maktub

What I'm reading today

2011-01-16T23:56:00.000-05:00

Android or iPhone? Looks like Android it is.
The JD has lost its prestige here in America. Is it worth going to law school?
Advice like youth, probably just wasted on the young.
I want one of these for my bike ride this summer.
I have set up a new blog to document my experiences as I bike across America for cancer this summer! Please check it out and donate to the cause!

A Relationship with Self

2011-01-12T09:32:00.000-05:00

The most important relationship we have in our lives is with our selves, mind, body and spirit.

The most important relationship we have in our lives is with our selves. And even though we are the only ones who are present at every moment of our lives—from birth onward—this relationship can be the most difficult one to cultivate. This may be because society places such emphasis on the importance of being in a romantic partnership, even teaching us to set aside our own needs for the needs of another. Until we know ourselves, however, we cannot possibly choose the right relationship to support our mutual growth toward our highest potential. By allowing ourselves to be comfortable with being alone, we can become the people with whom we want to have a relationship.

Perhaps at no other time in history has it been possible for people to survive, and even thrive, while living alone. We can now support ourselves financially, socially, and emotionally without needing a spouse for survival in any of these realms. With this freedom, we can pursue our own interests and create fulfilling partnerships with friends, business partners, creative cohorts, and neighbors. Once we’ve satisfied our needs and created our support system, a mate then becomes someone with whom we can share the bounty of all we’ve created and the beauty we’ve discovered within ourselves.

As we move away from tradition and fall into more natural cycles of being in the world today, we may find that there are times where being alone nourishes us and other periods in which a partnership is best for our growth. We may need to learn to create spaces to be alone within relationships. When we can shift our expectations of our relationships with ourselves and others to opportunities for discovery, we open ourselves to forge new paths and encounter uncharted territory. Being willing to know and love ourselves, and to find what truly makes us feel deeply and strongly, gives us the advantage of being able to attract and choose the right people with whom to share ourselves, whether those relationships fall into recognizable roles or not. Choosing to enjoy being alone allows us to fully explore our most important relationship—the one with our true selves.

[Relationship with Self, 04/30/2010]

Use Prezi to revolutionalise your presentations!

2011-01-12T01:54:00.002-05:00

Prezi is a fantastic new presentation tool that helps you effectively communicate with your audience. It has an engaging layout and flow, and will be guaranteed to keep your audience enthralled. If you have a .edu email address, premier membership is free! Join now!

What I'm reading today

2011-01-12T01:45:00.000-05:00

It says a lot when 5 of the Fortune Global 500 top 10 are oil companies. 3 of the 5 most profitable companies in 2010 are oil companies- I can only seek solace in the knowledge that their profits have fallen tremendously from previous years.
The secret to beauty unlocked. A MUST-READ for males who are successfully failing in their pursuit of the female kind; it will force you to rethink your strategy.
Bringing power to the people.. with rice husks. Inspirational.
Major Dick Winters, a truly great man, has left this world and his mark on it. I shall never forget in Band of Brothers when he talks about the seconds before he jumped: "When the jump light turned green, I was out that door immediately." We should all strive to be like him, men of action and character.
Facebook will end on March 15th. It is time to go outside and make real friends. If only this was real..

Best short movie I have ever seen.

2011-01-10T23:12:00.002-05:00

3 Minutes from Ross Ching on Vimeo.

2011-01-09T16:10:00.000-05:00

Susan Hockfield, the president of MIT, explains the secret to innovation quite marvellously-

You start with some very bright people, let them hang out with other very bright people and let their imaginations roam.

[MIT and the art of innovation]

What I'm reading today

2011-01-08T11:34:00.001-05:00

Wait, marriage is not about putting the relationship first? It's about me? Awesome.
This sounds like every parent I knew in Singapore.
America has a LOT of money to burn on useless things. Look at the comparison list at the bottom- puts things in perspective.
This is my new bible for choosing a medical specialty.
King Kenny is back to rule the fields of Anfield Road!!!

a few lines that hit the spot.

2011-01-07T19:12:00.000-05:00

This is my wish for you: Comfort on difficult days, smiles when sadness intrudes, rainbows to follow the clouds, laughter to kiss your lips, sunsets to warm your heart, hugs when spirits sag, beauty for your eyes to see, friendships to brighten your being, faith so that you can believe, confidence for when you doubt, courage to know yourself, patience to accept the truth, Love to complete your life.

Pay-for-performance tutoring?

2011-01-05T11:13:00.001-05:00

The fee-for-service model in the service industry is a problematic one. It creates an undesirable set of incentives for the service provider, which does not involve improving service quality delivered to the consumer. The failures of the fee-for-service model in healthcare are well known-- physicians are incentivised to provide more services to the patient that are not necessarily for their benefit. This past semester, I took a health economics class in which we discussed the different compensation schemes and their characteristics. I thought, why not extend this to other service industries as well? When purchasing a service, we are at the whim of the individual service provider; we are dependent on his or her skills and ability as well as desire to offer service of the highest quality. Shouldn't it make sense that we turn this around and let the consumer be the judge of the service being provided? Pay-for-performance is the way to go in my book!

This would make a lot of sense in the tutoring industry. Currently, tutors are paid on an hourly basis rather than on the quality of the tutoring session. The impetus lies with the consumer to take the initiative and be willing to learn. The tutor is more concerned about the length of the session and is not as invested in his or her tutee's learning experience. With a pay-for-performance system, we could revise the payment scheme such that the tutor is paid per concept taught or per chapter taught. The tutees could take a mini-test of sorts once the concept/chapter has been taught to test their newfound understanding of the subject, and once a minimum score has been met, it could serve as proof that the tutor has actually done his or her job and justify payment. This shifts the initiative from the tutee to the tutor and requires him to be very well invested in his or her tutee's learning experience. Outcomes in the tutoring industry would improve dramatically. because the incentives have been set in the right place. In reality, this may be hard to lobby for as most tutoring agencies are for-profit machines that are far more concerned with the money they rake in than their customers' academic performances. Still something to think about though..

What I'm reading today

2011-01-05T00:59:00.000-05:00

Smack in the middle of winter, and desperately needing to learn how to pack a snowball.
Medicine is not just science anymore. Medicine is more business than anything.
India's New Generation of Caste Busters.
A classic Cold War era-esque spy thriller. The Last Raven by Craig Thomas.
Signs that the mighty America is in decline.

What I'm reading today

2011-01-04T01:18:00.001-05:00

I came across the Investoralist, and I loved how the blog had a regular 'What I'm reading today' post! It is such a superb way to share good articles, links, blogs, and whatnot. I am adopting this wonderful idea.

Let physics be the judge in the skiing vs snowboarding debate.
Bollywood actresses doubling up as prostitutes.
101 Real Dumb Laws [You May Not Tie an Alligator to a Fire Hydrant].
White cops taser BLACK diabetic. Racist undertones?
A TED talk by Simon Sinek on why Apple sells.

Stephen Fry on Language

2011-01-04T00:46:00.000-05:00

This is an interesting 'essay' on language by Stephen Fry, the British actor, writer, journalist, comedian, television presenter, and film and football club director. He attacks those self-acclaimed 'guardians' of language who claim to be defending its proper form when they correct others' everyday use of language; he says that these elitist defenders seek out every opportunity to correct others but they do not appreciate the beauty of language themselves. Language is a communication medium-- it should not matter whether we are using the appropriate word to convey a particular meaning, it should only matter that we are understood. Very interesting viewpoint, because, on occasion, I admit I can be one the elitist 'rude and haughty' types who frown upon those whose use of language is not 'right' or 'proper'. This has got me reconsidering..

Microfinance: In whose interest?

2011-01-01T16:03:00.000-05:00

By Ramakrishna Nishtala

Microfinance companies’ interest rates have been the centre point of a controversy for some time now. The protagonists of lower interest rates base their arguments on two points. Firstly, as microfinance companies are serving the poor, they should not be chasing profits and instead they must give them loans at low rates of interest. Secondly, customers themselves, who are at the bottom of the economic pyramid, would not be able to pay the high interest rates that they are charged. The debate has often been marked by a feast of rhetoric and a famine of facts.

Let’s get some facts on the table first. A typical microfinance loan is of Rs 10000 to Rs 15000, payable in 50 weeks, with a weekly repayment. For argument’s sake let’s consider a Rs 15,000 loan. The interest rate that the protagonists of lower interest rates would have the MFIs charge is 22% to 24%, while the current rates of mainstream MFIs are 28% to 32% calculated on an effective reducing balance interest rate basis, including processing fee and other such charges. So the difference is about 8% on a reducing balance, which on a loan of Rs 15000 translates into Rs 600 over the one year lifecycle of the loan.

Take the case of a customer who borrows Rs 15000 to buy a cow. The cow enables her to generate an additional income of Rs 2000 per month, through a supply of milk to the local dairy, even after considering her dairy expenses such as animal feed, vitamins etc. And the cow is typically not the only source of income for the household as she and her husband would also be engaged in other productive activities such as rearing one more cow, agricultural labour, small petty businesses etc. Even after repayment of the loan installment of ~ Rs 1400 to Rs 1500 per month, she is still left with an adequate surplus and what is more, once the loan is repaid after a year, the entire income of Rs 2000 is available to her. The debate raging around her of ‘can she pay the additional Rs 600 per year (ie Rs 50 per month!) due to higher interest rates’ is quite academic to her. Similar is the case with other productive livelihoods such as kirana stores, powerlooms, home-based industries etc. To most MFI customers, the availability of a lump sum of money through a loan facilitates purchases which they would otherwise find very difficult to do and the returns that they generate through these loans far outweigh the interest costs they pay to MFIs.

