How to Make Money

It's one of the books I've been reading during my summer vacation. Brings my mind back to the numerous Game Guides, Walkthroughs and FAQs that I've read to beat the computer games I used to play. Like How to Make Your First Million Zeny. But this one's for real life. And here's a useful gem from the book:

When young, put your money into savings. When married and with a family, take plenty of term death cover. With the kids at work, retain your death cover and establish an investment portfolio. When older, build up your contributions to your investment fund and reduce or eliminate your term insurance.

Paul Clitheroe, Making Money (2000)

Picture credit: bloomberg.com

The Picture Story Book

A mirror of reality.

My punctured bike tyre back in late March.
Cause: glass fragment (possibly bottle of beer). Fixing costs $8 for the new tire, $8 labour charge.

Fun before the REB (back in 1st semester), 2nd last day of exam (HP1).

A wrong choice. An example of a bad financial decision.
It's some kind of sauce+pork+noodles.
Through a friend's looking window (glass) in the city. 10:11pm, August '08.

Medical students in Brownless (corner of 1st floor) for group study, two weeks before 2nd sem exam starts.
Bored.

First Year Over

Hanging by a thread

My 2nd semester result was out today, which is actually a date postponed by 6 days from the original one set. But the wait matters not anyway; the result does.

Thanks be to God, who has been with me all through this ordeal, especially during those darkest times when I needed Him the most, and I - on my own - was least reliable. As declared by Daniel, wisdom and might are His.

My marks really do hang by a thread. At the very lowest threshold, just making it into the next grade up. And I am indeed very happy with them. 80 for NDM and 75 for HP2.
NDM = Nutrition, Digestion & Metabolism, HP2 = Health Practice 2

Picture credit: cheaplee.com

A head start?

Reminiscent of my gap half-year, which was not too long ago.

Occasionally I ask myself, have I had the upper hand while in Sabah? During my post-IB break, I at first was kind of frustrated with the overwhelming freedom that I seemed to have. Dad worked everyday. So did Mom. And my little sister did not have much of a break between stopping work and resuming study. But what about me?

That's when this blog blasted off. My MMORPG of choice then was PKO, because I thought the graphics were cooler than RO, and because my sister introduced me to it (many of the choices we make are because it's introduced by someone close, I bet). Church on Sundays, youth on Saturdays, plus some Sunday School ministry. And catch up with a few buddies every not so often. I did go to island trips which I would not have made if my friends from Peninsula did not come. And then there was work. Which is what I want to talk about.

My first ever paid job was a process server in a legal firm. Basically, that's a postman who retrieves people's signatures - you know, like those played in ice-breaker games. But the difference is that the job pays, because those people who sign are people who are sued. And within a few weeks I worked as a private tutor, teaching Form Six Mathematics T. I had only one student. Through the break, God gradually opened the way - that's how I choose to view it - and led me to tutor a total of 15 different students (in different timeslots though). My peak pay rate was unbelievable. And throughout, I maintained my delivery job. It was a time of true providence, because I reloaded my own phone and cared for my own expenses out of my own pocket.

Now that I'm in foreign land, as I ponder upon the rather smooth journey that I had, I ask, What kind of a head start did I get? What do you think?
I had my parents. They were the fundamental, pivotal factor in my time-money economy (well, after God, that is). You see, the availability of my parents' car means that I can go around and do stuff which are some distance away from the house. And they were working people with their own network of friends in the workplace. All they needed to do was talk about me, what I was doing, what I could do, etc., and soon enough I would get a student. And where do my students get tutored? At our house. And, oh, that legal firm? My aunt is there. That's why I got the job (but that's only one way of looking at it, of course).

My sense of economics is still with me. There's supply and demand, and prices linking them. I want some money now, and I want to give away some time. So I'm still hunting for jobs. God, give me something to do. By faith I ask and believe that I receive.

Happy holidays to those of you who are having it =)

"Change"

Think of the exclamation: "It will change your life!"

One particular guy had a hard time listening to statements of that sort. An example is during a camp organized for university and high school students, as recent as a year ago. And this guy had the privilege to be one of the speakers, his topic being academic excellence, his considered forte.

Throughout the time before and leading up to the camp, he kept listening how the the organisers and leaders kept mentioning: It will change your life 100%. Fully changed. Turned 180°.

Maybe he thought it was a cliché. And he pondered rather critically, thinking, "Change 100%?" He thought of possible alternate scenarios. Like a person who has been for such-and-such a camp some time ago, and experienced a lot of positive change. Do we now too change that good new stuff in that person? Maybe you've thought this way before yourself as well?
As he thought more of it, he started disliking the idea of being "changed completely". He even considered as replacement a somewhat more balanced statement like "change the bad stuff in us" or "change what needs a change". He obviously, was preoccupied with the idea that people already have some good in them, and that has to stay.

What hit this guy a long time later - after lots of more diverse experiences with many new people - was that he had a wrong perception that he was alright all the while. A life of truth - genuine truth - is somewhat incomprehensibly high above what human works can achieve alone. There are always things that fall short. That are flawed. That are separate from what is perfect.

And that is where continual change - even daily - is needed in life. Experienced a great change yesterday? Very good. Had any better ones today? Excellent. Why not look forward to an even grander one tomorrow and in the days to come?


Picture credit: astaraskincare.com
No, this post has nothing to do with skin care products or life energy photos. They're just beautiful pics.

Pictures of the present

Post-exam blogging. I just realized, I haven't written any exam posts yet till now.




Look at the dog's facial expression!








LEGO. This one's gonna be someone's Christmas gift this year.









A look down Swanston Street.








In the toilet in College Square.








Two people, one leg each, same colour.

Giving by Faith

Psalm 145:15 - The eyes of all look expectantly to You, and You give them their food in due season.
[adapted from offering message for Urban Life...courtesy of God, who revealed this to me during devotion...during a particularly difficult time a few weeks ago]

...But of course there are times when things get tough.

