Last post before 2009 comes to an end...

.... and 2010 begins a whole a new chapter.

just realized that i've been reading a lot on depressing topics, most of it involving inhumane acts such as genocide, civilian shooting, ineffective policies on human rights..

But yesterday I started a book that is definitely one of the most uplifting, encouraging I've read in a while:

THREE CUPS OF TEA.

I'm only on pg. 44, but it's just an easy read, that I think I might just finish this by the end of the day. Or I could try to savour it, and distract myself with some other books.

(Shopping at Amazon.ca really paid off. I'm getting all these awesome books for such a good deal...!!)

A new one just arrived today - Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil. (I bet the content is just as cheerful as the title sounds.)

And I'm ready to immerse myself in Korphe village on the Karakoram Mountains in Pakistan again.

'When it is dark enough, you can see the stars'.

-Persian Proverb

HAPPY NEW YEAR...! cheers to a new beginning in TWO-THOUSAND AND TEN!

IT'S CONFIRMED!

Month of December has proven itself to be a truly eventful one.... hectic application preparations aka headache magnets, fighting off holiday flus (to no avail), and hunting for cheap flights to Tanzania/applying IVHQ for volunteer trip to Tanzania.

And now finally, I'm in my final stage applying for grad schools, and I received my confirmation e-mail from IVHQ. Looks like I'll be making a stop in Africa in June 2010!

Aside from all the excitement, there is one thing for which I'm not exactly leaping for joy...

Vaccinations
You should talk to your local health doctor as to what vaccinations you will require. Some you may have had in the past.

Further information about vaccinations are provided in the info booklet but you should consider the following.

Immunizations – Legally Required
- Yellow Fever

Immunizations – Recommended
- Polio
- Hepatitis A
- Diphtheria/Tetanus
- Typhoid
- Malaria
- Hepatitis B
- Tuberculosis (when epidemic)
- Cholera (when epidemic)

But anyhow, I'll leave that to later. and try to spread out the shots or something.

For now, I'm in an excellent mood, with this particularly cheerful song stuck in my head:

just in case they're wondering
they've got us pinned terribly
they don't believe our love is real
cause they don't know how real love feels

you should know, its true, just now the part about my
love for you and how my hearts about to
bust into the thousand pieces so it
must be true and they'll believe us too soon

they may say some awful things
but there's not point in listening
your words are the only words
that I believe in afterwards

baby, its fact our love is true
the way black is black and blue is just blue
my love is true, its a matter of fact
and you love me too, its as simple as that

tis the season of .... holiday flu.

Before my little pictorial review of my fond winter memories of 2009 - I have to say...

that i have to be more health-alert when it comes to my sleeping habits, diet, weekly exercise.

i spent the entire day just resting, not being able to move because of my headache and sore body. when i originally planned to be extra productive on my applications, and then having some fun at night in downtown vancouver, where the streetlights/Christmas lights shine an inviting, welcoming light... Here I am instead, wearing my bum clothes, [trying] to sleep, re-watched You've Got Mail (it's now a Christmas ritual, this epic romance flick), and playing with Yueyue, my hyper dog.... and now writing this blog. i guess my mind and body need a rest from all the Christmas festivities, food, and applications (im guessing this is whats causing the headache, no doubt).

but definitely, i need to improve my health. there's really nothing one can do when one is bedridden and homebound. hey, i guess that's going on my 2010 must-do list!

So without any further ado.... here are the eventful pictures of my winter 2009:

Miss May's surprise Party organized by moi. Successful party! :) countless mini-lies and fake phone calls to make this night possible.

Halloween 2009

let's see.. what do we got here. two ninjas, Dwight from the Office, an asian dude (he's actually white, this is why it's a costume)..

And Eddie C from Twilight, feasting on a geisha, apparently.

hey hey, this is where Olympic Speed Skating 2010 is taking place. too bad they're tearing the place down after the games.

St-Paul's hospital. This is such a hopeful building.

