********** Goals 2011

Let's see. Time to streamline some stuff. As much as I would like to be a 'jack of all trades', I don't think I can afford the luxury....... Okie, let's get rid of 1) Sax 2) Dizi off my list.

Work: I will enjoy work to the best of my ability. "Work" is not a vulgar word. It is an expression of my gifts, talents and dominion on this earth.

Do my best to implement the step down care into the eye clinic system. I will be going to London in March for this purpose.
Pick up orthoptics.
Read up and refresh myself in ocular pathology.
Learn to make use of the free time to do constructive stuff.
I will confine work related stuff to working hours and never bring work home.
Have a better attitude towards my patients no matter what their attitudes are toward me.
Answer the patients' relatives when they ask me questions.
Offer seats to the patients' relatives.
Do my best for JCI.
Set up a template for a presentation in myopia control so that I can do talks about it. I will start with the club first. I will start by reading up on myopia and astigmatism. Also I will read up on the various attempts on myopia control on the market now.

Physical:

Aim towards a body like the one below.

Okay I realise I still have a long way to go but everyone's gotta start somewhere.

Learn and master swimming freestyle.

Relational:

Spend more time with the people who really matter. No point trying to build new relationships while forsaking the old ones, the ones who have been around all the time.

Spiritual:

Get into a spiritual discipline of spending time with God in worship and word everyday, regardless of how I feel and whether it is a Sunday or not.
Worship songs- To take a worship song and really break it down to learn it in keyboard, guitar and singing. To note the various rhythms to play them in and how to build the dynamics. To note how to sing them and where to emphasize on.
Slowly but steadily creep back into guitar and keyboard worship for service. Think I'll start with guitar first. Seems more hopeful. ;)

Music: I will commit at least 4 evenings per week to the practice of my music.

Piano:
I can't believe how much material I have gathered through these years that are siting on the shelf!
Sight Reading
Jazz improvisation
Hand coordination
BM. To familiarize and drill the rhythms into my mind, training with a metronome.


Guitar:
Learn and master guitar. To go through the course and finish it by 6 months.
BM. To familiarize and drill the rhythms into my mind, training with a metronome.

Singing:
finish the entire course of singing success within the year. That will lay a strong foundation in my vocal ability as well as equip me with the workings of SLS.
KIV take up speech level singing certification.

Massage:

Maintain my skills in massage therapy and refresh myself in the area of Aromatherapy. To go through the common essential oils and their uses and properties. 
I will start with the following: 1) Basil 2) Bergamot 3) Black Pepper 4) Cypress 5) Eucalyptus 6) Frankincense 7) Citronella 8) Lemon 9) Orange Bitter 10) Pine Needle 11) Spearmint 12) Peppermint 13) Lime 14) Grapefruit 15) Ginger 16) Black Pepper 17) Rosewood 18) Sweet Marjoram 19) Lavender 20) Rosemary. Okay that's a mouthful!
I will recall and remember the Aromatherapy massage sequence.

General:

To be proactive and do things without putting them off if it is possible to accomplish them quickly.  
To match myself against myself and not to others. We all have different roads to walk so it is no longer comparing apples to apples. 

Goal For 2011

I felt really inspired by a man by the name of Vince Delmonte (for some reason, I keep thinking of bananas mentioning his name, wonder why). He is a fitness coach and he started off very much like my present state: scrawny. Despite all his efforts to gain bulk, he failed miserably. That was until he met someone who trained him into this super cool guy.

Being the impulsive person I am, I bought an ebook published by him. Cost me 77USD! But just going through the first few pages already made it worth it. The philosophies and principles he wrote about in his book were very practical and we have yet to go to the training yet!

So, for once in the longest time, I am going to set goals for 2011!

obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off the goal

Saw this quote just a moment ago. Food for thought!

Merry Christmas

It's Christmas again. It's amazing how time really flies. Before you know it, another year has passed. Right in the midst of Christmas day itself I find myself siting by my com and deep in contemplation. I suppose for most this should be a 'party' day. As much as I wanted to make it so, I really wanted to chill at home, after going through a number of hectic weeks. So after service I went to the gym for a short session and decided to call it quits. Came home and decided to start my chill routine first by watching a DVD.

Talking about Christmas service, this is the first after such a long time I am up in the backup team during worship. It was quite a good feeling. Other than the irritation of having a self-appointed backup leader trying to choreograph the movements for backup team (like how we should move and clap and do actions :( ) and an irritating partner whom I failed so miserably trying to humor his 'unfunny' and uninteresting jokes and comments, everything else went fine. Don't get me wrong, they are nice people. Maybe that's the problem. I tend not to be blunt to nice people. But seriously I do hope I can keep some consistency in doing some kind of ministry for God. I have slacked so much and He really does not deserve any of that.

I was touched during the worship of the first service. It was good. As much as I do not want to turn church into an emotional rut everytime, I think I can make do with more touches from God. I need all the help I can get. I really want to finish well for the rest of my journey here. I feel I have wasted too much time on myself, without any results. Okay, trying not to be too emo on this special day. Time to go chill......

Goals Goals Goals

I was reading a friend's facebook recently and he was asking for advice on which program to look into to help him achieve his goals. Then I realised that it has been a long time since I had any worthy goal in life. Since I came out of my thing with J, it's as if all my dreams and goals (if I had any) died with the relationship. Since then I have been cruising along with life, just trying to lie low. As much as I realise the danger of it, I seem to have sunk in too deep into the comfort it offers. When my supervisors ask about my plans, I simply answer them I have no plans and I am just walking through a day at a time.

That's for work. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be any different for other aspects of my life. I am sucked into a rut where I just respond to what comes and I do not have any vision of the future. I think there's a couple of reasons for that.....

