“It’s not a compulsory thing.”

That’s true.

Though I’m not exactly sure.

I’m happy, and waiting for my half-month holidays.

I just want to stay clear?

Away.

I know it ain’t going to help much by being pessimistic about my upcoming JLPT examination.

I have 20 new lessons to read through, countless new words to learn in Hiragana & Kanji form (double-effort required) and I’m feeling oh-so-helpless about my Listening section.

Sometimes when I flip through my exercise and textbooks I feel as though those just a pile of grinch that dampens my mood. I can’t help it when half the time I don’t seem to understand those lengthy paragraphs in the workbooks- why can’t they just have 1 character form for their language!?

Why did I sign up for the exam? Because I hope to pass it and move on to the next level so that as I learn more, I can read magazines, literature in Japanese. And for shopping in Tokyo in next time (この、いくらですか？). HAHA

Ok enough.

I need to hit the books now.

Somebody say Ganbatte!

The following content is the commencement speech for the 2009 graduating class of University of Pittsburgh, USA. Yeah I got this when I googled the phrase “Keep your feet on the ground“, a word of advice given to me by a certain somebody

I couldn’t help agreeing with what the author of the speech, Bert O’Malley said. Especially so after I’m halfway through D. Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence (a really enriching book, might shall bits of it next time). And because theoretically, IQ only contributes to roughly 20% of success in life (smart-a**es do flounder), the remaining constituting 80% is, quite up to us decide whether we’ll make the most out of it (effort or slack? etc). Whether you accept it or not, exams and certifications can only do as much as opening doors.

Have a good read (:

Keep your Feet on the Ground and Your Eyes on the Heavens

Well, thank you so much. And greetings, Class of 2009, and many congratulations. This is a wonderful, exciting, happy, sad, anxious day for you all. But you’re a Pitt graduate. And that world out there is not as tough as you might think.

My own career? I am a physician, and, as you’ve heard, a basic, or discovery scientist. I think a discovery scientist is sort of like a detective—where you collect clues and make deductions. I think this is best illustrated by a story one of my trainees once told me. And it’s an amazing story. Listen to this.

He woke up one morning—couldn’t sleep. Looked at the clock—it was 5 a.m. Decided to get up. Because it was early, he stopped for breakfast. The bill for breakfast was five dollars even. He went to work. He went to lunch. Sat in the corner by himself to do some work, and four people joined him. So this number five started to go through his head. That afternoon he was opening the mail. He saw in the mail that he was to get a 5 percent raise next year. He looked at the clock again—it was 5 p.m. Well, that was too much for him. He raced home, took a $50 bill out from under his sock drawer. He went to the racetrack, and he bought a program. And as he walked in reading the program, he became weak in his knees. There in the fifth race was a horse called Five-Star General that paid five to one. So he plunked his money down—watched that race. And sure enough, the horse did come in fifth.

So I think that points out that collecting clues is only half the job, and that deductions are the other half. My talk today is “Pathways to Success.”

I’ve been chosen to speak because of my own perceived success. But I’m not going to talk to you about science. And I’m not going to tell you to do it my way. But what I’m going to relate to you, which is probably appropriate at this time, are my observations over the past 45 years of seeing many young people—the over 250 young trainees that I’ve sent out into the world of science, mentoring 90 faculty, watching a thousand or more others—and what determined their success or nonsuccess. And to me … it boils down to five main criteria: sufficient intelligence, commitment to industry or hard work, judgment—good judgment, a personal code of ethics, and opportunism. And those are all things that are not so magical when you think about them. But let’s break them down a little bit.

First of all, native intelligence, IQ. Can you IQ your way to success? Clearly not. You can’t. In 1920, Lewis Terman, who constructed the Stanford-Binet IQ Test, followed 1,500 people during their lifetimes. Dropping below 100, negative correlation, a very positive correlation in the 115 or so range, and again a negative correlation at very high levels. So in short, if you graduate from college, IQ is off the table. You can’t use it as your excuse for failure, and you can’t make it your main thing for success.

Second, industry. Work effort. This is something you can do something about. There’s an old Chinese proverb that says any man willing to arise before dawn 360 days a year will make his family rich. This proverb comes out of the South China rice fields, where they work year-round on crops—opposed to the Western farmers who work half a year on their crops.