Decorated by volunteers.

Each stars represents a donation from an organization/company who are caring and generous enough to make health services accessible to the public.

Stars of hope... no doubt!

This amazing Tart - busy with blackberries and raspberries is just about the most delicious tart I have ever tasted... for a while... for $4.99. I justify my spending on just how expensive fruit, especially berries are nowadays, and so, I allowed myself to indulge for 3 days in a row in that one week.

The ''imagine banquet'' crew. Our church's youth group [Flux] organized and hosted a banquet for parents and families with disabled children. it was such an amazing night, and just to see our efforts realized with our awesome crew was an unforgettable experience. This is us saying 'CHEERS!' with yogurt drinks bought from T&T.

And yes...! SNOWSHOEING on Mt. Seymour :)

Joel, our patient and professional guide.

Oh, he's also over 6 feet tall, but in this picture it looks like we are the same height.

AND THAT ABOUT WRAPS IT UP!

now...... 6 days countdown before YEAR TWO-THOUSAND AND TEN!

Am i ready for a whole year of craziness and exciting challenges?

may-be. i will say yes for now. because according to Telus, the future is friendly.

on good/$$$ movies

I just watched what is considered to be one of the greatest movies ever made in the 21st century.

SAVING PRIVATE RYAN.

a great movie, and I'd definitely watch it again - that and Black Hawk Down back to back (oh, and I need to pick up The Thin Red Line).

after IMDB-ed the movie (a habit I got into after viewing any film), I discovered some disturbing facts...

The OMUHA beach scene alone costed $11 million.

This is also the first DreamWorks film to cross the $100 million mark.

These are scary numbers. A good film - nonetheless, scary, outrageous numbers...

This is western media for us: worldvision showing victims of post-war devastation/screwed-up colonization and at the same time showing commercials of blockbusters that cost............

go figure.

holiday season calls for.....

....something red!

.....

(and Jesus, of course Jesus.)

I just spent the last 7 hours or so on the computer, trying to figure out my other options if I don't get accepted into SFU or UBC for MA... and I can't think straight.

My passion ...

My goal ...

My academic pursuits ...

My vision for the next year ...

Ultimately, all can be summed up with one great quote, so great that I feel almost guilty quoting it. But the heck with it, I'm going to quote it anyway:

''Be the change you want to see in the world.''

What if I hand in my letter of intent with this one single sentence:

''I want to be the change I want to see in the world.''

Ahahaha.

I think I'd get points for being creatively lazy.

--now back to work.

a good read

This is Benedict (Dr. Orbinski's mentor)'s response to him when he thought that 'justice is an illusion' when he returned from Rwanda and Zaire in 1996, during the genocide:

''Not when you know what injustice is,'' Benedict replied immediately. ''The victim is someone quite concrete. Justice only fails when we fail to imagine that it is possible. But like so many things, it depends not only on imaginings but on what we do.''

What a good read, 'An Imperfect Offering' by James Orbinski.

I wish I was starting the book again from the beginning, instead of finishing it off, with less the 1/4 of the book left. I'm currently reading the chapter called ''The Politics of being Apolitical: Humanitarian Action in North Korea, Kosovo and the Sudan''. I'm still at the beginning of the chapter, where the author, the amazing Dr. Orbinski is struggling with just how cruel and obscene humans can be, and what atrocities we are capable of. This is such a powerful book, with personal accounts of what happened in Somalia, Afghanistan, Rwanda, Zaire/Congo.

On a side note, during my volunteer shift today, Bob, a patient I was visiting was telling me his life story (in the span of 45 minutes, it was pretty amazing. I wanted to sit longer but then his son's family dropped by, and my shift was over before I knew it.) and he mentioned how his family was caught in the war in Yugoslavia when he was 12, 13. Then without going into too much details, but enough to make my heart skip a beat and tears well up in my eyes, he told me how he had evacuated the former Yugoslavia with his brother and mother. They basically had to board a ship, which was getting fuller by the minute, to seek refuge in Egypt. Then when it was his turn to go, one of the guard onboard refused to take his mother. 12 year-old Bob then stay put and insisted that unless his mother gets onboard, he won't. Another guard who saw this, couldn't bear the sight of a family being separated, pulled his mother in and managed to get his entire family out of the war-torn country.

