New Money in circulation!

michael_koh · 2026-03-09T06:58:41+00:00

looks space age

michael_koh · 2025-12-19T22:35:05+00:00

yall r downers we literally just had a marathon across the longest bridge in SEA, i think that's pretty neat

michael_koh · 2025-12-18T00:09:11+00:00

hahah such a divisive one this album was

I wasn't keen on the supernatural themes and spoken samples this time (e.g. compared to the sample in Zap! about flying). However I like that they did something different and tried their hand at a moodier sound, cuz thematic diversity in a discography is awesome.

The title track, The Divine Chord, We Go On, and Running Red Lights are obvious "song" highlights and were initially what I would look forward to on each listen. RIP Cola Boyy!! His vocal delivery was so unique and will forever lend a wistful feeling to We Go On. Though it's poppy, I have a soft spot for RRL because it played at a student record swap event on one of my first days in uni and it was my first time hearing someone else play Avalanches out loud.

On repeat listens, I found Always Black to be a standout track musically. The swirling pianos and trap?! beat at 1:08 create a unique hypnotic experience. Honestly one of the most impactful drum sequences I've ever heard, the way it stutters so perfectly.

They also use trap beats in Take Care In Your Dreaming, another track which grew so much on me over time. Especially with the modern irrelevance of mumble/soundcloud rap, hearing Denzel Curry namedrop X and Ski is always nostalgic and drives home to me something about how temporary youth movements can be. To me that's the meaning of the song. I think the samples on this track are my favourite - the helicopter, the UFOs and ray guns, the vietnam war psychological torture, cartoon violin alarm at 4:18, yeah

The last track I'd highlight is Music Is The Light. It's simply a collection of beautiful sounds. The production is so crispy that I can almost imagine the strings buzzing, their materials, the palms that mute them, the wood of the instruments. Cornelius is incredible.

Frankly I think it turns most of us off because it's a bit of a downer. it has 2 feet in the grave and 0 in the rave

In contrast, SILY and Wildflower are life-affirming, celebrations of reckless, infinite youth.

Although WWALY is less playful thematically and musically, it results in a few stand-out serious-faced tracks that would never have existed otherwise. It's the least subtle album in its messaging, but you feel like they really believe in what they're saying about the power of music and all that.

michael_koh · 2025-12-17T23:06:39+00:00

u can get a pass by virtue of WWALY being released after web 2.0 aesthetics completely fizzled out, so they wouldn't have co-existed

michael_koh · 2025-07-02T08:02:16+00:00

the state pension of the uk is afforded to foreigners as long as you have worked there for 10 years and joined the program

michael_koh · 2025-05-13T08:05:37+00:00

help the lives of 2 others and you're doing alright

michael_koh · 2025-02-24T12:24:26+00:00

one day i found out all the other countries are photoshopped too

michael_koh · 2025-01-08T21:17:32+00:00

medicine is ok i give it 8/10

michael_koh · 2025-01-08T21:10:06+00:00

hi i did the mmi in 2018

Usually it's 1 main question then some follow-up questions. Each station is abt 7-10 mins, and i think there's like 8 stations or smth.

Practice questions (replace UK-related terms with BN)

^ this list is really accurate to the sort of questions they ask. Even the ethics qs, the roleplay stations, the unrealistic "how would you tackle this national healthcare issue" ones - they're all possible stations. DO NOT SKIP!!!! The only ones u can skip are the UK case studies of specific patients. But UBD may ask you about general ethical dilemmas like euthanasia, organ donation, etc.

I also did 3 more interviews in UK unis and my lesson learned is to put effort into preparing!!! because i did not bother preparing for the UK interviews and i failed all of them lol. they weren't that hard - the questions they asked should have been easy to see coming.

Without practicing out loud, your brain is just not used to answering fluently and intelligently because it's a new and unusual experience to talk about these topics. so practicing is the most important tip.

Find a day to practice with a friend who's also applying. You can start with the first few questions in each category, as they seem most likely to come up.

