Setting up Grav

On heliohost, grav is a one click install. On this shared hosting platform, the software needs to be manually installed. I followed the installation instructions which were a simple zip file upload and decompression. However it did not work out of the box. I kept getting “500 Internal Server” errors.

Grav's documentation has a troubleshooting page (https://learn.getgrav.org/15/troubleshooting/internal-server-error) for 500 errors. I wasted quite some time over a few days mucking around before finding out yesterday that the problem was with the php setup in that subdirectory. That was actually the first item to check on the troubleshooting page, but I had assumed (wrongly), that because php was working in the rest of the site, it was fine in the grav installation directory. I spent some trying tweaking the .htacccess and php.ini files, as well setting up a parallel directory for testing the php.

After deleting all the installed folders and using a info.php test script, I found that the main problem was the grav-admin folder permissions was set at 775 instead of the required 755. I managed to fix this after a google search which let me to this forum discussion (https://forum.zenphoto.org/discussion/10050/permissions-755-vs-775).

After changing the permissions, the info.php page worked. I then uploaded the unzipped set of files and folders from my laptop instead of unzipping it on the server. After that, I have an installation log page show that the image and cache directories were missing. This I created manually on the CLI from SSH, and the installation worked.

Finally.

Cleaning up the garden

I have been really busy at work the last couple of weeks, and haven't really worked on the garden much since Chinese New Year.

It didn't help that we went through a really dry spell. The tomato plants all wilted and died perhaps two months ago, and I haven't been composting or fertilizing the side gardens too. I finally got round to buy two bags of compost and one bag of substrate yesterday from Far East Flora in between sending and fetching Christine from Cat class. 

On the positive side, after the rains came back, the passion fruit vines upstairs and in the garden flowered and are starting to fruit. There are at least 4 fruits upstairs and a bunch more in the garden. Hopefully they will ripen well and not peter out like last round. 

Unripe passion fruit growing on the vine

Yesterday, I transferred three more passion fruit vines to the ground from the styrofoam box. This evening I used a bag of compost around them as well as the banana plant. I wasn't planning to do much, but Corrine's mum was also there doing some pruning. We ended chopping up some of the dwarf banana plants and she ripped out the wilted tomato vines and weeds. I also trimmed down the pandan plants so that the surround plants would get some more light. The area looks neater now.

Laetare Sunday (4th Sunday of Lent)

Today is Laetare Sunday (4th Sunday of Lent). Father AJ and the boys were out in pink. The other mass I recall with pink vestments is on Gaudete Sunday (3rd Sunday of Advent). Both Laetare and Gaudete mean "joy" in Latin, and their association with the respective days comes from the Latin introit for their respective masses -- "Laetare Jerusalem ..." and "Gaudete in Dominum semper ...".

This is the 3rd weekend Ben is serving, and he looks increasing confident in the role. This is the first mass where Yvonne managed to make in person; we brought him for his first outing, and Nick for his second.  After mass, Yvonne said he looked serious during the mass. That is always a good sign.

Ben has been enthusiastic about joining the altar boys. I am sure having his 3 older cousins there makes a big difference. Last week Samuel messaged Corrine to check if Ben has had his first Holy Communion, and explained that a special dispensation is required by Rector to allow boys who have not received their first communion to serve at the altar.

For the last few weeks, the boys have been playing fixed roles: Alex as one of the two main servers, Thomas as one of the tapers, and Jonathan receives the donation basket. They are all pretty comfortable with it now. We have been consciously having a lighter meal before mass, particularly going easy on the carbs; it seems to have helped keep the boys (especially Thomas) awake during the homily.

I volunteered for EMHC duty today. It's the 5th Sunday of the month, so there isn't a fixed roster. There was a decent number of us, and I went to the back of the church. It seemed a little more full than usual.

We are more than halfway through Lent, and this "joyful" break in the solemn season is an important reminder that Easter is just around the corner.

