Sawing your way to fame

Joshua Bell plays the violin.

So does Itzhak Perlman.

Both men are world-class musicians, with world-class reputations. Joining this list is Takako Nishizaki of Japan. I just love the way she plays The Butterfly Lovers.

These musicians are known the world over for their amazing virtuosity, as the violin is not an easy instrument to play, let alone master.

Just two days ago, I was convinced that you can make good music out of just about anything. Be amazed. Be enlightened. See the video below!

Now imagine getting that thing on the plane. Sheesh….

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Airbus at Kuching Waterfront

What??!!

Sorry for the unusual title, but I had to grab your attention. I was taking a walk along the waterfront with my uncle just yesterday, taking photos, when I noticed something rather unusual.

 

 

There’s just something about the name that I don’t get.

Is it a bus? Check.

Made by Airbus. Definitely a no no.

Nothing like the real thing:

I wonder why the bus company decided to put an ‘Air’ there. Should call it ‘Road’ Bus la…

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‘Define: Google’

It’s hard to believe that it just happened. In fact, it’s so hard to believe, that only after years of ‘Googling’, I had just ‘discovered’ one of Google’s most powerful search operators: ‘define:’.

Go ahead and try it! It works like a charm… =)

Now, I am not writing this article to tell you what late bloomer I am. It’s just that instead of scouring the web, conducting dictionary searches and performing cross-searching across multiple sites, I found that a way to get the ‘best of both worlds’, was to simply use the search operator ‘define:’. In short, Google gets to do the dirty work (nearly all of it), with sleeves rolled up.

The result can be seen below.

Too good to be true right? It’s no wonder Google has such immense sticking power.

Let’s just try another keyword to define….

 

Heck, no harm trying anyway…

And what do I get?

Hmm…sad, obviously nothing to shout about, except that my name being popular among the folks in Britain at one time.

 

And another…

  
Hmm..nothing very interesting, looks like Google hasn’t exactly moved with the times…

So we need to be a little more specific with Mr. G (Google!)…

Ahhh…that’s better. Have fun defining!    

 

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Prosperity with Google

You cannot possibly get any luckier than you’d normally do when using Google Indonesia. Just switch the language to Indonesian and this is what you’ll see.

Get what I mean? Lol!

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Getting Bitten by my Viola

I forgot to bring my shoulder rest to tonight’s string practice! For those who do not know what a shoulder rest is, it’s a little device that you place just under your violin or viola, to create a comfortable distance between your shoulder and the base of the violin or viola, so it makes a lot of difference when playing through 2 hours of difficult pieces!

A typical shoulder rest

Can you imagine vigorously through three pieces for 2 long hours with a piece of metal biting into your jaw? If that’s bad, I couldn’t stop playing…sigh…

 

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Afterlife

It had been a very sad day, for today was the day my friend was laid to rest, marking the closing of the final chapter of his short yet colorful life. His passing was unexpected, and we all thought what a bright future this young man had ahead of him. Alas, that was not to be, for God loved him so much he was called to the House of the Lord last Thursday evening, Singapore time.

I knew Jonathan personally, though not as well as some of my other schoolmates. He and I used to discuss at length some of the latest computer games and strategies.

He had touched my life, and the lives of many others.

Life is so fragile.

When I learned of his passing, a day after he drew his last breath, it was a  stark reality I could not accept. I had barely gotten the chance to tell him how much I appreciate his friendship, and now Jon is gone.

His passing was a real awakening for me, and probably even to those who were close to him. I realized that life is too short to squander, complaining about trivialities, whining, and procrastinating. That life is meant to be enjoyed, and cherished. That the difficulties we often encounter in life, as reminders that we still have many things to accomplish, for ourselves, and for others. That the reason why our hearts still beat in us, as the Lord’s way of reminding us, that the days we have left to roam this earth, to make a lasting impact on the lives of others, are numbered.

It is through Jon’s passing, though tragic, that I humbly believe, many people will be inspired and touched, in ways that could have not been possible if he had still been with us.

Thank you Jon for the times we had spent together. The Lord loves you.

Rest in peace my friend.

 

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The Sun Sets in the West

“Our rather limited intellectual capacity as human beings to recognize some of mother nature’s laws means that we are just too human not to be repeat offenders.”

The sun sets in the west.

So it has to rise in the east.

These are truths. Yet truth is subjective, as Galileo had so well demonstrated during his lifetime, getting entangled in a web of controversy with the Catholic Church of his time.

In those days, knowing the truth was dangerous, possibly even deadly. The truth of that day was knowing that the earth was at the center of the universe. And nobody challenged that truth, except Galileo.

But our scope of understanding is limited, the vast archives of the knowledge humankind has accumulated throughout our very brief existence on this earth notwithstanding.

Our rather limited intellectual capacity as human beings to recognize some of mother nature’s laws means that we are just too human not to be repeat offenders.

Newton recognized that it is gravity that causes all things to fall to the ground. Today, we know that gravity causes all things to stay on the ground, largely because our schools tell us so.

Fire is hot, and it burns. It burns, and it cooks your meal, yet is has the potential to kill you.

If it does kill you, a chain of very predictable events will start to unfold. Your obituary gets published in the local papers. People will flock to your funeral. People will cry. And when people cry, it makes other people sad, who will also probably cry. You will be deeply missed by your loved ones. But if you died in a plane crash, gravity is to blame.

And Newton would have be proven right once again.

If you kill a man, have just taken a man from his family, made his wife a widow, and left his child fatherless. You have sowed the seeds of sorrow, planting vengeance, hate and fear into the hearts of his loved ones. You run away from the authorities, for fear of being prosecuted. You hide from the face of the sun, and stalk the streets by night. You become a fugitive. In this scenario, even the law of probability applies. Chances are, you will get caught, and get thrown into prison, or even shot or hanged, if by some chance you were born in China.

Yet, like I mentioned earlier, truth is subjective.

If the man you killed was a murderer, and you took his life because he was after the lives of your loved ones, then you are a hero. The judiciary decides that you acted in self-defense. All charges against you are dropped. You are acquitted. You are a free man. It’s no wonder lawyers always win.

But didn’t you just kill a man?

What about his family? To them, are you not a murderer too?

Maybe mother nature is constantly playing pranks on us.

Whether we like it or not, we are part of a system, and part of this system will we always be. The truth will prevail. And we belong to this truth.

 

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