We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." Aristotle

I was doing this English literature course for a while. At the beginning, it was a disaster to start with. I had no idea what theiambic pentameter was on the first week while the teacher was discussing about Shakespeare’s sonnets and Petrarch’s renaissance lyrics. It was not an easy course at all especially for non English speaking background people. But the teacher is very good at explaining and this course grows on me slowly. After third week, I had to start the first assessment. I chose “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Coleridge. It was one of the hardest assignments I have ever done. I had no idea where to start. In the essay, I have to discuss about poetic techniques, images, themes and how they are related to each other. I was not expected to get even a pass grade after I submitted the killer essay. I was received this assignment back last week and I got the pass grade!! Yahoo!
The next assignment will be either pride and prejudice or Wuthering Heights. I am still deciding between these two. One is romance genre and the other is Gothic. I am a huge fan of Jane Austen and had read P&P for a couple of times, watched the movie (four times) and BBC series. So I was determined to do P& P until I saw the question of Wuthering Heights. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee which one should I choose. Let’s see my next essay result. Finger crossed.

I think it is very important to be true to oneself. Insincerity brings fake face and it will not help to develop the true friendship. There is a saying, “family could not be chosen, but friends can be.” This saying is so true. We have the absolute choice to whom we would like to be friends with and we would like to stay close with. Fake, self centered and egocentric people will never be able to experience the taste of true friendship because of their selfishness. When we start to make friends, we tend to choose the people with same personalities. Same personalities bring the common topics to talk and activities to do together. Even though we have different of opinions, we try to look from different angels of those opinions and could stay in peace in spite of having disagreements. Once we get to know friends, we learn more about friends. By doing so, it could also bring disappointment because the friends we think sincere turn out to be fake and egocentric. We learn something truth facts about their personalities which are contrary to the beginning. In this case, we have to make a decision whether we should stay close like before. If the particular friend is egocentric, it is better to keep some distant so that we could save ourselves from draining in those fruitless friendship.
But on the other hand, if we ever come across with true friends, we should not let go of the opportunity. We should cherish the every moment we spend together with them. Only fair weather friend would stay next to others whom they think would be advantageous for them. In times of difficulties, they could not be found anywhere, whereas true friends will stay and share the sorrow and difficulties of their friends. True friend accept his or her friend for who they are and who they are not regardless of their status. True friend has a best interest for others and would not sway away in need.
Life would be meaningless without true friend. Life is a long journey and not easy one to go through by oneself. There will be always the time we need to share our sorrow, joy and happiness. Therefore, it is a blessing and a gift from God to possess a handful of true friends in one’s life.

Frank and explicit-that is the right line to take when you wish to conceal your own mind and confuse the minds of others. Benjamin Disraeii
“Honesty is the best policy” as the saying goes. What comes up in my mind is the question of the extent of the honesty we show to others. There is no doubt that the society would like the honest person rather than wicked and cunning. However the criteria we use in order to access the honesty of person is different from one another. Honesty could be expressed through one’s act, mostly importantly, words. But do we really like the honest, frank and explicit criticism from others? The answer will be depended on the different circumstances we face. From times to times, we need to discuss upon life issues with others and we would like to get he most sincere advice. In this case, it is very important for us to be able to analyze others opinions without bias.
To start of with, there are two major types of advices which are truth and frank and the latter is sugar coated, but inside is fruitless opinion. In terms of accepting others opinions, we have to overcome the denial phase of ugliness truth. Being frank and explicit, we express our own sincere feeling regardless of how ugliness it might be. The best example would be the medicine we take for illness. Even though it is bitter from inside, we take them willingly to get rid of sickness. Benjamin Disraeli made such a ironic statement regarding this matter. He said, “Frank and explicit-this is the best line to take when you wish to conceal your own mind and confuse the minds of others. Another good example would be from Jane Austen’s most beloved novel, pride and prejudice. At the beginning, Miss Elizabeth Bernard had a strong prejudice against Mr.Darcy because of his aloof behavior and comments on her own family. Even though comments were very true, it was hard for her to accept at first. She thought ill of him to be so outspoken.
On contrary to frank and explicit, sugar coated words are widely popular and accepted by people even though there might be little truth in it. Why people prefer to those words? The reason behind is those words are appealing for people’s heart. These words exclude the bitterness truth and make people feel better about themselves. In my personal experience, I learn a great deal of accepting the truth. I have grown up with two friends. We all went to the same high school. One of my friends always said the good thing about me no matter what, but the other told me her opinion very straightforward and blunt. So I thought the latter being not kind enough and I close my eyes to see the truth. When the times went by, I learnt that my friend who tells me her sincere opinion has a best interest in her heart for me, whereas the other one would make fun of me at my back. This is my high school experience and from this lesson, I have learnt to value the frank and truth opinion even though it contains true bitter facts.
Ugly truth is the bitter pills without sugar coating. Even it is bitter, it will do good for us. But on the other hand, words could be expressed in different ways to make it more comfortable for others to take and accept them. In real world, we have to deal with different kinds of people whom we are not close enough to tell the very frank and explicit opinion. In these circumstances, we could set up the boundary what we should say and how we should word to get the acceptable stage for others. By doing so, we add sugar coating in our words, and at the same time, we could say the truth facts. After all, we prefer to take a sugar coated tablet to get the inner bitter pill than plain bitter pill.

