Snowed under..

Man there's been so much working recently with the upcoming exams that I haven't really had time to contribute much to this blog. Every day has been about 7-8 hours of study, which gives me just enough time in between to squeeze in a couple of hours of climbing, running or piano. I've also been attending some meetings which have taken up time too, but in general things have been going pretty well.

I got my first barrier exam coming up in about a fortnight, which I'm actually looking forward to. I haven't really liked the idea of multiple choice exam questions ever, because they don't really seem to test depth of knowledge. In fact, I really feel a good series of short-answer questions (especially in the field of medicine) would be interesting and relevant to ensure proper depth of knowledge.

Anyway, I've started running since that last post and I'm feeling really good. Currently I'm doing 20 minute runs and getting about 4.5km in there, which is alright... and I'm absolutely SHOCKED that those guys in the olympics are able to run 3 minute kilometers, and maintain it over an entire race.... Seriously?

And finally, as soon as this barrier exam is over, then the climbing blog will go nuts. I've actually managed to register my domain which is awesome, and that's going to get moving real soon. I'll post here when it goes up!

Finding the edge of one's limits.

Often you'll be pretty satisfied with the way that your life is going, and where I'm at right now is no exception - I'm in a fantastic university course, I'm keeping fit, I have many good relationships and I'm working on developing a number of skills which will surely be beneficial in the future. My training schedule in terms of rock climbing and triathlon training is gaining some sort of shape (I'm planning to try to do a triathlon by next year), and everything is going fine :D

...

And then I got sick.

Well; I'd already had a flu shot so I wasn't really sure I had the flu, but with the setback of a severe sore throat, what did I decide to do?

Train harder. I actually ended up riding my bike from around Killara to Sydney Univeristy, which is a merry 23km trip, then from USyd to Cremorne; another 10 km or so. By this stage I was thoroughly buggered, and I called it quits after doing the cremorne -> artarmon leg. I got a train home - needless to say it was pretty tough, but a good experience. It also taught me a few things which are easily translated to many other things that you'll do in life:

• Planning can only get you so far. Yes, it is highly important to make sure you plan out everything in advance and try to cover as many unforeseen circumstances in order to minimize risk, but a lot of the time you won't actually figure out what risks are involved unless you're proceeding with the activity. Take for example, I'd set up the bike the night before and checked the brakes were working, the gears were fine, and it rode well; but I was still caught out once or twice when the gear change kicked in when going up a hill, and my lights had ran out of battery so I had to get new ones on the fly. Not exactly mistakes that you want to be making, and many may argue that this is simply lack of foresight; but had I not taken the opportunity to get out there, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to make those mistakes.
• Often, things really aren't that bad. I thought the route to the city would be gruelling and incredibly dangerous; yet here I was riding along the bike route that runs underneath the gore hill freeway, on essentially a straight-line to the city. Most of the ride is downhill as well, which made it pretty easy to get through. It is most certainly something I'll be doing more often!!
• Pushing your limits is a good way to reach the next level in training, and yesterday was a great example of that. I'd been stuck doing the same timing on runs for a little while, but this was a great opportunity to see if it actually would be viable to bike all the way to uni in the mornings, to save some money, and has also become a really good training tool. With petrol prices continuing to hike up, I don't see why I wouldn't use this resource more often in the future.

Anyway that's all I have to say for a little while. I'm currently working on something pretty big, and that'll be released over the next 6-12 months, whilst I'm training for triathlon. In the mean time, stay focused and set your goals - and make sure you're actively pursuing them! 

A sense of pride

There are times where I'm feeling really great, and this is one of them - which was triggered by the events of the last couple of weeks. I'm going to admit that I've been feeling a bit weighed down by a few things recently - such as decisions for later in med school, family, and just not feeling 100% about the training, but I'm feeling a lot better now. A large reason for this is that I actually managed to go and talk to someone about what was up, which really helped.

Sometimes friends just aren't appropriate to talk to certain things about. My best mate went away for the last week but came back and that helped me get out of the ditch a bit, but I also managed to talk to one of my tutors at the University last week, and she really helped me in clearing a few things up. It's often great to talk to people who have been through what you have, and know where your thoughts are aimed at. It's also just great to talk to people you have an awesome connection with - so don't keep things bottled up inside. This past fortnight has really taught me not to do that (and I'm already one of the guys who is pretty honest in speaking his mind).

But since yesterday, I've gained a real perspective on what the timeline over the next few years will be like. In two years, my friends will have finished University; yet I'll be doing rotations in hospital. In four years time, I'll be an intern at a hospital, working my way into surgery, which is going to be great. It's that level of comfort and perspective, just knowing that you have to stay positive, which will really keep you on track. So don't lose sight of that!

