Anime Revival: Inachuu Ping Pong Club

Recently, I stumbled upon the entire series of the anime 行け!稲中卓球部 (Go! Inachuu Ping Pong Club) on Youtube and immediately got hooked. I'm currently watching episode 28.

Inachuu Ping Pong club by Furuya Minoru is a 1995 anime about a six member Ping Pong Club in Inachuu High School. The first time I learnt about the anime was through the Japanese Popular Culture module I was taking during my university days. Then, the series was unavailable in it's entirety. After so many years, thanks to P2P technology like You Tube, it was refreshing to be seeing it again and this time finally I get to watch the entire series on demand.

It is an extremely hilarious anime that gained immense popularity in Japan during the 90s and the manga version went on to win the prestigious Kodansha Manga Award. In fact, the series has very few equals. As one You-Tuber puts it, it is like South Park on Crack!

A bit of warning though, the stories contain a lot of perverse hentai humor that only the Japanese can come up with. There are a lot of reference to crap and sexual organs. Characters often exhibit anti-social and eccentric behavior, like dressing up in animal clothings, peeping into women showers, SM bodily acts, body odor attacks and public stripping. (Warning: female nudity in some episodes). Although the depraved acts were done in a light-hearted manner to elicit laughter, there will be others who object to this kind of humor.

The entire series can be viewed on You-Tube (uploaded by a guy called fanofpingpong). You can search Ping Pong Club 1 (1 for episode 1; 2 for episode 2 and so on), or follow this link to fanofpingpong page. English sub-titles are available.

Maeno pulling down his team-mate, Kinoshita's pants

The losers SM club

Maeno and Izawa in animal clothing. A meaningless act that defies logic.

Tanaka going under his teacher's skirt....

And got what he deserves..... hahaha

On The Recent Scuba Diving Tragedy

I read with a tinge of sadness at the news yesterday about the passing of Dr Marcus Lim, on a Scuba diving trip at the 7 Skies wreck in Malaysia.

From what I could understand from the news, Dr Lim, a 37 years old ophthalmologist, was an experienced diver as well as an avid photographer.

Via Google, I was able to find a website that showcases his excellent underwater photography works. (Follow this Link) Looking at his photography is probably one of the ways to remember him by?

The Singapore diving, photography and medical community had indeed lost a young talent.

=============================

Without speculating on whatever happened in the above-mentioned tragedy, I was reminded of my own diving misadventure which was a result of my own complacency and stupidity. It is that kind of complacency that comes along when you begin to think you are getting better at something, and then something bad happens and put you in your rightful place along the learning scale. You start to feel incredibly humble for a while.

Once during a dive, I forgot to ask for a buddy check as per standard procedure. The water condition was choppy so our instructor instructed us to descend immediately to five meters upon exiting the dive boat. This was to avoid staying on the surface as the strong choppy water might pull the group apart.

Once out of the boat, I release all the air in the BCD and descended immediately. I breathed in and suddenly realized that there was no air coming out of my regulator. I had forgotten to turn on my air!

Fortunately, I only panicked a little and began finning a little to keep myself stabilized at a certain depth. I was contemplating losing my weight belt and finning to the surface with whatever air left in my lungs when I spotted my dive buddy. Quickly, I signaled to him I was out of air and also showed him that no air was coming out of my regulator piece. My buddy promptly shared his air as he turned on my tank's air valve.

Reminded of this incident, I'd learnt to become more vigilant in checking my equipments before each dive. Also, I think I need to acquire more training to better enjoy diving.

That being said, I believe that no amount of training and experience can prepare us 100% for freak occurrences. There are always some risks involved in any sporting activity, which training and experience can only manage but not eradicate. The best thing to do when dealing with a life threatening situation is to try an keep a clear head so that training and practice can kick in to deal with it.

Anyway, life is about doing what you enjoy while being mindful of how to deal with the risks involved. Being fearful of risks and consequently not doing what you enjoy for the sake of life preservation is pathetic and not living at all. The Mel Gibson line in "Braveheart" said it all: "Every man dies, but not every man really lives."

