Chris: So what would you say is the most important thing you've learned this first year as a doctor?

Me: How to sleep in a suit.
Starbucks has officially invaded our hospital. Yup, on the first floor of our pediatric hospital, there is a full-blown Starbucks, along with a 7-Eleven, Yamazaki Bakery, an organic food store, and a tea and juice bar. ( Read more... )

A Scotch neat with two cigarettes, or a cognac with a cigar if I'm feeling particularly extravagant. There's always something to be said about this kind of sinful indulgence. In fact, certain conversations only take place under such settings. Me, I like the psychological aspect of the ritual. If only we could all inhale to the depths of our souls ( Read more... )

One thing I will never understand is how people in South American and some European countries can be so alarmingly obsessed with soccer. Or "football," I should say. It's like the whole country lives for one single purpose, to play soccer, to breathe soccer, to compete with other countries as if soccer teams were these countries' most elite ( Read more... )

A conversation that took place the other day while I was closing a surgery with my resident.

Me: So why did you start smoking after you became a resident?

Dr. Yeh: Because you can't have a drink between surgeries.
Such is the surgical life. Fortunately for me, I haven't felt the need to light up after a surgery, not yet anyway, mostly because I'm ( Read more... )

Usually I don't enjoy answering my PHS work phone because it's always some nurse, intern, or resident with something for me to do. But this morning it was a lady from medical records informing me that I had just won January's $100 award for Best Medical Chartwork! See, every month, a group of very senior attendings roams through all the files down ( Read more... )

After a dinner watching self-produced reruns of Friends and a course of retail therapy at Carrefour where I spent $70 on various products that I don't really need but feel like indulging in, I'm feeling much better. I also kicked back with Pedro in front of the TV with a Smirnoff Ice and bitched about the shit that is Taiwan and that was quite ( Read more... )

Today I woke up at 1:40 PM, which is an extremely late hour for me. I guess I must have been more tired than I thought. A lot more tired. This infectious diseases rotation has left me with only four hours of sleep every night, and that's just not enough to make it through a 90-hour workweek with. Maybe for the first few days, but after a week the ( Read more... )

Usually, I am not a meme kind of person, especially not one who responds to being tagged, but just this once I will make an exception.

The Rules: Write an entry about Five Guilty Pleasures. In the end, you need to choose five people to be tagged and list their names.

So here goes:

Five Guilty Pleasures

1. Sashimi. Ever since I realized that the ( Read more... )

The only reason why you like quizzes so much is because they always tell you that which you already know.

And to that end:

Your Scholastic Strength Is Evaluating
( Read more... )

Cai-Feng, the cook at the breakfast place I eat at every morning on my way to work, made sushi this afternoon, so after work I went over to have some sushi and sashimi for dinner with Cai-Feng, her three kids, and Su-Feng, the owner of the store. After dinner the kids broke out these bubble-blowing playthings and proceeded to see who could blow the ( Read more... )