Finally, it's good to be studying/working at an institution that you're truly proud of. There have been moments at each of the Universities that I have been in, when I have walked through the gates and looked at the signature architecture of that university/school, and really thought: "Wow. I'm am a member of a great academic institution; but in the future, I'm also going to further the reputation of this place." Yes - you might complain that it sounds arrogant; but I really don't mean it in that way. I simply mean that you should feel great pride because you inevitably will be promoting the institution you studied at when you're achieving great success later.

Stick with that level of dedication and achievement. And always make sure you work hard at been a well-rounded individual; there is no other area in life more important than understanding as many things as possible - at least not for me.

Stay focused!

Lemming

Quick update on year 11 HSC chem course

Hey guys,

Things are going pretty well with the year 11 HSC chemistry course, and there's quite a bit of information up there until the water section, which I'll continue plugging away at over the next couple of months. Just wanted to put up a quick post to let you know that I'll be starting on the year 12 HSC chemistry course before I finish up my tutoring, which may be relatively soon (quite sad about that :\ ).

I'll get some more piano videos and other whatnot soon - I'm quite busy with a lot of other things at the moment and so I'll be posting some stuff about that soon.

Additionally, I've started posting some anatomy topics on hubpages as well, and currently there's two up: The anatomy of the trachea, and the anatomy of the knee - soon to come is the anatomy of the rotator cuff. Might put something up about embryology soon as well - we shall see.

Seedlings of achievement

Sometimes when you start a new project, you just need that little Push to tell you that you're moving in the right direction, which provides you with the motivation to really keep going :D

I got that motivation yesterday and it was sick. It's an insignificant event - yes, I will admit that the earning of 1 cent is not usually something to get excited about, but I am immensely excited!! :D it signifies more than just money; it signifies that I'm on the right path with what I'm doing.

Sundays..

Hey World,

Feeling a bit out of sorts at the moment. The last couple of months have been pretty odd, I've gotten and lost my training mojo a few times and just aren't feeling that 150 000% drive that I usually have. Although this might easily be attributed to my lack of sleep last night plus a couple of drinks, I think I just have to modify that aspect of my life a little bit.

Anyway, things are going well! I should be pretty busy as I mentioned before, in the next couple of months with the revue stuff, which is looking to be pretty exciting anyway, and my training's coming along nicely. I'm trying to add a few more posts to my climbing blog which will hopefully come along quite nicely in the next few.

What else... There have been a few fantastic articles on foodforthought at reddit recently, namely this one on how you measure your life, written by an economist, as well as another one written by Hemingway on the symbolism of bullfighting, which is also a really nice read.

And finally - Still rooting for the Lakers; they're having their first back-to-back of the playoffs today. Ridiculous!!! How could you expect to have a back-to-back when you've got games at home court? That's insane. This season has been without doubt the worst organized season of all time. Don't care if it was a result of the lockout, it's been silly and all of the injuries this year have proved it. Oh - and like I said as well, Pacers are gonna roll Miami. Better believe it.

Crossroads and Risk

At several times in life, it always seems like it comes down to a couple of key decisions that will really influence the degree of freedom that one will have on his/her pathway through life.

• Will I get a job after I graduate?
• Am I doing the right things in terms of the career that I'm choosing, and the pathway in which I have to be headed?
• How am I going to balance between the passion of working hard but also finding time to relax and enjoy the life which my job will be funding?

Often, it feels as if we are stuck making these decisions far too early in our lifetimes, which is a reason that I advocate people choosing their professions after they have matured from their high school state of mind. But - society doesn't seem to want us to work that way, and in certain professions, it is expected that the hours of work put in will correlate directly with "how badly you want it". 

Of course, this also reflects my parents' traditional asian view of my upbringing: work hard, do something stable, and get paid to do it. But - as I've been finding out more and more recently, it's about choosing your spots and making sure you enjoy your life as you grow up, not saving a pile of money to attempt to enjoy when your body is no longer capable of it.

Anyway, it seems like I'll be awfully busy over the next slab of year; I somehow managed to enrol myself to be the band director for an upcoming production, am starting to put in research applications for Honours (man I'm only in my first year of med school!) and still want to get out door for climbing...

And speaking of climbing, I got "the talk". The one where your parents grill you on responsibility and making sure you look after them in their old age - and the fact that you'll be unable to do that if you're a vegetable.... But come on - look at the high-risk nature of so many other daily activities... Even the chance that you'll get seriously injured in a car crash is pretty high! (Don't let me put you off driving..) All I'm saying is - if you're not prepared and you don't have the right equipment or training, then of course it's going to be dangerous - BUT, you have to control that amount of risk. Isn't that what a large part of medicine is all about?

