Sang for the 126th Anniversary service today. My first time singing in a choir for about 2 years. Exactly 2 years actually, seeing as the last time I sang was for the 124th Anniversary.
I guess sometimes I miss my choir days back in ACSI. I will always regret that we never truly made great music together then, but still there were brief moments when I thought we almost did. I have always found something special about the sound of many different voices meshed together to form a unified chorus of song. When done right as I have heard some choirs do, the music is simply sublime. But I guess not everyone can do it. Still I am grateful for the chance to try once in awhile...
Hallelujah, Hallelujah!
For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah!
The Kingdom of this world is become
The Kingdom of our Lord
And of his Christ.
And He shall reign forever and ever,
King of Kings, and Lord of Lords,
And He shall reign forever and ever,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah!
-G. F. Handel, Hallelujah Chorus
It is said that so great was the majesty conveyed in this piece of Christ decending from heaven triumphant, that King George II was moved to stand during the performance. Since it was Royal protocol that when a monarch stands, everyone in his presence is required to follow suit, the entire audience and even the orchestra stood with the king through the duration of the performance. Thus it is tradition even today for everyone in the hall to stand when this piece is performed.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
"Why is this is in the Corpus Iuris Civilis but not anywhere I know of in common law? Aren't we supposed to be more advanced (therefore compassionate) than the bloody Romans?!"
The latin statement translates something like "Rather a crime go unpunished than an innocent be punished". I know very little about latin and law. Yet I do believe it was Sir William Blackstone the English jurist and law professor at Oxford that wrote in his Commentaries on the Laws of England:
"It is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer."
The phrase itself is already rather famous, and all it took was a quick search in wikiquote to get the exact wording and source. Thus extrapolating from the guy's already flawed reasoning, one might almost conclude that Common Law is TEN times "more advanced (therefore compassionate) than the bloody Romans".
Hehe. This post (as with most of my other posts) doesnt actually have a point, but if you expected one you obviously didnt read the title of this blog.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
O R D
There is no real going back. Though I may come to the Shire, it will not seem the same; for I shall not be the same. I am wounded with knife, sting, and tooth, and a long burden. Where shall I find rest?
- J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of The Rings
- J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of The Rings
Monday, February 7, 2011
Long is the way
And hard, that out of Hell leads up to Light.
- John Milton, Paradise Lost
Overlooking the more serious implications of the above statement, I book in tonight and book out on friday a free man. Of course that raises the question of how much freedom does one actually possess in the first place.
Nah... I shan't spoil the mood...
And hard, that out of Hell leads up to Light.
- John Milton, Paradise Lost
Overlooking the more serious implications of the above statement, I book in tonight and book out on friday a free man. Of course that raises the question of how much freedom does one actually possess in the first place.
Nah... I shan't spoil the mood...
Sunday, February 6, 2011
NS Reads
Possibly the only aspect of the past two years which I do not begrudge the SAF, is the impetus to read more books. When you are in camp at night with nothing important to do, reading becomes a source of solace. Never in my life have I been such a prolific reader, and I suspect never again will I be.
I had actually set myself the task of reading all the works of C. S. Lewis and G. K. Chesterton that the National Library could provide. With only 5 days left, I can say with a certain confidence that I have failed. Needless to say, confining myself to two authors over two years grew slightly monotonous and I was eventually distracted by other authors. Nonetheless the books read during these 2 years form a rather impressive list (if I may say so myself), and I include it below if only to convince myself that the past two years have not been completely useless.
With those that were especially enjoyable or influential in bold...
C. S. Lewis
Mere Christianity (Reread)
The Screwtape Letters
A Grief Observed
The Great Divorce
Abolition of Man
The Weight of Glory
Miracles
The Problem of Pain
G. K. Chesterton
Orthodoxy
The Man Who Was Thursday
The Napoleon of Nottinghill
The Club of Queer Trades
Selected Essays
The Father Brown Series
Frank Herbert
Dune (Reread)
Dune Messiah
Children of Dune
Ravi Zacharias
Can Man Live Without God
Light in The Shadow of Jihad
Doctors: The Biography of Medicine by Sherwin Nuland
Flatland by Edwin Abbot
American God's by Neil Gaiman
Fight Club by Chuck Palanuik
The Case for Faith by Lee Strobel
The Silmarilion by J. R. R. Tokien (Reread)
Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder
A Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
Justice by Michael Sandel
The Meaning of it All by Richard Feynman
Complications by Atul Gawande
Life After God by Douglas Copeland
Paradise Lost by John Milton
Thus Spake Zarathustra by Nietzsche
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larson
Percy Jackson and The Olympians by Rick Riordan
Attempted Reads that never got completed because they were either boring or incomprehensible...
Confessions of St Augustine
Medicine, Patients and The Law
The Blind Assassin
The Black Swan
The Everlasting Man
St Francis of Assisi
I had actually set myself the task of reading all the works of C. S. Lewis and G. K. Chesterton that the National Library could provide. With only 5 days left, I can say with a certain confidence that I have failed. Needless to say, confining myself to two authors over two years grew slightly monotonous and I was eventually distracted by other authors. Nonetheless the books read during these 2 years form a rather impressive list (if I may say so myself), and I include it below if only to convince myself that the past two years have not been completely useless.
With those that were especially enjoyable or influential in bold...
