review by a knowledgeable photographer. This is a gush-y post by a layman who has some inkling of how to work a point-and-shoot camera but still appreciates being able to adjust aperture size, ISO, etc. For a review review, try: Canon PowerShot A590 IS Review.

Here’s the box on J.’s table, closed up again after being viciously eviscerated (see some of its ‘organs’ next to it?):

Background – the IT Show 2008, one of three annual electronic fairs (the other two being Comex in Aug-Sep and Sitex in Nov) commonly held at Suntec City Convention & Exhibition Centre is being held from 6-9 March 2008, hurrah! His Casio Exilim Z500’s lens having thrown in the towel in January this year and requiring a hefty S$190+ to repair, J. decided to fork out a bit of extra moolah and get a new camera:

Canon PowerShot A590 IS (S$369)

Pardon the poor quality of the picture above. It was taken in a mirror and then flipped in The GIMP.

Accompanying it in the box were a set of comprehensive how-to manuals, the warranty card, connection cables for the computer (USB port), direct printing, a puny puny memory card with 32MB of space as well as two AA alkaline batteries (aren’t going to last long). Fortunately, the freebies came to the rescue!

Instruments of Illumination – Say “Ah…”

During the medical instruments fair, where stethoscopes took centre stage, most of the companies also hawked smaller medical equipment such as

• tourniquets (rendered useless by the improvised use of latex gloves)
• blood pressure sets (well, if you’re starting your own GP practice…)
• opthalmoscopes/otoscopes (your Dad owns Microsoft? yes, you can afford one)
• tuning forks (one 128Hz, one 512Hz)
• tendon tappers (one adult, one paediatric)

What most people think about buying after immediately after stethoscopes and immediately before tendon tappers (both instruments symbolic of doctors) is the humble pentorch. In the instruments fair, most of them cost in the vicinity of $16.

Why a pentorch and not a torch, you ask? The answer is in convenience. One wants something that’s small, preferably able to clip/hang on to something, easy to wield with one hand, and able to be whipped out quickly. A large torch just doesn’t cut it.

Now before you fall for the tricky, tricky instrument vendor’s hard sell (no, kidding, they’re actually quite friendly), J. would like to feature a couple of the instruments of illumination he has.

Stethoscopes for Clinical Years

Initially written on 10 December 2006, 11.23pm, this was brought forward for an addendum.

Introduction

Recently, there was a medical instruments fair held outside of the dean’s office. Unsurprisingly, the majority of students thronging the fair were from the final pre-clinical year. They should be stalking the wards relentlessly from May 2007 and what good hunter would go out without proper equipment?

In this school, there are three available brands of stethoscopes: Welch-Allyn, 3M and unidentified $6 China-made stethoscope. Unsurprisingly, the main battle is between the 3M Littmann series and Welch-Allyn series.

In the "good ol’ days", practically every doctor was using a Littmann Classic II SE ($95).? J.’s family general practisioner uses a grey Littmann Classic II SE.

Now however, the stethoscopes that are in vogue are the Littmann Cardiology III ($220) and the Welch-Allyn Harvey Elite/DLX ($222/$243 respectively).

The irony is that most medical students now carry better stethoscopes than their tutors, not that most tutors of surgical discplines really mind though. (Senior surgeon to house officer/ medical student: "Pass me your stethoscope.")

Early Christmas Present – Polo Ralph Lauren Blue

luncheonmeat received an early Christmas present from the cousin before she went overseas for the holidays:
Polo Ralph Lauren Blue – eau de toilette natural spray vaporisateur.

Interesting, given that luncheonmeat does not put on any scents. Maybe this Christmas season’s a good time to start.

Pocket PC – Useful Programs

luncheonmeat is the proud owner of a HP iPAQ rw6828 PDA-phone running on Windows Mobile 5.0. Its potential functions are many, but only a few functions are essential to luncheonmeat.

It is used as a mobile phone to call and to SMS. It is used to store reference texts. It is used as a pocket bible. It is used as a scientific calculator. It is used for its calender purposes and to-do list.

To a medic, there are many valuable programs access to mobile medical information. A good source is Skyscape, which offers the popular Archimedes medical calculator for free. Most of the programs, however, require payment.

luncheonmeat uses 1-Calc Lite as a scientific calculator for its price ($0.00) and effectiveness. Pocket e-Sword can used to load multiple bible versions, including the Literal Translation of the Holy Bible and New King James.

Multiple functions, multiple handbooks in one tiny package. The PDA (personal digital assistant) is definitely a valuable asset for any medic.