Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Metropolis, Lost In TranslationFinished watching the 2 shows - Metropolis and Lost In Translation (I borrowed from Cedric. Thanks).
I think Metropolis revoles around the familiar theme of supposedly heartless robot which developed feelings. Just to share a quote from the anime - "It's true, that is a source of our troubles. This thing called emotions. We have no choice but to make progress little by little in spite of them. Because, without them we are nothing."
As for Lost In Translation, I felt it to be a little boring despite the director's great job in portaying the 2 leads' loneliness in Tokyo. And oh.. Scarlett Johanson is so hot! I think I am gg to get a blonde gf! hahahaha.. jking.. By the way, for those who watched it, what the hell did harris say to charlotte in the end?!?!?!?!
On another note, a friend was commenting about how blogs are so opened to everybody. You can't make frank remarks about people you know for fear that they will feel hurt or whatsoever. Well.. which is why I usually only talk about myself on my blog and my blog seems to be on the same issues over and over again cuz I'm a boring guy... haha..
I also find it amazing that some people can fall in and out of love at the blink of the eye while others spend half their lives searching but to no avail.
The Origin. 4/26/2006 08:19:00 pm
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Am I Materialistic?Read a short portion of the memoir of Eugene O'Kelly (CEO of KPMG) from Sunday Times. Well.. As usual, the morale of the story is that there are so many more things in life than money and career. There are things like family bonding, growth of your child, relationships and so many more, which have nothing to do with monetary success. The purpose is probably to stop you in your mad rush up the corporate ladder and rethink where you should place your priorities on.
Often, I can't help but wonder: These are the 'successful' people in the working world. They deem themselves to be 'unsuccessful' at the end of the day and they advocate that family and spiritual life is in fact the key to 'success' (somewhere along these lines). They have all the money they need and can go for all the wants they may have. This being the case, they can then talk about the other things in life (as mentioned above).
So what happens to us, these young and not-so-rich people? Do we heed their advice or do we do what others do and try to earn as much as we possibly can?
As far as I'm concerned at this point in time, I want to go for the monetary wants. The rest, they come when they come. I'll pick them up along the way and probably regret when the time comes for me to die. haha.. I think I am just pragmatic.....
The Origin. 4/23/2006 06:42:00 pm
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Sex Education?I read Straits Times today and stumbled upon the article, "JC Student Kills Himself, Convinced His Private Parts Were Too Small." Yes, if you haven't already read the papers, you are reading this right. Apparantly, a JC student jumped because he thought that his penis was too small.
This article caused a minor ripple in my office. To cite a few of the reactions:
- "wah lau"
- "This guy deserve to die man. If he were my son, I'll ask him to die."
- "I bet he watched too much porn featuring Ang Mohs and he wondered why his dick was so small compared to theirs."
The article also mentioned that the higher authorities thought that sex education in Singapore is not open enough. I doubt that it is the root of the problem. I feel that it is more of the increasing level of stress in Singapore, causing people to develop psychological problems like this case. I think this syndrome is called body dysmorphic disorder.
Opening the sex education in Singapore is only a solution that does not address the root of the problem. Eventually, other forms of problems will arise.
On a separate note, I received a call from my student today. The question posed was, "Can we go to your house to watch cartoon?" I was pleasantly surprised that they would make such a request.
The Origin. 4/19/2006 09:00:00 pm
Monday, April 17, 2006
HistoryI believe that your past experiences determine who you become and your attitude towards life. Your past, be it good or bad, are building blocks to who you end up as. On this line, our history is a story of who we were and a map of how we become in future.
Now, the question is WHAT IF there were a war or battle that happened in the past, the victor from the battle rose and rewritten history in his/her light?
All that you believe in would have been a big lie.
Just a random thot...
Anyway, my sis bought the OTO equivalent of U-Zap. I contributed some as part of her b-day present.
Theoretically, your body fats needs to be below a certain percentage (someone please fill me up on this). Also, the machine is used to burn fats at the areas where you place it on. Thus does it mean that by burning fats from your stomach using the machine, you can get 6 pack? Hmmmm..
On this note, gals, please do not say that how you look is not important and that food is more important. Ultimately, when you step into the church on your wedding day, you want to be skinny to fit into a wedding gown nicely. Simply put, you just wanna look pretty and slim on your wedding day.
