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Friday, October 29, 2010

Wow! Architecture is so Amazing!

I have to visit these places some day...
http://www.noupe.com/photography/50-beautiful-examples-of-architecture-photography.html
Example:
Architecture33 in 50 Beautiful Examples of Architecture Photography
So bizarre!
Checkout this awesome space-saving bathroom idea: http://dornob.com/7-functions-1-fixture-modular-metal-bathroom-design-idea/
Haha, really love working? Now you can take your whole desk/chair/everything with you: http://dornob.com/mobile-foam-office-compact-computer-desk-2-chair-set/
Ooo..nifty desks that I want when I'm a billionaire...: Triangular Multilevel Desk and

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Eat and Sleep at the Same Time XD

Oh my gosh!  This has got to be one of the cutest videos ever! hehehe! Poor little girl - must be studying too hard at night! http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150104738109392 (KL)

Sunday, October 24, 2010

YouKU - not YouTUBE + Chickens are So Cool!

Haha...checkout the chinese version of youtube: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNzg0NDg1Njg=.html And the amazing VOR (vestibulo-ocular reflex) capabilities of chickens!  Okay, it's not actually VOR - maybe it's some insane head version of VOR...but anyhow, check it out. This gave me a new appreciation for chickens.  (video from TT)

Saturday, October 23, 2010

OMG, Everyone's Getting Engaged!

"Marriage shouldn't be a picture of two people looking into each other's eyes, but of two people standing next to each other and looking out into the distance." There was a VERY interesting sermon at my church today about dating/marriage.  Highly recommend watching it (whether you're single or not)! http://journeyon.net/media/you-yours/loving-god-single-person  (Start at 4:50).  E.g. did you know dating was an euphemism for paying for sex?  Strange...But for the lazy yet curious, here are some highlights:
  • Best way to find out if you really actually like someone is by hanging out with other people and seeing how they interact with other people.
    • People tend to trick themselves into thinking they like someone ...but in reality, it's because they don't hang out with anyone else. (so true in the case of med school...)
    • Seeing his/her interaction with other people will reveal their true self... (haha, this is something my dad told me)
  • Your spouse shouldn't be a puzzle to be solved, but a mystery to be explored.  If you think you know everything about them, don't marry them.
  • The purpose of marriage isn't happiness, but holiness.
  • For many people, marriage is a consumerism reenactment: they look for someone who's attractive, smart, whatever to make themselves feel better.  But when you look for a partner, you don't look for a statue, you look for a marble tablet; not a perfect outcome, but a project.
    • Many people also try to get more than what they put in - which in combination with above causes them to see something better and go after that instead.
    • Don't be obsessed with perfection, participate in the process of making them perfect.
    • Don't focus on who they are, but what they will be.  A vow is a future appointment to meet each other's needs.
  • For others, marriage is a movie reenactment:
    • Casual sex tries to separate the delights of sex from the responsibilities/covenant
    • It damages one's ability to commit and weakens the future covenant to your partner
  • C. S. Lewis wrote a book about the four kinds of love. Biblically, it should be in this order when you go through a relationship: 
    • Philos: friend
    • Storge: affection
    • Agape: commitment to serve them
    • Eros: sex
    • ...But the current mainstream love is this way: Eros, Storge, Philos, Agape
  • Things to look for in a partner:
    • Christian
    • Understands the Gospel
    • Doesn't take shortcuts - do the not fun things, willing to do hard things
    • And...a no brainer: be attracted to them
    • Make you want to be more like Jesus
    • Give you a vision for the future
  • In the end, he also said people should address their social strangeness.  When I heard this, I thought, ok, maybe I should join a convent.  Haha...yes, I have that many social strangenesses.  

When No One's Looking

While we mostly think hunger, lack of food, and lack of water are restricted to developing countries, runaway children, whether it's due to abuse at home, economic issues, or what not are forced to live on the minimum right here in the states.  http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/10/25/us/1247465360380/when-no-ones-looking.html
For example, one girl's father had triple bypass surgery, which led to an accumulation of hospital bills that forced the family to a trailer park.  In order to finish high school, the girl squatted in the foreclosed house and had to survive without running water, gas, or electricity (and I thought it was bad in Sierra Leone).
"While the kids are street savvy and petulant, they are still kids." (MX)

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Breakaway Pants

Today is the day to commemorate the time when renal professor tore off his breakaway pants! Hahaha.  So random.  He was just talking about some renal stuff, how much he watches TV, and how real life is not like the Old Spice guy...then whoosh! Off goes his pants! (Thankfully it wasn't a Full Monty - he had shorts underneath). hahaha

And leading up to that....well...my friend says it best:

What I learned in med school today:
1. Scrubs is true to life.
2. Grey's Anatomy has way more prettier people than [real hospitals].
3. House is a fraud.
4. Steven's not the Old Spice guy.

Do I get an Honors??

