80-90% perfect vision, 95-99% normal vision

Took a day’s leave and went down to Tan Tock Seng hospital today, for the eye examination to see if I am a suitable candidate for LASIK surgery. As you probably know, I’ve put on spectacles since I was just primary 1, and now, my right eye is about 1000+ degrees, and my left 700+ degrees (including astigmatism). The reception at the LASIK centre at TTSH was really nice and went through a brief outline of the procedure. LASIK is generally painless and the procedure involves slicing the tip of the cornea creating a flap, a beam of laser will be shot in to correct the patient’s vision, the flap will then be closed without any stiches, and eyedrops will be prescribed. MC will be issued up to 5 days. Actual recovery can be as fast as the next day. Its become more advanced now with the Intralase Wavefront procedure, where it enables the surgeon to specify exact dimensions and slice the cornea without using a blade but using a laser instead, which further improves the precision of the surgery.

Basically they checked my eye degree, followed by a scan for the shape of my cornea, checked my eye pressure, and eyedrops to sort of numb my eyes, after which they used a little pen shaped tool to slightly touch my eye to measure the thickness of my cornea (no pain at all). After that was done, they put another drop to numb the eye muscles that control the pupil, felt my eyes become a little sluggish and found it rather funny. I could still see with my glasses on, just that my vision was slightly blurred. Then they showed me a video of patients who’ve done LASIK and how they’re lives have changed after the surgery, and also explained risks of infection and what the post op will be like.

After all that, went to another clinic to see the doctor that was going to diagnose my eyes and recommend the best procedure for my condition. Waited over an hour just to get to see him, and he basically checked my eyes again by shining light into my opened pupils (the pupils will remain open after 30 mins of the drops), and said that I was fit to go for the surgery, and recommended the Intralase wavefront procedure, which was the more advanced type. My odds for regaining normal vision is 95-99% and odds for perfect eyesight is 80-90%. Then I asked about the risks… and the associate professor explained about the risks and complications that may arise during surgery. My mum was around and asked a funny question “Is there any insurance in case anything happens?” and the doctor replied nonchalantly that we don’t buy insurance to cross the road, and the risk of getting hurt doing that is actually higher than LASIK surgery… I was impressed by the way he handled that.

So I agreed to go ahead with the procedure, and met up with the coordinator (she was really hot… probably an ex stewardess) to schedule the dates for surgery. Because my eyesight was so bad, we had to do it on seperate days (you can actually do both eyes in a day), so she went through a list of things (spoke a machine gun) and I confirmed the day of surgery to be on 24th and 25th July. Asked if I could go back to work on the 26th (they can issue MC for up till a week) and was quite relieved that I could return to the office the day after surgery. Nice thing was UOB debit/credit card holders get 50% off the consultation and a $50 health screening voucher along with it.

Also, found out you can actually use Medisave to subsidize $800 per eye for LASIK. How? The different of degrees between your eyes has to be 300 degrees and above… eg. one eye is 600 degrees and the other 300 degrees (including astigmatism) which has a difference of 300 degrees, which entitles you to use $800 from your own/parents Medisave account. For mine, the difference between both my eyes is just 295 degrees! Just 5 degrees from subsidizing $1600!!!! But on the day of surgery they will check again….. I wonder… how can I get that extra diff of 5 degrees within the next 3 weeks….

Britain’s got talent… (seriously)

I was watching this on my iPod the other day… and I was just in plain awe… you HAVE to watch this guy… and turn up the volume for max effect.

please let me know if your heart sort of trembled after you saw that… cos if it didn’t you may have a heart of stone…

More food…

Crystal Jade Kitchen – Holland Village

I finally had my Crispy Seafood Noodles (or was it Seafood crispy noodles), anyway… the pic speaks for itself. Kailan (vegetable) is really nice and perfectly cooked, the seafood rather fresh, and the crunchy noodles are flavorful together with the sauce, and I learnt a new way to describe prawns from someone else’s blog… BURSTY prawns… heh… anyway this has become one of my fav main courses in Crystal Jade. I’m rating it 8 out of 10 for this one.

