A Series Of Unfortunate Events

I looked at my schedule and I knew that I will have a hard time doing this module. I know I have got 4 reports due on the 10 August. I knew that everyday before 28 July I have got classes. I planned to do all my reports during the term break from 30 July to 3 august. But what I did not plan it a series of unfortunate events.

23 July I was very sick, I took MC and stayed home to rest. I took medicine and I knock out completely. 24 July I received a call just as I woke up at 630 am. I got the news that my grandfather pass away. The whole week I skipped school and took leave for the wake.

The funeral was on 29 July, and the week after there were so much to do. We are also concern about my grandmother. Worried that her depression will elapse. We took turns to stay over and take care of her while trying to recover from my flu and the many sleepless nights.

The term break was over. I have not done anything. Finally, it was due. 9 August I emailed my lecturer asking for extension explaining what happened. Thank God for the favor he gave me. My lecturer said its OK to extend.

By then I am very stress out already. I got 4 reports due which I can't finish. I am also very busy in the office. Thank God again for favor, I manage to apply for leave in the midst when everyone is "fighting fire" in the office. I took leave on 17 August thinking that if I can manage to finish all these that week. I can do my Poster Presentation for the week after next.

What do you know? Bad things do happen to good people. 17 August again, I woke up in the morning receiving news that my girlfriend's grandmother just pass away. She was very close to her. I had to go support her. So I went down and stayed with her until noon. I went home, did some work. The next day, I thought that if I concentrate and try to finish everything that day I can go to the wake at night to accompany her, giving her support. That day, I woke up in the morning, I switched on my computer, wanting to do my report, my computer crashed. I spent the rest of the day trying to salvage my reports that are saved on my hardisc. Thank God again. I manage to retrieve my data. That night I went done to accompany her. 19 August I manage to borrowed a computer from Charles. Thank God his Sister-in-law left a computer in Singapore but she flew to Australia to study. But I only got the computer from his at night. That night I went to the wake and came back at 3am.

All my reports are not done yet. I have a Poster Presentation yet done due on 22 August. Thank God my lab partner knew about my series of unfortunate events. She offered to do the Poster by herself so I can quickly finish up my reports. I was humbled.

Now I left my 4 reports to finished and another Medical Presentation to do for 27 August.

Will God appear again? I am sure He will!

Meekness vs Pushover

Meekness: (*from Dictionary.com)
noun
1. the feeling of patient, submissive humbleness
2. a disposition to be patient and long suffering

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Pushover: (*from Dictionary.com)
noun
1. someone who is easily taken advantage of

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There are so many times in my life when my meekness became my weakness.There is this woman at work. She is a nut crack. For 30 years of her service she screams at everyone with reasons that you will think that I am joking.

She screams at me when I say I am leaving, because it sounds like I am going to die. She screams at me when I am washing my hands, she say I am wasting Government's water. She screams when the driver is late or someone say something that she don't like to hear. She screams when the ice-box is on the floor. She screams when I log off the computer so that she can log on to her account, she screams when the boss wants me to use the new eform for application. All this time I just take a deep breathe and walk away. The last draw was when she scream when I had to log off the computer. She went to complain about me. Every few days she just have to find someone or something to scream at and complain about. You think I am making it up? I don't blame you. I can't believe it either....

You know, is that happen before I was a christian, she is a dead duck. She scream at me I will scream ten times louder. And I tell you boy, can I scream. Once Sandy ask me not to yell so loudly during rehearsal, but I didn't tell her that was my normal voice. I didn't even project.

Well there are many other examples how I bite my lips and say God You called me to submit toYou.

There is this guy who like to tell people what to do all the time. He is like Mr Fix-It. Mr Fix-It like to put you down in front of others by criticizing your work. No no... Don't get me wrong. It is not that I can't take positive criticism. No no... Mr Fix-It likes to nitpick every little thing. Maybe he is just a perfectionist you say. No way Hosea... He will pick on you no matter how good a job you have done. Don't believe me? There is once he kept picking on my "masterpiece", we had a exhibition. So we need some props. He say its not flush enough. I tried to tell him that it will not be fully flush on a jagged surface. He accuse me that I am lazy. I say fine you show me maybe I am not as good as you. He ripped away what I did. He tried for a few beat. He make it worst than how it was. He gave up, he throw it back to me. Do a proper job. Really, if I had not been a christian, I would have given him my middle finger and recite a poetry about his ancestry. I chose to bite my lips and walk away.

So does being meek make you a pushover?

Well, the truth is that some people just don't get it. When you chose to keep quiet they take a step into your boundary. You keep quiet again, they inch forward. Only until you make your stand they back off. I called those people "leeches".

Why? Because if they don't leech on you they can't survive...

A Gift or a Curse?

To each is given a set of talents. Every talent is a certain potential. Every potential can be converted to energy. Energy can be converted into action.

The First Law of Thermodynamics states that:

“In any process, the total energy of the universe remains constant.”

That means energy under normal conditions cannot be created or destroyed; rather, the amount of energy lost in a steady state process cannot be greater than the amount of energy gained, simply transformed from one type of energy to another.

Second Law of Thermodynamics states that:

“There is no process that, operating in a cycle, produces no other effect than the subtraction of a positive amount of heat from a reservoir and the production of an equal amount of work.”

Which means that that no process is 100% efficient, so there is no such thing as a perpetual motion machine. So living systems will break down unless they have some input of energy, or closed systems will become more disorganized over time. Often this is expressed by the saying "entropy tends to increase".

