Wednesday, December 31, 2003
Quotes of the Day
"You believe because you see. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe."
--John 20:29(Bible)
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."
--Galatians 5:22-23
"And now these 3 remain: Faith, Hope and Love. But the greatest of these is love."
--1 Corinthians 13:13
Faith and Trust
Today's quotes are a little biblical today, but then again, that is the only way to explain something related to the divine. Faith in all sense is to believe something is possible and true without being able to see evidence of it. This is faith with respect to the God. Christians hold true the believe that Jesus is the Christ and has risen from the dead, though we are unable to see or have any evidence with relation to that. Being humans, our faith in never perfect: we doubt and we question, especially when things go wrong, the will of the Divine One. What I'm going to touch more on, since I have multi religious friends is faith with relation to other humans. When we say we have faith in a person's ability, it is more to trust in his ability than anything else. Hence I believe humans trust each other, and faith is more of the relation to a divine being.
Trust. Most humans are capable of that. In order to succeed as a team, we must have faith in each other's ability to perform his or her duties well. That is basic trust. But I have also known a person who cannot trust another. I feel that this person will lead a life full of fears because of the absence of basic trust. He fears the person next to him will cheat on him and not tell him the truth. He fears his colleagues are out to get him, he fears his neighbours will one day rob him. He even fears his son will one day cheat him of all his money. This person leads a life full of fear and paranoia. What an unhappy and miserable life! Due to this basic lack of trust, I think this person will never find true happiness. It is true that our trust in a person will sometimes be proven a misplaced trust, but that is not a reason to stop trusting. The person might not be able to fulfill his commitment to you because of some valid, urgent matters that require his immediate attention. And if that person deliberately betrays your trust, I believe in the divine. I might not be able to do anything about it, but one day, he might have to face being in my shoes with another person. Furthermore, God is omniscent. He knows your heart, and if your being cheated and yet you can forgive, blessed are you for God says in order to be forgiven by him, we must first learn to forgive. Our sins against God and others are far greater than we can ever imagine, and for him to forgive us, and for others to forgive us, we must first learn to forgive other as well. So never stop being able to trust, even if someone has betrayed that basic trust in you, for have faith: you and him are not the only person who knows: Heaven has eyes.
As usual, for your comments
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12/31/2003 06:39:00 PM , lovin till it hurts
Tuesday, December 30, 2003
Quotes of the Day
"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great makes you feel that you too can become really great."
--Mark Twain
"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds."
--Albert Einstein
Dreams and Ambitions
Dreams are things we imagine or hope will happen. For example, everyone dreams of becoming an instant millionaire through purchase of lottery tickets. It is the hope of something almost impossible, yet wonderful to happen. Each of us have our dreams of achieving something some day. More often than not, those dreams fade and we never even give them a second thought 10 years down the road in our lives. Most of such dreams are dreams beyond our control: winning the lottery and such. Some of which are to a certain extent within our control, but involves high expenditure or other factors that are difficult to achieve: travelling round the world, owning a bungalow in Baverly Hills or a prestigious beach resort. The last sort of dreams are those within our control, but due to the lack of persistence and determination fade away. This are the dreams like achieving a high standard in studies, getting that pestigious job, learning a new skill, gaining a scholarship, spending time on charity and such. The lack of determination and resolve is one of the most upsetting things I see. The reason why these people have not achieve their dreams is not due to environmental factors, but it is within: they have lost the war from within. They failed to pick themselves up from defeat to fight another day. Sun Tzu once said:"Battles are won and lost on the field, but wars are lost from within." Battles are lost when the person fails to take the opportunity to achieve his dream, but the war is lost only with the surrender: the person giving up on his dream. Therefore, a dream is never lost until you sign your own surrender papers.
Ambition: what is it? It is a level higher than dream. It is a dream with well defined goals, means and ways of achieving it. The route to the dream is well planned and is achievable. The dream no longer remains a dream, it has become that person's ambition. But still as always, the enemy tempts us to sign the surrender papers. The enemy is just the same as before: sloth and weak will. A person who gives up easily will never achieve anything in life. A friend once asked me to consider other options about my career path, since getting into medical school will be tough. I told him that I was unwilling to consider any other possibilities other than medical school. It might sound cocky and all that, but i believe in keeping my eyes dead set on the target and though at that time I had already failed 5 interviews and now going for the second last one which is the one I succeeded at: Adelaide. So finally, there is a happy ending to my story, succeeding the 6th time round. But even if I didn't make it, I would have gone post graduate as I will not consider anything else. Whatever course I took in the University, which in this case would happen to be Biomedical Science, is just a stepping stone to me for my MBBS. I have urged all my friends never to give up on your ambitions as I'm sure you have many. I still urge you on: never surrender.
Here's the link as usual for your comments....