[Think of a time when expenses disproportionately outweigh our income.]

I mean, in the natural sense, sometimes circumstances make us reluctant to give, yeah?

Sometimes we become ultra-sensitive to every cent that we spend.

[Now think of times when we did not expect providence/favour/blessings to come... and it came.]

Really, we can look at it from a whole lot of different perspectives. Because, sometimes, someone who doesn't believe in God still looks like s/he gets all the favours in the world. Sometimes we feel like not giving.

But I believe God desires us to grow in faith in Him. What was His message to the rich young man? What's the motive of Jesus asking that?
We can perhaps learn various lessons from this, but I wanna focus on this today: to depend on God for providence. Imagine someone in severe financial difficulty.

No money. But it doesn't mean there's no God. Money is not God!

So, why do we give? Because God first gave. And because despite circumstances, we live still by faith. The just shall live by faith.

Because He will give us our food in due season.

Picture credit: OneYearBibleImages.com

Why we simplify

Simplifying (oversimplifying) is good for teaching, not-so-good for learning.

While walking back home from Safeway just now, a guitar bag in one hand and shopping bags on the other, plus a bag of lecture notes on my back, this new thought came upon me.

This morning, a friend of mine sent me an SMS: Hey. Tell me, which enzyme is involved in glycogenolysis again? Starts from p. The answer is glycogen phosphorylase.
Now, I can perhaps tell any person - who does not yet know - the correct answer, in one or two words (teaching), but it wouldn't necessarily be something meaningful to him/her (learning). Like, come on, how much time does it take to say out the name of the enzyme? It's only 4-7 syllables.

Teaching looks at the transmitting end. For high school leavers, a lecture covering glycogenolysis and its counterpart glycogenesis, plus some glycolysis and gluconeogenesis could probably be done in 1 hour. One hour.

Learning focuses on the learning end. "You only really understand the material when you can teach it to someone else," so goes the saying. Learning glycogenolysis from a Biochemistry textbook can take hours or days, depending on the purpose of learning it and the level of detail required.

And honestly, to me - as I'm learning this stuff now, for this semester - I think memorizing isolated bits of knowledge is not very useful. It's good for the initial bit of learning, but not when we have hundreds and thousands of facts to deal with in our heads. Once we form more links between yesterday's new knowledge and today's new knowledge, what we learn eventually makes more sense. It no longer comes through (futile) rote memorisation (although it may initially did), but through solid understanding of the matter being discussed.

For example, I think the knowledge of "glucagon increases blood glucose" bears more meaning if the question of "How?" is addressed - at least for students studying some Biochemistry. I can easily mention that the hormone glucagon triggers a cascade of reactions that eventually activates the enzyme glycogen phosphorylase (and deactivates glycogen synthase), but it is only because I've looked and re-looked at the diagram in Lehninger too many times. And because I've learned in high school about chemical equations, enzymes and hormones. It involves the use of a 7-helix G-protein coupled (membrane) receptor, adenylyl cyclase, cytosolic cAMP, PKA, and phosphorylase kinase.
But for a moment, imagine a world without simplification... That would be unimaginable! The way that humans learn is by spending time doing/reading/writing/thinking about something. We don't learn to speak a language in perfect grammar in one day! It's like churning time into something that's learned.

And in any case, if a biochemist read this post, I reckon s/he'd say that I myself am simplifying stuff by referring to glycogen phosphorylase as if it's one, single distinct thing. (I am aware that there's the inactive phosphorylase b and active phosphorylase a, but that's all I know about it...and then of course there's much more detail about the active site, affinity, inhibition, etc.)

So simplification has its place in teaching (especially for teachers, because time here in this world is limited). But for the purpose of solid understanding (on the learner's part), let's not just take it at face value. Ask questions, especially the assumptions made in making the simplified statement.

And how I wish everyone in our study group could really grasp the essence of this semester: Nutrition, Digestion and Metabolism. It really is a well-crafted academic programme. Now time for exam preparation.

Picture credit:mcb.web.psi.ch

School and Reliance

I sent a message to one of my cousins last night, wishing her the best result for her first public exam. Which reminds me of the time when I myself sat for the UPSR.

BM was my worst - or most-feared - subject. Pemahaman (comprehension) was slightly better than Penulisan (composition). Looking back, I think it was partly due to this tinge of perfectionism within me that slowed me down so much in writing. It was more so for Malay than for English...but I'm not sure why...perhaps because we always spoke proper/grammatical English - but my school friends and I have always spoken little English to start with - and there's the spoken/written divide for Malay.

My best was definitely Math. The handful of us in the class would compete for full marks in Math, and for whatever highest score was possible for the other subjects. My "moment of glory" peaked in the final school exam just before the real-deal, publicly-set UPSR, with running marks: one hundred, two ninety-sixes, ninety-four, and ninety-two, with an average of ninety-five point six (glory to God!). And I questioned: Why didn't I get all full marks like I did back in Primary 1? And why don't my older friends and family members report of full marks in higher schooling?
To start with, I guess full marks are desirable because they indicate that we're doing/thinking about the right thing in the right way, according to accepted standards. Where exactly is that standard?

Ahah! That's where things get tricky. That's why essays tend not be graded 100%. The big word is subjectivity. And even objective questions require a greater differentiating ability, by providing options that are unbelievably similar. Heck, if I went back in time and told my 12-year-old self about my marks for last semester, he'd probably not believe that I am him.

As for me right now, I feel that I should start conditioning myself with exam questions, because the next one's coming in about 3-4 weeks, and I've set a high target. The easy ones would give me relief and confidence, while the hard ones point to me where I need to put in more work. We've got to move on to hard stuff eventually. Now I no longer have Penulisan, but I've got 3 40-minute essays for HP2! That's pretty dense stuff; absolutely no fooling around with big words without a message. But blogging's different...

And again my request to God is the same as it was ages ago: "Unto You I rely."

Spending breaths

What can I do in life? A question to ask where my breaths have been spent this week.

