Presents and thoughts...

For some reason, people tend to buy me books.

Here's a BIG thank you to all of you who got me presents for my birthday, in chronological order:

Soo Tian, for Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz. I'm reading it now, and one thing strikes me above all: his honesty. Something like Brian McLaren meets Mark Haddon. Here's another kiss for you: *muaks* ;-)

Tee Ming, for the Famous Amos gummies. You knew I like them!

Mum, for taking me to the performance of Handel's Messiah. Simply Amazing, with a capital 'A'!

Miss Shanti, for the card and Michael Busselle's Special Effects and Photo-Art. Must've cost you a bomb, that one; I hope the investment will be well worth it, though it might be quite a number of years before I produce anything of that quality!

Leanne, for the card and the Classics in the City CD. I simply LOVE the Forrest Gump theme; great to have it on CD now!

Kevin and Sara, for the card and stationery holder. I'm sure there are more ways than one of using it, heheheheh...

Mum and Dad, for Oswald Chambers's My Utmost for His Highest: Journal. Just like the C.S. Lewis Journal you got me two years ago, this will go a long way in keeping track of my life as it unfolds.

Valerie, for Marcus Aurelius's Meditations. It's the first time I'm actually reading Stoic philosophy. No doubt his thoughts will find their way into my essays and speeches someday, heheh... David (Tan, Jr) would be so thrilled!

All in all, it is people like you who fill my library and give me every excuse to abandon my (formal) studies (in school) in order to read all the wonderful books you give me. Well, that's the truth! But truly, it is people like you who make me who I am today. Consider gifts as investments. I remember a long time ago, when Leanne's Mum (my aunt) bought me the first volume of How My Body Works for my fifth birthday (I think). It sparked my interest in not just the human body, and hence the medical field, but also in living things generally. Today, biology is one of my greatest passions.


On 31 July, the Poetry Speaks Calendar featured this quote by Galway Kinnell:

[T]he thing about poetry is that if you're moved by a poem you might not wish to say anything at all. You might wish to live with that poem in silence for awhile. If you're not fully able to understand it, maybe if you just read it to yourself again and again, get it by heart, you will come around to understand it in a way we don't have terms for expressing.

It's true. T.S. Eliot wrote, in his poem Little Gidding,

"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."

I first came across this excerpt some two or three years ago, in Philip Yancey's Disappointment with God. I never really understood it, until the Forensics Tournament in ISKL early this year. The understanding of a poem often hits us by surprise, when we least expect it. Just like how God tends to reveal himself or answer our prayers.


The local fisheries department has apparently hybridised two species of catfish, with some additional genetic modification, to create the Ikan Keli Kanvas Kelate + Omega 3, a.k.a. Kelantanese Canvas Catfish with Omega 3. Denise said it could be nicknamed the Ikan KKK; NOT a wise move towards unity in a pluralistic society!


Li-Shia and I talked about child prostitution the other day, over the phone. She said that, apparently in some places, children as young as five become prostitutes. And sometimes the hymen is re-sewn in order to 'transform' them into 'virgins' once again. I reeled at the thought. And yet it is so true that in those places, families are often so destitute that they'll do anything to survive.

Oh Lord, how can I help? Dare I say, "Here I am, send me"? Help me to say it, Father. Help me to say it.


I have some dreams, things I want to do before I die: I want to swim with whales in the open sea, I want to help children live a better life, I want to write an award-winning book. OK, maybe I'm not so keen on that last one, although I must say it would be the icing on the cake, especially since I love writing.


Oh, and I think I'm in love.