HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR
First things first, HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR EVERYONE.
Ok, now that thats settled, I guess everyone is expecting me to go into a lengthy description of what i've done so far in my chinese new year. I'm going to save you guys the bulls**t and tell you straight what I know all you mercenary buggers wanna hear. I got roughly $140 in ang pau's ok (give or take $10), so don't ask!
Happy Holidays Folks
Announcements?
I was on a bus, on the way home listening to "Good Day Sunshine" by the Beatles. Sitting by the window, I gazed out onto the Singaporean street as it flashed by before me. As I listened to the song I felt this amazing sense of contentment, as if no O'levels were coming in 9 months time, as if I had no competitions to worry about, as if I didn't have a care in the world.
Anyway, could someone who knows the html behind blogging remind me how to post pictures on blogs so this place dosen't look so dead. That would be like really awesome so yeah thats a hint.
Happy Birthday Hong Ghwee and Issac and all the other people who's birthdays are around this time but whom i've neglected to mention :P
Later
Happy Birthday Mom!
Just wishing my Mom a very Happy and Blessed Birthday! May you be joyful and youthful in the lord and may you have a great year ahead.
Happy B'day Mom :)
(This is one day early by the way)
Civility in Society
I was on the way to church yesterday, going for the weekly youth meeting. The bus was 67, and as the ppl who take it along that stretch know, it tends to get REALLY crowded. Unfortunately yesterday wasn't any different and I boarded the bus barely having room to stand. Behind me was a kind of old-looking man. As the bus proceeded to empty abit of its cargo along the next few bus stops, one of the seats near the front was left empty. I didn't take it seeing as there was an old dude behind me and the other seats were all taken, and I went to stand in the corner next to the bus' exit. As it turns out, he didn't take the seat and some other guy got it.
This got me started thinking about courtesy and stuff. Often you don't see Singaporeans giving up seats, or saying sorry when they bump into people, or apologising for spilling drinks in food courts and making a mess for the cleaner.
Then as I stood in the corner preoccupied with these thoughts, the bus got to Little India. Like a flash flood, the bus was suddenly filled with Indians minding their own business. At the back of this sudden crowd was a large Indian family inclusive of little toddler-age kids and 2 old grannies. The bus was fairly full and there were no seats for them anywhere. Then to my suprise, 2 Indian men who occupied the seats near the front of the bus gave up their seats for them. A young indian punk-like teenager did the same, suprising me even more (I say punk-like because he had a mow-hawk an extremely irritated and bored look and dressed like a punk).
This really suprised me although I guess in retrospect it shouldn't really have. The thing is though that I don't think i've ever seen any chinese guys doing the same, there was even this young chinese dude there who didn't give up his seat despite the fact that the mother of the kids (at least I assumed her to be the mother) was still standing and despite the example shown by the Indian dudes. In my school you see quite afew Indians, but aside from afew small exceptions, you don't see them mixing with the chinese dudes. The result is that conversations with my friends can get pretty racist at times. One long running joke is that all Indian men are big, hairy and have stupid sounding accents.
I also feel abit bad about stereotyping. As you can tell by my phrasing, I completely didn't expect the punk-like dude to give up his seat. I figured him for one of those image-obsessed poser types who I normally wouldn't have anything to do with. I think this kind of mindset should change. People always quote the famous saying "don't judge a book by its cover". However, they only do it in situations convenient to them and don't truly apply it everyday in real life (myself included). Granted, we can't be perfect, but I think Singapore would be a better place if we at least tried.
Everybody in Singapore seems to think that being nice is out of ordinary and we are greeted with shock, question and sometimes criticism when we do try to provide help and courtesy unconditionally. I don't know about you but I think that ain't right.
What do you think?
(If you have comments or complaints, feel free to voice them. I'd rather you scold me to my face than leave some secret disatisfaction with me to fester in you. Also my tagboard is abit dead and needs people talking on it aside from me and Dylon to give it abit of life. Also, I DO NOT think that Indians are in any way inferior or superior to Chinese people as a result of my observations. I refer to their races as a reference to my current stereotyping of Indians as something that is bad, not because I think Indians are more or less considerate than Chinese.)