One reason I think is because of the teaching I received last one of my previous churches. The pastor was almost implying (at least I felt so) that as long as you are walking with God, goals are not important. I think another reason is that subconsciously I feel that non "spiritual" goals are not worth pursuing at all. Yeah, think it's something like that. Ouch. Think this is too much thinking at 3 in the morning! Think I will continue another time......

Here I Am At 2 A.M. In The Morning

I suppose it has come to that time again when I find myself pretty much awake at the wee hours. The funny thing is that I do not seem to have much on my mind off late. However, I did have a rough time at work yesterday which may explain why I did not really sink in to deep sleep.

I guess it's easy to tell my colleagues not to be affected by "bad" patients since I am not in their shoes. However I found myself profoundly challenged yesterday with a patient's dad who was really an "ass" (pardon my language). Dealing with him really raised my blood pressure. I think he did not realise one thing is that when you are not nice to people, they will be less likely to go the extra mile for you when necessary.

His daughter needs a pair of glasses which, to my knowledge cannot be done locally because the power is simply out of range. I have come to the conclusion that I will only try to source for solutions within the companies I know and that will be it. I will not "go the extra mile" to see if any other solutions can be offered. I can almost feel the delight of calling him to inform him that he is on his own and there is nothing he can do about it.

Yes I do realise that I am kind of petty in this situation, but what the hack! Actually I kind of dread the feeling of not being able to provide solutions to other peoples' problems but this might just be a first and I think I might just come to love that feeling. Of course, I do understand that there is an innocent party involved this time, but do I care? Hmmmmm, nope! At least not at this point of time. Okie, I shall not dwell any longer on this subject, least my blood pressure goes up again. On to the next,......

YOU SHOULD BLEED FOR YOUR COUNTRY, NOT FOR THE MOZZIES!

Saw this line on a poster in my camp some days ago. Wanted to take a photo of it but unfortunately cameras not allowed in camp. Reading that line, I could not help but laugh. Frankly, I'll pass on both. ;)

End Of My Reservist

Sigh. It's back to work again. It's like waking from a dream, a good one for that matter. This reservist has been a good one. I have been able to spend a lot more time with myself and think things through. Wish I had a little more time though. Maybe 3 weeks would have been just nice. Then again, I might just totally quite my job since I might not be able to adjust back to working life...... ;)

I Am Valuable Because God Loves Me

Just felt that in my heart this morning......

Philharmonic Winds

 SL and her boy boy

 Me, Jasmine and Faith

 One of the few clear pics I managed to steal a shot at cos photographing's not allowed. Shhhhh don't tell anyone.

I can't remember how long ago it was when I last felt so super high listening to music. It started when I was with my buddies at the Esplanade for dinner. I happened to chance upon a poster with Nathan Hartono in it and I got closer to see what it was about. It happened to be the Philharmonic Wind's 10th anniversary performance with guest performers Nathan Hartono as well as Tay Kewei. That got me interested. I managed to pull a couple of others to join me and none of us regretted going.

For me, though my original intention was to watch Nathan live, I ended up enjoying the rest of the performances more than I did his. The group did many contemporary songs from Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga and many more. One highlight for me was when they did a medley from Lady Gaga and they even imitated some of her moves from her MTVs as they ended her medley. Overall, I just felt so 'high' from all the instruments playing together. It was a superb experience for just 33 bucks. Think I am gonna go see more of such performances whenever possible......

Rapunzal Rapunzal Let Down Your Hair

As I was making my way to Cineleisure last night to catch the movie, I was wondering to myself if I was too old to watch this genre of movies. I came to the conclusion the answer was an emphatic no. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. It's really nice to get to watch something so funny and entertaining.

I suppose the story line is familiar to most people so I need not elaborate. The jokes were really funny. So this movie is a must catch for the young, old and in-betweens.......

Remember

Not to let the 'Ah Longs' control you. Just let the banks do so. After all, the worse the banks can do is just sue you and take away your property. The 'Ah Longs' can splash paint on your property!

Changes?

I think I have been told a couple of times I will be re-joining the worship team. Yap. It's kind of funny that I am the one who gets told to join instead of me making the decision and telling people I am joining. This time I am told to come back as a guitarist. To a certain I am looking forward. It's really high time to give God my time and energy and go back to the good old days. I just read in a book that people with my issues tend to be very inward-looking. It comes to the point of being narcissistic. And people like me should learn to be more outward-looking instead. So I guess this will be one of the steps to becoming more "outward" looking, I hope......

1st December 2010

I realised it's been a while since I last blogged. Somehow I do not seem to have anything I wanna talk about of late, until today......

It's already the end of the year. It really scares me to realise how the year has slipped past my hands without anything much accomplished. I think I will be the most miserable person when I see Jesus face to face. I know He has given me a lot. But I really have used so little relative to it. I was just looking through some websites on self-improvement and I recall somewhat the drive and ambitions I had when I first started work. I was going for the world man. Now, I feel like some turtle or something with my head shrunk in my own little world, oblivious to what's happening around me.

From this I have gathered 3 conclusions:

1) Comfort zone is one of the biggest dream killers known to man, or maybe just me. Many aspects in my life I have settled for without much of a fight anymore, though I know I am bigger than that. Somehow, I just do not want to put in any effort to fight anymore for any thing.
2) I am not driven. I have been told that what I really lack is a vision. Maybe so. If so, the vision better be big enough to supply me with the strength to crawl out of my stupor. Right now, I question whether if I do get one in my life, would I wanna go through the rut of starting my engine all over again to make a go at it.
3) I am by nature lazy. Knowing all these about me and my character, I will not be surprised if I go home tonight and immediately dig out my library of blu-rays and dvds for a movie to watch.......