Short Entries

Just a string of short entries. Dinner is calling and I probably won't be blogging for quite a while. STPM is just around the corner.


According to Bono, the 'J33-3' printed on the cover of U2's All That You Can't Leave Behind is a reference to God's words in Jeremiah 33:3;

"Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know." (NIV)

"It's known as God's phone number," he said.


It would be pretty interesting if someone could invent a word processor that could translate the spoken word into written text. That way, I could speak my essays into existence, rather than type them out.

But I suppose I still like pen and paper. So even if I give up on Microsoft Word, I can return to ink.

Visit SimianD's blog to see a picture of how ink and software could be fused or hybridised.


The Alumni Association of the University of Malaya and the National University of Singapore (they share one alumni association for medicine, dentistry and pharmacy) published a book called From the Alumni Perspective last year to commemmorate the centenary of the King Edward VII Medical College (or was it King Edward VIII?), the institution from which the two universities above were derived.

Dr A. Canaganayagam, in his write-up on Old VI Boy and former Malaysian Director-General of Health, Tan Sri Dato Dr Haji Abdul Majid bin Ismail, wrote;

"[In the VI,] Students were thrown into the deep end and learnt "crutches" to prop-up the weak."

I was struck by the phrase, 'deep end'. Earlier this year, I realised that Miss Shanti had thrown me into the deep end of the ISKL SEA Forensics Tournament, by enlisting me as an extemper. Because of that, I learnt so much and developed critically and constructively the organ I call my brain.

It also came as a pleasant surprise to note that the administration of polio and tuberculosis (BCG) vaccines in schools (to all students in Standard 1 and Standard 6 respectively) was introduced by two VI boys. Polio by Dr Haji Abdul Majid, and BCG by Dr Jeswant Singh Sodhi.


Amaranth, a colour discussed in the Chemistry chromatography experiment, is a shade of purple, though not necessarily the shade of purple in the line above.

I also discovered in the Oxford Dictionary, that the word is also used to describe flowers of the genus Amaranthus.

It is derived from the Greek word amarantos, which means 'everlasting'.


"We are members of one body, but differentiated members, each with his own vocation. A man's upbringing, his talents, his circumstances, are usually a tolerable index of his vocation. If our parents have sent us to Oxford, if our country allows us to remain there, this is prima facie evidence that the life which we, at any rate, can best lead to the glory of God at present is the learned life."

--C.S. Lewis, 'Learning in War-Time'

And if you will, I will
Try to let it go
And if you try, I'll try
Try to let it show us the way
'Cause love is here to stay
Just look me in the eye
This is do or die
And I will stay in love
'Till you say enough
There is no giving in
There is no giving up in love.

--chorus of Jewel's 'Again and Again'

There is no giving up in love.