• Helping to check two essays for a friend
• Getting back the assignment written a month ago
• Working out
• Being examined in a physical exam

• Playing guitar for practice
• Studying in a group
• Practising patient-interviewing
• Doing calculations in inverse square and exponential equations
• Chilling, meaning thinking, talking about, and doing nothing

Sometimes - actually sometimes it's many times - I ask what's worthwhile doing.

I'm not going to be alive forever. What's worth spending my breath on?

So many things are a waste of time. So what's not a waste?
(In case you're shading this to find an answer, haven't got a definite one, but I'm still thinking about it.)

Eye of the Beholder

Little graphics.

Between Law building and the rest of Melbourne Uni

"Breast is best" (title of an HP lecture)

Spring is here

This guitar knows how to pose
*Secret black text message found*

A Memorable Verse

At the end of the month.

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:
Fear God and keep His commandments,
For this is the whole duty of man.
For God will bring every work into judgment,
Including every secret thing,
Whether it is good or whether it is evil.

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

(Reading daily, last two weeks, through this reflective book by King Solomon - Jerusalem's wisest - was enlightening. The Greek ekklesia means "assembly, congregation, church", and the Latin Ecclesiastes means "speaker before an assembly". Credits: John C. Hagee & Thomas Nelson, Inc.)

Tiada S'perti-Mu

A beautiful song that I've learned a few years ago, back at home. The title means "There is none like You".

Tiada S'perti-Mu
By: GMB

Anug'rah-Mu kepadaku tak pernah berubah
Perbuatan-Mu terlukiskan di dalam hatiku
Tercengangku dibuat-Mu, kukagum pada-Mu
Tak ada hal di hidupku terluput dari-Mu
Kau indah, Kau mulia tiada s'perti-Mu
Ku ingin hidupku menyenangkan-Mu

Kau terawal dan terakhir pencipta s'galanya
S'luruh bintang pun bersinar oleh ucapan-Mu
Engkau pun mengasihiku, penulis hidupku
Tak henti seg'nap nafasku menyembah-Mu s'lalu
Kupuji, kusembah tiada s'perti-Mu
Ku ingin hidupku menyenangkan-Mu

S'gala puji
S'gala hormat
Seg'nap hatiku menyembah-Mu
Terimalah
Seg'nap hidupku
S'bagai persembahan yang hidup

Bukan kehendakku, namun kehendak-Mu
Hidupku bagi-Mu
Kau indah, Kau mulia
Kuingin hidupku menyenangkan-Mu

It speaks of - among other attributes - the awesomeness, glory and omnipresence of God. The last line of the chorus quotes Romans 12:1, where we are called to present our bodies as a living sacrifice.
(Was the first verse I shared about in urban life.)

Credits: kertas.dan.pena (song available)


Want another song?
Di S'tiap Napasku (by True Worshippers)

We reap what we sow

Thursday afternoon impulse post.
(When most other friends are already having break and I have a 17.75-hour week)

Illustration: A 100-metre sprinter is in the Olympics (maybe we can think of Usain Bolt). The gun goes off. He runs with all his might. Days, months and years of training squeezed into 10 seconds of superhuman performance. He wins with glory - the world's eyes are on him. Commentators, journalists and more media people crown him "the fastest man on earth".

The hype of the experience is its intensified and ultra-dramatized effect. I wouldn't know how it feels to win gold at the most exclusive level of athletics. And to break a new world record. And to express feelings of utter joy, triumph, excitement.

Yet many times, many people crave for that experience while forgetting all the hard, consistent work that has been put into it. People want shortcuts. Success, but not the toil and labour that it demands. The zenith, but not the tortuous road on the way up. It happens everywhere. In school, at work, in romantic relationships. And it doesn't work.

We reap (harvest) what we sow (plant). In the time that separates the two, it demands our faithful dedication. Would we give our all for it? And when we've given our all - heck, let's just say that we've reaped it all - what do we do next? It's continual, for time in this world does not stop. Once we're "there", it really demands more of us. Some say that it's harder to retain #1 than getting #1.

So cherish the journey.

Identity

Just another random Friday afternoon post.

Identity is the sense of self or self-conception. Something like self-awareness. In KH (Kemahiran Hidup, esp Form 2 stuff), students get exposed to the notion of "imej kendiri", which I think is quite related to identity. It's asking, who am I, what defines me, how do I present myself to the society around, why do I the things I do, etc. And perhaps it reaches out to other downstream decisions and actions that I make, too.

Here are two identities that I have assumed in the past:
An adventurer. A hero. Like the warrior in Diablo, bent on a quest to defeat the Lord of Terror. Thing is, I have no antagonist. I just assume the role of a fighter who builds himself up physically. Like Illidan the Demon Hunter, but without anything to hunt. It's like a means without an end. The means are martial art training - like Tae Kwon Do and Jeet Kun Do - coupled with flying moves (which are rather impractical, really). There's no end. Or maybe the end is just becoming a kind of warrior in itself. The lifestyle of training and working out the patterned moves become an objective/a goal on its own. Weird identity.

Another one's a scholar. A Harry Potter of sorts, doing academics instead of magic. An intellectual version of the hack-and-slash dirty pit gladiator. A promising student who has the entire academic arena waiting to be conquered. This was actually influential on me because that's my first strength that I noticed. Intellectual superiority became my identity, and it's not rare to hear people ask, "Macam mana bah ko jadi pandai ni?" In Form 2, I had actually tried denying IQ, the measure which shows up as the tendency of "intelligence" to predict academic performance. At that time, I instead pointed to hard, consistent work with effective techniques and a positive attitude. Now, my view is shifted a bit, and I'd say IQ does play a part: it often makes primary school easier. And maybe secondary school, too. So I had perhaps struck the lucky genes by picking the right parents and choosing the right combination of genes ("brains" are roughly 55-75% genetically determined). Well, God did that hard work, really. He made me this way. And my early schooling reflected it. Hence I saw myself as a scholar. And it's not over yet.