I'll leave it there. More to come soon. :)

LAL-DEN Game 6

LAL-DEN (DEN, 113-96)

Look. Let's just say that I'm incredibly disappointed with how this series has turned out. I predicted that the lakers would win 4-2, and many of my friends thought that they'd finish with a sweep. But, like the lakers always tend to do, they just let Denver hang around and now they find themselves in a Game 7 situation which anyone could take.

Having watched only glimpses of this game, I probably can't tell you anything about how the game plan played out, etc. But, I did see this - Nuggets started the game 11-0, and when I was watching the 3Q, there was absolutely no hustle at all in the lakers. All the 50% balls were going the nuggets way - you ask me how the lakers would even attempt to put together a championship run if they got stomped so badly; the general lack of effort was disheartening to watch. In fact, even though I've been a laker fan my whole life, I am not sorry to say that today, I really felt like the lakers didn't deserve to be in the playoffs. The cocky mannerisms that Bynum has displayed all season, as well as his ill-timed, and poorly chosen words to provide motivation for the nuggets displayed how little he has progressed throughout this season. And plus, do I have to say anything at all when your top player has gastro and you have to try to ride him to win the game?!

But - I'll admit now that I've been a laker fan for life, and so I still hope that they use their one last shot to see if they can propel themselves into the second round; but if they show this complete lackadasical effort in the second round, they can except just to get swept by OKC.

Rachmanninoff Prelude, Op. 23, No. 4 in D maj

My recording of:

Rachmaninoff Prelude, Op. 23, No. 4 in D Maj (1901):

I've always wanted to do this sort of thing - get my piano posted, but to be honest I was always pretty nervous when I got onto stage. But I do enjoy playing piano and wouldn't mind posting some videos, so here's the first of (hopefully many) to come.

As many of you probably know, Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) was a composer in the Romantic Period of music. He was a composer of great talent - and both his piano concerto 2 and 3 stand as the greatest works in the piano repertoire, and certainly both lie as personal favourites. His music is also reflective of great hardships that he endured in life; the death of Tchaikovsky, a close friend and mentor, as well as harsh reviews on his compositions and complicated relationships pushed him into a depression, and often this pain is apparent in his music.

As a personal reflection of this music, it was close to impossible to get this piece to a level that I was satisfied with. In terms of accuracy, it's not the most technically difficult piece (and hence you can see my piano ability here is not the greatest); but in terms of capturing the spirit of the piece, this was the only recording I've had over the last fortnight that I've been remotely happy with. But I can say that when I was playing, I felt that sense of pain that Rachmaninoff must have been trying to express, and imagined an aching desire upon his behalf to belong.

Decision Making

So yeah, as I stated in the last post I got a spot for CSP dentistry, and after thinking about it for the last couple of weeks I'm reconsidering whether I want to study medicine should I get the spot. Don't think it's all about the money, because it's not! But here's what I'm having in my mind at the moment.

Studying dentistry, you also cover the material in medicine as well, and you still have to know it; it's just you don't get to applying it on as regular a basis. However, the earning power of dentists compared to doctors is insane, just making the working hours and lifestyle better. So what I have been tossing up is, whether I do dentistry first, which gets me a lifestyle and a way of earning money, and then come back and study medicine later? In my mind, it's making sense to me.... The other thing I was also considering was going down the path of either oral surgery or something related in that area, but I'd be interested to see how my opinion changes over the next two/three years in dentistry. And finally, dentistry is a specialty of medicine; you focus on one area and ensure it's being kept in good condition... Worthwhile, no?

*grumbles about suicide rates*


I guess all I'm trying to say is, I've been given an excellent opportunity and have to work with what I've got, and apply myself 100% to make sure I do well in it :) then, I'm sure I'll be able to make my other decisions later.

It's been a while

Just something quick - I'm going to try to at least get into the habit of doing this a few times a week during the holidays :)

So far, I've made the step where I've been offered a CSP place at USyd dent! :) Very happy about my achievement, and I'm also quite close to receiving a BMP offer for med there too. So fingers crossed to see what unveils itself over the next few weeks or so.

I thought I'd just leave something up here that's blowing my mind, so have a read. These following two sentences are in fact, correct grammatical sentences; did you think so as well?

The horse raced past the barn fell.


The boy the girl the cat bit scratched died.

... Now I know why overseas students have so much trouble understanding english. Somehow, UNSW seems to be forgiven (slightly) in my eyes -.-

:)

Sometimes in life, you just have to admit that you have everything that you could want at this single stage in time.

It's true. Listen and appreciate. 

And that's round 2 completed!