Another NHSS Gathering 24 Oct '09

...another Nan Hua alumni gathering. This time, it was a much bigger cast consisting of school mates from 4E3, 4E6, 4E7, 4E9 & of course 4E8. Nice!

Photos 171009

Altis 7766
Make: Canon EOS 40D
Shutter Speed:1/64 sec.
Aperture: F/11.3
Focal Length: 44 mm
ISO: 200
Metering Mode: Pattern
Exposure Program: Shutter Priority
Date Taken: 17 Oct 2009

Present
Make: Canon EOS 40D
Shutter Speed:1/16 sec.
Aperture: F/3.5
Focal Length: 21 mm
ISO: 1000
Metering Mode: Pattern
Exposure Program: Shutter Priority
Date Taken: 17 Oct 2009

How I Went Under The Knife To Remove My Lipoma

Recently, I underwent a day surgical procedure to remove a lipoma on my neck for almost two years.

A lipoma is a benign tumor consist of fatty tissue.

In medical parlance, lipoma is considered harmless but a slight bump is evident on my right neck. At the insistence of my mother, I agreed to have it removed. She feared that it might become malignant.

The entire process began two months ago in August after a visit to the neighborhood polyclinic to get a referral letter and an appointment date at a hospital of my choice. Getting a referral via the polyclinic could offset a significant portion of the cost the hospital would normally charge.

Fast forward to October, I dutifully went for my appointment at Clinic C, Singapore General Hospital. The staff were generally helpful but the number of patients were too many so I had to wait for a long time before my turn. Interestingly, the hospital now has an innovative way to inform patients of their turns. I receive an sms when I'm fourth in line to see the medical officer.

The medical officer basically gave me a rudimentary examination, a diagnosis and a proposal of treatment by surgery. I was then promptly send to schedule a surgery date with the nurse.

Two weeks later, I found myself lying on the surgery table with my back facing up and my head turned right to expose my right neck. At that moment, deep regret for conceding to the surgery did cross my mind as I'd never experience someone holding a knife so near to my neck before. Fortunately, I wouldn't be able to see because the nurses covered me up in hospital cloth with only my neck exposed.

Anesthetics were administered locally so I didn't feel any pain. However, I could tell when the scalpel was cutting in as there was a lot of pressure and then the sound of suction (presumably to suck away blood?).

There was a single moment when the scalpel cut up a part of my skin that was probably not well anesthetized and I felt a searing excruciating pain. When I told the surgeon how I felt, that area was anesthetized again and the pain went away.

Except for that, the surgery otherwise went smoothly. The stitching was also quite painful. The doc told me that since it was a deep cut, they had to sew up from the inside and then the outside. I overheard the surgeon chatting with his nurses about his choice of stitching thread as he went along. He likes to use thread that self dissolved. Yey! That meant I didn't have to get the stitches removed.

I couldn't remember how long was the procedure but later found out it lasted about 45 minutes. Right after the surgery, I was talking with the surgeon. I asked to be shown the removed lipoma which would be sent for pathological testing. The surgeon described it to be 3 cm by diameter. The lump of yellow fat looked like an egg yolk with blood trails on the surface. I very much wanted to take a snap shot of it and post it here but unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to bring in my phone camera into the operation theater.

That was the last time I saw my lipoma after it was lodged in my neck for 2 years.

Today was the follow-up appointment. I returned to Clinic C and met with another medical officer. It was another long afternoon of waiting. This medical officer was as prompt as the previous. She just gave my surgery wound a cursory examination, told me that my lump wasn't cancerous and promptly discharge me.


Oct 6: Taken just after the surgery. My wound was dressed by a big woolly waterproof bandage

Oct 11: Taken 4 days after the surgery, the external bandage has been removed. The wound is still covered by small strips of bandage. The faint but visible blue circle was marked by the surgeon to indicate the lipoma lump and where to incise


Oct 22: Taken after the follow-up examination. The remaining bandage were removed. The wound was swabbed clean with alcohol. It looks like the stitching had healed well. What is left is a 2.5 inch stitch