Today, I learned lots of complicated things about the care of marble floors. ( That and how hypnotic marble floor-waxing can be, especially if you lack sleep :)) It was Fixing Defects Day, and there must've been 10 guys trudging in and out of the apartment over the course of 4 long hours, some of whom didn't seem to have any particular task to perform. "Must be the air-conditioning," my mom commented, heh. :)
Doing a night shift without the prerequisite afternoon nap is taxing. For the first time ever, I've volunteered to sleep during the first rest slot. Let it be a quiet night please...

*****

Post-90 minute snooze, I'm feeling slightly rejuvenated, and indebted to a fellow MO who held the fort in order to let me continue resting. Seems he was bombarded in a major way by truly bizarre cases ( e.g. bilateral mid-forearm paraesthesia -- the patient was okay, but his wife was bouncing off the walls ). Upon waking, I was greeted by a string of police cases brought in for blood alcohol levels. If you've done ER postings before, you'll understand the intense frustration attached to those thick stacks of forms and toxicology tubes. Must've set a record for clearing 5 such cases in the space of 10 minutes. The police officers looked as if they didn't know what hit them. :D

I've received comments about my watching too much reality TV in the past, and no, I don't mind them at all. :) I don't contest these allegations. Guilty as charged. On analyzing my usual TV fare, I've come up with a list of favourites:

( not in order of preference )

Survivor
Fear Factor
Amazing Race
American Idol
The Bachelor / Bachelorette
Maximum Exposure / Now See This
Guinness World Records
Scariest Places On Earth ( I think that's what it was called. Hosted by Linda "The Exorcist" Blair )

Pretty wide spectrum, come to think of it. But why do I find them so addictive? For some, it's the characters that draw me in ( Survivor, American Idol, The Bachelor ). Others, it's the shock tactics ( fellow kisses aggressive, unrestrained venomous cobras on Guinness, pilot crashes fighter jet and lives / Taiwaness politicians boxing each other on Maximum Exposure, people getting the crap scared out of them on Scariest Places, eating live spiders and cow eyeballs on Fear Factor *yuck!* ). It's an all-or-nothing phenomenon, I think. You just either love or hate the genre.

It also helps if you have no social life, like myself. :P

I find Survivor, American Idol and Bachelor / Bachelorette more compelling because these series run for months, and offer interesting insights on human nature. The Idol franchise, especially, raises the idea of "power to the people" to another level, as evidenced by the latest season, where this power is starting to get increasingly abused.

Not so long ago, an article in The Straits Times commented on how American Idol is a reflection of teenhood. But why stop there? Just apply it to life in general, and include Survivor, The Bachelor and their siblings in the whole mix. Political manoeuvreing, deception, hypocrisy, injustice, disappointment, the very occasional happy ending -- who needs soap operas? No wonder it's called "reality" television.

Besides, I need Maximum Exposure to help me brush up on my ATLS. :)

Nothing to report work-wise. Boring is good. :D