just for fun

testing testing testing

a word on deferred hope

what do you do when you try again and again to fulfill your desires but never succeed....??
a) continue to try (according to einstein)
b) wait for God to fulfill the desire (according to Psalms 37:4)
c) give up (according to the writer of this blog)

Hope deferred makes the heart sick
But a longing fulfilled is a tree of life
Proverbs 13:12


(the following anecdotal definitions are quoted from Strictly Come Dancing, TV show from BBC)
Rumba

The dance relies on the age-old premise of the lady trying to {capture the attention of} the gentleman by means of her womanly charms. Incorporating all the elements of teasing and withdrawal, it is considered the most sensual of the Latin dances.


How routines should look:

The Rumba is romantic - there should be good interaction between the dancers to reflect this.

No heel leads: this means that the dancers must not walk on the heels of their feet. It must go ball flat onto ball of foot.

The hip action comes from the flexing and straightening of the legs, it's not just a case of wiggling the bottom.



Routines should include:

Forward or backward walks - as the Rumba is a fairly static dance so these walks are used to help the couples move around the floor.

Spot turns - a turn on the spot which takes three steps to either the left or to the right

Fan position - The girl goes on the man's left side at arms length and at 90 degrees to the man.


Cha Cha

A dance developed from a Cuban Rumba step, The Cha Cha. When the English dance teacher Pierre Lavelle visited Cuba in 1952, he realised that sometimes the Rumba was danced with extra beats. When he returned to Britain, he started teaching these steps as a separate dance.



How routines should look:

The Cha Cha Cha and the Rumba have the same basic steps, they are just danced to a different rhythm. The Rumba is romantic whereas the Cha Cha Cha is bright and lively.

It should be a cheeky dance.



Routines should include:

Very synchronised movements, working in parallel with each other.

Lots of bum and leg action.

The legs should not be outside the body frame.

happi dae

today is a happy day.. (at least, so far)

happy because
1. dun have to go to work today
2. had a good quiet time/facial mask time today
3. face is glowing
4. have plenty of 爱情的滋润 from my boy
5. listening to my fav chacha song and feeling the beat.. and tho not enjoying the dance with my body, am enjoying it in my spirit
6. just h.a.p.p.y. =D

for every good thing comes from God.

suddenly i rem the scene where jake discovers and wonder at the new world set before him, ready to discover and wonder at even more things in the days to come.

dance... dance... dance all day.........................

How Nerdy Are You?

Red-faced Asian drinkers at oesophageal cancer risk

Skin flush after alcohol indicates an enzyme deficiency that puts them at higher risk of getting oesophageal cancer. -Reuters

Tue, Mar 24, 2009
Reuters

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Asians who get red in the face when they drink too much alcohol have a higher risk of getting cancer of the oesophagus, US and Japanese researchers said on Monday.

They said about a third of East Asians -- Chinese, Japanese and Koreans -- have an enzyme deficiency that causes their skin to flush when they drink alcohol, and this trait puts them at higher risk of developing oesophageal cancer, an especially deadly type with five-year survival rates of 12 to 31 percent.

"People are fairly well aware of this physical characteristic, which is sometimes called the Asian alcohol response or the Asian flush," said Philip Brooks of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, whose study appears in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Medicine.

"I don't think people are aware that it is a warning sign for being at risk of esophageal cancer when they drink alcohol. That is what we wanted to point out," said Brooks, who worked on the study with Dr. Akira Yokoyama from the Kurihama Alcohol Center in Japan.

Brooks estimates that at least 540 million people have this alcohol-related increased risk for esophageal cancer.

He said the flushing response occurs in people who have a variation in the ALDH gene, which makes an enzyme called aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 that helps the body metabolize alcohol.

People with two copies of this gene variant have such extreme symptoms of flushing, nausea, and racing heart beat that they avoid drinking alcohol.

"They are basically at somewhat reduced risk of developing esophageal cancer because drinking alcohol for anybody is a risk factor for esophageal cancer," Brooks said in a telephone interview.

"The concern is for people who have one copy," he said, because they can tolerate drinking.

"In general, people with one copy have about a six to tenfold increase in the incidence of esophageal cancer."

Brooks said doctors should ask patients of East Asian descent of they have a history of facial flushing when they drink.