To put it simply, any time you do work, including the time you make an energy transformation, some of the starting energy is going to be lost as heat. So when you drive a car some of the gasoline's energy is lost right a way as heat, some gets turned into mechanical energy to move the car. Even some of this mechanical energy is also lost as heat. For instance if you feel your car's tires at the end of a trip they will be hot from friction with the road. This heat is an energy loss and is a consequence of the second law.

The Third Law of Thermodynamics states that:

“As temperature approaches absolute zero, the entropy of a system approaches a constant.”

Newton's First Law of Motion is often stated as:

“An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.”

In other words, a talent that is not used will not be used. When no energy is converted, there is no heat, potential is stored, and talent not release. The reserve is also true. A talent that is used keeps its strength when potential is released and converts into motion. Even the few thousand years of Chinese culture understood the underlining meaning. An art, 太極拳, was formed at the age of the ancient China where the Chinese used the Law of Physics to defeat their stronger opponents.

Hidden talents can be categorized under two denominations. Firstly, there are lazy people who have the talents but do not want to use them. Secondly, there are people dying to release what they have but circumstances do not allow them. It is what I called “being shelf”. You know if you have a can of delicious Campbell soup, say “Minestrone” (my favorite), and you did not open it. When you open it up, you heat it a little, the fragrance of the soup that savors your tongue, the sweet sweet aroma that rises can surface. But if you are only going to leave it on the shelf with the rest of your other canned food; the Minestrone soup is as good as a can. The true beauty of the very creation will never be revealed. It will stay on the shelf until it is tasted or it will stay on the shelf till expiry, aged and discarded, never will it be know the actual potential of the Minestrone.

It is sad to say that while many are waiting for their opportunity to breakthrough. There are many bummers who have the opportunity yet gave it away for a bowl of stew (if you know what I am talking about).

Only when the first-eleven is not available can the substitute be called. The agony of the substitute one can never comprehend. Or how a talented Ryan Giggs is limited by the rest of the teammates.

So what is more important? To shine in the industry or to maximize your potential? Can we have the best of both worlds?

The truth is there is a time and season for everything to happen. You got to be the right person to go to the right place to wait for the right time. When that holy trinity comes together, there is no way that you can not shine! That is of course unless you don’t give up half way. Most people give up when the tough gets going, and the going gets tough.

A piece of advice: Don’t quit!

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
when the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but do not quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow—
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than,
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up,
When he might have captured the victor’s cup,
And he learned too late when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out—
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit—
It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.

A Tribute to My Grand Father

My grandfather, Quek Hua Chuan. 9 August 1929 to 25 July 2007. Age 79

I lived with 爺爺 the first 14 years of my life.

爺爺 was a man of little words. He never talked much about himself other than he was borned in Indonesia. He used to wear this watch that has a brand "Q & Q", he would often tell me Q & Q stands for Quek and Quek.

爺爺 was like a father to me. He looked after me when I was young when my parents were not around, brought me to school, pick me up from school. He would make many DIY toys for me which I still keep until today. Yesterday, my sis and I were looking through our cupboards, we found our toys that 爺爺 got for us. She say there was a time when 爺爺 works in the airport. He would peel off stickers from the luggages and give to my sis because she loved stickers when she was young. 爺爺 was a lion, yet he put up with us when we quarrel.

I can still remember when I was 2, 爺爺 would wash me up when I soiled my diapers. I remember the time he drove me down to Chinatown when I was 4, to buy Chinese New Year goodies for Grandma. It was a blue van, which belongs to his friend. I can still remember he told me when he got into the van that he have not driven a car for very long and he was afraid. Only recently I discovered that he met an accident many many years back. He had a phobia driving then. And when I got older we played those silly games "not touching the lines on the ground" when he pick me up from my house at 7am to fetch me to his place. I would often sit beside him when he fix all the furniture in the house. He would paint the big pot and ask me to help him. I can still remember those times where he asked me to pick 4-D numbers and go buy with him. And those times he struck lottery and brought me to the market to buy my favorite fruit, the King of Fruits, Durian. He would buy more because he knew I loved it.

I remember that he bought for me my first kite from Indonesia. A big red butterfly. When it was torned, Grandma threw it away, I cried and I cried non-stop. 爺爺 went to buy papers and sticks, he made me a new one. And he taught me how to fly a kite.

Once Grandma caught a bird for me as pet, 爺爺 went to borrow a cage from his friends. Then the next day he went to the neighbourhood rubbish dump to find a bird cage for my pet to stay. And he would often buy food for my bird even though we were not very well to do at that time. And when Grandma got upset with the smell of the bird cage, she wanted to release the bird, 爺爺 went to wash it even though we all know he hates to do house work.

Everytime we go out as a family, he would always be the first one to be ready, then he would wait until he gets impatient so he would go downstairs to his garden. The RC garden, which he tends every morning. I would often go with him and help him water the plants. Once my dad brought back an old children desk. 爺爺 washed it, sanded it, then he lacquer it until it looks brand new. That was for me, I was going to Primary one.

爺爺 was always in his own world. He was very distant from everyone else. Even when we grew up, moved away, he will go to sleep when we come back to visit. But grandma says when we called and say we are coming, he will keep asking every now and then when are we arriving.

Maybe 爺爺 was never been loved by his parents, he did not know how to show his love.

Last few months, he had episodes of hospital encounters. We all took it for granted that all would be well. We never knew. Never saw it coming.

Maybe as fallen creatures, we humans just do not know how to appreciate the good things when they are around. Now when he is gone he is greatly missed by all of us.

爺爺, you will always be in our heart. With love and great longing....