the good and the bad

Watched Friends on TV, really hilarious. The episode where there's this oldish male stripper and Joey's a celebrity on The Pyramid Game and there's this high school reunion or something for the rest of them.

The Swan is a terrible show. It's about putting women through ridiculous things like plastic surgery and diets and I don't want to know what else, so that they have a chance to be models. It's ugly and disgusting, and so, so wrong.

There was an ad on TV, by the Health Promotion Board and the Institute of Mental Health, about depression. It's good stuff. It gives an overview of what depression is like, that it might be triggered by stress, possibly from losing a job or perhaps relationship difficulties. It also says that depression can be cured through counselling and medication, that it's a treatable condition.

Also, the other day the guys at lunch also talked about ninja turtles, that someone bought a set for another colleague's kids, but it was this angel/mortal thing so he was tricked and actually the person he was supposed to give the ninja turtles to didn't have kids, so that was awkward.

So anyway at work I'm having fun modifying and writing these macros for Excel, but I have this feeling that Microsoft Access might be better suited for the tasks at hand. But if it works, why change, right? It would probably be simpler for me to just stick to Excel, because afterall the basic macros have already been written and tested.

At Tan Tock Seng Hospital, there's what is known as private rate versus subsidised rates. The way these work is that you get private rate if you self-refer, and you usually get an appointment to see the doctor much earlier. If you go see polyclinic doctor and then get a referral to see a specialist at the hospital, you'll get the subsidised rate (no matter how filthy rich you are), just that you might have to wait something like 3 or 4 months before your appointment.

The thing is that I got an earlier appointment when I came back to Singapore (if I had waited, I would probably still be waiting to go back to CMPB now...), which was private rate, and now it seems there's no way to switch to the subsidised rate. Well, there is a way, but for that way they assess your assets. So even though I earn peanuts as an NSF, they consider my parents' income and so I'm ineligible for the subsidised rates. So basically I have to move out and start my own family before they stop considering my parents' income in the calculation.

The other way is for the doctor to discharge me and for me to see him again later after getting a referral from the polyclinic. The referral I already had from the polyclinic is null and void because I was already seeing the specialist at the private rate. The moral of the story is that one move could cost your whole life.

Is every cell in my body that has my DNA considered a human being?