I was reading a book on perception and I came upon this which I thought makes a great deal of sense, and saliva in my mouth.. Nothing original here, but refreshing as always to remind yourself in times of negative mood swings..
The optimist sees the donut..
The pessimist sees the hole…
Brought up to be strongest,
Hate to be weakest…
Hopes for the best,
Land hard the worst…
Reach out for the highest,
But no where near the furthest…
Open your heart to others,
Closed are their minds to yours…
Add a friend you would,
Blocked by someone you knew…
Don’t try too hard in life,
Becuz death comes even if you don’t try…..
My long awaited first birthday celebration finally arrive at the eve of the eve of my 22nd birthday, at a quite stylish steamboat restaurant somewhere along Bugis. Not that its a big deal really cuz the world will keeping spinning and live still goes on with or without any size of partying.. but it has been special for me.. for I’ve been quietly suppressing myself the sheer joy and excitement of celebrating with close friends, countering with warped arguments against something that I sub-consciously desire.. that is over a silly day that has passed 22nd years on… ahhh..
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It was liberating.. like how a war inside my head has finally ended. And just like the recent shock and awe visit that Wai Kei organised, I could only have form deeper appreciation on hindsight. So, ya I was stunned, forgive me if I don’t look ecstatic, I was on my slow elevator to cloud nine. (my emotions seriously lag again!)
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Truth be told, that there’re no forever friends but only interests. No matter how highly sensationalised the success of JMG click is.. it still falls under the trap of cold harsh reality. Spice Girls sang countless friends forever themed songs , and the Yankees and British weren’t born natural ally. But learning from other group’s failure, and taking the challenges head on, if we could peg our friendship to the common interests that bind us together now, such as fun, natural, truthfulness, thoughtfulness and most importantly, belief of the JMG spirit (jeez, this’s sounding like SAF 7 core values), then let us entrench our common interest for all eternity and let it take us to a higher dimension of friendship… Idealism apart my friends, stop thinking and celebrate JMG already! forever… Oh yeah!
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This post specially dedicated to my 5 great JMG members, and in no order, Wei Juan, Wai Kei, Hui Lin, Xue Mei and Chin Khiang. (ok lah, can you see the ascending pattern already? haha)
In my last satire that rigorously elicit the instinctive nature of the males, that is perhaps seen by some as a shallow justification to celebrate masculinity. But in truth, what I meant was to make conscious the indeed very shallow choice and pretense of the uncouth,barbaric male chauvinist, who mistakenly associates love with infatuation, infatuation with sex.
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And why am I even harping about beauty? And so affected by it? Probably because this’s the age (my age group) when beauty counts the most. At this stage of life, at the most hippy and happening ever, Where every healthy person feels that they’re at the zenith of their strength and health, its understandable that its the next most prevalent concern and pursue among the youthfuls. Beauty has thus becomes an indispensable icing on top of the cake to what is insofar
regarded as extravagant for the aged.
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Is there beauty beyond youth? Surely there’s! But how
many people bravely live with that wisdom? If we could, we would all reach nirvana and become 
buddha, and probably destroy the underpinnings of a capitalistic, materialistic world, which I’m not sure if you can still call it a salvation… but in any case, its just hard to break free from that pre-enlightenment mode of thinking. Of never becoming emotionally secured until you win approval from people around you, caring to take a second glance at you, feeling good only AFTER looking good. As such, too much weight and social expectation has been put to a person. But sometimes, a person just need to remember,that the only weight he has to carry is his own.
I was intending to extend my obnoxious monologue on the topic of ‘Glass of Water’, but my last satire, in "I love the beautify" lamenting the shallow males was apparently backfired on me so I guess I’ll keep to a more direct style this time, easy on the eyes and good for the stomach(for digestion).
