I'm Back

Well, looks like I spaced for more than 7 months. I shall give no excuses cause it's a proven fact that my memory is hopeless when it comes to such things. Well, let's see.... quite a bit has happen since I last posted, where to start, where to start. Let's see, I made new friends, missing with old friends, lost an old look and gained new confidence. All in all, feelin' great and ready to tackle what's ahead.

Here's a quick go through of recent events:

April: Warded in hospital. > 1st trimming of skin flap.

May: reentered ACMS to continue Pre-Med. > Made plenty of new friends. > Enjoyed myself.

June: Chillin'

July: Still Chillin'

1st half of August: Study (a bit) > Exam > End of Pre-Med.

2nd half of August: Warded in hospital. > Final trimming of Skin flap.

September: Preparing for trip to Russia. -A hell lot of shopping. > Meeting old friends (felt great).> Trip to Russia (23 Sep) - meeting more new friends. > Arrival in Russia (24 Sep)

October: Life in Volgograd. > Here's where things are now

Now, what to say next........

Well, Volgograd is a very B-E-A-Utiful city (but the airport was quite a let down.) Anyways, I've been here for a month now and I can safely say that I have never in my life seen a city quite like this one. It's quite a big city, 100km long but bout' 5 km wide with a population of bout 1.3 million.

Now for another quick run thru, this time on my life here.

1st week: Touchdown in Volgograd Airport. Believe me when I say that this airport leave a lot to be desired and it does not do the city justice. Why? one may ask. Well the city itself is advanced enough in terms of tech but when you land in the airport, you'll feel like you just landed in a third world country with only the most basic of facilities but once you leave the airport, it's a whole different story. Once out of the airport, we were greeted with a beautiful view of trees with golden leaves. Oh yeah, the temperature was awesome. It was nice and cool like in a air-con room. On the next day, we were treated to a quick tour of the city. I won't bother talking about the tour because I just do not have the words for it, you can check out some of the highlights of the tour in my Facebook profile. The days after that were rather uneventful except for the usual hassle of getting into a new Uni.

2nd week: This week is actually rather uneventful too. Classes have started and we have only two subjects - Russian and Chemistry (for two months, haiz......). Russian's both interesting and a serious pain in the a*** all at the same time. We have 2 Russian teachers, one is great and the other is....uh....uhm...uhh.... well, is there a more polite word for b*t*h? I also have mixed feeling for chemistry. Lecture felt like a marathon, the lecturer speaks fast but not well so some of the words she says becomes unintelligible. The lecturer for our practical part was pretty good and her English sounds a lot more normal.

3rd week: This week is completely uneventful. Getting used the city now.

4th week: Things are starting to get cooler now and its not so refreshing anymore. Got a new chemistry lecturer for a new chapter. This new lecturer seems to be hated by 90% of the seniors I asked and after attending her lecture, I can understand why. She strikes me as a sadist because she seems to enjoy giving out punishments as she laughs when she does so. By the way, the way she speaks English is unusual and its kinda hard to understand what she means.

5th week: I got my first taste of negative temperature. Man, was it cold. Walking out the hostel felt like walking into a freezer but other than that it's still a uneventful week so far.

That's it this time from this lazy blogger. More chronicles in Volgograd next time.

Of Yoga and The Snake

Everyone has their believes and religion and everyone is entitled to practise those believes but no one has the right to judge another religion. Look, before I continue any further, I want to say I do not intend to offend anybody and start something and if you think this post offends you, speak out by commenting and I will remove it if there are more than 5 different people are offended. I'm writing this because I just read an e-mail sent to me by one of my friend about yoga and want to give my opinion on that, its a forwarded e-mail. Long story short, it says yoga is a form of spiritual exercise aimed to arouse the Hindu spirit of the snake and open the third eye which lets a person see into another world. In the e-mail, this is made a reason why Christians should avoid it. 1st of all, I'd like to say I am not christian but I do know a thing or two bout the religion. In Christianity, the snake is viewed as evil but not every religion says so. Yoga need not be a spiritual exercise , it can be just exercise. That is if you view it to be so. Okay, I know some reading this will be thinking its none of my business and yeah , I guess it really is none of my business but I'm gonna write about it anyways.