My guess is the second guard was empathetic to the situation, and wondered what he himself would do if it was his family standing on the other side of the dock, and if he had to choose survival over family. And at the end of the day, isn't it just all that simple? Injustice, violence, rape, theft, genocide, state-imposed starvation, and all the undesirable terrors of the entire war package -- if the same crime, pain, suffering were to be inflicted on our own mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, friends, lovers... how would each and everyone of us act in the face of the same plight?

Human rights have a chance to be protected when we think clearly, calmly and empathetically.

quote

''Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire.''

-quotation from the Talmud - Itzhak Stern from Schindler's List

thank u mr. postman!

After taking two sick days last week, my first day back at work on Monday morning wasn't the greatest experience. Needless to say, work was a bit on the dreadful side, and I still didn't get most of the work done. And the fb msg my co-worker left on my wall describing my desk (''It looks like a tornado went through your cubicle!'' - emily) doesn't do it justice. More like Tornado and Tsunami combined.

BUT... something came in the mail to brighten up my day!

A letter from Tanzania from my sponsor child in Arusha... :)

And I've decided to postpone my trip to Tanzania to June 2010 - since rain season is usually from mid-March to the end of May. Exciting and nerve-racking at the same time... but definitely more excited :)

And while we're on the Africa page, and while the coming drought in Ethiopia is getting global attention again after the on in 1984 - here is some food for thought:

''According to Oxfam, just 0.14 per cent of overseas assistance is allocated to disaster risk management, an area of aid that identifies threats together with communities and works to mitigate them. This includes investment in infrastructure that would move food relief around a country rather than importing it and water conservation projects that would help sustain crops. Unfortunately, the tendency is to give after a crisis rather than taking steps to prevent it from happening.''

--Vancouver Sun, November 2, 2009 Monday, Article ''More aid must be devote to drought prevention'' by Craig and Marc Kielburger

Little Perks that make my day.... priceless. (For everything else, there's Mastercard.)

I wholeheartedly support poor English menus in Asian restaurants... they make such good conversation starters!

(''uh... excuse me, can I get a crispy creep, extra creepy - uh, I mean, crispy, please?'')

And here is the result of finding that little perk in our menu. 2 thumbs up on the creepiness, Tani!

Thanksgiving dinner @ Karen's. ALL THE LOVELY LADIES....!

FLUX retreat @ Whistler Lodge - Sept '09

Grouse Grindthlete! Best time so far: 50:56

Just thought I'd pop in a quick update for FALL 2009! whoo! :)

More to come...

better, bigger things..

The whole day, being sick at home - and I couldn't find the energy to do anything but....

--watch online streaming video.

Definitely an unproductive, bad, bad, bad way to spend my time at home. (my first excuse being I'm too tired to focus, and second, this may be the infamous H1N1 virus, and when one is plagued by a fatal virus as such as this, one deserves a break from daily routine/self-discipline. Lesson learned today: my excuses are lame.)

So what did I learn by facebooking, watching gossip girls, checking emails?

Nothing much - except that all of us are consumed by materialistic pursuits, attention (--facebook, but I'm shooting myself in the foot in this one), and U2 concert.

Then I decided to do better things while surfing on the net, and entered 'world poverty' in google search engine and here's what bounced back to me:

Global Priority	$U.S. Billions
Cosmetics in the United States	8
Ice cream in Europe	11
Perfumes in Europe and the United States	12
Pet foods in Europe and the United States	17
Business entertainment in Japan	35
Cigarettes in Europe	50
Alcoholic drinks in Europe	105
Narcotics drugs in the world	400
Military spending in the world	780

And compare that to what was estimated as additional costs to achieve universal access to basic social services in all developing countries:

Global Priority	$U.S. Billions
Basic education for all	6
Water and sanitation for all	9
Reproductive health for all women	12
Basic health and nutrition	13

''cowardly, not courageous.''