I have been away from Opera for a little while since I have made a move back to the city, Sydney. Since I arrived, I have been so busy with work, re settling back into the city life. Going to another city opened my eyes in many different ways. There are always pros and cons. In terms of multicultural community, Sydney is way better than Adelaide. Very vibrant I have to say. Finally, I am back HOME. My flatmates are very nice and getting along well with the flatmates is one of the very important things since I am away from Family. My flatmate is a full time worker, and after she comes back from work, she plays the piano during the night time especially. Our music taste is quite similar. She loves Classical Music and she plays a bit of Beethoven, Chopin, etc. She introduced those music to me and my little sister. Since then, we started to like the classical music. I am lucky enough to listen her playing. It is so relaxing to listen her piano playing. I appreciate to have her as a flatmate and a good friend.
The other day, she cooked the Indonesian Chicken Soup called SOTO AYAM. It is a chicken based soup and it comes with vermicelli noodle, fried tofu, fried shallot, bean sprouts, lime and tomato. All are very fresh and healthy since no oil is needed to add into the soup. Normally, I do not like the soup with tumeric in it, but this Indonesian soup won over me. You can buy at any asian grocery shop for SOTO AYAM Soup base. Go for SOTO AYAM!!
soto ayam

I would like to share this thai Commercial. It is a touching and inspiring commercial.
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When it comes to “friends” topic, things came up in my mind are “can be yourself”, supportive, positive criticism, and helping out each other. There are different types of friends. People who would like to make friend with someone else because of fame, status, and the benefits they could get out from that friend. But there are also people who make friends with others just for the simple reason- to keep company each other, share high and low of life.

We could not choose the family members, but we do have choices whom we would like to be friend with. In front of true friend, we can be ourselves and can do silly things. But some people started out to be simple and sincere, but the time goes by, we find out more about them and things turn out to be opposite ways.

Materialistic people would turn away if their friends become poor or have fallen to the ground from the high. They prefer titles such as Executive, Director, Doctor, Lawyer, Professor, etc…. In these friendships, true meaning of friend are invisible, but is covered by fake glamorous superficial materials.

True friendship comes with understanding to each other, forgiving, giving time, giving support (in everyway) and accepting for who we really are, but not our status, titles, or wealth. My friends can be anyone as long as they have an honest, sincere heart, but not materialistic, cocky and think highly of titles....................... So be wise in choosing friends and true blessing and joy could be experienced by true friendship.

Please critique my essay.


Moral value is very special part of individual and they are the standards of good and evil. It defines who the person is and most importantly it effects the people interaction in the whole society. People with different backgrounds would have slightly different moral values. Even though there might be differences, but the core standards of good and evil in the society today are the same. Those values may derive from religions, society, government and oneself. From all those sources, moral values and laws develop to maintain the society in peace. Why would we need laws in the society to keep it functioning? By looking back some of the laws, they do develop after having tragic accidents in people’s lives or nation almost collapses without those laws or endanger threatens the world peace. Laws are implemented by the authority and if the authorities are corrupted, good laws would not come up to protect the people. It is like a cascade among good laws, bad morals and authority. Ultimately however I truly believe that some of the laws are originated from bad morals, but not all and if the authority is corrupted, moral values of the country will deteriorate.
To begin with, it is not undeniable fact that good laws come into action after bad morals. Evil deeds could range from family and relationship abuse, homicide, assassinations, terrorism attack to wars. Millions of people suffer from the impact of those evil deeds originated from bad morals. One of best examples is nuclear control program. Why the whole world is so sensitive when the North Korean launched the missile test recently? It caused head lines in the media and grave concern all over the world. It threatened the world peace and security of the neighbor nations. Hiroshima Day is a never forgettable day for Japanese people since they were the first people who experience the inhumane nuclear bomb. We have left centuries behind after that tragic accident happened, but people in those affected area are still suffering for many years to go on. Therefore, the United Nations implement the laws against nuclear program. The same thing goes to the September 11 attack by terrorists. Correspondingly, any act which could threaten the human’s life will have zero level tolerance. In those tragic accidents, we could learn moral lessons from them and good laws are developed in order to protect the innocent people and most importantly to prevent them from happening again.

