To change is difficult. Not to change is fatal.

what spurns an update?

2006-10-08T01:40:00.000+08:00

i stood and i watched as mayhem ensued,
blended in with the shadows surrounding
too tired? or not caring to bother?
stale from too many times intervening
poor decisions, silly planning, pushed on past the limits
had i cared to care, bothered to bear
occurance happen not?
maybe, possibly, likely

as mayhem ensued, glass shattering, arms flialing
i stood in the shadows and gawked like the others
thinking not of wat can be done
just gazing on, as things went on past

show over? red curtain closing?
or is it just the intermission?
stick my neck out?
Oh! why bother!
too little too late!
or just unwilling to stand?

too tired? or not caring to bother?
i retreat to retire
voices n shouts reach down
oh! so the shows not over

retired on my bed
i begin to ponder
why had i stood and watched, and not bothered?
too tired? or not caring to bother?
could either be but just poor excuses?

had i bothered to bear or share my cares
occurance happen not?
maybe, possibly, likely
on this shall i ponder

but whoose care to concern?
others, and the greater good?!?!
den wat about me?
who will care?
who should come first?

i wonder, i ponder, i struggle,
and finally i pray
i noe the answer
but still i struggle and i grapple
will i stand and watch, as mayhem ensues?
or get out and help
and may any occurance be
not as was such

well after months of no updates, what actually makes me update and at 2 am!???!?!?!
the perth royal show, passing driving, mid-semesters, all illicited null response.

well, the past months, while actually not bothered much about my own birthday,
i prefer it cosy and quiet, i've made special effort for others birthdays.
it takes ALOT of time, ideas, planning and energy! to make it fun and memorable,
like smashing cake (of cos a decoy), pouring icey soapy water, and other memorable stuff
while pple enjoy it, is it just a show? and exhibition for bystanders to enjoy? i dun noe
so i left it, let others have thier go, erm... revolving around alcohol? well its ok i suppose, since
dae all get wasted anyway

tonight or rather this morning, it was crap! i could have involved myself more!
no! dun be silly! dun do that! where's the plates? the spoons? wats the plan?
instead of just letting it be, and thinking 'they will learn' *snorts*

well, things got messy, cake flew, tempers flew, bottles smashed,
where's the celebration?

my new speakers!!!

2006-05-19T22:48:00.000+08:00

hehehe... ok, despite my busy schedule, i did manage to squeeze in some time to treat my ears a little, and retired my teeny pc speakers for something a little bigger and alot better....

want cheap(er) and good? den welcome to the world of D.I.Y

while not exactly dirt cheap, it would kick ANY Pc Speakers...yup including those 5.1 / 7.1 stuff...

a good 4" woofer + good 1" tweeter in a PROPER resonant wooden box with some damping material, some proper crossovers, and the bestest cheapest amp available = budget kick-ass sound

OK, i cheated a little, and got the stuff pretti much IKEA style put-together... no dremeling and stuff like dat onli glue and screwdriver realli needed, but den i also had a brainwave, and decided to take my wooden boards to school for my erm friends to decorate or vandalize... one for college, one for uni, so i got too realli unique, cool and a-teensy-bit-cheapish looking speakers! hahaha....

"For little tiny speakers, they are, if I may be permitted a brief excursion into the vernacular, bloody good" - Dansdata

Here's my desk with my new speakers... it realli opened up a new dimension in my music, EVERYTHING sounds so different and new....i'm re-listening to all my music and i keep hearing stuff i never heard b4!

This is the venerable T-amp ....
"the giant killer" hahaha.....
despite being onli 15 watts, it realli realli is more than enuff!
i did try to crank it up to max just for kicks, but b4 even 1/2 way, my room was beyond tolerable noise levels...

Front view of em.....

Side view.... with grafitti... hehehe....

busi busi busi....

2006-05-15T17:02:00.000+08:00

juz when i was wonderin y everyone from every other course was so stressed, it's time for the heat to be turned up for us med students.... haha....at least now it fits into what i expected med school to be like! there are heaps to cover and learn, n tonnes of assignments to write!

coming up tomorrow, medical chemistry test, due next week - rural week report and history essay, + histology quiz, physiology quiz... week after, case study report n clinical practise exam! after dat its more or less exam period! So fast!!!