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I was lucky to catch Spiderman 3 finally, I dread watching it alone really cuz I thought its pretty sad to sit in the theater munching popcorn alone. Mateen was a great companion, and as funny as always as we joked about the cross pollination of DC styles in this Marvel picture. There was the Harry’s butler that somewhat reminds us of Alfred(Batman’s gay Butler), the powerful searchlights shining randomly on buildings in the final showdown, again reminiscent of Batman movie. And not to mention Sandman, who’s really another Terminator impostor. He gives me the "Asta la vista" look all the time.. haha
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Critics will also be there as always, so said Spiderman in the movie. So I’ll not go too far harping on the let downs. But overall, I thoroughly enjoy the show. This show has all the decent actions and fightings, and a stronger storyline than usual no-brainer action flick. Spiderman’s story is a journey of a self-discovering hero, with stages closely applied by Stan Lee chronicling fundamental structures that all heros will go through theorised by Joseph Campbell, call a monomyth. Well, if you haven’t realise it yet, you probably know it already if you had enjoy the show because most well-known heros more or less has this common structure that makes them ‘heroic’.
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But what is striking in this movie is that the director has novelly chose to present a more impartial view of the characters. Dangerously portraying no real bad guys in this movie as he justifies the actions of the villains. It looks to me the whole show blames the cause of crime committed at a societal level, that’s a social problem per se. Sandman wants money to save her daughter, thou unlawfully but morally correct as a duty of father. Venom needs a job badly to wed his girlfriend, played cheat, but got exposed(rightly) by Spiderman, turned to repent but got ‘blessed’ in church instead with his powers. And Goblin Junior was just fighting for his father’s honours, not entirely bad really. If they’re all bad, probably all of us are because so often we’re forced to make hard decisions that pivots between collective-individual interest that ultimately swing in favour of latter. Oh, that’s just the hectic city life I guess, and there’re numerous evidence of correlation between frequency of crime and stress level, and suggestions of causality if you will.
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So gone are the days where comic villain are childishly portrayed as mad man who just want total destruction together with themselves. And the meaning of ‘Bad’ is no longer narrowly defined by its morality but also include its legality making it sometimes paradoxical and ambiguous. What truly is bad then, I think in practice, is when something conflicts with our interest. Deep down, if you bother to learn the bad guy’s story, I believe he ain’t that bad after all. What then is a crime? That’s when we stop using our common sense, and blindly adhering to the law that has made us so cold and robotic sometimes. Law stems from common sense, not vice versa. Not that I prefer a lawless society, but when a tragic crime happens, who’s to blame really? Perhaps my moral compass is already warped and confused by the demands of the society, then again, I’m a good guy because I’m law abiding right?
Finally, talking like human…
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Wad a day it has been today. First I miraculously contacted my childhood friends via friendster after all these years… to find them still alive(of cuz) and kicking and in great health! Haha.. Really brings me back the fond memories I’d when I was a boy. And just when it look like another lazy afternoon perfect for napping, I got caught completely by 3 bunk-inspecting officers! There was no early warning system, wadsoever, and I was in a momentary jam state when Xue Mei, Dawn and Wai Kei stood in my house! Oh my.. this’s the first time that I’ve someone visiting me.. haha.. even now it feels kinda dreamy as I chronicle one of the best moment in my live.. Haha.. Good thing you guys come at a time not long after I’ve tidied up my room if not you would’ve found yourself travelling to see Oscar the grouch instead. Haha..
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Thank you the three star guests for rescuing me from boredom, if not the near-reclusive me would’ve turn into Kim Jong III soon… A wonderful surprise really, I’m really happy to see all of you (but next time come people’s house buy something lah, didn’t realise until my mum mentioned) Haha.. but anyway its the thought that really counts.. and your thoughts advanced my recovery speed a great deal, by 300%! I think I can almost fly now guys, really! Haha.. And my mum is happy that I’ve such beautiful and good people around me, (and probably finally freed from the fears of her boy mixing with the wrong company) Haha.. She praised the two young ladies for their beauty and Wai Kei for his honesty(becuz you said her cooking smells good) and his charm of cuz.. haha.. Guys, I’m really touched that you’ve xin to come see me.. Its been a pleasureX10 to know you all and I’m very fortunate to have friends like you around.. =) Chaos Expansion and JMG rock!
(we’ll discuss the Chaos ‘Expansion’ later… really high now.. hahaha)
Call me shallow, despicable or gross.. But I’m just a sucker to beauty… Yes. I love her, just by the sight of her. She makes my heart palpitate, freezes my thoughts, blow my mind away… She can fry, grill, or even steam me, I don’t care. So long as I can be with her…
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That’s the ID that I’ve been surpressing for many years. I’ve publicly and unabashly declared it now finally. That I still prefer a good-looking girl to a plain Jane, ceteris paribus.