Time for anatomy dissection.

A boy who cried

Based on a real life story.

A primary school boy came back from school one afternoon. His Mom, Dad and sister were there.

His Dad told him that, if the the phone rings, tell the caller that he (the Dad) is not there.

The boy thought that it was a simple instruction.

Then the phone rang. He picked it up. The caller asked for the Dad.

The boy took rather long to respond. No words came out of his mouth. With the phone still on his ears, he turned and looked at his Dad - a definite expression of worry, dilemma and conscience-struck.

His Dad immediately took the phone and took hold of the situation.

And the boy cried.


His Dad and Mom hugged him and let him cry. He said, "Sorry, Dad..." His Dad said that it's OK.

It was the calm after the storm.

The past few weeks

The weeks that were...

A game of poker on a Friday night







No, no gambling; we used plastic coins.
Was a fun way of spending some spare seconds.

My principle was: No all-in, no big win.
I won using my first all-in, and lost in the second.


The 2.5k assignment










I learned a big lesson this time around.
At first, I used the same strategy as last semester:
Writing my thoughts down on paper first, extracting the underlying assumptions in the wording of the question.
Then, I had trouble. I didn't know what my main points were going to be. My essay had no body in the first week that I was working on it.

Retrospect










This was the rough work on the paper.
I looks like a lot of mess to me - though at one time it was my functionally organized ideas factory and map.

I learned that Melbourne Uni students could actually use the "Bonus+" feature, which meant getting a book from another university.

I got Goffman's 1963 book from Deakin Uni.

Katakan...

Satu lagi utusan dalam Bahasa Melayu. Persoalan: kematian.

Saya pertama kali menggunakan istilah "katakan" (cth. katakan x = tinggi bangunan) dalam Tingkatan 4, dalam subjek Matematik Tambahan.

Penggunaan katakan sebegini adalah suatu jenis anggapan (assumption). Katakan adalah suatu subset khusus dalam set umum anggapkan. Di sini, saya ingin mengupas suatu anggapan asasi yang kita gunakan setiap hari, mungkin tanpa sedar. Pertimbangkan senario berikut:

Kes 1
Ali: Hei Ahmad, aku letih ah hari ni... Esok je lah kite main CS, ok?
Ahmad: Kau ni, aku dah datang rumah kau dah... Ah, aku tak nak datang main dengan kau lagi ah!

Kes 2
Abu: Alamak, I tak study lagi glycolysis! You ajar I Sabtu ni boleh? I nak bangun awal, tak nak bazir mase dah.
Bakar: Boleh je. I suke mental workout.
Usahlah menyoal tentang nama orang yang saya gunakan. Ali, Ahmad, Abu dan Bakar sangat popular dalam mana-mana cerita rekaan.

Sekarang, izinkan saya memperkenalkan seorang pembaca rekaan, namanya Crezki. Ini maklum balasnya:

Hmmm, ade suatu corak persamaan yang saya lihat dalam perbualan ini - kesemua watak itu menganggap bahawa mereka akan hidup pada hari esok, dan hari lusa, dan beberapa ratus malah beberapa ribu hari lagi.

Maksudnya, setiap ujaran kata dan pertimbangan yang dibuat oleh keempat-empat watak itu adalah berdasarkan anggapan bahawa mereka tidak akan meninggal dunia dalam masa terdekat ini.

Kematian bererti berakhirnya tindakan sebegitu, kerana mereka yang sudah mati tidak mampu membuat keputusan, bertutur kata, berfikir - pendek kata, tidak mampu membuat apa-apa. Dan kematian, amat sering kali, adalah proses yang tidak berbalik (irreversible).

Anggapan ini membolehkan kita merancang hari esok, untuk melakukan sesuatu, misalnya permainan CS yang dirancang oleh Ali.

Terdapat pelbagai jenis rancangan lain: ingin pergi ke Kem Eksplorasi, ingin melanjutkan pelajaran ke menara gading, ingin menjadi kaya, ingin menjadi dermawan, ingin menyumbang bakti kepada masyarakat... malah ingin menamatkan riwayat sendiri (atau orang lain).

Sesetengah rancangan bercorak tidak ingin lagi: tidak ingin merokok lagi, tidak ingin menipu, tidak ingin bertemu dengan seseorang, dan sebagainya. Persamaannya, rancangan tersebut bercorak ke masa hadapan, dengan anggapan bahawa maut tidak akan tiba lagi.

Tidak dinafikan bahawa anggapan ini sangat berguna; kalau saya akan mati esok, mengapa bersusah-susah mencari nafkah untuk sepanjang bulan hadapan ini? Dan tidak dinafikan juga, anggapan ini sangat munasabah. Purata jangka hayat adalah petanda yang agak sesuai untuk menganggar masa yang ada pada kita selepas lahir dan sementara menunggu mati. Purata jangka hayat warga Malaysia lebih kurang 70 hingga 80 tahun; jadi jika saya berusia 20 tahun, saya boleh menganggap maut masih menunggu lebih daripada 50 tahun lagi. Jika matra keempat (4th dimension) adalah masa, maka kalendar, jam dan buku sejarah merupakan alat rekaan manusia yang boleh menunjukkan berapa lama lagi hayat kita akan dikandung badan.

Sampai di sini sajalah kajian pada hari ini. Kita sudah melihat bagaimana istilah katakan adalah suatu bentuk anggapan, dan juga mempertimbangkan betapa mudahnya manusia membuat anggapan asasi ini: saya akan hidup lagi esok.


Dan jika anggapan ini tidak wujud, kemungkinan besar pentas kemodenan dunia tidak bergerak seperti sekarang.

The Megapixels

The pleasantness of pictures.
(When raw pictures are good enough - i.e. no photoshopping)

Melbourne night skyline, across the Yarra

The tree outside the Med building

Me in Crystal Apartment(?), Gold Coast

The morning beach in Gold Coast, from high above

Double rainbow in Melbourne

The Ink and the Paper

Or, my observation of the role of colour contrast.