In these circumstances, governments play a huge role for bringing good laws into effect. Governments have the power to implement the laws, educate people in a wide range of media, foresee any unwanted effects in coming generations and promote the good culture among societies. Everyone agree to the fact that underage drinking and drug abuse are bad and they could block the every possible successful step of the youth. Now in Australia, both state and federal governments are campaigning for staying healthy life styles, educating young adults regarding underage drinking and drug abuse because those problems hamper the prosperity of the future nation. Recently, our legendary king of POP died of heart attack and most likely due to overdose of pain killer prescriptions. Now the US government is looking into the laws for stricter pain killer prescriptions. Celebrities are public figure and they have influence in the world beyond geographic and cultural boundaries. If more young people would imitate instead of learning moral lesson, the lives of the young could not be imaginable.
But on the other hand, it is vital that governments have to be accountable for their actions and laws. If the governments are corrupted and cultivate the culture of it, it could derange the moral values of the society as well. Numerous examples could be seen around the world. If the government becomes immoral, it becomes the people’s enemy and finally results in chaos. The Burmese military regime and Zimbabwean political figure, Mugabe are few to name. In the wild land, it is almost impossible to grow the paddy. In the environment surrounded by immoral and corrupted authorities, it is hard for moral values to grow. Therefore, I truly believe that moral authority and good laws no matter how they are originated from will keep the society in peace.

My GAMMY Study Buddy


I have been meeting up with one girl lately for next year exam. She had science degree and is now working as a sleep technologist and full time mum. She would usually bring her youngest son, 4 years old to the study place. She has three young kids and I am inspired by her energy and dedication. I am not so sure that I could do the same thing if I were her. Her whole family supports her to continue study to make her dream come true. She is such a hard worker and I truly believe that she would achieve her dream.

Today is PHOTO DAY
I had day off today and I was up late in the morning. In the afternoon, I was watching the I am sorry I love you, Korean tearjerker drama ( again procrastinating my study). The drama is superb, and I was moved by story. When I looked at the time, it was nearly five 0’clock. Here, the shopping center closes at 5:00pm on Sunday except some coles express shops. I had a plan in the morning to take photos of some flowers from the backyard (purple flowers are very beautiful) and orange tree. There is one orange tree at my backyard and I haven’t bought the oranges since last one month. How lucky I am, my house owner looks after the tree and I get to eat oranges.
Anyway I was late, so I had a bike ride to the coles express, bought the batter for my camera and then headed to the beach. It was quite dark when I get there so I missed the sunset and chance to take photos. There was no more shore at the beach as the sea swelled. But I still took some photos to make my riding worthwhile. I will be uploading some more beautiful scenery photos later this weeks or next weeks.

One of my best friends is getting married at the end of next year. This is news for me, we have been together since I started my university in here and our friendship never stops even though we began to work in different hospitals after graduation. She is Japanese, has very sense of humor (I add very, because there is a reason behind it.) She loves practical jokes and is good at telling jokes. We (me and anju) called her ever princess 18 because she is tiny, and has baby face with long hair.
While I was in Sydney, I met up with both of them, we had a usual meet up at anju’s place.Our trademarks are chicken, lemon flavored chips and white chocolate cake.
We met up countless of times during uni days for assignments discussion, future, family and girly chit chat, family meeting with anju’s dad, her little sister’s liz, ai’s parents and my little sister, for birthdays, for no other reasons, we usually buy these three items for our numerous celebrations. And this time, we did the same thing. This is one of the best memories I cherish. Simple and full of meaning. I wish all the best for my friend,Ai.

Getting back to face the reality

Well, after spending fantastic time in Sydney, it was time for me to go back to my (temporary) place. The day before I came back, my sister cooked the traditional fish broth soup which was really nice especially when eating together. I came back to the battle field of Emergency Department. Now I have been here for over three months and people get to know me and there is more fun at workplace than before. It is hard to warm up people within a short time, but once they get to know the person, they start to open up. I think it is quite normal. I have more friends now who I could talk to more and share the joke. As the saying goes, “there is always one back sheep in the family”, and I think the same thing at workplace as well, mean people.
Politics and power struggle at work are huge part of the workplace. I get to know who I could approach when I need help and who I just have to ignore and pretend that I just concentrate on my work. There was one person bugging me. One day, we have the difference of opinions on one of the patients and he talked to me from upper hand. I have been putting up with him for couple of times and I just talked to myself that now is the time to stand up for myself. I discussed with him regarding the issue, and told him that I was not happy with the way he talked to me and he could have told me in a better way. He apologized me for being too abrupt. Since then I have no problems for working with him. If I haven’t spoken up for myself, he might have been treating me the same way. I felt that I earned self respect and respect from him.

I have been away from this blog for long. I just have been busy with my work, my short trip to sydney for my little sister ( who turned 21st on 8th of June), and doing night shifts.
I have been procrastinating for writing essay and in my studies. Now I choose this topic, pull myself together and start to make a commitment again.

