Unarguable Arguement

“A quote attributed to Stephen F. Robert sums it up for me: “We are both atheists, I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.”

Peace be with you.”

From Catherine Deveny, a columnist at The Age. Self-proclaimed atheist.

After meeting so many of such people in life, my conclusion is:

“So be it. God’s peace be with you too. I am still your friend and I hope you still see me the same way too”.

Some day. Some how.

God touches all men (and women) in unique ways.

Hence, Catherine. May God’s peace be with you too. I will still read your columns but I hope you have some decency in treating other people who may not share your views.

Cheerio.

Anime OST of Year 2008: Macross Frontier

And the year hasn’t even come to an end yet.

The sing-off in episode 15 merely underlines its superiority. In plain terms,                   ITZ DA PAWNAGE !!!

Picture of May’n (Sheryl’s seiyuu) and Nakajima Megumi (Ranka’s seiyuu) during one of their recordings. Sourced from “A Gabriela Robin Site”.

Cheerio.

Christianity is a Religion of the Wealthy

True or false?

Irresponsible Comments

From a news.com.au blog:

“I’m tempted to lighten this terrible load by concluding with a belief that sanity would prevail – the authorities would see the light, as it were, realise there’s nothing wrong with how a man or women finds peace in private, decriminalise Jesus Christ and return the world to normal. However, I feel certain that such a reversal would only come about on the back of an understanding that Christ be celebrated modestly, privately, and must never, ever be forced upon he or she who has not sought it.

And I’m afraid no Christian I’ve known would ever agree to that“.

Sometimes I do wonder, what kind of a Christian does the simple man/woman on the street meet?

Are we the ‘right’ type of Christian that they should meet in order for them to learn that there is someONE else greater out there who loves them beyond the point of death?

Do we ever force Jesus down their throat?

At least for the last question, I have never ever did such a thing nor do I know people within my inner circles who does that either.

As far as I know, we stand for what we believe and we draw a line between what is godly and what is not. We inform people (and each other) that we all are fallen and that we need redemption. We profess that Jesus is the one true Saviour and that He is the only way to the Father, our Creator.

If you the reader hold the paragraph above to be true…then you are considered a fundamentalist and that you are a pariah for modern society. Are we returning back to the days of when Christians are the crowd’s favourite fodder for the lions in the arena?

Take a stand, branded as fundamentalist and pariah. Don’t take a stand, branded as irrelevant and just another passing fad.

We Christians are who we are because of what we believe in and what we stand for. Stay strong my brothers and sisters. If the Lord is for us then who can be against us?  Our Master was perseceuted to no end, what more us?

Yet, these very people mutter “Jesus Christ” as a swear word.

Hence…..irresponsible comments.

Cheerio.

There Is No Easy Way To Success…

Yeap, this comment goes to some individuals….of whom, I just simply shake my head….

In medicine (the science and the art), there is no cheating and there is no easy way out.

Frankly, there are many people who I think are really not cut out for medicine at all.

There are the purely altruistic ones which I really feel sad for. Although they have the best of intentions, these are the junior doctors who will suffer a lot, emotionally. And guess who will have to pick their load up when they go holding the whining patient’s hand? The rest of us. Furthermore, how many of these would end up in a position where they can really make a difference? Their attitude if not corrected would in most cases cost them their advancement in career. Sure, you can go off to Africa and make some difference. But what they truly need is a combination of good politics, extermination of corruption, proper health policy, good weather and advancement of local resources/industry. Do even the first two, and nearly any country would be better off. “Law is the ultimate science”, I quote Crown Prince Raphael Corrino, a fictional character in Frank Herbert’s sci-fi series “Dune”.

Then there are the ones which somehow ended up in medicine despite their apparent incompetence. Sure…they have good grades and worked hard till now. But the underlying harsh world of medicine shows up their inadequacies. The worst part is that they blame others for what they lack. They can get really irritating at times and sometimes you just wish they go berserk and then quit medicine. Seems like a fitting end for such people.

Irrational ranting? Perhaps…

You really need cynicism in life. Especially of one’s own.

More recaps of the 1st year of clinical school coming soon.

Cheerio.

Lately…

I have been rather impressed with the Spring 2008 anime lineup.

I thought last year’s lineup was impressive and I had thoroughly rewarding time following those of which I’ve selected. Just for recollection sake, titles which I’ve cherished from last year were: Lucky Star, Sola, Idolmaster XENOGLOSSIA, Dennou Coil, Lovely Complex, Seirei no Moribito, Claymore and Hayate no Gotoku. I actually had Tengen Toppa Guren Lagann excluded from my list, to the dismay of my fellow anime enthusiasts. Sorry, mate…somehow I just couldn’t stomach another GAINAX mecha title.