On a brighter note, i did get back the gay fhab essay, quite happy wif my results, considered that i thot and wrote a 1000 word discussive essay, and changed it in the last minute to a 1500 word argumentative essay, which I had to cut by 500 words! to make it back to 1000 words! n i got my literature review back too!!! also did surpirsingly well 2! haha... i think i like these essay assignments! lol

hols over :(

2006-05-03T20:10:00.000+08:00

phew... hols are finally over :( .... dat means schools startin again
n exams will be coming soon after....
On a brighter note though i did pass my first history essay, not
spectacularly, but i'm satisfied wif it!

oh n i've decided to limit myself to 4 pics...hehe...
not onli will i save myself the stress n trouble of trying to get blogspot
to properly allign the pics n words, but i can save time trying to choose n
resize all the photos

okok...more on rural week now....

short version - it was fun

slightly longer version with 4 pics......

4 our med program, all of us get bundled of to da country for a week,
to try n better understand rural healthcare and lifestyle, supposedly.

so dae bundled 40 of us med n dent students of to the not small but
sparshly populated shire of northampton!

while accomodation WAS modest, it was still OK for mi! afterall, the food
cannot be much worse then wat i had during ns in the cookhouse!

ok, pic 1....... dis was our groups name n poster..... no prizes for
guessin who the other groups were, dae are explicitly highlighted in
our group poster.

if ya look at the top right hand corner, u will see wat is an alpaca( dats one of da groups) FYI, the farmers rear alpaca's together with thier sheep, as the mild docile lookin animals in fact protect the sheep n can kick n kill any wild animals!

now if ya look at the bottom left hand corner, u will see a head that looks similar to the one
on the other groups poster( sans the stake n pool of blood)...

besides going to the beach, watching the ANZAC day ceremony,
going to hosts dinners n stuffin ourselves dunring tea time, yeah, n doing interviews,
we gotta do plastering! as in plaster casts!

n suturing too!!!

OK ok... onli the first one was nice n straight, but i was in a rush to get it done quick so i could get another suture thingie n have more goes at it!

n in between interviewing farmers (sheep dog are realli realli friendly n furry!!!)
we still found time to go about a photoshoot! hahaha....

fortnightly update :P

2006-04-21T09:02:00.000+08:00

phew* ..... finally managed to upload my photos!!!
n even though thier all in a messed up sequence, from experiance,
blogspot's dodgy interface will juz make it worse, or worse still, make my images
disapear!!!!

OK, Major Major Photo upload!!!!

Went to Margaret River over the easter hols, from mon to weds...

argh!!! n now i can't post text between pics!!!!
i think i uploaded a little too many!!!

Lemme try putting the text beside the image den!

Dis is a brewery!! seriously!, v.nice surroundings huh?

ahhh..... the chocolate factory!!!!
they have ALOT of chocs!!! n u can watch em make it too!!!

ooohh.... soft drinks factory!!!
we got to taste all the funky flavors! ginger beer with ginseng and guarana, chili cola.....!!!! ohh... n everyones new favourite! Lemon, Lime Bitters!!!!

Margaret River is known for it's wines..... so of cos we did visit many wineries!!! they have wineries all over the place! n dae juz letcha sample a little dis, n a little dat!!! of cos, i din try lar!

OK, dis was at the beer brewery, the trees lining the one way road up to it looked real cool, so we stopped, jumped out for a photo, n jumped back in b4 the car behind got too close!!!

cheese factory!!!!

ahhh.... the free samples at the Choc Factory!!!

dis is busselton beach!
look at the water!! it's realli realli clear!!!

n dis is busselton jetty!!!
if ya look closely at the pic the jetty curves to the right at the end n continues some more!!! it's 1861 Metres long!!!!

dis is near margaret river, where we went canoing. But during this time of da year, the river barely flows into the ocean. there's a whole load of beach kinda separating it... so the river is nice, shallow n calm, while the ocean is amazingly full of waves!!! realli bug waves!!!

berry farm!!!!
jam's/jellies/fruit wines....

more waves near margaret river!

we had a real wood fireplace at out chalet!!!

more berry farm!!!

customary seagull shot :p

ohhh... horse riding!!!

it was quite fun! especially when they start to trot! they are realli huge animals!!!

dis was our house for 2 days!
pretti nice, 3 bedrooms, kitchen, bbq, etc.... even had a small jacuzzi!!

dis was along margaret river.... the sand in the back seperates the ocean with the huge waves (left) with margaret river (right)

the Onli pic of mi on my horse :(
cos i was too busy taking other pple ... lol....

cute petrol station along the freeway!

n Candy cow!!!
e famous candy store!!!

loads n loads of candy!!!

more grapes!!!

n finally, the gas station again!!!