Procrastination has been part of life for some people since they are young. Why we want to postpone the lists to do which could have done in the present moment? The answer is the mental and physical challenge needed to overcome to accomplish the set goals. Human nature tends to follow the water flow and hardly go against the flow unless it is needed to. In this point, inspiration becomes an integral part of the great achievement and is a starting point of the long race, e.g. Triathlon. In order to enter the race, people need practices which require dedication, determination and perseverance. Without those qualities,, people would procrastinate the practices essential for triathlon. People dream big when they were young and inspire to follow their dreams no matter what. But once they get older, and face up with real life challenges, those hurdles weaken the people’s determination and cause them to put off their goals. Therefore, I truly believe that, “procrastination is the enemy of inspiration.”
Inspiration is the spur for smoldering desire to achieve. By virtue of inspiration, countless of mankind achievement have been recorded in the history and current pages and will continue in the same fashion in many years to come. Inspiration is followed by the burning desire and combination of these could grip the success firmly. Inspiration makes people realize what they want in their lives and put the people in the situation in which they follow their dreams with “do it now” attitude. This positive move beat the procrastination. Procrastination could be due to millions of reasons. Family, financial, so many other social and psychological factors are involved in those excuses and people have to prioritize what is important in their lives. Following the true inspiration and achieving would give the ultimate fulfillment and achievement of oneself. Sense of worth and genuine happiness are the key parts of healthy life and all of these qualities could be brought in by destroying the inner enemy- procrastination.
By beating procrastination, I lhttp://my.opera.com/mm9p/links/earn so much from my personal experience. I have been trying to learn how to play piano since I was in year 3 at University. Whenever I planned to take the classes, there were always something came up and made me to postpone my passion for piano. But last month, I have found the piano lessons from YouTube and the teacher, lypur, explained so well in those lessons and all I needed was good internet connection. Therefore I arranged to get the fast internet connection to my place straight away, and started watching lessons and practiced piano. When I started to practice, I feel joy, relaxing, sense of fulfillment and achievement. What tick in my mind is even now I started my inspiration for playing piano, and I feel inspired, and happy. If I achieve of my life goal to become a doctor, I could not imagine how much extent I would feel the positive feelings and sense of achievement.
One of the biggest lessons I learn from this experience is not to procrastinate by perseverance. There would be always obstacles and hurdles to test our abilities in life. Whether sticking to inspiration or giving up is totally our choice. In a year, there is no same season, there is no place where all the roads are straight, and the same principle applies when it comes to following inspiration. Procrastination causes no pain and there is no gain at the end.

I used to believe that marriage would diminish me, reduce my options. That you had to be someone less to live with someone else when, of course, you have to be someone more. Please critique my essay.Many thanks


Marriage is the ultimate commitment declared by two people to start a new life. It carries understanding and growing feeling. Since it is started by two people from different backgrounds, essential elements such as negotiation, being able to see through problems from different perspectives, forgiveness are needed throughout the marriage since no one is perfect. Successful marriage brings happiness, satisfaction and most importantly understanding to each other. But on the other hand, marriage could be ended up into nasty divorce if one party decides to act on his or her own will without taking any consideration towards other and it means that one person is needed to change to be someone who are not true to him or herself. Being honest with others and true to oneself are important factors contributing the healthy marriage. Therefore, some people believe that marriage could abolish the freedom of choices and options. But on the other hand, I truly believe that marriage would widen the options and convey the symbol of hope, love, joy, fulfillment and achievement of life if two people could overcome the problems and give understanding to each other.
Marriage is the blessing. Marriage brings two people to live together, figure out what their future might look like and start to learn to live harmoniously. It is different from single life in which there is no negotiation starting from trivial matters to life changing decisions. It is also support for each other’s need. In this instance, quality becomes vitally important in the essence of healthy marriage. To build a healthy relationship, it needs understanding to start off with. Difference of opinions will be inavoidable. If people could acknowledge to the fact that they are also different individuals, maturity and understanding grows. In this way, marriage could give the sense of security; broaden the options by supporting each other, leaving personal space if it is needed and happiness.
But on the other hand, if egotism, arrogance and selfishness are engaged in the marriage, marriage could be a disaster and painful journey to go through. It is not deniable that personality clashes and dispute would erupt on choices on daily activities, finical matter, social issues, life careers throughout the marriage. Combining two lives into one is not an easy job. Negotiation and forgiveness are heavily involved to minimize the conflict. `Those drawbacks might be seen as restrictions and lack of freedom by some people.
Ultimately however, I truly believe that marriage would not trim down the opportunities in life. If two people could work out on how things could be sorted, find out some alternative ways, and give support to each other, marriage extends two to certain numbers in the family and brings the incredible qualities such as maturity, happiness, understanding and life long love.