Words, Action, and Hypocrisy

A man's character is first reflected in his words, as Sirach reminds us

In a shaken sieve the rubbish is left behind, so too the defects of a man appear in his talk. The kiln tests the work of the potter, the test of a man is in his conversation.
    Ecclesiasticus 27:5-6

However, more important are the actions he takes. For it is the action or 'fruits' of his words that count in the final assessment. As Luke says in his gospel:

There is no sound tree that produces rotten fruit, nor again a rotten tree that produces sound fruit.
     Luke 6:43

At the end of the day, the people around you will be able to see you for what you are. For

If much depends on the result of a single interview, or a couple of interviews, a man may conceivably force another to accept an impression of himself which he would like to convey. But if the receiver of the impression is to have time at his disposal, then the giver of the impression may just as well sit down and put his hands in his pockets, for nothing that he can do will modify or influence in any way the impression that he will ultimately give. The real impress is, in the end, given unconsciously, not consciously; and further, it is received unconsciously, not consciously.
     Arnold Bennett

Hypocrisy occurs when one's actions are not congruent with his words. For

Why do you observe the splinter in your brother’s eye and never notice the plank in your own?
    Luke 6:42

As Father Stanislaus Pang reminded us during the homily today, we have to beware of falling in this trap, for while we plead for social justice in the world, are we acting it out at home? with our domestic worker?

7th Ordinary Sunday Homily - the challenge to forgive

Father AJ's sermons follow closely a set pattern and the mass readings of the day. He will begin the mass with a statement about the overall theme of the readings and develop it during homily, starting with the first reading until the gospel, with the occasional quote from the responsorial psalm. Father will finish off with several action points, and sometimes a closing prayer.

He definitely prepares well for his homily, and never gives the impression he is "winging it". However, it is not always easy to give him the deserved attention, given that many are post-prandial at 1pm, and his accent and delivery style is not the easiest to follow..

Today's readings begins with the dramatic scene from 1 Samuel. David manages to infiltrate Saul's camp and has the opportunity to kill the sleeping King Saul, who is hunting him down. David resists the assassination, and only takes Saul's spear and pitcher, which he uses to demonstrate his sincerity in seeking reconciliation between the two of them.

The subsequent readings and psalm builds on this theme of compassion, with the gospel exhorting us to "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who treat you badly." (Luke 6:27-28).

Jesus throws down the gauntlet to his disciples and us. This challenge to believe and act in diametric opposite to our instincts and societal expectations is a difficult one to truly accept and carry out. Each time I hear this gospel reading, I feel a resistance to this call.

The consequences of such actions done in the right spirit are hard to predict, as God truly works in mysterious ways. This "life is stranger than fiction" story goes to show that what some people really need is just a little love and care. 

Congenital Hand Surgery talk at 28th SSHS HRC and ASM

I had the privilege and pleasure of being invited to give the Congenital Hand Surgery talk at the 2019 SSHS Hand Review Course and Annual Scientific Meeting. My involvement with the society goes back to when I was a young registrar in the early 2000s, and I feel a strong attachment to the society. It is gratifying to see the society and annual meeting growing in size and strength over the years.

This is the first in a few years we had a "stand alone" meeting without an international society. In 2017, we had a joint meeting in Singapore with the ASSH. Being just our society meeting, the format reverted back to the one and a half-day schedule we usually had in the past.

The scientific committee included many younger hand surgeons in the teaching faculty for the review course. I fully support this effort by the SSHS to engage the younger surgeons in the activities of our society.

My talk was the last of the meeting on the second day as part of the hand surgery symposia. I remember my time as a trainee listening to and trying to absorb as much as I could from the lectures at Hand Review Courses in the past. Because the program is very packed, there is too much information to absorb. Tina Lee, who is my team senior resident now, commented at the end of the first day that it was difficult to stay focused after the second slide. I have been there and completely understand what she feels.

For my talk, I provided a link to the slides in the beginning of my talk to allow the trainees to have a chance to view the slides in tandem with my talk, and to use them as a resource for their own review later on. The original link I provided was to the PDF in my Dropbox, but I just uploaded the slide version onto slideshare, which I also embedded below, so that a larger audience can find and access it.

