Winds of Changes, Wings of Angels

I guess listening to Andrea Bocelli & Sarah Brightman's duet, "Time to Say Goodbye" kinda inspired and prompted me to write this post... as I'm moving out of Saujana Resort to an undisclosed location tomorrow. :(

Leaving the ever beautiful and peaceful Saujana Resort does have an effect on me, especially after I spent the last 8 months here, effectively making it my 2nd home in KL. I guess I have gotten used to a maid coming to tidy up the place and iron my clothes every week, the wonderful facilities available here (esp the swimming pool, gym and 24-hour security feature) and a place where anyone can juz come home and relax. This is a place I called home even though it wasn't exactly mine in the first place, but I guess that's because I juz felt too comfortable here. Juz ask any of my frenz who've been here - Sarah, Grace, Rachel, Jun Yet, Terence and Joann.

I will also miss the company of my two housemates (Aunty Ai Yat & Deb... the former being the owner who sold the place - the reason why I have to move in the first place :P) Thank you both for your kind hospitality and putting up with me for the past two-thirds of a year! =D

Unfortunately for me, my 'prospective' new home lacks most of what I had here. No pool, gym, wide-screen flat panel TV, DVD player, etc. As it is quite new, it lacks Internet access! Looks like I'll be spending more time in uni, not that it's a bad thing, since I get to wake up later for uni anyway! :D Yeah, and less distractions means more time on studying. No, I'm not complaining - there are pros and cons to everything.

Anyway, moving on...


I'm actually on a one-week "break".


It's not exactly a good thing.


It's supposed to be utilised for revision for the upcoming exam in a month's time.


SO I don't exactly know why it's called a break, probably cause Monash wants to "break" us.


Don't even get started on calling it a holiday!


... although during the duration of last week, some of us felt the "holiday mood" setting in.


You want proof? The pix below show evidence regarding some of my overenthusiastic frenz' attempts to bring in the "holiday mood" as mentioned above. =P

Sam & Pat, our very own clowns, oops I mean medical reps for MUSA, as voted by my fellow meddies and I. Hope we made the right choice guys! LOL!

There's Pat (again!) with Irfadh.

Nick played too... not with the clowns or as a clown though, but with the guitar. :P I think the hat matches his shirt nicely.

On the same note, which 2 words that both rhyme with mood comes to mind when the term "holiday mood" is mentioned?

Let me give you some pointers: Starts with good and ends with food. Oh wait, I already gave it away... GOOD FOOD!

Last Friday, 5 of us meddies went to Pizza Hut and kinda "over-ordered" coz there was a Ramadan promo goin on there. There was Yours Truly, Dan, Grace, Sarah & Jun Yet; and we cumulatively (and crazily) ordered:

6 personal pan pizzas, 2 spaghetti pastas, 4 rolls of garlic bread, 8 bowls of soup and 8 glasses of Pepsi! We couldn't really finish everything, even with Dan around.

Leftovers: 1 pizza!

Nah, come to think of it, we didn't over-order. I think we were stuffed really well, but not to the extent of throwing up everything. And we paid about RM15 each only due to the promo! Talk about GOOD (and cheap) FOOD!

Typical ain't it? Get used to it! =D

Yeah, I think that's about it for now... Oh but wait, there's juz one more thing!

Ms. Stubborngirl a.k.a. Evonne a.k.a Blair Teoh has specially requested I put up pix of her during her blood donation last week. However, I'll only put up what I think to be her best one! Scroll down to see if you agree with me. :D

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That's all for now. Seriously.

~Tim~

Test of Faith

~ What doesn't kill you makes you stronger ~

~ Adversity doesn't build character as much as it reveals it ~

I think both statements can be true if you don't waste your pain.

Pain, obstacles and adversity: the anvil on which your character is forged. Everything has a cause and effect.

Some people say that pain is all in the mind, and if you can suppress it mentally, you will not even feel it. However, what if it is mental pain i.e. anxiety, anguish, fear, depression, etc.

If you fail to learn from the pain, but choose bitterness and anger, the next adversity you face will reveal the shallowness of your character and faith.

God can indeed use adversity to build your faith and make you a stronger man. But He can also use those "life-storms" as a proving ground for your faith.

Answer the following questions for yourselves:

What are your biggest fears?

What causes you the most pain in life?

Do you have doubts about your purpose and direction in life?

What is faith and/or what does it mean to you?

More importantly, ponder over EE's 2 diagnostic questions:

#1: Have you come to a place in your spiritual life where you know for certain that if you were to die today you would go to heaven, or is that something you would say you're still working on?

#2: Suppose you were to die today and stand before God and He were to say to you, "Why should I let you into My heaven?" what would you say?

As you reflect over both critical questions, I hope you have confidence in your answers and the assurance of the Holy Spirit, especially those who know Christ. I know for certain, without a shadow of a doubt, that I do! Think about it!

~Tim~

FEATURE: Euro-English

Ok ppl, I'm gonna introduce a new type of post on my blog, coz lately, I've been gettin a whole pile of interesting stuff delivered right to my e-mail address. I'm gonna entitle it "FEATURE", and it will be a pre-fix before the actual post title. I'll only put up FEATUREs from time to time though, so look out for 'em! I assure you it will be a good read, as it is mostly articles I find that tickled my funny bone (or ulna nerve, as meddies would put it! :P) And yes, they are almost always "clean", so I won't include any dirty humour, racist jokes, and so forth. So, I hope you'll enjoy reading them too! =D So without further ado, here's the first FEATURE... Euro-English!

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English".

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy.

The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.

Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.

Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v".

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensi bl riten styl.

Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

Cheers,

~Tim~

7 Daily Rules from God

Today is one of those rare, non-holiday weekdays where I get to wake up late coz my classes today only start at 2 p.m. I know some of my fellow meddies would be sleeping until 1 p.m., but as a habit, I make it a point not to wake up later than 11 a.m., even if it is a weekend or holiday. :) I'm glad I finished up my intro for EPI and started a bit on the Objectivity & Patient Perspective section already. Praise Adonai to Our God Most High! :D

This is not going to be a lengthy post coz I actually have to divide tasks for my Practical class later as I'm the "Chair" for this week. Moreover, I actually have to DO them! Yeah, but I juz wanna share somethin here, which I hope will enrich the lives of those who read it. Basically, it's about a few pointers for living your day-to-day lives with a purpose, a purpose that glorifies God. So here they are:


1. Wake Up! Decide to have a good day. "Today is the day the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." Psalms 118:24

2. Dress Up! The best way to dress up is to put on a smile. A smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks. "The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at outward appearance; but the Lord looks at the heart." I Samuel 16:7

3. Shut Up! Say nice things and learn to listen. God gave us two ears and one mouth, so He must have meant for us to do twice as much listening as talking. "He who guards his lips guards his soul." Proverbs 13:3

4. Stand Up! ... For what you believe in. Stand for something or you will fall for anything.. "Let us not be weary in doing good; for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good..." Galatians 6:9-10

5. Look Up! ... To the Lord. "I can do everything through Christ who strengthens me." Phillippians 4:13

6. Reach Up! ... For something higher. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, And He will direct your path." Proverbs 3:5-6

7. Lift Up! ... Your prayers. "Do not worry about anything; instead PRAY ABOUT EVERYTHING." Philippians 4:6

Serving Christ Together,

~Tim~

Exams

Fact #1: No one I know loves exams. Period.

Fact #2: Med students take a long time to "relax" after exams. Yes, I know my mid-sem exam ended about one-and-a-half weeks ago, but I'm taking a long time "de-stressing" from the aftermath of it (probably applies to almost all my fellow meddies as well) - spelling an often-disastrous 'procrastination'!

Fact #3: Post something farnie! For my blog faithful, it's been quite some time since I posted anything that really tickled your funny-bone (oh, for those that are oblivious, the "funny-bone" is actually the reaction you get when you suddenly strike your ulnar nerve on the medial epicondyle of your humerus i.e. that immediate reflex associated with it)...

... Newae, I recently came across something funny (or that I found funny) regarding exams, or more specifically, the Malaysian examination of the highest pedigree known to Malaysians... the STPM!

How do you explain the fact that 87% of the students passed the examinations of the Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM) recently? When during your grandfather's time only 10% would have passed?

Are students getting smarter? Or are STPM questions getting easier?

Let me put things in their proper perspective.

During your grandfather's time, they would ask exam questions like:
"In what year did Parameswara founded the kingdom of Melaka ?"
The correct answer was "1402", and they found that only 10% of the students managed to answer the question correctly. This didn't go down too well with the authorities, because the objective of the exams was to pass people.

I mean, what's the point of having exams if people fail?
So later, they found another way to ask the same question:
"Parameswara founded the kingdom of Melaka in the year:
a) 2001
b) 2004
c) 1986
d) 1975
e) 1402
Tick the correct answer."

The results were better in that 20% of the students passed.

But it was still not good enough, so the authorities tried a different tactic a few years later.

"Parameswara founded the kingdom of Melaka in the year 1402. True or false?"

Well, half of the students guessed "True" and the other half guessed "False".

Fully 50% passed.

The results were getting pretty acceptable by now but still not good enough.

Most other countries would be satisfied with a 50% passing rate, but not us. We are a better country, because we are a boleh country. The authorities then cracked their heads and then came out with this one:

Read the following sentence carefully.
"Parameswara, the cousin of Proton-Iswara, founded the kingdom of Melaka in the year 1402. Underline the name of the person who founded Melaka."

60% underlined "Parameswara", 30% underlined "Proton-Iswara" and 10% underlined "1402".
Yeah!!!!....60% managed to pass! So krever!

But for some reason, the authorities were still not contented. So last year, they came out with this gem:

"One day in the year 1402, Parameswara founded the kingdom of Melaka . Then he went home to have dinner. What did he eat?"

13% (smart students) handed in blank answers, 57% wrote "Maggi Mee", and 10% wrote "Kentucky Fried Chicken", and 20% wrote "Nasi Lemak". The official answer was anything concerning "Food" of course!
After the marking was over, it was found that 87% of the students had passed.

87%!!!!!............now that's pretty impressive!

So it's true.
So now the authorities are very happy that the students are indeed getting smarter? Well done Boleh-land!

Proves once again that "Malaysia Boleh!" :)


Oh, and here are some pics that I took over the past few weeks which I wasn't able to put up due to exams... Bleh! Finally!

Sem 2 PCL Group C

W Tak Yee & Dar Ray at EE Banquet Dinner

W Dar Ray (coincidence that we both wore shirts of almost the same colour and design on Sunday morning in FGT, on more than 1 occasion!)

W Sukanya

Doesn't this pic say enough of what kind of students we are? (Hint: For you blur cases, look at the T-shirt!)

W Pin Tet a.k.a. Mr. Birthday Boy

W Jacelyn, Ron & Arif

W Stella

W Jeremy & Tshek Zen, my Selectives buddies (and possibly study groupies?)

Clockwise from top: Kaarthikeshen, Yew Loong, Jun Yet, Dan, & Yours Truly

Cheers ppl! Give God the glory in whatever you do! Soli Deo Gloria!

~Tim~