Occasional Quote 06 September 2009

I saw this funny quote on the MRT on someone’s T-shirt:

Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder

a.k.a beer goggle

All About Regrets

The follies which a man regrets most, in his life, are those which he didn’t commit when he had the opportunity.
<Helen Rowland>

When one door closes another door opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.
<Alexander Graham Bell>

Watch Terminologies

• Perpetual calendar
  Refers to watches that display dates, but do not need to be adjusted to accommodate a change in months. E.g. 1 da after June 30th, the watch will display July 1st without being adjusted, instead of June 31st (which does not exist)
• Quartz watch
  A quartz watch is a watch that uses an electronic oscillator that is regulated by a quartz crystal to keep time. This crystal oscillator creates a signal with very precise frequency. Compared to an atomic clock, a quartz watch maintained at constant temperature will easily be accurate within 10 seconds per year.
• Chronograph
  Chronograph is a timepiece or watch with both timekeeping and stopwatch functions

Occasional Quote 06 August 2009

Thanks to God for always helping me make the right decisions no matter how impaired my judgement was, no matter how confused, vulnerable, or desperate I was.

Psalms 23:3

He renews my strength.
He guides me along right paths,
bringing honor to his name.

Life Hardship

This fictional writing is inspired by a nameless parking attendant in Indonesia who works tirelessly and energetically despite all the hardship he has to face in life.  It is also dedicated to those who hold other similar harsh jobs.

His day starts very early and ends late.  He works under the hot raging sun and the cold shower of rain.  He breathes polluted air coming from the heavy traffic.  His skin is burnt and his face is covered with sweat but he still runs around energetically, stopping traffic and helping people getting in and out of their parking space,

He works really hard for every penny to support his family. He is always worried if he has enough to feed his wive and kids, to send his kids to school, and to buy medications if any of them fall sick.

He has thought of getting an easier job but he doesn’t have the skills required. He has thought of taking some classes to learn those skill, but he doesn’t have the time nor the money. Less time he spent working means less money he receives, and he just doesn’t have that luxury.

I wish I could ask him if he has ever felt a shred of happiness despite all the hardship he went through and what brought it to him.  I wish I could ask him what keeps him going so that I can learn from him.

I wish I could tell him, though it might not mean anything to him, that he makes other people’s life easier and that I appreciate what he does.

To all of us, let’s take a moment to reflect and be grateful of what we have.

The Price of Experience and Expertise

I was in a similar situation as the carpenter in the story below, and so I decided to post this up.  The moral of this story, in my opinion,  is when you do something you are good at, do it your best whole-heartedly.  When the time comes, your experience and expertise will be rewarded.

There is a  man who has a squeak on his home staircase. Every day he comes home, his wife takes the opportunity to remind him that he said he would fix it. Running out of time, he hires a carpenter just to get it done and finally bring some quiet to his household.

man who has a squeak on his home staircase. Every day he comes home, his wife takes the opportunity to remind him that he said he would fix it. Running out of time, he hires a carpenter just to get it done and finally bring some quiet to his household

The carpenter arrives, walks up then down the stairs, takes out his hammer, and quickly hammers in a nail to quiet the noise. He then hands his bill to the man who promptly looks at it and says “$60???, all you did was hammer in a nail! I could have done that myself.” Then as he looks closer, the bill says “hammer in a nail – $2, knowing where to put the nail – $58.

Friendliness

As promised, here’s something taken from the book I’m currently reading: “One Minute Wisdom” by Anthony De Mello.  The book is a collection of parables (hence the use of One Minute as part of the title), and each of it is usually a conversation between a Master and his Disciple.  Even though Anthony De Mello himself is a Jesuit priest, the Master he tried to depict in the book can be a Catholic priest, Hindu sage, Buddhist monk, Jewish rabbi, or even Islamic mystic.

I chose the parable below because of its similarity to my post on Ethic of Reciprocity here.

Disciple: “What shall I do to love my neighbor?”

Master: “Stop hating yourself.”

The disciple pondered those words long and seriously and came back to say, “But I love myself too much, for I am selfish and self-centered. How do I get rid of that?”

Master: “Be friendly to yourself and your self will be contented and it will set you free to love your neighbor.”

Happy Easter Day

Seems like I’m developing a pattern: posting around special days.  If you noticed, my last post was somewhere around April Fool’s, and this post was around Easter Day.  Hopefully it was simply because I’ve been busy.

