whoooooo hoooooo

You have met all of the requirements for ECFMG certification.

step 1, step 2 ck, step 2 cs. yessssss. besides, i couldn't go through the agony of revisiting krebs and friends. thank God.

racism

i am chinese and therefore i'm:
1. comfortable with most overseas chinese, as dislocated as i am.
2. fascinated by the sophisticated intricacies of the language.
3. happy to parlay the asian exotica to my advantage.

although it's tough identifying with:
1. the encrusted weight of our confucian philosophy.
2. our modern overweening pragmatism.
3. and nonexistent privacy.

annual d&d

if you follow sgp news, it's time of the year for the annual psle* parents' song and dance about how unreasonable the exam was. every year, end november, these will happen:

1. clever kids weep after sitting certain papers, and

2. their parents indignantly write to the press.

my reflections:

1. the culprits are almost always math or science . never english. but it's the english that is cringeworthy!

2. haven't they heard about the curve?

3. five years on, they'll have forgotten the score. it's really not that big a deal.

4. the real deal is learning to move on when you are stumped - better learnt at the lower end of the food chain.

*primary school leaving exam.

a mother's prayer

but his mother treasured all these things in her heart.

a mother sees, and is amazed, and dreams, and remembers, in the quiet places of her heart, and hopes, like that mother long ago, that her children will grow in wisdom, and learn to live, and walk faithfully with their God.

brrrrrrrr

today's high is going to be 69 degrees, and that's the high for the week. it looks like i'll be nursing chilbains scales cracked lips fissured cuticles and red nose for the rest of the year.

at the back of my mind is this ominous thought - if this is fall and we haven't even adjusted the clocks and the trees haven't shed yet, what more am i going to be able to extract from my closet when winter pops by?

cold weather is unquestionably best appreciated on a postcard.

my song

amazing grace shall always be my song of praise

for it was grace that bought my liberty

i do not know just why he came to love me so

he looked beyond my fault and saw my need

...how marvelous that grace that caught my falling soul...
- dottie rambo

i am thankful that there was one day when grace met the brokennness and, unasked, paid the price for my peace. this is the song i want sung at my memorial service. it is the story of my life.

nobel peace prize

albert schweitzer

martin luther king jr

andrei sakharov

mother teresa

lech walesa

desmond tutu

arafat/rabin/peres

barack obama??

not to belittle anyone, but this guy first appears two years ago as presidential candidate and has yet to show much beyond rhetoric for his less than a year in office. perhaps we should rename it the nobel potential prize and allow the man to go on to an illustrious rest of his career.

stuff i want to have

1. a warmer for the bathing soap. brrrr.
2. a mute button for Dog, to use when he announces HOM's return from work.
3. a magic device that will de-static-ize me painlessly.
4. a vacuum cleaner that will work on animals.
5. a heating system for the toilet seat would help too.

little red dot

what we have is an uninformed beast held in thrall to fear. long before napoleon and squealer and co., there was jeroboam and his two calves, which pretty much summarizes it all.

the elements:

1. a bastardized creed. not jerusalem, but dan and bethel. not YHWH, but his new representatives. not demos, but aristos or pluto.

2. an over-arching fear of retribution. withdrawal of privilege. unholy scrutiny. loss of happiness.

3. a herd of well schooled peoplelettes who believe, all good, some better, study hard, don't rock the boat.

4. and some fringe elements who are idealistic, or courageous, or realistic, or cynical, or have given up.

dedication

to the little japanese cook.

last year, for thanksgiving dinner, we had an iron chef-esque face off between HOM and J2. today i discover the cranberry sauce from the meal at the back of our refrigerator. there are two colors on the sauce which are not native. fungus niger et ravum.