Friday, December 4, 2009
We go into denial because the loss is so unthinkable we can't imagine it's true.
We become angry with everyone, angry with survivors, angry with ourselves.
Then we bargain. We beg. We plead. We offer everything we have, we offer our souls in exchange for just one more day.
When the bargaining has failed and the anger is too hard to maintain, we fall into depression, despair, until finally we have to accept that we've done everything we can.
We let go. We let go and move into acceptance
.
In medical school, we have a hundred lessons that teach us how to fight off death, and not one lesson on how to go on living.
.
The dictionary defines grief as keen mental suffering or distress over affliction or loss; sharp sorrow; painful regret.
As surgeons, as scientists, we're taught to learn from and rely on books, on definitions, on definitives. But in life, strict definitions rarely apply. In life, grief can look like a lot of things that bear little resemblance to sharp sorrow.
Grief may be a thing we all have in common, but it looks different on everyone.
It isn't just death we have to grieve. It's life. It's loss. It's change.
And when we wonder why it has to suck so much sometimes, has to hurt so bad. The thing we gotta try to remember is that it can turn on a dime.
That's how you stay alive. When it hurts so much you can't breathe, that's how you survive.
By remembering that one day, somehow, impossibly, you won't feel this way. It won't hurt this much.
Grief comes in its own time for everyone, in its own way.
So the best we can do, the best anyone can do, is try for honesty.
The really crappy thing, the very worst part of grief is that you can't control it.
The best we can do is try to let ourselves feel it when it comes.
And let it go when we can.
The very worst part is that the minute you think you're past it, it starts all over again.
And always, every time, it takes your breath away.
There are five stages of grief. They look different on all of us, but there are always five.
Denial.
Anger.
Bargaining.
Depression.
Acceptance. "
Grey's Anatomy, Season 6 Episode 1
g
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Friday, November 27, 2009
a day in the interwebbh!

Sunday, November 22, 2009
Kuala Lumpur: The Storytelling

By the time I finished sekolah menengah, I have a bit more complicated ideas about Kuala Lumpur folks. I have many friends originated from Kuala Lumpur, and not two of them are the same. The ideas the national TVs planted in every young mind in their dramas and sitcoms about KL people are proven to be wrong; rude, snobby, knob (or n00b), stingy, holier-than-thou, get easily disgust with anything that has the word “kampong” in it, so powerful in English, always drinking orange juices in tall glasses with little umbrella embedded, and so on.
I can go all night listing down the moral inaccuracies portrayed by the TV and all of them were wrong. Kuala Lumpur people, I've learned, are normal people.
However, I have never tasted the taste of Kuala Lumpur on my own term. It was always either listening to my friends telling me how wonderful the big city was or me in my uncle’s car and he taking me round of Dataran Merdeka, one time in Zoo Negara, Tasik Titiwangsa and all that places where you bring your nephews from village go visiting.
It was exciting alright, but when I tasted the real thing later in my life, it was far more exhilarating. It’s like when you sit shotgun in your father’s car and you thought this is like you were driving but when it’s your first time to drive, the feeling is more thrilling than ever (well, at least for the first time). It is different, good different.
However, my uncles did bring me taking a ride in the newest, latest buzz that is LRT. Now if you take Putra Line on weekdays when the coaches are empty, you’ll see few kids running to the end of the train, awed-face, and their jaws dropping; that was me. My uncle told me this train has no driver, it moves by the power lines and some electrical stuff. Honestly, he had me at “no driver”. He took us back and forth Bangsar-Dang Wangi-Bangsar. It was in Dang Wangi, the underground station that got me believe how developed my country is. It was just like how I saw in movies, all shiny and new, and people all quite and beautiful. It was Kuala Lumpur, and it was nice. It was quite an adventure.
Now years gone, when I take hindsight to that day, I can still feel that little me admiring one of among many, many things Kuala Lumpur has to offer. But for a 9 almost 10 year old, that was enough to sweep him off his feet. And from that on, never I have been more determined to live among these people, living the life of Kuala Lumpur folks, and be a part of it. It might be small now but we never know what smallest things could give the biggest impact or impressions to someone.
Of course, that was Kuala Lumpur circa 1998-1999.
To be continued…
photo credit : www.tropicalislands.de
g
Friday, November 20, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Ada hari hari aku merasa penat seolah olah tak
satupun anggota gerak di badanku ini
kepunyaanku seolah tak ada satu orang pun
di dunia yang sadar akan aku seolah aku orang
paling seorang diri di dunia tanpa anggota gerak
dan tanpa satu orang pun untuk aku pergi
menfadu. Dan pada hari hari seperti ini angin
bergerak lambat agar aku boleh menumpang
dan terbang walau sayap ku dipatahkan
di semua sambungan dan anyaman
Iya, aku akan berteme dengan orang lain.
Tapi sampai waktu itu datang, yakinlah bahawa
tak ada satu pun elemen atau jasad
atau bahkan engkau sendiridapat membetulkan
hati aku yang sedang rosak parah ini.
Mimi Mortica,
Tangerin&Nikotin
g
Saturday, November 14, 2009
the home : missing
i miss my home, my family.Tuesday, November 10, 2009
the platinum.
Thursday, November 5, 2009