And he said university health professionals need to be aware of the link between facial flushing and cancer risk since many young people experiment with heavy drinking in college.

i need to refocus

i realised also that my life is STILL centering around a certain pivot, which caused me to spiral in to darkness and perhaps even depression earlier.

i had tot that i had already recovered, but apparently not.

i really need to try harder at shifting the pivot to something else.....................

another reason for me to look for a christian bf

i juz realised sthg tat i took for granted...

and tat is, i am DEFINITELY going to have a church wedding when i get married (as of now i am still single and available, pls dun be mistaken haha)

i have always assumed tat i'm definitely going to have a church wedding, but recently i realised that htis isnt going to happen unless i marry a christian. (cuz my church only allows couples who are both christian to get married in the premises, and besides it juz feels meaningless to get married to a nonchristian before God)

so. another reason for me to look for a christian bf!!!! muahahahahaa

gum gum bubble gum

Gum gum bubble gum - tat's my new life-changing phrase from now on.

my customer had (wanted to) utter it when i put on the watch for him, and its the first time i heard this phrase. let me say it again: gum gum bubble gum.

i had said worryingly "hmmm it still looks v loose on you..", with a little frown on my face, when he surprised me by saying "oh really? and i was about to say gum gum bubble gum!" and he proceeded to shake his wrist happily, trying to prove to both of us that teh watch is indeed fitting nicely.

i bet you're thinking ok gum gum bubble gum sounds cute, but wats so life-changing about it???

yup, on the surface, it means nothing. but it really gave me a new perspective on life after i heard it. because my customer didn't say "no it fits nicely" in a merely satisfied way, he said (ok was about to say) "gum gum bubble gum" cheerily. and there is a difference you noe, between those 2 phrases.

the first phrase shows that teh customer is satisfied with the watch, but the second phrase shows much more.. it shows that the customer is feeling jovial, even playful, despite deciding to spend $4k on a watch just 20minutes earlier. and teh keyword here is "playful". he's actually feeling playful even though he's spending 4k at one go in really bad times.

it suddenly struck me that this person infront of me, my customer, is (or rather, may, since i dun really know him v well) someone who can overcome bad times and difficulties with a pinch of salt.

and i think tats a v good model to follow isnt it? i'm really inspired to live my life like tat.. even in bad times you are joyful.. WOW. it really brings light into life. and not juz the person's own life but those around him as well, cuz as the bible says, a light on a hill cannot be hidden.

i now realise that being thankful for the good among the bad is good, but not good enough. its much better to be JOYFUL for the good things, to really ENJOY God's blessings even when you're going through bad times. THAT, i believe will really change many lives.

but hmmmm its not easy at all to shine like this for others. then we can only depend on our Lord Jesus to help us be like tat. TRUST, then TRY. =)


PS: ok either tat guy's really inspirational or he's really filthy rich enough not to care about a miserable 4k in bad times. i'm assuming the former.

of dance and romance: choosing a dance partner

i'm looking for a dance partner.. but i'm worried about romantic repercussions.

i dun want to develop romantic tension with my partners.. i wonder if its possible. i mean i havent developed any romantic going-ons with ALL my dance partners (at least, not when i was dancing w them =p) but all dance partnerships had failed, i htink possibly because somehow i didnt manage to develop any chemistry with them. so now teh question is, if i DO manage to develop some chemistry with them, enough to have a successful dance partnership, will this chemistry also spill into the romantic realm??

i do have some idea of what i'm looking for in a bf/husband, and i wldnt want to get into a rship juz cuz there's chemistry. and neither do i want to deal with a dance partner who feels agony whenever he holds my hand. (because of "so near yet so far" syndrome)

but its an entirely different thing if my bf wants to dance with me.. haha i'll gladly welcome that..

is fuel finally beginning to be replaced by solar??

GENEVA (AFP) - - A Swiss engineer completed Thursday the first ever round-the-world trip in a solar-powered car after more than 17 months on the road during which he crossed almost 40 countries.

Louis Palmer, 36, arrived back in Lucerne in central Switzerland in his "solar taxi" after covering 53,451 kilometres (33,213 miles) over four continents.

Since his departure on July 3 2007, he travelled through eastern Europe, the Middle East and India before heading to New Zealand, Australia, southeast Asia and China and finally the United States.

