Best of 2007

I can feel it! On my way home, I see less crowded trains, people anxious to reach their destinations, cars on the streets rushing by, shoppers doing their last minute shopping, numerous phone calls being made on people's plans for tonight. 2008 is coming and we will be saying our goodbyes to 2007 in a few hours.

I thought it would be fun to do a "Best of" list of my own for 2007. The list may not include things that came out this year, but things I really like that I discovered in 2007.

Best Travel Destination
Bali. It's called the island of the gods for good reason. No matter how many times I've been there (only three) I would always be captivated by its beauty each time and I long to go there again and again and again. I know some people who share the same sentiments, going back once a year even! If you haven't been to Bali, what are you waiting for? Call your travel agent now.

Best Fiction
Kite Runner. It's the first book that made me cry. It's just such a wonderful tale of two friends separated early in their years and how one seeks redemption for his own deeds later in life. Read it if you haven't. I am waiting for Khaled Hosseini's follow-up A Thousand Splendid Suns to come out in the paperback version.

Best Web Application
Picnik. I love Picnik for its simplicity of use and colorful graphic. You don't have to be an expert in navigating the web to use it. Now you can tweak your pictures all you want, anywhere you want, as long as you have internet access. It even lets you link to your Flickr or Facebook account for easy uploads and editing!

Best Soundtrack
Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies for the film Curious George by Jack Johnson and friends. Jack Johnson always has that soothing quality to his music and voice, and I think kids and adults alike will enjoy this perfect little CD. I found myself listening over and over again to his beautiful lyrics, full of optimism and child-like wonders. I even bought another one for a friend of mine who turned out to love it too! Though I haven't seen the movie itself, I can bet that the songs complement the movie nicely.

Best movie
Ratatouille. This is hard, I don't really have a best of the best this year, as I couldn't recall a title that left a huge impression on me like Before Sunset or The Incredibles did. Among my other choices are The Lives of Others, Freedom Writers, Thank You For Smoking, and Bourne Ultimatum. Ratatouille stands out for its strong story line (however unbelievable, but hey! it's a fantasy), excellent directing, and powerful graphics - I still can't believe the richness of details in this movie, I am a big Brad Bird fan now. So, there you have it.

Best Webmail
Gmail. Nothing beats my good ol' favorite. Hotmail and Yahoo are making a lot of upgrades recently, offering up to 5 GB of storage and sleeker graphics, but Google is still like a dear old friend to me. In my opinion its best features are the conversation-like email grouping, nice simple colors, and the embedded Google Talk application. If you look around the web, most applications are clamoring to include Gmail as extensions for their products due to its popularity. That tells you something right?

Best Mobile Device
Blackberry. Now I'm a little biased because I haven't tried a lot of other phones that could do millions other stuff (I own a chunky Nokia with a round dialpad - beat that). Its wide design may just be its advantage as it allows us to type more comfortably with our fingers, though it may not be so when you're doing calls. Its best feature is of course its push-mail technology; I haven't seen any other devices that push mails as efficiently as the Berry. Another great feature is the Messenger, it saved me a lot of troubles when I'm overseas.

Best Internet Browser
Firefox. Can't live without it. It's the browser that introduced "Tabs" to me, and I've been using it ever since. Plus, a lot of applications on the web such as DivX player, del.icio.us extensions, work perfectly with Firefox.

Best OS Design
Leopard. Sleek, stylish, superior. I'm still getting used to it, though in the beginning I encounter a few hiccups with some of the applications. But design-wise, this is the best in the market. It applies to Apple's hardwares too.

Best Place to Have Your Afternoon Tea in Singapore
Royal Copenhagen Tea Lounge. I discovered this little gem tucked in the corner of a major department store some time ago. It serves delightful desserts, great pastas, and high-quality teas in beautifully made Chinas. The ambiance lends a Danish feel to it (at least a friend who stayed there said so) and the setting is lovely. Just be careful not to drop those fragile things.

Okay, there you go. Not only because I am running out of time but if I continue, there is still a long list to go. Most of my "bests" are technology or entertainment-related, that pretty much sums up where I spent a lot of my time on...(alright, I need to pick up a new hobby soon). Hope you enjoy it and Happy New Year 2008!

father & son, morning Danba

I do a post of blog of note from time to time. Today it's Raul Gutierrez's Heading East. A brilliant photographer (check out his portfolio here and here), his pictures are rich in nuances of the subject's environment, taking captures of their lives, their homes, their streets, their emotions. He likes photographing people because they are more exciting...to do it well and to take great pictures of people, now that takes some skills. I love his pictures!

In addition, he's a talented writer, his blog at www.mexicanpictures.com/headingeast tells of his family, especially his two cute sons, other photographers' works, his own experiments with time-shift pictures among many others. It's his family accounts that got me hooked, I just like how he writes stories about his sons (numero uno and numero dos), even putting rich detailed account of each son's birth. I can't help but being touched by those stories. So, enjoy. Have a great Sunday.

Thoughts about charity at the end of the year

I remembered I read a blog post a few months ago about how Bill and Melinda Gates foundation becomes the most successful philanthropy foundation in the world. He has helped more people than most of us claimed to do. Why? They ran it like a business. Exactly how Bill Gates ran his Microsoft to be the biggest software giant in the world. Funds are withdrawn if projects do not achieve the objectives they set out to do. Simple rule of business. This kind of bigger-picture management is what we need to save the world. Help sponsoring a child in Africa is a noble thing to do, yet it is not as effective as thinking how to eradicate AIDS in Africa, or stopping genocide in Darfur. Have a read of Clive Thompson's Wired article I was referring to earlier or click on my shared items. I found myself nodding my head to what it said.