“These attacks on innocent people are cowardly; they are not courageous, they are cowardly,” Mrs. Clinton said at a news conference with the Pakistani foreign minister, her voice raw with anger.

nytimes on Clinton's Arrival in Pakistan Met by Attacks

今週の悩みは

最近、focusできない！！

I need my ピキーチケンと小鳥の『アドバイース』。

悩みがあります。

ERM.

So today was my first volunteer training at St- Paul's Hospital in Downtown Vancouver.

What I'll be doing is CARDIAC PATIENT VISITING, where I'll be assisting patients before and after their heart surgeries. What I thought I'd be doing today is actually going into the cardiac wing of the hospital and doing patient visiting tasks already - but it turned out to be more of an information session, with 'to-dos' and 'not-to-dos'. I'll be starting my volunteering with another volunteer trainer, doing buddy shifts before I start my regular shifts on Fri nights.

But I'm so looking forward to it....!

＊＊＊＊＊

そして、今日はとてもエベントフールだった日だった。

Tomorrow is another day!

Collages of the Day

Collages.... by my genius baby sister.

John Legend - Ordinary People

What a nice song :)
introduced by my baby sista joBie!

[Verse 1]

Girl im in love with you
This ain't the honeymoon
Past the infatuation phase
Right in the thick of love
At times we get sick of love
It seems like we argue everyday

[Bridge]

I know i misbehaved
And you made your mistakes
And we both still got room left to grow
And though love sometimes hurts
I still put you first
And we'll make this thing work
But I think we should take it slow

[Chorus]

We're just ordinary people
We don't know which way to go
Cuz we're ordinary people
Maybe we should take it slow (Take it slow oh oh ohh)
This time we'll take it slow (Take it slow oh oh ohh)
This time we'll take it slow

[Verse 2]

This ain't a movie no
No fairy tale conclusion ya'll
It gets more confusing everyday
Sometimes it's heaven sent
Then we head back to hell again
We kiss and we make up on the way

[Bridge]

I hang up you call
We rise and we fall
And we feel like just walking away
As our love advances
We take second chances
Though it's not a fantasy
I Still want you to stay

[Chorus]

We're just ordinary people
We don't know which way to go
Cuz we're ordinary people
Maybe we should take it slow (Take it slow oh oh ohh)
This time we'll take it slow (Take it slow oh oh ohh)
This time we'll take it slow

[Verse 3]

Take it slow
Maybe we'll live and learn
Maybe we'll crash and burn
Maybe you'll stay, maybe you'll leave,
maybe you'll return
Maybe another fight
Maybe we won't survive
But maybe we'll grow
We never know baby youuuu and I

[Chorus]

We're just ordinary people
We don't know which way to go
Cuz we're ordinary people
Maybe we should take it slow (Heyyy)
We're just ordinary people
We don't know which way to go
Cuz we're ordinary people
Maybe we should take it slow (Take it slow oh oh ohh)
This time we'll take it slow (Take it slow oh oh ohh)
This time we'll take it slow

'Cause you're so beautiful - like a, TREE...'

got a new guitar yesterday.....
and among the many songs i would like to learn...
Here is one of them.
Some parts of the lyrics might be a bit offensive, but the melody is neat, and it's just too darn funny :)

*PIki, doesn't this remind u of our 'dress' / improv song on the piano? we gotta come up with something else, and make a youtube video! lol.

So here it is... MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL IN THE ROOM.


Looking round room,
I can tell that you
Are the most beautiful girl in the...room.
In the whole wide room
Oooh.