Ok, thats all for now
Quotable Quotes
-Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken-
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference
-Cicero-
What is morally wrong can never be advantageous, even when it enables you to make some gain that you believe to be to your advantage. The mere act of believing that some wrongful course of action constitutes an advantage is pernicious
-Kevin Jackson-
War doesn't decide who's right, war decides who's left.
-Ruby Ingraham-
Someone must play the minor parts, Someone must hold the spear, And someone, when the music starts, Must follow in the rear. Not everyone can be the star, That shines with great white light, But some must twinkle from afar To harmonize the night.
-Terry Pratchett, Jingo-
It was so much easier to blame it on Them. It was bleakly depressing to think that They were Us. If it was Them, then nothing was anyone´s fault. If it was Us, what did that make Me? After all, I´m one of Us. I must be. I´ve certainly never thought of myself as one of Them. No-one ever thinks of themselves as one of Them. We´re always one of Us. It´s Them that do the bad things.
-Leonardo Da Vinci-
As a well spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death.
-Elbert Hubbard-
Don't take life too seriously. You'll never escape it alive anyway.
-Dale Schmitz-
Don't take yourself too seriously. You'll miss out on the most enjoyable person you'll ever meet.
-Winnie the Pooh-
Sometimes the more you think, the more there is no real answer.
-Charles M. Schulz-
No problem is so formidable that you can't walk away from it.
-William Hazlitt-
The most fluent talkers or most plausible reasoners are not always the justest thinkers
-Russell Blowers-
A Church is a hospital for sinners; not a club for saints.
-John Marsden-
Our cravings canno't be comforted by our creativity, although we like to think they can. A million words after writing 'Look Homeward Angel' Thomas Wolfe was still tormented. After a million notes, Beethoven was not happy, after a million brush strokes, Van Gogh cut off his ear.
-Howard Kandel-
He who trains his tongue to quote the learned sages, will be known far and wide as a smart ass.
Friends and stuff
Seeing as this is my sec 4 year and I am taking the O'levels I probably shouldn't be blogging. In fact if my parents and/or principal had their way, I would be studying right this minute locked up in some dungeon with nothing but A Math and Physics for company (ok very exaggerated). But being the procrastinator that I am I ended up looking through all the digital rubbish that had accumulated in my computer's folders as an excuse to put off doing my english homework. Anyway, I came across some pretty interesting things. For instance, I have a folder of all the weird/nonsensical/genuinely good attempts at writing that my friends (at least the ones who're good at lit) have sent me. While reading them I realized that actually some of these are actually pretty damn good. Take for instance this poem written by Sarah, who I am proud to call one of my closest friends:
My trench
I dug my trench 6 feet deep
and lay down inside it.
above in the world, wars raged
but i could never get hit.
As strong fingers played
empty songs of silence
and music of old
turned red to violence...
i lay down inside my trench
watching the world around me.
i was hiding.. hiding in the shadows
and hoping that no one would see.
As mutual relationships
turned into love and hate
and the existance of love
became a controversial debate.
there i was in the trench
ignoring their ignorance
silently, sending to them
sympathy, my condolences.
moral values, down the drain
people trying to outdo the rest
and gossip flying all about
about ones whom they detest.
oh let me stay in this trench
I fear of facing the world
i fear everything it is
i fear everything it hurls.
i fear music-lacking of peace
i fear love-lacking sincerity
i fear values-full of hypocrism
i fear. i fear.. i'm so full of fear.
and because of that, i'm staying here.I think I posted this before, but I think that it deserves more attention now. Its alot more meaningful I think than alot of the poems I've read elsewhere especially since it seems to apply to Singaporeans so directly (In my opinion at least).
Anyway, this led me thinking on another track, about my friends and stuff. I realise that actually, my friends are pretty awesome people. I earnestly believe that, if I ever find myself in deep shit, I'll have friends who'll help me, support me and well be there for me. I don't think I have any of those bad friends that parents are so scared of and I think that I'm really blessed to have so many awesome people for friends.