MFI interest rates have often been compared to moneylenders. A typical moneylender charges 5% to 10% per month for the income strata that the MFIs address, for an uncollateralized loan which is several multiples of the MFI interest rates. A money lender I met in Coorg recently explained his modus operandi. He lends Rs 10000 to his customers and they repay Rs 1250 per week over 10 weeks. If we were to compute the annualized interest rate on a reducing balance, this would translate into well over 200%!
The reality is conventional perception of interest rates is governed more by loans of longer tenures running into several years, while typical microfinance loans are of 12 months, making the interest more like a service fee rather than ‘interest on the loan’.

But why do the MFIs charge higher interest rates merely because their customers can afford it? Firstly, banks are the main sources of funding for MFIs. The banks charge them 10% to 14%, depending on the scale of the MFI. On top of this, the MFIs incur significant operating costs due to their model of offering service at their customers’ doorsteps. Even in the more scaled up companies, this cost is 8% to 10% considering that the loan officer has to make 50 trips to the customer, for collecting weekly installments. Or else, the customers would have to visit the MFIs’ branches to make their repayments incurring additional costs of transportation, besides the loss of income due to the time spent in the process. The question is who bears the costs? In the case of banks, the customers bear the cost more than offsetting the advantages of lower interest rates. This is without even getting into the aspect of the sheer difficulty of getting bank loans for the poor customers.

Even with all these costs, there are MFIs which make good profits. But why can’t the microfinance companies charge lower interest rates instead of making sizable profits? There are MFIs which have ROAs (Return on Assets) which are well in excess of 7% to 8% and there is little doubt that these are excessive numbers. However, the comparison that is often made to banks which have ROAs of 1.5% or so, is inappropriate. With capital adequacy ratios of 9% to 10%, this translates into an ROE (Return on Equity) of ~ 15% for the banks. Given their risk profile, investors are willing to invest in banks for this level of ROE. MFIs, in contrast, are a small fraction of the banks, in size, and give uncollateralized loans to poor people, with a far greater degree of enterprise level risk. So, it is only fair for investors to look for a higher ROE of 25% or thereabouts from MFIs.

As the capital adequacy requirements of MFIs are now to be a minimum of 15%, this translates into an ROA of 4%, post tax. Some of these numbers may change given the recent Andhra Pradesh ordinance as investors would review the level of risk attached with the sector and frame their expectations accordingly. In the absence of significant commercial capital (both equity and debt), albeit with a social angle to it, the sector would struggle to grow, leaving several millions of customers underserved or un-served.

Amidst all this debate the customer whose interests are ostensibly at the heart of the whole argument is lost sight of. It would indeed be a pity if heavy handed ordinances stifle the growth of MFIs, ironically, with the stated purpose of protecting the same customers who would be the most adversely affected in the absence of MFIs.

(The author is Director & COO, Vistaar Livelihood Finance. Views expressed here are personal)

Microfinance: In whose interest? [Economic Times, India, Dec 16th 2010]

2000 vs 2010

2011-01-01T14:02:00.003-05:00

It's hard to imagine we are already 10 years gone from Y2K! I can still vividly remember celebrating the new Millenium at a family friend's NYE party half in excitement and half in trepidation of the world coming to an end. Has it really already been 10 years? On one hand, time seems to have simply flown by. On the other, this decade has seen me morph from a child to a man and accomplish so much.

As we hurtle into the teens of the 21st century, we should stop and take stock of how the world has progressed over the span of the past 10 years. io9 has done exactly this:

2000 vs 2010: How the world has changed [io9]

The world's population has grown by a billion (it'll be interesting to know how much of that we can hold India and China responsible for), and half of the world's citizens now reside in cities. The Technology statistics reveal how the world has become more connected. More than a quarter of the world's population are now patrons of the world wide web; most people are now connected by fast, round-the-clock broadband subscriptions instead of the 56k dial-up that was the norm in 2000. More than 3 in 4 people have cellphones for communication, banking, and just all-round connectivity. Communications technology is taking over the world. However, the most shocking statistic in my opinion was that natural disasters killed 260,000 people in 2010 as opposed to 17,000 in 2000 (!!!). Maybe something for us to reflect on and look for improvements in emergency management, current infrastructure, warning systems, and disaster response planning?

A lot has changed in 10 years. Change for the better necessarily? I am not so sure. The world may now be flatter, but we are also consuming more energy, facing more destructive natural disasters, and putting more of the species whose care we have been entrusted with on the Endangered list. It is vital that we keep this big picture in mind as our generation begins to take charge and holds the power to change the course of our planet's future. Having said that, the next 10 years will offer us opportunities galore to seize the future, for the future is now.

the love between a father and a daughter

2010-12-31T19:07:00.000-05:00

i came across this quote in the novel 'chowringhee' by sankar (translated by arunava sinha) about the love of a father for his daughter. it is stirringly true and something i will not ever forget. the novel itself is a work of art and is a must-read!

some great man has said that of all the loves in the world, the one of a father for his daughter is almost divine. i remember the exact words: 'He beholds her with and without regard to sex.' Behind our love for our wives lies lust, behind our love for our sons lies ambition, but our love for our daughters is free of all selfish motives.

this book is full of little gems like this. i have another one that i have stored for future use.

the first symptom of love in a young man is timidity; in a girl it is boldness. the two sexes have a tendency to approach and each assumes the quality of the other.

chowringhee can be purchased here.

the man in the arena

2010-12-31T13:07:00.000-05:00

we should keep this famous quote from theodore roosevelt close to our hearts as we usher in the New Year. we should be men of action, not talk. we should always remember that glory and honour come to those who expend their efforts in a noble and worthy cause. 2010 was not without its ups and downs but, all in all, it was a great year. here's to hoping 2011 will be the same if not better.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

'Nation of Wusses'

2010-12-27T18:20:00.000-05:00

I have to quote PA Gov. Rendall, absolutely hilarious!

Rendell viewed the NFL's decision as a referendum on the toughness, or lack thereof, of the United States. "My biggest beef is that this is part of what's happened in this country," Rendell said. "I think we've become wussies."

"We've become a nation of wusses. The Chinese are kicking our butt in everything," Rendell added. "If this was in China do you think the Chinese would have called off the game? People would have been marching down to the stadium, they would have walked and they would have been doing calculus on the way down."

You can find the link to the article here.

Some of Us- Starsailor

2010-12-26T09:59:00.000-05:00

I LOVE this song. It only feels right that I should share it because Starsailor is British and are not the most well-known act. The lyrics are powerful- it teaches us how everyone copes with their lives differently, and that they should not be judged for merely trying to survive in their way.

Heard you today, that isn't my name, you were fast asleep,

Forget what he did, can I be the kid for your soul to keep.

Some of us laugh, some of us cry,

Some of us smoke, some of us lie,

But it's all just the way that we cope with our lives.

I've grown to see the philosophy of my own mistrust,

We all have our faults, mine come in waves that you turn to rust,

Some of us laugh, some of us cry,

Some of us smoke, some of us lie,

But it's all just the way that we cope with our lives.

I've been hanging onto something,

You keep laughing awe-inspiring.

Some of us laugh, some of us cry,

Some of us smoke, some of us lie,

But it's all just the way that we cope with our lives.

Some of us laugh, some of us cry,

Some of us smoke, some of us lie,

But it's all just the way that we cope with our lives.

My wandering soul found solace at last,

I wanted to know how long it would last.

She's losing control, she's coming down fast,

The heart that I stole, I'm not giving back, never giving back.

Pay-What-You-Want Business Model- Does it work?

2010-12-26T01:23:00.000-05:00

Does the pay-what-you-want business model work? I remember frequenting Annalakshmi, an Indian vegetarian restaurant in Singapore where the food is delectable and where you pay as you wish. It is listed as a non-profit and run wholly by dedicated 'full-time' volunteers. Now this may sound like a very low-end, hole-in-the-wall type of place but you'll be mighty surprised when you step inside. It is very posh and intricately decorated, and the food is of the highest quality. It has been so successful that it has now expanded into a global chain of restaurants with locations in Malaysia, India, and Australia. How does this work? Do people really pay enough for it to be considered a sustainable business venture?

Today, I came across another entrepreneurial venture based on Pay-What-You-Want. The Seattle Times featured Terra Bite, a cafe in Kirkland that lets you pay if and when you like. So I did a little more research and found that Radiohead actually released an album, 'In Rainbows', with this same price model. More recently, Championship Manager 2010 is using this price model (I HAD to download it!). The very existence of these ventures suggests that the business model is indeed a sturdy one, and I have a few thoughts as to why.

1. Price Discrimination (Maximizing Willingness-to-Pay)
This model allows for a very explicit form of price discrimination to take place. Those who are well-off will pay more and cover for those who are not able to pay as much. Simple as that. As the Seattle Times puts it, you can finesse the largesse of the well-off to cover the tabs of the less fortunate. Business always try to price discriminate but this is the best way to do it! By letting the customer decide how much he or she wants to pay!

2. Social Monitoring
Everyone is inherently good. And when people see good, they want to do good. As Erik Okada says, social monitoring- the feeling that people are watching what you do- can enforce payment. When the firm is clear in displaying that its intentions are good, and that it is not putting consumers on the spot by indirectly forcing them to pay higher than they would, patrons will actually pay more than they normally would for a similar fixed price product. This is because the transaction leaves them wondering if they paid too little or too much (there is no price to compare it to!), and most people who can afford it would rather err on the side of too much simply because their conscience may not allow them to 'cheat the system' by paying too little. When an open and transparent transaction process is used, consumers do not want to be viewed as being cheap and miserly!

3. Personal Touch
If there is a personal touch in the service being delivered, people are almost always guaranteed to pay more. This is because they become emotionally invested in whatever is being provided/offered and the sense of attachment to the provider leaves them wanting to not under-pay.

4. Low Markup, High Mass
In the case of Championship Manager and the Radiohead album, it is very easy to see why the model can be so successful. Both are available for download over the internet after purchase, meaning that the marginal cost of each additional download is practically zilch. People may pay less but the low markup over marginal cost can easily be compensated for by developing a large mass.