I remembered this because I was present at a charity event very recently (to say involved is a discredit to the hard-working, passionate organizers - big thank you if you are reading this). It was a successful event; great food, games, and presents for all the kids. As first-timers, the organizers did a great job preparing for the event, putting in many hours and ideas into making sure the kids would enjoy it. The amount of money raised was mostly used for the event and the presents, the remainder 20% for the organization the kids are from. Whilst the presents are useful items that would definitely make any kid happy, I wonder if we overspent the money for the rest, or was it simply that we did not raise enough to donate more. What if bigger portion of money is donated to the management, for they are the people who run the place, who would know what the kids need and provide for them. I had no benchmark to measure this against, so my thoughts are probably unjustified. I would love to hear from you if you have experience in this area. However, the event was definitely a good start for future charities, I for one learned a lot as an observer. Congratulations you! I am very proud of you.

Have a wonderful weekend.

2007's acts of kindness and courage

From One Laptop Per Child project which was featured in TED to a would-be mom who trained up until her 9th month of pregnancy, these stories are inspiring and heartwarming. They tell us that with determination, we can achieve anything we set our mind to; with courage, we can overcome everything that comes in our path. From education, child soldier, global warming, to the decrease of infant death rate; they show us the world is still capable of doing a lot of good. The message is clear: the world always needs saving, as long as we're alive. My only wish is, if only this wasn't too Western-centric...It would be great to show stories from heroes around the world as well.

Check out the stories here.

December 25

It's the holiday season, and I wish you and your family all the best in life. I wish you good health and great life with each and every new day. It's so great to wake up in the morning knowing that your life is not so bad after all, you have a wonderful family, some great friends, a roof over your head, and meals three times a day. What more can an ordinary person ask for?

I look forward to 2008. I look forward to exciting new things that I'm going to do, wonderful new lives that are going to be born, great people I am going to meet, and amazing new locations I am going to be.

Whatever your wish may be, if you're reading this, I wish your wish would come true. So, enjoy, have fun, and be happy!

Let me share a little something delightful I found today. Click on My shared items to the right and watch the sweet little video on music and math.

Doing too much

Alright, that's it.

We got to stop. In a culture fueled by the drive for excellence and doing things the efficient way, all occuring the same time, we often times forget exactly why we are doing those things. In a frenzy of tasks, meetings, generating ideas, we get caught up with the busy-ness and forget to question anymore. In the excitement of living in the concrete and steel world, we forget how good it feels to be out in the nature and connect with ourselves (Lost is my inspiration!). Oh! What have I done?

Take me for example, the effect of my own doing is terrible. Things get so piled up I just want to forget they exist and start doing something else, something that would take my mind off it. It's not the first time, but each time it happens I am on the verge of losing sight of what's important. Very dangerous, I might say.

In theory, we all know the solution to our issues. In reality, you know how well it turns out sometimes...

Limiting my choices

I recently turned vegetarian. I also recently bought my first Apple product. I don't have any mp3 player to date whereas my friends have bought their 5th generation iPods. I'm only using my second cell phone after 6 years, and that's because my brother insisted to pass it down to me and took my first cell phone, which was working perfectly alright. I didn't plan this actually. I wanted to try out how being a full-time vegetarian is like, I instantly made that decision one afternoon and that's it. Plus hopefully I'm executing the most effective way to stop global warming and stop killing animals. I feel good about it. Buying Apple is easy, I don't have to compare prices from the various PC vendors and choose from the oh-so-many models out there. I prefer not to spend that much time on the research and decision-making process.

Then I thought, hey, by being a vegetarian or buying a Mac I am limiting my choices! Don't get me wrong, it's a good thing. When I go out, I don't have to fuss about what to eat because there's only so many vegetarian options in one place. I don't upgrade my phone if it's still working. Now I'm starting to think if I can apply this to aspects of my life I would be a happier person than I am now. By limiting our own choices, we are sort of forced to take the very few alternatives that are available to us. Therefore, we stop worrying and start living. Going on with our lives. Once a decision is made and there is no turning back, it's like a burden is lifted off your shoulder. When you know you don't have other choices, you would resign and accept whatever path that lies in front of you. Of course people will say we always have choices, but what if we proactively limit our choices?

We can apply this in almost anything: careers, spending, food, schools, anything you can think of. Start building a habit of limiting our choices and we might just be on our way to be happier individuals.

Racism

Someone wise said: "If we could all laugh off racism jokes in the world, wars wouldn't be started and fights between people wouldn't happen."

Are we taking ourselves too seriously?

Oh human. We are sensitive creatures. Smart as we are, we are so easily manipulated. Mind controls are weak. Words can start a war. Words can also stop wars.

Exercise mind control and non-violence. Let us all be happy and peaceful.

Happy Sunday.

Nice

That's probably the most generic description of a thing out there. Not to mention the most overused of all descriptive words. I have to confess I use it all the time. What can I say?

On someone doing something cool: "That's nice"
On someone going on holiday: "So nice!"
On someone getting something cool: "NICE!"
On someone asking how the food was: "It's nice"

Kinda boring, isn't it? That's as safe an answer as we can get. For all it's worth, it allows us to not say anything else afterwards and the other party will be more or less satisfied with the comment. Genius!

Now I know

What a blue screen of death is like.

Annoying.

I think out of more than a decade of using Windows, I have never seen a real Blue Screen of Death. This isn't exactly sudden too, I kinda expected it, since I innocently put the login executable file in a virus vault due to virus alert! I mean, how stupid could one be?

Anyway, I'm left with no back up, no nothing. This is just perfect.

:D

Hypersensitive

With every heartbeat, I think it's earthquake. Recent years have been the most productive period for mother nature. Aih.

