Blog On Hold
Due to the upcoming A2 trials, the posting of new entries to this blog will be delayed indefinitely. Well, there won't be much to blog about anyway...hahaha... I guess it won't be much of a difference, eh? Anyway, regular posting will resume as soon as the trial exams are over.
Ciao!
Offended Somebody Today...
I don't believe it! Barely twenty-four hours into my resolution for this year, I seem to have violated one of 'Dad's Rules Of Life'. Life seems intent on making a mockery of myself. But I digress. Anyway, what happened today was that someone was being rather rude and pushy about the way that aforesaid someone tried to reach a consensus about the class trip. That someone seemed not to give an iota of care about the situation of others when pushing forward an idea, and when someone in a position of so-called leadership acts in that manner, I call it piss-poor leadership. Period. From what I heard this afternoon, it was all about that somebody's way, the situation as that somebody viewed it and the final consensus that particular somebody wanted. The details of the situation are to be left out in this entry since I don't want to be accused of distorting the events of what happened in order to favour myself. I did my best to remain civil and refrained from interrupting for a while, but after listening to that particular someone's talk for a moment too long, I finally couldn't take it anymore and I gave that someone a piece of my mind. In a not-so-civil tone. I know it was wrong for me to use that tone - so I apologize. But only for that matter. I don't give a damn as to whether that particular someone reads my blog or if anybody blabs about this entry to that particular person - I'll have that 'someone' know that I'll gladly return the favour of acting the way that particular person acted as long as that particular person continues to act that way. Anyway, this matter isn't really something worth mulling over, so I'll forget it as soon as I hit the 'publish' key - and focus on more important matters.
Ramblings #1
Do you ever get the feeling sometimes that life just can't be any worse? The way you greet each day dreading the onslaught of problems that are bound to be winging themselves towards you, or perhaps that seemingly magnetic attraction you possess towards people and things that
have to go against your plans or even just the sick feeling in your gut when you screw things up and now you have to extricate yourself from the very mess you created. At times like this, you'd probably wish you had a 12-gauge shotgun and blow each and every problem in your life to a bazillion tiny bits. Alas, if only life was this simple - and if gun licences were easier to obtain. I'm just kidding. Really. Frankly speaking, everyone has had their fair share of stormy periods in life. What differs in each and every individual is the way in which they handle their problems. Some do it elegantly, smoothing over errors and troubles like with the ease of one smoothing over a creased bedspread. Others just stumble over theirs, causing more distress to themselves and probably making it worse in the process. Some like to handle it with help from friends, whereas others prefer to rough it out alone. As just another ordinary individual in the vastness of the populace of Earth, I too, have had my fair share of troubles to deal with. Although I would like to say otherwise, I have not dealt with all my problems in the most elegant of ways, dealing with some in the wrong way and perhaps making matters much worse than before. And, as someone wise once told me, the way an individual solves his problems shows what kind of individual he really is. Which is true, considering that you don't see a person's true self until things start going wrong since anybody can afford to be affable and polite when things are going right.
I will never claim to be a perfect person. I know this for a fact. Truth be told, I have many negative aspects to myself, facets to my personality that make me a less better person than I want to be. However, can the conclusion be drawn from my statement that it is perhaps the fault of my parents, who failed to inculcate in me all the moral values needed to make me a perfect individual? Or should the society and environment around me be blamed for exerting all the necessary influences on me to make me adopt negative values? The answer to those questions - no one is to be blamed except myself. My childhood was such that my parents taught me the importance of having all the important moral values in myself so that I would grow into a mould of what could be defined as a "good" individual and they encouraged me to instill those values in myself in every opportunity of my life. The environment and culture around me, while not exactly the most moral-friendly, was good enough so that the influence of negative values on myself was kept to a minimum. So, why then, am I still not perfect? To give a better answer to this question, we'll have to take a scenario as an example in order to convey the message. Let's imagine that you're wearing a pair of white shoes. When you first get them, the shoes are obviously clean and sparkly-white, unless you got cheated in the shoe shop. Then, when you're walking back home, you're greeted with two paths. One is a muddy road, whereas another is a clean path for you to walk on. If you choose to walk on the muddy road, then naturally, your shoes will get soiled. If you should choose to walk on the clean path instead, then the cleanliness of your shoes will be maintained. Obviously. But imagine, what if you didn't have a choice, and that the only path was a muddy path? Furthermore, sometimes people trod on your shoes too, and you can't really do anything to prevent that. After a while, your shoes, once white and clean, would be soiled.