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That’s how primitive and babaric I’m. And my primal instinct is archaic in this modern time that demands us to go beyond the looks, see with your heart. Unfortunately, we’ve been brought up in a society that unevenly preaches the appreciation of inner beauty while practicing the art of extreme grooming. Its a real world of furtive immorality and hypocrisy isn’t it?
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Maybe that’s the reason why make ups are getting bullet proof thickness nowadays. What is sad is that even now some girls are just getting as blind as guys, thinking in pure cosmetic and superficial terms, paying lesser attention to other intangible qualities that guys also include. (Guys are greedy, they want everything.)
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In the end, who will I die for? Still the beautiful one, but one that is beneath the cosmetic armour…
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I’ve purposely made this difficult to read to share with girls who bother to read the finer details of life here… be confident of yourself and never let others define your beauty. That intangible quality is ageless and no make ups is required to preserve that beauty.
Theory of everything - its an obsession. More notably, the pursue of knowledge is a noble cause in mankind, as declared by philosopher
Jacob Bronowski, that "knowledge is our destiny". Whether its a healthy preoccupation or not, that is not important. So long as its ends justify its means. That it is innately progressive suffices itself to perpetuate… So grind in your brain juice, pump in the R&D fund, because it’ll benefit you, and your offsprings… period.
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While I’m not opposed to development, and this article is never near the discussion on research methodology, rather touching lightly on epistemology, i.e. the theory of knowledge, and of course my very subjective sentiments pertaining to this topic..
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Harking back to the subject proper. That deterministic attitude was harbored when I completed reading this textbook, ‘World Politics-Trends and Transformation’ which left me feeling pretty much empty and disappointed. 
Its lack of solid, concrete explanation of how the turn of world events transpired is only the tip of an iceberg of a wider realisation that will hit me. Bluntly put, it teaches two modes of thinking, of how the world unfolds, namely ‘realism’ and ‘liberalism’. Both are fundamentally opposing, and neither one offers a complete explanation of say why Nations compete in some areas while co-operate in others.. A dialectical process of arriving at a ‘truth’ is difficult because embracing one would discount the another, its just so mutually exclusive to its bones! Hence, any hopes of predicting future trends is thoroughly neutralised if you juxtapose the two schools of thought… In sum, its unsettled, and I’m cheated of $41.48
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This feeling of ambiguity struck me and is reminiscence to the one I had when I studied an introductory module to physics. Do you describe the world in Quantum Mechanics or Gravity? Ohh, no problem.. you use both! QM for the very small, and Gravity for the humongous. What happens to the in-between you ask… Sorry, there’s no medium size. Either small or big. Then slowly, they start to move in both directions. The particle way of explanation soon encompasses a new species, graviton! And Gravity becomes possible to be described in the framework of quantum field theory. Well, at least in physics, its less compartmentalized than in political science.
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OK… here’s a simpler analogy illuminated by my wise friend Chin Khiang. He told me, if a glass of water put on a table, what would the different people say? The economist would ask, what is the opportunity cost of filling it with water? The chemist would ask, is that H20? And the psychologist, what is the motivation of placing that glass…? Who’s right? In truth, all may arrive at different sets of ‘theories’ because they think differently, and the fact of a single glass of water does not necessarily represent one common understanding. All are correct, everyone gets one mark! =)
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Although it can be said that the comparison is asymmetric, that arguing on the glass of water is not the same because it is discussing on different issues(duck and chicken) while theorising within a subject is sound and should be encouraged because it refines its knowledge. However, one should remember that sometimes things turn out differently in the first place because the beam of knowledge is shone at a different angle, notwithstanding its on the same ‘glass’ or not. Knowledge is knowledge, all the different branches and specialisation that we see today such as Biology, Physics, Social Science can be traced back to its philosophical origin in Greek, although they were probably not called as such as it is now…
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So, what was underneath that iceberg that sinked me ultimately. It is the realisation that the world is not seen and need not be described in a Theory of everything… it is big enough to accommodate both school of thoughts, and thinking singularly risks itself of being narrow-minded. Nevertheless, it will forever remain a very rigorous human obsession and perhaps just…
a self-validating truth? (that’s another story)
Plato: knowledge is the subset of truth, very much influenced by beliefs
It seems the less I walk, the more I think.. or rather the more I type as I spend more time glued to the computer, camped like sniper in front of the msn interface and popping my target when I see one. More time spent on the Internet inevitably lead me to appreciate its beauty, as I would normally use my com as more like a gaming station than unleashing its true potential of engaging in e-activities. It percolates to me its power and potential, and possibly dangers as I walk deeper into its dark tunnel, as its as best, still an imitation of life.