Memory Lapse

I wrote about my rapidly declining memory some time ago. I also wrote about buying the memory exercise book by Tony Buzan around the same time. With sadness I have to report that I have failed to read the book in its entirety. It was already lost in the midst of other abandoned books in my shelf. Why do I thought of this again? Earlier this evening, I was at shower and at one point, I reached out to grab shampoo. Suddenly I was lost on whether I had or hadn't shampooed my hair. I totally couldn't remember! If I had, it must have happened 2 minutes back. If I hadn't, I couldn't be sure. So unaware of my immediate past actions I took that I'm shocked. So unaware of my surroundings that I'm horrified.

I'm not very old. I shouldn't be having memory lapses like this! Why do we forget things? Why do we remember things? Consciously, we tried to remember certain things but can't commit them to memory. Subconsciously, we remember things that come naturally to us. Our subconscious play such an important role in deciding which facts to remember that I believe 99.99% of our memory are controlled subconsciously. I wish I can perfect the ability to control our minds fully. It'll make life so much easier.

Understated numbers

4.5 billion years.

10 to the power of -24 seconds.

60 billion light years.

26 dimensions.

I have to say, these numbers are truly beyond me. Even that is a great understatement. And by that, it's a terribly enormous understatement. And so on...

Human brain is not capable to imagine these things. It took us about 6000 thousand years of civilization to reach here. Yet there are tremendous other things waiting for us to be discovered or understood. I guess learning is never enough. Imagination never has a limit. Who knew this glob of flesh and liquid had the power to think? Great people like Einstein, Newton, and Hawking had the power to think beyond what normal humans can do, and that sets them so far ahead. We need these people, the pioneers who would propel us to (yet to be achieved) golden age. A friend once said, we only use a tiny little fraction of our brains and if we train our minds we could achieve so much more. Our potentials are so great nobody knows what we're capable of yet. In this fast age of communications, few of us really sit down and think each day. All we do is breeze through the day in work and random things. It's no wonder I had such short attention span. There's just so much things to do. Was there ever so little time to think?

Imagine if all 6 billion people sat down and think. Just like the Great Serengeti Migration, over a million animals move at one direction each year and they seem to know where they go when in herds. Leave one alone and it will be lost not knowing its way. Individual can absolutely be great just like the names mentioned earlier. Potentials of collective thoughts must be overwhelmingly greater.

I still can't imagine how long 4.5 billion years were. B I L L I O N years. Nine zeros. Goodness. Enjoy Sunday!

The Beat

One beat, it reverberates through your being.
One beat, you jump up with newfound joy.
One beat, it pounds like your heart.
One beat, you are back in your mother's womb.

Feel it.

For the first time in my life

I cried upon hearing a song.

I was shocked to the core. It sent me sobbing.

Love

What is love, really? Specifically, what interests me is how does a child "understand" the concept of love?

It is often said that all parents in the world love their children. I have no doubt of the truth of that statement. It is then presumable that the parents either say it verbally or say it with actions that we considered 'loving'. Love is a concept. It is - for the lack of better description, as quoted from my favorite source of knowledge Wikipedia - a constellation of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection or profound oneness. I am perplexed by how a child, a young child, if you may, grasp this whole concept of love.

Assume you say, "I love you", to your child every day. They start to develop language skills since 12 months old, but when do they start to understand concepts? I'm sure child expert can easily answer that question. I am not a parent, but let me try. I suppose, in child-rearing, when we say we will do something, it's very important that we do it. In fulfilling our promises, we gain the child's trust. They are observing and mimicking our every action. When we say we love them, they may associate the word 'love' with our every day actions, cuddling them, cooing them, playing with them, caring them (now 'care' is another vague concept), fulfilling our promises. In addition and perhaps most importantly, the intangible emotional connection with the child. I suppose love transmits that way, the accumulation of all our actions and our emotional relationship translate to love.

I may be completely wrong, this is indeed a curious subject to explore...

Happy Sunday.

Things I learn from traveling

- It's never too much.
- You discover things about yourself you didn't know.
- You discover things about other people you don't want to know.
- You also discover things about other people you would not know until you travel with them.
- You learn / are forced to learn the art of bargaining.
- You experience discomfort you don't expect at home, but you do that anyways.
- You learn to wake up early.
- You learn to be a bit more generous.
- You exercise.
- You finally learn how to pass your idle time meaningfully (or not?)
- You learn to appreciate your life.
- No matter how much you read up and travel in a country, you'll never know the real country. It's a myth.

I always knew, to know the real someone, travel or live with them. It's very very true.

I admire JK Rowling

I would like to mention other (I'm sure great) authors, like J.R.R. Tolkien, Roald Dahl, only I am not qualified since I haven't read their works. Harry Potter series, on the other hand, is the No.1 undisputed contemporary book in the world and have been read by millions of children and adults alike, yours truly included. When I read the books, the wealth of imagination confronts me like sudden ray of lights when you slide open your window in the early morning. Thestrals, Talking Hat, the moving pictures, animagus, Expecto Patronums, Polyjuice Potion, the list goes on (many many other books could be written on these alone)...it's like, "Wow!". Her imagination has no boundaries, she tapped into children's mind and adult's mind, somehow managed to pick things that appeal to both audiences and write a tremendously successful series of books.

She is now one of the wealthiest women in the world.

Wow.

I wish I had that kind of imagination.

Plus business sense.

Book deals + autograph sessions + Harry Potter movies + merchandise + licensing + spun-off books about the magical animals et cetera.

It doesn't stop there! She is now writing TWO new books, one of which will be published later.

I'm gushing too much. Will stop here.

UPDATE: Oh, I haven't read the last book yet. Heard it's good.

Choices: Barrier to happiness?

We scream and sulk when we're not given a choice to anything. "I don't have a choice", you've probably heard this line a million times over. Just like being forced to do something. A lot of people probably realize this deep down: choices make people unhappy instead.