This year’s though is no less impressive. The current -on watch- list includes: Macross Frontier, kurenai, Allison and Lilia, Code Geass R2, Nabari no Ou, Itazura na Kiss, Special A, Toshokan Sensou and Kamen no Maid Guy. Adding to the joy would be the release of the first Kara no Kyoukai episode on DVD.

Insofar, Macross Frontier and kurenai vie for the number 1 spot in my books.

Macross Frontier, a descendent of one of the greatest space-opera pioneers in anime history has a lot going for it. Brilliant art and graphic work coupled with the golden touch of Yoko Kanno…it’s hard to go wrong. The story premise is classic space opera but the producers have executed the most important part well: the grandiose and immensity of each plot device is something which I haven’t watched in quite a while. That is the pure basic ingredient of any space opera’s success…something which 21st century Gundam titles weren’t able to replicate. The characters are likable and they seem to have some depth to them.

kurenai instead takes a different path to success. The plot is still shrouded in mystique and there are plenty of blanks right from the beginning. Normally, it would be easy to throw such shows out of the window. However, kurenai has the other pure basic ingredient of a successful shounen mystery title…character depth and a very enjoyable web of interaction. The script and dialogue execution is top notch. Now…I wonder why people bag the Flash-looking OP sequence to the show, I like it a lot and it gives the show some uniqueness.

Nevertheless…its only 8 episodes shown so far for those two shows. Train wrecks can happen anytime. I hope they don’t happen this season.

Cheerio.

PS: Viva le watching in HD !

E-mail Signature

I have since changed, my e-mail signature for quite awhile now…

It goes:

“Just like good luck comes by 3 times, bad luck also gives 3 signs.”
“You don’t watch because you don’t want to see, you don’t say anything even though you realize it, don’t listen even if you are told…and finally you face catastrophe.”
“But in our world, forget 3 times; if you miss the first sign, you are done for.”

Where did I get that from? Its actually a quote from Ghost In The Shell: Innocence.

So what am I doing with a GITS quote? I think it speaks some bleak truths about human nature and his interactions with his variable circumstances. Denial (one of the many truths) is indeed a very powerful tool in the human mind’s arsenal to protect the psychological self. Many of you will surely say “I don’t believe that people can be that stupid to ignore <insert issue here>”.

Well….I am sure you know the saying, “the problem with common sense is that it is not common“.

There you go. I have seen way too much to say that “people can be that stupid”.

But, just as a side note, if I look at that e-mail signature with medico eyes, it has meaning too.

In our world, miss the first sign and you may miss the diagnosis…..

Cheerio.

On The Move…

From doing general surgery at the Northern to neurology at the Austin.

Rants on missing the Northern and what was my surgical unit to follow soon in a later post.

Cheerio.

Dripping With Irony

An excerpt from the blog “Stuff White People Like”.

DISCLAIMER: This isn’t meant to be racist in anyway. In fact, feel free to replace “white people” with “middle-class and above individuals”.

White people spend a lot of time of worrying about poor people. It takes up a pretty significant portion of their day.

They feel guilty and sad that poor people shop at Wal*Mart instead of Whole Foods, that they vote Republican instead of Democratic, that they go to Community College/get a job instead of studying art at a University.

It is a poorly guarded secret that, deep down, white people believe if given money and education that all poor people would be EXACTLY like them. In fact, the only reason that poor people make the choices they do is because they have not been given the means to make the right choices and care about the right things.

A great way to make white people feel good is to tell them about situations where poor people changed how they were doing things because they were given the ‘whiter’ option. “Back in my old town, people used to shop at Wal*Mart and then this non-profit organization came in and set up a special farmers co-op so that we could buy more local produce, and within two weeks the Wal*Mart shut down and we elected our first Democratic representative in 40 years.” White people will first ask which non-profit and are they hiring? After that, they will be filled with euphoria and will invite you to more parties to tell this story to their friends, so that they can feel great.

But it is ESSENTIAL that you reassert that poor people do not make decisions based on free will. That news could crush white people and their hope for the future.

Cheerio.

Note To Self

Being admitted into hospital is a serious thing for most people.

Its something we medicos lose perspective on after a few months or a few decades.

More the reason why we should kick people out of their beds ASAP.

Cheerio.