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The Internet is best described as a window to the world to me.. as I’m trapped in my house, more accurately immobilised by my tendon injury. Its frame, or the world presented is circumscribed by an unwritten boundary of e-culture. How ‘big’ the landscape appears from the inside is limited ultimately by how far you stand from the window, so to speak. And that is opening of the world to you, or so it seems… as many times, the observer is fooled into thinking he ‘knows’ and can ‘measure’ the world just by looking from the inside.
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For a stranded guy like me right now, who has only traveled between school and hospital for the last 2 months. My best judgement of the world outside is sorely based on information conveyed to me, via cable, via human idealised construct of the real world. The world(virtual) is so convenient and concise, its details are only as precise as its creator allows, and discovery by the end-user shaped very much by how its architect wants it to be seen. Even totally excessive and unwanted things like spyware that slows down your computer is there to track your consumer habits, serving a defined purpose.
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As I struggle to stay afloat in a sea of artificial, digitised lifestyle, its hard to realise that my interaction is fast becoming irrelevant to the real world. I was for once, 
out of sheer boredom, contemplating of picking this game call ‘Second Life’. A simulation type of game which is gaining in popularity. That’s how dangerous it can become… for a hermit who thinks he can get 
some kick out of buying a big house a getting a girl in a comfortable alternate lifestyle. We’re sooner than the pre-Matrix age don’t you think so? To Neo’s cheesy question of ‘what is real?’, that inquiry may one day be rendered irrelevant as our lives become increasingly intertwined and indiscernible in a real-virtual world so long as there’s active mass human participation.
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Well, I just hope I don’t come to a point of picking that game soon, and be caught by a friend saying, "hey that’s a really good game! ;)"
As the Premiership curtain soon draws to a close, with the title already decided, loud commotions are already heard coming from the backstage, with talks of transfers and sacking of incompetent managers leading the groundwork for the start of next year’s competition.
Of course, Pool and Milan fans still have something to look forward to, that is the Champions’ league finals, an anticipated vengeful 
encounter as the Italians look set to win Europe most prestigious cup and bragging rights from what was stolen 2 years ago. While hopefuls and optimistic gunner fan like myself(and Wenger) has already began soul-searching and inward looking since the lost of League Cup to Chelsea. The situation recently over the departure of Arsenal Vice-Chairman, Dein wadever at the Emirates Stadium culminated to possibly a watershed in Arsenal’s History, as questions of Thiery Henry’s decision of staying on with the Gunners lingers on after another spell of disappointing, trophy-less season.
The story goes like this: The shakeup in Arsenal was caused by a fallout of the vice-chairman with the committee over the decision of selling the club to foreigner(American btw) to raise arguably its war treasury, which is prevalent 
in EPL nowadays. Quite ironically, it was Arsenal first that brought in the foreign manager and his lost boys from abroad. And now its resisting the change because of the same nationalism issues that it stirred years back. C’mon…
While it looks likely that another big star is set to leave Arsenal (following Viera). The latest episode only highlights three points to me.
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1)There’s no such thing as Loyalty in the contract.
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2)And football is just a show
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Which lead me to infer the next…
3)Soccer is becoming like WWE (because anything can happen)
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Although these discoveries have been short of novelty, I’ve always attempted to resist these ‘truths’ revealed by my mum and non-believers of the beautiful game. While sentimental, passionate fans hang desperately to a time of idealised old-school spirit of players playing for peanuts(oh yes, S$500,000 per annum is peanuts by today’s top footballers’ standard) and staying loyal with their old clubs, the occurrence of players like Steven Gerrard are exceptions that help to prove the rule rather than denounce it.
Well, I guess that’s just the way things are… Arsenal on a shoe string budget, Wenger betting on future(which will never crystallise) and Henry.. ohh you mean the Barca player?
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"Nou Camp is bigger than Emirates Stadium!"
