Al Pacino

A colleague shared this with a group of us at work - it's bloody good. The Netflix one certainly represents marketing at its best. The Al Pacino one, boy, may be I should watch it at the beginning of every week!

It's 2014! Celebrated the Year of the Horse with my family - parents came over from NZ, sister came over from HK. It averaged -18 degrees so at least they got a proper taste of Calgary winter! It was great fun.

My dad is the first man in the line of the Choi's who gets to play with a grandson! How wonderful it is. Dad bought so much stuff for Jonathan - toys, bouncer, and even a crib. I hope not just Jonathan will get to use these... soon!

Ben Goldacre at TEDMED 2012

TEDMED, a subsidiary of TED, is full of inspiring talks.

As 2013 draws to a close, it is time to take stock, reflect and ponder, ponder on plans and a better 2014.

2013 has been great, I trust 2014 will be even better. Bring it on.

Ain't that better ?

Fellas, can you identify with this?? i can!! 

WestJet Christmas Miracle: real-time giving

Together with Air NZ, Westjet has to be one of the most innovative airlines..

People without kids don't know..

I can do another version with Baby Jonathan fussing in the shopping mall the other day... !

I really have no idea how reading up on the original paper on the CHADS2-VASc score, jumped to reading the "Inn from the Cold" website. (If you insisted, I do have a rough idea..I finished reading the paper, thought about the weather outside (-11 on my way to work....), then logged onto Calgary Sun's website (as I have already finished reading the Calgary Herald earlier..), and there was this "Adopt-a-family" thing from the Sun, it happens to be run by the "inn from the cold" group.

Must talk to my Mrs about how to get involved.. 

There are just too much suffering in this world, really. I am on-call for the first time after Jonathan was born - the little one is 1 month old now and all of a sudden my perspective on life changed. You see your patient in a different light - the sense of family, the sense that the patient in front of you has/used to have a family too. He once were born as an infant to someone - has gone through adulthood, and now in his 60s-80s. I'm no different from these patients, they just got there (to their age) earlier than me!

Doesn't matter what we do, our job or what hat we're wearing - we should get on with making other people's lives better, if they're having a bad day.

Ian and Larissa, Noel and Hannah

Stuff ran a story on Ian and Larissa's marriage, it was, simply an incredible story. The Herald ran a FrontPage story on Noel and Hannah's struggle with cancer, again, the scale of emotion this couple had to endure is beyond my comprehension.

The press shy away from mentioning that both of them attribute their hope to their Christian Faith. I have a feeling that the press in countries, say, like Canada, will not pussyfoot on such a core part of the stories like these.

The book "This Momentary Marriage" looks interesting.. another book on my reading list..

Twenty reasons to visit Calgary

Destination Calgary made it to the homepage of Stuff today.. what a surprise! We've been to less than half of the recommended top 20 in our few months here.. certainly more places to explore now! I can see my next destination being .....

Hope

Wikipedia defines Hope as ".. the state which promotes the desire of positive outcomes related to events and circumstances in one's life or in the world at large " 

It is Dr Noel's hope that in the face of metastatic cancer, he'll get to see his yet-to-be-born daughter. 

The story is a moving one -the couple appear affable, yet the situation is dire and the outlook seemingly hopeless. 

Or is it? There is always a silver lining. The story struck an accord with those who have been there, all the young parents/parents to be. The outcome of the short fundraising has brought some, albeit brief, financial relief to the family.

My reflection of the story is that hope is essential to the human existence. It is with the hope that tomorrow will be a better day, that we have decided to have kids. It is with the hope that our future will be brighter, that we work today. 

Hope underpins almost all the decisions that we make. I'm hopeful that better days are yet to come for the Noels.