The Origin. 4/17/2006 11:08:00 pm
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Myopic, Death, KidsA small little incident occured yesterday. Zhong Xing (my understudy) was sick with fever but he had not visited the doctor as he had to clear some stuffs in the morning. This led to him being unable to report to the camp MO in the afternoon as it was too late. He sat in the office to continue his work until the end of the day and he went to see the doctor after work. He got an mc eventually for throat infection.
Well.. Although he did not meet any mishaps, a simple comment by my boss later highlighted to me that I failed to reflect on my past experiences. The comment was, "You should have tell me and let him go off." During my 1 over year in MINDEF, there were times when I was so sick but I did not get an mc from the MO (the basic fact is that he sucks). It felt like shit. I should have understood the feeling and stood up to ask if Zhong Xing could return earlier. I was caught up in the "I went through it, so can you" kind of thinking. It is a myopic view which I condemn and yet I commit.
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Ha.. I am talking about the topic of death again. I seem to be captivated by it, I must say. When somebody ask me what my religion is, I reply that I am a free-thinker, slightly leaning to the buddhism and taoism side. The reason for the leaning is only because I have been nurtured by parents who believe in some ofthe teachings of buddhism and taoism. As such, I do pray at temples on occassions to gain "protection" as I have been doing so since a young age. However, I am still a free thinker.
I do not believe in a religion because I feel their hypocrisies. The purpose of their existence is to give people the reason to live and in the process, give order to the world. However, they have been used as reasons to fight wars and conquer. A simple question that arises is,"Will your god want to bring bloodstain to the world?" Then I wonder why is it that people can "be close to god" or "believe in retribution" or believe in whatever sutras, and yet they kill, rob or rape?
To make a stand, I still believe that there is a god. However, no singular religion gives an accurate interpretation of the god. Different people see different things and hold different things to be true. Differences in religions arises and people use them to satify their selfish wants. I understand that this means that the god is not there to intervene but I do not wish to argue my stand. I still believe in the existence of a higher being.
This ultimately leads to death at the end of my road. Do I fear it? No. I just feel sad for those who have not die when I do because they are going to miss me terribly (wahahaha.. I'm becoming more and more BHB. Jking anyway). What then gives order to my world? To live with a clear conscience and without regret until the end. So even when the end arrives, I have nothing to look forward to or regret anything I have done. I am just a simple me with a simple-no-fuss way of thinking.
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I had a conversation with a bunch of friends about girls, families and stuffs. I was told that I have commitment phobia because I was put off when a girl told me that she thinks having children completes a family. I suppose so. Not because I think that babies are troublesome but because I feel that having a child means loads of pressure on each and every one of your actions and decisions. Your actions will be picked up by your child. Ultimately, how your child becomes will depends largely on you. You must then strive to teach your child all that you feel are good and hope that he/she learns and live to become a good man/woman like yourself or even better.
The Origin. 4/13/2006 06:50:00 pm
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Poly Students vs JC StudentsRead the newpaper article yesterday about a JC student making negative comments about poly students on an online gaming forum. He compared JC to Poly and said that a JC student is better than a Poly student. All these are because a Poly student kept KS-ing (kill stealing) him while in game. Kids.....
JC and Poly are different environments and different styles of learning. Making such a comparison is plain stupid and pointless.
The Origin. 4/11/2006 07:52:00 pm
Monday, April 10, 2006
ChocolatesYou know you are suffering from chocolate addiction when you eat ice-cream for the chocolate coating, drink milkshake for the chocolate, eat a cake for the chocolate crust, buy bread with chocolate, buying chocolate soyabean milk for the chocolate taste, choose to drink a cocktail with chocolate in it and eat oreo cookie with milk to cuz it tastes like chocolate.
You know you have not ate chocolate for a long time when all of the above happens more frequently - everyday. And also, when you can't stop making trips to the kitchen to get a bite off the piece of chocolate you just bought.
Oh man.. I think dieting is extremely bad for ladies, and the men in their family. Because I have 2 dieting ladies in my house, I have not eaten chocolate for months. I mean chocolate bars and stuffs. Sucks...
The Origin. 4/10/2006 08:05:00 pm
Saturday, April 08, 2006
Something To Do With TasteI think I have a tiny streak of perfectionist and fickle-mindedness in me. I can shop all day looking for a simple thing and yet not find something that captures my eyes. The first example was when I was looking for a simple autograph book for my JC class. It took me one whole day of shopping from Orchard to City Hall and back to Orchard again to finally decide on what to buy.