He finished his trip after a detour through France, England, Scandinavia and Germany.

"We have achieved our first world tour without using a single drop of oil," Palmer rejoiced at the end of his trip.

The three-wheeler solar taxi, which towed a trailer packed with batteries charged by the sun, reached speeds of 90 kilometres (55 miles) per hour. It had a battery for travel in the night and in cloudy conditions.

"One of my goals was to persuade as many people as possible that renewable energy is ecological, economical and reliable," Palmer told reporters.

His vehicle only broke down twice during the tour, he said, and surmounted the extreme heat in the Middle East and the hazardous terrain in America's Rocky mountains.

The small blue-and-white vehicle carried around 1,000 passengers, including United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Palmer has previously said the prototype for the solar taxi could be mass produced but that it would need serious modifications.

He said he plans to travel around the world in 80 days for his next challenge, but in a faster car.

The Imperial Pomegranates

editorials and pictures taken from www.luxury-insider.com..

Meticulously sculpted by Piguet and Meylan to resemble pomegranate flowers, these twin pocket watches were reputedly created for a Qing Dynasty emporer in the 18th century.



The Chinese court's interest in European clocks began in the late Ming dynasty (1368 – 1644) in the reign of the Emperor Wanli (r. 1573 – 1620) when he was presented in 1601 with two clocks, one of which had a chiming mechanism. With this introduction, clocks became a favorite collectible in the Chinese imperial court and were considered highly valuable commodities by both the Kangxi (r. 1662 – 1722) and Qianlong (r. 1736 – 1795) emperors of the Qing dynasty.

Europeans, missionary or ambassadors, were soon alerted of this passion to grow the imperial collections of clocks, and elaborate clocks or pocket watches were presented as gifts and tributes to gain entry to the highest ranks of Chinese society.

This spectacular pair of identical watches was reputedly given as a tribute to Qianlong Emperor (r. 1736 – 1795) by the English royal family during the reign of King George III (r. 1760 – 1820). Legend had it that the pair of watches was taken to China by George Macartney (1st Earl Macartney), who was appointed the first Trade Ambassador of Britain to the Chinese imperial court. He led the Macartney Embassy to Beijing in 1793 together with Sir George Staunton, his second in command.

Emperor Qianlong was well-known for his personal passion of collecting and amassed vast collections of Chinese ceramics, ancient bronzes and seals as well as an impressive assemblage of European clocks. Allegedly, the Emperor loved these watches and considered them one of his most cherished possessions.

This pair of watches apparently stayed in the imperial collections within the walls of the Forbidden City in Beijing until China entered a period of political turmoil which began with the Xinhai Revolution, a conflict in 1911 between the Imperial forces of the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911), and the revolutionary forces of the Chinese Revolutionary Alliance and ended with the abdication of Emperor Puyi (r. 1908 – 1924).

Chosen by Dowager Empress Cixi (b.1835 – 1908) while on her deathbed, Puyi ruled as the Xuantong Emperor between 1908 and 1911 and was the last Emperor of the Qing dynasty to rule over China. Apparently, on the day that Emperor Puyi was expelled from the Forbidden City in 1924, amongst the treasures that he took with him on exile were the pair of fabled watches. Supposedly, the minor chips to the enamel work were inflicted on the watches during this tumultuous flight from the palace.

Legend or reality, does it really matter? What matters is the watches are a testimonial to the cultural and political history of China. These watches exemplify the cultural exchanges between the West and China in the Qing dynasty and the desire of the West to gain a foothold in this mysterious country by appeasing its rulers with these objects of great beauty with their elaborate cases of costly materials and tiny movements.

They also testify to the Chinese emperors’ desire to emulate the technology of the West and to better understand the scientific and religious aspects of European cultures that the Jesuits sought to introduce in their country.

Regardless of the perhaps mythical itinerary of these watches, they did in fact weather the passing of time, the rise and decline of the Qing dynasty and the crossing of continents. They bore witness to an extravagant and fascinating way of life in the Chinese imperial court that is now lost forever



More important, these watches have obviously been cherished and treasured since their creation in the 1820s by numerous owners who were delighted by the exquisiteness and beauty of the case and the skilled craftsmanship of its mechanism. For almost 200 years, collectors have been mesmerized by the extraordinary pair of identical cases. Both cases were sculptured to simulate the flower of the pomegranate with the petals emblazoned in rich translucent red enamel, covering a finely engine-turned background of decorative motifs, evoking the veins of the flowers.