C. S. Lewis
Mere Christianity (Reread)
The Screwtape Letters
A Grief Observed
The Great Divorce
Abolition of Man
The Weight of Glory
Miracles
The Problem of Pain
G. K. Chesterton
Orthodoxy
The Man Who Was Thursday
The Napoleon of Nottinghill
The Club of Queer Trades
Selected Essays
The Father Brown Series
Frank Herbert
Dune (Reread)
Dune Messiah
Children of Dune
Ravi Zacharias
Can Man Live Without God
Light in The Shadow of Jihad
Doctors: The Biography of Medicine by Sherwin Nuland
Flatland by Edwin Abbot
American God's by Neil Gaiman
Fight Club by Chuck Palanuik
The Case for Faith by Lee Strobel
The Silmarilion by J. R. R. Tokien (Reread)
Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder
A Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
Justice by Michael Sandel
The Meaning of it All by Richard Feynman
Complications by Atul Gawande
Life After God by Douglas Copeland
Paradise Lost by John Milton
Thus Spake Zarathustra by Nietzsche
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larson
Percy Jackson and The Olympians by Rick Riordan
Attempted Reads that never got completed because they were either boring or incomprehensible...
Confessions of St Augustine
Medicine, Patients and The Law
The Blind Assassin
The Black Swan
The Everlasting Man
St Francis of Assisi
Thursday, February 3, 2011
CNY
1) "non-optional social convention" -Dr Sheldon Cooper
2) Ord Mood trumps CNY spirit.
3) Having a camera is quite useful when you are in a gathering and dont really want to talk to anyone.
4) The telos of cny is quite possibly PINEAPPLE TARTS.
2) Ord Mood trumps CNY spirit.
3) Having a camera is quite useful when you are in a gathering and dont really want to talk to anyone.
4) The telos of cny is quite possibly PINEAPPLE TARTS.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Clean Hands
Found in many SAF toilets (usually right beside the mirror) is a poster that I presume is supposed to instruct army boys in the fine art of hand washing. The posters, of the kind made popular by the SARS outbreak, detail 7 scrubbing techniques that should be employed once hands have been lathered with soap. I highly doubt normal people practice the full routine on a regular basis. However since in the SAF your hands do have a certain propensity for dirtiness, I have actually found it rather useful.
When I was very very young, I did not grasp the need for scrubbing during washing. I always thought water was some mystical liquid whose very presence made things clean on its own. Soap was of course merely to make things smell nice. It was after a few more persistent stains that I discovered "ooooo... there's a reason for scrubbing", and even then the concept of germs and sterilization alluded me until awhile later. Of course now thankfully I know a lot better.
In my defence, "I need to wash hands to kill bad germs" isnt a very obvious conclusion for a toddler. Afterall for the longest time even doctors and surgeons had no concept of washing hands before handling patients.
In 19th century Vienna for example, it was common practise for doctors and medical students of the Allgemeines Krankenhaus der Stadt Wien (Vienna General Hospital) to spend their mornings dissecting cadavers. After which many of them would proceed to the Obstetrical Clinic to deliver children, often without bothering to rinse their hands. Apparently, the strong smell of cadavers on their hands was even a source of pride since it showed that one was a doctor. Needless to say, this led to an "inexplicably" high percentage of mothers dying from childbed fever.
It was the Hungarian physician Ignac Semmelweis who first displayed statistical data and some rough scientific evidence for the presence of so called invisible "cadaver particles" that were responsible for the deaths of many women. Yet few accepted his theories, and many rejected his solution of washing one's hands in chlorinated lime before handling patients. The poor guy was eventually driven insane by the indignation and died in a mental institution. It was only a few decades later with Louis Pasteur and Joseph Lister (yay! he's from king's!) that Germ Theory was properly established and antiseptic techniques credited.
We have certainly come a long way in our understanding of things. But even without germs, clean nice smelling hands are still nice to have I suppose...
3Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?
4He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.
-Psalm 24:3-4
Random verse? Absolutely...
When I was very very young, I did not grasp the need for scrubbing during washing. I always thought water was some mystical liquid whose very presence made things clean on its own. Soap was of course merely to make things smell nice. It was after a few more persistent stains that I discovered "ooooo... there's a reason for scrubbing", and even then the concept of germs and sterilization alluded me until awhile later. Of course now thankfully I know a lot better.
In my defence, "I need to wash hands to kill bad germs" isnt a very obvious conclusion for a toddler. Afterall for the longest time even doctors and surgeons had no concept of washing hands before handling patients.
In 19th century Vienna for example, it was common practise for doctors and medical students of the Allgemeines Krankenhaus der Stadt Wien (Vienna General Hospital) to spend their mornings dissecting cadavers. After which many of them would proceed to the Obstetrical Clinic to deliver children, often without bothering to rinse their hands. Apparently, the strong smell of cadavers on their hands was even a source of pride since it showed that one was a doctor. Needless to say, this led to an "inexplicably" high percentage of mothers dying from childbed fever.
It was the Hungarian physician Ignac Semmelweis who first displayed statistical data and some rough scientific evidence for the presence of so called invisible "cadaver particles" that were responsible for the deaths of many women. Yet few accepted his theories, and many rejected his solution of washing one's hands in chlorinated lime before handling patients. The poor guy was eventually driven insane by the indignation and died in a mental institution. It was only a few decades later with Louis Pasteur and Joseph Lister (yay! he's from king's!) that Germ Theory was properly established and antiseptic techniques credited.
We have certainly come a long way in our understanding of things. But even without germs, clean nice smelling hands are still nice to have I suppose...
3Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?
4He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.
-Psalm 24:3-4
Random verse? Absolutely...
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