If you’re wondering what I’ve been busy with, here’s the list in point form (Give me a break ok? I’m an engineer after all).  In the list you can also find various recommendations, such as books, badminton gears, and TV shows.

• Reading “Stone of Tears“.  It’s the second installment of the book I mentioned in my last blog. I’ve only read the first few chapters, but I’m enjoying it a lot.
• Reading “One Minute Wisdom“ by Anthony De Mello for the umpteenth time.  Actually it’s only my 2nd time, but I wanted to use that vocab badly. Hehe.  I’m gonna post a separate entry with something taken from the book after this one.
• Reorganizing my wardrobe.  Being slightly obsessive compulsive, now my clothes are sorted according whether they are formal or casual wear, and also frequency of usage (frequent/rare).  Maybe I should draw a chart or something like that.  Clothes that I don’t wear anymore are now packed neatly to be donated.
• Revamping my badminton gears. Ames, one of my badminton mates, recommended this brand of racket grip: Karakal.  The grip still felt tacky even when my palms were sweaty, and it is of polyurethane material which should last longer than my previous towel grips. While looking for the grips, ended up buying a new Yonex badminton bag.  He also got me thinking of getting a new racket, either Yonex Nano Speed 9000S or Yonex ArcSaber 10, but decided not to get one yet cause they’re really expensive and my current racket can still be used just fine.
• Watching some new TV shows.
  - American Idol Season 8: My fave is Danny Gokey. He looks a bit like a geek, maybe that’s why I support him. Go Gokey!
  - Cupid: As the title says, it’s about Cupid, the god of love. In the show, he’s been exiled to New York and he needs to matchmake 100 couples without his bow and arrows as punishment given by Zeus.
  - Castle: Decided to give this show a try only because of Nathan Fillion from Firefly.  His character in this show is a mystery-novel-writer-turn-into-Police-consultant when events in his novels are happening in real life.

Happy April Fool’s Day

Howdy? Happy April Fool’s Day! If you have anything interesting related to April Fool’s Day please share by leaving a comment, coz I’ve got nothing.

Sorry for having disappeared for a while now.  I’ve been trying to finished reading a novel by Terry Goodkind. It’s the first of eleven of the series called “The Sword of Truth“.  The title for the first book is “Wizard’s First Rule”.  It’s a fantasy novel, same genre as Lords of the Rings.  Out of the eleven, I have three of them, but only finished one.

I got curious about the book when I watched a TV show based on it,  called “Legend of the Seeker“. I believe it’s going to be aired in Singapore soon.  I notice a huge different between the 2 versions, and I prefer the novel one much better.  But having watched the show actually gave me better visualization and imagination when reading the novel.

The story and characters develop nicely.  Each character has their own secrets which kept you guessing.  Some were revealed at the end of the book, but some I think will only be in the following books.  The plot is unpredictable, and kept me wanting to keep reading.  It was that good that I never once skipped a page of the book eventhough I watched some parts of it on TV, and accidentally read some spoiler online.  I’ll try to write a review on the book once I get enough rest. That book cost me 2 nights of  5-hour-sleep.  Meanwhile, if you are interested, you can get some information here.

Last but not least, I’m going to write down a verse from the Bible which I heard from a TV show called The Unit.

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
<Hebrews 13:2>

Serenity Prayer by Reinhold Neibuhr

I’ve posted this before in my previous blog, but I think it deserves a place here.

Many times we are faced with things we are not satisfied with.  Many times we get caught in situations which do not meet our hopes and expectations. We are nothing but beings with limitations, so there will be times when we will not able to do anything and simply have to accept things the way they are, and leave them to the “Higher Authority”.

Being a perfectionist myself, when that happened to me, I would get very disappointed.  I would play the scenario over and over in my head, keep thinking whether things could have been better if I had done something differently, or of other solutions which I might have overlooked.  At times, I even experienced sleeping disorder.

For others who can’t handle failure, it might make them feel impotent (this impotent here has nothing to do with sexual ability, please consult a dictionary if you’re not sure what it means!) which in turn might lead to depression.

Based on my experience, the first few sentences of this beautiful prayer can bring me some peace of mind.  Hope it does the same to you.

GOD, grant me the serenity
to accept the things
I cannot change,

Courage to change the
things I can, and the
wisdom to know the difference.

Living ONE DAY AT A TIME;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardship as the
pathway to peace.

Taking, as He did, this
sinful world as it is,
not as I would have it.

Trusting that He will make
all things right if I
surrender to His Will;

That I may be reasonably happy
in this life, and supremely
happy with Him forever in
the next. Amen