5. Marketing the Novelty of the Idea
That leads us to the question- How do you get mass? All you need to do is market the novelty of the idea. Word will spread like wildfire, and each consumer will pay it forward. When do you ever get to pay as you like for anything?! Never! So you will want to try it out just to experience the transaction. As long as the model remains a novelty and not in common existence, it can definitely be a successful one.

2010-12-25T18:45:00.004-05:00

"American life is a powerful solvent. It seems to neutralize every intellectual element, however tough and alien it may be, and to fuse it in the native good will, complacency, thoughtlessness, and optimism."

George Santayana

Relationships

2010-12-25T15:37:00.000-05:00

An excellent quote on relationships! I can safely say that I have experienced each and every kind, but there is no relationship more important than the one with yourself. After all, we will always be alone in our thoughts, words, and deeds. Nurture this relationship and cherish it, for it is what will bring true happiness above all others.

“Later that day I got to thinking about relationships. There are those that open you up to something new and exotic, those that are old and familiar, those that bring up lots of questions, those that bring you somewhere unexpected, those that bring you far from where you started, and those that bring you back. But the most exciting, challenging and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself. And if you can find someone to love the you you love, well, that's just fabulous.”

Our Life is a Miracle- Explained

2010-12-24T19:03:00.002-05:00

Richard Dawkins wrote a letter titled "To be read at my funeral". In it, he talks about how life is such a wondrous and miraculous occurrence. The chances of us being on Earth are so minuscule given the vastness of the Universe, the length of time, and the seemingly limitless permutations of DNA sequences that could have led to someone else being born in our place. Read this and celebrate life!

To be read at my funeral by Richard Dawkins
"We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Sahara. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively outnumbers the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here.

Here is another respect in which we are lucky. The universe is older than 100 million centuries. Within a comparable time the sun will swell to a red giant and engulf the earth. Every century of hundreds of millions has been in its time, or will be when its time comes, 'the present century.' The present moves from the past to the future, like a tiny spotlight, inching its way along a gigantic ruler of time. Everything behind the spotlight is in darkness, the darkness of the dead past. Everything ahead of the spotlight is in the darkness of the unknown future. The odds of your century's being the one in the spotlight are the same as the odds that a penny, tossed down at random, will land on a particular ant crawling somewhere along the road from New York to San Francisco. You are lucky to be alive and so am I.

We live on a planet that is all but perfect for our kind of life: not too warm and not too cold, basking in kindly sunshine, softly watered; a gently spinning, green and gold harvest-festival of a planet. Yes, and alas, there are deserts and slums; there is starvation and racking misery to be found. But take a look at the competition. Compared with most planets this is paradise, and parts of Earth are still paradise by any standards. What are the odds that a planet picked at random will have these complaisant properties? Even the most optimistic calculation will put it at less than one in a million.

Imagine a spaceship full of sleeping explorers, deep-frozen would-be colonists of some distant world. Perhaps the ship is on a forlorn mission to save the species before an unstoppable comet, like the one that killed the dinosaurs, hits the home planet. The voyagers go into the deep-freeze soberly reckoning the odds against their spaceship's ever chancing upon a planet friendly to life. If one in a million planets is suitable at best, and it takes centuries to travel from each star to the next, the spaceship is pathetically unlikely to find a tolerable, let alone safe, haven for its sleeping cargo.

But imagine that the ship's robot pilot turns out to be unthinkably lucky. After millions of years the ship does find a planet capable of sustaining life: a planet of equable temperature, bathed in warm starshine, refreshed by oxygen and water. The passengers, Rip van Winkles, wake stumbling into the light. After a million years of sleep, here is a whole new fertile globe, a lush planet of warm pastures, sparkling streams and waterfalls, a world bountiful with creatures, darting through alien green felicity. Our travellers walk entranced, stupefied, unable to believe their unaccustomed senses or their luck.

As I said, the story asks for too much luck; it would never happen. And yet, isn't it what has happened to each one of us? We have woken after hundreds of millions of years asleep, defying astronomical odds. Admittedly we didn't arrive by spaceship, we arrived by being born, and we didn't burst conscious into the world but accumulated awareness gradually through babyhood. The fact that we gradually apprehend our world, rather than suddenly discovering it, should not subtract from its wonder."

If by Rudyard Kipling

2010-12-18T22:32:00.000-05:00

Rudyard Kipling's explanation of what constitutes a Man is unmatched. He describes the many attributes of manliness so beautifully. I particularly love how he emphasises that being a Man should mean so much more than having the whole world. It is a pity that those days have passed us by-- the pursuit of the world is now considered the pinnacle of all achievement, more so than being a individual of integrity and character, and it is very rare that they go hand in hand anymore.

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;

If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with triumph and disaster

And treat those two imposters just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,

And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breath a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

4K for Cancer.

2010-12-08T10:30:00.000-05:00

I have enlisted in the fight against cancer. This summer, I will be biking 4000 miles across America to unite and inspire cancer communities all over the country. Being a pre-medical and now a medical student, I have an intimate understanding of this devastating disease. My peers and I have spent countless hours in the lab doing cancer research, and I am even harboring plans to be an oncologist.

Why 4K for cancer then?
I want to use this summer to fight cancer from a different vantage point—I want to give inspiration to those who battle cancer every day. I cannot even begin to comprehend the pain and suffering that is inflicted by cancer but I want to bring recognition to the immense strength and courage of these fighters. When I first heard about the 4K, I could not imagine spending my summer any other way—I am able to fight for a cause I passionately believe in by pursuing a sport I absolutely love.

4000 miles will not be easy but I shall strive to derive strength and grit from that same source as cancer patients. I will ride knowing that this is about something much bigger than myself; I will ride to celebrate their lives and honor their memories. These 60 days and 4000 miles will also give me ample time to reflect on how best to forge my own career in Medicine and lead the fight against cancer.

I am fortunate not to have any of loved ones affected by cancer but I am very well aware of the misery and heartbreak it brings to patients and their families. That is why, as a future physician, I would like to see a cure for cancer in my lifetime. With our unified effort, it might just happen. Please support me in this endeavor! By donating, you will be changing not only my life but the lives of millions who have been affected by cancer. You can donate as little or as much as you would like. Every dollar will take me one mile closer to my goal! I sincerely appreciate your genuine concern and support. Godspeed.

my foray into medicine and public health- boston healthcare for the homeless

2010-09-10T09:20:00.000-04:00

I have always wanted to improve the lives of others-- that is why I ended up deciding for myself that being a physician was my calling. However, over the past year or two, I have come to realise that it I would not be able to reach this vision of the betterment of people's lives solely as a physician. As a physician, I can only help save the world one person at a time. The bigger flaw in my argument, I came to see, was that someone would only come to me for help if they had a problem. I would only be fixing problems once they arise, I would be doing nothing to stop them in the first place.

Dr. Wayne Lamorte enlightened me to this in his Intro to Public Health course. I had registered for the course because I had heard that it was an easy A and I did not have to show up for class; it ended up being the most influential course I have taken thus far in college. It has piqued my interest in public health greatly and I have resolved that I want my career to be a successful marriage of both medicine and public health. I want to heal as well as promote healthful conditions; I want to serve the individual as well as the population.

As a student, I still have much to learn about both fields. That is why I am taking MC802: Community Health Initiatives this semester. My team's project is on SMOKING- we have been tasked with coming up with a product that will reduce the prevalence of smoking amongst the patients at Boston Healthcare for the Homeless. This is not a standard cookie-cutter situation because the traditional smoking cessation and counseling models do not apply to the homeless. The best solution to the problem would be to offer them a roof above their heads, but is not likely to happen. The city of Boston is constrained severely by a tight budget and a lack of resources. The burden of illness that homeless people face makes smoking a far greater health hazard- we have to come up with a way to improve the quit rate and decrease the relapse rate.

This will be an excellent leadership experience for me personally. The course will give me a chance to understand why and how medicine and public health should be integreated; it will offer me great insight into this synergistic relationship. Not only that, it will offer me an excellent preview of my own chosen career path.

living in india

2010-07-15T15:46:00.000-04:00

after spending six incredible weeks in India, my mind now occasionally drifts to the idea of moving back to this fascinating country. having lived in countries that usually top the mercer's report- countries like japan, singapore, new zealand, and america- i always used think to myself that i do not have what it takes to survive in a country like India. the last six weeks, however, have taught me otherwise-- i lived, breathed, and pooped India, and not only did I just survive, i absolutely loved everything about this enchanting place. back home in DC, i have even suggested to my father the possibility of my parents moving to India following his retirement. i myself know that, at some point in my future, i will be called back to my spiritual home to implement my ideas for health and awareness for those at the bottom of the economic pyramid.

what is there to love about India? i have been sitting here for close to an hour typing and backspacing, typing and backspacing, simply because i cannot put in words my adoration and admiration for this country. i cannot point to something and say 'that is exactly why i like this country' nor can i come up with a list of bullet-points stating my reasons for loving it. there is something about this country that is inexplicable, something that is ineffable. India has a mystical quality to it-- it is a land steeped in history but it is also a land that is looking to the future. India is a land of opposites; a land where the poor and rich live side by side; a land where tradition and culture go hand in hand with technology and couture; a land where the neon lights of the city shine just as bright as the oil lamps of the village. the people are so friendly and helpful, the culture is so captivating and inviting, and the food is so diverse and delicious. i am obviously rambling now but to put it simply, you have to go to India to see it for yourself. the first two weeks may be a little rough, but after that, you will not want to leave- that is exactly what happened to me!

if i am able to express myself articulately, i will come back and edit this post but for now, believe me when i say that India is a truly magical land.

