No, I am not William Wallace crying out his last word while getting tortured in Braveheart, though I am very much tempted to say that my predicament was almost similar.

Now that I think of it, it was not so bad. I could get used to this kind of life. I passed Cell Biology (amazingly) and now I have 3 weeks of free time. Nothing much to do sitting at home, yet nothing to do outside either. I could go and explore Prague, but somehow the idea does not seem inviting considering I have to do it alone.

So here I am, whiling away my life. I found something worthwhile to do though. Spending hours typing articles out of thin air for $3 a piece is not too bad. I am at my laptop almost the whole day anyway.

I am growing sideways I think. Not good.

I miss Malaysian food terribly.

As people grow, they learn things. And we all know that no man is an island. Everybody needs someone who can be counted on in times of difficulties. That is how the term “friend” came to be. I personally think, however, that the word means different things to different people.

People run away when they are afraid. Fear of the unknown, fear of insecurity and fear of loneliness. We run, hoping that the problem will go away. Sadly most of the time, it does not. I had to learn this the hard way.

When times go bad, many rely on friends and hope they can stay throughout the difficulties. It is worse if the problem arises between friends. I had the unpleasant experience and the scars remain until today to remind me. Yet, as are all things in life, the most wonderful things come in guises that we least expect. That friend went on to become one of my closest friends today.

Friendships endure storms, and at the end of it, if they survive, the bond becomes stronger. Ever wondered why there is a ‘ship’ in ‘friendship’? Like a real ship, to steer through the storm, all that it requires is teamwork. You need the captain and the crew. Both cannot work without the other. Friendship is a teamwork game.

Somehow, my mind fails to make the words express what I wanted to say. I realise that, the world is a much better place to live in if people just take everything as a stoic fact of life. And sometimes that involves stepping back, looking at the bigger picture and have the courage to laugh at yourself before inhaling deeply and trudge on, slowly, one step at a time.

I just passed biophysics and got credit for Anatomy and Czech recently. Praise the Lord!

It is really amazing sometimes, when you feel that there is nothing you can do and hopelessness and despair overwhelms the soul, and yet when the time comes, the Lord provides sustenance and His grace is more than enough to help you pass. I really thank Him for blessing me with favour with the biophysics professor. I really had no idea how to answer 2 out of 3 questions but luckily I still passed.

So now, there is only Cell Biology left and after that I am free for 4 weeks. Going to UK during the holiday, but feel really lazy to plan for it right now. Nowadays I just stay at apartment, going online, playing PC game (Dragon Age:Origins is awesome by the way) or just sleep most of the time.

It might be just me, but lately I noticed as if people around me are suddenly getting together out of the blue. My friends back in Malaysia are together. Two of my classmates finally got together recently after 1 year of pretending-the-thing-doesn’t-really-exist. Naturally, everyone was excited but the novelty wears off after some time. What, Cupid suddenly has too much free time?

Life is good, I am enjoying every moment of my time here. Whee..

Do you know that lasik is the most performed surgery in the US? One would figure that other surgeries like plastic or breast enhancement would top the list. No pun intended.

Lasik is virtually painless, and recovery period is very fast too. Patients can see clearly typically within 2 to 3 days. It eliminates the need for contact lenses or glasses.

Stahl Eye Center is the leading lasik surgery center in the US with good reputation and served by doctors who graduated from top medical universities like UCLA.

I stumbled across this on Facebook’s viral group – “We support the use of the name Allah by all Malaysians” – which I did not join, of course. (My principle – when in doubt, be passive.)

But the posts in the blogs are really enlightening. I did not even know that there is a Charter of Rights between St. Catherine’s monastery and Prophet Muhammad. The church has been under Muslim’s protection for ages, which is really amazing and makes me gush with gratitude.

In 628 AD, a delegation from St. Catherine’s Monastery came to Prophet Muhammed and requested his protection. He responded by granting them a charter of rights, which I reproduce below in its entirety. St. Catherine’s Monastery is located at the foot of Mt. Sinai and is the world’s oldest monastery. It possesses a huge collection of Christian manuscripts, second only to the Vatican, and is a world heritage site. It also boasts the oldest collection of Christian icons. It is a treasure house of Christian history that has remained safe for 1400 years under Muslim protection.

The Promise to St. Catherine:

“This is a message from Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them.

Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by God! I hold out against anything that displeases them.

No compulsion is to be on them. Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries. No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims’ houses.

Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God’s covenant and disobey His Prophet. Verily, they are my allies and have my secure charter against all that they hate.

No one is to force them to travel or to oblige them to fight. The Muslims are to fight for them. If a female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to take place without her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting her church to pray. Their churches are to be respected. They are neither to be prevented from repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenants.

No one of the nation (Muslims) is to disobey the covenant till the Last Day (end of the world).”

The first and the final sentence of the charter are critical. They make the promise eternal and universal. Muhammed asserts that Muslims are with Christians near and far straight away rejecting any future attempts to limit the promise to St. Catherine alone. By ordering Muslims to obey it until the Day of Judgment the charter again undermines any future attempts to revoke the privileges. These rights are inalienable. Muhammed declared Christians, all of them, as his allies and he equated ill treatment of Christians with violating God’s covenant.

A remarkable aspect of the charter is that it imposes no conditions on Christians for enjoying its privileges. It is enough that they are Christians. They are not required to alter their beliefs, they do not have to make any payments and they do not have any obligations. This is a charter of rights without any duties!

The document is not a modern human rights treaty but even thought it was penned in 628 A.D. it clearly protects the right to property, freedom of religion, freedom of work, and security of the person.

Go to this link to read the entire article: http://pahlawanvolunteers.wordpress.com/2010/01/03/prophet-muhammad’s-promise-to-christians/

It really is encouraging to read a different view on the controversial issue of church attacks recently in Malaysia. And Marina Mahathir has a post in her blog that sums up the conflicts in a very modern, compassionate way that encompasses the real spirit that true Malaysians really WANT in 1Malaysia.

http://rantingsbymm.blogspot.com/2010/01/confident-people-do-not-get-confused.html

I have hope, still.