Ranting The sequel

So I was bored in the office on Friday morning with nothing to do and was thinking about the morning shout-outs I had with my mom (shoot, I just hate it when I got shouted in the morning, it kinda ruined the whole "I'm still sleepy" mood and reminded me of all of the war-zone in the office that I have to face each day). Then I did my emails, waiting for my patients who managed to find something else much more interesting than health check-up, and I read some articles about Olympic (which opens tonight by the by), and one book excerpt caught my eyes, it was "The Late Bloomer's Revolution" by Amy Cohen.

Prior to anything, my shout-outs with my mom has nothing to do with the content of my rantings today. It just so happen that my ranting talks about a book with mother-daughter relationship in it.

As you know me, I don't like reading novels as they are thick, with no interesting pictures for me to see (I'm a lazy visual person, I love to imagine when the view is there, not when I have to re-create, it kills all the imagination, you see, because I think to view something from a person's point of view is beautiful. Or if you want to say I'm lazy, I agreed totally).

Enough about me,... so this book by Ms Cohen (or the excerpt) is interesting, it's a personal takes on "late bloomers" or unmarried woman in marriagge-able age. It shows a loving relationship between a mother and a daughter. The lead is almost 30 years old, has dated several guys in her twenties but when it comes to marriage, she was said to be "like a house that's not new and need more working on, house that needs hard renovation" or as some real agent might said it to be “could be a gem if you’re willing to do an enormous, exhausting amount of work.” I love authors who know how to twist and create analogies with their words. (In another turn she wrote: " Which made me think of the Shakespeare sonnet “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” Then I thought of what Shakespeare might have said about me. “And this one to a humid night in Newark") Brilliantly witty way of laughing at oneself.

But during a mother-daughter travelling to Prague, she found out that she isn't the only one waiting for her prince-charming, her mother is as well. I love the way the mother never lose hope on the daughter and seems to be cheering to the fact that she actually needs someone original that will love her forever and the mother is willing to wait forever to meet that special person.

So I was thinking, how many mothers will be willing to do that? most of the mothers I know started to shove their daughters (or in some cases, sons) to anybody else that they met during luncheon with friends or a tete-a-tete with relatives. Why do they do that? Well, I know they are concerned and that they would love to be grandmothers, and they just wants the children to be happy. But by doing those things, will the children be happy? O certainly, you said. But won't it be much more happier when you know you meet someone because you meet someone, not because it was arranged. It just more romantic that way, I think. It has that certain of ohh--ahh--ness to the whole situation. The notion of arranged causes me to think that the other party might be forced to go as well, so won't it be a little unfair?. I guess it's different prespective, different view with each individuals. I am a cynical person so I just see everything from a negative light.

And..I know my mom like the back of my hand, I can read her mind before even she realized it (even when she denies it saying that she knows us more than we know her), to this whole point, she will say "We don't force, we don't sell like salesman, you know, we just help to create the opportunity" Well, opportunity is not created, it will never work the same when you create it, that's why it's called opportunity, something that happens suddenly to the benefit of those who meet it. If it was created, it's called creation. Or can I say, plan? (just like when you are sentenced to jail for murdering something, the judge will give you less sentencing if you happened to HAD the opportunity, but not when you PLANNED the whole murdering scenario and carried it out).

"I know life is confusing that way, that's why wear your seatbelts"

Ranting on things

Its two more days to Olympic in Beijing.. It's quiet fast doncha think? Meaning that we are getting old because the time seems to slip by faster and faster.. damnnn

Well, some interesting facts about Olympic, a boy (forgot the name) managed to stay around in Beijing International Airport to take down hundreds and hundreds of athelets autographs. So far he managed to get Singapore's Li Jia Wei, and some others. In the mean time, Ronald Susilo and the badminton team was delayed in reaching China because, not because red carpet try to let him and his ex, Li Jia Wei missed each other, but because the plane got delayed, apparently they couldn't fly due to high temperature in the aircraft, meaning no air-con.
At the same time, President Bush and the First Lady are travelling to Korea, where thousands of people gathered around to welcome him and.. to protest on the war thing he created in the first place. Some protesters even created a short skit-show to depict how they feel about the president.
While on other side of Beijing, a certain acupunturist, plugged almost 200 needles on his head to show the flags of all of the participating countries. Real or surreal? To me, its nationalism taken to the extreme.

In the meantime, Texas is going to welcome another round of hurricane, this time speculated to hit the shore of the Galvestone, citizens have decided not to take any chances, started to seal up all the windows and doors, filled up their food and drink supplies and their gas tanks. Oh just like Dejavu all over again, me and my friends did all that almost 3 years ago in September 2005. We ran out frantically to buy some canned food, microwave able food (come on if the hurricane hit the city, I should pressume the electricity will be cut off, the naive heart of mine), bateries, and bought gallons and gallons of water. I managed to capture some of the situations to make my very own short documentary show. While anticipating for the hurricane to come, we still managed to enjoy a dinner at Rock Fish to commemorate my birthday (still took some picture despite wind gushing towards us and my hair looked like it had been styled by David Gan). After dinner, we waited for the hurricane together at our small little apartment in The Georgian. Hours of waiting later, the hurricane decided to change its course and hit other part of the country instead, leaving us tons of food to finish and gallons of water to gulp down for the rest of the year. (well, I left Austin in October, water-retentioned, and before I left we decided to donate some of the waters and food to elsewhere). Ah Good Ol' Texas, how do I miss Thee..

Back in Singapore, a certain research found out that Singaporean DO walk slower than any other citizen in the whole world, despite being a fast-paced country and as a country known for its KIASU-ISM. I love how the writer put in the article, "Please consider your surrounding while walking, if you want to slow down and smell the flower, please keep to the left". Or can it be that they walk slower so that other people will not get to the sale as fast?.

I saw God's work again today. A certain doctor did something that passed my expectation of him. When patient said that she only had 5K sing$, while the op cost her about 10k sing$, he directly cut off his personal professional fee to more than half of his original price. He then asked his staffs to decrease as much as possible all of the surgery cost so that patient could still do the surgery within her budget. Probably some people will say that he is rich enough to do that. Its true he is rich, but without compassionate heart, will he do that? Some doctors are rich and still charge monsterous costs on patients. When patient was leaving the consultation room, he said "don't worry about the charges, I will make sure your illness is gone when you wake up".
I have yet to visit the patient, but I know that she will be alright.