*phew!!!! dat took ages to complete!!!!

*yawn ....

2006-03-30T15:49:00.000+08:00

after bein bugged i have finally succumbed to yet another update....

schools ok i guess, it's fun in a way, n sure beats NS.

n since in recent times i have completed my history essay, the horrigible fahb essay and

a literature review all 2 weeks early, i can sit back relax n laugh as pple struggle thru....

haha....

i mean wat kinda essay qn goes like dis,

The nature and reliability of evidence provokes considerable debate in researc circles. Modern health practices, whether denta;, medical or podiatric; are based on evidence. Much of this evidence is based upon statistical analysis, where a range of observations of some health parameter is summarized by calculation of a measure such as an average or a mean. These measures are ussually qualified by statements of the variation observed in the experimental groups. Consequently, perceptions of an individual being 'normal' or non-normal' are generated.......

any way its completed!!!!

muahahahaha......!!!!

if anyone noes where the shire of northampton is den congrats! as bein one of the few who ever

heard of it.... i'll be goin down for a week from e 23 to 28th April for Rural week.... which should

pretti fun n interesting..hmmm....

College life....

2006-03-19T23:14:00.000+08:00

Been neglectin my blog a while :p ....

anyways college life's been quite fun so far, i can't imagine living
off campus at the moment... it'll be so lonely!

i like it here @ tommy more.... besides tons of friends, yup, one of them
bought me a big bottle of Pokka Green Tea from northbridge!...
n pple are always goin somewhere, so whenever ya bored, u can juz search around
or call someone up for shoppin, soccer, frizbee... or pool/SF2!
we have an ancient street fighter 2 arcade machine in the common room!
n a busted air hockey table n a nice pool table... my pool's been gettin alot better too, which was'nt too hard considering it would be hard pressed to get any worse! hehe....
we have a nice mix of crazee pple and internationals...

n lotsa activities to boot! last wed (yeah, abit outdated :p) we had the inter college
swim meet... btw all 5 residential colleges.... n ours has the most enthu and coolest pple!

currie hall, the 90% singaporean/malaysian one had a grand total of 5! supporters!!! haha...
i'm glad i din go there... eventhough they do have better food...lol....

tommy more supporters!!!

more crazee folk...hehe

yup.... n finally here are pics of my room...

yup... i like my room... it's kinda on the side of a slope, so it's
pretti cool n not too hot.... n while not quite 5 * hotel standerd, it
sure beats my NS standerd.. so i'm not complainin!

notice the hoard of food @ the top shelf?

haha... my ever-growing collection of books!

FHAB Labs!!!

2006-03-14T01:24:00.000+08:00

hehehe.... managed to sneak in my camera into labs.... like real....
we CAN bring in camera's just not into the human anatomy labs...
but animal labs are fine....

was realli cold this morning... i think around 18? but by 10am it was fiercely hot!!!

mondays we have Foundations of animal n human biology labs...
kinda one of da highlights of the week... cos besides rushing like mad
to complete the lab worksheets we getta cut stuff up ( as much as we
want too...cos we are not graded on this specimen... )

*warning... pig inards follows.....

dats the thoracic cavity wide open... the big vein btw my fingers
is da superior vena cava

dats the stomach, i'm holding da liver up... the green stuff on the liver is the gall bladder, which connects by the bile duct (green colored)to the stomach...

dats teh heart.. cut up a bit....

dats the heart.... the pink thingie on it is the aorta...

ok... i think this is supposed to show the aorta( da white thing), osophagus(big, centre) and inferior vena cava( right most)....
thier all kinda paralled to each other....

haha... i can revise my labs n blog at the same time...hehe...

anyway, dis week was a little busier.... have ta work on my essays... esp da history one....
never done anythin like dat b4... have to have references (oxford style) n it realli takes loads of time....

but i did get ta meet up with gary 4 dinner on thurs(?) i think.... the food servings were huge...
yup, n met up with gary n qin n michelle on sat, n matt brough up to king's park for a picnic.....
was pretti fun.....

dats all for now....

n schools starts....