What exactly are you trying to say? you might ask. The scenario described above portrays the shoes as our selves, and the cleanliness of the shoes our morality - the cleaner they are, the more untainted our moral values. Your morality is dictated by the choices you make in life. However, it seems that the end product is still the same - negative values still take root in oneself. I won't profess to be an expert on life, but from what I know, things in life isn't as clear cut between good and bad. The boundary between the black and white in life can be blurred, giving rise to a grey area that we sometimes have to trod. So, every individual that walks on this face of the Earth is not perfect. As am I. However, is it the perogative of every individual to act in a negative manner just because it is inevitable for imperfection to be present in a person? No. The choice as to how one acts lie within oneself, as opposed to being dictated by the values present in the individual's personality. The values merely influence the way the person acts. They do not decide how he or she acts. Period. Therefore, the negative aspects of myself are purely of my own fault. I chose to act like that. And for all my shortcomings which may have offended anyone (especially my friends) - I sincerely apologize. I know I have not been the greatest person to be a friend to, being someone who's impatient, hot-tempered, blunt in words and a slob, the many arguments I've had with them being testament to what I've said above, but I really appreciate having them as my friends and I couldn't wish on having better friends than those that I have right now.
Not too long ago, Dad gave me some very good advice on how to become a better person -
- You wear pants for a reason - to be a gentleman. Apologize for offending other people even if it isn't exactly your fault. Right and wrong can be relative to an individual, so why not save time and quit blaming each other and forgive and forget instead.
- Don't burn bridges - build them instead. Be polite to anyone and everyone whenever possible. People will remember you for treating them with respect.
- Forgive and forget. Even if others have wronged you, you should forgive them instead of blaming them. You will find that people will find you a maganimous person and that they too, will find it much easier to forgive you compared to you heaping blame on them everytime they make a mistake.
- Don't discriminate. As you should never judge a book by it's cover, you should never judge someone based on his or her religion, race or social status. Instead, judge someone based on his character and actions. Respect each and every individual and be fair in all matters.
- Don't base your happiness on materials. What matters in life is the person you are and the people surrounding you. You live on money and material, not for. How much can you eat and how many cars can you drive? Earn enough to support yourself and your family, and live life based on your family's happiness.
- You don't need a reason to help people. There should be nothing in you that expects returns when you help people. You should help people because it is your duty as a person to do so.
- Never focus on the negative aspects of a person. Everyone has his or her faults, and if you focus only on a person's fault, you'll never find anyone likeable in life. Focus instead on the positive aspects of a person and like him or her for that, and you'll find that the people around you are great people indeed, making you treasure your friends and family even more than ever.
As of today, I'll do my best to become a better person. While I know that realistically, it is practically impossible to change myself within a day, I'll do my best nevertheless, and keep at it always. For the sake of my family, my friends, and last but not least, myself. I know it's a little late, but I guess I finally found my resolution for this year (in addition to doing well for the exams). That's all I'll be writing this time, I'll see you around. Ciao!
Sick...
Felt a little unwell yesterday afternoon, so I thought that it must be another of those nasty bugs that has been going around in the apartment ever since Chye Hing got sick. With that, I decided to sleep it off and see what became of it. I awoke from what was supposed to be a refreshing nap feeling rather worse for the wear, with nausea doing its nauseous best to make me throw up but failing repeatedly and what seemed to be a tsunami churning around in my guts. I decided there and then that going for dinner was definitely out of the story. So while the others went for dinner, I spent my dinner time hugging the toilet bowl and - well, suffice to say, details are rather unnecessary at this point. I'm sure you got the idea.
A few hours into my misery, I called Mum to give her a sitrep (situation report) and I wished I didn't three minutes into the call. Dad was so worried about me that he actually suggested that I checked into the Outpatient Department of SJMC whereas Mum just continually poured tonnes of suggestions on how to what to eat, what to do and repeated "see a doctor first thing tomorrow"over and over again until my ears were ringing with those words. After assuring them that it wasn't that serious, and no, I won't drop dead in the middle of the night and that I would see a doctor first thing tomorrow if the situation still hasn't abated yet, I finally hung up. If I had known that I would make them this worried, I wouldn't have called them at all.