Hey world (even though small world),

Interesting day today, had my interview for melbourne MD. Hopefully it all goes well, I thought I managed the MMI much better then I did the sydney one, and improved on all the errors that I found with my sydney MMI. At the moment my mindset still seems to be much the same as that of sydney's MMI, although I'm feeling pretty good that I corrected all those errors. There was one particular station which did me in (the debrief station), and I'm absolutely SURE that I'll get a fail for that station x( but the rest was rather okay and I enjoyed the interview.

Hopefully everything adds up in my favour, I would love to go and study medicine down there. Having looked around the city though, I have to say that some of it does seem pretty bland, although it was rated the worlds most live-able city. ... .... *deep in thought as to how this is possible*.....

Anyway, that's one hurdle over - so now I focus onto the next hurdle - to get really great uni marks :)!

Help is never far away :D

You know that super cliche phrase, "If you look for help you might just find it?"

I'm loving the people that create blogs to help people like me. So far for interview prepping, there have been a lot of people out that have blogs going through the preparation questions for interviews and how to approach the MMI. I'm adopting a lot of this and hopefully it'll all pay off by the end of the year.

On a darker side of life, Fed got ousted by Djokovic in 5 sets. I woke up at 2am to watch the game; from the way that Fed played in the first two sets, I would've thought he was unstoppable for the rest of the match. I have to admit that Djokovic is far from liked in my world, I just don't see how he's a good player (compared to the rest) but he is winning.. :(

Having said that, this year Fed made the semis, finals, quarters, and semis. Not a bad result, but I'm still hopeful of a couple more slams next year.

Anyway, back to interview prepping. Uni starts next week so this blog might disappear for a while. D:

Hats, time-fillers and rain.

How does one go about spending time before an interview? At the moment I'm on midsemester break and following the US open (tennis) quite closely. I'm rooting for another grand slam for the great one, making that 17 total and 6 at the US open. That would be amazing. Something else I find quite odd is the rain. Recently in Australia we've been fortunate to have a glimpse into the spring weather coinciding with the start of spring. But today has proven to be one of the most miserable days; rainy and very very cold :( The reason why insert this rather odd digression here is that the US open has been marred by a number of factors; firstly, pre-US-open was that visitor Irene, and the tail end of the competition has had the apple forecast for straight thunderstorms from weds-sunday. Having said this the quality of tennis has been really great and they've done a good job with the otherwise tiresome rain. I can't believe that the US open is also the last place that doesn't have a roof over the stadium. Then again, it is a massive stadium....

But in between the US open, I've been practicing for the interview and just taking a break from uni work in general. I've done some stuff for my embryology project (DiGeorge syndrome)  which is a pretty interesting piece of work. And getting obsessed with my kindle - AMAZING device. To be honest, the kindle has really re-ignited (:D) my love for reading. I'm going through some ethics book for the interview at the moment but am also chewing through some other books.

Finally, just something short on methods of thinking. I'm always looking for a way to make my study more effective, and over the course of time (and earlier in the life of this rather haphazard blog) I've mentioned things like the Leitner system and self-reflection. But an interesting fellow known as Edward De Bono proposed a method of the six thinking hats. It's ben a really interesting read and I'm looking to see more people implement this method. Have a bit of a read and let me know what you end up thinking :)

Fortunate

Given the fact that I've finished my only mid-semester exam (YES!), I figure there's no reason for me to continue putting blog entries off. Recently I received an offer for an interview at UoMelb, which is interesting for a number of reasons. For the people that know me, we have a particular friend who went to study undergrad down there who I always made fun of going to melbourne, so the fact that I may potentially end up there too (after letting her never hear the end of it) is pretty ironic. But UoMelb also vaulted to our top university in Australia (60th in the world), and the city of melbourne also got rated as the worlds most "live-able" city (over Vancouver in Canada)

Having said that, I don't want to take it for granted that I'll get in. I'm trying to keep an open mind about things, but I really don't want to be doing an honors year next year... (maybe I'll change my mind later if I don't get in :( ). I guess I feel a couple of things, as I trawl through forums trying to find out what the interview will be like, how people manage stress, how to take not getting in (if I don't get in), how to take getting in (and go to different cities).......

What I meant to say was that, of course I'm grateful for the opportunity that has presented itself - many people who have worked much harder and have impressive CVs weren't fortunate enough to get interviews, and this upsets me that people who work so hard get looked over :( I guess med is just that kind of field with endless competition; even once you get in, there's more, to always be the best that you can be.