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12/30/2003 05:57:00 PM , lovin till it hurts
Monday, December 29, 2003
Quote of the Day
“The price of greatness is responsiblity.”
--Sir Winston Churchill
“And his priority did not seem to be to teach them what he knew, but rather to impress upon them that nothing, not even knowledge was foolproof”
--J.K Rowling
Knowledge and Wisdom
Ok, today's my first blog using basic HTML. I hope this turns out well. Knowledge: What is it? It is basically to know something and because of that knowledge, we're able to apply it for something. But I believe what Churchill said above holds true. It also means that the knowledge we have can be applied for good or evil. Man discovered and gained the knowledge of explosives through Nobel. It was initially used to blow out mines so as to save effort. But man again twisted that knowledge to destroy life by creating bullets and bombs. The knowledge over different pathogens also allowed us to find cures and vaccines, but now has also created biological weapons. Even something which we now often take for granted, the aeroplane, has been misused to create fighter jets. Well respected scientists, like Albert Einstein had also used his knowledge of the mass energy equation, E=mc2, to create the atomic bomb. Knowledge is power, and power corrupts. Abraham Lincoln once said in order to test the true character of a man, we must give him power and see what he does with that power. This again is a statement I concur with. As for myself the knowledge I gain is guarded by an oath: the Hippocratic Oath. would not go into it's details, but simple enough, it just means to protect and honour life above all else; respect for the rights and feelings of others; not pride of knowledge, but remembering that the knowledge you have is but a miniscule of the ocean of knowledge known to man.
As for wisdom, let us put it that way: it is a virtue that ensures you stay out of trouble. Man of wisdom are also often man of foresight. They know what they want and are also capable of planning very well. Wisdom I believe is a gift from God. As with all his gifts, he will take it back if a person fails to use it well. How do we use it well? To me it simply means to do good to our fellow man, not use the gift to commit sins of greed and such. Wisdom is even greater than knowledge, for with wisdom, one will also know what to do with the knowledge and how to bring it to full fruitation. For what is knowledge if one does not know how to use it? So with wisdom, comes even greater responsibility:far greater than with only knowledge.
As usual the link included for your comments:Mail me
Dinner Party....
Just came back from a dinner party. It was suppose to involve only Dad, but in the end, Mom and me tagged along as well. It's his company's dinner and man, were his colleagues loud or what! they sang so loud (and out of tune I might add) throughout the entire night! my ears still resound with that noise. On the whole, the dinner was good, and looks like all his colleagues already know about my trip to Adelaide. Drunk a fair bit of alcohol as well, and as you know I do not have a great capacity for it! I took in about double my usual amount, that's the equivalent of a full galss of wine or 2 to 3 glasses of beer, since wine has a higher alcohol content, about 3 times, compared to ordinary beer. Feeling a bit high right now, especially considering the beer went down on a full stomach, the belly is looking extremely bloated right now. What have I been up to today? Spending the day with my HTML book learning all the basics and stuff. I'm done with that and I'm slowly progressing to intermediate skills. Not too bad really, considering this whole blog is in HTML without help from that sill programme known as frontpage. I guess I'll continue with the book tomorrow, since I can't find a date :p. Hope to master this thing before I head off to Adelaide, it's a useful skill.
12/29/2003 01:08:00 PM , lovin till it hurts
Sunday, December 28, 2003
Quotes of the Day
"Love is always patient and kind; it is never jealous; love is never boastful or conceited; it is never rude or selfish; it does not take offense and is not resentful. Love takes no pleasure in the sins of others, but delights in the truth; it is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope and to endure whatever comes. Love does not come to an end.... And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
-- 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, 13(From Bible)
"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall have mercy shown onto them.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God."
--Matthew 5:7-9 (From Bible)
"The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent tolerance; to a friend your heart; to your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself; respect; to all men, charity."
-- Francis Maitland Belfour
Love and Compassion
What is love? Well to me the perfect definition is as the quote above. That is the perfect love that I have yet to see in this world. Basically, there are 3 types of love: Athos, Eros and Agape love. Athos being the most basic form of love: the love between brothers and sisters, father and son, mothers and daughters. It is the most basic form of human love which most of us will find easy to express. Eros love, as it's name suggests, erotic: no, nothing dirty here, it means the love between two lovers. The one we all aspire for and dream to find one day. The one that the person of our dreams will shower on us for all the days of our lives. But unfortunately, this is only a dream, a dream many of us hope to see become a reality one day. It can also be the most disenchanting of the 3 loves, because when we think we've found it, that we have found the perfect love, that very same person that we have loved does something to show you that his/her love was not true at all. All you then wind up with is a broken heart and a broken spirit, wondering if you will ever love again. So it follows that this form of love is also one that requires a reciprocal, to love and be loved in return. Last of all, and the greatest of all, is Agape love: the perfect love. The love without conditions, the love that consumes. This is the only unconditional love of the 3: Athos requires a relationship, Eros requires a reciprocal from the object of your love. Agape love is the love that Christ exhibited when he died for mankind, it is the type of love when he said to love your enemies as yourself. That is the love that is required in this world to aquire peace. But again, it is only a dream, this love is the most impossible and elusive. We find it but easy to hate our enemies, but to love them? Even between friends, we quarrel sometimes, each refusing to give in to the other's wishes. I wonder: Will I be able to exhibit such love in my future? As a doctor in the future, I believe to love your patients is crucial in performing your duties well. If not, what you will get is a doctor cold and devoid of all emotions, not understanding nor feeling for the sick and dying. Everyday I pray for God to instill in me this sense of love for my patients in the future, to show them the true and greatest meaning of love: the love only Christ and possibly Mother Theresa was able to exhibit. Love in it's greatest sense has no strings attached. On this topic, I have read a book by Paulo Coelho titled "The Pilgrimage". It is an amazing book. You should go read it.
