have you ever had the feeling that you know that you’re awake and yet kinda spaced out too?
that’s been my mode for the whole day today. and of course, once i’m out in space, friends bump into me when i’m wandering about aimlessly looking half-dead.
i wonder what they must’ve been thinking.
the main reason why my blog has gotten more boring at this public level is because i choose to write in a vague fashion.
i don’t specify names in here unless i’m pretty sure the person(that happens to be my friend) will be alright with mentions in here and that i’m writing about them in a nice way.
also, these past few years i’ve chosen not to have a large social circle and i find i’ve been coping pretty well. i’m not one that thrives on attention from friends in general. i’m content with just a few close, treasured ones 
less people to blog about, therefore.
once, someone complained that some people take blogging too seriously. they pour out their personal lives on their very public blogs and complain bitterly when they discover that people other than those who have been informed personally of the blog’s existence actually read it! gasp! the horror! shocking! i found it to be extremely true.
which is why i choose to tone down my public style of blogging. keep it simple. post up things that might actually help people. hearing my rants and ravings won’t exactly benefit people right? they’d just be thinking “what a disgruntled girl! doesn’t she feel happy at all?” well duh i don’t complain 24/7. but sometimes, its therapeutic in a way to vent. just not publicly. cos not everybody is interested in your life.
a friend once commented he didn’t like the way he was mentioned in a certain blog post very long waaaay back. after reading it carefully i realised he had valid reason for complaining. i came late for a meeting and took offence at a simple criticism he made. and blogged about how he criticised me, albeit the fact that i slyly did not mention his name. which is bad i guess, even if he did do something wrong, cos me ‘paiseh-ing’ him publicly wasn’t very nice either. even if others didn’t know who i was referring to, he knew it and felt extra guilty. it brought me down to the same level of low.
so now, i choose to write bland, if not more positive stuff on my blog like sermons. cos its neutral, its safe and neither do i crave for a steady readership. i’m no wendy cheng but neither do i feel the need to be sharing too much ehs?
i’m satisfied with life now. no, don’t mistake this for complacency. i’m just happy with what God has given me and i make the best of what i have. don’t thirst for fame, fortune or mass likeability. its best being myself. boring, but genuinely me.
had my psychology test on friday, so these 2 terms are somewhat fresh in my mind. they represent the 2 major views on health.
holistic : mind + body = 1 unit
dualism : mind is seperate entity from body
lets touch on dualism first.
- the body is viewed as a machine, analyzed in parts and understood in mechanical terms
- the disease is a result of exposure to specific pathogens
- illness = breakdown of machine
- doctor diagnoses fault and fixes or replaces parts of body
so, dualism is basically the foundation of the biomedical model, which laid the foundation for modern medicine and its technology. however, it cannot fully account for why patients do not respond ocassionally to treatment, places emphasis too much on the illness rather than observing health behaviors and with current patterns of chronic illnesses where devp and treatment affected by psychosocial factors, an alternative model is desired in place of dualism.
in the holistic system,
- Freud says that unconscious emotional conflicts are converted into physical ailments.
- biological processes work with social processes.
- illness is seen as a result of many factors
- patients are in part responsible for their conditions
in short, psychological factors are not only possible consequences of illness but also are contributors. as mentioned before, chronic illnesses depend very heavily on this model. for example, when a diabetic patient is depressed and moody, she would be more likely to delay her insulin shots. if anxiety takes over a cancer patient, he might not want to go for chemotherapy.