When we're given lined A4 papers for an exam, what's on the paper? (Lines, duh.)

Before we turn on the power for our computers, what's on the screen? (And you wouldn't see this without shading it.)

Back when we were still kids, and the lights were turned off, what is it that we see? Or, do not see?

Ink and paper is serving a lot of functions in our world today. Not just exam papers and web pages, but many others: money, legal documents, academic certificates... more.

I'm just truly amazed by the effect of colour contrast in facilitating effective communication, even communication with self (diaries, blogs, lecture notes, etc). For my first PBL case last semester, I just write G6PDD. And it tells of a whole plethora of things from the symptoms such as lethargy and weakness, to its cause which is a single enzyme deficiency, as well as the mechanisms linking them together. We learned that 400 million people globally are affected by this X-linked, recessively inherited condition.

And the fact that I can tell which keys to press to produce this post (as we all can). I think it's immensely amazing. The human brain and eye has got some real super-duper processing power.

Otherwise we would probably click on emails in our Inbox that are really just spam and contain nothing sensible, and waste our living time doing so.

Minggu yang baru berlalu

Tiba masanya untuk saya mengerjakan kemahiran menulis dalam Bahasa Melayu...

Kes tutorial Pembelajaran Berasaskan Masalah (PBL) minggu ini berkisar tentang diabetes mellitus Jenis Kedua. Mungkin kamu pernah mendengar tentang rintangan insulin, kegemukan dan tekanan darah tinggi. Semuanya berkaitan dengan kes diabetes jenis ini.

Tidak lupa juga tentang tarikh akhir untuk menghantar esei Pengamalan Kesihatan (HP), lebih kurang dua minggu dari sekarang. Saya agak lega kerana telah memilih soalan untuk dijawab (terdapat 5 pilihan) dan sudah memikirkan beberapa soalan yang sudah pasti berkait rapat dengan kehendak soalan tersebut. Esei itu berkaitan dengan penyisihan dalam masyarakat dan kesannya kepada individu yang tersisih.

Saya tiba agak lewat (15 minit lambat) ke kuliah 8.00 pagi semalam. Namun, secara keseluruhannya, saya berpuas hati dengan persiapan saya ke setiap kuliah pada minggu ini. Nota dan ringkasan kuliah sempat saya baca dan serap sebelum mendengarnya disampaikan oleh pensyarah.

Lawatan ke hospital pada hari Rabu lepas juga amat menarik kerana hampir setiap ahli kumpulan (8 orang di bawah seorang doktor) berpeluang melakukan pemeriksaan fizikal (PE) ke atas 3 orang pesakit di wad. Pemeriksaan itu melibatkan bahagian tangan, muka, leher, belakang, dan yang paling penting, bahagian perut (abdomen). Doktor yang mengajar kami itu sangat bermurah hati memanjangkan masa kami di hospital, dengan menambah 45 minit. Sejam setengah menjadi dua jam suku, dan ini sangat baik sebagai pendedahan kepada hakikat dunia perubatan.

Sampai di sini sahajalah untuk kali ini.

Saya sebenarnya berfikir untuk menulis dalam loghat/dialek Sabah juga...tapi lain kali sahajalah.

A Quote

Credits to Randy Pausch, Professor, Carnegie-Mellon; and to Jeffrey Zaslow.

Chapter 32
Don't Complain, Just Work Harder

Too many people go through life complaining about their problems. I've always believed that if you took one-tenth the energy you put into complaining and applied it to solving the problem, you'd be surprised by how well things can work out.
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The message in their stories is this: Complaining does not work as a strategy. We all have finite time and energy. Any time we spend whining is unlikely to help us achieve our goals. And it won't make us happier.

An excerpt from his book, The Last Lecture.

Randy died of pancreatic cancer on 25th July 2008. (I got the book just three days earlier.)

Just when I thought ~

~ that I suffered the worst thing that could happen, I thought again. Well, it's definitely not the worst thing that could have happened, but it did feel really bad at that time.

I was just done in the Uni computer lab. It was already dark at 6pm. I walked over to my bicycle and unlocked it. My hands motioned almost subconsciously to switch on the bike lights.

Huh?

My front white lamp, powered by 2 AA batteries, which was supposed to intermittently flash as I rode my bike at night, was not in its rightful place. On the handlebar I only saw the reflective white "lamp", which is not even a proper lamp. My back light, red, was gone too. What remains was the piece of rubber used to hold it in place.

My front and back lights, with the screw, nut, batteries and everything with them, got stolen. I rode back home feeling sad that night.

Two nights later, as I talked about it with another friend who bikes regularly to school, I got the shock of a week ("of a lifetime" = excessive overstatement). It's this friend's third, mind me, third bike that he rides right now. Two got stolen earlier this year.

I've lost only two bike lights.


Oh well, I do hope that whoever it was who unscrewed my white and red bike lights made perfect good use of them. The world is after all a place where stuff change hands from one owner to the next, sometimes legally and sometimes not.

Just when I thought that I suffered the worst blow, I was reassured that people have been through worse.

4 Dimensions

A short post on a Friday afternoon.

To meet someone who lives somewhere else, I have to specify the place and time.

Like the Med building.

Along Grattan Street.

Corner of Elizabeth Street (or Royal Parade).

7th floor.

At 9am.

I would meet that person if my location along these 4 axes (3 space, 1 time) intersect. I wouldn't if I turn up at 9pm; well, maybe I would, but with a different person.

(Credits to Brian Greene, who illustrated this sort of example in The Elegant Universe.)

And something about time and about the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

An interesting mail

Subject: Further Maths Question . REALLY HOPE u REPLY ASAP.TQ

It was around 3pm. I knew this wasn't a regular email, and I quickly clicked on it. It was about a question in the Nov/Dec 2006 Paper 1, Further Mathematics. Here's the question:

Derive the Taylor series for e^x expanded at x = 0 and show that
2 < e <3.
[6 marks]
(6 marks would mean 10-11 minutes of work.) And here's my solution:

Any questions?