if you go to private hospital, you will be paying a lot of money. why? because they conduct unnecessary tests. they admit you into ward for fever, and from then on, they will try to find what's wrong with the patient.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Saturday, October 31, 2009
oleh Lim Swee Tin
bapa sedang tidur
aku cukup kenal
pada lelap matanya
tikar mengkuang lusuh itu
barangkali, tambah melenakan bapa.
lama sekali bapa menemani kami
mengisi malam-malam seperti selalunya
duduk mengelilingi pelita minyak tanah
yang kecil itu
semacam pahit dan getir pengalamannya
begitu akrab pula
dengan kami semua.
mengapa demikian
laut sejarahnya
kerana
seperti juga di hutan kehidupan ini
kami sedia memaklumi
akan ketentuan
yang harus digenggam.
sesekali meliuk digerak angin
ketika kami bercerita
tentang bapa
aku cukup faham
pada sebuah doa yang selalu disebutnya:
bukan gelombang masa depanmu.
Friday, October 30, 2009
i am one of those men. when it comes to certain things, i just don't wanna lose. no matter how wrong or deviant i might be. i can twist the fact, knowing that i am wrong but would never admit it, it it can make me wins the argument.
i am not ashamed of it. i think it is part of my pride. so, i will not put my feet down for some guy, who is knowingly shamed me, talked behind my back, and ask for forgiveness. if that will ever happened, i won't be the first to make a move.
if you hating the same person for a long time, you somehow would start to forget why you did in the first place. the only thing that's left is the hatred and compulsion, and that is the devil. hatred for a certain soul i have felt for some times now, is not diluted. it will never be.
ego, sir, feed on this emotion. he likes it. so do i.
g
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
I know it is not your fault the money didn't come in yet. I also know that there is no use this letter of complaint being flown to you since your people are so busy working and managing more important businesses, such as launching a dinner attended by superly important datuks, attending meetings that lasted hours and ended with no conclusions, receiving calls from the students and then refer them to another party and other corporate stuffs.
that is a lot of work to handle and i am so sorry and understand the stress you have.
instead this is only a telling of my heart, since i don't think i can no longer hold on to this feeling. yes, as you all would have guessed, i am broke. and i didn't mean broke like "i am broke my bank has rm200 only", but i am broke that i have to pass lunch and waiting for dinner to open up my instant noodles.
i know patience is a virtue, and mahatma gandhi was starving himself up for a better treatment from the coloniser. sorry, sir, i am utterly stupid in history. my point is, sir, i am no mahatma gandhi. i am more like colonel sanders of kfc.
you know, sir, that i am really, really grateful for i have been chosen as one of the winner of JPA scholarships. yes i say winner because unlike mara (i should spare petronas telekom and others), Jpa is a battle to be won to be the winner. it was hard to get one. but, sir, i think that feeling has long boarded the train to north pole, and i was left at the station. it's a metaphor, sir, for i had already given up on Jpa.
not only we had to sign a contract of 10years, sir, but we also have to work our ass, sorry, butt off to get a result as required by your party. and with this mental torture, alck of facilities and social awkwardness when it comes to certain things, i think it is best if JPA does not burden student with things as petty as this, i.e: the delay in deposition of the allowance.
yes, we spent them on things only god can imagine, you should not be surprised. we are human, sir, and we have needs. it is on the manslow hierarchy(sorry sir, i forgot) of living. don't blame us, when in fact we all do the same things, isn't it.
i don't want to start on health insurance, sir. we are like an HIV person who is susceptible with as many as diseases a man could have and there is nothing he can do about it. we are not superhuman, sir. we do sick. and we sick, we need money. and it is ridiculous if we have to pat the medical expenses on our own since well, we are you winners, and winners got heavenly treatment it should be.
so basicly, i just want you, sir, to be more attentive of our problems, sir. you party ask us students to understand the sponsor, but how about your side, sir? and be grateful as we are, but when it comes to survival, how far do you think it can bring us? be more responsible of people under your care, sir.
i think that is enough. if there's anymore i should write more. i do not expect any reply, nor i respect any apologize. i just want this simple issues being resolved for both side's satisfaction.
thank you.
truly,
gman