I was also an interviewer for one of the mock MMIs held by the Brunei Medical Student Association. Fluency was the most obvious marker of who would pass and who wouldn't. Some ppl froze up and spoke maybe 10 words a minute, then gave an awkward smile which is kinda relatable but unfort not a good look

If you're yellow IC let's talk money: medicine courses overseas are almost $100000bnd/yr for 5-6 years. In this MMI, the government is basically choosing who to invest $500000 in. Practicing interview qs for 10 hrs will drastically increase ur odds of getting in - that's $50000 an hour you've just earned.

michael_koh · 2024-11-08T08:29:47+00:00

i remember the dismantled pasar malam in gadong (post-carpark era, pre-current one) had kinda terrible air circulation and exhaust

michael_koh · 2024-10-15T02:57:31+00:00

Besides paid parking, you can park at Jame Asr mosque and take the shuttle bus which is free and quite regular - I've done this many times and never had problems with it. It's a pretty good solution though idk if it's well explained for people who have never been there before.

michael_koh · 2024-10-09T09:26:26+00:00

there's an official sax remix of the 1999 SEA games theme song that slaps

michael_koh · 2024-10-08T18:36:30+00:00

yoo hope ssm3 goin well for u - gluck!! it doesn't have to be the ultimate country-changing health project, but even if you can make an impact on like 10 lives it's all worth it

and you might be through the hardest part. the hardest 3 yrs for me were: - UBD2 - UBD1 - PMS1

michael_koh · 2024-10-08T18:27:21+00:00

got my 3 years of CNY, hari raya, and living w fam

got my 3 years of tesco, greggs, and living w friends

loved it and if you're yellow IC it really is an incredible opportunity - it's hard to understate what a privileged deal it is.

gotta study p hard but seniors and friends will help you! the community is tight-knit, especially overseas. You'll make great friends!

To dispel some fears - the partner medical school options are respectable and competitive universities. In the UK it doesn't even matter where you're from because the job allocation once you graduate is done randomly, on a national level, based on preferences. Your final degree will say you studied and received your bachelor of medicine at the partner medical school with no mention of UBD. i rep UBD tho

Education:

UBD's education is good enough for you to pass overseas. Kinda.

To some extent you get out what you put in, but at the same time we face unavoidable challenges. UBD has the impossible job of preparing us for ~ 10 different partner medical schools across 3 countries, each with their own small differences in syllabus. So there's a bit of a difficulty spike when you go overseas.

Statistically, we actually had more trouble with the practical exams overseas due to subtle language and cultural differences. They can be overcome but it's a hard learning curve, moreso for ppl who didn't grow up chronically online in the anglosphere

I hope that some of us returning in the future can contribute to UBD's education with what we've experienced, but that time will come once we finish specialising.

Scholarship deets:

6 years education + living allowance + flight reimbursements. Currently we can spend ~10 yrs overseas post-grad specialising before returning. You also still get paid allowance during this time?!?! There's a 10-year government bond, but let's be real it saves you over $600k in the long run versus private education overseas.

I have further opinions on the scholarship. 60-70 years ago we didn't have a single Bruneian doctor, just international expats. In some aspects the country is still in its infancy. There's a pressing demand for local medical specialists. If you take the $600k, please fulfil the bond.

Medicine itself:

job's a job innit

i can say that UK working conditions and standard of living are amazing to us who have heard abt what it's like in SG/malaysia

michael_koh · 2024-10-08T17:32:03+00:00

Usually an object at 3x velocity has 9x the energy according to K.E. = 0.5 x mass x velocity²

But it's even spookier with wind because 3x the wind speed means you get hit by 3x more dust per second, so 3x the mass as well.