My dear gave me some advice on things to eat to alleviate my condition, and she recommended some medicince called "bao chi wan" or something like that in Mandarin. I made a quick trip to Kiosk to buy the medicine and some bread and jam to eat, when I met Paul near the entrance to My Place, happily taking swigs of Rootbeer from a can in his hand. The explanation? His apartment ran out of water to drink so he went out to buy a soft drink. After hearing what he said, I nearly burst into laughter - it was that funny! And that made me feel loads better. Which led me to learn my lesson of the day firsthand - laughter is the best medicine. I know, it sounds a little cheesy, but this axiom definitely is true after all, and I shall have to remember that if I ever become a doctor (fingers crossed)! After I bought the medicine, bread and the jam, I duly returned to the apartment, albeit feeling a little better. I tried to do homework, but my mind just wasn't in it, so I ended up watching television for the rest of the night (and making frequent jaunts to the toilet as well).
I remained this way for the rest of last night, and although I felt better today morning, I sill didn't feel well enough to go to classes. And no, Chye Hing...it wasn't because I was too lazy to haul my sorry ass off to college this morning. I would if I could, but the fact is, I
couldn't. So don't give me any remarks about me skiving off classes for the fun of it - I sure as hell didn't! After feeling much better later in the morning, I dutifully went off to classes again. But on another note, I did manage to skip Biology today, which seemed like a good thing because our ever-lovable teacher (read - sarcastic) seems to be getting more pyschotic and deranged as the days pass. She buries the entire class under mountains of work and still manages to scold us about not being able to finish the work on time, blindfully oblivious to the fact that we do not just take Biology alone as we take other subjects too and hence, we also have work to do from those other subjects.
Hmm...I wonder why couldn't we finish your work... Perhaps it's because you gave us way TOO MUCH!I can gripe all I want about the aforesaid teacher snowing the entire class under with her humongous workload. But it won't matter here. Not that it'll matter anywhere. But I'll still say it anyway. If she wants her plan to work (and I suspect her plan is actually a well-intentioned effort to make sure we're well prepared for the finals by making us do exercise after exercise), then she's going about it the wrong way. By giving us homework this much, she's made us adopt a couldn't-care-less attitude about the work she gives. Most of us (yes, I admit that I'm included in the "us" too), resort to just copying the answers to the work she gave when we tried and subsequently failed to finish her work on time. What she should do is to give us homework in moderation, not the avalanches she buries us under with - at least we'll know that it's humanly possible to finish it and we won't need to resort to copying. She's a good teacher, there's no doubt about that, but some of the aspects of her teaching are questionable.
Enough griping for one day, I'll see you soon! Ciao!
PMC Interview...Is So Sux!!
I went for a PMC admissions interview today, and man, it totally sucked. I don't really want to go into details, but here's a brief excerpt from the dialouge between me and my interviewer :-
A Brief Excerpt Of My Interview Session:Interviewer - So, which is your preferred university?
At this point I was confused as to which university PMC was doing twinning with.Me - (after a briefest of pauses) Uhh, Trinity College Dublin, I guess.
The interviewer then gave me a blank look, the kind of look that says, "Huh? Whurrt?".A brief pause entails.Interviewer - We don't have a twinning programme with Trinity College. Our twinning programme is with the National University of Ireland and the Royal College of Surgeons.
At this point, my mind was screaming, "WHAT? I've never even heard of it!! Wait...have I?". I then immediately entered into Cover Bengang mode.Me - Yes....but...truthfully speaking, I think going to PMC would be a far more viable option for me because it would be less of a financial burden to my family.
Interviewer - Have you applied to Trinity College Dublin?
Me - Yes, I applied via the IUMC, and I'm having an interview session with them on the 17th.
Ahh...what the heck...you asked, I answered.Interviewer - (after flipping through my certs) With your results, I think you should have no problem entering Trinity College Dublin.
Yeah, right.Interviewer - But we'll keep a place in PMC for you.
I can't tell if this is good or bad. Does he mean "we'll keep a place for you" as in "Hey, you got a place in PMC" or "I'm going to deny you a place now but if you fail your Trinity College interview, feel free to come back and apply for PMC again"? I got pretty worried at this point.Me - (forcing a laugh) Thank you, sir.
He then proceeds to scribble something on the paper attached to my application form. I could only see the letters "H" and "O", but maybe that was a code for 'discard this application immediately'. Interviewer - Do you know, that the course of living in Ireland is also pretty high?
Me - Yeah, but it should be lower than that of other places such as the UK, right?
Interviewer - The price of property in Ireland nowadays...very high. It's because of the booming economy in Ireland.
Me - Uhh...okay.
And we went on in this vein for a while. When the interview ended, I didn't get to show off about my knowledge of stem cells again. Dang.