Fast forward to today. Why do the students in China score in the 95 to 99 percentile in math, and in the U.S. in the 40 percentile? Well, it must be because of the student-teacher ratio, not enough computers, more money for the schools. There are a lot of excuses. But in fact, that study has been done in the United States. Malcolm Gladwell is the author of Outliers, a very fine book that you might be interested in reading. And I’ll point out a few things from him today actually, because it fits my philosophy. … He estimates that to be successful in life you’ve got to put ten thousand hours in your career. Now this study in the United States at KIPP Academy is a good example of research on this subject. KIPP academies are in a few different places, including in Houston, but a great example is the KIPP Academy in The Bronx, NY. The Bronx is one of the more poor, disadvantaged areas in New York and the East Coast. People generally don’t go to college there. KIPP Academy sits right in the middle of The Bronx. You have to apply to get in. You get in and you have to follow the rules. The rules are that you go to school at 7:25 in the morning—not nine. You get out at 5 p.m.—not 2:45. You go to school on Saturdays from 9 to 1. You have lots of homework and one month off.

The kids in this school test out in math in the 85 to 88 percentile; 85 to 90 percent of the graduates get scholarships to college. Their parents have never gone to college, and very few of their compatriots have gone to college. So the experiment is done. Work effort and reward are related.

How about the instant genius myth? That’s debunked when you look at it, too. I guess to name one that many people use as an illustration is Mozart, who was writing concertos at age five. That’s true. But his dad was a music teacher and composer—probably helped perfect them. Certainly wrote them down. And he [Mozart] wrote many of them. But until he wrote [Piano] Concerto No. 9 [K.271], the critics did not claim that he wrote a masterpiece. And he was 21 years old then. And there are many other examples.

Bill Gates. Did he sit down and write Microsoft programs? No. He spent thousands of hours many times all night in the university mainframe computer room, devising the program.

Did Tiger Woods step out there and become a 15-year-old phenomenon? No. He started playing at 4 years old. So the point is, in life, to succeed, you’ve got to put the effort in. And it takes some time. And it takes some hours. And you’re just starting that track. You haven’t finished it.

Judgment. With my students, they often are not even sure what I mean by “judgment.” Judgment is practical intelligence—to know what to say and when, what to do and when, when to persevere and when to give up. Judgment is something you need to learn, and it is a big separator for successful people in science.

So how do you improve your judgment? Well, first of all, you have to know what it is—you have to want to do it. And you do it through history, listening to your parents. You remember your parents? Those are the dumb people who took care of you that didn’t know as much as your friends. Well, you are about to find out how wrong that was. And, of course, mentors in life and teachers. These role models teach you how not only not to make the same mistakes twice, but to not make them at all. You don’t have to jump off a cliff to know that’s wrong, do you? Well, there are many subtle lessons in life you can learn that way, too. You don’t have to make all of the mistakes yourself.

Personal code of ethics. I’ll make that short. You can get ahead without a personal code of ethics, but you won’t be happy. A human conscience weighs very heavily. I suggest you pay strong attention to that

And finally, search for opportunities. They are all around you. You could be like Art Fry, sitting at 3M company. Next to him, a person was making a formula for a superglue that didn’t work. He was about to throw the formula away. Fry pulled it back from the wastecan. Put it on the back of pieces of paper, and you have Post-its—which you all use, which has made millions for that company. So opportunities are always there. And the experts don’t know it all.

A good story about experts is the one about the new chief of a South Dakota Indian tribe. As he took over, braves that first winter came to him and said “Is it going to be cold this winter? Should we gather wood?” Well, he hadn’t learned to read the sky and the animals and the trees. But being a practical man, he said “Yes, gather wood.” But also a modern chief, he thought, “I think I’ll call the weatherman.” So, without identifying himself, he did. A couple of weeks later, the weatherman said, “Yes, it’s going to be quite cold this winter.” So he came back and he was thinking about it, “Quite cold, huh?” He told the braves to go collect some more wood, and so they went out. A couple of weeks later he called one final time and said, “How does the winter look?” They said it’s going to be extremely cold at the weather bureau. So he came back and told the Indians, “Go into the woods and gather every piece of wood you can.” As he sat there looking at that huge pile of wood, he thought, “I’m going to look pretty silly if I am not right on this.” So he called the weatherman once more and said, “You are sure it’s going to be very cold this winter?” The weatherman said, “It’s going to be one of the coldest winters on record.” The chief said, “How do you know that?” The weatherman said, “Because the Indians are out gathering wood like crazy!”