What is Medicine like?

Hmmm...feeling like writing a bit about how it feels to study medicine...

am
6.00 - Still asleep
7.00 - Last few minutes of sleep
8.00 - Morning face wash, breakfast, travel to uni, etc.
9.00 - PBL tutorial starts, goes for 2 hours
10.00 - Talking in PBL class
11.00 - PBL class over; some pre-reading in library


pm
12.00 - 1st lecture of the week
1.00 - Internet, leisure reading (chill time)
2.00 - HP lecture (the non-scientific side of medicine)
3.00 - lecture over
4.00 - chilling, lunch
5.00 - biking around the park
6.00 - losing some sweat in the gym
7.00 - dinner, to a friend's house
8.00 - trying out friend's 4GB RAM, 1GB VRAM PC
9.00 - still stuck there
10.00 - back home, fumbling through tomorrow's lecture notes
11.00 - reading lecture notes on Krebs Cycle (=TCA/citric acid cycle)

am again
12.00 - reading lecture notes on Fat Metabolism
1.00 - about to go to bed
2.00 - asleep


Based on 2nd week of 2nd semester. The Med website recommends at least 15 hours of "non-contact time commitment" per week for my science subject (NDM), and 9 hours for the non-science (HP2). It's like squeezing the most I can out of what I have.

Picture credit: http://www.germes-online.com/catalog

When I first wept in prayer

A friend requested me to write something "enlightening" today. Here it is.


I was taught how to pray when I was 9 years old. My younger sister was also taught at that time. It was my mom and my dad who taught us.

“Thank You Lord Jesus for [something that happened in the day].
Thank You Lord Jesus for [2nd thing that happened that I could recall].
Thank You Lord Jesus…”

You get the picture.

It was at night, just before bedtime. We would sit on mom and dad’s bed, holding our hands together. We closed our eyes. My parents would start the prayer.

I figured that prayer was directed to God. It was just like we’re taught in Sunday school. Eyes closed, hands locked, to reduce distraction. I learned the “script” off my parents. I had the “feel” of what to mention when we pray. But did I really mean what I said?

On one of those nights, Daddy had just come home from “outstation”. I recall that he traveled to Sandakan, Tawau, Lahad Datu and other places quite often at that time. Nights without Daddy around were quite common.

That night, when it was my turn to pray, I began, “Thank You Lord Jesus for taking Daddy safely home from outstation.” In the middle of that sentence, I cried. I was sobbing. Tears rolled down my cheek. I didn’t know why I was crying. I continued and finished up praying while weeping.

I still don’t know exactly why I cried at that time. I could only give possibilities. Crying means that something touched us deep inside. Humans deeply moved. Overflowing emotions. “It touched my heart.” Came across this before?

“And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30)

I quote this verse as it tells us that all our human dimensions – emotional, spiritual, mental, and physical – should be submitted to God. To worship God means that all our human aspects respond to Him, in spirit and in truth. Crying is a truly human response. Though it’s not the only way to respond, it is one of our unintentional responses to the things that happen to us.

Occasionally, I still cry when I pray. Till today.

Mom, Dad, thank you for teaching me how to talk with God.

Of Microeconomics and Tales of Pirates

I find this book by Gans, King and Mankiw very appealing. Deep in my head, I had always wanted to know what on earth it is that economics has to offer as an academic field (to the extent that it has an honorary Prize in Economics, a Nobel-equivalent).

It starts off with "Ten lessons from economics", divided into three 'types' of lessons. I'll focus on the first one: How people make decisions.

Lesson 1: People face trade-offs
At the most basic level, this lesson is illustrated by my decision whether to play the MMORPG Tales of Pirates or not. Once I decide to play, more trade-offs surface: Should I pick Lance, Carsise, Phyllis or Ami? What stats should I add? What skills to learn? Because I can't be a Lance-Carsise-Phyllis-Ami universal soldier who has maximal stats and knows all skills.

Lesson 2: The cost of something is what you give up to get it
So I selected Lance because I want to be a dual-sword-wielding Crusader. It looks cool. But I start out as a Novice who has no offensive and defensive skills at all! Then I can turn into a Swordsman at level 10. A Crusader is available only once I hit level 40.
To be a Crusader, I need to level up.
To level up, I need to kill monsters (or do quests...but most quests still involve killing monsters anyway. And I want to do this quickly).
To kill monsters more quickly, I can either add strength or agility. Strength increases the damage that I do when I swing my sword. Agility increases my rate of swinging the sword. Every character gets 1 point per level up (5 points every 10th level).
I decide to add my agility first, because the swordsman that I have in mind is a fast-swinging warrior. What I've given up (the opportunity cost) to increase my attack speed is an increase in my other attributes, which are strength, constitution, spirit and accuracy.

The book cover

My crusader

Lesson 3: Rational people think at the margin
Swordsmen have a skill called Illusion Slash. It is an "air wave" to attack enemies from a distance. It increases tremendously if my attack speed reaches 140, and increases even more if it reaches 210 (and no more after that).
I was a swordsman when my attack speed reached 139. My agility at that time was 40, and I had a few points to spare. So I added one more point into agility, and my attack speed reached the magical number 140. The monsters which previously survived 2 Illusion Slashes could now survive only one. By the way, after casting an Illusion Slash, I have to wait for 5 seconds before delivering the next one. Killing rate was significantly increased by just 1 mere status point.
The marginal benefit exceeded the marginal cost.