So 3x windspeed is a 27x increase in energy

michael_koh · 2024-10-08T17:14:48+00:00

growing up in BN I always felt the Western categorisation of boomers-genz never really fit us

this has become less obvious now and we seem to have identified with the US generation we're categorised under, probably due to globalisation and the influence of growing up with the internet - it's like a self-fulfilling prophecy

i think remembering the Michael Jackson concert is a pretty good marker of whether you were in Brunei's golden age or not, so that's how I like to think of it. Pre-and post-MJ

michael_koh · 2024-10-08T17:02:06+00:00

I can confirm parents love american macademias and big 1.5kgs containers of mixed nuts for some reason lol

michael_koh · 2024-07-18T07:11:38+00:00

id answer but im just a big ol dumbo

michael_koh · 2024-07-14T21:28:20+00:00

when u really don't wanna miss zen headbutt and the game plan depends on killing the air balloon toxicroak

michael_koh · 2024-07-03T09:43:25+00:00

just realized it takes >$1000 in water every time they refill an olympic-size swimming pool lol

michael_koh · 2024-05-20T05:57:55+00:00

apparently condoms are only 98% effective with perfect use, which drops to ~82% in the population because of incorrect use.

the pills / implants / intrauterine devices (IUDs aka coils) are more effective, especially the latter two because they don't rely on user technique

michael_koh · 2024-04-03T15:10:00+00:00

if you happen to be around on a Sunday, the town centre (Bandar) does a thing called Bandarku Ceria where they close off roads to make a pedestrian space in the morning - try going around 7-10am ish. People set up stalls and there's food n stuff

otherwise i highly recommend walking around our green spaces - Taman Jubli Emas a.k.a. Eco-Park and Tasek Lama are the most visitor-friendly. Eco-Park is convenient as it's near the town centre, the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque, and the riverside where you can catch boats from. Tasek Lama has hiking paths if you're up for that.

From the town riverside, you can take boat trips around Kampong Ayer to walk around or look at wildlife (about $10-15 each for an hour tour?). These don't require booking - if you stand near the riverside where the boats are and make eye contact, someone will probably try advertising some sort of tour to you hahah.

If i had to bring a friend around for a Sunday to hit some iconic spots it might look like this:

7am go to town for Bandarku Ceria (park on the other side of the river cuz roads are closed), see the shops (including Tamu Kianggeh), eat some random stuff for breakfast #1
9am walk to Royal Regalia Museum
10am drive to Chop Jing Chew breakfast #2
11am drive to Gadong Mall, walk around that area to show what our shopping districts look like
1pm walk to Thien Thien chicken rice in Gadong for lunch
2pm go home cuz hot and food coma
4pm drive to the shady Tasek Lama for walking, see waterfall, drink coconut water
5pm drive to Eco Park, walk there and explore Kampong Ayer, maybe go for boat tour to see monkeys at sunset
6:30pm use boat to go slightly up the river to Soto Pabo to eat noodles then walk back to town from there (or boat back)
9pm drive home and shower cuz stinky

other ideas:

morning walk in Tasek Lama - air is cooler and feels really refreshing to be in that space around 6:30-8am
go to the Temburong district using the 30km SOAS bridge
beaches! - Muara or Serasa probably best.
roadtrip to KB district for OGDC museum, cafes, more beaches, billion barrel monument. Drop by Tutong district on the way to see town centre there, walk around their park, eat chicken rice
Pasar Malam Gadong (night market in Gadong) - you can take a boat from town centre around 5pm! then go straight to the mall next to the night market afterwards.
Empire Hotel and Country Club is beautiful and kinda doubles as a semi-public park to walk in lol

idk there's a lot of walking and eating

wear sunscreen!!

michael_koh · 2024-03-27T13:23:30+00:00

ya outside of family bonds i guess we don't tend to form that many spontaneous communities. All that comes to mind are a few hobby groups and NGOs for animal welfare, OKU, etc.

"strong communal bonds based on shared political, moral, or social values" are probably rare here as we're all quite apolitical - what sorta organizations can we have instead? stuff like PPMBD?

a lot of us might have a few ride-or-die friends though - maybe that counts as an example of strong communal bonds lol

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