Teemu's paper: Flap Related Complications Requiring Secondary Surgery in a Series of 851 Local Flaps Used for Fingertip Reconstruction

This paper is published in Journal of Hand Surgery Asian Pacific.

It was a long time in the making, starting when both Teemu and Kin Ghee were in our department.
Teemu takes big credit for having the tenacity to keep at it, with several rewrites and resubmissions.

https://doi.org/10.1142/S242483551950005X
https://doi.org/10.1142/S242483551950005X

Catholic Saints and Popes

How many saints are there in the Catholic Church?

This question came to me as I was reading an article about the making of the Catholic Encyclopedia.

I soon realized I was asking the wrong, or at least inadequately framed question. What I wanted to know was how many Saints have been officially canonized by the Catholic Church.

I was a little disappointed to find out that there is no certain number to this. While the more recent canonizations are well documented, the Saints in the early church did not have to go through such a rigorous process, not were these canonizations recorded.  Saint Ulrich from Augsburg is the first saint canonized by a pope in 993.

Saint Ulrich from Augsburg (picture in public domain)

A search shows an estimate of about 10,000 saints, although references are not provided. Some early saints may have been historical legends rather than real people, and even a dog has been venerated as a saint.

The number of popes is more certain. Pope Francis is the 267th Roman Catholic pope in a lineage that can be traced back to St Peter.

While the canonization process has been streamlined in recent years, leading to larger numbers of new saints in the church, the number of papal saints is a rarity nowadays compared to the early church. 

The Articella

The Articella (Little Art of Medicine) referred to a collection of medical texts that became the medical canon in the medieval period.

Compiled by the Salernian school,  it included both classical texts translated into the Latin and Constantine's adaptation of  Liber ysagogarum of Joahannicius, from Salerno itself. This collection resulted in a set of texts that though diverse in origin, provided a coherent codex of medical thought of the day.

First eggplant fruit

After many months and plenty of flowers ....

Round eggplant

Sometimes, a little benign neglect and time works. I haven't much time to work on the garden, and its been hot and dry. When I checked on the plants this morning, I was happy to see the two eggplant plants growing well. They are bushier and flowering well, and seeing this fruit was a big bonus. I am looking forward to more.

With the hot weather, the tomatoes are languishing though ....

A little learning is a dangerous thing

The title is a well known quotation from Alexander Pope.

I have known and used a modified version of the quotation, "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" for many years, but only recently looked up the origins of the quote. Set in its context, the quotation is more instructive:

A little learning is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again. 

The single line has always sounded akin to an admonishment to me, but in its fuller form comes across as sagely advice.

A short article explains the etymology of the quote.

Graceland - 25th anniversary album

Back when music used to come in CDs (and cassette tapes), I had a decent CD collection. I still have most of the CDs, but its been unplayed for many years. I now mostly listen either to the radio or iTunes music in the car.

One of the CDs I bought back when it was first released was Graceland, by Paul Simon. It wasn't the title track that got much radio play then, but rather "You can call me Al", which I took an immediate liking too. The music video which features the very talented and tall Chevy Chase, in contrast to the diminutive Paul Simon is nice and quirky too.

I really like many of the songs on the album, which was my first introduction to "World Music", and the CD spent a lot of time in my player. It took quite a few listens before I liked the title track "Graceland". But I never understood the lyrics and how it fit into the rest of the album. That changed when I bought the 25 Anniversary album on iTunes, which included a few bonus tracks, including one on the making on the title track. Simon's description of how the song started, developed, and the meaning of lyrics, helped me understand how the song fits in with the rest of the album.

Getting Student Feedback

Earlier this week, I used polleverywhere to get some immediate feedback after my small group student teaching. NUS, through CIT, provides institutional access to it for staff. Polleverywhere works much better than the previous SMS reply polling system.

I first used the software for a presentation session in Coimbatore for the ISSH last year, but it didn't work so well because the internet at the conference venue was slow. Still the audience was quite supportive and tried hard to participate.

For my student teaching this week, the software worked pretty well. Most of the students participated and beyond the feedback scores (which was encouraging), I was really happy to receive some written comments.

Now comes the hard part. Turning the feedback into some concrete action and changes.