Hahaha...so awesome :D

Monday, October 4, 2010

Nicholas Kristof on Half The Sky

Today I listened to the most awful talk ever.  Who am I kidding, he was an awesome speaker!  I listened to Nicholas Kristof, New York Times columnist, talk about girls in China, female trafficking in Cambodia, goats changing lives, and fistulas ruining lives.  It was awesome!!!  It was about his book, Half the Sky.  A little bird told me he's a great speaker - and sure is she right!  It was a very moving talk with some detailed accounts of people and events he's encountered centered around women inequality issues.

He started off talking about how the 19th century was about slavery, then was totalitarianism, and now, it's women oppression.  The first experience he described was his trip to China (forgot where) where he met this brilliant girl who could no longer attend school because she didn't have any money.  He told a story of how a many donated $10k, which was used to allow all girls to attend school in this tiny rural province in China.  However, he found out there was a wiring issue and the man only donated $100.  Unfortunately, he had already told the school principal and the students about the $10k, so he had to obtain that money, which he was fortunate enough to be able to do via another donor.  (I was a little out of it during this talk, so I might not have the facts straight).

He then continued to talk about female trafficking in Cambodia.  He showed various pictures of brothels with girls around the age of 15 with a few ironically smiling.  He discussed about how he unorthodoxically bought two girls.  He had heard about one teenage girl who had been sold by her step-father and another one sold by a neighbor.  The mother of one of the girls had been desperately searching for her daughter, and instinctively found her in the red-light district.  There was a great reunion, but the daughter didn't go home with the mom.  When asked why not, the daughter explained that the brothel owner had paid a large sum for her, and her mom didn't have the money to buy her back.  As a result, Kristof had bought one girl for about $400 and the other for $250.  Compared to the worth of black slaves in the 19th century, they were worth dirt.

There was also a story of a goat.  Kristof showed a picture of an African girl holding water above her head and a baby sister on her back.  He then told the story of how she couldn't go to school, but another organization via the Heffer Organization bought goats and used the money from the milk to get her through school.  She excelled, became first in her class, and the next picture was a picture of her graduating from Cornell.  She said "I am the luckiest girl alive, all because of a goat."  How cool is that?

I felt great injustice during the fistula story, but it also left me in awe at the strength of some women.  Kristof showed a picture of another African women sitting peacefully.  Unbeknownst to anyone, she had married young, became pregnant when she was 14, and had labor in the depth of a forest.  Due to her underdeveloped pelvis, she was left with a dead fetus, incontinence, and nerve damage that left her unable to walk.  Her village thought she was possessed, and left her to the mercy of hyenas at the edge of the village.  She fended off the hyenas with a stick, and despite her inability to walk, she attempted to crawl to the nearest help she could find - some missionaries 30 miles away.  The first night she had to crawl up some tree to keep away from the hyenas, and the next days he continued on.  She did eventually reach the missionaries, which took her to a fistula hospital that fixed her up for free.  And now she works as a nurse at the hospital.

He was talking about how many times people don't want to be involved in international work, or of the sorts because it makes them feel depressed/hopeless, but he talks about seeing some of the best people in these situations.  He talks of a warlord dessimating people and lives, but out of it all, was a nun who helped all the orphans she could find and kept the warlords at bay.

When asked about whether he had concerns or how he dealt with security, he told another story about him in the Congos.  He traveled there in a plane, and soon after he got off the plane, it was destroyed.  He decided to travel away from the area via a road that the rebels had built, but soon ran into a warlord who was massacring people.  Kristof, in an almost lighthearted manner, talked about how the warlord asked who he was, and he just lied and said he was sent by the warlord's commander.  Somehow, he was allowed to leave, but the warlord soon got in contact with the commander, who said there was no such guy as Kristof, which then ensued a long chase of armies after him.  All the while, he told the story as if it was just another day in his life.  Crazy.

Love Means Nothing To Me

Of all my loves in life, I can't believe I haven't had one blog entry about tennis!!!  That has got to change.  I couldn't help loving some of these t-shirts! hehe
http://t-shirts.cafepress.com/tennis
Some of my favorites:


One of my fav's: http://www.cafepress.com/+god_loves_tennis_white_tshirt,378410167
http://images4.cpcache.com/product/410562034v-1_240x240_Front_Color-White.jpg
Groundies - Drop Shot Large Framed Print

Dreams are so Strange

Yesterday I had a dream with two of my renal professors in it.  It was so strange.  They both really, really liked Shakespeare for some reason, and even held selectives where people can go read Shakespeare.  You had to climb up this really rickety staircase to the highest part of the building.  It was so unstable, but had a gorgeous view.  Anyhow, that's where the readings were.  One of the professors (SM), the older professor, really liked to dress up in Shakespeare outfits.
There was another segment where there was a concert being held at the bottom of this one building, that ended up being at least 5 floors down from ground level.  It was more of a cave than an actual room.  There were these people performing country music, of all things (I don't even particularly like country music).  I remember following friends down there, and listening to the concert and thinking about the great acoustics in the cave and how my country-music loving friend (LL) should've been there.  It was very strange also because I felt like I had tried to go to this concert in a previous dream, but couldn't find the location because I thought it was just one floor down - not realizing the building continued down several floors.