[can’t seem to think anymore. but i’ll be back with part 2. i have a point. i promise.[
today was a good shopping trip. managed to buy a huge set of headphones 
and 2 christian-themed tees.
will have to cease the shopping for a very long time, may i add.
anyway, paid a visit to ICON @ bugis. heard of it before but never really committed it to memory until ros said she wanted to buy a new tee. so it was off to Little Lamb’s store and it was located at ICON. didn’t have to think much to find the building cos the moment we walked out of the main building, i saw breadtalk and we jaywalked across(shhh!).
anyway that building has 6 storeys. amazing huh. best part is that it is fully air-conditioned! my kind of place! cos i tend to pespire rather easily. lol. saw an ex-schoolmate(SBM) who stared at us rather viciously for some strange reason. funny, considering the fact i’ve never spoken to said person before(or known on a personal basis). hmm.
was talking to a friend online and she was moping about the loss of her ex-boyfriend(she allowed me to write about it here provided i don’t include her identity). he dumped her around this time of the year for her best friend. tough luck, eh? i know diehard romantics will be all aghast and wonder why a guy could be so heartless as to pull of such a stunt nearing V-day but lets all be pragmatic okay? and every year, around this time, she gets kinda down in the dumps. and i always tell her the same thing. its not worth it to be this upset over a guy. cos if you are ever looking to place hope on a fellow human being, you’ll be crushed.
alas, she is unable to find it in her heart to actually listen to me and i don’t blame her the slightest bit. its easiest to dole out advice as the third party(onlooker) but when it comes to receiving harsh yet perfectly true criticism, even when cushioned by a concerned friend, it never is easy and it never will be.
i myself am guilty of not being able to listen to well-meaning advice.
but i also don’t like it when people criticize not for the sake of encouraging you, but rather to bring you down. doesn’t that make you feel lousy?
however, is there a standard way of advising people without making them feel bad about themselves?
there are 10 guidelines(not in order)
1) Pray before talking
2) Think really carefully(are any of my words too strong? is it straightforward?)
3) Try to recall how your friend reacts to similar advice(like did he/she react strongly)
4) Correct body language (actions like cross-armed means stubborness)
5) Speak in a gentle tone (softer please)
6) Do it in private and not embarass the person(how would you like it?)
7) Choose a nice happy time to tell(receptiveness goes up in happiness)
Phrase it in a way you yourself might like to hear it
9) Assure the person that you’re not bent on judgement, that you merely want to help
10) Stay calm in all circumstances, even if friend recoils in shock and disgust.
i dont claim all these to be MY suggestions, most of them i’ve heard from sermons(most recently one by DSP Joe Ong and his wife Debbie). and yeah, i find them to be pretty useful. not that i’m really cautious and stick to those guidelines religiously, but they do come in handy when the situation gets sticky eh.
i’ve never actually followed the Heartlanders Series on Channel 5 ever since i entered nursing. but ever since i caught an episode of it, i found it very…educational.
This is ‘Lisa’. I’m sure you should be able to recognize her if you have watched a couple of ch8 dramas. she’s Priscelia Chan and she’s 27 this year. I have no idea how old ‘Lisa’ is supposed to be but ‘Lisa’ is…’Timmy’s’ mother.
Take a look at the boy in the striped shirt. he is 14 years old(in real life). he plays ‘Timmy’. The fella in the black shirt is 20 years old and plays ‘Ryan’(who is dead). and the girl plays ‘Fanny’. she’s 21 but plays a 16 year old girl who has now the hots for a 15 year old ‘Timmy’ after her boyfriend ‘Ryan’ died.
So let’s do the maths for ‘Lisa’ and ‘Timmy’.
27 - 15 = 12
i don’t know how come ‘Lisa’ ‘gave birth’ to ‘Timmy’ at age 12. i think mediacorp is promoting some very bad values for young primary 6 girls to follow.
Yesterday was the day I went for my beloved primary school’s Magicland celebrations. hope to be helping out every year from now on. seeing all those cute primary school boy-boys made it sooooo enjoyable 
Also, i went for ros’s bday bbq and i did lots of the bbq with jasmine! should have brought my n95 mask but den again lets spare the residents from getting freaked out by that mask.
Today was the day that I attended the 2nd service in the new worship center of my church!!! and it was awesome because the worship center is big enough to hold a thousand plus people soon there will be more believers filling up those scarcely empty seats.
Here are some articles/blogposts i find interesting/useful for health empowerment
Subjectivity
Beautiful People and Their Insecurities
Diabetic Ketoacidosis
Jaundice
Pleurisy
DO NOT STEREOTYPE ME AS A NERD. lol. who am i kidding?