Grateful for the opportunity, kind of overwhelmed, not quite yet overworked. That's how I feel. :) Should I get into the course, you'll hear a howler about how I'll feel then. :)

WOW ITS HARD TO KEEP BLOGGING DURING SEMESTER

I honestly thought that in my last semester of medical science I'd have a little bit more free time considering that I'm only really doing two core subjects, with two general educations. General educations are supposed to be rather time-UNconsuming, but instead I find myself wrapped up in the overall struggle to ensure that my results remain somewhat alright in order to keep my GPA competitive for the overall struggle that it is to make it into med.

Anyway, I write this just to say that i finished reading "The Omen Machine" by Terry Goodkind in the last few days. AMAZING. I was a huge fanboy of the sword of truth series, which turned out to be pretty much the best series I ever read, and this book certainly didn't disappoint. Sure, it seems that at times, Goodkind seems like he's getting back into things and it's a little bit slow here and there, but still, how can you reject any writing about a guy who has a gift that he doesn't know how to use, is incredibly powerful and is apparently surrounded by the most powerful, most beautiful women in the world? Whilst this book lacks some of the beautiful trickery seen in the earlier books, it doesn't disappoint overall. Get it and have a read.

And finally, this is a procrastination post. To hopefully be followed by an e-mail from GEMSAS or whatever it is saying that I hopefully got an interview somewhere. Somewhere where I will be fortunate enough to do med. yes...

(Hits the buzzer beating 3 with 1.4 seconds left in the game. Enjoys victory. which is sweet. :D)

Finding Positive in negative

With uni started, I thought that doing two core subjects with two "general education" courses would mean that I have more time to myself. Unfortunately this seems to be the complete opposite side of the fence; I seem to have picked a course which people choose to avoid because it is known to have a serious negative effect on your WAM, and my two general education courses state in the outline that they require up to 4 hours per week of reading, plus 3 extra hours for essay writing. Ouch.

.... Well, with that aside I'll make a rather belated post. Unfortunately I was unsuccessful with my endeavour to make USyd med this year, but I just think now would be adequate to write something on being able to find a positive experience stemming from a negative. I had the same sort of mindset when I finished high school, I was saying to myself there is no way that I won't make medicine after high school! Yet a poor UMAT score and an-excellent-but-not-quite-100-UAI later, I found myself in medical sciences at UNSW. Having thought about everything carefully, in retrospect, had I made medicine then, I don't think I would've achieved a sense of maturity that I feel many in undergraduate medicine lack, something which I think does nothing good for the medical system; and I may also have fallen into that big hole that, after studying the medical science, maybe it wasn't something that I wanted to do? To the science part - I have discovered that it is something I truly love. To be honest, my only belief in the study of medicine is that of a postgraduate degree, but to many of my friends that may read this that are performing undergraduate medicines, I feel bad generalising because you guys do such a great job (from what you've told me anyway ;) ).

But in seriousness, I think a larger degree of thought is required before one enters into the profession; a conversation with a good friend the other day let me realize that the pressure from ones' family is still enough to push them into studying medicine. Unfortunately, we are so tied up with the glory and tradition of medicine, and there is a common belief that it is an easy career with a high amount of achievement - and no doubt it is, but there is also a lot of work that we aren't informed of, and a lot of political games that we have to play once we make it in. I feel that the postgraduate courses give one a better chance to see what opportunities are out there, in life, before one is rushed into a career that requires up to 80 hours of work a week. This speaks especially true for the US courses, in which one must complete undergraduate studies before he/she is admitted into the medical school.

Anyway, this sounds like a rant from a jealous student that didn't quite make it in - but remembering, everything is a blessing in disguise; and I am not feeling let down by my failed application to USyd this year. The interview experience was a lot of fun, and I hope I will get an offer at a different school too. I just feel that in the meantime there is so much else for me to do, including expanding this very blog to get more people reading it, so that everyone can hear what I have to say :D

And finally, just try to find that bit of positive, in negative situations. Don't always look upon things as a complete failure; usually there is a lot more you'll be able to take away from a negative experience, and most of the best learning is done the hard way. Keep that in mind, have a look at the flip side of the coin and keep your motivation up :)!

Things on my mind

Haven't gotten all the info together to do that post on my health-related thing yet... mm.... Sensing procrastination... So it'll still be a bit of work in the making. But here are just a couple of things on my mind.