We’re in an economic downturn, you’re probably worried about that. Okay, I know, it’s a pain out there. But, in a way the glass is half full because we are on the verge of the next economic boom, which, if history repeats itself, will be above 45 percent of what the last one was.

Do you know that the downturns of the economy are the periods of greatest invention and innovation in the history of our country? Not with money flowing like water at the peaks: When everything is running smoothly and money is everywhere, you can get by with “me, also” stuff— the same movies, the same books, the same kind of work or service. When things tighten up, the human has one resource it can rely on—the brain. So put your ingenuity to work. Okay?

To finish, I have two final personal comments. I promise this won’t be too long.

One, in the future, don’t think about your job, but think about your vocation. Your vocation is your life’s body of work. It involves more than your paid employment: It involves unpaid volunteer work, volunteering for the homeless, charitable giving, Little League coaching. You know, there are a lot of things that you can do as a body of work that will complete your life.

Your vocation is really who you are and who you were. At the end of your life, do you want to have your life summed up in dollar signs? Would you like a number on your gravestone to summarize your life? I think not. And don’t make that your gold standard in your life—money.

Final thought: Don’t limit yourselves. I guarantee you, like me, like anybody else here, we can tell you now, you don’t know what you can do in life yet. You are just starting out. Do not settle. Set your goals high. Set your goal way up here and you will at least reach your capacity—which is what you want to do. If you set your goal here [motions lower], you are going to fall below your capacity, and that’s an unhappy thing later in your life. So shoot for the stars. Okay? Graduates, there are a hundred billion stars in the sky, we can see only a few thousand. But you keep your feet on the ground and your eyes on the heavens. And I hope every one of your stars shines as bright as the evening Venus.

(http://www.chronicle.pitt.edu/?p=2970)

I love both looks. Each being a contrast of each other. Bold & strong versus soft & demure (:

Song Hye Gyo’s looking better in all the Laneige adverts.

—-

It is funny how people think I don’t exercise just because I ain’t dark and lean. Yeah I don’t have an athletic’s body, but at least I got b**bs and a** =)

—

“If I am deprived of friendship & love, I’d rather have money then.”

(Opps! Wrong answer!)

“If I am deprived of friendship & love, I’d rather cease to exist.”

(Correct!)

—

It shows a lot when you are doing things with passion.

“Yeah, I like to cut people’s hair.”

Such a simple statement, but said by someone of the same age, who had to cross the borders to pursue his dream. I’m definitely sure it involved a lot of hardwork and perseverance. I wonder whether I’ve the courage to do the same if I were him.

(P.S. He’s cute too!)

Visiting Grave Sites, Imagining Worlds

The killing of five British soldiers on Tuesday at a checkpoint in Helmand Province by one of the Afghan police officers they were training was a reminder of how lonely death is in a foreign place and how intractable this part of the world has been for outsiders passing through. In Kabul there is a British cemetery, which in truth has only a few visible British headstones these days and mostly is filled with Europeans, but it stands as a statement of how poorly the West has done in this part of the world.

The cemetery was founded in the 1870s as the resting place for British soldiers who died fighting the Afghans in the second Afghan War. More than 2,500 British died, but far fewer than the more than 16,000 who perished in the Afghan wars of 1839-1942. It is a dilapidated place and in this fall season, mostly brown and gray; a few withered blooms on the rich rose bushes are still pink and red although the petals have shriveled. There is a small grape arbor and some birch trees. It is a peaceful place.

An old man, who does not know his age, but reckons he is about 80, looks after the cemetery as he has for 30 years. He said the Taliban came to look at it when they were in power, but did not disturb the graves. There are no fresh flowers on any headstones, a reminder that everyone here was far from home, from mourners, from loved ones. It’s funny how much a grave can make you imagine a whole world.

The gravestone that struck me the most was for John Charles Elcoate, 24, and Margaret Mills, 21, “Both of Sheffield University. Shot near Shahjui, August 1971.” Shahjui is near the Kabul-Kandahar road in Zabol Province, a dangerous place now; a dangerous place in 2002, too, when I was robbed near there at dusk at gunpoint by bandits who then shot out my tires; a dangerous place in 1880, when there was a British-Afghan battle there. The inscription could have been the first line of a novel: Who were they? Why were they traveling there? Why were they killed? Were they anthropology students researching local tribes? Hippies? Trekkers taking their chances on a cross-country trip? I looked them up on the Internet but found no reference except by other journalists who, like me, had been struck by their gravestone.