Suppose you have a free gift of a key chain. Now the key chain has many varieties of shapes, you have a choice of bicycle, palm tree, monkey, crocodile, and key. The catch is there are five crocodile-shaped ones, three bicycles, two palm trees, 1 monkey, and 1 key-shaped ones. Let's say you're most attracted to crocodile-shaped key chain because the design is the best of the lot. At this point, the mind obviously wanted the most 'unique' ones (read: the least quantity), namely key and monkey - it reflects the demands of the market (what else explains the quantity of 1?). It's inescapable that we have a herd mentality, we follow the crowd. Four in five experiences of given a choice, I think people would hesitate, ponder, repeat the same process, and eventually would choose either the key or the monkey.

Choosing an outfit, choosing a footwear, choosing a travel destination, choosing a phone model...you name it, we've all been through it! I believe we also went through a process of narrowing down, eliminating the obvious unwanted alternatives first, then compare benefits of the remaining ones side by side. It's a tedious task and is rewarding at the end (hopefully). Yet I can't help but think, given just one path to follow, one gift, one travel destination, one university to go to, however unfavorable the 'offering' may be, we may be happier, knowing that there's no other choice. Acceptance comes easily at that point, and we move on. With acceptance, we cease to be bothered, we cease to spend time in comparing, we cease to have worries or troubles, we cease to ponder, and we begin to be 'happy'. I'm probably using the word 'happy' too liberally here, but you know what I mean.

So, choice, or no choice?

Service that blows your mind

I once stayed in a hotel / resort in Ubud region of Bali. It was by far the most amazing service I've ever had in a long time. I'm waxing lyrical of this resort for a real good reason, I'll tell you why:

- The moment you arrived, the staff came out and greeted you with the trademark Balinese smile and the hands in front of chest gesture (namaste). First impression does count.
- It helped that the reception area is open-air. The lobby is adorned with nice soft sofa coach and a simple wooden desk for the receptionist. No grand entrance or impressive chandelier (nothing against these - it's just different)
- The staff sat you down, served you a nice cool glass of juice and walked you through every single thing you should know about your stay. Probably it's their protocol to tell the guests about their facilities and all. They're ready to answer every single question that you may have or address whatever needs that may arise.
The manager himself came out and talked to you.
- If you asked for it, they will give you the villa with the best view (it's really amazing) overlooking the Oos River. Directly across the river from the villa you can see the beautiful paddy fields which images you often find in guide books.
- Staff that is available any time of the day to cater to your needs. They're just a simple phone call away. Actually I found a roach in the bathroom but I guess with a place built among trees and plants, it's inevitable these smart creatures will find their way in sometimes. The service attendant came immediately armed with broom and dustpan and smiled apologetically as he left.

This is more on the resort facilities itself:
- Serene and tranquil villa - with CD player, magazines, private veranda, private pool, open concept bathroom the size of two bedrooms in my house, with huge stone marble bathtub. Magnificent.
- Wonderful selection of Indonesian and Balinese cakes for tea time. Aaah~ The manager and the owner came by to ask us how we're enjoying the stay so far. Quite attentive.
- A library of books and CDs that you can borrow during the course of your stay.

I suppose their planning is meticulous down to details of room arrangement, selection of breakfast and cakes, and most importantly, great staff training. Suppose all the hotels in the world can match this, it would be ideal.

I highly recommend staying in Komaneka Tanggayuda in Ubud the next time you go on vacation to Bali.

Day 4

I'm on vacation. Today is the day I really feel I am on one. Time just stood still and it's perfect.

Saw this on TV

I thought this is so COOL. It's quite long, I would imagine the sponsor is either very loaded-slash-passionate-about-the-environment or just jumping on the bandwagon of 'Green Earth' these days. As always, I can count on Youtube to deliver what I want.

Utter bliss (almost)

Let me start by asking you a question, what is utter bliss? Your own version.

To me, part of my imagination for utter bliss involves beach, waves, sun, bluest sky, and ocean wind. The other involves picnicking with your family and little children playing in a park. Another is bumming around the house and the neighborhood doing nothing. There could be zillions of other scenarios. Yet a complete bliss (for me, at the moment) is one without any thoughts.

At all.

Now that's hard. Meditation is something that's really new to me. Thoughts crossed my mind at all times; my palms have the most lines among the people I know. A fortune teller once told me that I'm prone to depression. I could be swimming and have already been thinking hundreds of thoughts in 1/2 lap. Okay - this paragraph is depressing.

Well, I'm sort of doing the third kind of bliss, bumming around with nothing to do. It's a lovely time so far. Yet as human being, I can't escape these thoughts; memories, worries, what ifs, regrets, what I should do today... To be able to clear my mind, thinking nothing, is utter bliss. It happens - maybe for a second, for the mind to bounce right back. The onslaught of thoughts just kept attacking. I shouldn't be complaining, maybe I should. I have to escape duality and let everything in. One thing for sure, it's lovely to wake up late on a Monday morning.

I wish you a pleasant week.

Oh well

I love Google Reader, it was my first RSS reader and I've been using it since it (almost) started.

Today - disappointment sets in. Never have I been disappointed in Google's products until maybe last month. I woke up, switched on my computer, checked the discussion forum page on the problem last night, and found that it has completely disappeared. No trace, no nothing. Note that it was the first topic on the board last night, and we were posting furiously. They didn't reply to my message either.

Yeah, it has all come down to this. I'm still using Blogger. If they take my blog down too, say something please. Hahaha.

Let's hope for a good day ahead.

Update

I'm participating in an almost real-time online discussion group and sent a message to the Reader guys.

Kinda good, this online problem-reporting thing. Reminds me of the things I deal with every day. So far I found out that problem is on my ISP and on Google Reader security feature. Hope they reply soon.

Fifth time

This is probably the only time I've posted more than 2 entries a day. I just can't resist.