Just that the first time I tried this dish, it tasted better than my 2nd try… is it just me or when it comes to food, the first time you try something it’s always nicer than the 2nd try?

CALLING ALL LUNA SEA FANS!!

LUNA SEA MTVS!!!!

omg omg omg omg…… not only my fav jrock band, but I felt they were THE BEST on the planet. They were the only band whom I remembered the names of all the members muahaha… Singer: RYUICHI (very unique voice), Lead guitar: SUGIZO!!! (his lead guitar parts are just insane!), Rhythm guitar: Inoran (the coolest looking dude, founder of the band), Bass guitar: J (damn stylo), Drums: Shinya (goosebumps when i see him play). Another nice thing about them is that all the songs were written by “Luna Sea”, means their songs were not written by other songwriters, neither were the songs written by just 1 member of the band, but all of them contributed to the songwriting. To me that’s really original and a symbol of teamwork and chemistry.

Below are the MTVs of my favourite Luna Sea songs.

1) IN SILENCE – my number one song. the guitar parts are incredible… there’s nothing like listening to a Sugizo solo…

2) GRAVITY – fell in love with the song when I heard the intro… you know some songs have very good intros but end up sounding crappy… this not only has a great intro, but retains the entire theme throughout… brilliant song…

3) I FOR YOU – have you watched this Jap serial about a young girl who contracted HIV and fell in love with a male celebrity? Its one of those very sad Jap shows that used to be popular in the late 90’s-00… can’t remember the name of the drama… but this is another great song… the lyrics are one of the best I’ve heard… can find the translation below and you’ll know what I mean…

 

4) LOVE SONG - This was Luna Sea’s last MTV before they decided to disband. Not because of internal conflicts or money etc… but because they had kinda reached the pinnacle of what they could do as a band, and figured if they couldn’t do more/better songs, it was time to move separate ways. I was devastated when I heard that they disbanded, nevertheless, this last MTV is in my list of best songs ever. I think this song really displayed all the members in great fashion… yes, I am a fan of abstraction as you can see in this MTV.

They performed their last concert at the Tokyo Dome in the year 2000… and when their DVD (The Last Live) was released, I really wanted to buy it but it was 99 bucks and I was an NS man drawing just over 400 bucks a month… now I believe the DVD can’t be found anymore after such a long period of time. But nevertheless, they still remain in my heart as the best rock band.

Wonder if there are any remaining ”Slaves” (that’s what Luna Sea fans are called) out there? And if you have their DVD or know where I can get it, please tell me!!  \^_^/

Goodbye Thierry… Hello Barcelona…

I heard from my service manager that it was a free transfer… only 16 million transfer fee for perhaps the best technically gifted striker on the planet… Arsenal should have asked for more… I wonder whether Arsene Wenger is planning to leave after the next season… boy… Arsenal’s not gonna be the same again…

 In spite of Arsenal’s loss… it will be extremely interesting to see which position Henry will play in Barca. They’re probably going to be a real force to be reckoned with next year with such strong talent… starting to look like a 2nd Real Madrid.

Stumbled over another blog link…

I had never imagined… hahaha…

 http://laozhabor.blogspot.com/2007/06/snooker.html

Sometimes you just can’t do the things you want to do

Especially in the game of pool… ok fine… just about everything basically. It was a rather interesting friday for me. Last night I deleted my porn. All of it. It was high time I got rid of it. its a pity I didn’t realize earlier that it can cause damage to future love relationships. And… it probably slowed my laptop down like crazy. It was hanging every 2-3 mins. Anyway… it was an interesting morning because I woke up earlier, and I started my day with a prayer… just after a couple of sentences, my mum came in and offered to drive me to work cos she rented a car. pretty good start to the day.