Lesson 4: People respond to incentives
To be really blunt, the opportunity cost of playing this game is my time. I could be reading. Or writing. Or thinking. Or doing something else other than staying stuck to the computer. But playing this game takes all of that away, and while playing, all I can do is read, write (type), and think within the boundaries of the game. Yes, deciding what monsters to kill and what items to collect are thinking processes.
And all I want to get is a lot of fun. Which usually relates to achieving high levels and getting lots of powerful equipment.
That's why, during the 2x exp event (experience gained by killing monsters is doubled - effectively making leveling up faster), I didn't mind spending one whole day slashing and hacking monsters (also called grinding). I used the mini-amplifier of strive to again double the experience, and partied with a newer character to get the 3x experience boost from Star of Unity. Each level 19 Killer Shroom which would normally give 226 experience points gave me 2,712 instead.
Having 2x, 3x and 4x exp events are indeed incentives to play and level up.

So yes, observing the links between economics and my gaming habit does intrigue me.

His full-volume ring tone woke him up at 7.20 am, just about 4 hours after he got to bed. It was "Over You" by Daughtry.

Almost automatically, he opened up his laptop and switched it on. The ceiling lamp for the study area was lit as well. Then he filled some water in the plastic kettle and started boiling it. This guy would be wasted without electricity.

This morning was really early for him. Yesterday, he got up at almost 12 pm. He wouldn't get up for nothing. It's winter break, and the indoor temperature probably hovered around 15°C, plus or minus two degrees. His holiday started about 10 days ago. Waking time had been irregular for him; every other day, there was always something on. But this was, perhaps, something more important than the ones previously.

On the night before, he had thought to himself (and to some other friends): Would tomorrow be a historic day for me? (for us?)

He plugged his wireless modem in, and connected to the Net. He launched Firefox.

"Result is coming out, right?" That was yesterday's tagline with his other coursemates. He didn't know what he felt. Just before bedtime on that night, he had decided to adopt an "it's all right" mentality; he said his words of prayers and words of thanksgiving to God, for he then realized that it had been a time of supernatural power during the exam period. "Give me the best for me; give me what I deserve," he prayed.

The bookmark on top of the browser window was clicked. He entered his login name and password.

He played the song "Surrender" on his phone. "I wouldn't have got this result without You, Almighty God," he praised, even before the result page loaded.

Then there it was. Second Class Honours Division A - H2A. For both of his subjects. (H2A: 75%-79%. H1 > H2A > H2B > H3 > P > N)

His eyes closed, he then took a deep breath and once again gave thanks to his Lord. He wasn't all too happy with that result, but he was content.

First semester isn't counted in the cumulative result. And second semester is waiting to be conquered.

Inside him, his passion was reborn and renewed. He's bringing home two H1's for Sem 2.

A new hobby

It began 4 weeks ago on 22nd June '08. And it just got me hooked.

Proverbs 2:1-9 (NKJV)

1 My son, if you receive my words,
* And treasure my commands within you
2 So that you incline your ear to wisdom
* And apply your heart to understanding
3 Yes, if you cry out for discernment
* And lift up your voice for understanding
4 If you seek her as silver
* And search for her as for hidden treasures
5 Then you will understand the fear of the Lord
* And find the knowledge of God
6 For the Lord gives wisdom
* From His mouth come knowledge and understanding
7 He stores up sound wisdom for the upright
* He is a shield to those who walk uprightly
8 He guards the paths of justice
* And preserves the way of His saints.
9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice
* Equity and all good paths.

I'm into brains. So if cognition and memory are the functional aspect of the noodles in our heads, then I guess memorizing Scripture is an excellent brain workout. It's called laying up His words in our hearts, and also hiding His word in our hearts (Job 22:22, Ps. 119:11).

It kept my brain warmed up during the chilly winter break.

Show My Love

---written on 11 Dec '06


Entry for "Show Your Love" Event

CeresRO

Ever since (I’ve been) hunting for private RO servers around last year, many things have changed. Perhaps the most central tool in the process is the Top 200 site, which shows how servers come and go, climb and fall, promote and demote (other servers), etc, etc.

I’ve been playing on Ceres-RO since late October 2006; not that long, but not too recent either. I initially selected it due to its position in the top 5 (or 10) at that time. My expectation of having a stable, lag-free, no-wipes, and adequately-staffed high rate private server was well met. It was even exceeded, in fact. The idea of global PK (plus limited no-PK zones), the player ranking system, and the non-existence of extreme custom/unbalanced GM reward items add to this server’s rating.

Of course, my experience playing on this server had not been shiny all the time. I usually play a Swordsman (yes, you got me: a swordsman named Crezki II. I have another Lord Knight, by the way), so dying is quite inevitable. Especially in Pyramids 4 when a Wizard/High Wizard decides to test his/her Lvl 10 Storm Gust on a (presumed) weakling like me. But I do survive on a number of occasions. And besides, I usually take the deaths as part of the package of a PK server. If surviving brings glory, I believe that in the same way, dying brings honour. I die sometimes, I kill at other times, and I also occasionally hit F3 for Butterfly Wing!

Heheh. Farming for 2- and 3-carat diamonds is like a routine here; no doubt it’s efficient for people who can’t lay my hand on rare items by MVP’ing all the time! The same goes with farming Yggs, DB’s and all…Farming reminds me of the virtue of patience. And over-upgrading! Oh my! Those moments at Hollengren’s room sure left lots of good memories. So far, I’ve only got a couple of +7 slotted Boots (but plenty of +10 weapons thanks to Whitesmiths!). I think the fun factor drives us to work diligently and consistently toward our goals. And it multiplies when we eventually get the hard-earned reward! (One particular instance was when I earned enough to pay for a Baphomet card. Now working for a TG and a TGK. Maybe an LK or a SinX, too. Heheh.)

PvM parties are super-fun! Especially in (Lighthalzen) Bio Labs 3! Luring, tanking, spamming, healing, etc…it’s part of the team. Maybe it’s even more evident in WoE. I just haven’t had the chance to hop in during the guild wars. Maybe I’ll try doing so on one of these days.

I’m not a full-time RO-er. I am currently doing my pre-University studies, which means that I am fully occupied with a student’s responsibilities. Yet, I find that Ragnarok Online brings with itself the pleasures and challenges as an MMORPG (Thanks for the fun!). And I think I can call Ceres-RO a SUCCESS in terms of a private RO server.

