my trip to myanmar

hello world! it has been a while since I last wrote here.

I'd like to talk a little about my Myanmar trip.

the trip was awesome, thanks to the many lucky i had during the trip.

the highlight of the trip was visiting the "Golden Rock", or the Kyaitteyo Pagoda, the rock that seems to topple any moment but never does... if it doesn't ring a bell, please go and Wiki it.


the visit was filled with some happy moments, so let me count them.

1. happy the bus-ride wasn't too bad - in fact, it was awesome with wonderful scenery and open window blasting air into my face (I like that)  
2. happy that when we started walking (people usually take the truck for 45 mins, we decided to walk for 5 hours) the sky was blue, it was sunny and slightly windy - in the rainy season which is basically a miracle
3. happy when we were walking, several people who drove past actually asked us if we would like to ride along (because it is a long walk)
4. happy I can carry my mother's luggage (I like being useful), and pull her up where the climb is too steep... it used to be the other way round. look ma, i've grown.
5. happy to see sweat dripping down from everywhere (this should make me lose weight...)
6. happy to see great scenery along the way - waterfalls, trees, rivers, etc etc.
7. happy to realize that we are both healthy enough to walk with our own 2 feet (i know it sounds rather strange, but when you keep walking, you think about lots of things)
8. happy to reach a small village where we can buy some water (we just ran out of supply - and tada - a godsend)
9. happy to talk to the old man in the village whom used to be an air-cond technician who has been to Japan via a ship.
10. happy when i can take 5 near a river, and wet the towel and wipe myself (best feeling evah)
11. happy when we reach the part where its just 1 hour away from the mountain peak, and be able to eat proper food (it tasted so good, i ate 3 people's worth of food, plus 2 red-bulls)
12. happy while my mother take the "ride" (basically 4 people carrying my mother with 2 thick bamboo sticks) and I jog alongside (made me feel i am fit enough to do so)
13. happy when we reached our lodge, and it had empty rooms (we didn't reserve)
14. happy when I took a hot shower. so happy. hot shower is heaven. 
15. happy that I can actually sit down and relax for a while
16. happy that when we reached, there were several other travelers in the lodge looking bored as hell (when we had so much fun walking) 
17. happy that we decided to already enter the Kyantteyo Pagoda, although it is dark already
18. happy to see the misty landscape which is simply out-of-this-world. so amazing.
19. happy to have the mist clear suddenly to give us a full view of the Golden Rock (again, a miracle. mist never clears in the rainy season)
20. happy to have touched the golden rock, wished my fellow medical student friends that we never fail our exams so as long as the rock will not fall
21. happy to see the rock is slightly movable. it is actually moving. ohhh.
22. happy to come back to the lodge, and finally get to rest.
23. happy to sleep. SLEEEEEEP.
24. happy to get sick during the night. thank goodness i didn't get sick during the walk.
25. happy that I wake up feeling okay
26. happy to go see the rock again, and climb down the path once again
27. happy that the truck that takes us down came just in time
28. happy to ride the truck - its a roller-coaster ride that can go wrong... thank goodness the road wasn't slippery.
29. happy to be alive after the truck ride. no seriously...
30. happy to take the bike taxi to the bus-stop. getting to ride the bike without the helmet is like the best thing - you'll know if you ride a bike. scenery was great, again.
31. happy to find a bus that takes us back to Yangon, and amazingly, it has air-cond!!
32. happy to be back in the hotel, BEER after 2 day abstinence

 I realize it was getting annoying at around number 10, but i needed to keep on going.



but really, it was a happy trip, and i learnt one thing -
always choose the hard way. the hard way is fun.

coz i am happy the hard way... ;)

i'm now looking for houses to live, and housemates in seremban.

it makes me realize that there are several categories of people.