Just to prove the point, I'll use afew examples. Lets start with my school friends, despite the fact that I continually make nasty jokes about nearly all of them with snide and wise ass remarks, they still call me their friend (at least i think :P). They're also more than willing to help me out when I'm having trouble with work and stuff, especially during debate season and stuff. One person in particular is Abbas, despite me constantly pushing debate's admin stuff to him, he dosen't really complain and always gets the job done. Although he seems damn lazy and really irresponsible, he's one of the most reliable people I know. Theres also Clarence and Dylon who are great conversationalists and who are I think pretty damn brilliant (even though Clarence usually just argues with you and soon degenerates into a quarrelsome brawler, not to mention his sometimes controversial opinions)Also, I think my class is really awesome. Sure, some of them may be anti-social and some may have verly coloured and sometimes myopic perceptions of the world, they're all really nice people and are really great to hang out with. People like Clarence, Yunxing, Jie Lin, Tse Mian and countless others make school worth going to.
My friends in church are nearly all pretty damn good musicians, although that isn't why i think they're awesome. Maybe half a year ago I was feeling really depressed about all sorts of stupid things that I don't really want to go into, but I think the reason why I got cheered up was because of my youth group in church. (Kudos to Luke for being one of the funniest people I know, and kudos to Youwei for always understanding my satirical comments about stuff, not to mention for being the best pianist I know) Also, I think our youth pastor, Pastor Eve is one of the most sporting and fun-loving adults I know (bar my Dad) and that she's a really awesome youth pastor.
Ok i've gotten really long-winded and I hope all of my friends who actually read this will appreciate it.
You guys are awesome!
Eating Habits
Here's a thought,
The physiology of weight is somewhat involved. Fat cells, once acquired, do not decrease in number, although the size of the cells may vary (Agras, 1987:8-9). Early in life, children who will become obese have a greater number of fat cells than nonobese children, and also experience a more rapid increase in the number and size of such cells during childhood and early adolescence.
The amount of fat in the body appears to be precisely regulated and maintained. This means that it is relatively difficult to change one's amount of body fat; if a change does occur, physiological reflexes will act to restore fat levels to normal. Studies have also shown that when the overweight person is put on a low-calorie diet, the body reduces its oxygen consumption, a measure of energy utilization, to compensate for the caloric deficit. This adjustment may occur quite rapidly, so that the benefits of lowered caloric intake may be largely offset in a period of a few weeks. Exercise can only offset this compensatory mechanism to a limited extent.Taken from
here What this basically means for all the fat conscious conformists out there is this. NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO UR WEIGHT AND SIZE IS GONNA CHANGE ON ITS OWN WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT!
So forget the diets, screw the lose-weight-fast pills and start actually getting a life!
Just a thought
Why Affirmative Action sucks
- Affirmative action highlights the differences of the historically-wronged groups we are talking about today (For example the blacks) as compared to the majority of the population.
- Let me use an analogy, suppose a white man and a black man both ask for a job. The white man has slightly better qualifications; however, because of affirmative action, the black man gets the job.
- Obviously, the white man won’t be too happy about this and will resent the black man for benefiting and getting the job just because of his race.
- Thus tension between the white men and black men is created because of affirmative action.
- E.g. in Sri Lanka, the Sinhalese majority suffered under British ruler ship as universities and government jobs required fluent English which few Sinhalese had as compared to the Tamils in Sri Lanka. Thus, when the British left and the Sinhalese took over the government. They imposed a system akin to affirmative action that among other things required Tamils to learn Sinhala (the Sinhalese language) or lose their jobs, and score higher marks to get into the same courses in university. These policies caused discontent among the Tamils and led to decades of oppression of the Tamils by the Sinhalese government, not to mention the creation of one of the earliest terrorist groups in the world.
- Thus we see that the goal of affirmative action, to achieve equality, is undermined because affirmative action causes the tension and discrimination which in turn creates historically-wronged groups in the first place.
And So I'm Back
HAPPY NEW YEAR FOLKS,
A new and glorious and soon to be hectic and painful year has just begun. Everyone I know who's still in school seems to be scrambling to do their homework (myself included). Those of you who are my age are also busy worrying themselves to death over the O'levels, well the sane ones anyway. In any case, I shall endeavor to blog less regularly, play less computer games, learn the guitar and generally get some work done. I'll still be blogging, not that any of you might care, but it will be as and when I bloody well feel like it.
So this marks the end of the temporary closing of the blog (cheers)
Happy holidays and good luck for the New Year!