A Canadian television journalist who was in the graveyard the same afternoon I was there was struck by something closer to her home. On the walls surrounding the cemetery are lists of the dead since 2001. Plaques for the fallen British; for Americans; a few for Germans and for Canadians.

The plaque for the Canadian dead with the country’s emblem, the maple leaf, etched in the middle, lists only those who had died through the end of 2006 as if Canadians soldiers had not died after that. The 30 Canadian troops killed in 2007, the 32 killed in 2008 and the 27 killed so far this year have no marker of their passing. She turned and said, “I called our embassy, it’s terrible; they haven’t added any names since 2006.” She wasn’t a journalist at that moment; she was a Canadian on foreign soil. We are most patriotic when we are far from home; the possibility of our own mortality, most present.

I looked fruitlessly for the old graves of British soldiers from the Afghan wars of the 1870s and 1880s, but they were gone — the stones worn away or buried under the earth.

From The New York Times, 6th November 2009.

——

It isn’t about visiting graveyards that hooked me on to this article. What struck a chord with me is the issue of being away from home, possibly away from your family and closed friends.

When you visit a graveyard and find a tombstone of someone in relation to you by citizenship, that would probably leave you walking away with thoughts of curiosity that centres around the topic of “How did that fellow citizen pass on in this country- a foreign land miles from home? And why?” And then you’ll start ruminating about whether it was a good choice to be abroad, what’s going on in your motherland, with flashbacks of the good times that give the warm feeling of comfort in the place of cold loneliness.

On my 2nd day in Chiangmai, as much as I enjoyed all the delicacies, cheap finds and places of interests, I couldn’t help but miss my home a little (which lead me to declare it on my Facebook status). And I could vividly remember back in 2007, as I strolled down the busy, neon lighted streets of Tokyo, I felt quite “uncomfortable” – in the sense that I couldn’t relate much to what the city offered. During that time I was still illiterate in the Japanese language and culture, maybe that’s one reason why I got home sick in the homogeneous Japanese society.

I’ve heard numerous stories of local students abroad finding delight in gatherings with fellow local students where it allowed them to be themselves – be Singaporean, with all the “lahs & lors” in their conversations. The basis of commonality- evoking a sense of patriotism away from home (verbal defensiveness), strengthens that sense of belonging and even love for your home country. It’s an irony that when you are home, you often dream of greener pastures, but as you seek for the desired pastures, you find yourself dreaming of home.

It is often said that we are all global citizens in this whole world of undefined boundaries. But what’s the point of this global citizenship when deep in our hearts, home is where the heart is?

With all that said, I hope I won’t miss home overly for my fortnight’s getaway.

Especially when I should be home, during the season of giving.

JLPT 700 Vocabs, 50 Lessons – 3 weeks, extremely nervous!

Sentosa Hotel or KL trip, undecided & uncoordinated

B’day + Countdown Party from scratch, Venue How- superlatively urgent!

Biometric Passport + Swine Flu vaccination (may I NOT get the side-effects)

Working Nov Weekends (yeah, for moolah)

My Brother, My Friends~ Gatherings, Meetups, Dinners

——-

I need more Vitamin C + Zinc & morning jogs.

Thank goodness I’m not the unofficial person-in-charge for the alumni group.

I L.O.V.E. my books =)

The cards with one of the recipes: Chocolate Mi-cuit with Hazelnut & Vanilla Ice cream

Mi-cuit means “half-cooked” in French. Therefore, this dessert dish is basically molten chocolate with vanilla ice cream and hazelnut topping Sounds droolingly delectable?

I bought these cards (for a price of $16!) when I went to SSO’s concert at the Esplanade on Friday evening. The conductor was none other than SSO’s founder, Choo Huey- hence the 2-hour concert was titled “Choo Huey’s Return”. The 3 classical pieces played which embarrassingly to say, I’m familiar with none (despite 5 years of piano-training), weren’t that melodious (hahaha!). At least I didn’t fall asleep ok! Aside from soaking in the music played, I learnt the “protocols” of concert attending, such as the 10 minute early arrival, “clapping till your hands hurt” encore and the cute “bell-ring-ring” to inform the attendees that the interval will be ending etc.

It was a nice experience, with dessert at Prego Ristorante later on. I didn’t bring my camera, so no pictures!