the extraordinary women of rural india

2010-06-23T23:45:00.001-04:00

i went on a field visit to a cluster of 6 or 7 villages in a rural district a couple of weeks ago. i had to carry out a survey grameen koota's clients about their utilisation of healthcare services, their health awareness, and their receptiveness towards volunteering community health workers as well as participating in a micro health insurance programme. additionally, i wanted to go to a real center meeting to observe the application and disbursement of loans or, in other words, observe the very core processes of microfinance. this day-long field visit not only left a lasting impression on me, it also evoked a whole gamut of feelings that i have not been able to express in words (which is why i have been delaying writing about this). at the end of the day, the only thing i was sure of was that i would be back in part of the world as a physician offering my services to as many of these wonderful yet unfortunate people as i could and improving their lives in every way possible.

i went to a bunch of villages near the town of mandya, about 120kms out of bangalore. these villages were only about 15-20km outside of mandya but they were so frightfully backward and lost to civilisation. it made me shudder at the thought of what villages that are far more remote are like. they didn't have paved roads; their homes could hardly be called homes; they have to rely on a very unreliable water tank or well for water; and they only get power for 5 hours a day! not only that, they have no idea of knowing when the 5-hour block will begin, and so if they are out working in the fields or mills, they will probably have missed their only chance to cook, listen to the radio, or watch their black-and-white televisions. most houses were small but looked spacious only because their residents were too poor to furnish them with anything. many houses had leaks in their roofs or big holes (see pic) which must wreak havoc when the monsoons arrive. most of the households had farm animals as their only assets- for some, the milk from these animals was their only livelihood and so their own lives were inextricably linked with those of their cows or goats. i have an image of a house that will stay with me forever. we met with someone in a house which comprised of just one room that was approximately 10feet by 20feet. of this, the woman had designated more than half the space for her lone cow! when asked why, she told me that her only source of income was milk from this one cow and the cow's death would hasten her own so she had to offer it the greatest care and comfort she could. it was so heart-wrenching to hear this, and to see her live in a room permeated by the putrid odor of cow and cow dung, and to see her sleep on the floor right next to her cow. to sum up her abysmal situation, while she slept on the rock hard floor, her cow was at least rolling comfortably in bales of hay. the room in question is in the picture- the cows area is everything behind the ledge till the door, while the woman sleeps where the women in the picture are sitting. i cannot imagine how they live like this.

despite their miserable environs, the women of rural india are quite extraordinary. they are not at all conservative, backward, or mindful of Purdah like i thought they would be. an elderly woman told my colleague not to marry young because her husband would ruin her life, and to never have an arranged marriage. i was quite stunned by this! they were all also very strong-willed and vocal- not one woman i spoke to shied away from responding, and i was frightfully impressed with their responses. not only that, i was astounded at their desire to learn- every single one of the 200 women i spoke to had a burning desire to learn about good health and nutrition. they wanted to be able to take care of themselves and their families, and they wanted their children to succeed in life. some of the groups i spoke to even volunteered women from amongst their midst to be community health workers for their villages! in every village center, at least 1 or 2 women had a bachelor's degree or were in pursuit of one. how wonderful is that? they were respectful and courteous, and very forward-thinking. when i explained a health insurance scheme to them, they were very receptive towards the idea (i thought they would be cautious and unyielding) and they asked very thoughtful and probing questions about the scheme that admittedly had me even going back to the drawing board to reconsider certain things. they offered elaborate opinions on government insurance schemes in which they were enrolled in, and they even made a great number of suggestions as to how we could make things work.

microfinance has truly given these women a voice. they are no longer suppressed by their husband and in-laws. they have a say in family matters and i could say that their role has even evolved to the extent that they are the leaders of their households. since microfinance is only extended to women, they make the final decision as to how the loans they receive will be used. kendra managers (loan officers) ensure that these women have a channel to voice any abuse by their husbands. with the money they have borrowed, the women have started their own businesses and generated a vital source of self-made money. unlike a husband who will gamble or drink away money, you can be assured that the money a woman makes will be used for the good of the household and for the education of the children. this was the core concept of microfinance when prof yunus started it some 30 years ago, and it is still valid. i cannot forget the hope visible on the faces of the women i met. at each village i went to, every single woman came up to me and told me that they had faith that i would do something for them, that i would offer them and their families a chance to lead healthier, better lives. these personal requests for help, i cannot forget nor ignore. i only have 2 weeks left but i am confident that, by the time i leave, i will have put in place a model concrete enough in theory. i have faith that grameen koota is committed enough to respond to the needs of their clients and will put this model in practise. how i wish i could have been around for that, to see the joy and satisfaction on the faces of those very women i set out trying to help.

indian success story

2010-06-21T07:20:00.001-04:00

today i met an indian success story. when you think of an indian success story, you usually think of the lone son of a poor lower-class family slogging at school between handling 3 jobs to take care of his ailing parents and hungry siblings. he manages to excel in his 12th class examinations and is offered a place at the various IITs and IIMs , and so his life immediately takes a giant leap into the burgeoning middle class.

that, however, is not the story of vikash kumar. vikash kumar was terrible at school, he never even used to go to his classes. he had no lofty ambition of entering the IITs and the IIMs of India. hell, vikash kumar did not even know a word of english till 5 years ago but he is now the executive director of the world's premier microfinance magazine- Microfinance Focus. we sat down and had lunch together today, and as he was narrating his life-story to me i could not help but gape in awe.

vikash told me he was born in a remote village in Jharkhand- his village is 16 hours away from Calcutta and the journey involves a bullock cart, a boat, a bus, train, and many many kilometres of walking. just to put things in perspective, i can leave washington dc the same time that he leaves his hamlet and we will both arrive in Calcutta at the same time. additionally, you should know that Jharkhand is one of the most backward states in India- it is one of the poorest and most illiterate, and it also has the some of the highest mortality rates in the nation (and invariably, in the world). anyway, vikash grew up in a piddly village in Jharkhand and was educated in a government school up till his 12th grade. now, government schools in rural districts are frightfully bad. the teachers are incompetent, the facilities are non-existent, and parents themselves do not value education as much as they do child labour. vikash never used to care about studies because of the typical villager's small-world mentality that education would be pointless for his likely future career in farming or taking over the family kirana store. he said that he would never go to class, instead whiling away his time goofing around in the fields with his friends. after his poor showing in his 12th grade board exams, his family admonished him for being a wastrel and told him he would be a complete good-for-nothing.

vikash finally decided to make something of his life, so he decided to head to the nearest big town in his district. his family was against this, they thought he would be of better use working in the fields rather than roaming around cities trying to make a living. finally, he managed to convince them on the condition that he return in a year if he did not make a name for himself. he wanted to get a MBA but this was not possible without a solid command of English. vikash's education in his village was in the hindi medium and so he had not a clue about the english language. the first thing he did when he got to Bhagalpur was find a premier english coaching academy and he enrolled himself at great expense to himself and his family. he studied english intensively for just 6 months before writing his GMATs. he had only learnt english for 6 months up to this point! how much can you possibly learn in 6 months?! i am pretty sure that i would have only gotten a little past the alphabet. vikash did exceptionally well in his GMATs and got accepted into a number of prestigious indian business schools but coming from a poor family, he could not afford them. he finally enrolled himself in a MBA programme in Rural Management in the Entrepreneurs' Development Institute where he found that he was unable to compete with the other students and was only an average student.

however, it was here that vikash's brainchild was spawned. he recognised that microfinance was a growing field and he decided that he would take it upon himself to annal its progress and offer a database of information for his colleagues in the field. his first newsletter was written and distributed in MS Word; i'll put it up here when he sends it to me but when i read it, i remember it being poorly worded and grammatically awful. i had no idea why anyone would want to read it. but this guy had tremendous courage and determination- he would work on his newsletter late into the night after coming home from his day job (which was a low-paying position at Grameen Koota).

it must have been immensely challenging and disheartening, and his road must have been littered with so many obstacles the way but look at where he is now! he is the go-to person for any microfinance news/information/research. he has an excellent website with tons of information, he has even managed to interview Muhd Yunus and Princess Maxima of the Netherlands, and most importantly, he has turnover of a couple of hundred lakhs (Rs 100,000). can you imagine someone who has just learnt english as the editor-in-chief and executive director of a leading editorial? his english may not be the best but he is still learning the language avidly. he is lively and jovial, and in his eyes, you can see hardship but you can also see hope. he is the sort of person who makes you realise that if you put your mind to it, anything can be done! america always brands itself as the land of dreams but vikash kumar is living proof that any place in this world may be the land of dreams if the dreamer has the courage, drive, and determination to pluck his dream out of the sky and land it in reality.

drugs in the prison system

2010-06-18T05:52:00.001-04:00

i have been reading jeffrey archer's prison diaries- ive already read volume 1:hell and volume 2:purgatory so i just have volume 3:heaven to read. however, i wanted to write a blog post about it before i could even finish because jeffrey archer relates some shocking tales about drug abuse in the prison system that i cannot help but think about. no doubt, he was 'banged up' in the UK but i am sure that the same problems exist in the US (although definitely not in drug-free squeaky clean singapore) and many other Western countries.

in his diary, jeffrey archer talks about the rampant use of drugs by prison inmates. most of them get into prison for drugs- be it growing, pushing, or using- and being unable to rid themselves of their addiction, they continue to abuse drugs while serving time. the way that drugs are brought into prisons are quite imaginative to say the least but i rather you read the books to find out! i was much more concerned about the manner in which previously drug-free convicts first begin abusing drugs while in prison. with so much time on their hands and absolutely nothing to do, they are sucked in to the drug culture by their cell mates.

what is even more astonishing is that heroin (a far more dangerous drug) is the most common drug that felons abuse, far more so than cannabis. know why? all convicts are subject to a Mandatory Drug Test (MDT) randomly, and while cannabis can only be flushed out of the system after 28 days, heroin is flushed out of the system in a day by simply drinking copious amounts of water. since a positive MDT test increases your sentence by 28 days and involves a revoke of some of your prisoner privileges, inmates regard heroin as a safer option.

the problem is, heroin is not the safer option! heroin is addictive and the heroin available in prisons is highly diluted so inmates need greater quantities of it for the same effect. once they leave prison, a lot of them go straight back into the drug peddling business because the payouts are huge compared to the measly minimum wage vocational job they will be qualified for. the heroin outside prisons is much purer than the stuff inside so when prisoners inject themselves with the same quantity of heroin as they used to while on the inside, they die because the stuff is just too pure for their bodies to handle.

something needs to be done.

a special summer

2010-06-17T04:21:00.005-04:00

i am working for Grameen Koota this summer. Grameen Koota is a microfinance institution (the world's 4th best in fact) based in Bangalore, India, and which offers micro credit to nearly 500,000 women and therefore, households, in the southern state of Karnataka. i had taken a class in developmental economics last fall and it got me fascinated about the concept of microfinance and how it unleashes new opportunities for the world's poorest entrepreneurs and revitalises the village economies they serve. i wanted to go to India and see for myself if this new wave of social capitalism was actually working and to see if it was lifting the rural poor out of poverty and enabling them to change their lives through profitable investments. i also thought it would be a great last use of my economics degree before i dived into my medical studies.

although i did expect to have a wonderful time, i did not for once think that i would be able to change the lives of half a million families (~2 million people!) because i was a mere intern. boy was i wrong! grameen koota started the department of New Initiatives so as to offer non-financial products to their clients thereby improving their social status as well as their economic status. within this department, i have been identified as the 'health care expert' because of the few public health classes that i have taken and the fact that i am planning to be a doctor, even though i am not even close to being one yet and can hardly find my own pulse. i have been tasked with coming up with a sustainable healthcare model for GK's clients. in other words, i am responsible for making sure that 2 million impoverished citizens receive some form of basic health care. when first notified of my role, i was flabbergasted. to be honest, i seem to be a little under-qualified; i only hold a high-school diploma! was GK really going to entrust me with this job? were they sure they knew what they were doing?

i am ecstatic that they have so much faith in my ability (either that or they want to be cheap and get an intern to do a pro's job). the past few weeks have been challenging, intellectually stimulating, and extremely insightful. the role i play involves a synergy of all my educational pursuits: economics, public health, and medicine. it is quite literally what i have always wanted to do with my life. i want to apply myself with pure dedication to the principle that healthcare has always been and should always be a basic constitutional right. healthcare is not a consumer good that should be subject to traditional market forces, leaving it beyond the reach of millions who do not have a high enough willingness- no scratch that, ability- to pay. with this passion fueling me, i set about this seemingly herculean task. in line with stephen covey's 5th habit, i have spent the first few weeks understanding the situation, and now i would like to spend the next few weeks seeking to be understood as i come up with a healthcare model that should have been put in place more than some time ago.

the past 3 weeks have been quite a journey. you can claim to know about poverty sitting on a plush couch in the great cities of America but you will only know poverty when you travel to the rural reaches of India. i have learnt so much and seen so much that sometimes it leads me to wonder- can i do so much? but the very sight of these people who are no less human than you and i but on whom fate has played a very cruel trick ignites in me a burning desire to change their lives. i have told myself that i will do the very best i can for them, no less than they deserve, and that in my 6 weeks here i will have hopefully changed their lives and touched their hearts as they have touched mine,

a new direction

2009-07-05T12:16:00.003-04:00

the events of the past few days have forced me to rethink and reprioritise my life- i will need the next few days to sort my thoughts out, and sit down and rediscover myself. first and foremost, i need to use my passion to want to study medicine to drive away my laziness and procrastinating ability, and infuse in me a sense of urgency and a purposeful determination. i sincerely hope that this drive stays with me, and is not just a fleeting response to this last week.

i have had this blog since 2005 and i’ve neither taken to writing regularly nor formally. i think i want to use my blog henceforth as a channel for me to express my views and opinions about anything and everything; i will continue to be random and eclectic but i want to write posts of more substance. i do not know where or how to begin but i am sure that i will get into the habit of writing well and more than occasionally. i want to get to a stage where i can confidently tell people that i have a blog that i would like them to read and spread the word about- perhaps even in applications to higher institutions? i am going to reinvent myself so let us see how this goes..

2009-06-25T09:03:00.002-04:00

“Most obstacles melt away if we make up our minds to boldly walk through them”

-Orison Swett Marden

I just needed a little inspiration to get me going this morning and someone told me this. It rings so true! I think I have mentally horded the courage to face the obstacles coming my way- I know that I will get to where I want despite the odds. Auspicium melioris aevi!

2009-06-21T09:44:00.001-04:00

“ You can know a man by how he plays on the court.”

2009-06-16T10:39:00.002-04:00

look at the news today and you’ll see how violence and killing is so prevalent in the world today. everyone is loving to hate. what i cannot fathom is that it is just as easy to love as it is to hate, but you get so much more with love than hatred so why do people do it then? is it hatred? is it jealousy? is it disillusion?

as a child, my parents always taught me that there is only one caste, the caste of humanity; there is only one religion, the religion of Love; there is only language, the language of the heart; and there is only one God. for example, it has always fascinated me how islam and christianity are so similar yet muslims and christians bear such an intense and deep-seated hatred for each other. my parents taught me to look beyond differences, because deep down, we are one and the same. i have met so many people who could not have come from a more different background but with whom i can share my heart with. all it takes is a simple change in perspective but what will it take before the world comes to realise this?

2009-06-15T23:48:00.005-04:00

i think that each person comes into this world with a specific destiny- something to fulfil, some message to be delivered, some work to be done. i do not mean that our lives are written for us or that we are not faced with choices, i just think that the choices we make of our own free will propel us towards fulfilling our higher purpose. we are not here accidentally, there is a meaning to our lives. there is a purpose behind each and every one of us, we are all contributing to a higher end and the world wants to do something through us. we may not know what it is right now, we may even never know what it is, but our footprints will be left on the sands of time. i personally believe that i know what my destiny is, it has been infused in me as my calling; i know that not only my passion but also the forces of the universe will drive me there so that i may complete my humble duty in the grand scheme of things.

2009-03-12T14:06:00.001-04:00

http://interacc.typepad.com/synthesis/2009/03/inspired-minds-want-to-grow.html

precisely why i want to surround myself by inspired minds

2009-03-10T15:51:00.001-04:00

"Scarves aloft all around Anfield for You'll Never Walk Alone. The Liverpool fans give it another rousing rendition as the players come out of the tunnel. What a night."

did you know?

2009-03-07T09:44:00.001-05:00

henry ford and adolf hitler greatly admired each other; they even kept a picture of each other on their desks. what an irony that is-- one went on to eliminate the Jews of the world and let his country crumble into a Socialist state after the war. The other laid the foundations for the greatest capitalist economy in the world.

2009-03-05T16:12:00.001-05:00

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/03/the-two-elements-of-a-great-presenter.html

a wonderful post on the two key elements of a great presenter. definitely something to keep in mind.

a psalm of life - henry wadsworth longfellow

2009-03-05T16:01:00.001-05:00

WHAT THE HEART OF THE YOUNG MAN
SAID TO THE PSALMIST

    TELL me not, in mournful numbers,
        Life is but an empty dream ! —
    For the soul is dead that slumbers,
        And things are not what they seem.

    Life is real !   Life is earnest!
        And the grave is not its goal ;
    Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
        Was not spoken of the soul.

    Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
        Is our destined end or way ;
    But to act, that each to-morrow
        Find us farther than to-day.

    Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
        And our hearts, though stout and brave,
    Still, like muffled drums, are beating
        Funeral marches to the grave.

    In the world's broad field of battle,
        In the bivouac of Life,
    Be not like dumb, driven cattle !
        Be a hero in the strife !

    Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant !
        Let the dead Past bury its dead !
    Act,— act in the living Present !
        Heart within, and God o'erhead !

    Lives of great men all remind us
        We can make our lives sublime,
    And, departing, leave behind us
        Footprints on the sands of time ;

    Footprints, that perhaps another,
        Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
    A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
        Seeing, shall take heart again.

    Let us, then, be up and doing,
        With a heart for any fate ;
    Still achieving, still pursuing,
        Learn to labor and to wait.

my father first introduced this poem to me in new zealand when i was 10 years old. i had to pick out a poem for a poetry recitation and he insisted that i do this one. he also insisted that i understand what the poem was about, but being only 10, i did not find the poem mcuh to my liking! it has stayed with me over the years, however, and has grown on me. i have slowly understood the message being conveyed and have come to appreciate what longfellow is trying to say and it has subconsciously become the way i live my life. carpe diem!

pick up the pieces

2009-03-03T21:45:00.001-05:00

this was the view of the Charles from my room a couple of days ago. a fleeting warmth had arrived and the ice on the river was breaking apart like shards of glass from a shattered mirror. this picture (taken from my webcam) isn't that good but it was quite a sight! mother nature at its finest!

"Style" is an expression of individualism mixed with charisma. Fashion is something that comes after style. -john fairchild

2009-03-03T01:29:00.001-05:00

m. wade

2009-03-03T01:25:00.001-05:00

in my previous post, i was talking about how i wanted to meet the great minds at cambridge and be inspired by them. but who says you need only be galvanised by great intellectual minds? i realised today that it is also those people whom you see everyday, those who are in the background of your life's play, that can just as surely inspire you to great lengths.

maurice wade is the security guard who works the morning shift at stuvi. he may just be a security guard, but you would not know that when you meet him. he does his job with so much pride he might as well be on the board of a MNC. i go down every monday to pick up the keys to the computer lab so i have developed an acquaintance with him.

when i went down today, he was all smiles as usual and he asked me about my day and about school and genuinely listened to me as i ranted about the most trivial things imaginable. who actually listens these days?

he went on to ask me about computers and what i would recommend buying and why one brand was better than another and what type of specs would be good. i was thoroughly impressed by his knowledge and told him so-- he simply responded by saying, "hey the learning never stops man"

a security guard on a university campus telling a student that. the irony! but the impact of his words on me were enormous.. he is just a security guard yet he does his job with pride and dedication. he is always smiling and willing to help. most amazingly, he is always willing to learn. i am truly humbled.

i guess its true, it's the little things in life that catch you unaware and when you least expect it, but when they do, boy do they give you a jolt and make you want to rethink your life..

apprehension

2009-02-24T08:13:00.001-05:00

a sense of apprehension fills me this morning. i can't quite pin it down to something in particular, i just feel unsettled in general. i hope to God that the letter bears joyful news. i need to get my life back on track again. just over a week more..

regrets?

2009-02-24T01:24:00.001-05:00

i am not the sort of person who regrets decisions made in the past. every decision is made with ample reasoning and as such, there is no reason to be regretful when you stumble over ruts on your road. i am definitely in a rut right now but i still don't think i regret my decision to come here. i am happy here, i just wish i made more out of the experience. i know i still have time to, and that it is very much up to me. i have no regrets, the closest thing i might have to a regret is that i wish i got to meet people like the sort i would have met had i gone to cambridge-- the brilliant minds that i could have met and that would have opened up my own mind. i feel like i am stagnating here, that i am not doing enough for my development. i think that once this fiasco is well and truly behind me, i will put in a genuine effort to promote my own development.

My Resolutions for The Semester

2009-01-08T10:53:00.001-05:00

CLASS IS ON TUESDAYS AND THRUSDAYS 8AM to 930AM! BE THERE.

It will be hard, practically impossible, but I will make the darndest effort to wake up, SHOWER, and then be off to class all the way in the frickin life science building ON TIME .

This will also last longer than a week. I've covered all bases in this resolution, you are screwed big guy.

its a brand new year

2009-01-01T11:44:00.001-05:00

i shall make a conscious effort to be a better person in this new year.

and i shall also make a conscious effort to remember the 8th of September 2009 despite the best efforts of my dearest friends to ensure the contrary.

break

2008-12-22T18:21:00.001-05:00

everyone needs a break sometimes, just to get away from it all. to refresh and recharge themselves, to be ready to dive into the rat race once again and take on the challenges of a new semester. it'll be a time for introspection, a time to look inside oneself and try to mould a better person. it'll be a time to spend time with yourself, to work on your relationship with yourself- after all, this will be the most important relationship in your life.

2008-08-06T21:02:00.000-04:00

this is beautiful isn't it? the natural beauty i've got to come in touch with here reminds me of the good old days in new zealand/ it makes you feel so at peace with yourself and everyone around you. it's as if your yin and yang and all that are in a natural balance and you're inner harmony leaves you feeling so serene. this is definitely a welcome break before the hectic city life i'll be leading in boston.

make no doubt, i'm a fully blooded city person but i absolutely LOVE nature. i love extreme outdoor fun as well as tranquil walks in the woods. this is bliss, what can i say.

daydreaming

2008-08-03T12:04:00.001-04:00

did you know that your brain can actually shrink if you dont exercise it? and whats the best way to exercise it? DAYDREAM. hahahaha daydreaming is my favourite pastime mwhaa so that must explain everything :P

home is where the heart is

2008-08-03T00:19:00.001-04:00

home is where the heart is. how true.. ive been contemplating where id call home over the past few days. for obvious reasons, it should be singapore and even i thought so but then i asked myself, am i really truly singaporean? i can speak like one, i understand the workings of one, i practically grew up among singaporeans, i went to school with them, hung out with them, etc etc but despite all this im not quintessentially singaporean. ive been brought up in too many other cultures to be typically singaporean be it my lifestyle or my mindset. i cant place exactly what aspects of my personality and lifestyle ive acquired from where but as an exampple im way toooo relack to be singaporean cos i picked up a laidback almost lackadaisical go-with-the-flow mentality from new zealand (it has served me well though undoubtedly)

so that led me to thinking how a third culture kid like myself could define home. is it where i feel like i amongst like-minded people in a society that places emphasis on similar values as mine? is it where ive spent the most time? is it where i am happiest? is it where ive learnt the most about my life? if all that is true, isnt home where the heart is? i carry home with me wherever i go. i feel most comfortable with what im doing when i listen to what my heart and tells me to do. im happiest, and even morally most righteous hur hur, when i listen to my heart. home has got to be where the heart is.

2008-07-22T14:53:00.001-04:00

i love reading, it's so cathartic. i can just drown myself in a book for hours on end in blissful oblivion. it really is a pity i never get to read at uni, but i think i'm going to make a concerted effort to do so this year. there are SO MANY books i want to 'peruse' (hahahaha as rgp likes to say it) and the list keeps growing faster than i can strike anything off of it. for now,
storm of swords by george r.r. martin
three billion new capitalists by clyde prestowitz
economic naturalist
shock doctrine by naomi klein
the new steven d. levitt book
richard dawkins
the end of poverty by jeffrey sachs
a short history of nearly everything by bill bryson
robin cook's medical fiction
brilliant orange: the neurotic genius of dutch football
audacity of hope by barack obama
in defense of globalisation by jagdish bhagawati
maximum city by suketu mehta
stiff by mary roach
john grisham's books
a prisoner of birth by jeffrey archer
and with that, the count of monte cristo by alexandre dumas
the list just keeps going on and on..

haha i finished the brief history of time a couple of days ago, and i confess i didn't much in the last 2 or 3 chapters. nevertheless, it is an intriguing book that opened my mind up to the world of cosmology and quantum physics. if not for medicine and econs, i would have been a physicist. physics is amazingg i love it.

2008-07-21T14:54:00.000-04:00

for the love of the game

2008-07-21T10:51:00.000-04:00

i can safely say that i am one of the few people in the world who follow such a plethora of sports. ah what can i say? the benefits that come with being a third-culture kid..
i profess my first love to be football. yes, football, not soccer.
i vividly remember watching baggio blast his spotkick over the bar in the world cup of 94.
the first match i ever watched involved liverpool, i dont remember who they played, but what i do remember was my fascination with the word 'liverpool' haha
another game i clearly recall watching as a kid was inter vs juventus, juventus lost but inter's play left me fascinated! i dont quite recall how but i came to support leeds united from about 1998- they were a class team then. nigel martyn, harry kewell, eirik bakke, michael bridges, alan smith, mark viduka, olivier dacourt, lee bowyer, johnathan woodgate, rio ferdinand, danny mills, eric harte, gary kelly, lucas radebe, robbie keane.. wow. the year they got to the semifinals of the champions league, i was proud as a lufc supporter could ever be. then the world came crashing around them. i still lvoe them dearly now but life in division one is hard to follow so i have come to love another great team. liverpool fc. you'll never walk alone. they play with a spirit and desire that is unmatched, and their captain and my favourite player steven gerrard is a shining example of passion dedication and talent. i will always love liverpool!
haha but besides football, i have always followed rugby (union, league, and 7s i used to watch 7s when it came to singapore!!), cricket, tennis, cycling (the tour de france), the olympics, formula one (they have it in singapore this year bugger wish i was there to watch it!), aussie rules!, america's cup, and the list goes on i cant even remember what else i follow haha.
i never liked american sports but i guess you get hooked on it after spending a whole year with kids who only know american sports and nothing else. of course, it helps being in boston. american football is fun to watch and play even though it cannot be compared to rugby. basketball's wicked fun, especially with the rampaging celtics this year. the red sox nation up in boston has me hooked on the red sox too! thankfully, i do not follow hockey and NASCAR yet..
here's a list of my favourite teams!

a psalm of life

2008-07-20T22:09:00.000-04:00

in 1999, i used to take speech classes taught by an old lady by the tasman in new plymouth. she asked me to choose a poem to recite in a local poetry competition. that was when i was first introduced to 'a psalm of life'. my dad sat me down and explained the poem in detail, and it has left a lasting impression. nowadays, i look upon it as a psalm for my life. "but to act, that each to-morrow find us farther than today" truly inspirational..

A PSALM OF LIFE

WHAT THE HEART OF THE YOUNG MAN
SAID TO THE PSALMIST

TELL me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream ! —
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real ! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal ;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way ;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle !
Be a hero in the strife !

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant !
Let the dead Past bury its dead !
Act,— act in the living Present !
Heart within, and God o'erhead !

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time ;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate ;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

the virgo man

2008-07-20T15:22:00.000-04:00

for the most part, this is an essay on me. i find it rather impressive, mainly because i find it unable to even describe myself to other people despite the countless periods of introspection (or daydreaming, wahtever you like to call it).

The VIRGO Man

"Why, if a fish came to me, and told me he was going on a journey, I should say, 'With what porpoise?' " "Don't you mean 'purpose'?" said Alice. "I mean what I say," the Mock Turtle replied in an offended tone.

We may as well get this out into the open right away. Don't pin your hopes on a Virgo man if your heart is hungry for romantic dreams and fairy tales, or you'll find yourself on a starvation diet. A love affair with a Virgo will dump a warm sentimentalist on the cold ground with a hard thud, and it can hurt.

This man lives almost entirely on a practical, material level, and he has little use for the abstractions of storybook romance. Of course, the whole problem may be academic anyway, since it will take no little effort to bring him anywhere near the threshold of a man-woman relationship in the first place. He's not the type to serenade you beneath your boudoir window. You'll have a long, lonely wait on your moonlit balcony until he starts climbing the rose trellis (or the fire escape, if you live in a walk-up). How true.. As much as I like to think of myself as a 'hopeless romantic', when it actually comes down to it, I find myself keenly turned off from soppy shows of affection and attention to sentimental details. I much prefer a shared life of practicality, resourcefulness, and productivity; managing to do this is, in my opinion, is a great demonstration of love for my counterpart.

