TedxHongKongED 2014

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Wow! had a really rewarding day - up fresh at 0730 despite only having a terrible 4 hours of zzz time in desperate fear of a mosquito buzzing around my room leeching off my O+ blood CRYCRY!!! :'(

anyway... then had a nice breakfast with plastic B, then set off for TedxHongKongED - the first TED event I've been to. (thanks wlcp for the invite!!!)

http://tedxed.hk/

though sitting for 6-7 hours really made my butt and back all sore ... it was pretty worth it (Y)

ofc, you might say that these independent TED events are nothing like the real thing ... but hey, we're all just simple human beings, and we can all learn something cool from other human beings :)

obviously some speakers were better than others, some messages hit home much more powerfully than others did. But that aint matter, cos at the end of the day, I was pretty blown away by some of the stuff that went on in those other human beings' lives. Not that they had the greatest opportunities in life, but HOW they dealt with the adversities in their lives and transformed themselves and changed their perspectives, and smashed apart those obstacles using an alternative method.

It was incredible, one speaker talked of her daughter born without a heartbeat or breath, almost brain dead, and pronounced by doctors likely to be both physically and mentally incapacitated for the whole of her life ... only to survive with severe cerebral palsy but at the same time now is one of the most inspiring people I have ever heard of! And she's still a high schooler in KGV! that makes me feel like, she could've been in my class, and how would I have treasured such an opportunity to interact with her! She really reminds me of Nick Vujicic (my hero)

http://tedxed.hk/speaker/kim-anderson/

"It's not what life throws at you. It's how you react to what life throws at you."

"You can be who you want to be. The biggest opponent in life is always going to be yourself."
(a close friend has said this to me before and I truly embrace it, though incredibly difficult in practice)

"You must fail in life, in order to find ways to overcome the obstacle and achieve more. If you're afraid of failing you'll never succeed."

Again, Nick Vujicic. "You need courage to fail."
"Courage is the strength that overrides all the fear to give you strength to just try anyway."

I'm pretty damn sure it's not the first time I've heard such messages before, but in that particular time and place and context ... everything just naturally fell into place perfectly and punched a provocative message out to me. It's not something I will forget in a while.

And then, there was something entirely unbeknownst to me, in my little happy bubble of ignorance - robotics. Evidently I'd heard the term before, broken concepts here and there, and even studied AI (artificial intelligence) during IB philosophy - but it just seemed like an entirely different universe! I came to realise how revolutionary robotics research and design had become over the past decade, how wrong my initial perspective had been, and how immensely useful they could actually prove to be o_o

My second favourite one (my favourite was the beautiful KGV girl with cerebral palsy who can work wonders despite having mega mega mega motor deficits and 24/7 physical dependence.

oh oops anyway, my second favourite one was about robotics replicating neurobehaviour and human facial expressions, in relation to the human brain and neural connections and everything above and beyond it. It was a pretty good summary of the neuroanatomy I've been learning this year, and I just obsessed over it. And a more primitive robot was built a little while ago to aid medical technology for complex neural conditions such as autism (autism, being one of my life obsessions) ... and I suddenly felt totally absorbed. The speaker was using all sorts of fancy neurology terms and I understood every single word haha (i even turned to wlcp and asked her if it was quite sad, she looked at me dead in the eye and said definitively ... yeah @@)

and for their latest robot, they created one that imitated a baby - with its ability for classical conditioning, complete with the inherent mother-baby bond (e.g. baby cries when mother leaves his/her line of sight), and they showed the different layers they replicated to mimic the intricate components of the brain that control individual elements like facial expression (muscle control) and stuff. E.g. basal ganglia as a networking system linking cortices with the brainstem, superior colliculus that picks up loud sounds, etc.

The baby was so cute! :3

And it really made me think hard - how much this is going to influence my practice in the future, if I am privileged enough to be working with kids and using such mindblowing technology. That would just be way cool. Wicked.

All in all, very excited for what the future has in store for us all! Embrace challenges, embrace failures, embrace every single life lesson :') and treasure all the people around you, who will only make you stronger. not because they can educate you and teach you and impart knowledge to you - but because they will inspire you to seek knowledge on your own, at your own pace, driven and motivated by your own soul.

Time to set the world on fire~!

Motivational Minute #27 - How to Reach Unknown Potential

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My hero Nick again - saviour of the day as always.

--
"Sure, maybe I can't do what you can do, but I know I am reaching out for my full potential."

"If you think you've reached your full potential, you haven't. Because you still have tomorrow. There's always something new that you can learn today and tomorrow. Grow in different ways."

"What can you do now?"

"Until you learn to do your best with what you have, you will never reach your full potential."

--

Still reflecting about his Motivational Minute a couple days back, about having the courage to fail. And courage being the strength that overrides all the fear to give you strength to - JUST. TRY. ANYWAY.