2006-02-28T16:39:00.000+08:00

my timetable realli is'nt as full as i thot it was..hmmm...
we dun always have all our labs every week...

BUT dat wun mean i'll be super free.... Learning is realli self-directed here,
n u realli have to prepare for ur lectures, tutes n labs if u wanna have the slightest
idea of wat's goin on....

i foresee lots of self study....hehe.... i'm taking history of europe as my elective.
We get to choose one, just one elective to do this sem... i was considering latin and
anthropology too... but history won out in the end.... how smart a move dat is remains to
be seen... but so far besides havin a supposedly new overly enthusiastic prof who happily prepared an overly thick and realli intense course reader that is 3 times thicker than i expected and filling it with esotoric material that would seem more apt for history 6666, rather than history 1121 everythings peachy..haha....

2nd week...

2006-02-25T23:07:00.000+08:00

Went to North Perth Church todae...
Though most of the youth were'nt around, n the sermon was abit draggy...
I think it was better than last week @ livingston.

Met a pretti cool intern pastor (sven)... He's half swedish n pretti darn smart, he did EE, and
if i'm not wrong was doing phd research when he decided to enter ministry. Yupz, n he'll
be @ North perth and will be working with the diff universities, UWA, curtin n murdoch.

Today after coming back from picnic lunch (again... these guys like always have picnics!)
around 4+... I met a girl called Joy... was veri interesting how we met @ the bank last week. n we din noe we are both stayin at tommy more. and in fact her grandmother was from thomson chinese church... n her cousin is Amos.... small world ain't it? yup, she was headed 4 a OCU (overseas christian union) bbq at matilda bay... yupz.. so went down n met quite a few other guys... hopefully sven could prob work somethin out with em...hmm....

Rushed back 4 dinner @ tommy more... as thier thier BBQ was pretti poor... n i had nothing at all 2 eat there, n then went down to laserquest @ northbridge. It was cool... haha....we won the first 2 games... untill they reshuffled the teams...lol.... yup... n since on weekends the public buses are a little less regular, we walked down all the way through the CBD untill the hospital.. n waited 4 40 mins for the bus! busy day n pretti beat....

Guild "O" Day...

2006-02-24T15:27:00.000+08:00

Today was Guild "O" Day, where all e clubs n societies had booths 2 try to psycho us to join....
The weather was terribly hot too... unlike last night.
Another massive pic upload...hehe

James Oval - rite in the centre of Uni and where all the
tents n booths were set up.

Christian Students Movement... Not 2 many pple here, but i was surprised
by the number of Christian groups n societies around...

Singapore Students Society... there were many other clubs like malaysion students, jewish students, asian students.. etc...

PASSION ...another Christian Society....

some ... er wierld club...

dats all 4 now... cya

"O" day...

2006-02-23T23:05:00.000+08:00

Today we had a realli busy day.... orientation of the crawley campus, lecture theatres etc and the campus is realli huge! + settin up all our timetables n computer access 4 our notes etc....
Our timetable is pretty packed, but it's still a little better than JC...
We did get to see a foetal pig, a king frog and a shark get hacked up though.
It was pretti crude... nothing neat like wat most pple expect.lol... but it was pretti interesting the how he just kinda hacked a long cut accross the upper body(with brown stuff comin out) then used his hands to open it up for us to see the upper body cavity( where we would expect to find the heart).. den he used a scissors to cut out the heart, press it to show that there was blood inside... den cut it in half to show that there are 2/3/4 sections in it....

While the university does'nt have any orientation games like in NUS/NTU/SMU that realli involve u and make u do silly things, my residentail college, St thomas more ( tommy more) does have a pretty cool oreintation program ( yup.. they absorb the costs too)... they got a mechanical bull the other day, had Supagolf, quizzes n table games.... 2nite we loaded onto 2 buses and went bowling/pool... which fortunately for me, many other pple sucked at too...lol.... the temp dropped to around 14 as we left, so we were all shivering ( i just had a t-shirt n shorts!) as we waited for the hired bus to arrive...lol....

