Saturday, January 01, 2005

MY PERSONAL HIGHLIGHTS OF 2004

2004 is coming to an end... And this is definitely the least happening New Year's Eve. No celebration due to the tsunami thingie and such. Really, although I sympathise with our PM's decision to cancel all countdown celebration and replaced it with remembrance and prayer instead, I dun really support it. The tsunami incident was really tragic, so why shouldn't we welcome a new year full of hope instead of reflection?

Anyway, here are few of my favourites for the year 2004:

Favourite movie: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind


Truly, besides The Incredibles, this is the ONLY good movie I've watched that came out this year. One of the few movies that can bend your brain and break your heart at the same time. Funny and touchingly romantic, the performance by both leading stars, Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet (espeacially Kate), are very impressive. Can't wait to watch the next movie by scriptwriter Charlie Kaufman! That guy is truly a genius to be able to conceive all these crazy ideas!


Favourite new artiste: The Darkness


Rock was never so fun & over-the-top! And to top it off, lead singer Justin Hawkins has an amazing voice! He sings high than many of the female vocalists I know (not Mariah Carey, of cuz). I still can't understand why they weren't nominated for the Best New Artiste category in the Grammys!


Favourite books:

The Purpose-Driven Life & The Heavenly Man
2 books that have tremendous impact on my Christian life. Thanks to these books, I've grown a lot spiritually this year! Highly recommended to everyone, whether u r Christians or not!


Animal Farm
A innocent-sounding novel, izzit not? The book is actually an allegory of the Russian Revolution. The animals in a farm, lead by the pigs, revolt against the farmer for mistreating them. After they successfully chased the farmer and his family away, the pigs resume control, and set up idealistic laws that sounds fair to everyone. Yet slowly, the laws are twisted, and thru fear and propaganda, the pigs' power becomes greater and greater, till eventually, they resemble the farmer as before. A really insightful story on how the Russian Communist failed to archieve their supposed idealism, but a really depressing read though. Seeing how helpless all the animals are against the tyranny of the pigs is really really sad.


Doctors
A really interesting novel that bares the more human side of doctors, or as the book calls it, "wounded healers". I espeacially like the parts that deal with med school life and the politics surrounding the character's professional lives after they graduate. The realistic (albeit slightly dramatized) portrayal of doctors are really interesting, and the euthanasia issue discussed in the book is quite an eye-opener too. The rather rushed and underdeveloped ending is a tremendous disappointment though. Nevertheless, I highly recommend this book to all med students! (Juz ignore the romance element... damn annoying!)


Most interesting experience: Scuba-diving

Man, scuba-diving is definitely one of the most exciting thing I've done in my life! It wasn't relaxing and easy though, quite challenging to be honest. I still remember how many of us actually regretted doing this for our electives during the 1st couple of days! Lol. But when we're dive past all those beautiful & strange-looking corals and see fishes of different shapes and sizes swimming all over us, the awe and wonder we all felt are undescribable! I'm definitely going back to Tioman to continue with the advanced course! Let's juz hope that the tsunami hasn't destroy all the beautiful corals there! (Touchwood!!!)


Most embarassing moment:
Entering a stranger's car, thinking it's mine!

Well... Click here for the full story... Lazy to type the whole thing again!

And there u have it! All my personal highlights of 2004! Of cuz there are other stuff such as getting accepted to med school and all that, but I've spent too much time typing all these already. Someone said that if u do something really hard on New Year's Eve, u'll be able to so for the rest of the year. So I'm going to study now! Hahahahaha...

Happy New Year everyone!!!

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