misc
1. a few days ago i decided to stop playing mousehunt and ghost-trappers. i still play facebook games but i limit myself to scrabble and scramble now.
2. i started a routine of completing one game of minesweeper under 150 seconds before going on the net. recently, i clocked times of 97 seconds for expert mode and 30 seconds for intermediate mode. i have learnt that in order to clock good times at minesweeper, you need to be calm and composed. thinking about the record distracts you. thinking about how fast you took to clear the first 50 mines distracts you too.
3. i suffered a gum infection on wednesday at the wisdom tooth area. that was my second gum infection (in that area) in a month. oddly, i did not encounter any gum problems between the surgery in late sep and late nov. i went to see my dentist and he told me that the gum infection resulted from food being trapped in a pocket at the exposed molar beside the extracted wisdom tooth. he prescribed me some antibiotics and anti-swelling medicine. he also asked me to purchase a special toothbrush designed to reach hard-to-clean areas such as the pocket at my molar.
i did not trust his judgment as i felt it was very unusual for there to be 2 gum infections in a month. i thought there had to be something wrong with the wisdom tooth extraction and/or the wisdom tooth region. i remember i did not encounter similar problems when i got the other wisdom tooth extracted a few years earlier. it also did not help that the dentist i saw regarding the first gum infection (both gum infections felt similar) had a different opinion of its cause. he thought that it might be a result of incomplete removal of teeth fragments. otherwise, it could be one of those rare events that happen every once in a while.
i went to alexandra hospital's dental clinic to seek a third opinion. they had my pre-extraction x-rays and were perhaps in the best position to tell me what was wrong with my gum. surprisingly, the dentist at alexandra hospital told me that there was nothing unusual with my gum. it was nothing more than my body's natural immune reaction. after all, full healing of the exposed molar and the gum would take at least 3 months. he further advised me to discontinue the antibiotics and anti-swelling medicine prescribed by my dentist. the anti-swelling medicine, he said, was a steroid that could impair my body's ability to fight other illnesses. i asked him what i should do if future gum infections occur. he said they shouldn't happen, which didn't comfort me because both of my gum infections should not have happened to begin with, but if future gum infections occur, i should wait them out as far as possible. i dont know if i can trust his opinion.
4. most zi-char/mixed-vegetable-rice cooks did not set out to cook. in fact, an increasing number of such cooks come from malaysia and china as few singaporeans are willing to take up the stuffy kitchen job with long working hours and little rest. it is my opinion, however, that a large percentage of zi-char/mixed-vegetable-rice stalls sell decent food even though their 'cooks' were new to the cuisine here and probably only learnt how to cook the (large range of) dishes over a few days.
i want to be able to cook like a zi-char/mixed-vegetable-rice cook. it cannot be too difficult, can it? i dont want to source for exotic herbs, sauces and other ingredients in order to make the lengthy ingredient-lists on most recipe books. i am not cooking for some gourmand. i just want to be able to fry a decent plate of vegetables, tofu or meat using standard kitchen items such as soy sauce, salt, sesame oil, onionchilligarlicginger, etc.
where can i learn that/get recipes for that?
2. i started a routine of completing one game of minesweeper under 150 seconds before going on the net. recently, i clocked times of 97 seconds for expert mode and 30 seconds for intermediate mode. i have learnt that in order to clock good times at minesweeper, you need to be calm and composed. thinking about the record distracts you. thinking about how fast you took to clear the first 50 mines distracts you too.
3. i suffered a gum infection on wednesday at the wisdom tooth area. that was my second gum infection (in that area) in a month. oddly, i did not encounter any gum problems between the surgery in late sep and late nov. i went to see my dentist and he told me that the gum infection resulted from food being trapped in a pocket at the exposed molar beside the extracted wisdom tooth. he prescribed me some antibiotics and anti-swelling medicine. he also asked me to purchase a special toothbrush designed to reach hard-to-clean areas such as the pocket at my molar.
i did not trust his judgment as i felt it was very unusual for there to be 2 gum infections in a month. i thought there had to be something wrong with the wisdom tooth extraction and/or the wisdom tooth region. i remember i did not encounter similar problems when i got the other wisdom tooth extracted a few years earlier. it also did not help that the dentist i saw regarding the first gum infection (both gum infections felt similar) had a different opinion of its cause. he thought that it might be a result of incomplete removal of teeth fragments. otherwise, it could be one of those rare events that happen every once in a while.
i went to alexandra hospital's dental clinic to seek a third opinion. they had my pre-extraction x-rays and were perhaps in the best position to tell me what was wrong with my gum. surprisingly, the dentist at alexandra hospital told me that there was nothing unusual with my gum. it was nothing more than my body's natural immune reaction. after all, full healing of the exposed molar and the gum would take at least 3 months. he further advised me to discontinue the antibiotics and anti-swelling medicine prescribed by my dentist. the anti-swelling medicine, he said, was a steroid that could impair my body's ability to fight other illnesses. i asked him what i should do if future gum infections occur. he said they shouldn't happen, which didn't comfort me because both of my gum infections should not have happened to begin with, but if future gum infections occur, i should wait them out as far as possible. i dont know if i can trust his opinion.
4. most zi-char/mixed-vegetable-rice cooks did not set out to cook. in fact, an increasing number of such cooks come from malaysia and china as few singaporeans are willing to take up the stuffy kitchen job with long working hours and little rest. it is my opinion, however, that a large percentage of zi-char/mixed-vegetable-rice stalls sell decent food even though their 'cooks' were new to the cuisine here and probably only learnt how to cook the (large range of) dishes over a few days.
i want to be able to cook like a zi-char/mixed-vegetable-rice cook. it cannot be too difficult, can it? i dont want to source for exotic herbs, sauces and other ingredients in order to make the lengthy ingredient-lists on most recipe books. i am not cooking for some gourmand. i just want to be able to fry a decent plate of vegetables, tofu or meat using standard kitchen items such as soy sauce, salt, sesame oil, onionchilligarlicginger, etc.
where can i learn that/get recipes for that?