Apparently, somehow, non-magically, all those emails seem Singaporean, as in the problem might probably lie in the ISP side.

Searched through the Help Discussion forum and fortunately I'm not the only one complaining, someone else logged the same problem a few minutes before me. They're all Singaporean users (no surprise there).

Hmm...

Fourth time

Just refreshed Reader.

The 2nd and 3rd time, I see my own email. This time, it's a completely foreign email address, NOT MINE!

NOT MINE!

Is Google looking at this???? Hello? Gooooooooooogle? Where are youuuuuuuuu???

And they did it again!

Something is seriously wrong with Google Reader.

For the third time, I am seeing things that are not mine!!!

What is going on??

Okay, I need to calm down.

I think Google's mad

This is the second time.

I opened my Google Reader and see a completely foreign list of feeds subscription from my regular ones. I glanced at the top right by reflex, it's my email address printed on top. So that wasn't wrong.

BUT WHY?

Second time is serious stuff. The first experience was with Google Docs. It was the first day they migrated the old look to the new look. I opened the page expecting to see my regular stuff and there it was, another complete alien list of documents. Worst thing is I can actually open up these docs and see its content. Immediately I thought, "Shoot! If I can see all these, other people can see mine!"

WHAT HAPPENED? This time, when I glanced to the top right - it was someone else's email address. They @#$#@^ up.

Can I still trust Google?

Can I still use this Blog?

It's a mess.

Survival

The topic of survival surfaced a few nights ago. The following are the thoughts of my conversation partner and I just felt compelled to write it down.

South East Asia is probably the most fertile region in the entire Asia. It has plenty of natural resources, fertile soil, no harsh climate, land, space, sea, food, everything you need. Then why most countries (except for Singapore - which lacks natural resources) in SEA are still considered "developing" countries when other countries with limited natural resources like Japan are so advanced?

The theory put forth is, essentially, hardships make the people. If things get too comfortable, over generations, you would see that everything went slow. The people got lazy, the drive to reinvent in order to survive was missing. Living is so comfortable, why bother?

Here comes the foreign forces. The Dutch, the Portuguese, the British, the Japanese, neighboring countries. Lured by the abundant of spices grown in the region and promise of new riches and trades, they came and occupied some of the places and left their marks all over the place. Then consider the immigrants, the majority of immigrant pioneers in the region came all the way from their own rural villages in search of the promise of wealth and better life for their families. They were courageous, even though forced by circumstances. Imagine leaving your old life, your parents, your siblings, stepping on board that ship, probably cramped til its last inches, saying goodbye forever to your homeland. You arrived at the new land, drafted as rough labor, worked day and nights, earning small stipend just enough to get by. Then people had to get smarter, businesses thrived, trade volume grew, businessmen emerged. New riches were made, not found. These entrepreneurs still exist today, and I'm not talking just immigrants, but anyone who succeed with a sole motivation to better their own and their families' lives. They're the kings in dwarfs' land. They continue to reinvent, think of ways to get around things, to survive in this unruly land.

At this point I asked, well, since that period of wars, occupation, economic hardship, immigrant exports, civil unrest (generally our great-grandparents / grandparents' period) had passed us; won't our generation, or our children's generation enjoy a relatively peaceful and safe life? Won't our generation get 'lazy' because the previous generations have made life as comfortable as possible for us?

Well it's not, although I'm blessed enough to live the way I live right now, our generation still present its own challenges in different context and environment. In a way, the socio-economic issues are still persistent, civil unrest are still raging in some parts of SEA. Although we have a job, a life, we're still struggling to make ends meet. Everybody is. The same challenges remain, only we're surrounded by concretes and walls, where it was thatched roof and grass before.

I love South East Asia. This is one region on earth that I'll be perfectly comfortable moving around in. It's East meets West at places where you least expected, it's raucous; it's utter chaos; it's everything you won't expect and it's everything you expect; it's a cultural melting pot; and it's the place I love most.

I Not Stupid Too

I don't exactly remember the first story, I Not Stupid, only that it's a good one. The sequel bears the same hallmark of Jack Neo's movies minus the political satire that marks the first film: a contemporary view of Singaporean education, parent-children relationships, and the strict 'follow the law' credo that was playfully portrayed in his latest offering, Just Follow Law.

You'll laugh and you'll cry. Jack's brilliance lies in his ability to bring a story that 'connects' with us, the audience. You can easily identify with the scenes at school, the constant nagging and lectures from parents and how their actions are always right, the modern lingo that kids use. Oh, and plenty of the ever-present product placement (in this movie alone, there are at least 4 or 5 brands that starred along with the actors, including Motorola, Apple, New Moon Abalone).

The story's narrator is 8-year-old Jerry (Ashley Leong), who during the introduction talks about how his parents, grandmother launches a tirade of words that flow endlessly from their mouths and out his and his brother Tom's ears.

The main plot involves Tom and his best friend Chengchai (Joshua Ang), who rebel against teachers and finally got into serious trouble in the second half of the movie. The movie offers plenty of moral stories. Lack of communication is also one of the many problems that plague our society and the movie constantly highlight this point throughout. In more than a few scenes, parents may be reminded of the immense responsibility that comes with parenthood. Being a good role model and all that moral stuff. The same may be said for teachers, the movie also teaches us to be generous with compliments and encouragement, to focus on people's virtues, not their flaws.. as showing appreciation is much lacking in our society these days.

And it is here I realize the Ministry of Education has laws that allow principle to order a public caning of 'stray' students. I didn't verify the truth, but I would suppose it's true. Interesting. If it is true, maybe they should consider abolishing it.

Overall, it fared pretty well. I have to say, I always enjoy Jack Neo's movies since the Liang Po Po era. Although this movie may speak a little louder to Singaporeans or those who have lived in Singapore (plenty of local lingo abound), the message is universal and audience of all ages will find it enjoyable.

