American Idol - Living the American Dream?

American Idol Season 10 has dawned upon us again. It's the time of the year when many people around the world would be glued to their idiot boxes every week to watch Americans from all walks of life trying their luck to vie for a spotlight in this reality show. However, the current season of American Idol saw some changes in the panel of judges. Out of the three pioneering judges, only Randy Jackson remained. Steven Tyler, lead singer of Aerosmith replaced Simon Cowell and Jennifer Lopez replaced Paula Abdul as judges beginning this season of American Idol.

What I find amusing about American Idol would be auditions held in the various American cities to search for potential singing talents to be shortlisted into the final round of the competition. The past nine seasons of the competition has succeeded in unearthing some of the best singing talents America has ever witnessed. This is what made American Idol one of the most viewed reality shows around the globe. However, Season Nine showed a lacklustre in terms of the vibrancy and excitement the competition was often expected to demonstrate.

However, not all is lost for having Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez joining the judging panel, I think it will make a marked difference as well as bring back the lost vibrancy and excitement American Idol is well known for. Rest assured, contestants with out-of-the-ordinary personality will definitely spice up the audition rounds as always. And yes, American Idol could be seen as one of the best ways to live the American Dream as this reality show has managed to produce some of the best and successful singers America could offer to the world.

The pursuit of happyness

                                                              

In this life where materialism and rat-race rule the day, many of us are concerned of earning as much money as possible just to fulfill our ambition of "making it in life". This is what many of us would try to define what could be called 'the pursuit of happyness'. I'm spelling happiness with a 'y' instead of an 'í' as I'm maintaining the root word 'happÿ' as it is more unique this way.

What can be defined as the pursuit of happyness? It would be a very individualistic answer. I'm sure many people would have different answer to this question, however, most people might define it as having lots and lots of money to define the pursuit of happyness. It is not very much different for me in my definition of the pursuit of happyness. Yeah, most likely having lots of money would be my definition of the pursuit of happyness, at least for now when I'm struggling to establish myself as a prolific writer.

But this definition will change over time as my view on "money is everything" is different from most people. I do not deny that money is extremely important in this materialistic world we are living in. But is money really that important to the extent some people would do just about anything to make more money? Money, to me is important up to a certain extent in life, however, there are things money just cannot buy. Life is just one of those things money cannot buy.

The shocking and untimely demise of a primary school classmate recently has gotten me thinking very hard on how I should define the pursuit and happyness in relation to my own situation in life at the moment. I still have yet to find the answer, and I neither think it would be that straight forward nor would I find it any time soon.

Ideally I would like to live a life where money is not something I have to worry about all the time and do the things I want to do without always involving money. Not to mention owning my dream cars as well (this unfortunately needs big wads of cash). Sadly it would not happen in this lifetime. I guess I'll just have to slog it out for the time being, and if Lady Luck decides to give me a big break any time soon, I'd be grateful and contented to give credit where it's due and not hog all the limelight for myself.

Review: Gifts of Time by Fred. J. Epstein M.D. and Elaine Fantle Shimberg

Title : Gifts of Time
Author : Fred. J. Epstein M.D. and Elaine Fantle Shimberg
Year : 1994
ISBN : 0-425-144303-8

Gifts of Time by Fred. J. Epstein M.D. and Elaine Fantle Shimberg is a true story about a paediatric neurosurgeon's lifelong mission to offer hope to children who suffer from serious and terminal neurological conditions where other paediatric neurosurgeons refuse to treat. The paediatric neurosurgeon is none other than one of the authors himself, Dr. Fred Epstein.

The late Dr. Epstein was the director of Paediatric Neurosurgery Division of New York University Medical Center and founding director of the Hymen-Newman Institute for Neurology and Neurosurgery at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, was also a pioneering surgeon where he had innovated surgical techniques to treat inoperable brain and spinal cord tumours in children in the late 1970s and early 1980s. His determined approach of never giving up hope on his very young patients saw him saving many lives where most other surgeons in the country had given up hope in treating children who were particularly terminally ill with brain and spinal cord tumours.

Dr. Eipstein's own life story was no less remarkable. He struggled with attention deficit disorder as a young boy where his learning ability was compromised. However, Dr. Eipstein never gave up hope in pursuing his ambition to be a doctor. His determination saw him overcoming his attention deficit disorder to enter New York Medical College as a medical student. Initially he thought he would become a psychiatrist like his father, however, his interest changed to neurosurgery during his tenure as medical student, where he found this particular medical field very interesting and challenging.

Gifts of Time was published with the aim to enlighten parents of children suffering from serious and terminal neurological conditions with the necessary information to seek for the appropriate medical treatment. It tells the vast experience of Dr. Eipstein in paediatric neurosurgery, especially in treating children with inoperable brain and spinal cord tumours. His humanistic philosophy in treating his very young patients endeared him to both his patients and their parents; to the extent they still kept in touch with him even when they no longer needed his service. He was a fine example of a medical specialist whose unfailing determination was the reason he became one of the top paediatric neurosurgeons in America.

Dr. Fred J. Eipstein died on 9 July 2006 from melanoma, according to his wife of 41 years, Kathy Eipstein. I first came to know of his story from a very old copy of Reader's Digest many years ago. An excerpt of this book was then published in the said magazine. Dr. Epstein's story has been and will always be an immense inspiration to me, and  I believe he had left behind a lasting legacy of knowledge and innovations for the other paediatric neurosurgeons in America, especially the ones Dr. Eipstein had taught and worked with in his lifetime.

This story was told in Dr. Eiptein's very own words, and I found it to be an extremely absorbing and a dramatic read. This is one of those rare books that will keep you glued to your chair until to the very end of it. It is also a story where you would want to read over and over again. The most important lesson to be learned from Dr. Eipstein's story would be when we thought that all hope was lost, however, there would always be a glimmer of hope to be found if we searched for it hard enough.