• It's raining. Hard. Rain seems to make everything go slower. I still find it impossible that it transformed a normally-twenty-minute journey-by-car into a two-hour-sit-and-wait-for-traffic-to-move-but-it-never-do... you get the point... 
• There are some really clever learning systems out there. Just had a look at a fellow from the US's blog who is studying medicine and was asking about different ways of learning. One of the guys that commented suggested something called the Leitner System. Check it out if you want a really interesting way to learn stuff (good for science students, not sure about the rest :3 )
• It really ticks me off when other people are just too lazy to care about things that are really dear to them, or if they can't be bothered to expend energy and effort to be considerate. Guys just keep it in mind that you gotta be considerate to everyone else; it reflects badly on you if you're a bit of a slob :P
• Appreciate what you have, whilst you have it. Yesterday, when I went to feed my dog for dinner (it's been pouring where I live), he was nowhere to be seen (shocking, because he always goes spastic when he sees us walk downstairs, let alone feed him). Started getting worried, looked around the house and then ran out in the rain for about 40 minutes looking for him. Needless to say, due to the crazy rain I expected the worst, and it was definitely the longest 40 minutes of my life (running around in the rain too didn't help) but it turns out that he was hiding underneath my brothers desk the whole time, and he was now whimpering and scratching at the door because (we think) he needed to pee. Chances are he just wanted to eat dinner; but the whole emotion of worrying cracked and I just cried uncontrollably. :( So those people who probably know me a little better think I treat my dog badly, but I love him very much nonetheless. 
• And finally, but very very importantly, the iTunes festival is running at the moment! Tomorrow morning at 6.15am (Sydney time), COLDPLAY will kick off their live section of the iTunes festival which should be really exciting :D I am totally waking up to watch this, check out the details here, and then watch it! It should be excellent (Really hoping to hear every teardrop is a waterfall LIVE). AMAZING-UUUUUuu.....

That's it :D

Society: Putting things all together

So in this third part of my mini-discussion on just becoming more aware and bettering yourself, let's quickly recap what's been said so far: Try not to pigeonhole and just be a little bit more aware emotionally. So what's the point of having gone through all of this without actually applying it to society? 

Society, especially Australian society, is one where we participate in a multitude of daily activities; we are constantly interacting with people of different races, all of whom have a different set of values. At times it might be easy for us simply to avoid the types of people that we dislike associating ourselves with, but a lot of the time we choose not to associate ourselves with them because we don't fully understand them. Homophobia is a particularly worthwhile example to mention, because even though these people are much like us, there is a general "fear" of this particular group of people. If we actually bothered to take our time to get to know them, we'll find that they're a lot like us; they just have a few different preferences! (For the record, no I am not a homophobe). 

This is still pretty much in line with my first post; just being aware and a little bit more sensitive of particular issues in society helps us to become a little more educated, and therefore might let us reconsider our particular choice of words. Recently, in the major sporting leagues of America (NBA, NFL), there has been a few incidents where star players have used the word "fag" in a fit of anger; spurring a fit of anger amongst homosexual communities. Having said this, they weren't using the word out of conscious awareness that it had homosexual connotations, rather, having this word simply pop to mind when angry. 

But having applied this to one group of people in society, just be more aware that the area you live in probably has a multicultural diversity which means that words that we deem "harmless" are actually quite insulting to others. Think about it; how many groups of people are present in your local area, and are you aware of the full extent of the meaning of your words? Remember, the whole point of these short blogs are to familiarize you to issues that you probably experience in day-to-day life, and how you are going to act to change your world you live in. 

Finally, just to finish up, it's not just the actions that you perform that hold influence; it's also the way in which you choose to react to people and their particular choice of words. The next time a friend says something along the lines of a gay slur whilst in a fit of anger, maybe it would be best to bring their attention to it? Maybe they are actually unaware of the weight that their choice of words holds; so assist to enlighten them in such issues so as to improve society.

Next up this week, I'll start my first post on health, talking about a couple of issues that I think are prevalent at the moment. Stay tuned! :)

Awareness of Emotion? Pffft...

Hey guys,

Today we'll have a short look into the second part of my digression onto familiarization - moving onto the notion of being more aware of emotions; whether they be yours, or other peoples'. Using a really really bad analogy (did I mention, really bad?), we can say something along the lines that women understand emotions much better than men, just because (or i could go into some discussion as to how women have a larger corpus callosum and therefore one potential theory that I made up with a friend at uni was that there was so much cross-talk between the hemispheres of the brain that this would be one of the main reasons why women can't seem to make up their mind half the time. Just sayin'....). True enough, it seems like the female population is more aware of emotion in general and therefore have an easier job at identifying when there is an elephant standing in the room, whilst some a guy on the other hand might have just admitted that his best chick-friend is a whale. ouch.