• the leader
• is the one who goes around looking for housemates, also tends to go about checking for houses
• the schemer 
• the one who likes to ask people how are they doing for househunting, and have several people booked to stay together but never giving promises. 
• the parasites
• the ones who will just ask people to get into people's houses at an early stage - does nothing after that
• the optimist
• doesn't do anything till the day before uni starts again
• the pessimist
• afraid to call anyone because they think they have no friends
• the spoilt ones
• their parents will arrange everything. never have to lift a finger.
• the outcast
• always end up getting kicked out of the group. they will evantually all fall into the same house.

metal plating

i wish i were...

i need to change myself.
harder, better, faster, stronger.

anosognosia - and how I think people in mental institutes are the sanes ones here

there is this term in neurology (brain-medicine), called Anosognosia - it is when a person has a disregard for its inability.

for e.g. this dude can't move his left hand. most likely he'll know that his arm won't move, and try and live with it.

however, sometimes, people have a disability, just like the above case - plus, they will have anosognosia - it may happen in nerve damage in the brain. so this fella would have a non-functioning hand, but he would -pretend- that he doesn't have a disability. not quite pretend, because he would really believe he doesn't have a disability.
therefore, he would be like "huh, what do you mean, it must be difficult being able to use only one hand".

so i was thinking to myself i hope i don't have anosognosia in terms of emotional, social and mental terms.
i would be mentally / emotionally / socially retarded, but i have a complete disregard for my faults.

but it got me thinking further - are we really aware of what we can and cannot do? for e.g. do we know what is a socially favourable decision? do we know what is the correct feelings to have when things happen?

and it got me thinking again that what IS the "correct" way of things - aren't they just conditioned things which just SEEMS definitely but actually a collected bunch of subjective qualities that was tought to us when we were kids, or through experience?

so how can we ever behave in such a way that we're sure that we're doing the right thing, feeling the correct way and etc.

I don't.

I don't know what is wrong and what is right in a true sense, and neither do i know when i screw up (or everyone else is screwing up except me)
so i guess, in that way I DO have anosognosia, but it is good- it enables me to go forth and do things without stopping to think "is it really okay?" so i guess anosognosia is more of a function rather than a pathology of the mind.

hence it got me thinking that maybe a lot of other things that are considered a disease is actually a function, like being a schizophrenic and having bipolar personalities.

i always used to think people in mental institutes may be the sane ones - but didn't quite know how to explain. i think the above explanation basically sums up how i feel.

mindmap - joint pathology

integration of 3 lectures-
joint pathology
inflammatory arthritis
seronegative spondyoartheropathy

it is rather... large.

about teaching little kids

Nowadays, every saturday I help teach kendo to little kids.

not as in a real full-fledged teaching where I plan and coordinate everything that's going to go on in the dojo, but its more like an assistant teacher where I go "here, you should do this and that, yes thats it very good, very very good" to every kid so they can keep themselves motivated and stuff.

No, I don't whack them - yet.

those kids are probably like... 5 to 12 years old? they are actually adorable. I never used to think kids are cute (except maybe the very obedient kindergardener little girl i teach swimming) but those kids are very endearing.

I teach them little things that are likely to be forgotten everyday, and they seem to be actually listening to me.
the thing that inspired me to get off my lazy bum and write this post (apart from my inactivation of facebook that is) is that when one of the kids tripped and fell, she instantly looked up at me and said "I'm okay!" I was like AWW (later she was crying, while continuing the class. i told her she can stop and rest but she didn't. i'm very proud of this little girl.)

its also very cute that all of them look at me after they do something and wait for my nod of approval - which i always give, but after that i might give some advice.

but one sobering fact is that when i used to be a small little boy, I used to have some older ones in the places I learned my stuff - be it swimming, martial arts, etc etc etc. Now, I am the senior, and from the eyes of the little boy that I was, the seniors were something that was quite old and experienced.

hmm. should i be feeling old?

a very happy birthday

I've just turned 3, 4 days ago.

the day of my birthday just so happened to fall on the university Prom date, which i planned not to go. but some nice people from my batch started up a campaign to convince me to go, (50 odd people) so I decided to go just because it made me happy that some people actually wanted to see me / wish me in nice clothes.

I usually don't have any special feelings about birthday (well, when you repeat it 23 times, anyone would get jaded a little) but this time it was pretty remarkable because the sheer amount of people whom wished me were in like half a thousand kind of number. this must make my 23rd year a pretty impressive one, no? well lets so.

... now i've chipped away another piece of soul, again.