No cost was spared in creating the cases which are impressive in their dimensions of 66 mm and thickness of 22 mm, and reputedly inlaid with nearly 1200 natural pearls of varying sizes. The beauty of the cases is matched by a mechanism of such complexity which is rarely displayed by a quarter repeating watch, and is to the best of Christie’s knowledge, used exclusively by Messers Piguet & Meylan.

A watch of similar magnificence with the same special repeating mechanism as the Pomegranate watches, also manufactured for the Imperial Chinese Market was sold by Christie’s in Hong Kong in the Important Watches on 31st May, 2005 for HK$ 3,032,000 (US$ 394,160).

US doctors hail near-total face transplant

CLEVELAND, Ohio (AFP) - - Doctors hailed a groundbreaking transplant to replace 80 percent of a woman's face, saying Wednesday it is a means for the severely disfigured to "face the world" without humiliation.

It was the world's first near-total facial transplant and the fourth known facial transplant to have been successfully performed to date.

"We need the face to face the world," said lead surgeon and researcher Maria Siemionow of the Cleveland Clinic.

"There are so many patients there, in their houses, where they are hiding from the society because they are afraid to walk to the grocery stores. They are afraid to go to the streets, because they're called names, and they are humiliated.

"So we very much hope that for this very special group of patients, there is a hope that one day they will be able to go comfortably from their houses and enjoy the things which we take for granted."

Doctors released few details about the patient, save to say that she had been disfigured to the point where she could not eat or breathe on her own as a result of a traumatic injury several years ago which left her without a nose, right eye and upper jaw.

The hospital said the woman, who did not wish to be identified, had exhausted all conventional reconstructive surgery.

They hoped the operation would allow her to regain her sense of smell and ability to smile and said she had a "clear understanding" of the risks involved.

The woman is doing well and showing no signs her body is rejecting the new face, doctors said.

Facial transplants are controversial because they carry heavy risks and are performed to improve a patient's quality of life rather than as a life-saving operation.

There are also concerns that the operation could eventually be used for purely cosmetic purposes or as a means of altering someone's identity.

Doctors at the Cleveland Clinic stressed that such operations should be limited to a medical context in order to free severely disfigured people from the suffering associated with social isolation.

"The relief of suffering is at the core of medical ethics, and provides abundant moral justification for this procedure," said the clinic's chair of bioethics Eric Kodish.

"A person who has sustained trauma or other devastation to the face is generally isolated and suffers tremendously. The damage to the quality of life cannot even be put into words."

Leading medical ethicist Arthur Caplan agreed that this suffering was sufficient to "risk possibly killing someone to improve their appearance for a better quality of life."

"If there is nothing else to be done, it actually makes sense for them to take a risk that involves death," Caplan, the director of the center for bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, told AFP.

"It's ethically justifiable."

Doctors in France performed the first partial face transplant in 2005 on a 38-year-old woman, Isabelle Dinoire, who was disfigured in a dog attack.

In 2006, a Chinese man underwent a facial transplant including the connection of arteries and veins, and repair of the nose, lip and sinuses. A bear had mauled the 30-year-old farmer as he looked for stray sheep.

A 29-year-old French man underwent surgery in 2007. He had a facial tumor called a neurofibroma caused by a genetic disorder.

The tumor was so massive that the man couldn't eat or speak properly.

The Cleveland Clinic became the first US hospital to approve the procedure four years ago.

The latest operation was the first facial transplant known to have included bones, along with muscle, skin, blood vessels and nerves.

"Multiple layers of tissue from the bone to the skin to the muscle, this all had to be - kind of like a jigsaw puzzle - fit into the appropriate position and put in," said plastic surgeon Daniel Alam.

The woman received a nose, most of the sinuses around the nose, the upper jaw and even some teeth from a brain-dead donor.

Doctors paid special attention to maintaining arteries, veins, and nerves, as well as soft tissue and bony structures, as they recovered the donor's facial tissue.

The surgeons then connected facial graft vessels to the patient's blood vessels in order to restore blood circulation in the reconstructed face before connecting arteries, veins and nerves in the 22-hour procedure.