Black night

It was the most beautiful sight ever. The moon was round and yellow and bright. The breezy wind was cool but not chilling. The sky was dark, the water was black but illuminated in the middle by the moon shine. The beach chairs was set out. One pair in a safe distance of another. The sand beneath my feet was soft and white as baby powder. Small chatters around. The sound of waves crashing on the shore a few feet down was soothing and calming.

I slept.

For an hour, maybe more. It was just SO good. Never had I seen such a beautiful beach at night. It was unforgettable. If you are planning a trip to Redang Island in Trengganu, Malaysia, make sure to bring plenty of suntan lotion, sunglasses, and heck-with-the-outside-world attitude. Forget everything and just plain enjoy yourself!!! For a few days, you're free from every worry: no news, no TV, no work. Just you, yourself, maybe your amazing companions and the island.

I wanted to attach pictures to this post, but I decided not to, and let your imagination takes flight instead. Plus, it wasn't that hard to imagine.

Simple pleasures in life

- Seeing my house after clearing all the old newspapers, junk mails, brochures, old magazines and unnecessary clutter away
- A takeaway bubble tea after work or on a lazy weekend afternoon
- The smell of fresh dry laundry
- The sunlight shining in through your window
- Shower at the end of a tough workday
- The smell of fresh ocean air
- Internet connection
- A walk around my neighborhood
- The sight of blue sky
- The sound of a familiar voice calling you on the phone
- A good music that you sing along and move your body to
- A meal with just yourself and a newspaper nearby
- A cup of tea on a chilling day
- A meal with your friends
- The sweetness of a teh-o-peng
- The taste of chocolate melting in your mouth after a day of craving
- Popping in your new CD for the first time
- The smell of pages of a new book
- A laughter of a child
- The smile of your loved ones
- A good sleep

Aiming for that wisdom

Today I turned a year older, albeit wiser is a subject of debate. I still feel like the old me, and I feel old already at this age, although many people would whack me for saying that. I should be feeling older, not old. Haha.

It's a gorgeous weather today. Started raining towards the afternoon but as the sky clears up, I feel the gentle breeze of the wind, birds singing right outside my window, sound of human chatter and activities in the distance, vivid blue sky and soft white clouds.

I am grateful. So thank you.

Oh! Let me pass along a wonderful idea from The Dilbert Blog. Send your loved ones an email saying how much you appreciate and love them right now. Do it. It's a good thing and it felt great! Do as he says, after all, he's the brain behind Master Dogbert.

Have fun!

Blue moon

The radio DJ just announced that tonight we're going to witness blue moon midnight tonight - June 1st 2007. This is going to be the second full moon or extra full moon in a calendar month. So watch out tonight!

May 31st. Today is also Vesak/Wesak Day. Is it coincidence that Buddha achieved enlightenment on 4th month 15th day on lunar calendar, when full moon usually occurs?

I would love to be at Borobudur today.

Happy holiday everyone!

Paper-less, not paperless

I throw away a lot of stuff periodically. Remove clutter. Simplify my life. Make room for something else.

Tonight is one of those times. Although the "stuff" is mainly just paper. It's such a waste sometimes, for people and companies alike to print so much paper. I'm constantly contradicting myself, because I'm the culprit who prints almost every other day. It takes a huge effort and a big awareness on our part to limit ourselves from printing so much paper that we probably won't read or need later.

I'm not saying we should eliminate paper altogether. Imagine the paperless world, everyone will be constantly carrying around some sort of electronic media reader and you'll be lucky to find people who have that rare 20/20 vision. I suppose 99% of the population would agree that nothing beats reading from a book, the paper-in-your-hands feel is unsurpassable. Information that can be contained in a physical medium is more reliable and easily accessible I suppose.

Yeah, recycling maybe the solution. Let me know if you know any good methods to dispose of electronics, plastic bottles, newspapers, magazines, books responsibly in Singapore. Been wanting to find out but I guess I stopped short on being proactive about it.

It would be nice if:
- Banks would just stop sending confirmation letters or monthly statements. With every statement comes an envelope and for bills, more marketing brochure and a return envelope!
- All bills could come in as email attachments (though I notice many companies have offered this option to their customers). Yeah, 1,000,000 companies to follow suit.
- Marketing pamphlets could be limited. I throw those away every time I find them in my mailbox.

Here are some good practices that have been around for a while:
- People who carry their own mug to work or environment-friendly water bottles to travel instead of buying readily available plastic water bottles every time. Sigg water bottle is a good example.
- Companies who carry water dispensers instead of water bottles.
- Plastic cups that were replaced with recyclable paper cups.
- I went to Ikea the other day and found out they are now charging customers for plastic carrier bags. It was a first for me but I suppose it makes sense! Supermarkets should start implementing this. You won't believe how many people would carry their own shopping bags to save 10 cents.

I'll post again if I find out more...

First day of the week again

Something I read today that I like:

Walking is a series of controlled falls. Each step forward shifts our center of gravity. In harmony with this fall, our bodies extend a leg to catch the center and balance it momentarily before it is cast forward again.

Someone who thinks about walking.

Wow.

Happy Sunday. Here's a picture I took at red dot Traffic. Thought they're cute.

Just when you thought it couldn't get worse (or better)...

This is what I encountered today while uploading some files.



Don't you just love it? I'm almost nuts trying to do this and yet I can't get mad.

Overwhelmed

By the simplicity of this idea.

Why didn't I think of this? Not exactly original, but it's so mind-bogglingly simple I can't believe I missed that. Well, just wrote my future self a mail earlier. Can't wait til 20 more years!

Until then, let's hope this Web 2.0 thing will evolve. Maybe the message will be lost. I think I can live with that...

Another weekend

Everyone has a story to tell.

