Rest assured that there will be no more heated exchanges with you-know-who from this point on. :) My apologies to the readers for getting caught in the crossfire, but also many thanks to everyone who emailed to share your thoughts, offer words of encouragement / support, and provide valuable feedback.

It's a slow-ish day in consult this afternoon, something I greatly welcome after the exhausting night call on Sunday -- I saw 50 cases in total, and didn't get any sleep. The queue currently sits at... ZERO, hah! Famous last words. :P

The Sugababes Showcase pass is in my baju pocket, but there aren't any takers! How can this be? 3 pretty girls who like to wear slinky outfits and shake their booty and no-one's interested? Something's terribly wrong here. ;) Anyhow, I also got a free copy of their CD, "Three", which I have to admit is actually quite good. Lots of pop / R&B tracks, with above-average vocals. Some of the songs, such as "Hole In The Head", "Caught In A Moment" and "Too Lost In You", are extremely catchy. Would I buy their subsequent albums though? Probably not. I don't enjoy listening to female voices much, except for Barbra Streisand and Celine Dion. My Charlotte Church, Norah Jones and Mariah Carey CDs are sort-of flukes, and they're just sitting there collecting dust. Give me a male singer anyday! :D

Speaking of singing, check out the first semi-final group of 8 on "American Idol". I have my eye on Erskine and Fantasia, but who's that white fellow who looks like Michael Vartan? I can't watch the TV telecast till tomorrow 'cos I'm working, but I'll live. The latest season of "CSI" is starting tonight as well. Mark your calendar!

Just a belated mention of this year's Grammy Awards ceremony, since I didn't log on for 2 days. This was definitely the year of collaborations -- Beyonce & Prince, Earth Wind And Fire & Outkast ( plus an assortment of other people I don't recognize ), Celine Dion & Richard Marx, Justin Timberlake & Arturro Sandoval. My favs would have to be Beyonce and Justin, who gave unbelievably rousing renditions of Dangerously In Love and Senorita. Country star Martina McBride also did a great job -- she's got such a fantastic voice. But the surprise of the evening ( for me anyhow ) was The White Stripes' bring-down-the-house electric-guitar-twanging, drum-whacking extravaganza that got the audience on their feet. What a powerhouse duo! I'm almost tempted to run out and buy their album! Almost. :)

Saw Helmi Yusof's article in the paper yesterday, together with Shzr Ee's take on AI3. Nice to see him back!

One of the registrars in my department asked me about the possibility of a novel written by a local doctor taking off in Singapore or, perhaps, elsewhere in the world. Well, I said, it really depends on the novel itself, 'cos not many people are interested in Singapore, much less a book written by an obscure physician here. Even Prof. Chao Tze Cheng's collection of true stories, based on his long career in forensic pathology, failed to hit bestseller proportions. Michael Crichton's name came up, but if I may speak frankly ( lest "someone" claims I'm being "arrogant" again ), I tried reading some of his stuff, and didn't like his writing style, which is kinda slipshod and, well, mediocre. I think what he does have going for him is very original ideas, and the ability to visualize scenes in "movie mode", so film-makers favour his novels when adapting screenplays and churning out blockbusters. Besides the very profitable "Jurassic Park", Crichton also helped create the TV series "ER". Not bad for a Harvard grad who doesn't even touch patients anymore. :)

Sorry, I digressed. So is there a solution to the problem above? Maybe a joint effort of sorts, with a number of doctors coming together to contribute their own stories, then compiling this into a compact yet substantial collection which addresses a topic or topics that even non-medical people find quite fascinating. "But how will the profits ( if any ) be distributed?" I guess one good way is to make it a zero-profit project, meaning no-one gets paid, and all proceeds go to charitable organizations, which can be determined by the contributing authors. This is my ideal scenario. I actually know of one publishing company in Singapore that has already done something like this, but with writers from non-medical professions, except for myself ( I wrote a story about a child with cerebral palsy, whom I know personally, including her amazing parents ). It was, however, a low-profile event, and a $10,000 cheque from book sales was later presented to the Children's Cancer Foundation without much fanfare. Doing a medical version might be feasible, but who's going to helm it? I have an exam to prepare for, so I can't do anything for at least another 6 months. Maybe after that. There're lots of good writers in the local medical community after all. :)

Right then, I'm off to grab some dinner. I've seen about 5-6 patients so far, over a 3-hour period, woohoo! All but one was an army guy, hmm. But quite warranted, so I was quite lenient. Plus, I'm in a good mood. :P