And when you're on the street
Depending on the street
I bet you are definitely in the top three
Good looking girls on the street
Depending on the street
And when I saw you at my mate's place
I thought what...is...she...doing...
At my mate's place
How did Dave get a hottie like that to a party like this

Good one Dave!!!
Ohhhh you're a legend, Dave!
I asked Dave if he's going to make a move on you
He's not sure
I said "Dave do you mind if I do?"
He says he doesn't mind
but I can tell he kinda minds
but I'm gonna do it anyway
I see you standing all alone by the stereo

I dim the lights down very low, here we go
You're so beautiful
You could be a waitress
You're so beautiful
You could be an air hostess in the 60s
You're so beautiful
You could be a part...time...model

And then I seal the deal
I do my moves
I do my dance moves
It's twelve oh two
Just me and you
And seven other dudes
Around you on the dance floor
I draw you near
Let's get outta here

Let's get in a cab
I'll buy you a kebab!
Now I can't believe
That I'm sharing a kebab with the most beautiful girl I have ever seen
With a kebab
Ooooooohhh.

Why don't we leave?
Let's go to my houseand we can feel each other up on the couch
Oh no. I don't mind taking it slow-ho-ho, no-ho-ho, yeah.

Cause you're so beautiful
Like a, tree
Or a high-class prostitute
You're so beautiful
Mmm, you could be a part-time model

But you'd probably have to keep your normal job
A part-time model!
Spending part of your time, modelling,
and part of your time, next to meeeeeeeeee!
My place is usually tidier than this...

What Povery really means

my books from amazon finally arrived today!

1) The Life You can Save by Peter Singer

2) A Long Way Gone - memoirs of a boy soldier by Ishmael Beah

3) Allah is not obliged by Ahmadou Kourouma

My first read is The Life You Can Save, and so far, every page is mind-gripping, appalling, and truly challenging.

one excerpt jumped out at me - and it's the definition of the word Poverty by the 60,000 poor women and men in 73 countries - it is summed up like this:

-You are short of food for all or part of the year, often eating only one meal per day, sometimes having to choose between stilling your child's hunger or your own, and sometimes being able to do neither.

-You can't save money. If a family member falls ill and you need money to see a doctor, or if the crop fails and you have nothing to eat, you have to borrow from a local moneylender and he will charge you so much interest as the debt continues to mount and you may never be free of it.

-You can't afford to send your children to school, or if they do start school, you have to take them out again if the harvest is poor.

-You live in an unstable house, made with mud or thatch that you need to rebuild every two or three years, or after severe weather.

-You have no nearby source of safe drinking water. You have to carry your water a long way, and even then, it can make you ill unless you boil it.

...

http://www.stwr.org/globalization/world-bank-poverty-figures-what-do-they-mean.html

メービ

さしぶりちょっと気になる人とデートした！：）

「メービ。」

ピキのコメンート待ってるよ！！

define this.

i just bought 4 books from amazon for roughly 50$. a truly great deal - but i reckon i should steer clear of this online haven for now - lest i do more impulsive shopping.

im·pul·sive / imˈpəlsiv/

• adj. 1.acting or done without forethought.

five (including the books bargain) Impulsive decisions I made today:
-voice lessons-guitar lessons-free kickboxing lesson-self-defense session
well, i could live with a little spontaneity.just give me more time.

'Enough'

''Starvation occurs because people are forced to live in the hollow of plenty. [...] When it occurs it represents civilization's collective failure.'' --Roger Thurow & Scott Kilman - Enough

Hopefully the Millennium Development Goals (from United Nations Millennium Declaration) signed in September 2000 will somehow alleviate the current situation - 2015? the scary thing is, it's not that far away.

Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

• Target 1A: Halve the proportion of people living on less than $1 a day
  • Proportion of population below $1 per day (PPP values)
  • Poverty gap ratio [incidence x depth of poverty]
  • Share of poorest quintile in national consumption
• Target 1B: Achieve Employment for Women, Men, and Young People
  • GDP Growth per Employed Person
  • Employment Rate
  • Proportion of employed population below $1 per day (PPP values)
  • Proportion of family-based workers in employed population
• Target 1C: Halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger
  • Prevalence of underweight children under five years of age
  • Proportion of population below minimum level of dietary energy consumption

so what to you, so what...

i just finished reading James Maskalyk's Six Months in Sudan. from the beginning til the end, the book illustrates the hardships of the people in abyei, through the eyes of a msf (medecins sans frontieres) doctor.

i definitely don't have the writing skill to sum it up, so all i can really say is, read the book, read the stories of the people who live so far away yet whose flesh & blood are anything but akin to ours, and feel their pain and needs, or better yet, do something to help.

do something to help.

'for what is faith without deeds?'

''Tell me. What does it matter that fifteen minutes after this, the mother wrapped the body that once held her daughter and walked slowly down the hospital road, across the football field, and disappear with her bundle into the market?

She did.

So what to you, so what to us as humans. It's possible that because you were too far to feel its ripples, it doesn't matter at all.

[...]

... it's not about trying to reconcile two different worlds, it's about understanding that it's one.'

--James Maskalyk, Six months in Sudan

beautiful quote from beautiful people to beautiful people

'For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair, let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day.
For poise, walk with the knowledge you'll never walk alone.
People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; Never throw out anybody.
Remember, If you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm.
As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.'

-Sam Lavenson/Audrey Hepburn

thoughts on people on skytrain

This is my second time witnessing this - and I just have to vent it out.

What is it with people pretending to be blind when there are an obviously pregnant woman standing, struggling to keep her balance on a rocky, crowded skytrain? This is my second time in a week standing beside a pregnant woman who has nowhere to sit.

And while I couldn't tell the people who are sitting down to give up their seat, I did what I thought was appropriate to do - I turned to the pregnant woman standing beside me, and without trying to keep my voice down, over the heads and ears of the people who are all comfortably sitting down, facing a lady whose very body image screams 'pregnant!' - I said -

'Are you doing ok? do you need to sit down?'

People on the skytrain need to stretch their necks, look up from time to time, or stop pretending to be blind or severely handicapped, grow up, and give the elderly and those who desperately need a seat - a seat.

thoughts

I have so many things to do on my check-list before time runs out. And time is always running out.

First, I have to write my letter of intent in order for my application for grad schools.

Second, I have to plan out my schedule for the next six months so that I can apply for volunteering in Africa.

Third, to look up part-time job in order to save up for school & volunteering - if I get accepted.

Fourth, work out my savings plan, and to become a better steward of my money.

Fifth, to set time aside for hobbies I'm picking up - e.g. learning Arabic, Russian, Hindi, improving my Japanese & Korean, and maybe learn some kickboxing.

Sixth, to learn how to cook - well.

Seventh ....

The list could go on.

But what preoccupies my mind now is this - how to make a better sense of the world we live in.

Why do we work the way we do - probably to maintain or to improve a pleasant lifestyle - and just how in the world can we be content and live shamelessly with this simple goal of satisfying our immediate needs, materialistic desires, career goals, family plans - while most of the world's population is warped up in violence and hunger, disease-stricken and who knows what other hell people are forced to go through everyday.

To say these things is like a slap on the face. For too long I chose to live in the sluggish ignorance of all these things. Who cares if I can buy a brand-name t-shirt that costs $30 when a mosquito net can be bought for $10 can save an african child from falling into the deadly claw of Malaria? Who gives a damn when a brand name bag you just purchased can probably feed a war-stricken orphan for a few weeks, or even months?

I'm not too sure where I'm going with this. But what I'm convicted of is that I wish for change - change in myself, and if possible, then use what I have to improve the humanitarian crisis of the impoverished world we live in.

And yeah, there are poorer and more unfortunate souls in other countries struggling to live through one day, even as we are fearing for our own economic downfall.

Sometimes reality bites, but better to feel the pain and search for remedies than to let the wound to sit around and rot.

Just thoughts...

Now to number 1 on my checklist.