Actually, Virgos are deeply involved with love from earliest childhood, but not the Romeo-Juliet kind of love. His chief way of expressing the word is concerned with unselfish devotion to family, friends and those weaker or more disorganized than himself. He was born with an instinctive love of work, love of duty and discipline and devotion to the helpless. Even the unevolved Virgo, ,who doesn't quite reach such heights, feels slightly guilty that he isn't living up to a selfless ideal in some way.

The kind of love which displays itself in dramatic emotions, sentimental promises, tearful declarations and mushy affection, not only leaves a Virgo man cold, it can frighten him into catching the nearest bus or train out of town. (Planes are too fast and too expensive for him, unless he's really desperate.) haha I'm not sure if I should agree with this. c'mon i'm not such a cheapskate! But he can be melted if the temperature is just right, even though he seems to be made of a combination of steel and ice. There are definitely ways to the Virgo heart. Secret ways. Aggressive pursuit is not one of them. Neither is coquetry nor sexuality, as many a flirtatious vamp and slinky siren has learned, to her surprise and disappointment. Sadly, even I do not know the way to my heart so a little elaboration here would be pointless.

Virgos seek quality rather than quantity in romance. Since quality is at pretty much of a premium in any category, they have few real love affairs, and the few they do have are destined to be unlucky or sad in some way, more often than not. Virgo's reaction to such a disappointment is normally to bury himself in the hardest work he can find, stay away from society in general, and be twice as cautious at the next opportunity. You can see that you'll have to use considerable strategy and patience. The basic Virginian instinct is chastity, and he's turned from it only for a good cause or for a mighty good woman. Many Virgos-though admittedly not all-can live with celibacy far more easily than any other Sun sign, just as they put up with rules of discipline they don't understand, because obedience to fate without struggling comes naturally to them. If fate decrees a single life, Virgo is prepared to accept it without excess regret or emotional trauma, so there are lots of Virgo bachelors around-but still, in their quiet way, they can manage some very poetic, if fragile, love affairs.

Although he's never obvious, Virgo can be a master of the art of subtle seduction. A couple of generations of women who have trembled inside when a certain Frenchman smiles his shy, gentle smile can tell you all about it. Maurice Chevalier didn't become a legend because he has a singing voice like Caruso, you know. He may not be of my generation, but I too get butterflies in the heart region when I see or hear him. hoho this i know for sure, a master of subtle seduction indeed.

The Virgo man is a blend of sharp intellect and solid earth. He can be detached enough to break lots of hearts with a cool kind of flirting, but his critical analytical sense and his fastidious discrimination seldom allow these frequent excursions to leave the platonic arena. It has to burn with a white heat to produce real passion in a Virgo. I could not have said this better myself. I wouldn't call it flirting because it has a callous ring to it but i think the subtle art of seduction mentioned earlier is instead the culprit here; i am not saying that this is done intentionally. Unfortunately, it makes one come across as a player and has led to numerous stand-offs with heartbroken parties. I have to agree that I am rather detached in this though, and i most definitely do not pursue anything following an encounter. His modesty and selectivity alone prevent undue promiscuity. Of course, there may be an occasional fall into an earthy, physical experience, but such indiscretions are the exception, rather than the rule. The rule is aloof interest. I know one Virgo man who accepted a part in one of those really raw "for adults only" films, but he did it strictly for the cash-he was flat broke at the time-and he still blushes when anyone mentions it. Naturally, a man is a man, and not all Virgo: remain technical virgins, but they do always emain puu in outlool-. There's invariably something clean and chaste about Virgo love, which is never allowed to become soiled--even in the midst of passion- -no matter what unfortunate events may give the outward appearance of casualties.

He'll take his own precious time about finding a love object, because he's as critical and painstaking in the selection of a woman as he is in his eating, grooming, health and work habits. Don't try to fool him or lie to him. Your Virgo lover holds no illusions. He wants a decent, honest and genuine relationship. He knows very well how small his chances are of finding it, but it's useless to expect him |to accept anything less. If circumstances ever do involve |him in a sordid affair, you can be certain he won't remain |in its clutches for long. wow so right this is. i shant say i have high standards because i do not, i just feel like everyone i meet does not qualify (or maybe i just do not know what i'm looking for haha)

He is a difficult man to stir emotionally. He can go for a long time without feeling any burning need for a permanent mate. It's enough to make you cry if you've set your cap for him. You'll wonder if he's made of marble or if he was born without a heart. No, he isn't made of marble and yes, he does have a heart. Be patient. To her who waits comes eventual success.

Now and then a curious, frustrated Virgo may try a fling at deliberate promiscuous behavior, simply to see if he's lacking in masculinity. He's not, of course, and as soon as he discovers it, he seeks no more artificial experiences to prove himself. No cool, clear and collected Virgo can be immune to the call of human nature forever, but once he does succumb, hell be shy about admitting it. When he's on the threshold of submission, he'll cover his true feelings with elaborate casualness. There is more than a spark of subdued, but extremely refined acting talent in Virgo. He will pretend to be disinterested as cleverly as he pretends to be ill when he's not enjoying himself at a party. Don't expect him to respond with any great display of ecstatic surrender even after he's committed, and while he's still deciding if you're really the one for whom he'll forsake his single state, he'll play it mighty cool, indeed. only i can vouch for this, and maybe so too can a certain lady haha.

Once he's decided it's for real, however, he'll declare himself with touching simplicity. His love will burn with a steady flame, never fluctuating like the love of other Sun signs, and it will give warmth over the years with wonderful dependability. Is that so bad? The one quality of fairy tale romance about Virgo is that, if he's genuinely in love, he will wait for years to claim his true mate, or travel over a thousand mountains to bring her home to his hearth. He's capable of enormous sacrifice in the pursuit of that one dainty foot he's discovered will fit the glass slipper. There's no denying that the flame is strong, once it's been kindled. It's almost impossible to extinguish it. You'll be as eternally adored as Cinderella herself. The trick, I suppose, is in the •original kindling. It's a rare foot that fits his glass slipper. Virgo is enormously particular.

After you've caught him, hell seldom if ever invite your jealousy, and he'll be determined to overcome any rough spots caused by financial problems, relatives or outside interference. He'll show incredible strength through emotional and material hardships, as long as you remain by his side. You couldn't ask for a more tender, gentle companion when your heart is broken for any reason by a cruel world or when you're physically ill. He won't shower you with money, but you'll be well supplied with necessities, and he will shower you with consideration.

A Virgo man is invariably kindly and thoughtful about all those little things which matter to women. He has a crystal clear memory and probably won't forget special dates, though he may be a bit mystified as to why you think they are so important. He won't be wildly, passionately jealous, yet Virgo males are possessive in the extreme. This sounds like a fine line to draw, but it's important. Even though he doesn't throw emotional scenes of jealousy over the attentions other men pay you, his deeply rooted possessiveness should warn you that a little freedom goes a long way. The wife of a Virgo who wanders too far away from the home fires too often may find herself without a husband to return to. Virgos are utterly loyal and they dislike destroying family ties intensely, but when their sense of decency has been finally outraged they won't hesitate to make a cold, clean break in the divorce court. No messy, complicated trial separations for them. When it's over, it's over. Goodbye and good luck. Even the Virgo's sharp, unusually excellent memory won't cause him to cry sentimental tears over the past, simply because he's able to discipline his memory as firmly as he does his emotions. Self-discipline is part of his very nature. The Virgo man with his mind made up moves on-and having moved on, all your tears and apologies are useless in getting him to change his mind. He'll never fall victim to the illusion that gluing together the broken pieces will recreate perfection in what has once been seriously flawed.

If your heart is set on a Virgo man, you'd better brush up your thinking cap and wear it when he's around. Virgos hate ignorance, stupidity and sloppy thinking almost as much as they hate dirt and vulgarity, and that's a lot. The girl who snares the Virgo heart had better be smartly dressed with a sizable brain under her neat hair style-and you'll notice I said neat hair style. Virgos look for women who are clean in body and mind, and who dress well, but not in flashy extremes of fashion. YES, smartness is very sexy but skimpiness is decidedly not in my book.

You won't have to be Julia Child, but for goodness sakes, don't ever be naive enough to think a Virgo husband will let you feed him out of cans. A pleasure-seeking, selfish, mentally lazy woman will never make it with a Virgo male, even if she's fairly oozing with sex appeal. This is the very last man in the world you can expect to find running off with a topless Go-Go girl, though he might loan her his sweater if she's chilly. i can be quite the gentleman! if i meet a Go-Go girl someday, i can prove it When it comes right down to the nitty gritty, he's looking for a wife-not a mistress in any sense of the word.

Virgo men have no strong yearning for fatherhood, as a rule. Their particular kind of ego doesn't seem to require children for emotional fulfillment, and Virgos tend to have small families. Yet, once a child or children have been born, the Virgo is an extremely conscientious parent, and will never take his responsibilities lightly. Hell spend many hours teaching his youngsters skills and transmitting hia own high standards of conduct. He'll be cheerfully willing to help with homework and will probably make no end of sacrifices for hobbies, music lessons, camp and especially college. A Virgo father will place great emphasis on intellect and train his children rigidly in matters of ethics, courtesy and good citizenship. Even the divorced Virgo will eventually see to it somehow that his offspring are well ared for, wherever they may be, and that they get an edu-ation. Children of Virgo fathers usually grow up with both love and respect for books and learning. You'll seldom find a Virgo""parent spoiling a child, and there will always be plenty of necessary discipline. All this is fine, but there may be a need for more physical expressions of love between a Virgo father and his youngsters, since affection is not something that comes naturally to him. Unless a serious effort is made in this area from babyhood on, there's more than a small chance that he'll one day discover an insurmountable barrier has grown between him and the offspring he loves so deeply. There's also a tendency to be too critical, to expect too much too soon and be too strict.

