Thursday, December 1, 2016

力 / how to become yourself in 365 simple steps

i tried being an ear for a while, but couldn't quite hack it.

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"Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink."
- Daniel 1:12

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1. 1 hour bible study 7am
2. 2 hours medicine 8pm
3. run 30 minutes a week
4. language study 1 hour
5. english / writing 2 hours
6. music 45 minutes
7. game dev 1 hour
8. admin 9am - 9.30am
9. fiction 1 hour
10. news 30 min
11. non-fiction 1 hour

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a foot desperately trying to become an eye

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how to stop growing


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Their idols are silver and gold, The work of man's hands. They have mouths, but they cannot speak; They have eyes, but they cannot see; They have ears, but they cannot hear; They have noses, but they cannot smell They have hands, but they cannot feel; They have feet, but they cannot walk; They cannot make a sound with their throat. Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.
- Psalm 115:4-8

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... when you reach an age and realise, 'shit there's very little room to change what you are. you're no longer the age where you can differentiate into all kinds of cells. You've lost that pluripotency. That's what it means to invest in yourself. You have to study the market and pick your stock wisely. Time is the currency of life. You know the parable about sowing seed, it's not only about sowing into others. Being ready for the harvest means being prepared, being practical minded, pragmatic, conscientious. God doesn't want lousy stewards. He's not interested in bad businessmen. That's why the parable of the talents scares you.


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Their land is full of idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their fingers have made.
- Isaiah 2:8

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what does the word 'sincere' mean to you? what does it mean to work with sincerity. andd integrity.


People will bear weakness, but halfheartedness is not an excuse. How to work wholeheartedly - how to be sincere in your work and give it your all. This is something I have to learn.

Sincerity is about doing the hard work when nobody is looking.

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how to stop worrying about not being what you're not or what you are and instead focus on becoming what you want to be

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But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

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to pursue.
follow or chase (someone or something). "the officer pursued the van" synonyms: go after, run after, follow, chase, give chase to

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how to be a go-getter

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I just finished an on call with Mr M. Mr M is one of the colorectal consultants and a bloody good doctor. Every so often in your career you meet these paragons of excellence, and you go 'wow... how does someone become that good?' When I grow up I'd be lucky to be even half the doctor he is. That's when it hit me - that's what discipleship is. Holding such a strong admiration for someone that you want to become them. The word disciple isn't used much nowadays - it's been supplanted by 'fan' or 'student', but if you want to be a good doctor, you have to be a disciple first, and choose a good master. Medicine is still an apprenticeship. You do the laundry and housekeeping for the privilege of observing them and assimilating their excellence by osmosis. How to be teachable - involves humbling yourself. Content yourself to writing their words down. That's how you know the mind of a man. By copying, appropriating, possessing his words. The system works. Mr Miyagi, the karate kid. All that cliche truism turns out to be true. Giving 110%. Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. It's all true. That there is virtue in the platitude. That sometimes repetition and rote memorisation come before understanding. The concept is as obvious and unpalatable as Donald Trump running for president, and because it's so blatant and patently unappealing we make light of it, brush it off, deny it until it's too late.

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That's what separates the cream from the rest - some try and do it all on their own strength, and get impressively far - but the best have learned how to learn from others. How to tune out the mesmer of the internal monologue and tune into and understand another person. How to follow someone, instead of trying to lead all the time.

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Nebuchadnezzar said to them, "Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you refuse to serve my gods or to worship the gold statue I have set up?

- Daniel 3:14

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"holiness is more than just focusing on other people's pain"

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but let patience have her perfect work

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'You'd better leave. You won't make it if you're going to continue like that.'

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how to take a punch (and then get up again)

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'that's a cool tattoo'
'Oh god. Please don't tell me it means chicken rice or something like that.'
'It actually means to be patient. Or to endure. See, that one means 'blade', and that one means 'heart' and together it means to persevere.'



hocus pocus


Aristotle said that some people were only fit to be slaves. I do not contradict him. But I reject slavery because I see no men fit to be masters. 
- C.S. Lewis, Present Concerns

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to think that the darkness you harbor is deeper and darker than anyone else's is an inverted, perverse kind of pride, because if you can't be better than everyone else then at least you get to be superlative in your inferiority

Long Revision

 夕食後、ベアは湾のパノラマビューのために4月をエスプラネードに連れて行くことを申し出たが、彼女は翌朝早く空港にいなければならないと言って断った。代わりに、4月は金融街を二分し、川の河口を横断して少し上流のMRT駅に到着できるルートを提案しました。そこで彼らは手入れの行き届いた都...