Compassion. What is it? I believe it is mercy mixed with love. It is a brother of Charity. In order to perform acts of mercy and charity, we must first feel compassion. It compels us to the greater need and love of another individual, to realise he is more unfortunate than you and because of that, you are compelled to do whatever you can to improve his state. I think all of us has this deep in our hearts. It is the basic human instinct to help our fellow man. Because of this, I believe it is the most easily exhibited of all the loves and compassion I've spoken about today. It is innate, all we have to do is express it. As for me, compassion is a small part of what has inspired me to my dreams. I feel the need to serve and to love the sick and dying. To show them that God is there even in their darkest hour and in the midst of their suffering. All humans can feel and understand love and concern by their fellow man. Love is such that in giving it, we receive more, the more we give the more we receive. Love is never love until we express it. Compassion as I said earlier, has an element of Agape love mixed into it. because of that little element, it follows the general rule of love: you must first love in order to be loved. Mother Theresa loved in all entirety, loved with all her heart, soul, body and mind. And now she is in heaven, the world world mourns the lost of a great lady because we loved her. Hence I pray that in order to fulfill my duty well in the future, I may learn to love the unconditional love and to feel compassion in its strongest sense for this is the key to being a good doctor, physician and a healer.
As usual, the link for comments....
Mail Me....
My Thoughts for the day
Ok, today's blog is quite late cos I arrived home only around 15 minutes ago. So just for the record, it's meant for 27th Dec in case it gets posted after midnight. I went out with my ex-JC classmates this evening. Though I haven't seen them in quite a while, I could still recognise them. There were only 6 of us but then, it is good to see some old faces again. Though I did not realise it, I actually missed them. And I'm happy to hear that most of them are doing well, whether in army or in university. We talked to each other, catched up.... They have their problems as well, but so do I. And I really do appreciate them still caring for me as a friend though I've been a jerk sometimes and I admit that :p but yeah, I'll try to be a nicer person from now on.... how many times have I said that? haiz.... I will try to be, for at least the next 40 days while I'm still here. Told them about medical school, and though they were with me, I hope I didn't sound like I was bragging. Just isn't nice to do that, but sometimes I forget myself. I'm just pretty glad to be able to do what I enjoy and have the passion for, and I wanted to share that joy with them. Anyway, I'll just shut up for now, it's late and if I carry on, I might stop thinking before I say anything....:p
12/28/2003 02:31:00 AM , lovin till it hurts
Friday, December 26, 2003
Quotes of the Day
"Nothing great in this world has ever been achieved without passion."
--G W F Hagel
"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not ; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
The slogan 'press on' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race."
--Calvin Coolidge
"Success is never final, failure is never fatal: It is the courage to carry on that counts."
--Sir Winston Churchill
Passion and determination
Hmmm... Today's topic in my opinion is the key to success in this life. Former US president Calvin Coolidge seems to agree with me as you can see from his quote. What is passion? My definition of passion is a strong desire for something or someone to an extent that it permeates your entire heart, body and soul. You become one with the object of your passion, for without it your life will be empty and unfulfilled. What do you think? Personally, I feel that is also like a dance, in a sense that when a person dances, he has to 'feel' the music, to hear it with the ears of his soul in order to dance and do justice to the music, he becomes one with it. It is similar to passion isn't it? To feel deeply and strongly for something, so much so that it possesses you and you become one with it.... Passion is also one of the most difficult feelings to express. Though it is very strong, it is beyond words. Maybe it is for that very reason that we cannot express such a strong feeling in words towards something or someone. The closest we have came to it is saying "I love you". Love and passion are sisters, but they are not the same of course. I will touch on love in a few days and maybe then I'll draw a comparison. But for me, all my friends and family knows where my passion lies. For without it, my life will be meaningless and I'll rather give the whole world than lose it. Fortunately it never came to that stage.