Major photo upload....

2006-02-22T19:12:00.000+08:00

major photo upload comin up.... dat WILL blow my internet account into the red...
actually it already is in the red... after loggin on McAfee Security centre updates itself.. n my 2 meg limit's gone... lol....

notice the bird in the photo above?

fremantle...

Peregrine falcon....

busker in fremantle market.... the buskers here are REALLI good...

King's park....

Fremantle...

Livingston Church....

sunset....

lotsa flowers n bee's all over perth city....

caversam wildlife park...

....wildlife park...

again...

many many birds at the wildlife park...

Fremantle town.... the sky is realli blue...

fremantle again....

kangaroos... from caversam wildlife park... they are realli friendly!

Fremantle...

gum tree behind our temp accomodation....

picnic with Matt n his friends from North Perth Church @ king's park...

Onli met him last Sat, n he was realli nice n friendly... will be droppin by his church to
check it out...

the OZs like to picnic.. just grab some bread n salad n picnic at the park....

beach picnic on sat afternoon...

realli nice place.....

magpie....

seagulls...... they have tonnes of em!

another sunset....

hmm.. uploaded lots more photos.... dunno wat happened?

I Choose....

2006-02-22T00:51:00.000+08:00

b4 i go on n on about my first week (?mis)adventures around perth...
i'll like 2 share dis poem... i'm not a realli a poetry/prose person... but THIS one is realli powerful.... i hope n will try to remind myself of this everyday...

I Choose...

I Choose Love...

No occasion justifies hatred;
No injustice warrents bitterness. I choose love.
Today I will love God and what God loves.

I Choose Joy...

I will invite my God to be the God of circumstance.
I will refuse the temptation to be cynical...
the tool of the lazy thinker. I eill refuse to see
people as anything less than human beings,
created by God. I will refuse to see any problem as
anything less than an opportunity to see God.

I Choose Peace...

I will live forgiven. I will forgive so that I may live.

I Choose Patience...

I will overlook the inconveniences of the word.
Instead of cursing the one who takes my place, I'll
invite him to do so. Rather than complain that the
wait is too long, I will thank God for a moment
to pray. Instead of clenching my fist at new
assignments, I will face them with joy and courage.

I Choose Kindness...

I will be kind to the poor, for they are alone.
Kind to the rich, for they are afraid. And kind to
the unkind, for such is how God has treated me.

I Choose Goodness...

I will go wothout a dollar
before I take a dishonest one. I will be overlooked
before I will boast. I will confess before I will
accuse. I choose goodness.

I Choose Faithfulness...

Today I will keep my promises.
My debtors will not regret thier trust. My associates
will not question my word. My wife will not
question my love. And my children will never fear
that thier father will not come home.

I Choose Gentleness...

Nothing is won by force. I choose to be gentle.
If I raise my voice may it only be in praise.
If I clench my fist, may it only be in prayer.
If I make a demand, may it only be of myself.

I Choose Self-control...

I am a spiritual being...
After this body is dead, my spirit will soar.
I refuse to let what will rot, rule the eternal.
I choose self-control. I will be drunk only by joy.
I will be impassioned only by my faith.
I will be influenced only by God.
I will be taught only by Christ.
I choose self-control.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
To these I commit my day.
If I succeed, I will give thanks.
If I fail, I will seek his grace.
And then, when this day is done,
I will place my head on my pillow
and rest.

Max Lucado

Last day....

2006-02-14T18:28:00.000+08:00

Last day in SG liao....

Bought a CD by Avalon...

Realli like this song...

We Will Stand

Sometimes it's hard for me to understand
Why we pull away from each other so easily
Eventhough we're all walking the same road
Yet we build dividing walls between
Our brothers and ourselves

But I, I don't care what label you may wear
If you believe in Jesus you belong with me
The bond we share is all I care to see
And we can change this world forever
If you join with me
Join and sing, sing

You're my brother, you're my sister
So take me by the hand
Together we will work untill He comes
There's no foe that can defeat us
When we're walking side by side
As long as there is love
We will stand

The day will come when we will be as one
And with a mighty voice together
We will proclaim that Jesus
Jesus is King
And it will echo through the earth
It will shake the nations
And the world will see
See that

The time is here, the time is now
To make a stand, to make a vow
I won't let go, you're not alone
Now and forever we'll sing together

Overwhelming..