This afternoon, after an hour of rotting in a macdonalds, I went to City Hall to look for a pencil case that I have been looking around for so long. The initial decision was to look around and then return home. I ended up being there for a longer time as I walked all through City Link to Marina Bay and back to City Link again. I almost wanted to buy the pencil case in Prints. However, I had reasons for coming home empty handed - like paying $25 for the pencil case, Prints have sales now and then, and most importantly it just didn't exactly match what i'm looking for but it's close.
This streak of perfectionist and fickle-mindedness is affecting my attitude, I guess.
The Origin. 4/08/2006 05:43:00 pm
What If You Find Out Today That You Have Only 3 Months To Live?As a result of reading the depressing feature in Saturday Straits Times, I am typing this...
I think the way you speak to yourself is a representation of how you see this piece of news. You can either say, "I am going to die in 3 months" or "I have another 3 months to live". To me, the former interprets as someone who is anticipating death while the latter is for someone who accepts death as it is.
I choose the latter. I guess I'll be extremely devastated for awhile. After that, I'll be thankful for the "advance" notice and choose to live for the remaining time. I don't need 3 months of anticipating death. I just need to live even for a day more, that will be enough. This being so, I'll choose to undergo palliative treatment and make my way to do the things or visit the places that I have not.
Anyway, I heard this from Lost - "Good luck, brother. See you in another life, yeah?"
The Origin. 4/08/2006 08:13:00 am
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
How Do You Phrase An Intellectual Question?Guess what this is the qn that was posed to me during the USP interview that I went to this morning. What the hell are they asking??????
As you can probably expect, the interview didn't go well. My preparation work didn't help as they asked about some "thinking" qns. I think I screwed up at the thinking-on-your-feet part...
Bloody interviewers...
Anyway, I find it amazing how an album by Xiao Xiao can sparked off a conversation between 2 guys who barely spoke to each other before.
The Origin. 4/05/2006 07:23:00 pm
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
You Like To Do Things Slowly, Right?I was hit by this question (or should I say, observation) from my understudy, Zhong Xing.
Basically, we were having a casual conversation about how early I must wake up tomorrow morning to get to some place. I suppose I gave a timing that was slightly earlier than his expectation and he threw me the observation.
I was surprise as I once made the same comment to someone else. I just didn't really expect the same comment to be directed towards me.
I was curious with his observation and asked him why he thought so. His reply was that he saw it from the way I work, I don't really rush to do stuffs. I guess I learnt from experience that rather than rushing to finish the job, I need to spend more time to look through slowly and complete the job well. Anyway, I think that his comment was just a nice way of saying, "Kenneth, you are a slacker."
On this note, I also feel that by working with another person, you slowly come to realise how you work and how different it is from the others. 1 is that I prefer to work in a tidy and big environment with little things around. This is why after working halfway through my stuffs, I will stop on ponder out loud, "Why is my table so untidy huh?" After which, I will proceed to pack the table before continuing with my work. This is also the reason for the fact that my drawers are not, shall I say, as tidy as my table is. To which, Zhong Xing commented that I was superficial.... B B Ba B Boo... (Whatever this means...)
The Origin. 4/04/2006 07:46:00 pm
Saturday, April 01, 2006
PrivacyImagine a world whereby your personal information can be easily tracked and uploaded onto the net for all to see. Who you hang out with, what is your routine, how you spend your weekends and much of yourself are made known to someone who probably lives on the other side of the globe, and doesn't know you.
Also imagine walking down Orchard Road and all the security cameras installed, can be used to monitor your every movement. They can identify you, track you and basically, know all about you.
Now, be aware that each and every one of your SMSes can be tracked and recorded. Your calls, your purchases with credit/debit cards or nets, your ez-link card can be used to draw a detailed profile of your life. Yes. That means probably someone out there can know about your flings, and then sell that information to maybe your spouse?
How scary is that? Read this from:
Newsweek - Why Privacy Won't Matter.
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I worked to get to the opportunity but when it presents itself, I am hesitating. Should I take it or leave it?
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I won't say I left all of them behind but I cannot say that they still matter to me. They don't really matter that much anymore. I wonder why they mattered in the first place. crap.
The Origin. 4/01/2006 08:35:00 pm