Congratulations for making it through 1 year, Ceres-RO!

Crezki

In game:
Anyone with “Crezki” in the name, e.g. Crezki II



Appendix (acronyms used and their meanings, listed alphabetically):

DB’s – dead branches
GM – game master
LK – Lord Knight (Seyren) [Card]
MVP – Most Valuable Player [Boss Monster]
PK – player killer
PvM – Player versus Monster
RO – don’t tell me you don’t know this…Ragnarok Online
SinX – Assassin Cross (Eremes) [Card]
TG – Turtle General [Card]
TGK – Tao Gun Ka [Card]
WoE – War of Emperium
Yggs – Yggdrasil berries

How to chill --

--in the last minutes before (and perhaps during) semester exam.


1. Grab a laptop/PC that's online and read the latest headlines

2. Get up from the seat and get a glass/cup/sip of water

3. Walk around the room and stretch the neck, arms, legs, and body

4. Go to a less crowded place and call Mom and Dad

5. Draw figures integrating 4 weeks of lecture material. Or more.

6. Write a blog post. Or a comment.

7. Read up about piracetam, modafinil and vinpocetin.

8. Volunteer in simple-task, large-group works. Perhaps one that's more than 5 hours straight. Then you'll want to study again.

9. Do a math question (e.g. from first-semester Calculus 2). Or if that's part of your exam, do a 10-mark ethics question.

10. Play guitar; or violin; or piano; or sing. Or DotA. Otherwise keep quiet and go back to studying.


Happy SWOT VAC & Exams.

"Exam condition"

An idea during study week.

It might be easy to integrate the function
f(x) = (x-3)(x²+1).


But what about its reciprocal 1/f(x) ?
(I couldn't type it out easily; so I described it in words instead.)

Maybe we should give it a few moments of thought.

While doing my usual study/revision this week, I realized - like numerous times before this - that learning, or input, can actually be really fun. Making mnemonics, drawing mind maps, producing charts and tables to organize newly-learned materials, etc., could be quite addictive. It also has a lag tendency, unfortunately. It's like a comfort zone of learning where there's nothing else that I'd rather be doing.

And the purpose of this study week is for preparation for next week's end-of-semester exam. The assessment is the real output. Not the mnemonics, mind maps, charts, tables, etc. They do help, but if I can't reproduce them within the exam time limit, then I wouldn't score excellent marks. In fact, I've experienced that the act of deciding which mind map is relevant for a question itself actually consumes so much time! It's so different from the input phase. The writing process is accelerated. The thinking process must be spontaneous. And it involves high-precision work.

Which brings to my idea for today.

The exam condition is like a pressure cooker. Time is very limited. Every second is utilized for the cooking process.

And, by the way, I tried solving the above problem (1/f(x)) by some substitution step, which was futile. A friend whom I asked told me that I need to use partial fractions and then use inverse trigonometric integration for one of the terms.

No way could I have done it efficiently under exam condition, because that would be cheating.


Happy SWOT VAC.

Exam Letter, May 2008

With a triggering material from Terence Tao, a mathematics professor:

Among chess players, it is generally accepted that one of the most effective ways to improve one’s skill is to continually play against opponents which are slightly higher rated than you are. In mathematics, the opponents are unsolved or imperfectly understood mathematical problems, concepts, and theories, rather than other mathematicians; but the principle is broadly the same. (more)

I believe that every test, exam, or academic hurdle of sorts is an opportunity to learn and to improve ourselves.

Our answers - or solutions or responses - are like the swing of a racket to hit the ball.

The questions are like a "stress test" - seeing how far we can go without failing. Each correct answer reinforces our understanding.

Logic gives order to the knowledge fragments in our minds. Patterns and sequences become obvious. We become better at handling the ball.

But of course we would also encounter questions which we don't fully know the answer.

Because, otherwise, we'd be stuck in yesterday's ceiling. Yes, we might have attained 100% yesterday. But that is then just a nice number. It doesn't translate into reality.

Reality is when we face the unknown: new discoveries, new learnings, new advancement. Who needs to be stuck in yesterday?

And now, while time still allows us to heighten our ceilings as maximally as possible - to expand our horizon as distantly as achievable - let us then fulfill it.

Potential is what we haven't done yet.

Don't waste it.

Happy SWOT VAC.

Past, Present & Future

For lack of a better title...

What's Past

Two good friends from Dunedin came over to visit us here in Melbourne, about 4 weeks ago.

How sweet!





What's Present

My first Uni assignment (1,ooo words) on medical ethics got marked and returned this week.
So I feel like showing the feedback (without being a show-off).
It's almost like a present; the several days of labour reaped excellent harvest. A present in the present.
For the glory of God!



What's Future

Winter's coming.

After the Sem exam, about 4 weeks of break are coming.

I'd probably delve a bit into the Big Bang Theory, black holes, nebulae, ..., quarks, hadrons, bosons, etc.

For lack of better ideas on what to spend a few million seconds on.

Poetic Math

An excerpt from "Words of a Mathematical Mind", written as a script for a Math choral speaking contest in September 2005. It did not win any prize.

...

Take this simple question:
2x + 5 = 11 [Two x plus five equals eleven]
- (What?) - 2x + 5 = 11
It’s an equation
Solved by subtraction, and division or multiplication
Or try a function
f(x) = x³ –x² –x
With which you can do differentiation
Or maybe integration
And various other operations
Flowing smooth in calculating motion


Beyond theory, into reality
Far and wide across the air
From currency to astronomy
Doubtless to say, numbers are there
From symmetry to geometry
And all that you thought were merely lines
From intensity, to luminosity
Lighting up the golden mines
Into the riches, wealth, economy
Numbers dictating every little penny

...

Reading this again makes me think: Why go all the trouble to make this?
But then again I also think: What new things to try out in this world we're living in?

A ship at port would never sink;
But that's not what ships are made for.