2006-02-12T23:43:00.000+08:00

2 more days (colloquially speakin, not 86,400 SI seconds) ...

I'm sure the impact of movin of to aus for a LONG time has'nt realli sunk in yet for me.

I'm guessin it'll sink in like a ln shape curve (first week + ), after which it would start to plateau of abit like terminal velocity as adjusting n missin home start to equalize em'selves.

This trend may however be disrupted by the seemingly LONG summer holidays that uwa has,
which could make it a vicious cycle. :p

haha... with blogspot it's so easy to throw in links, which may not be of interest to many, or to timewasters, or abit more useful stuff like Y not to buy dell (OK unless it's THIS dell labeled thingie)

sat nite was pretti overwhelmin from the people @ jurong

besides gettin a realli cute card and a realli rich chocolate ice cream cake

and a neat hand knitted hat (check out the pattern along the edge)

I also got squished...
haha... many thnx to all the people who planned it!...

i din have to do much except turn up!

oh, n since Jeremy, Andrew n Ted are goin to SCDF HQ... i thot i'll oso share this pic of my campmates.... hope u guys get great camp mates!

dat's all for now....

Why NS is so tough....

2006-02-08T00:49:00.000+08:00

Today (yes, 8th Feb) would mark my final day before my disruption kicks in
(n i still have to serve a bout 2 more months)
Reflecting back, it was'nt an easy time.... Y? i must say it is because of my upbringing.
Bedtime stories of people like Booker T (no not THIS Booker T) and the ubiquitious colosians 3:17 come to mind.

In WHATEVER you do, whether in WORD or DEED, do it ALL in the name of Lord Jesus giving thanks to god the father through him.

Explicit ain't it?

I cringe whenever i hear christians (esp those in ns) use the word 'kheng'... What ever happened to all the character? what good is it if i stand up and fight for all my sabbath issues but den 'kheng', skive, evade and push away work whenever i can? Convenient is easy. It's antagonist would be Consistent.

Especially so when the vicious cycle works like this.
Work hard ----> Get more work ----> Get more responsibilities ----> same pay
Kheng ----> Get less work ------> Less responsibilities ---------> same pay

But what is inspiring is when u see people whom u will least expect to.... People who are tough looking... ah beng / pai gia like....speak coarse language... have lotsa tattoos.... display a strong character. They do thier job responsibly just cos it's their responsibility even though they dun like it, and can skive or push it off.

If they can do it, so can I.

No one said life is easy. So suck it up and push on.

9 more days....

2006-02-06T10:13:00.000+08:00

Wow... time seems to be passing by realli fast. I'm halfway sorting through all my documents n sorting them out, which i need 2 bring, which i have to keep properly..... and I have Corrine May playing and her music is starting to make me sad. I'll prob realli miss home.

But I should have a positive attitude... and I'm sure I'll have a great time in Perth. Going to Perth zoo 4 my first prac, cutting up foetal pigs... hopefully a few cadavers(?) hehe... exams? studying? haha.. sounds fun, esp after more den 2 years in NS! (n i still owe em a little short of 2 months)... haha, i'm not so sad already....

I also 'bumped' into an interesting guy on Clubsnap who turns out to have been a pretti big-shot doc... or should i say Prof of Med... who was a HOD and was even the masters examiner... and as a new med student, here's his advice :)

1 Enjoy yourself. For most med students, passing med school is not that difficult. .............(removed abit)...................Work on principles rather than plain facts.

2 Remember medicine is about people. Watch Patch Adams. Doctors exist for patients, not the other way round. Get the priorities right.

3 Treat Kings and Paupers alike.

I'll try to keep that in mind :) ...

ScutMonkey!

2006-02-02T11:22:00.000+08:00

I wanted start of my blog with a nice sunrise.... but since i could'nt wake up early...
this will have to do....

Found these cute comics ... by an Ex-med student...

*SCUT

Haha... wonder which one i'm like... hmm.....

BTW if u read all the way till the last one... and considering the minimum wage in aus... and what new docs earn...

you could earn at least close as much at the McDonalds Drivethru if u work the long hours Docs

do....