Now determination. In life all of us will fail, at least once, if not many times. Some of us will be able to pick ourselves up, other wouldn't. That is the difference in achieving success eventually. Like Sir Winston Churchill's quote above, it is the courage to carry on, which is determination to succeed, that matters. If a person gives up after failing, success is guaranteed to remain a dream. But if he chooses to pick himself up, then he is a step closer to changing a dream into reality. I have personally failed many times in life, but my dream kept me going and kept me strong and not give up. I urge everyone I've known to discover the beauty and power of your dream. Let it be your Guardian Angel, to protect you from failure and to give you strength when you have none left to carry on. Through sheer determination alone will success come. Talent and genius is fleeting, like President Coolidge once said. What counts is determination. Even if a person were to be the most talented person on this very Earth, but he refuses to use it for the lack of determination to succeed and the lack of dreams, that talent is just about as useful as a shirt we've stored away for years in a cupboard, refusing to wear it. It eventually spoils and rots away into oblivion. Talents are meant to be used and not stored away. And along with determination, then will the true potential of that talent be magnified to the whole world.
Now as for your comments, I hope you can post them to me through my
e-mail link here, I'll read thru and will publish them on my blog as well. Thanks
for your time.... You people have been great....
Thoughts for the day
Movie Mania
Well, I was suppose to go catch a movie today with Angeline and her friend Ken, but unfortunately, the queue was so bloody long! You just can imagine it until you seen it! We initially went to cineleisure to try and get tickets for Scary Movie 3, but unfortunately they weren't showing it. We then headed off to Lido to try. When we saw the queue, we almost freaked out! it was so so long that I think if they could help it, it would have went down the escalator! Simply horrible I tell you! I think it's the LOTR craze still.... That crazy 3 and a half hour long movie Matthew christened "Lord of the Urine" cos your bladder will explode after the movie! By the time we were at Lido, it was around 3pm, so we decided against standing in the queue for the next hour or more and do a raincheck on the movie. We'll be back another day, cos I suppose everyone is on leave today for a super long weekend. Instead, the 3 of us wound up wondering around Orchard Road, hanging around listlessly.... But at least I had Saigon Soda with lunch, I love that drink! it's actually sour plum with soda water....
Anyway, I'm suppose to go out with my boss tomorrow, but he hasn't returned my SMS to confirm with him if he's available. If not, I'll just go help my friend out with her chemistry instead. Whatever it is, I won't be left home in the afternoon tomorrow. :)
12/26/2003 10:00:00 PM , lovin till it hurts
Wednesday, December 24, 2003
Christmas Eve Part 2
Ok, I'm
back from my family gathering.... They were discussing about our CNY
celebrations. Strange isn't it? We aren't even done with one festival and now
we're discussing another. We've got a bungalow this year, so all's good. We get
to have everyone and not overflow into the streets. With an extended family this
size, it's a real headache every CNY cos it's overflowing with people! As usual,
I decided not to participate in that discussion. I don't believe I have much to
contribute so I'll leave the deciding to the uncles and aunts and I'll simply
enjoy myself then! :)
Anyway,
I've decided to start studying for Med Sch a few weeks back. Started on
Immunology and Microbiology. Very very interesting and fun! I'm just done with
basic bacteriology and now have to finish up with the clinical section. And
then, it's virology. I'm hoping I can finish till the viruses before leaving
early Feb.
12/24/2003 11:47:00 PM , lovin till it hurts
Quotes of The Day
You can know the name of a bird in
all the languages of the world, but when you're finished, you'll know absolutely
nothing whatever about the bird... So let's look at the bird and see what it's
doing -- that's what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing
the name of something and knowing something.
--Samuel Johnson
It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is
healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.
--Mahatma Gandhi
Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to
follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.
-- Erica Jong
Thoughts for the Day
Date: 24th Dec 2003
Today's Christmas
Eve.... I have about 40 more days left over here. Everything's pretty much
settled for my trip. Kinda anxious actually now that I'm finally where I dreamt
I will be those long long years ago.... 6 years of dreaming of sweat and of
blood.... finally I'm here. Now all that's left is another 6 more years of
studying. After being in the army for 2 years, I kinda missed studying so I'm
actually more than happy to take back my life as a student thank you! I'm still
worried though, will I make it through? Will I become a good doctor? So much
questions.... But one thing's for sure that is, I'll rather die than bloody
surrender my dream. I think the whole world knows that by now.
Anyway, I'm off to
Aunty Jane's House for Christmas Eve family gathering, then it's off to church.
Without Christmas Midnight Mass, It'll so be not Christmas.... It seems like our
entire Christmas is focused round it. Anyway, gotta go for now, I'll save my
story for another day. Hopefully this blogger thingy works....:P
12/24/2003 07:26:00 PM , lovin till it hurts