There's always a story behind an invention, behind a picture, behind a person's sad smile, behind the laughter of a child, behind a song, behind the feelings we have right now.

Of course! What was I talking about? David Pogue's post on Simplifying Diabetes Shots is one example on how everyday inventions are created from our simple needs. A need to simplify our life. Isn't everything we see, touch, use every day created to make our life easier? However, things that were made for that purpose in turn make our life more complicated more often than not. One thing spawns another, and we can't stop creating "things". It's a vicious cycle. Can't we get them right the first time? A friend once remarked, if we were to live our life without all these modern inventions (think plowing a rice field in the day, sipping hot tea after a long day in the field, then gazing at the sky at midnight), would we be a happier individual today? Perhaps so.

But I digress.

What's so interesting and exciting now is it's up to us to pursue and discover these stories. Come to think of it, isn't that part of our life, if not our mission? To find out life stories, how a person become who he/she is today? How from then on, we move on in life, knowing these people in our midst. Perhaps the more subtly overlooked but even more difficult question is: How do we become the person we are today? What's our story?

I love these stories. A contractor who invented a door latch that only needs a little push to open because he often had his hands full when going to a locked laundry room. A mother who invented a ready-to-mix syringe for her diabetic child because once she had to run to her car to get the right mix of doses, risking her child's life due to the delay. A woman who became famous around the world after her powerful portrait graced the cover of a magazine yet whose name was unknown and lived in obscurity. A child who died in a concentration camp, leaving behind a diary that stunned the world. A grandmother, trying to make ends meet out of cleaning toilets to feed her family. Fascinating, really.

To be honest, I can't even accurately describe my life story. Why I became the person I am today. Life is just one event after another, how do you attach some semblance of meaning to it? Toddlers, teenage years, twenties passed by in a blink of an eye. Time is running fast. We are mere mortals! It's a constant battle.

What will you tell your grandchild? What's your story?

Reading in reverse

I'm not a fan of long articles. I like them to be short, sweet, and precise. I like it if an article manages to carry the information that matters most and be done with it. At least that's how I approach it.

That's why after reading the first few paragraphs, if it's still interesting, then all's good. If I get impatient trying to finish it, I'll do what I've done quite naturally, surprisingly: I'll start reading from the last paragraph.

Let me tell you what I've found so far about this practice:
- It makes you a faster reader.
- It'll give you a fresh perspective of the essense of the article.
- You'll find out how it all ends faster! Duh.
- I'm a weirdo.

Newspaper articles, blogs, essays, emails, messages, I've tried them all except for books (too grand for me to even think of trying). All done with due respect to the authors of course.

Have you tried reading an essay, an article, or a book starting from the last paragraph?

Eternal Summer 盛夏光年

This is a story of eternal love, youthful turmoil, friendship, and a process of growth. It transports you back to your high school days, brings back all those sweet memories of youthful exuberance (okay, I'm speaking like a 80-year-old granny), when you can throw every caution to the wind and get away with anything. Did I mention, it was a story of gay love?

Jonathan (Bryant Chang) was a class monitor; circumstances led him to be beckoned by the teacher to be friends with troublemaker Shane (Joseph Chang) . Ten years later, Shane grew up to be a handsome young basketball player, and Jonathan into the best friend who watch his plays quietly from the side of the court but unbeknownst to Shane, who is secretly in love with him too.

Everything changed with the arrival of Carrie (Kate Yeung), the Taiwan-born Hong Kong transfer student. What follows is a tangled web of events that built up to the climatic mid point, and ended with a "???". I'm giving too much away.

The actors gave a solid performance as an ensemble, but retained an individuality on each of their character that you can't help but care. Kate Yeung possesses such an unconventional beauty that gets you noticed the moment she walked into a scene. Bryant Chang was fragile and torn at the same time, conveying such emotional aggravation of one-sided love that the audience can feel in the pit of their stomach. He won the Best New Performer title at the Golden Horse Award last year for this role, and deservedly so. Joseph Chang is shaky at best in the beginning. He made it up to the audience into the second part of the movie with his performance as a torn young college undergraduate who has to choose between the affections of his girlfriend or his best friend.

This movie is so much better compared to another movie, Formula 17, of the same genre that came out around the same time. The end leaves a lot to be desired. Yet it was still well worth the ticket price to see the performances of these young stars. I can imagine myself seeing more of their future movies in the cinema. Taiwanese films are making waves yet again.

Randomness

Do you believe things are random? Random thoughts cross your mind at random hours, coincidences happen on a random day, inventions made out of random device found on a random street, defeating science, bending our strict mechanical workings.

Throw all rules.

We happened to be born to random parents, chosen by some random supreme being. We happened to be born in this random skin, on this random continent, on that random date, hour and time. Consider this, I am stating the irony, the rule of chaos rules the universe. No one really knows what's happening or what will happen in the next instant. There's no such thing as logic. You can fly, I can walk on water. People laughed when you told them one day you'd be afloat in the air without suspension. Look what a random Yuri Gagarin did.

Here we are. This world, sputtered out of randomness.

Delightful read: 10 Most Amazing Coincidences

Longhand

MSN featured a piece on cursive handwriting today. Oh boy! How long has it been? 10, 15 years since I last wrote them?? Nowadays 90% of the time I spend writing is on computer; what they call 'keyboard'ing. Could not quite call myself sms fiend, but I could do that pretty okay I suppose. Writing on actual paper using actual pen? 10%. Oh wait, make that 5%. Maybe that's also a little on the high side?

When did you last receive a real long handwritten letter that ran pages in printing, let alone in cursive? Or to lesser extent, a handwritten card (this is probably more likely)? Recent articles on the media touched on the evolution of English, how we write, form our sentences, how text-ing has creeped into our communication culture, et cetera. Yet this piece inspired me to write in longhand again, in cursive handwriting no less. It's painstakingly slow, but beautiful. Remember that neat English document (think The Declaration of Independence)?