There’d been some issues at work… ran out of 3-ply paper for the invoices and delivery orders… and the supplier was supposed to deliver today. But apparently their machine broke down, so we had to go plan B, which is normal A4 paper… luckily, there wasn’t any need to print invoices so it didn’t really cause too much trouble. There were some orders that were really cocked up, couldn’t key into the system, and previously our supplier shipped an expired radioisotope… its just friggin irritating. I also cocked up by forgetting to pass an antibody to my delivery guy before lunch, he had to come back and go all the way down to NTU to deliver. Ended up after work, couldn’t get in touch with the customer that needed that antibody… called like 3 times never answer, sms also never reply… felt damn guilty, and seriously pissed off. Already told the customer that delivery will be made after 5.30pm…. thankfully the customer’s colleague popped up and could sign off the delivery order and my delivery guy could go back without having to come back again a 2nd time. As for the cocked up orders managed to resolve them after some effort.

TGIF because I finally met up with JL for a sparring session at GF billiards. Started off extremely shaky… was missing the simplest shots and couldn’t even string 3 shots in a row… even with ball in hand. Lost the first set to him, but 2nd set played slightly better. Started to calm myself down, and realized that when I wasn’t nervous, the shot performed exactly what I intended for… which was very good because there’ve been times I get so nervous and affected by my previous bad shots that it sucks away my confidence… now I’m starting keep my composure and generate my own rhythm, which is really quite key to playing well. I almost broke clear just now… missed the bloody 9 ball… arrghh… it was a very difficult rack to clear from the start and I shot everything correctly and even placed the cue ball nicely for a straight 9 ball pot… and I missed… ARRGGGHHH…. anyway I still won the last set by a big margin… quite lucky cos JL missed a few shots on the 9 ball, he did all the work and i just pot the 9… =p

After the game, caught up a bit with EM and found out that THE WORLD POOL CHAMPION RONNIE ALCANO was coming to GF tomorrow at 3pm!!!!!!

EM even asked us if we want to have a race with him (pay min $50 just to play a race to 5), which was such a rare chance in a lifetime… There was an actual chance to play against the World Champion!!!

But sadly… I had already made plans for tomorrow. Was going to RN’s place to help out, and supposed to go for a swim and get a good tan, and go for service. Goodness I think I must be damn stupid to do all that and miss the chance to play with Ronnie Alcano. However… I don’t have $50… I’ve been so broke this month after getting the Creative noise cancellation earphones and 2 cues… *faint… for the next month, I really have to discipline myself to keep to my planned budget, which always gets messed up by the 2nd week of the month…

Sometimes life can be quite funny… you really can’t do all the things that you want to at the same time. Frankly, I don’t feel that hard up about missing the chance to play with the world champion… of course i’ll admit its a waste… but a few years back, I actually played with a professional 3-cushion player before. Basically simply trashed… he was so skilled in finding angles and getting prime position for shots every time. Of course…. a world champion would give a completely different feeling but… aiyah I am broke lah! *sad* But say if I wasn’t broke, would it be right to skip service and break a promise in order to play against a world champion? Not just any promise… but a promise to God? It really depends… at this moment, probably its not His will that I will play against Alcano… cos I’m just dead broke, and I already promised to be at service on Sat and cell group on Sun…

Plan to get a new soft case next month as my current case seems too bulky, and soft cases have lots of compartments to put more stuff. And I need to get at least 2 new pairs of jeans, and a pair of smart casual shoes. 7% GST starts from 1 July! If you notice, 7% GST on the 7th mth in 2007… *long pause of silence*

And… I still crave for Crystal Jade crispy seafood noodles, Vongole from Amici, and a hearty steak meal. All these… cost $$$… which is the reason why my money disappears at the blink of an eye…

Going for a medical assessment next Thurs at TTSH, to find out if my eyes are suitable to undergo lasik treatment. Hopefully turns out positive. Need God to help out with that one…

Oh… and err.. I cancelled my friendster account.

Happenings….