Shall go back to Prego again (with camera this time round)! The Tiramisu (a whopping $15!) was the best I’ve ever tried as the light custard was not too rich, just appropriate for the spongecake layer.

Sweet sweets! ^-^

`Prego Ristorante is an authetic Italian restaurant at Fairmont Hotel.

Sudden overwhelm of gatherings, maybe because the end of the year is approaching.

I can’t seem to keep up with so many things to plan & do

And the flu bug’s here again, damn!

Drowning already! The holidays seem so short.

—

Went back to my secondary school yesterday morning for a brief meeting. Honestly I didn’t quite intend to commit because it isn’t just school work that’s keeping me busy, and I don’t want to cram my life up with so many activities that will leave me with no breathing space. But after an hour of discussion, I realized how much it would mean to my juniors, for me to fork out just a bit of my (limited) free-time and together with my peers of years, contribute back to my institution – which no doubt is, my second home from 2001-2004. It shall be a good start

—

Bought a pack of 6 greeting cards from Singapore Symphony Ochestra. So what’s so special about these cards?

They contain a recipe in each card

There’s no such thing called miracles.

Everything is purely coincidental. By fate or affinity, it is whether is it meant to be or not.

For the key question is: Through fate, can you have that coincidence?

—

Every corner in Kinokuniya means new knowledge. I had a wonderful time with my classmates maundering around in this book heaven. We picked books out of random to share our point of views. The books included those of philosophy (What is pain?), astrology (What’s your horoscope personality like?), fashion (Which hair suits you better?), the 2012 phenomenon (FYI, we flipped through books and it stated that 2012 is Not The End Of The World, but just a “tilting point”, a Change and not an End) and yada-yada…

Then came the “topic of the day”: hard or soft copy books? Certainly for me its the former (and I believe that’s quite true for most girls, if I generalize that most guys are IT geeks!). It is not that I’m not an IT person or that I’ve a library at home to store all my books, the issue here is: personal touch. Just like retail therapy, I still prefer brick and mortar shopping as opposed to getting my items over the Internet. Apparently “just a click away” doesn’t relate to me, much less getting my feed of knowledge through gadgets that undoubtly yes, saves space, but so what? There is no “feel” when scanning through articles online, i.e. scrolling up and down the webpage or reading using Kindle (Google this new fad!). And gradually, gone will be the days where we’ll find delight in receiving books with a personal message written on the inside of the front cover “Hope you’ll enjoy the book! Loves-XXX”. I guess I’m still an ardent supporter of opening, flipping and closing, rather than on-ing, scrolling and off-ing (:

Saving space? That’s just an excuse.

—

I laughed when I read this not because it tickled my funny bones but because it made So Much Sense.

Anyone can become angry- that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way – that is not easy.

Aristotle, The Nichomachean Ethics

—

Well my holidays are officially here, if I discount the fact that I’ve JLPT Level 3 to sit for on 6th December

I decided not to work for this term holidays (surprise!) because I would like to take a good break and catch up with enjoyment of life =) It has by far been rather, a not-so-smooth-sailing year with problems arising now and then. However, I’m thankful for: all the opportunities that I was given to reactify my mistakes, all my close friends who pop by messages “taking-care” of me, and all the fun times I had with many more of such to wait for :D

With 7 weeks left to 2010, I’d be:

1) Reading up (as you can see from my “Bookshelf” widget on the right).

2) Shopping (like which girl wouldn’t?).

3) Travelling with my friends in Nov & with my family in Dec.

4) Planning a party with my bestie (spilling the beans soon!).

5) Blogging (Haha! Thank you all for keeping this blog “alive”).

Toodles!

`We shouldn’t conform to social norms that bespeak the typical journey in life that we’re supposed to take.

But at times, we should stick to the good old classics… if not why would they be considered as classics – able to withstand the test of time to reach our era?

`A friend of mine pointed out this morning, on how sweet it would be if her future husband would give her surprises occasionally for her to rest & relax in this fast-paced, stress-to-the-brim society. An example of her surprise: Spa Vouchers.

My comment: Not for me. Because that’ll defeat the purpose of ”sweetness” in the effort made. Sweet, in my romance dictionary, means: doing things together, making effort to spend time together. Together, period.

`Undecided on which to pick: glam factor or traditional outlook. To be exact, Sterling Silver or Gold.

If not considering the price factor… I’d stick to the second. And because it ain’t just any present, value outshines aesthetics (: