diqiang, and his life

2012-02-14T10:51:00.000+08:00

Needs to get my life set in order.

"The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is now." -Chinese Proverbs

2012-02-14T06:59:00.002+08:00

到头来还是一场空。

2012-02-10T03:46:00.000+08:00

Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose.

Little things in life.

2012-02-07T04:03:00.000+08:00

I'm starting to miss all the little things in life. The friends, the chit chat without boundaries, the small things friends do for each other.

I'm feeling lonely. And it makes me question myself, whether anyone would know if I disappear the next minute, and I can't help but think, "no".

Sometimes, it feels good to have a friend tell you, "It's okay", even if he/she doesn't know what the hell is going on in your life. Sometimes, emotional reassurance is what we are really looking for at the end of the day. Sometimes, we just don't want to be alone.

Sometimes, I can't help but to think that nobody really cares.

Genius.

2012-01-31T06:51:00.000+08:00

In today's society, due to the extensive information technology, convention plays a large part of our lives - From fashion to education to leisure and even personality. However, it is important that we still hold on to who we are, because that's us.

Live a life that is personally fulfilling, not one that is fulfilling in others' eyes. Because, otherwise, at the very end of the day, at the time just before our death, we will realize that we have lived a life of regrets, for the simple reason that though our life, we lost ourselves trying to please everyone else.

It is common, very common, in fact, to hear of such advice nowadays. However, as the saying goes, all is easier said than done.

In my own words,

"The biggest problem of humankind is that while so much is known, only so much is done."

Genius is not about the money you make, neither is it about fame or prestige you acquire. Genius is you standing up against a universally accepted convention, genius is questioning what you have practically assumed to be true. Genius, is merely the ability to think critically, regardless of where the ideas originate from.

It's not that we don't have geniuses, but an education system of 'right' and 'wrong' have simply led our people into a system of belief. Coupled with extensive information technology which brings along with it a socially accepted behaviour to follow conventions, we slowly lose the genius in us.

Remember the days where we asked seemingly stupid questions? We were geniuses, then. Re-live your life of a genius.

Friends

2012-01-20T04:30:00.000+08:00

I need not a thousand friends. I only need a handful, maybe even one, that will stand for me even when the whole world is against me. That is more than enough, for a lifetime.

2012-01-05T23:42:00.000+08:00

The odds may be stacked against you, but what the odds don't know is that this isn't a math test. Passion, has a funny way of trumping logic.

It's about heart, it's about who goes out there and play the hardest, it's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward.

In any fight, it's the guy who's willing to die, willing to take the hits, that is going to take the edge.

The moment we step into the court, statistics don't matter. Neither does past glories, or mistakes. It becomes an entirely new game, and it will become what you make out of it. So, work hard, so hard that even when you lose the game, you know in your heart, that you're a winner.

Remember, they can say what they want to say, but at the very end of the day, you are only answerable, to yourself.

2011-12-20T22:51:00.002+08:00

I don't exactly know what's the emotion I'm feeling now. I don't even know what I should be feeling now. Should it be anger? Or should it be disappointment? Either way, let's go on to the story.

Firstly, I don't fancy receiving a call when I'm on my way, telling me that you are leaving. This is, especially, when you asked me to rush down after my floorball camp. I don't know whether I really rushed down, so I shall tell you the facts, and you tell me whiter I did rush down.

Training ended at 8.05.
Cool down till 815
Team talk till 835
Packed stuff and left, reached hall at around 855
Bathed, left hall at 915.

Reached Mrt at 930
Would reach at 1030. Oh, I forgot that I skipped a catered team dinner that cost $5. And I skipped a hall training.

So, did I rush down? You tell me.

I know we are schooling at different institutions, and it takes a lot more commitment than before to meet up. If you can't give me that, I don't think you deserve mine. Every decision in life is a choice.

Now I'm eating alone at bedok hawker center. Tell me, what should I be feeling? What would you be feeling?

Semester 1

2011-12-06T00:27:00.000+08:00

It's the end of my first semester in NUS. Time flies, really. I could still visualize the me going through orientation camps, living the life of passion.

I shall not waste time blogging about the tiny bits and pieces of my semester 1 experience, because it'll be insanely boring. I can't find inspiration to write them either way.

In summary, the biggest life lesson I learnt in semester 1 is that it pays to be consistent, in schoolwork, at the very least, even though I believe this trend extrapolates to almost everything else that is a process.

So, how did I come across this lesson?

Well, the usual way - By making a mistake. While I would not say that I fared badly for semester 1, I feel that I would have done a lot better if I had been more consistent in the very basic things like doing tutorials(and turning up for them), attending lectures, etc. I feel that I have failed my responsibility as a student as I was not disciplined enough.

But all is not lost. The very fact that I am blogging about this suggest that I have learnt a more valuable lesson than what most of the other students would. What I gained is not only academic knowledge, but knowledge of myself which would accompany me, and enrich me for at least the next 7 semester, or even for the rest of my life.

In this semester, something I want to share with everyone who reads this is - While I lost, I gained. It's not solely about the CAP, but what you make out of this tertiary education. While academic knowledge is valuable, self-discovery is priceless.

Don't lose yourself in search of an 'success'. Don't look back at the end of this phase of your life, and ponder if the only thing different about you then, and four(or three) years ago is your undergraduate degree.

With this, I wish you all the best in finding life's greatest experience(s).

Steve Jobs - Great, or not?

2011-10-20T17:34:00.000+08:00

I'm sharing it not because I agree with it, but I like the author because he's critical. Nonetheless, critical does not suggest that he is right.

Comparing Jobs to a morally great man is not a fair comparison. After all, do we recognize Jobs to be a morally great man? No.(Not morally great does not equate to immoral.)

What we recognize Jobs for was for the fact that he revolutionized our cell phone technology; his ingenuity and ability to incorporate our daily necessities into a phone.

Saying that any other man could have done what he did is plain ridiculous. We are living in the age where by information is spread by the seconds; What matters more is not the ability to deliver(or replicate, oh Microsoft) the product, but the ability to generate the idea that leads to the initial formation of the product.

While it is not fair to say that the technology would never be invented without Jobs, it wouldn't be fair either to say that any other would have invented the same technology(at a similar time) without him.

You are right in saying that Jobs wasn't great in the sense that he placed heavy emphasis on philanthropic work, but you might want to consider other aspects of being great. He was great because he delivered a hell lot of convenience in our lives - He gave us what we wanted. (I am not even going into the argument of the time saved from the integration of technology, and what these savings translate into.)

Einstein was a great scientist, Plato was a great philosopher, Michael Jordan was a great basketballer, Mother Theresa was a great humanitarian, and the list goes on. Maybe we ought to reconsider what we define being great to be.

So, Mr. author, before you start saying that Jobs ain't as great as we perceive him to be, please know why we actually consider him to be great in the first place - Not his morals, but his brilliance and hence our convenience. A fair judgement please.

2011-10-20T15:12:00.000+08:00

Because someday, some time down the road, there will be a little one looking up to you.

And it is up to you, solely, to determine how this little one sees you ten years down the road. There will come a time when justifying your actions to others no longer mean anything, because it is not for them that you live. Others may not see it, but so long as you do, rest assured that you have made the right choice. One day, they'll get it. Quit saying things like "I ain't gotta choice", because the very fact that you're living, is a choice. As I always say, justify yourself, to yourself. You live for yourself.

The best and most inspirational stories are not of great people with the most perfect lives, but that of ordinary people picking themselves out of a mess and start doing things right. The transformation, comes from a choice, to stop, and to start.

There is always a chance, and there is always a choice. Because life is too precious to waste.

Up.

2011-10-16T23:21:00.000+08:00

Sometimes, I feel envious, jealous even. But I will convince myself that it is better to start low and keep going up, than to start high and keep going down.

And that's where I'm heading. Nobody can stop me.

Science?

2011-09-25T15:02:00.000+08:00

If light cannot pass through opaque objects, and neutrinos are able to, does it not suggest that neutrinos have a mass small than light, and assuming that both light and neutrinos are particles, or waves if we have a primary assumption that particles cannot travel through object.

Remembering Love

2011-09-17T12:05:00.002+08:00

There are a few people who never fail to remind me that love still exist in this world. Good luck, all the best.

Beautiful words.

2011-09-03T20:13:00.002+08:00

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life, because almost everything, all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure—these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important...There is no reason not to follow your heart."
-Steve Jobs -

Floorball - Wrist shot v Drag shot v Slap shot

2011-08-15T02:24:00.001+08:00

I do not profess to be a master of floorball shots, but I am, at least, average in the floorball community. The below comment are that of just another floorballer.

Personally, I feel that unless the flooring is gerflor, wrist/drag shots are better than slap shots, any time.

Practice makes perfect. Slap shot, like airhook, may seem attractive, but really, if basics are able to take you further, learn your basics.

2011-08-15T02:21:00.000+08:00

I realized that the number of post involving my thoughts have decreased drastically since I got more involved in NUS activities. I really don't want to associate the change to NUS, but somehow I feel like there is a link. After all, there is a term called 'conducive environment' for a reason, right?

Really, is it the people? The place? The setting? Or is it me?

Some minor reflections

2011-08-12T11:35:00.000+08:00

Sometimes, it is just better to leave the previous chapter of the story behind and never touch it again. It's called the previous chapter for a reason.

And there is always two side to a story; listen, not to what he/she is saying, but to what he/she is not saying.

And I am so looking forward to Anna's 21st birthday party on the yacht later! (:

2011-08-08T02:49:00.002+08:00

There's really not another song with lyrics more beautiful.

2011-08-08T02:27:00.002+08:00

Wooohooo. Just came back from a run to the end of west coast!

And I noticed that my runs are getting shorter and faster ever since I started running in NUS.

Oh, and I miss floorball, I really do. ):

2011-08-07T12:33:00.002+08:00

I hope one day you'll see why this is unfair to me.

Goodbye, and goodluck.

2011-08-06T09:14:00.000+08:00

Sometimes, I just wanna sit down and do nothing but wallow in self-pity.

It's really alright.

Because at the end of the day, I know I will stand up, and I will stand up stronger.

A new start, so uncertain, yet filled with a vastness so terrifying.

Vitamin C - Graduation

2011-08-06T02:10:00.001+08:00

Here is a really meaningful song. I'm sure almost all of you have heard of thing song, but please still do take a listen, because the lyrics should, and should always keep you questioning yourselves about your life principles.

And really, just take out the graduation part, and you'll realize that this song applies to almost every single aspect of your life.

Personally, I feel like I am feeling what the artist is trying to express; it's just that the supposed four years is compressed into one week.

Let tomorrow be the last day. Do not regret.

And if you got something that you need to say
You better say it right now cause you don't have another day

Cause we're moving on and we can't slow down
These memories are playing like a film without sound

Will the past be a shadow that will follow us 'round?
Will these memories fade when I leave this town?
I keep, I keep thinking that it's not goodbye
Keep on thinking it's a time to fly

And so we talked all night about the rest of our lives
Where we're gonna be when we turn 25
I keep thinking times will never change
Keep on thinking things will always be the same

But when we leave this year we won't be coming back
No more hanging out cause we're on a different track
And if you got something that you need to say
You better say it right now cause you don't have another day

Cause we're moving on and we can't slow down
These memories are playing like a film without sound
And I keep thinking of that night in June
I didn't know much of love, but it came too soon

And there was me and you, and then we got real glued
Stay at home talking on the telephone with me
We'd get so excited, and we'd get so scared
Laughing at ourselves thinking life's not fair
And this is how it feels

As we go on, we remember
All the times we had together
And as our lives change, come whatever
We will still be friends forever

So if we get the big jobs and we make the big money
When we look back now will our jokes still be funny?
Will we still remember everything we learned in school?
Still be trying to break every single rule?

Will little brainy Bobby be the stockbroker man?
Can Heather find a job that won't interfere with her tan?
I keep, I keep thinking that it's not goodbye
Keep on thinking it's a time to fly
And this is how it feels

As we go on, we remember
All the times we had together
And as our lives change, come whatever
We will still be friends forever

La, la, la
Yeah, yeah, yeah
La, la, la
We will still be friends forever

Will we think about tomorrow like we think about now?
Can we survive it out there?
Can we make it somehow?
I guess I thought that this would never end
And suddenly it's like we're women and men

Will the past be a shadow that will follow us 'round?
Will these memories fade when I leave this town?
I keep, I keep thinking that it's not goodbye
Keep on thinking it's a time to fly

As we go on, we remember
All the times we had together
And as our lives change, come whatever
We will still be friends forever

As we go on, we remember
All the times we had together
And as our lives change, come whatever
We will still be friends forever

As we go on, we remember
All the times we had together
And as our lives change, come whatever
We will still be friends forever

2011-08-06T01:58:00.001+08:00

The drunk mind speaks the sober heart.

Thanks Anonymous for your heart-warming comment. I really appreciate it, along with the concern expressed in your comment.

However, I would like to address some points, and also pen down what I feel about what you wrote. Please don't take it that I am scrutinizing your comment, take it as a 'reply'.

Firstly, the person did betray my trust, but I would not judge the person as to label them as 'stupid'. But one fact still remain, the person betrayed my trust.

Yes, I have heard of the passage before. I have always given others the benefit of the doubt that they are good in nature. But one thing I never understood is why have so many people showed me that they are not?

Randy Pausch had a really inspiring quote - If someone fails to impress you, it is just that you haven't given them enough time. I am trying very hard, but why do I sometimes get the feeling that they just DON'T CARE?

But yes, life is a learning process. I guess there just ain't any one-size-fits-all solution. I'll make do with my trial and error.

And do not worry; I am still chasing after the many things I want in life. I will be strong.

But I miss my floorballers. I wonder if they do so too. Guess there's a point in life where we can all sing the song 'Vitamin C - Graduation' to ourselves.

So long, goodbye.

P.S. I really appreciate my crazy C4 alcoholics for taking such wonderful care of me. Now, I truly understand that C4 is a place more than just fun, but genuine care and trust.

Here is my most sincere thanks, though it does not, in any measurable way, justify what I truly feel. The drunk mind speaks the sober heart.

2011-08-06T01:44:00.000+08:00

You're one of the reason why I am green with red arrow.

And for the record, I do have delivery reports.

You're fighting an uphill battle. Good luck.

Gentle reminder: Think 'psychology'.

Because words will do love no justice.

2011-08-05T12:32:00.000+08:00

http://www.marcandangel.com/2009/02/12/the-unwritten-love-poem/

Almost ten years ago, I wrote an unsigned love poem to a girl I hardly knew. I told Brianna, among other things, that life was a blaze of magnificence, that she made it even brighter, and that someday I would spend everyday with the prettiest girl in the world.

When she read the poem she got goose bumps, smiled from ear to ear, and daydreamed about the gentleman behind the poetic prose. She showed it to her sister who sighed and said, “How romantic… I wish someone would write me a poem like that.” Then she showed it to her parents. Her mom smirked, but her dad frowned and said, “Don’t waste your thoughts on a foolish boy hiding behind a silly poem.” Finally, she let her new boyfriend read it. In a grim voice he said, “Let me know when you find out who wrote it, because I’d like to give him a piece of my mind!”

Despite reactions ranging from enthusiasm to aggravation, she kept the poem and still has it in her possession today… nearly ten years later. Her younger brother, Jose, recently found it neatly folded and tucked between two pages of a photo album she keeps in her den.

I know all this because Jose told me. He and I met in school ten years ago and we have been best friends ever since. He was, frankly, the reason I wrote the poem.

A Second Glance

“Your sister is pretty,” I told Jose during my first visit to his home.

“Forget about it,” he said. “Brianna has buff guys fighting for her affection everyday. You couldn’t hold her attention long enough to get a second glance.”

“I could if I wrote her a poem,” I replied.

“She has guys writing her romantic crap all the time,” he said. “She’ll just toss it out with all the other failed attempts.”

“Not mine,” I insisted.

“You’re crazy,” he chuckled. “Go ahead and try. Make me laugh!”

I wrote the poem that evening and mailed it anonymously the next morning.

I Thought I Was Special

The poem I wrote Brianna wasn’t genuine, at least not in my mind. I wrote it because Jose doubted me. Sure, I thought Brianna was pretty, but I didn’t want to settle down with her. At the time, I didn’t even know her. And as it turns out, she and I have almost nothing in common.

The last genuine love poem I wrote went to a girl I met a month before I met Brianna. She was on the varsity soccer team, and her beauty was majestic. I wrote Sara a poem and slipped it into her locker the same afternoon. I confessed my desire to be a soccer ball, and risk being kicked around, if it was the only way I could catch her attention. She caught up with me the next morning and told me I didn’t need to transform into a soccer ball to catch her attention. I asked her out on a date a few minutes later.

Our first date went well. But the next afternoon Sara spoke to a few of her teammates, two of which I had previously dated. She was appalled when she found out that I had written Jackie a poem about innocent kisses blown her way in the breeze, and Carol a poem about the lucky sunshine that glistens off her skin. Needless to say, a second date was not in our future.

“Stupid me… When I read the poem I actually believed you were being sincere! I thought I was special,” Sara screamed!

“I was… and you are,” I mumbled as she walked away.

But Sara had a point. Although I had never summoned the desire to be a soccer ball in any of my previous poems, I did use similar analogies that carried the same fundamental connotations of flirtatious affection.

I wasn’t trying to hurt her. I thought she was gorgeous. I thought she carried herself with amazing grace. I wanted to be around her. I wanted to be hers. She was the most perfect girl in the entire world… and I felt this way a hundred times before.

No Two Words Would Rhyme

Roughly six months after I met Brianna, I met Angel. I realized shortly thereafter that she moved me in a way the others had not. I couldn’t consciously pinpoint it, but I knew our relationship felt special. Even after the initial excitement fatigued, she kept me captivated in awe. I was wide awake in the second inning for the first time in my life.

Angel and I have been together for nine years now and I appreciate her more and more with each passing day. Yet despite my love for her, she’s never received a love poem.

It’s not that I haven’t tried. I tried, once, to write her a poem about the depth and beauty of her hazel-green eyes. I stumbled over my words. Another time I tried to write her a poem about the mornings I wake up early just to watch her sleep. I failed again. And just last month I tried to write her a poem entitled “Amidst an Angel.” But no two words would rhyme.

Nine years and not a single love poem written. Of course, Angel knows I love to write, so she has periodically questioned my motives for never writing her a romantic piece.

Yesterday afternoon I found myself trying again. I tried to poetically recreate the story of our first encounter. I wanted to make it cute. I wanted to make her smile. I wanted to make her cry. I wanted to typify our tale in exquisite prose. Nothing came.

The Most Profound Affirmation

I fell asleep last night thinking about my predicament. Have I lost my touch? Has someone cast an evil spell on me? Or is there a more profound, philosophical explanation?

Zzzz…

I dreamt I was sitting at round table in a dimly lit room. There was a man sitting across the table from me. He looked a lot like me, only his hair was peppered with silver and his skin was worn.

“I’m here to answer your question,” he said.

“What question?” I asked.

“The one you’ve been asking yourself for years,” he replied.

“What’s wrong with me?” I huffed. “Why can’t I write Angel a love poem?”

“Perhaps you can’t write her a love poem because you realize, subconsciously, that leaving it unwritten is the most profound affirmation of love you can make. Because you truly do love her, and true love cannot be translated into words. Because words alone could never do her any justice.”

I nodded in agreement.

He went on: “The sad truth, of course, is that this affirmation of love will always remain unnoticed. Because there is no visible output to notice… no poem to read.”

My eyes popped open.

Inspired to Write

It was 4AM, but I was wide awake and inspired to write about the epiphany I had in my dreams. I leaned over, kissed Angel on the forehead, and rolled out of bed. I powered on my laptop and opened the word processor I use for blogging. After gazing at the blank white screen for several minutes, I placed my fingers on the keyboard and titled the page “The Unwritten Love Poem.”

2011-08-05T12:07:00.002+08:00

Oh, and maybe I haven't told you - I am green with red arrow for the traffic light game; I am, not at all, looking for a relationship.

(:

2011-08-05T11:58:00.000+08:00

Anyway, thinking about it, I'm really happy that you chose to do what you did now, instead of next time. I guess there is just a time where hurting someone is justifiable, and the longer it gets, the more painful it'll become.

Anyway, you said you were trying to draw the line, which obviously suggest that you actually did something.

To share with you my two cents worth, 'drawing a line' and 'friends' doesn't click, at least to me.

And, for the record, it's the little, little little things that one does that makes someone feels in any particular manner.

Guess I am, and will always be learning from this life-sized classroom called life.

2011-08-05T03:46:00.001+08:00

At the end of the day, I guess we must understand that life have been, and will always be a journey. The most important thing is not what happens to us at this very moment, but what we take out of this moment; the most important thing is how we live our next moment.

I guess I learnt to focus my lenses. I guess I learnt to ensure that things are actually really at its maximum sharpness before I convince myself that it is the sharpest.

And most importantly, I learnt to forget how to trust, yet again.

Thank you for my many life lessons. I really appreciate them.

2011-08-05T03:03:00.000+08:00

Sometimes it just feels so fucking great to even have one person to listen to you.

But it fucking hurts to know that you misplaced your trust in this one person.

I'm okay if nobody understands me. But I am not okay when someone tries to act like they want to.

I guess the lonely and detached me is still the better me.

I guess it might just be better to live by the principle of "Trust no one."

I will never understand WHY MUST THIS HAPPEN TO ME AGAIN.

I NEVER UNDERSTOOD PRETENSE, ESPECIALLY WHEN THERE IS NO NEED FOR SOCIAL CONFORMITY, AND I WILL NEVER EVER. IF YOU DON'T CARE, DON'T ACT LIKE YOU DO.

FUCK OFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF.

Yes, I did drink alcohol.

But the drunk mind speaks the sober heart.

I feel every bit of this post, so if you think I'm writing this because I drunk, the least I would want you to know is that THIS IS HOW I TRULY FEEL.

2011-08-05T02:45:00.000+08:00

JUDGE ME.

2011-08-05T02:29:00.000+08:00

You may not have betrayed my trust, but why do you make me feel like you did?

It's not about love, it's about misplaced trust.

It's not like I tell every single soul what's on my mind.

Why?

Why?

Why?

2011-08-04T17:21:00.001+08:00

Sometimes I just wanna close my eyes and hope tomorrow never comes.

I have, yet again, placed my trust in the wrong person. It just makes me never wanna open up again.

I proclaim of the emptiness in my heart.

2011-08-04T04:32:00.001+08:00

Sometimes you feel so tempted to fill the emptiness in your heart, but sometimes, it feels great to feel hurt.

I guess that's the irony of bitterness.

Anyway, I listened to the following song, and yet again, I wondered to myself - Why must this happen to me again; if I did wrong, tell me what wrong did I do. Walking away silently is probably the worst way to express yourself.

But oh well, I can only pray for the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.

Moving on.

(:

Easy come, easy go, that's just how you live
Oh, take, take, take it all but you never give
Should've known you was trouble from the first kiss
Had your eyes wide open, why were they open?

Gave you all I had and you tossed it in the trash
You tossed it in the trash, you did
To give me all your love is all I ever asked
'Cause what you don't understand is

I'd catch a grenade for ya
Throw my hand on a blade for ya
I'd jump in front of a train for ya
You know I'd do anything for ya

I would go through all this pain
Take a bullet straight through my brain
Yes, I would die for you, baby
But you won't do the same

No, no, no, no

Black, black, black and blue, beat me 'til I'm numb
Tell the devil I said, hey, when you get back to where you're from
Mad women, bad women, that's just what you are, yeah
You'll smile in my face then rip the brakes out my car
[- From :http://www.elyrics.net/read/b/bruno-mars-lyrics/grenade-lyrics.html -]

Gave you all I had and you tossed it in the trash
You tossed it in the trash, yes, you did
To give me all your love is all I ever asked
'Cause what you don't understand is

I'd catch a grenade for ya
Throw my hand on a blade for ya
I'd jump in front of a train for ya
You know I'd do anything for ya

I would go through all this pain
Take a bullet straight through my brain
Yes, I would die for ya, baby
But you won't do the same

If my body was on fire
Ooh, you'd watch me burn down in flames
You said you loved me, you're a liar
'Cause you never, ever, ever did, baby

But darling, I'd still catch a grenade for ya
Throw my hand on a blade for ya
I'd jump in front of a train for ya
You know I'd do anything for ya

I would go through all this pain
Take a bullet straight through my brain
Yes, I would die for you, baby
But you won't do the same

No, you won't do the same
You wouldn't do the same
Ooh, you never do the same
No, no, no, no

Are we the most, or are we the least?

2011-07-23T16:26:00.000+08:00

I hope this hits you, and hits you hard. I hope this will knock you out of your stereotypical mentality.

And I hope this video will send you a simple, yet strong message - Quit judging.

We are supposed to be the most, but really, are we?

Two interesting thing.

2011-07-22T21:14:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, I was sleeping on the bus. When I woke up, I realized that the bus was already at my stop. In a rush, I took my SMU pass and tried to tap out. And that's not the worst part; the worst part was that I didn't realize what's wrong, and I tried to tap it again. And next comes the sudden realization. I shall not continue.

Today, I went to collect my passport. The person made me scan my I/C together with the rest of the people who did not make an appointment. So when I walked into the waiting area, I wanted to get a feel of how long I had to wait, so I took a peek at the current number they are serving - 2674. Then I looked at my own queue number, it was 2674. Wonderful day. (:

This is one of the few times I'll blog about what happened in my life. Enjoy! (:

I am weak, but I will be stronger.

2011-07-22T02:58:00.001+08:00

There is a cycling route that I frequent, and it is no easy feat, even till now.

Today I tried to run that route. And lucky for me, I took $50 for emergency cash, instead of the usual $10.

Yes, you would have guessed, I did not finish the to and fro run. I could find a thousand and one excuse to why I did not finish, e.g. The new pair of tights that is too tight, insufficient energy and mineral salt, inability to locate water points to fill my bottle, recurring knee injury, and the list might never end. But the bottom line remains.

There are much greater lessons to learn from, other than the fact that I DNF. I discovered how much I am able to push my body without it crumbling; I learnt the power of 'mind over body', at least until your body says no; but most importantly, I re-discovered both my mental and physical limits.

Today, the price to pay was high, at least, monetary wise. But the lesson I drew from the failure is worth much more. I learn that each time I challenge my limits, I will always come back stronger. And this is a great thing. A great, great thing.

So, if anything, today's failure have just strengthened my resolve to not only complete the run in the future, but do even more than that, much more than that. It might have shown me how weak and incompetent I am now, but it also showed me the path to how to become great sportsman.

So whoever is reading this, mark my words.

I. Will. Come. Back. Stronger.

Much. Stronger.

Immersing in the wisdom of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross.

2011-07-20T17:52:00.000+08:00

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, M.D. (July 8, 1926 – August 24, 2004) was a Swiss-born psychiatrist, a pioneer in Near-death studies and the author of the groundbreaking book On Death and Dying (1969), where she first discussed what is now known as the Kübler-Ross model. In this work she proposed the now famous Five Stages of Grief as a pattern of adjustment. These five stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. In general, individuals experience most of these stages, though in no defined sequence, after being faced with the reality of their impending death. The five stages have since been adopted by many as applying to the survivors of a loved one’s death, as well.

She is a 2007 inductee into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. She was the recipient of twenty honorary degrees and by July 1982 had taught, in her estimation, 125,000 students in death and dying courses in colleges, seminaries, medical schools, hospitals, and social-work institutions. In 1970, she delivered the The Ingersoll Lectures on Human Immortality at the University of Harvard, on the theme, On Death and Dying.

And here are some of her quotes that I related to, and also some of my thoughts along with it.

“We run after values that, at death, become zero. At the end of your life, nobody asks you how many degrees you have, or how many mansions you built, or how many Rolls Royces you could afford. That’s what dying patients teach you.”

Live for the things that matter. Live for the things that you will not regret living for.

“Dying is nothing to fear. It can be the most wonderful experience of your life. It all depends on how you have lived.”

The above quote reminds me of a quote by Randy Pausch, where he said, "We don't beat the reaper by living longer, but by living well, and living fully — for the reaper will come for all of us. The question is: what do we do between the time we're born and the time he shows up."

“There is no joy without hardship. If not for death, would we appreciate life? If not for hate, would we know the ultimate goal is love? … At these moments you can either hold on to negativity and look for blame, or you can choose to heal and keep on loving.”

My sentiments too. Life is about choices, and take responsibility over your own choices, because you made them.

“We make progress in society only if we stop cursing and complaining about its shortcomings and have the courage to do something about them.”

Think at a bigger level, think from a perspective larger than your own. Show, don't tell.

“You will not grow if you sit in a beautiful flower garden, but you will grow if you are sick, if you are in pain, if you experience losses, and if you do not put your head in the sand, but take the pain as a gift to you with a very, very specific purpose.”

Life is, and has always been a journey. So long as you don't stop at any point, you will, and will always, come out a better person.

“It’s only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth — and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up, we will then begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had.”

Too often, we take for granted our lives when we are young, for the simple reason that we are unable to see the end. When we have it, we do not cherish. When we lose it, we regret not cherishing. Really, time is all that you have.

“For those who seek to understand it, death is a highly creative force. The highest spiritual values of life can originate from the thought and study of death.”

This speaks for itself.

“I believe that we are solely responsible for our choices, and we have to accept the consequences of every deed, word, and thought throughout our lifetime.”

There is no one responsible for yourself other than yourself. With this, please take good care of yourself, because if you ever want to point a finger when something goes wrong, you should be pointing at yourself.

“Guilt is perhaps the most painful companion of death.”

Death does not hurt, guilt does.

“We need to teach the next generation of children from day one that they are responsible for their lives. Mankind’s greatest gift, also its greatest curse, is that we have free choice. We can make our choices built from love or from fear.”

Freedom of choice allows us to have nearly limitless options to live our live. And it is because of this vastness that makes each one of us powerful beyond comprehension, for the simple reason that we can, without a doubt, be who we want to be.

For 'floorball rox'

2011-07-20T17:10:00.000+08:00

On the tagboard, 'floorball rox' requested for a post discussing about where to draw the line between using your heart and using your head. Of course, my generic answer is cliché - It will have to depend on the context, employ the right one for the right situation. I shall explain myself in a few context, hoping that one of it is what you are looking for.

First up, the most common topic whereby people are faced with this dilemma - Love.

My stance for this is to use your heart. For the simple reason that you don't think love, you feel love. But some will ask, if you were to follow your heart in love, then what is the right way of loving someone?

Lucky for all of us, we are homo sapiens. We have innate primal instincts, and highest priority in the list is survivability. Part of survivability is to reproduce, and part of reproduction is mating, and we all know that there is one important thing in mating - Attracting your mate; impressing the opposite sex.

You see, this ability of how to love is innate. There is no need for another to teach you, just as a baby Komodo Dragon knows that it have to climb up a tree the moment it is born to prevent being preyed upon - It is a primal instinct. But sometimes, why we find it so difficult to love is simply because we have been taught to suppress our primal instinct.

For example, a part of survivability is communal living, but some of our parents taught us to be wary of your friends, that there is no free lunch in this world, that everyone cares more about themselves before you. Like communal living, some of us managed to make ourselves believe that love hurts; it's not worth a try. If you happen to be in any of the categories mentioned above, or any along the line, you might find it hard to re-discover your natural ability to love.

But so long as you are willing to allow yourself to live again, to follow your heart, how to love will come to you, naturally.

And a piece of advice from me to you is not to hide in your comfort zone of not loving in fear of getting hurt, because love is divine.

Next up, spirituality. For the simple reason that spirituality is something you you personally believe in, and yet is unable to rationalize, you have to use your heart. Enlightenment, which I think is the best thing spirituality can offer you, is felt, not taught. You don't go about saying, "Teach me how to attain Zen?". Instead, you ask yourself, "How do I attain Zen." Zen is a self-discovery, a personal mastery. In spirituality, teachings are only able to teach you that much. In my opinion, teachings only make up 20% of why spirituality is awesome. The other 80% that is most wonderful about spirituality is discovering yourself. Enlightenment, and change, comes from the inside. Knowing yourself, recognizing your flaws, and strengths too, suggest that you are halfway on the route to enlightenment, to changing for what you perceive is better.

For most of the other things, follow your head.

In short, if it is about spiritual, primal instinct(communal living, survivability, etc), love, etc, use your heart. If not, use your head.

This writing sucks bad. No rigour, no emphasis, no personal touch. Seems to me like blatant ranting.

2011-07-20T11:01:00.000+08:00

When you think your life sucks, just know that it ain't a bad thing.

Special thanks to you!

2011-07-20T04:17:00.000+08:00

Hi all! I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to all of you who made an effort to come down for BBQ, be it for the entire period of time, or just an hour. Your commitment to the OG is felt, and it is really heartening.

Special mention to Yumiko, who took the trouble to come all the way down to ECP after Running Man Camp, despite her fatigue, the fact that she lives in Jurong East, and that she have the UHC Medical Check-up tomorrow! Thank you for coming down.

Special mention to both Dwayne and Andre, too, for coming down for a short hour or so, despite your hectic schedule. It was really great to have you there. Thanks for making the effort.

Special thanks to BuoWei for bringing the liquor! Thank you.

Special thanks to Serene and Pearlyn for walking to 7-11 to buy the poker cards! Thank you.

Special thanks to Renz and Chen Xiao for helping me in the preparation of the BBQ. The BBQ itself wouldn't have been possible without their help, so please join me in appreciation of their effort!

Not forgetting, I would like to thank the ones who helped spread the butter; the ones who helped pour the drink; the ones who tested the food; the one who mixed the alcohol; the ones who lighted the charcoal, and the ones who BBQ-ed the food!

Rayne: Though we would all have much appreciated your presence if you were here, but the fact that you were unwell remains, and we all hope that you will recover soon and join us in our next outing!

Vivian: HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Apologies for not proceeding with the Zoo plan to celebrate your birthday, but I hope you had a wonderful wonderful day nonetheless! Happy belated birthday!

Sincere thanks to ALL OF YOU for making this a great and wonderful BBQ, at least for me.

Let's all look forward to the many more to come!

2011-07-19T09:04:00.003+08:00

I am amazed at how selfish and self-centered one can get, but I'm even more amazed at how childish I can get when my emotions are evoked.

Oh God I Pray.

2011-07-18T11:57:00.000+08:00

Grant me the serenity of mind to accept that which cannot be changed; courage to change that which can be changed; wisdom to know the one from the other.

Simple promises that means the most.

2011-07-18T11:37:00.000+08:00

Simple promises of commitment, care, reliability, trust, comfort, reassurance, and love.

It's not that I choose not to love, but it's a simple case of I don't want to hurt you when I find out that I can't love you any more.

The vastness of life, from the greatness to the weakness of it, terrifies me.

Pardon me, let me reclaim my personal space for this post.

2011-07-18T09:53:00.001+08:00

Sorry readers, just ignore this post. I just want my personal space.

Okay I'm tired. I'm tired of trying to live a high life when I really actually have nothing. I'm tired of working and working and working and working and yet have nothing. I'm tired of chasing and chasing and chasing and chasing and yet have nothing. I'm tired. Sometimes I just want to close my eyes, and feel the moment stop. Sometimes, I want to close my eyes and be at peace. Sometimes, I. Just. Want. To Stop.

Yes, I hear many of my friends asking, in army, and after army, you seem to be the one who is making the most money. Why do you always say that you have not enough, especially when you did not even go for a single overseas trip or whatsoever.

Yes, without a doubt, I am making a lot. In army, higher risk pay, early promotion; after army, $1,700 job for 7months and 2 tuitions.

But do you all know what I am committing to? Do you all know in what situation I'm in? Do you all know what's going on in my life?

I hate the strong me, because I know one day I'll crumble and fall. I hate acting like there is nothing wrong at all. I hate to choose to believe that it will all work out one day, but reality hits, and hard. No, I never wanted my life to be this way. But in life, I don't have a choice. I have to move on from where I am. Comparison will only make yourself miserable.

To help you understand, if you are even in the least interested, here are some figures.

Since I started working, I have gave my mum $1,000, $888 for CNY. A few years ago, I gave my mum and dad $200 each. But sadly, really, they don't remember a thing. I also paid for the $900 air-con at my new place. I 'lent' my brother $2,000 when he went for exchange, but I really have no intention of taking it back. I really just hope that you'll treat mum better. Yes, I know mum owes you money, but do you really think that if she can pay you, she don't want to? Do you really think that she wants to be in this situation? Pinning the blame on anyone is not going to work. If any, it merely evoke emotions, and things will never be the same at the end of the day. Yes, I love you, and will stand by you for as far as I can see, and you too. But I guess somewhere in between, you stopped loving me. I guess somewhere in between, your priorities changed. I guess somewhere in between, money became the top of your list. And to add to these meagre figures, I paid 3 x $2000 rent last year. And did I even include the many family meals, mum's birthday, Mother's Day, etc? Having a better picture now?

No, I did not write this because I regretted these monetary transactions. In fact, I never did. If money is all it takes to keep the family together, I guess it is the least I could have gave. I am writing this post because I want you to wake up from your high life mentality and face the truth. I want you to stop taking things for granted. And lastly, I am writing this for the hope that you are mature enough to know what is important and what is not, that you are able to think, and make decisions for yourself. I'm writing this, in hope that you'll stop, and think for just a little while; to realign your priorities and objectives.

For one, mum is not young any more. Her health deterioration is evident, and I am sure you can see it. And you know yourself that you haven't been the most filial of a son. No, I am not saying that you should change, but I want you to not regret your actions when things are too late. I always heard of stories whereby children are rebellious and stingy when their parents are around, but filial and generous when they aren't. Really, do things at the point where it matters, not when it matters no more. At the bottom line, don't live to regret what you did. Do things right from the start, and I am not going to tell you what is right. It is subjective. If you are confused, just close your eyes, and use your humanity to feel. Now, that is right.

Secondly, I don't know why you don't want to talk to WQ, but I respect your decision. Now, if you want to use his car, at least have the decency to inform him, and compensate him for his petrol and cash-card. Really, if you do not respect him, what obligations does he have towards you? You need to learn to stop taking the best of both worlds, and start learning to not take things for granted.

Yes, and our quarrel recently, you know things will never be the same, nothing close. At the end of the day, I want you to know that you, and no one else, is responsible for your life. Why do I sense that mum is more anxious than yourself for your ICT. You are just using your phone, ignoring mum as she is trying to help you. And you said that you'll handle it yourself.

BUT WHY IS IT THAT YOU CAN FLARE UP AT HER WHEN YOU CANNOT FIND YOUR GOD DAMNED BOOTS WHEN YOUR ICT IS ON THE NEXT DAY? WHY DID YOU SAY THAT YOU'LL HANDLE THINGS YOURSELF WHEN YOU ARE NOT CAPABLE OF DOING SO? IT IS TIME TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY OF YOUR OWN LIFE, AND STOP SAYING THINGS THAT YOU CANNOT LIVE UP TO, TWENTY THREE YEAR OLD BOY. YOU SHOULD STOP TAKING THINGS FOR GRANTED.

For someone who proclaim to know a little bit of what is more important in life, my life is in an extremely turbulent state.

This is for you, my beloved brother. I know that if you were to read this now, it might seem like some senseless ranting of a young immature twenty year old. But come back another day, say ten years, or maybe twenty, or maybe even fifty years later, and I hope you'll understand then.

My life is in a mess. I hope that instead of making it messier, I am clearing it up. There is a right way of doing things, and there is a unorthodox way. At the end of the day, we both know which will prevail. Live well, live wise. I'm moving on.

2011-07-14T02:35:00.001+08:00

I saw this quote on facebook and I thought it was really meaningful.

To love without condition, to talk without intention, listen without judging, to give without reason and to care without expectation.

Really, sometimes there just ain't a reason. Yes, be skeptical, exercise discretion. But don't be overly skeptical and henceforth paranoid.

An open letter to the Education Minister from a Secondary 4 student

2011-07-13T17:15:00.002+08:00

Letter is quoted from 'An open letter to the Education Minister from a Secondary 4 student.'

This girl is truly wise. She is doing, better, the same things that I did when I was 19, at the tender age of 16.

To notice the flaw of the education system whilst within the education system is no mean feat, definitely. Janelle, I applaud you.

Enough 'captions', here goes:

Dear Mr Heng,

I am a Secondary Four student at Nan Chiau High School, and am due to take my O Levels this year. Being shown first-hand what the education system is like, especially from a fairly unflattering point of view, has made me realise much about the education system that I do not like. Of course, I am fully aware that no education system is perfect, yet in the spirit of transformation the PAP has hopefully adopted since the 2011 General Elections, I write this letter to you in the hope that some of these problems with our system will indeed be changed, or if not, at least reviewed.

I speak just for myself, and not for all other graduating students in Singapore when I say this, but I do feel strongly about many methods being employed in secondary schools, especially for graduating classes. For one, I have come to realise the serious emphasis the education system has placed on factual memorisation. Perhaps it is just used in my school, or maybe even a method most autonomous or government schools apply, but based on personal observation, I have come to the conclusion that students are often not taught to ask ‘Why?’

Children are curious and inquisitive, asking their parents questions many parents themselves are not able to answer. As a parent yourself, I believe you can testify to this. Too often, I have heard toddler cousins asking their parents why the grass on my front lawn is green, and how their baby sister was created, or why fruit punch is reddish-pink. I therefore strongly believe that the education system is indeed stifling to a child’s inquisitive and curious mind.

Albert Einstein once said: “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.” Yet, what is it we are doing to our students today? We are training them not to question, Mr Heng.

I once had to do a Chemistry paper in which I was asked ‘Why?’ for many things, such as ‘Why is carbon a non-metal?’

Perhaps it is just my school’s teaching methods, but for the life of me, I was never once taught why carbon was a non-metal. Since I started with Chemistry in Secondary Three, I learnt that the staircase line divided the Periodic Table into metals and non-metals, and that metals and metals took part in metallic bonding.

That, I believe, is one of the key flaws in the education system. This is a flaw that is not only serious, but also has wide-reaching effects. The most common definition of education is the one provided by the Cambridge dictionary, which states that education is ‘the process of teaching or learning in a school or college, or the knowledge that you get from this’, but I prefer the one found in the students’ favourite dictionary. Education itself, as defined by Dictionary.com, is ‘the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life.”

The beauty of education is to ask ‘Why?’ and have those questions answered. To be aware of knowledge one never knew about. To constantly discover new insights and new things every day, to answer questions lurking in our minds. But far too often, we are taught not to ask why, to just memorise. To get an A1, all we have to do is memorise our textbooks inside out and upside down, and be able to regurgitate them on the very day, tweaking them minimally to answer the questions asked. In the pursuit for grades, I believe we have lost the beauty of education: The ability to ask ‘Why?’

Maybe I’m still a teenager. Still sixteen, still not quite mature in my thinking processes and ways of speech. Maybe I don’t know exactly what type of education system I want, but I know one thing: I want a system where I’m not a product on a factory line, but a real human with an inquisitive mind, always taught to ask and wonder. Memorizing is indeed the fastest way out. Fastest way to good grades, the fastest way out of poverty, the fastest way to a good job and a good salary and a good life. The fastest way to a First World Country. But is it really the best way to educate?

Minister, the purpose of education is to ‘prepare oneself or others intellectually for mature life’. Singapore is a First World Country with developing quartenary industries and a high Human Development Index. It has a stable economy, a thriving political landscape and top-notch healthcare systems. No longer can we adopt the same methods it took us to get here. Instead, what the country needs is more thinkers, more creators. People who dare to ask ‘Why?’ and ‘Why not?’. People who are not slaves to change, but create the change. How do we train the leaders of the nation, if many of our brightest young minds are not bright because they can think, but are bright simply because they know how to maneuver their way around school exams and the education system? It is no surprise then, that many of our local policies are all recycled from those of other countries. They lack imagination and creativity, because it is my deep-set belief that other than curiosity, those are the other things the local education system kills.

My friends are constantly telling me that Singapore has no talent. They are constantly swooning over foreign celebrities, actors and actresses, but in comparison, the support and fanbase for our own local talents are negligible, save for a few. I do not believe that Singaporeans lack talent. In fact, I truly believe Singaporeans are a talented bunch. Art, music, dance, you name it, I can name someone who’s good at it. So what is the problem here, you may ask. The problem is that Singaporean youths are often not taught as individuals with separate talents, but as a collective who are all the same. Often, we suppress our own natural talents for what the education system wants. I have had so many Chemistry and Biology answers marked completely wrong just because I used my own words to express the same idea. ‘Cambridge wants this, so we will give them this’ appears to be the mindset of most of the teachers, who throw us model answers to be memorised. We cannot change the markers at the University of Cambridge, but I am sure you would agree with me that this is not the way to educate youths. Many times, in English, I have been told to follow a certain structure and certain format for even free writing tests. Youths are brimming with creativity and fresh ideas, but we lack that same outlet to express them. Why do you think social networking is such a crazy trend? Social networking gives students a voice that the education system never gave them.

How do we cultivate talent in this manner, by not giving youths a voice? By memorizing tons and tons of model answers and essays to be submitted? In this way, the education system is sending a message to Singaporean youths that it is not wrong to have a voice, but it is wrong to use this voice in the system of education. What it does not realise is that it is the education system that is supposed to give Singaporean students their voice! By educating students, we are giving them the ability and knowledge to speak their minds, yet take this privilege from them away all at the same time.

Is this really what education is? Stifling voices in favour of appeasing examiners, memorizing facts to get that A1, yet all of these are forgotten by the time we start work?

Call me naive, because I am still young, but I believe an education is not about imparting facts and figures and making students digest it all. It’s about shaping a mindset. Creating a person. Nurturing what God gave each one of us. I fear that in the pursuit for the Singaporean Dream, we have lost the initial purpose of education: to create a person, who is opinionated and articulate and creative and imaginative. Who is not afraid to think out of the box and come up with new ideas and policies.

We may be a First World Country, but if our education system still holds the belief that we are in a Second or Third World Country, and need to furiously cram facts in our head to get out of the cycle of poverty fast, then we will never truly raise First World leaders. Leaders who can think about the solution to an exact problem, and not recite whatever they learnt in their political science or economics courses in university.

—

Another gaping flaw in the education system is the premise of character development. From the way it is taught in schools, it often feels like schools are introducing character development just purely for the sake of it, and not for inculcating values important to working life.

Mr Heng, we are taught Civics and Moral Education from a FILE, and from TEXTBOOKS. We are given CME EXAMS. Surely you would agree this is not the way to go about teaching values? Values cannot be taught, so the education system tries to force it down our throats by teaching us morally-correct behaviour.

Since Social Studies in primary school, we have been fed the system’s easy way out. Instead of actually having values instilled into us, we are taught to give morally-correct answers. We are taught to help old ladies cross roads when they look like they need assistance. Though the last sentence may be a bit of an exaggeration, one cannot deny that it is true. Character is not the knowledge that we should help the old lady cross the road, but the actual act of helping her do it.

The sad but true reality is that most teenagers know that the old lady needs assistance, but would rather continue checking Facebook statuses and giving Twitter updates on their smartphones rather than going over and helping the poor soul.

Granted, who am I to make a generalisation and say that all teenagers are this way? I know that there are teenagers and youths out there who are truly compassionate, who would truly go out of their way to help, but I have no arguments in my bag of tricks to argue for the stand that this behaviour is taught by Civics and Moral Education lessons in schools. Rather, more often than not, it is good parenting that leads a child to do so, not CME lessons.

Teachers often ‘eat up’ our CME lessons to have their own lessons, for one. Though this may not be a commonplace occurence, it happens extremely often for graduating classes when teachers are rushing to finish up the syllabus. Again, the system sends out another message: As long as you can get all A1s for your O levels, your character does not matter.

I am sure this is not the intended message, but it is certainly what most of us are hearing. The common mentality is ‘So what if you have a good character? You’re failing most of your subjects.”

I find this rather peculiar, because I for one have always found that with a strong character, good grades come naturally afterwards. With self-discipline and self-motivation, a student can certainly get good grades. Thus, character development should in fact be more important than academic education, because after all, an education is not about pure academics. Instilling values in a child is certainly an important part of preparing them for maturity, for maturity does not come with grades, but with wisdom and growth no amount of midnight-oil-burning can develop.

—

As a Secondary Four student, I experience first-hand the ugliness of the flaws the education system has. In fact, I spent one hour and forty-five minutes writing you this letter. Though I am not sure if you will ever get to read it ever in this lifetime, but this is something that I believe in. I believe in being the change I want to see in the world, or at least in my environment, as cliched as that sounds. Every one else will tell me that this is a waste of time, because I have Preliminary examinations next week and I could have been studying instead of typing this long Facebook note out.

This is the type of education system the Ministry of Education’s policies have cultivated. A system where fighting for things one believes in are seen as a ‘waste of time’, where reading anything non-school-related is seen as yet another waste of time. Is this the type of education a First World Country should have, one where students’ thoughts and abilities to express themselves are confined within the front and back cover of their textbooks, where it is better to be passive and just study hard under the system than fight to change it and waste one’s time, where having your own thoughts is a liability.

Have we lost the true meaning of education somewhere in the paper chase, buried under all the degrees and diplomas and paychecks? Or were we lost all along as to what education truly means?

I have not given up hope that there is still space for change. I have not submitted myself to accepting that ‘this is the Singapore system and I cannot do anything about it’. I am fighting for the changes I want to see in the best way that I can, because I believe that someday, my children will be educated in such a way that they are taught to never stop asking, and to always care about the people around them. I believe that you have the power to make these changes happen, and if not, at least a thorough review of the policies made by your predecessors.

Thank you very much for your time.

Janelle Lee

To the rest of you who actually shares similar sentiments with her, maybe it's time to 'unstuck' yourself from the education system and truly learn what it have to offer you; if they don't make it better for us, the least we could do is to make it better for ourselves. Be the change.

Learn, not know.

The most simple of life's lessons.

2011-07-13T11:01:00.000+08:00

There are some simple things that when you do, you know you are living your life right, with no regrets.

1. Give thanks to others.

2. Apologize when you are in the wrong.

3. Speak the truth.

People always ask for one-stop solutions to how to live life right. If anything close exists, these would be it.

More Life Lessons.

2011-07-12T02:54:00.000+08:00

These are some of life's many important lesson that I have came to discover recently. I believe it would be beneficial for you to know. These may not be of much value to you now, but rest assured that it would be in the future.

1. Every action can be perceived differently by different group of people. To an individual, it may mean one thing; to a group/organization, it may mean another; to the social media, it might just mean the opposite.

2. Just because one is smart doesn't make him/her necessarily wise.

3. Give others the benefit of doubt that they are trustworthy, and more often than not, they would not fail to impress you.

4. Delegation of work does not mean that you dish out the dirty work. If anything, it means that you dish out the easier work to others so that you free up your time to do the dirty work yourself.

5. Think, before you act.

6. At any point of your life, you can choose to either smile or frown; you can either see it as a really bad experience, or you can choose to see it as a learning point; you can either see it as an extreme pain, or you can choose to treat it as a quest to become better than before.

Remember, good decisions comes from experience, and experience comes from bad decisions. -Randy Pausch

7. Anyone who is where he is now have to start from where he was. -The idea was quoted from Tracy L. Chong, but was rephrased(or so I think) in my own words.

8. It's okay to be critical, but please be constructive. The aim of all critics should be the improvement of the subjects.

Pardon me.

2011-07-12T02:31:00.000+08:00

Yes, to all the Chilli Bombs, please pardon my poor organizational skills. It ain't really the easiest thing to reach home past midnight everyday and still having to plan several outings. I'll do my best, please provide constructive feedback. Thank you! (:

Also, I am unable to accommodate everyone in Chilli Bomb. There will definitely be people who are not free on the outing day, so let's just be fair to yourself and me - Just because a few members are unable to turn up doesn't make it a bad outing. Thank you again.

To the rest who are complaining or whatsoever, I welcome complains, but please include recommendations or constructive feedback together with it. Do rest assured that I will try my very best to understand your perspective and consider your recommendations, but if I don't adopt it, it does not mean that I don't hear you. Also, if you could convert a little of your effort in complaining to some help, it will be much more appreciated. Thank you once again.

And yes, I guess that OG spirit was really temporal, or was it not?

Help!

2011-07-10T02:37:00.001+08:00

Hey all! I need some help with a dilemma.

If a guy were to use profanities on you, and expects a favor from you some ten minutes later, what would you do?

Quoted from one of my readers:

"If I am still affected- I'll say NO! and walk away.

If I want to be gracious- still help, and tell the person that I do "

Now, if you have to make a choice, which will it be?

Thank you, so very much.

2011-07-08T10:04:00.001+08:00

You know who you are. I guess we know each other so well that words itself is redundant in our communication. Henceforth, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks for you in a simple few words.

Thank you for standing by my side for the past six years, even though I have been disappointing you time and again. Yes, I do see the sacrifices you have made for me, and I am truly appreciative. You are a wonderful girl, and you deserve someone better than me.

I wish you all the best, and even when everything seem uncertain, do take comfort in the fact that everything will work out by itself, naturally. Do know that should you need a person to talk to, I'll always be here, so long as it is not about us.

Let this mark the end of our six year journey. It have truly been my honor meeting you; knowing you. Without you, I wouldn't have been who I am today.

Thank you, once again.

For the rest of you, do take note that behind this keyboard sits a person who might be not too bad a friend, but a terrible lover.

Random quotes.

2011-07-08T09:27:00.000+08:00

You may be smart, but that doesn't make you necessarily wise, and vice versa.

For those who are chasing fervently after fame and riches, this is a hard truth - You will never be contended with what you have. After all, if you are not contend with what you have now, what makes you believe that you would be in the future?

For those who are in constant strife for more power, do note that someone out there will definitely bring you down some day. If your mind is set on attaining, then too often we are unable to foresee losing as a scenario, and that's when another comes and take it all away from you.

“If your mind is happy, then you are happy anywhere you go. When wisdom awakens within you, you will see Truth wherever you look. Truth is all there is. It's like when you've learned how to read - you can then read anywhere you go.”

- No Ajahn Chah

Now, this is Zen.

NUS Sports Camp '11 - Chilli Bomb

2011-07-08T02:21:00.004+08:00

It's really heartening to see how committed each and everyone of you are to the OG, that you try your best to at least turn up for the OG outing, be it only for a few hours, even though you have got many other commitments. Needless to say, there will be many more to come, and I sincerely hope that you will all remain as committed as you currently are.

Then again, I was reminded by what Jasmine actually told me on the last day of Sports Camp - Sports Camp OG do not usually go a long way; most of them disperse into their cliques due to their hectic schedules, etc - There is no gravity.

With this, I can't help but feel skeptical about what's going on right now. Is this what people call '三分钟热度', whereby it is a momentary feeling, or what some might term as impulse? Are we going to go our separate ways like the many OGs from the many sports camp before us?

Thinking about it, it really isn't that difficult to stay together - It merely takes a little more commitment from each of us, and a little push of our OG up our priority list. Ultimately, it is our choice whether or not we stay together as an OG.

I really do hope that we will all stay committed to this OG, be it as a councilor or a freshie, even after school starts, even after we get further separated when we enter the society, or even when some of us move overseas. The notion of 'staying together' does not mean that we have to meet up frequently. In fact, it's not even close. Staying together simply suggest that we take a little more initiative in our personal capacity to know more about how our fellow OG members are doing, a little more concern, and definitely a little more effort to keep in touch.

And while we cannot proclaim to be much more than an OG for now, I do hope that we can actually call each other close friends in the future. To add, I truly appreciate each and every single one of you in the OG. However, because I am really not that good in PR, there will be instances where I might have offended you. Do take relief in knowing that any offence towards you is not intentional, and I apologize for it.

To those with similar sentiments, let this be a little reminder, that every time we see this message, we will try our very best, to stay committed, connected to this OG.

Come what may!

Yours Truly,
DQ.

Leadership.

2011-07-04T01:47:00.000+08:00

Sometimes it is not the incentives that matter; what matters more is your willingness to do something at the expense of yourself.

People always ask, "What constitutes a good leader?"

It really isn't very difficult to answer this question. Just put the welfare of your subordinates above your own, and things will almost always fall in place, naturally.

Appreciation.

2011-07-03T21:18:00.000+08:00

One of the things I like about religious groups is that they have a tendncy to give credit where credit is due; this is one thing that our society is seriously lacking in.

Oops!

2011-07-02T08:03:00.000+08:00

Everyone always says, "Don't drive after drinking"; but it why didn't it occur to me not to drive after waking up two hours later?

2011-07-01T18:55:00.000+08:00

The one sad thing is - At the very end of the day, I will never be your number one.

The start of a new journey.

2011-07-01T11:12:00.004+08:00

Two camps have just ended - Chemical Engineering Camp and Sports Camp. Without a doubt, both camps were fun, more fun than what I originally expected. But allow me to clarify - Most of this fun is not to be credited to the activities, but to the company of the camps. To the few who were in the camps and are seeing this, I extend my most sincere appreciation to your presence in the camp.

After the camps ended, I can't help but to reflect on the two camps. Was it good? What were the differences between the two camps? Which was more fun? In which did I make closer friends?

Below, I will be writing how I honestly feel. It might be (un)favourable to you; I advise discretion. If you find it discomforting when people writes about you, please DO NOT read on.

*I wanted to do an elaborate write-up on both camps, but due to time constrain, I would only be able to do an extremely brief one. *

In short, Chemical Engineering Camp activities were well planned and elaborate, while Sports Camp activities were more diverse and physically straining.

One of the two more notable points I would like to point out would be their mass dance. There are four verses and four choruses in the song used for Chem Engine Camp, while the song used for sports camp only comprised two. Yet, I would say, confidently, that I could do this one better than the mass dance in sports camp.

I know some of you would already be thinking, "The time allocated to mass dance for sports camp is way shorter than that allocated in your camp!"

Allow me to help you understand where I'm coming from. Our camp committee should have realized, from the beginning, that minority of us would be able to sustain four days packed with activities on that little amount of sleep that we were allocated. Didn't it occur to the organizing committee that by human nature, people would be more irate when they do not have enough sleep, and wouldn't this defeat the fundamental purpose of the camp - To have fun. Wouldn't it be good if mass dance were to be taken out from the camp, and the time be used for us to sleep?

But then again, taking out the mass dance would mean that there is one less activity for the SPs.

Something else I wanted to point out would be the contingency of the schedule. Overrunning activities is one of the most common scenarios when planning a schedule. When an activity overruns, which other activity/activities did the organizing committee plan to forgo, such that the integrity of the schedule is maintained? Which is, in my terms, less important?

The other point I want to point out is that, though Sports Camp is way more fun than Chem Engine Camp, I sincerely felt that I have built closer bonds with the people in Camp Engine Camp. This does not show that the organizing committee did not do a good job, but I think it would be great if they were to state their stand from the beginning of the camp. Nonetheless, this is a food for thought for anyone else who intends to hold any leadership position - What is the essence of building close bonds?

Here, I am definitely not saying that the camp committee's plan could be better or not. I am just offering suggestions and food for thoughts, and I hope that they had thought about before the commencement of the camp.

Lastly, we would definitely meet some people whom we like, and some otherwise in camps. The only thing I can tell you is, "Do not be too quick to judge." Take a step back, look from other perspectives, question your fundamental assumptions are good ways to help you empathize with another.

Let me quote you the words of a wise man to help illustrate what I am trying to put across.

"Wait long enough and people will surprise and impress. When you're pissed off at someone and you're angry at them, you just haven't given them enough time. Just give them a little more time and they almost always will impress you." -Randy Pausch

I have so many things that I want to pen down, but time is not on my side. If I can afford more, I would definitely be here to update this post.

Before I end, allow me to share with you one last quote.

“Having a million friends is not a miracle, especially in this digital age;
The miracle is to have a friend who will stand by you when millions are against you.”

Thanks for reading! And as always, no offence to anyone! (:

P.S. EVERYONE WHO IS READING THIS, PLEASE TAG. THANK YOU.

Relationships.

2011-06-16T01:27:00.000+08:00

Firstly, I would have to clear the misconceptions about the term 'relationships'.

Relationship ain't just about you and your spouse, you and your partner, you and your friend. A relationship is the bond that practically exists between every single one that you know.

"... whose happiness mattered more than my own." -Randy Pausch.

If you are looking to marrying someone and enjoying a good marriage, please, marry someone whose happiness matters more than your own. If not, don't, you'll end up torturing yourself, and your partner.

And yes, if you are looking into genuine friends, this quote would apply too. And believe me, it is hell easy to tell if another pegs a monetary value/benefit onto your friendship. So if you are the kind of person whom I have just mentioned, it is due time that you reflect upon what you want in your life. And I would offer a similar advice - If the friendship is not genuine, you don't have to keep it going; Unless you are looking into networking, of which you are able to peg a monetary value onto them.

And for ALL relationships, this is one quote that would either make your life really really easy to live, or difficult to.

"If I only had three words of advice, they would be, Tell the Truth. If got three more words, I'd add, all the time."

Telling the truth - The easiest, yet the most challenging. It takes great courage to speak the truth. And when you do so, your life is, more or less, in place.

Most of the time, the truth hurts, badly. But ultimately, the truth is the truth. There is no value in deceit to make one feel more comfortable. The moment you think you are so good at something and that you do not need to improve on it, you are at your peak. It takes great humility for a great man to admit the minor flaws in himself, and resolve to improve himself in those areas. But in these, he grows to become an even greater man. And this is the differentiating factor between a great man, and a good man.

And once again, my life principle for every single one out there.

In actual words,
Do what you like to do, and don't do what you don't like to do. But if you have no choice but to do something that you don't enjoy doing, then you better start enjoying the thing you don't like to do.

In short,
Do what you want to do.

It is possible for everyone a life with no regrets, yet too often we find ourselves ensnared in our current situation that we succumb the easy way. But trust me, it is easy because you have been doing it that way. I'm sure it was easy for Randy to live his life HIS WAY, because that is what he has been doing.

To start, change. Even though Man are habitual creatures.

Live well. Here are two quotes for you.

"You don't beat the grim reaper by living longer; you beat the grim reaper by living better."

"Time is all you have and you may find one day that you have less than you think."

Though you might not feel the need to 'rush for time' now, be certain that one day, when you realize that you do not have as much time as you think you have, you would be looking back and hoping that you had 'rushed for time' then.

Isn't it ironic, then when 'time' was abundant, we simply waste most of it, but the moment 'time' is limited, we start rushing to do more with less.

Start doing more, when you have more.

Dear Diary,

2011-06-10T21:31:00.002+08:00

Please tell me that I'm about to do the right thing.

Lying

2011-06-08T17:32:00.001+08:00

A lie have to be covered by another lie. and this cycle will have to repeat itself for, as far as I know, ever.

Ever pondered about how to stop a lie that you have started, because you felt that it is getting out of control and is unhealthy?

Well, here is a simple solution - Don't start lying, and you will not have to fret over how to stop lying.

It's not about doing things right, but more of doing the right things.

"If you do the right things adequately, that's more important than doing the wrong things beautifully." -Randy Pausch

Liberal views on LOVE

2011-06-06T19:28:00.001+08:00

As stated, my views on love are extremely liberal; I think it's perfectly fine for couples not to get married. And I shall attempt to justify that. (I will be using me and you, because it is so much easier to express myself rather than in terms of Person #1 and Person #2)

Note: Whatever I refer to as 'marriage' could also be interpreted as 'a relationship'. Tweak the grammar a little, but the idea is similar.

A disclaimer before I begin - By no means am I saying that marriage is a bad thing. My views on this is akin that on religion. If it makes you a better person, do it. But if it doesn't, or makes you worse, then it is time to question why we subscribe to them.

Before I begin, allow me to show you our generic social behaviour, in an attempt to broaden your perspective. Too often, we are taught to use our mind and not follow our heart. This is significantly evident in our society, as 'nurtured' by our education system - There is no/little passion in what we do. And as I always say, "When there is no cause, there is no case."

This brings me to the point - You don't think love, you feel it. Not knowing love doesn't make you any less of a lover, and knowing it doesn't make you any more of one too. Feel with your heart, not your mind. There is just so much our mind can do; Love can never be rationalized, simply because there is only one person that is the subject of our love. It is UNIQUE. Below are two clichés that might help you understand what I'm trying to put across.

"Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder."
There is no one most beautiful person in the world. The ugliest person to one may seem to be the most beautiful to another. Likewise, the most beautiful person to one may seem to be the ugliest to another.

"One's meat, another man's poison."
What you may find appeasing might seem to be the most irritable to another. And vice versa.

In a nutshell, love is unique. Don't try to understand love, for the beauty of love is the mystery of it. Your mind will never understand what your heart tells you, and your heart will never understand what your mind tells you. Feel it.

Now for the main part.

If marriage is going to make me love you less each day, then I would rather not be married, and live under the fear that I may lose you each day, so that I would cherish you every single moment of my life. The hard truth about this is that when we 'possess' our other half, we will start to take things for granted, simply because we lose the fear of losing them - We become complacent.

If marriage is going to make you feel that you shouldn't leave me because you feel 'bad', even though you don't love me any more, then I would rather you be able to leave me and pursue your happiness. After all, does loving someone require you to possess them? Personally, I don't think so. Put on the extreme, possessing them may even be akin to holding them captive; Making them doing something against their will.

If not getting married means that I won't take you for granted, I don't see any reason to get married. Marriage is merely a social construct, whereby a man is officially the spouse of a woman, and vice versa. And I would like to question, who are you trying to prove your relationship to? Look. You are not accountable to anyone about your relationship other than your partner - The person you are engaged in a relationship with. So, does it really matter so much whether or not you are married or engaged? Shouldn't what really matter be the love that co-exist, the mutual appreciation of the two?

I must question once again, as I always do - Are we too engrossed in the tangibles, that we fail to see that we have neglect the intangible aspects, even in the case of an intangible? In short, why are we trying to make tangible the intangibles? Have we lost the intangibles in our bid to make them tangible?

There is no measurement for love. Love is a feeling. If you feel it, you feel it. You might be able to say otherwise, but your heart cannot lie. Having a certificate for 'love' doesn't make you love another any more than you did, and not having one doesn't make you love another any less.

If you truly love someone, it seems amazingly easy to be appeased by the person. But when you start to take someone for granted, you seem to be irritated by every action of theirs. When these signs start to show themselves, it's time to question yourselves - Have I set the bar too high such that it becomes unachievable? Did their 'good' things all seem so mundane to me because I have been too used to their 'good' things? Does me getting used to their 'good' things make their 'good' things any less 'good'?

But you must also ask yourselves, "Does he really love me less now than before?"

Many say that love is painful, and with it comes suffering. I do agree; It's not always a smooth and straight road. But when you suffer more than you enjoy in the relationship, maybe what you are feeling isn't love, but a sense of attachment; an unwillingness to change. And mark my words, everyday that you remain engaged in this unwillingness/attachment, life/love is going to be painful. Maybe even more than you could even imagine.

Whether we love someone or not is not determined by a piece of paper, and it is definitely not determined by what you say. 'Saying I Love You' might sound sweet, but it really is negligible when you compare it with 'Showing I Love You'.

In a few words to sum up all I have said:

Love is all about how you feel.

And once again,

It would be better if we don't fall in love at all, if we cannot fall so hopelessly in love that we cannot get ourselves out of it.

On a side note, I actually do have so much more that I wanted to type. But as always, I lose all inspiration whenever you put me in front of a computer, all ready to pen down my thoughts. Guess I'll never be a great writer. Enjoy. I may edit when those thoughts resurface on my mind.

Love

2011-06-06T14:25:00.002+08:00

A random thought that ran through my mind:

It is best if we either don't fall in love at all, or that we fall so hopelessly in it that we could never get out of it.

Amongst the many fulfilling things that a wise man chase, love is probably the only one that is entirely out of his control.

So many years have passed... Yet, it appears that nothing(long term) have been done to mitigate our issues at hand.

2011-06-06T11:32:00.000+08:00

Dear Environment and Water Resources Minister,

It would be much wiser to understand Chaos Theory and not highlight the your inability to accurately forecast events of the future. Maybe you could use a bit of the 300mil to improve our weather forecast system, as I believe that Singaporeans could really use a 'Beware of Floods in _____ tomorrow' system.
Half of politics is probably about managing expectations. At least, it could give you the benefit of doubt that you know what's going on, and what you are doing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory

Within the Chaos Theory states - "This happens even though these systems are deterministic, with NO random elements involved."

Tackling the safety issues at hand is definitely effective in the short term, but I don't see how it is, at all, a long-term solution.

-A youthful idealist.

The last thing I want to see is

I wish you all the best.

Knowledge Preservation, Competition with Knowledge.

2011-05-30T16:48:00.003+08:00

"Over here we’re too stuck in our selfish, fear-driven mentality that sharing your knowledge with someone can only mean your demise.

Which is stupid because if you were good, you wouldn’t even be bothered about your career being sabotaged because no matter what, as a unique talent, people would still come to you to take up their next project."

There's not a better way to say why I'm not entirely supportive of our education system; We are created to be replaced. In our quest to 'excel', we deprive another.

It seems that we are so engrossed in fighting within our small circle that we failed to see that the universe is changing.

Offsprings of our society.

2011-05-28T19:57:00.000+08:00

It seem like our society, coupled with our education system, have created a generation of line-drawers and finger-pointers.

Serenity to accept it?

Is this the image of God that we are made in?

I feel so lost whenever I try to think of a solution to restore what truly matters.

Friends.

2011-05-28T19:49:00.002+08:00

Friendship valued at $3. For the things that I have no control over, so shall it be.

Maybe it's time to take a step back, look at life and smile.

Conformity.

2011-05-26T17:36:00.000+08:00

In our competitive society critical of anomalies, many succumb to the social pressure to conform. Coupled with an education that is largely exam-based, we are losing a bit of ourselves and becoming a bit of others every year. After all, conforming seems to be working well; We do not get singled out and frowned upon.

But take a step back and look at our situation - In our quest after the tangibles, have we forgotten about the intangibles? Society consensus have decided that leading a happy and fulfilling life is not as important than being affluent. It seem to say that it is only normal to lose yourself to please others. How sad is this.

Ever heard of the word 'slaves'? I don't think we are really that different from them.

If you haven't realized, the worst part of this phenomena is losing yourself, along with the ability to think for yourself.

If we merely conform and do not exercise due discretion, we will be not much different from programmable robots.

There may be a time where robots are created in the image of humans, just as we are created in the image of God. When that day comes, would we then be obsolete?

Maybe it's time to question ourselves of what really matters in life.

Maybe it's time to sit back and enjoy the beauty of life.

Side note #1: Have our education system been too obsessed with meeting key indicators of a good education system? It seem that MOE's move to 'attract' foreign talents is to meet one of the indicator which is the number of foreign students attracted to study in the university. And we question why we do not produce graduates akin that of the Ivy League.

Side note #2: Is our society and economy too obsessed with meeting key indicators too?

Growing up

2011-05-25T11:02:00.000+08:00

As we grow up, we gradually discover part of ourselves that differs us from another. Each of us are becoming more unique. We begin to see many perspectives, some of which we agree with, and some of we don't.

When we were young, we had friends whom we agreed with, as they run on similar principles in their lives. But as we grow up and out of the system, we begin to see that we are actually not as similar as we thought we were.

I'm so lucky to have one friend in my life who would probably understand me no matter how much I have changed.

For the majority of the rest, you think that you understand me, at least quite well. But the sad truth is that many of you don't, not at all.

I'm not saying that it's your fault that I don't trust you enough to start talking. Let us all move on from the society's norm of finger-pointing. If you really love to, maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm overly sceptical of the human nature. If it pleases you, great.

But the point here is to reflect on whether you have been a great friend to someone else, or have you merely been riding on their superficiality. And to reflect on whether or not you have any TRUE friends when being yourself, or have you already conformed so much to the society that you forgot who you are.

Remember, great friends are never perfectly coherent with each other. Nobody is. But they take the effort to recognize their differences, and respect these differences.

If it's time to move on, it's time to move on.

Maybe it's time to move on.

Great Man vs Good Man

2011-05-24T02:41:00.000+08:00

What constitutes a great man, and a good man?

To me, a great man and a good man ain't really that different. In term of competitiveness, there are more or less equal. But a great man is one who is ALWAYS improving, whereas a good man is already at his peak. A great man listens to feedbacks and reflect upon his actions, but a good man turns a deaf ear to what others say.

Everyone was born to do great things, but some greater than others. So, how do you become 'greater'?

Remember, life is a journey. The race ain't finished till you cross the finishing line. And so often, what we perceived as the end is but a start. And in this era, knowledge is power.

Are you a great man, or a good man?

There are infinitely many perspectives to the question "What constitutes a great man, and a good man." Mine is but one of them. Do share your perspectives!

Genesis.

2011-05-20T16:57:00.000+08:00

Read this at YOUR OWN DISCRETION.

I'm sharing this because I'm an 'alternative viewpoint' person. It's interesting to know that there are other ways of interpretation of the passage 'Genesis'.

I can foresee tonnes of flaming on my facebook post where I shared the link.

Tall trees vs Poisonous Mushrooms.

2011-05-20T16:55:00.000+08:00

Mr Lui Tuck Yew, Minister for Information, Communication and the Arts, drew an analogy about how villagers were attracted to the pretty mushrooms. He cautioned voters not to be tempted by the pretty mushrooms as the mushrooms could be poisonous.

He must be really ignorant, or that he genuinely forgot that Adam ate the forbidden fruit, even though God have warned him that 'he will die the same day'.

P.S. I do not wish to discuss the charisma of the serpent when it tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. The gist of this is the human tendency(primal instinct) to stray from teachings and into the unknown.

Do something!

2011-05-20T09:17:00.001+08:00

I often hear complains about the crowd on public transport, prices of housing and many many many things. I shall touch on the issue on overcrowding in our public transport system.

I would like to appeal to two groups of people. They are(in a train example)

1) The one who makes the train crowded - You.

2) The one who controls how crowded the train is.

No, I'm not asking you to stop taking the train so that the train will be one man less crowded. So, if you want to make the train less crowded, please, do something that influences more than one person, because I'm almost certainly sure that you are capable of that. And tackle the right people using the right channel, because the last thing you want is to see less of your friends taking the train because you posted something on your facebook wall.

If not, put your feedback/complains to the right channel so that your voice can be heard by the right people so that they can do the right thing. Sometimes, they just don't know.

But in this case, they already know. That's when I appeal to the second group of people to do something.

Yes, we have a lot of foreign talents taking up 'our space' on the train. And we recognize that it is more harmful that beneficial to chase them out of our society. So, let's just leave it at that. What we can control is the rate of FUTURE foreign talent inflow, the frequency of the train(I know there is a limitation, but with some brainstorming, I'm sure something can be done to mitigate the crowd, so start using your brains, human capital!)

Then again, if you really feel so irritated that every train ride causes you emotional/mental distress, maybe you should start considering other mode of transports.

There are some things that we cannot change - Accept them. But change the things we can.

Intellectual Etiquette.

2011-05-20T08:30:00.000+08:00

The highest form of intellectual etiquette - Agree to disagree.

Expectations.

2011-05-20T00:23:00.000+08:00

Manage expectations to prevent being overwhelmed by emotions.

Fear.

2011-05-20T00:19:00.002+08:00

Uncertainty - The root of all fears.

Achievement vs Fulfillment.

2011-05-17T11:47:00.000+08:00

The line between Achievement and Fulfillment is often mixed up by many.

When one made an achievement, it doesn't necessarily come with fulfillment.
But when one attain fulfillment, it always comes with achievement.

Are we too engrossed in chasing the tangibles that we forget the intangibles?

Analyzing PAP using Tuckman's Stages of Group Development.

2011-05-16T08:37:00.000+08:00

Beginner's guide to Tuckman's stages of group development.

Using Tuckman's stages of group development - Form, Storm, Norm, Perform, where is PAP today, and where are they moving to?

*There are other possible stages such as Adjourn, Deform, Reform, Mourn, and High-Performance.(Beyond perform)

A Global Economy vs. A Strong Nation

2011-05-12T02:15:00.000+08:00

Hard truths.

Maybe we are just to comfortable with our present lives that we don't see what's wrong.

"How developed a nation is, is not dependent on how strongly the nation is striking forward, but how little people they leave behind."

Yes, definitely, we are doing extremely well as a global economy. But as a nation, I guess we just ain't there yet, maybe not even close.

National identity will soon be diluted. We will soon become a mercenary nation. Then, at the slightest armed conflict, we will fall into the 'dustbins' of history.

Even so, I hope someone else can learn from us.

Personal Beliefs/Values

2011-05-11T14:56:00.000+08:00

In our society where things are deemed as 'right' or 'not right', how far are you willing to go to maintain the integrity of your beliefs/values?

Apparently, we have a person whom most describes as one who goes beyond his personal capacity to uphold democracy. He have represented Potong Pasir(PP) for 27 years, and is the longest serving opposition MP till date. You would have guessed who I am talking about by now. He is none other than Mr Chiam See Tong.

Personally, I cannot claim to know much about him. I merely began my research on him during the period before GE 2011. But seeing that he was re-elected by the residents of PP time after time, I can't help but convince myself that he must have been a really good representative for the residents of PP, speaking up for them and taking care of their welfare.

This is in spite of the fact that he is from a minority opposition party - In Singapore, opposition parties are often put in bad light in our mainstream media. Also, their comments are usually oppressed if they are not in favor of our dominant political party.

Hence, we here have a person who placed his ideals of democracy before himself, one who chose a tough life instead of going with the flow, so that he would be able to achieve what he believe is the rights of the people. Here, we have a great guy, who will always be remembered in the heart of many.

Let us show our gratitude on behalf of our fellow Singaporeans for his hard work, so that Singapore can be a better place.

Now, how far are you willing to go to maintain the integrity of your beliefs/values?

English spelling vs auto-correct.

2011-05-11T09:31:00.004+08:00

In view of the integration of technology into most of our everyday life, the requirement for a strong ability to spell words accurately greatly diminishes, as one can always rely on the 'auto-correct' function.

Previously, people used to undergo rigorous spelling tests to ensure that they are able to spell a word correctly, such that they would be understood by their reader. However, in our current society, so long as one is able to produce a word that is similar to the actual word, he will most probably be able to use the 'auto-correct' function to obtain the right spelling. Therefore, he/she will be able to write as well as someone our age, who have mastered our 'spelling' tests.

Now, this is a question question I would like all readers to ponder upon:

Should we reduce the importance of 'spelling' because of the change in our technological landscape?

Definitely, every individual have a different take on this. Let us know your take, and why.

*Update*

12 May 11, 01:26

blogger: in addition, many biological terms is not recognised by auto-correct function. So spelling is stil important to produce a good written report as well as for some specialised areas.

12 May 11, 01:23

blogger: auto-correction should not undermine the importance of good spelling.It is as good as saying mental sum is less important because we have a calculator. Technology is just a tool to help us.

A worthy perspective shared by 'blogger'. He/She highlights that the 'auto-correct' function is a tool for generic English use, and that it would not be as useful in specialized fields. Hence, there is a limitation for the usefulness of the 'auto-correct' function.

Also, I am guessing that he/she implies that the discussed function should be a tool to tackle our carelessness, rather than something that we rely on.

Thanks for sharing!

What's wrong with Tin Pei Ling?

2011-05-10T15:29:00.003+08:00

I don't think it's an issue with her age or her cute-ness.

To me, it simply appears that she is seriously lacking in areas that matter in politics, when compared to Nicole Seah.

You see, you never look bad if you don't compare yourself to anything. You will not be able to tell if you did badly for your exams if you don't compare to your cohort's results. You will not be able to tell if you are good-looking if you don't compare to the society's average. Relativity matters.

Maybe she chose to run for elections at the wrong time. Maybe choosing to run for election was a wrong choice. But nevertheless, if she is okay with trading off her public image for a salary increase of ~5k, I guess she might have chose to do the right thing. It really depends on what she want.

Well well, but since she are already in Parliament, I guess I can only wish her all the best in representing her constituency and do her job professionally.

Show us that you are not what we perceive you to be.

*To those of you who have been writing/signing petitions to remove TPL from Parliament - even though I am in favour of it, do you really think it will happen?! Come on, get over it.

Policies incorrectly communicated or incorrect policies?

2011-05-10T15:16:00.002+08:00

‎"... good learning journey and at the strategic level, many PAP policies are right but their implementation and communication can be improved.” - Dr Balakrishnan

Seems like we didn't send our message right this time. Dr Balakrishnan, You shall be the first person I scru-tinize come GE 2016.

Losing a good for the better?

2011-05-10T15:06:00.000+08:00

George Yeo conference on 10th May, 3days after GE 2011.

Now I understand why people say call him a good minister.

But then again, would the loss to Parliament is greater if PAP have won? Is this a case of losing something good for something better? That is the question we will find out in the next five years.

Personally, I'll be hoping for more rationalized policies. What are you looking for?

Electoral Boundaries redrawn.

2011-05-10T11:59:00.000+08:00

Who thinks Joo Chiat SMC will still be around the next GE, ke chiu!

Dear MPs

2011-05-08T21:26:00.001+08:00

"If they(you) continue to remain deaf, they(you) will all be Georged in 5 years.

Definitely the best quote seen on Facebook.

Post-GE 2011

2011-05-08T21:24:00.000+08:00

GE 2011 is over. Maybe we should all move beyond 'Remove Tin Pei Ling from Parliament' and 'reinstate George Yeo as MFA'. PM Lee has explicitly said that there would be no by-elections even if George Yeo loses Aljunied GRC, and I believe he really don't care if TPL is in MP GRC. There are matters of larger national interest for him to attend to.

Go back to your original life and stop asking what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.

Anyway, I just spoke to one of my colleagues who holds the position of Assistant Director in my office. He has been a Singaporean PR for over 20 years. He highlighted a problem that most countries were facing in the 1990s, and it kind of enlightened me. According to him, it was termed as the 'brain drain' problem. You can look up Wikipedia.

In early 1990s, not only in Singapore, but all parts of the world, skilled workers and managers were looking for jobs outside of their own country. (The grass is greener on the other side, and hearsay plays a large part of information transfer.) In face of this problem, Singapore attempted to attract foreign talent to make up for the loss in their own talents, hence they implemented policies which gives foreigners an 'unfair advantage' and an incentive to settle down in Singapore.

See, these policies did have its merits. However, removal of an active policy is not as easy as implementing it. This is evident in the 'welfare state' in Britain, where government intervention led to an over-reliance on the government. Hence, when the government realized that the system was being abused, it was already too late to restore things to their original state.

In Singapore, I guess the problem did not start with our current leaders. You may call it a 'lack of foresight', but I would like you to ponder on whether we would be as prosperous as we are today, if not for those policies. Maybe somewhere in between, we forgot to change with the times. But maybe, we are too engrossed in what happens within our country, that we undermined the effects of a 'global competition'. Foreign talent influx might, in fact, be one of the policies that we need right now, in order to survive and remain competitive in the future. We may just not be seeing it now.

Of course, all these are discussed purely in an economic POV.

Please feel free to share your opinion. (:

My answer to "What has George Yeo done to deserve this?"

2011-05-08T04:20:00.000+08:00

Okay, I see this so often that I decide to blog about it.

People have been saying that he is a good minister, and that PAP deserves to win Aljunied GRC because he is good, and should be re-elected.

But there is a serious flaw in this argument. It doesn't take into account of the context. George Yeo is running for elections in Aljunied GRC, where it is a 5 member constituency. It is no longer George Yeo vs an opposition. Taking into account just high-profile politician, it is George Yeo vs. Chen Show Mao, Low Thia Khiang, Sylvia Lim and Pritam Singh. Is this a fair 'fight'? Definitely not. And this is one of the flaw of the GRC system. It does not run on meritocracy. This is also evident in Marine Parade GRC.

Now, back to the question of "What has George Yeo done to deserve this?"

He didn't do anything. He did his job well, fought for the interest of the people, etc. But he is just an unfortunate victim of the system in place - The GRC system. Obviously, in Singapore, the GRC system is more favorable towards the PAP than opposition. Hence, there is absolutely no reason to change all constituencies into single-member. However, while the PAP is able to manipulate this system to their advantage, the opposition is able to do so as well. Hence, the latter placed three heavy-weight oppositions in Aljunied GRC.

Yes, it's not fair. I agree with many of you. Put him up in any SMC against one opposition candidate, and he'll probably win. But if PAP wants to adopt a system which allows them to preserve power in majority of the constituencies, they have to accept that the opposition is able to manipulate this system to their advantage too. Hence, it is a trade-off that was made at the top-tier of the government, something that is out of control of you and me, and even MPs.

In all, it is not George Yeo's fault that he failed to be re-elected. It is also not your fault, and it is definitely not the fault of the Aljunied voters. They chose what they perceived to be the best TEAM.

Our dear George Yeo is but a victim of PAP's attempt to preserve power.

An Intelligent Person

2011-05-07T04:10:00.004+08:00

What do you think constitutes an intelligent person?

You may highlight any attributes, or trends or habits that you think they possess.

Personally, I think they have to be really curious, always wanting to find out more. And they are extremely skeptical about things they are told - They never take anything at face-value. They think from another perspective, and they think ahead of others. Academic credentials are definitely not a good indicator for intelligence.

And I think they sleep much less than normal people! Simply because they use this time to think about the many things they don't have an answer to.

It's kind of like a cycle. The more you think, the smarter you get. The smarter you get, the more you think.

What do you think?

Do feedback after making your vote!

2011-05-07T03:35:00.000+08:00

MARUAH's feedback channel to improve the voting process for future GE

Dear voters,

Do click on the above link and fill up the feedback form created by a 3rd party organization which is not affiliated to any political party. The objective of your feedback is to streamline the voting process, so that you will have a better voting experience in the coming General Elections.

Do your part for the country! (:

Have a great weekend!

Remember, vote wisely!

Dear Readers!

2011-05-07T03:18:00.000+08:00

Hi all, if you are reading this, may I urge you to tag with your real name(if i know you personally)!

Thanks! (:

Our alternative to a free press.

2011-05-06T18:58:00.000+08:00

Generally, people who work in the media industry are people who are more informed about what is actually happening in the political landscape of Singapore, simply because of the nature of their job.

Some truly believe what is painted to them.
Some chose to remain silent, so that they do not destroy their rice bowl with their own hands.
Others chose to let their moral values get ahead of them and write articles on their perspectives, risking their career.

But there is one group of people who are able to voice out the oppressed information within them. They are the people who have left the media industry. They are not afraid of what they used to be afraid of - To lose their job because they allowed their morals to get the better of them. Now, they are able to give us, citizens, accurate information and what was censored from the media before. These are the people who have a genuine interest for Singapore to improve as a nation, who believe in media transparency, and a free press. (assuming they have no hidden agenda behind releasing their accounts.)

These are the people whom you should be looking out for. Their views are critical, because they know more than what we do.

Cooling Off Day

2011-05-06T18:45:00.000+08:00

There will be no rallies made today, but publications still have to go on.

Let's see what these newspapers say.

Quoted from the International Herald Tribune - The Global Edition of the New York Times.

"The tightly controlled city-state",

"In a nation where government opponents are often sued over defamation",

"where carefully vetted public speech has been permitted only in a little park called Speakers' Corner",

"the barriers to entry into political discourse and the accompanying risks have been so high",

"Mainstream media are tightly controlled and have not acted as a check on the government, experts say."

"Now that barriers to entry(Online political speech was technically illegal in 2006 GE) to political dialogue have fallen, the effect has been electric."

"Rather than attempting to suppress the online political organizing, as China and Vietnam have done, Singapore is taking a gamble on making it part of the legal campaign system."

"I don't think they have a choice." - Mr. Brown.

"Online coverage has forced the main pro-government newspaper, The Straits Times, to publish fuller and not always critical news and photographs of opposition campaigns" - Alex Au, a prominent blogger.(Though I don't know who is he)

Totally, SLAMMED. To think that we were painted beautiful images of how Singapore is moving into the global landscape. I THINK, to them, we're not too different from Tibet, or N.Korea.

You might question the credibility of it, or engage in a debate about some of the points. But it won't change the fact that they are a bigger publication agency than our local one, and that they are definitely, without a doubt, more credible than our local's.

-end-

Now let's see what straits times got to tell us.

In the cover page,

"I have served Aljunied for 23 years; I'm not going anywhere." -George Yeo

"MM Lee taunted me to stand in a GRC. So here I am." -Low Thia Khiang

I think I have moved beyond the point of being disappointed at our local publications. This have entered what I define as 'beyond expectations'. I shall not quote the rest. They gave separate accounts for the PAP, and the WP's. Few comparisons. But there are definitely some quotes that are taken out of context to provide a misinformed view of the reader.

And seems that Aljunied is the main concerned of the PAP, as spelled out by the Straits Times. Don't you feel that they should be writing something related to the Nation's interest in the headlines?

Overall, it's not really too bad. Look at the publications prior to GE 2006 and you'll understand why.

Happy Cooling Off Day!

Thank you GE 2011

2011-05-06T13:59:00.000+08:00

6th May, 2011 - Cooling-off Day.

Today, everyone seem to have quietened down. Like them, I, too, cleared my heart of the many emotions. I took a step back, and I saw what GE 2011 has made of me.

GE 2011 has made me realize who I really am - My morals, my values, my beliefs, my ideals and so many more. Basically, it helped me to re-discover myself. It helped me to bring out, once again, the little child who questioned about every single thing. It helped me re-discover the old me who conformed to society's pressures because he feared to be left out. But ultimately, it helped me find out about the things I never knew about myself. And seriously speaking, it's really a great feeling to be yourself. It's great to not conform to the many things out there because we don't agree with it. Gone are the days where I have stood with society's/peers' consensus because I was afraid that I would end up alone. In fact, it's really not that bad to be alone. At least, you get time to reflect on the many occurrence in our everyday's life. And sometimes, we get so swayed by what people around us feel that we actually forget what we stand for.

After GE 2011, I might, really, end up alone. But at least, I know I have stood up for the things I believe in. At least, I didn't sit back and conform because I was afraid of the consequences. At least, I know that from here on, I am able to be myself, that I have matured beyond what I was made to be. At least, I know that I have an ideal, a goal to reach out for. At least, I know that from here on, I am able to pursue what I truly want. And at least, I learnt how to be more humane. I learnt that one cannot peg a monetary value unto every single thing. Every individual is unique, as I always believed. They are not just another statistic.

After all these, I do recognize that it takes more than just another voice in the internet to make the difference. Henceforth, it just makes me more determined to do better, earn more and help more, so that I'll be able to stand up for what I believe in. If any, it have made me more resolved.

Chances are, I won't be a political activist the moment the fever of GE 2011 dies down. It made me carefully consider what I want to be. I actually wanted to be a philosopher. But that's just what I want to be. What I would really become, shall be made known to me as I discover more of myself as I walk.

One of my friends told me to look back at my posts in 5 years time. (I don't actually know if he meant the next GE, or after I become more mature.) It made me realize one thing, and now I question myself. Will I be so caught up in being the best, that I, once again, forget what I stood up for? Would I, then, be so well-to-do, that I forget how to empathize with the plight of others? Will I be just another product of our education system, the one that I have mentioned? Will I have lost my beliefs and ideals that I have today?

I don't hold the answers to these questions. But I definitely hope that, as I walk, I find, not lose, more of myself.

How high can you go?

2011-05-06T12:00:00.001+08:00

'Failures'

Watch the above video.

For one to reach a success, one have to embrace their failures.
If you are down, get up. Nobody is a failure, not until the day they stop trying.

But when you succeed, it is not the end, but the beginning of yet another journey.
For one to reach a greater success, one have to treat their previous success as failures, and be on the constant strife for improvement. Humility to learn, and the ability to accept criticisms, are a probably the two biggest factors for achieving 'greater success'.

If you think you have attained the greatest success, that's probably as far as you will go. But bear in mind, that while you are good, there is always someone out there that is better than you.

You may be high up, but will you get higher?

Stop this groundless accusations please.

2011-05-06T02:22:00.000+08:00

This is supposed to be with regards to a speech made by George Yeo Election Secretary.(or smth like that)

I can no longer find the video, but will post it up when I do.

While I disapprove of the doings, it just goes to show how much people feel for, or against, her affiliated party.

"Based on feedbacks from our supporters"
&
"The overall objective is to mislead the residents that WP have very broad base support from the ground."

Isn't she doing the same thing? She question the credibility of WP's supporters. Shouldn't she, ALSO, be questioning the credibility of her supporters?

Cooling-Off Day!

2011-05-06T02:17:00.003+08:00

Dos and Don'ts of Cooling-Off Day

Today is Cooling Off Day.

I think Straits Times will be sold out, because everyone wants to see for themselves what the incumbents meant by "making a calm and well-thought-out decision, not in the heat of the moment".

In fact, I am also very interested in this day, because I am interested to know how our mainstream media can aid me, along with fellow citizens, to make a more well-thought-out choice. I really hope, though, that the media would paint to me an accurate and unbiased picture.

But I do know people who wants to buy the Straits Times for a good laugh. In fact, they have already had quite a good laugh at the Dos and Don'ts of Cooling Off Day. I have personally noted some flaws in it that is in favor towards PAP. But this can wait.

Let's not judge them yet, shall we? (:

A personal recount when things were changing.

2011-05-06T02:16:00.001+08:00

A personal recount by someone who witnessed the change.

Let someone who have been through the changing stages of Singapore tell you the story.

Where we are today did not happen overnight. It is definitely not by chance, nor was it an accident.

Just another perspective

2011-05-06T02:14:00.001+08:00

You might be the one to get upgrading if opposition parties win over dominance in the government. On the contrary, if yours is a PAP ward, you might get no upgrading.

*Just another way of looking at things, not saying who will/should win or lose*