The thing is, everyone is allowed to do anything they like as long as it is well within the confines of the law. Here's what I think about Christians practising yoga - it is perfectly OK. I mean c'mon, if you're a stout believer in Christianity, I don't think doing a few poses will make you bad or evil, right? Besides if you think that a christian doing yoga makes the person deviate from Christianity, then let me ask you this- what do you think of those who actually believe in the spiritual power of yoga? Do you feel that the devil already has them, that they no longer have hope? If not, then how can a Christian be corrupted simply by doing a few movement and poses.

Yes, those poses are symbolic of animals but only if you view them to be so, if you don't then they are no more than movement and poses that helps one's health. Ever heard of Chinese martial art or wushu? The movements in wushu are largely based on the movements animals - the mantis, the tiger, the monkey and even the snake. When a person practises the movements in these forms of wushu, they in a way become one with the animal they are mimicking and make every strike, every kick more than just a strike and a kick. For example, a person that fights in the tiger style will move in a way symbolic of the power and aggression of the tiger and a person fighting in the style of the snake will move as if he is flowing and his strikes will be fast and accurate like that of a snake striking prey. So if you think yoga is bad because it supposed to summon a snake spirit, then do you think the same for the snake fighting style of wushu?

In the e-mail, there are supposed instances of people losing their mind because practising yoga opened their third eye and let them see in to the world of demons. Well here's another word to describe the "Seeing into the demon world" - HALLUCINATION. If you practise yoga and you see things, do not go blaming yoga without thinking. If something like this really happens to a person, he is in need of immediate medical attention because hallucination is one of the tell tale symptoms of schizophrenia which is a form of mental illness that we normally view as craziness.
Chances are that the things the person see is not real and are just figments of his imagination caused by stress or substance abuse rather than some evil spirit.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that if a person wants to do yoga, Christian or not, just let him do it for its his choice and its not our place to judge another religion's believe no matter what we think of it. So if you think yoga will somehow make you bad, then don't do it and if you feel that its good for your health, the just go for it. Remember this, a belief is powerful only if you believe. That is why its called a belief and not something else.

Chain E-mails

Ever received E-mails containing a story about a couple of lovers and their supposed tragic demise or some 'scary' ghost story and at the end of the e-mail there is a line saying forward the frickin' e-mail or something bad is gonna happen to you or your family? Well, I know I have. To me this sort of mail is seriously annoying. I am quite superstitious thanks to my upbringing so in the past, I would believe in the threat and forward the message thinking "hey, better safe than sorry. Its just a few e-mails anyways" . But after a while, I get sick of those mails and don't even bother trying to forward those mail. Why? Simple, it is irritating having to forward such BS to like twenty people just because some a**hole decide its fun to play people's fear of the unknown so nowadays I just delete any mail that even hints that it is a lousy chain mail.

This phenomenon of sending and receiving anonymous letters (electronic or not) saying bad things will happen to you if it is not forwarded is not something new. It predates the Internet by hell lot. Don't believe me? Go ask your parents whether they ever heard of people sending and receiving during their time. You are likely to get a positive answer, if not go check out websites such as wikipedia and bet'cha gonna find what I've said is true. Some may think that, I'm making a fuss over nothing. Maybe I am, but I don't care as long as I get my opinions out. Those who think I am making a fuss over nothing, have you ever consider what effects do these chain e-mails have on a person's psyche. You and I may just shrug it off as nothing more than a nuisance or a sick joke but there are people who are extremely superstitious or gullible that they actually believe it and does exactly what the mail says.

Not every superstitious fellow out there will wise up like I did and stop believing in such crap instead they may end up forwarding every single chain mail they receive until they become fed up and terminate their E-mail addresses or worse themselves (I know its a little far fetched but improbable is not the same as impossible).

If you are someone like that,please believe me when I say that chain e-mails are nothing more than normal though irritating e-mails and if you receive one, just ignore it. If you hear any sort of rumour about someone's misfortune because of his neglect to forward a chain mail also ignore it. Rumours are rarely true and even if it is, it very likely has been bend and warped to make it sound more interesting. Even if that rumour is 100% true that someone experienced some misfortune and that he did not forward a chain mail, it cannot be concluded that his misfortune is caused by that chain mail. Why? Simply because there are plenty of people that don't give a horse's rear about chain mails and yet they thrive and are very successful.

On the other hand, if you're thinking of starting a brand new chain of such e-mails, consider first how would you feel if you were to receive some death threat from someone whom you don't even know. Well, that feeling is more or less how a person who receive a chain e-mail will feel. If you simply don't care and still send that mail you're a true blue a**hole that should have your own life f**ked up a bit just so you would know the feeling of what you say would happen in your little prank.