Since last week I’d wanted to write a ton of stuff… although the week went by rather uneventfully, in fact rather normally… then again… last Friday/Sat (after 12am), my bro got into a minor accident while he was out for supper. He was eating “chou dou fu”, the first in our family to eat it… and a stall owner called to the patronizing folks that someone was taking pictures of an accident nearby. Bro went to check it out, discovered that a BMW X3 parked behind him had hit the rear of the car, (parallel parked)… well… turned out it was an Altis behind the beemer, that pushed the beemer into our car bumper, resulting in a serious dent. Boy… how interesting. Suddenly I’m reminded about KM telling me not to buy 4D unless someone died in an accident… well… anyway… lucky thing was my dad had renewed the insurance policy just 2 days before the accident. And thank God that he also invested into getting extended warranty too… didn’t have to pay a cent. Brother was also fortunate that the culprit wasn’t some shmuck who’d yell and scream than admit his mistake like some drivers would… in fact the culprit apologized and willingly exchanged contacts. We visited the car agent the next day relieved that we don’t have to pay a single cent and that everything’s gonna be fixed without any major issue… just felt sorry for the culprit cos he’s clearly new, and his dad’s car plate is “SGG —-” which is a really new car, and he damaged not 1 but 2 cars. However there wasn’t any dent on the BMW’s rear mind you (neither in the front)… and the front of the culprit’s car sorta crumbled from what my brother described.  Car’s in the workshop now… so won’t get to drive till next week.

Church service on Saturday was good. Reminded that sometimes christians just become overly spiritual, and end up losing their sense of humanity along with it. After service had a 2 hr long talk with a fellow cg member who’s been looking after my spiritual welfare… it was about personal growth basically, and since the CG is so far away from my place, it might be a better idea to find a CG that’s in the west. So for the next few weeks will probably be going to different cells to find one that’s suitable and closer to home. have to admit the current CG is just too far…

Sunday, first pool competition after over 2 years. Honestly nerve wrecking… wanted to play well so badly that the pressure just destroyed my normal game. Double elimination format, meaning if you lost the first match you will play against the loser of another match. If you lose both, you’re out. I lost both matches scraping just 1 rack each (1-5,1-5), and i missed 3-4 very easy 9 balls… pots that I ought to nail without a flinch. Hopefully perform better next time since I plan to practice more often.

Work has been fine… but a lot of speculation about whether my new overseas logistics leader will settle down in Singapore for the next couple of years as planned previously by my GM (sorry the one who left is the GM and not the director). Now that she’s gone, the leader is re-evaluating whether he should come to SG. We’re supposed to initiate a project to implement Singapore to become a distribution hub for ASEAN… but now that the GM is gone, there’s no one leading the plan… let alone whether the plan is even going to be carried out… ahh… just hope and pray that things end up well in the end.

Might be going for lasik later in the year… keep forgetting to schedule an appointment. Also keen on dying my hair again, and getting a lot tanner. Been on a diet that involves less carbo and more fibre (coming 2 weeks), face seems to be sharpening a bit more… or maybe its just my placebo again… planning to go for swim coming Sat and Sun… I need a tan!!! Anyone interested to join?

Faith Is…

Trusting the unprovable

“I would love to be a believer, if I knew it was the truth,” an intelligent young Japanese man said to me. “Prove it to me. That’s what the unbelieving world is waiting for. We’re scientific. We want proof before we believe.”

“But that’s a contradiction,” I answered. “If there is proof, there no longer is room for belief. For faith believes in that which cannot be proven. Let me sum it up in this sentence:

When proof is possible, faith becomes impossible.”

The young man asked, “But if God wants us to be believers, why didn’t He prove Himself to us?”

Hebrews 11:6 “Without faith it is impossible to please [God].”

The same is true in human relationships. When somebody believes in you before you’ve earned their trust, you have been honored! When they trust you even though you didn’t display your credentials, faith is born.

I remember the people who believed in me when I started our ministry. I was unknown. I had no reputation. Yet they believed in me before I could prove myself to them. To this day I have deep affection for and gratitude to those special persons.

God knew what He was doing when He established the belief system. When you strip away all mystery and leave the truth naked and mathematically scientific, something sweet and attractive is lost.

There will always be the unknown. There will always be the unprovable. But faith confronts those frontiers with a thrilling leap. Then life becomes vibrant with adventure!

- excerpt from Tough Minded Faith For Tender Hearted People by Robert H. Schuller

Some ass kicking…

Just so cute…