On the bright side, once you're aware of it (guys), you'll be able to spot that potential elephant in the room, rather than remain completely oblivious that it was there.... Girls on the other hand; it's not so much being aware that there is the elephant in the room, just don't try to bash it until it's bleeding to death. What I mean by that is; show some tact in the way in which you actually deal with emotions... So far in my limited experience of life, some girls tend to really abuse the rut that you find yourself in, or they have a real eagle eye at being able to pick out faults. C'mon guys we're human too :(

But why bother with the awareness of emotion? It's not actually going to make sure that you succeed in life, is it? Well, for one you can have better interpersonal relationships, first of all. Chances are you're more likely to make strong bonds with new friends if you can actually manage to hide back that little snigger when they tell you something that they might feel deeply embarrassed about, or when you're absolutely fuming about something, you don't just crack and unload your pent-up frustration on the nearest living creature. Just be a little bit more tactful and mindful that other people have emotions too; and we should all probably keep them in check. If you want a really good example, think about the best athletes that you know; they are able to keep their emotions in check right until the end of the season, in which they can legitimately let it all out.

Anyway, this is just food for thought.. Let me know what you think; if you think everything I've said is worthless, then let me know; or if you have thoughts yourself, share!

Familiarization: Pigeonholing; Part 1

Well I suppose in these first few days of actually having a blog, I haven't really gotten to any main points of what I was wishing to talk about on it, so here we go. Maybe there are a few habits here and there that you readers might be able to take away, and apply to your lives, just so that your'e a little bit more aware of what's going on in your surroundings. Remember, the first step is to familiarize yourself with a potential... problem doesn't seem like the right word here, but I'm sure as we go along we'll find a better word to use.

In this initial little ramble, you may be thinking "What the hell is he on about? What's all this business with familiarization and trying to find potential problems? I'm fine!", but the whole point of this process isn't to try to cut yourself down and be degrading; it's more to note things that you could become aware of, and then improve yourself from there. I'm talking about things like:
1. Trying to eliminate as much prejudice from your life as possible
2. Being aware of emotions and how you display them
3. Being a little bit more educated in matters of society.

In today's blog we'll go through the first point; over the next few days I'll post up the second and third parts to this :) But try to take these lessons to heart, and see if you can apply them in your daily lives. Unfortunately a lot of the time, it is quite difficult to erase negativity associated with certain areas, but try it out and see if it makes a difference in your life.

Eliminating prejudice (pigeonholing)
One of the most important things I feel in life is an ability to understand the flip side of the coin; throughout life we're constantly meeting new faces and being exposed to new people, and even if it is a fleeting encounter, we tend to form a judgement based upon face value rather quickly. We can tend to pigeonhole groups, and associate emotion with them (hence the second point); whether these emotions are positive or negative remains.

Think about the groups that you've associated negatively with the pigeon-holing. Are all of the people in that group necessarily that way because they choose to be so? Let's use the rather sensitive issue of obese people; admittedly, some of them over-eat, but when are we actually educated at a young age to not eat that much? When I was young, I was told to eat as much as possible because I was a growing boy! Only as I grew up did I strongly supplement this with a rather brutal exercise regime; had I not, I would have probably joined the population of slightly larger people out there. But that doesn't justify being particularly rude to people; as was noted in a particularly disturbing article the other day, and a lot of prejudice, including overt racism, manages to creep its way into our society. Generally I feel that Australian society is doing a pretty good job at educating and keeping this to a minimum; but just a little bit more sensitivity please!

But why try to eliminate the prejudice completely? Doesn't it help to pigeonhole the nerds, the jocks, and the musos? By pigeonholing, we turn down one of the central tenets of life; that each person is born an individual and raised to remain an individual. Not saying that it completely eliminates it, but by pigeonholing (especially in negative circumstances), we prevent ourselves from meeting people who break the norm and help us to realize why we should be a little more understanding. Eventually, with more sensitivity to these encounters in life, you'll appreciate a more diverse world and become more tolerant of others. Just something to keep in mind... until part 2!

Try not to pigeonhole fellas! ... 

Last season -->The NBA lockout? Where's basketball at right now?

So you guys may or may not be aware of it, but last year's NBA season was by far one of the best seasons of basketball that I've watched in a really long time. Like, a really long time. It started as a season in which my favourite team, the Lakers, jumped out to a 8-0 start, and I thought that they would run away with the season. The Miami Heat (my most hated team) did shockingly well for their first season together, even though I thought that they would be exposed against teams with a small, nifty point guard or a dominant center. But it wasn't the case, they managed to find ways to win with a single true superstar, a Judas, and a dinosaur. Plus a really average bench. In fact, I'm still shocked at how miami made it so far with such an average bench.. I watched as the lakers were swept by the Mavs in the second round, something which I had never even considered possible before. My prediction of "Lakers 4-2" went horrible wrong, instead switching up to "Mavs 4-0 sweep", and all my dreams of the three-peat were over. I insisted that IF it came to the point where it was Mavs-Heat, I would stop watching NBA for the next year.