A Virgo will expect you to fuss a bit over his health, but hell wait on you when you're sick, too, and allow you to be a regular Camille. He may have his cranky and moody spells now and then, perhaps even frequently. But one thing is sure. If you leave him alone, he won't go out of his way to start an argument with you. Just let him get over his grumpiness and he'll surprise you with tenderness to make up for it. Let him worry. It's good for him, sort of a Virgo mental exercise. But when you see it's affecting his physical state, snap him out of it by suggesting something interesting or different to do. It isn't hard to catch the mental attention of a Virgo, though it may be hard to keep it.

Now that you know what you're in for, if you're still in love with that Virgo man, you can look forward io a pretty contented future. You'll have a husband who's alert and well-informed, who won't expect you to wait on him hand and foot or expect you to run around looking sexy all the time with a dab of perfume behind each ear and a rose in your teeth. (Although he may expect you to go around with a cake of soap in each hand.)

Hell be reliable and pleasant, if you're tactful about his faults. He won't have many of them anyway-unless you call the way he runs his finger across the furniture every night, looking for dust, a fault. Little habits like that. No matter what he does, try not to nag him. Remember, he's not constituted to be able to take the critical analysis he applies to others. Get used to his habit of criticizing you, and laugh it off with the realization that he can't help being such a sensitive hairsplitter. Once that resentment is out of the way, you can relax, and really enjoy your bright, loyal Virgo. He's not an angel. There are no wings sprouting on his shoulders. But lots of wives will be jealous of you.

After all, how many women are married to a hardworking, handsome man who's neat and tidy around the house, who remembers anniversaries and performs miracles with the checkbook? How many wives have a smart husband who dresses well, seldom goes out with the boys or makes passes at other women, and is usually gentle and considerate? Look closely again. Is that just the reflection of the street lights around his head, or could it be . . . ? No, it couldn't possibly be a halo. Not after the way he snapped at you when you spilled the buttered popcorn in his lap at the theater tonight. Of course not. That cranky character? Still, there is a kind of an aura. And when he smiles-and you can see yourself in his clear eyes-well, he'll do until someone with real wings comes along.

there's even traces of the virgo child in me. i swear it! i've highlighted the appropriate parts.

The VIRGO Child

But four young oysters hurried up,

All eager for the treat:

Their coats -were brushed, their faces washed,

Their shoes were clean and neat-

As he tries to imitate the sounds he hears in the nursery, the tiny Virgo infant carries the seed of a seldom-mentioned Virginian talent for acting. The ability to mimic manifests itself almost from birth. The Virgo baby is alert and quick, yet at the same time more peaceful and tranquil than other infants, a contradiction which foreshadows a future personality that will soothe and irritate by turn.

Don't try to feed your little Virgo applesauce when he wants peaches or you may be in for a long siege. You'll end up with applesauce all over the high chair, but baby won't end up with a speck of it in his stomach if he doesn't like it, though he'll smile charmingly as he firmly turns his head away. He may surprise you by preferring spinach to ice cream. Virgo's meticulous selectivity about food shows early. (i'm not selective about food now but as a kid, there must have been a reason why i was called the bank of yokohama haha)

Aside from being fussy eaters and an occasional spell of fretful indigestion, raising a Virgo youngster is a pleasant experience, with little conflict and few tantrums. Even when they're very small, these children are inclined to be neat and put away their toys cheerfully. Your Virgo youngster may be bashful and quiet in company or crowds, but around family and friends the cat certainly won't get his tongue. He'll probably talk early and fluently, except in front of strangers. A Virgo child is seldom troublesome, and he's a wonderful companion as mother does her housework. He'll happily imitate whatever she is doing and he'll usually mind the first time he's told, with little scolding necessary.

In school, Virgos are apt to be teacher's pets, simply because they're the easiest boys and girls to discipline and the ones who study their lessons carefully. It's a delight to instruct the typical, bright Virgo child with gentle manners. Criticism, however, should be used sparingly. Too much stress on mistakes will cause him to worry unduly, sometimes to the point of actual illness.

A lecture in front of the class will be painfully mortifying, and it may smother the desire to leam for a long period. Virgo youngsters need to be told only once, quietly, if an error has been made. They'll be just as concerned as the teacher with correcting it, perhaps more so.

Often the mundane chores, disliked by the rest of the class, will be accepted as important responsibilities by Virgo children. They're efficient, dependable little people, with a serious, but friendly, pleasant disposition, though they're sensitive enough to become cranky if teased by more extro-verted classmates. The Virgo child is markedly adaptable, probably just as adept at painting scenery as he' is at editing the school paper. It wouldn't hurt to suggest that the Virgo youngster try out for dramatics. He won't seek the spotlight, but he might show a surprising ability to interpret characters with convincing reality, if he can overcome his stage fright.

Virgo's honesty and careful attention to details make him a favorite choice to grade papers when the teacher needs help. As a class monitor, he'll be ethical and alert. But there are occasions when the teacher can get a red face when she's made an erroneous statement (teachers being only human) and the normally shy, quiet little Virgo raises his hand to point out the mistake in no uncertain terms. Virgo students want to know the whys and the facts. They'll rarely question authority, but they will question knowledge in books unless they know what's behind it. The printed word often isn't enough for the inquisitive, painstaking Virgo mind. These children need plenty of educational toys, and when they're very young they should be read to as much as possible. They'll become most unhappy misfits as adults if they haven't received a full education. To know less than others turns Virgos into irritable introverts who are painfully embarrassed by their inadequacies.

It's best to ignore the Virgo teenager when he or she begins to notice the opposite sex. Teasing a girl about her first boy friend can give her a permanent emotional scar, and probing into a boy's dates can head him toward bachelorhood. Virgos don't easily accept close relationships leading to marriage, and the path should be made as smooth as possible.

You'll have to supply your Virgo child's emotional needs with signs of physical affection. He'll never show you how deeply he desires this kind of love, but the lack of it will strongly affect his future relationships. Even very pretty and very smart little girls-and very handsome, clever little boys have to be convinced they're interesting. It's hard for them to believe that their modest unassuming ways are as attractive as the more aggressive personalities of their friends. The Virgo ego can stand lots of encouragement without becoming excessive, so don't be stingy with bear hugs, kisses, sincere compliments and pats on the back. Your Virgo child needs large, daily doses of such emotional vitamins, along with his cod liver oil.

He'll have many exact habits, and hell complain if his belongings are moved or his privacy invaded. He does certain things at certain times, and if his personal schedule is upset, he will be, too. It may be dangerous to ask him for a frank opinion; otherwise, he'll usually be refreshingly polite to company. This child will criticize every member of the family, sometimes with amusing, but cutting imitations of their faults. He'll probably ask for his own room early and be fussy about your cooking. No lumps in the mashed potatoes, please, and not so much seasoning in the stuffing. But he'll show an excellent sense of responsibility before most other children have learned the alphabet. He'll be sympathetic with Mother's headaches and Daddy's financial problems. You can expect him to try sincerely to make good grades at school, willingly help around the house and manage his allowance carefully.

Although he's far from a model of perfection, and you'll feel like shaking him when he makes you take the beans out of the chili, or refuses to wear the shirt you just ironed because it has two small wrinkles-most of the time, a Virgo child is a joy to have around the house.

These children should have a kitten or a bird, so they can learn the lessons of love quietly and unobtrusively, by caring for the helpless. Don't buy him a St. Bernard or a police dog. If he's a typical Virgmian youngster, he'll prefer a smaller pet. He'll be fascinated by one of those ant villages. Watching the tiny ants industriously going about their business at close range should really intrigue his curious, practical little mind.

Listen to him when he talks. He has a wisdom beyond his years. You can afford to keep nagging at a minimum, because he'll try very hard to please you if he knows exactly what you expect of him. Remember that his imagination needs plenty of boosting and lots of room to grow, or it can easily become stifled. You need never worry about spoiling him or giving him too many illusions. The Virgo child is made of sterner stuff than that.

Give him all the lovely dreams you can crowd into his heart. Such bright moments of fantasy will guarantee him a much-needed emotional balance when he grows up. Be very sure he has a secret star to wish on. Memories of magical daydreams will keep him from being lonely in the years to come, and there will be many occasions for future loneliness. Unlike other children, the young Virgo may not be very fond of fairy stories and make-believe. He's a true little realist. Perhaps that's why he needs them most of all.

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i was never a huge fan of horoscope readings. i did use to read joseph polansky's yearly book on my horoscope for the year sshh but i always took it with a pinch of salt. this guy has won me over though, that was practically an essay on me. have to say, i do understand my inner workings slightly better now. i'll defnitely be thinking on this the next few days.

by the way, i posted today after more than a year because i reckoned i could just use this to talk about random things to my whim and fancy. noone really needs to know about this though haha

summer of '69

2007-05-14T17:32:00.000-04:00

wattap wattap. boredom drives me to this, but today i shall be a man of few words.
the song says it all.

I got my first real six-string
Bought it at the five-and-dime
Played it till my fingers bled
It was the summer of '69

Me and some guys from school
Had a band and we tried real hard
Jimmy quit and Jody got married
I shoulda known we'd never get far
Oh when I look back now
That summer seemed to last forever
And if I had the choice Ya - I'd always wanna be there
Those were the best days of my life

Ain't no use in complainin'
When you got a job to do
Spent my evenin's down at the drive-in
And that's when I met you
Standin' on your mama's porch
You told me that you'd wait forever
Oh and when you held my hand
I knew that it was now or never
Those were the best days of my life

Back in the summer of '69
Man we were killin' time
We were young and restless
We needed to unwind
I guess nothin' can last forever - forever, no
And now the times are changin'
Look at everything that's come and gone
Sometimes when I play that old six-string
I think about ya wonder what went wrong
Standin' on your mama's porch
You told me it would last forever
Oh the way you held my hand
I knew that it was now or never
Those were the best days of my life

Back in the summer of '69