Real deep stuff, but strangely I feel so empowered by his simple words. Simple words that I've heard in a different context, by a different speaker, spoken differently. But when it comes from Nick's mouth, it just has this. Magic. to it. This unknown quality, this. This. ... this. um. Down to earth. Heartiness. Empathy. Poignant. I can't find the right word. It's just like bam. And then suddenly I find myself tearing up and thinking how bitchy I've been acting lately. So what if I'm not as good as my classmates? So what if I have to retake? It's not the end of the road, the light at the end of the tunnel hasn't diminished. It's just a different route there perhaps.

Really makes you think on your toes and keeps you on edge hmm... what can I do now?

Make the best of what I've got.

Have the courage to try, even though I'm afraid.

Overcome my fears, and convince myself that I can become the person I wanna be.

I have this perhaps dumb habit of not openly sharing my thanks to the people I wanna thank ... but cheers to everyone who's uplifted me and rooted for me all the way through in these dark dark days. Really owe my life to you guys.

Really, thanks from the bottom of my heart.

Epiphany of the Day #2

"Don't only practice your art.
But force your way into its secrets.
For it and knowledge can
Raise men to the Divine."

Motivational Minute #24 - Courage

My hero, Nick Vujicic.

He's been to Hong Kong a couple times now, and on one of those times I actually went to see him, with my whole family, of course. He is one of the most amazing men I have met in my life. God has really used him so much it's just incredible how much I love Nick. I even wrote my Philosophy coursework term paper using his music video, "Something More".

And tonight. After a terrible night of turmoil last night, just trying to slap myself awake from my depression, I opened up YouTube ... and Nick popped up right to my eyes.

--
 "You don't need courage to win, you need courage to fail."
"You're not afraid of winning, you're afraid of failing".

"Fear doesn't go anyway, you can't suppress it ... "just have a positive attitude, don't worry about-" - NO. the fear is there, acknowledge the fear. But courage is the strength that overrides all the fear to give you the strength to - JUST. TRY. ANYWAY."

"Yeah it's hard, but ... it's okay. It's a journey of ups and downs. If you wanna live a life without limits, you need courage to try, when you're afraid".
--

Courage. Is this what I'm lacking? Courage and confidence?

My head is messing with me so damn much. No, ofc not, I have courage and confidence to face my exams. But outwardly, no one can see it. Cos the things I do and the words I say to others ... create the whole impression that I'm a loser who can't face my own problems and can't find help to solve my own problems.

But ofc that's not true. I just don't like sharing my problems with others. I don't like seeking help cos I know I gotta fix my own damn problems by myself. But sometimes these worries are just too big and they just get the better of me, and I don't know how to patch 'em back right. That's when I explode and even without directly telling others ... they can see it.

So who am I, really?
Just a kid. A vulnerable lonely kid who doesn't deserve other people's care and concern. :(

Maybe I've stepped too far out of my comfort zone, too soon. And I just need to stick with what I know, the basics, get those done first, before I can brave greater heights.

I just need to have courage to fail. And once I look past that, it's gonna give me a whole new perspective on the Hell I'm going through right now. Cos it's nowhere near Hell. I have no clue, my conditions are so good compared to some others. I'm such an idiot.

Get back up. Stand tall on your feet, you know you aint gonna let nothin knock you down and make you stay down. I'm the only barrier to finding my true self, finding my own feet.

Resilience.

Courage.

Thanks Nick!

Story of My Life (One Direction -- Piano/Cello Cover) - ThePianoGuys (+p...

Incredulously beautiful.

They have got to be my favourite YouTubers of all time, TPG, from the time they officially became a group (not just the duo with Jon and Steven, but also the camera guys!!!)

I probably first started watching only because of Steven Sharp Nelson, but I grew to love everything about them - from their pure covers to mix and mashups and arrangements and collaborations and scenery and everything about them just touched my heart so deeply. :')

And on this very dreary rainy Friday where I'm still feeling a bit lost and blue, with exams still looming up ahead for another week, I rediscover my strength and spirit and inspiration here. Their music is so heartwarming and beautiful. And through their music, they're out on a mission to tell the whole world of their story of life. Life is beautiful. :')

"Life is a gift, and it offers us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to give something back by becoming more."

Epiphany of the Day #1

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"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." - 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Corinthians is my favourite book in the Bible. Though Psalms is absolutely beautiful, Corinthians will always have a special place in my heart. <3 

13 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

I will be still, and know you are God. My pillar of strength:')

lost...

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Feeling lost...

Thank the heavens for mnemonics.

As Prof Kwong says, "your intellect is much smaller than you think it is". So don't try to remember extra details. cos you wont be able to.

Damn...

Skull foramina mnemonics. For dumb ppl like me who can never remember all of the skull foramina, and please do not show a skull to us during dead OSCA and expect us to know everything about any one foramen. I will pass out.

p.s. i DID NOT draw this. obviously. i cant draw for life. cry.

say whaaaaaat! crazy impressive. though not so user friendly for me. though my notes are even more squished than this, find this a bit hard to see.

well i'm screwed.