Lucky for me, at that point I managed to wake up to how incredible Dirk is as a player, and how the rest of the playoffs this season stemmed into something truly beautiful. Two of the youngest teams in the NBA, the thunder and grizzles, emerged as some wonderful teams to watch. The grizzles showed gritty determination and a dogged effort (ZEEE-BOOOOO). Let's be honest, didn't you write them off after Rudy Gay got injured? I didn't even think they'd squeeze into the last spot of the west, yet they ended up taking the thunder to seven games, amongst which was the 3OT MARATHON. I remember thinking that I would miss the end of the game due to my lecture, yet when I finished I was still watching the game for at least another 40 minutes! But eventually, the thunder would prevail, the Mavs would move on, and finally the Mavs would face the Heat in the finals.

What a finals! Really! To be honest, one of the greatest reasons why I didn't want the Mavs to reach the finals was more for the fact that I didn't think they were able to win against the heat; they didn't (and still don't) seem particularly athletic, I didn't think they played particularly good defence, and they abused the pick-and-roll offence, making them predictable on offence. And the fact that they seemed to live or die by the 3-point line... But then I saw a few things I liked in them - Deshawn Stevenson, who has been trash talking LeBron since his days in cleveland, when he called him "overrated"; Jason Terry (who admittedly I didn't like earlier because I knew he could score); The absolutely stupid ability for the bench to score points; and dirk. There's not much more that needs to be said about Dirk, because he literally did everything, and you can search him up anywhere, but he is incredible. (I refuse to use re-dirk-culous!). 

So having said all of this, how is it that we've entered a period of uncertainty and instability, in which the players and associations can't seem to get the figures right? Putting it in perspective, the worst-paid players in the NBA still have a salary that approaches seven digits. Easily. The superstars are payed ludicrous figures; we saw something along the lines that Kobe received 25.4 mil this season, whilst the entire Denver payroll post-'Melo had figures along the lines of 28 mil. For the entire roster. So how can players be complaining that they aren't receiving enough? As for the owners losing money, I'm sure that they're not really losing that much money which is jeopardizing their day-to-day lives.. So how can we move from the greatest basketball season to a waiting game in which we're not even sure there will be a next season, until next year? 

All I know is that when Basketball New Year rolls around on the 26th October this year, there probably won't be basketball. And that's really weird. You can't change the date of the new year. So why change this one? Stupid association owners... *mutters*....

A belated congrats to the Mavs, 2010 champions! 

Welcome to the world!

Hey world!


This is new business to me, blogging, and so I feel that I am obliged to explain the nature of this blog, and why I want to write it! :)


Familiarization
A lot of us live every day in fairly routine fashion, going through the motions, without giving a moment to think about many issues that are affecting the world around us. For some, this ignorance is bliss; for most, we are unaware of the issues and remain oblivious our entire lifetime, until we intersect in the path of another that helps us to raise our awareness about certain issues. To become familiar with issues allows us to be a little more understanding in the way we approach others, and makes us better people.


Challenge
To me, the time that we have here on the earth is pretty short, but that doesn't stop me from being after the pursuit of knowledge. It sounds lame and corny, I know, we are obliged to learn as much as we can about everything on the earth before our time is up. So, one of the first reasons that this has been created is to inform you of things that I feel are of genuine interest to me, and which I wish to share with you. I hope it motivates you to challenge yourself and apply yourself more thoroughly in every aspect of life. 


Enlighten
Whilst you may be completely unaware of it, in your day-to-day life, you are able to perform incredible movements with the simple intention of movement. Some of these movements are so well embedded into your brain that they are performed subconsciously; such as driving a car, or walking. This is all possible because of the complex network of nerves in your body - the central nervous system. Now, imagine that you have 11 billion nerve cells in your body, and each one of those nerve cells makes seven thousand connections. (It's a ludicrous number :D!) BUT - take this away, with the information that you are armed with, use it to enlighten others and continue the chain of familiarising, challenging and then enlightening. Hence the name!


Anyway I know it sounds so far that I'm a pretty serious guy, but in this blog I want to talk about some serious stuff; and some other stuff that's not so serious. Throughout the lifetime of this blog (however long it lasts), you'll eventually learn about some of the issues I think are affecting society, you'll see something amusing here and there, and you'll come to learn that I am a big NBA fan and a tennis follower. 


But finally, I hope you take some things away with you and share them. 


And one last thing! Comment as much as you want, about anything that you find interesting. It can be as mundane as homework or as complex as the motion of celestial bodies around the sun, and how this varies with time (okay maybe not THAT complex). The more people that know about this the better, it gives me more to talk about, and more feedback from you readers means posts on things you want to hear about. Let me know!