Picture Dedication

Gomen gomen. I know that this is already the third post for today (oh, you mean it's already the next day?) but couldn't resist. I found this on the net (meaning someone else made it - just to get the disclaimer part off my back, it's by deuceloosely)

I dedicate this picture to all people who for some reason or other happen to have this sentiment, including Stella and Margaret-hime.

Changed my laptop background

Made a new background using Print Shop. Kinda proud of it, so here it is for all to see!



Go ahead and use it if you want to. But remember, I made it! Bwahahahahahahahahaha

Eto... you mean you were the original artist for this picture? Gomen gomen, of course I didn't draw this picture... just tweak it here and there... add some words of wisdom... hehehehehe... eh, must say disclaimer ah?...epp!!

Excuse me while I rant...

People reading this log should close their ears for a while.

EEEAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!



You're probably wondering why I am feeling so upset/sudden-urge-to-yell/normal-daily-insanity. That's because someone called me short. Ok, kidding, I have no problem with my height. After all, I could easily sneek out of classrooms when the lecturer/teacher/tax-collector isn't looking. So being short is good, right? (excuse me while I wreck my housemate's room)

Actually, the source of frustration/normal-urge-to-torture-the-world came when I was trying to do some research on allergy testing for my PBL (problem-based learning) case [which I suspected peanut-allergy, unless the brat actually ate the dog...]. After searching fruitlessly for some vital informations [according to the net, if you get positive result for the food = you might be allergic (have the IgE for it)but do not get any allergic reaction; if you get negative result = doesn't mean you're not allergic, it just mean you had no previous exposure] I came across this website that claimed to have a very good technique for diagnosing food allergy.

http://www.nutramed.com/alpha/index.htm

And there was a tutorial for doing self-diagnosis as well. Wow.

Anyway, since all my research so far said nothing, I've decided to try out the tutorial. Go ahead. Try it out. I dare you to.

After reading a few pages I wanted to kill/maim/torture the virtual host. After a few more I wanted to do the same to the people who created her. After a few more... well, you get the idea...

It's unnerving to see the language they/she used during the tutorial. Sort-of like 'I know what's best for you and I know you want it too. So I'll appeal to your vast 'intellect' to try out this 'specially for you' program that will make you 'the great person you were meant to be'.

The scary thing is that, that's the way most self-help books are written. And btw, self-help books are the top selling books in most bookshops (as far as my limited knowledge go anyway). Meaning, language like this actually work.

Anyway, you can take your hands off your ears now. Rant over.

Whatdayamean your hands were not on your ears and that you heard/read my rant! Don't you know that rants are to be seen, not heard?!?!

...

Waitaminute, you were READING my rant. Okay... slow down... inhale... exhale... inhale...

You know, getting your memories wiped away is good for you. Seriously. After all, you can then start anew, afresh. Just like the way you were meant to be. Free from the past, free from the worries about exams and homework and such. So just come with me to this wiping-memories-with-lots-of-pain machine, and I guarantee you'll forget everything. Including this rant. Everything. Doesn't it sound very nice? Just register in the comment section your interest and I'll come and get you...

A Prayer

A PRAYER

A voyaging ship was wrecked during a storm at sea and only two of the men on it were able to swim to a small, desert like island. The two survivors, not knowing what else to do, agreed that they had no other recourse but to pray to God. However, to find out whose prayer was more powerful, they agreed to divide the territory between them and stay on opposite sides of the island.

The first thing they prayed for was food. The next morning, the first man saw a fruit-bearing tree on his side of the land, and he was able to eat its fruit. The other man's parcel of land remained barren. After a week, the first man was lonely and he decided to pray for a wife. The next day, another ship was wrecked, and the only survivor was a woman who swam to his side of the land. On the other side of the island, there was nothing. Soon the first man prayed for a house, clothes, and more food. The next day, like magic, all of these were given to him. However, the second man still had nothing.

Finally, the first man prayed for a ship, so that he and his wife could leave the island. In the morning, he found a ship docked at his side of the island. The first man boarded the ship with his wife and decided to leave the second man on the island. He considered the other man unworthy to receive God's blessings, since none of his prayers had been answered. As the ship was about to leave, the first man heard a voice from heaven booming,

"Why are you leaving your companion on the island?"

“My blessings are mine alone, since I was the one who prayed for them," the first man answered. "His prayers were all unanswered and so he does not deserve anything."

"You are mistaken!" the voice rebuked him. "He had only one prayer, which I answered. If not for that, you would not have received any of my blessings."

"Tell me," the first man asked the voice, "What did he pray for that I should owe him anything?"

"He prayed that all your prayers be answered."

Wise Sayings from The Young Man's Friend

Just finished reading 'The Student Life' by Sir William Osler, a short article in a book given by my dad for 'inheriting the medical legacy of the Tangs' (which so far only consisted of two generations, since before my dad it was the legacy of banditary). Was a bit hard to read though, since the author liked to quote from ancient authors of whom I never heard of before. Ah well, here's a bunch of quotations from the article for anyone interested.

THE STUDENT LIFE (BY SIR WILLIAM OSLER)

The Art of Detachment, the Virtue of Method, and the Quality of Thoroughness may make you students, in the true sense of the word, successful practitioners, or even great investigators; but your characters may still lack that which can alone give permanence to powers – the Grace of Humility.

Let each hour of the day have its allotted duty, and cultivate the power of concentration which grows with its exercise so that the attention neither flags nor wavers, but settles with a bull-dog tenacity on the subject before you. Constant repetition makes a good habit fit easily in your mind, and by the end of the session you may have gained the most precious of all knowledge – the power to work.

“Our duty is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand” [by Carlyle] … the absorption in the duty of the hour is in itself the best guarantee of ultimate success.

At the outset do not be worried about this big question – Truth. It is a very simple matter if each one of you starts with the desire to get as much as possible. No human being is constituted to know the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth; and even the best of men must be content with fragments, with partial glimpses, never the full fruition. In this unsatisfied quest the attitude of mind, the desire, the thirst – a thirst that from the soul must rise! – the fervent longing, are the be-all and end-all. What is the student but a lover courting a fickle mistress who ever eludes his grasp? In this very elusiveness is brought out his second great characteristic – steadfastness of purpose. Unless from the start the limitations incident to our frail human faculties are frankly accepted, nothing but disappointment awaits you. The truth is the best that you can get with your best endeavor, the best that the best men accept – with this you must learn to be satisfied, retaining at the same time with due humility an earnest desire for an ever larger portion.

Others have poor teachers, and never receive that bent of mind which is the all important factor in education; others again fall early into the error of thinking that they know it all, and benefitting neither by their mistakes nor their successes, miss the very essence of all experience, and die bigger fools, if possible, than when they started.

Learn to love the freedom of the student life, only too quickly to pass away; the absence of the coarser cares of after days, the joy in comradeship, the delight in new work, the happiness in knowing that you are making progress. Once only can you enjoy these pleasures.

A recognition of the possible depths of this affection [having a cheerful heart] should make us bear with a light heart those transient and unavoidable disappointments in life which we are apt to nurse than to shake off with a smile.

I would really recommend this book to anyone who dare to venture the dusty depths of an ancient library to look for it (it was written in 1957; man, that's almost as old as my dad!)