Theory of evolution dictates that only the strong, the useful will survive. Cursive handwriting may not serve any useful purpose now, but I just hope this tradition will be passed on to our children and not become extinct like a lot of other traditions.

Hm...

Personalization.

Google features holiday logos, a lot of people knew that already. Now they're introducing a logo that's gonna stay. So they're taking Apple's route now too eh, putting an "i" in front of their product names. "My Google" was probably not creative enough?

Bhutan: Modernity or Tradition?

I've been fascinated with Bhutan for the longest time. Check out this interesting article on Bhutan published on IHT last week.

King Jigme Singye Wangchuck is probably the one of the most admired kings in the world. He introduced the concept of Gross National Happiness, a somewhat unfamiliar if not strange notion in this era of globalisation where everything is measured in terms of money/quantity/growth. Add that to the fact that he also married four beautiful sisters at the same time, abdicated throne in favour of his son late last year, voluntarily gave up absolute monarchy and ordered a parliamentary election to be held in 2008, made him quite a figure I'd say, plus he made the list for Time magazine's 100 People Who Shape Our World in 2006.

We grow too fast

I'm repeating cliches. Time really flies. In the blink of an eye, here I am, reminiscing the past. The past was so far away, yet it's also so near. It was right before my eyes, and then it was gone. All that was left was the idea of the past, the flicker of memories like blown dust. One day it may hit you again. Or not. Sometimes intact, sometimes in a fraction.

I am bad at recollecting memories. And I'm really afraid some day what's left in the nooks and crannies of my brain will be gone. I know it's going to happen. It's already happening. Maybe since I was born. Cycle of life, guess it's inevitable eh. Brain breakdown. Wahaha!

Anyway, sat down today, one thing leads to another and I started flipping through some old pictures. Snapshots of life, memories, random stuff. You don't even know which goes first, who the people in the pictures were, where you were, what occasion it was, it's all a mess of cris-crossing dots and lines on the same paper continuum.

And what a heck of FUN it was! You'd go "What was I thinking?!", "Was that me?", or "I wish I could do that again!" (most likely). All in good times. I truly need visuals to remind myself every now and then. We really grow too fast.

Enjoy!

Sunday

This was a peculiar Sunday sky in Singapore, though normally you'd get good weather, but the sky yesterday was just spectacular. Perfect shade of blue and white. From the moment I touched down, I noticed the beautiful little bundles of clouds (imagine small cluster of pillows that you could jump from one to the other - not the ones in the picture though). It continued til late afternoon.

Compassion

Dalai Lama said,

Genuine compassion should be unbiased. The closeness we feel towards our friends is usually more attachment than compassion. If we only feel close to our friends, and not to our enemies, or to the countless people who are unknown to us personally and toward whom we are indifferent, then our compassion is only partial or biased.

This is hard. I had to look up the meaning of compassion. Merriam-Webster's entry on "compassion" reads "sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it." Only one source at this time, and I already feel the toughness of this quest. To be compassionate to strangers and enemies alike.

We will, occasionally, meet with people whose personalities we find unfit with ours (to put this mildly). How many times do we stop and seek to understand these individuals? Some don't, they naturally drift away. Some would go further and try to 'correct' (read: change) the part of the other's personality that is considered unfit to their own. Some just accept them for whoever they are and do nothing about it. What is compassion, I ask of you?

It's easy to blame other people, much easier to think that what we did was the best at the time, and the right thing to do. Yet everything we do is not without flaw. We are afterall, human. But to be compassionate to others does not mean we have to accept things the way they are, especially when they are not right. Again, it's easier to shut up when we find people close to us doing something that wasn't right, just as it's easier to be mad when a stranger or an enemy violate your rights.

The world will undoubtedly be a better place if people seek to understand and be compassionate to each other. Such a cliché I know...But true nonetheless. I have yet to achieve this stage, to have an unbiased compassion. Will I? I don't know.

29 April 2006

We were eating snacks, walking along the streets of Chengdu, admidst the hustle bustle of the city dwellers, working, shuffling, rushing home, meeting friends, en route to do something important. I would expect to see bicycles more...of course they're still ubiquitous, yet capitalism has caught up. It was a year ago. What has it become today?

Back then...

I remember, when I was little my mom used to scare us with harmless little tales to get us to do her biddings. They were funny little anecdotes that stuck with me for a long long time...As I enter 2000s, they faded.

On not swallowing any seeds, "Do not eat mandarin orange seeds, or you'll find that the plant will grow out from the top of your head someday!"

The reason we're fat and healthy when we're kids: "Eat your last grain of rice! Don't waste food! Or you'll get a husband with pockmarks all around his face!"

The thing I never quite found out the 'why' of: "Never ever clip your nails at night! No good!"

It's a shame I can't dig out some more, thoughts just crossed your mind at unexpected moments I guess.

Anyway, that was what I used to have for breakfast some time ago, 3 stack of Weet-Bix with sliced bananas, peaches, raisins plus some skim milk and a McDonald's chocolate chip muffin on the side. Voila! Good old breakfast that's yummy, (I hope) healthy, and satisfying! How I missed those days.

Subway #1

The interior of MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) in Singapore. Love the symmetry and the high-techness of the shot. I feel like I was on one of the Terminator/I, Robot/Matrix movies. One thing I'd like to ask Daniel Cheong is how he managed to catch the empty train during that earliest hour of operation! From my experience, even when you catch the earliest train in the early morning, you'd almost always see people. Unless you're heading towards Punggol I guess.

Check out his Flickr page here.

UPDATE: Finally found the answer to the mysterious empty train! Ready? Here you go.

Partahi Lumbantoruan

Obit from NY Times:

Partahi Lumbantoruan was a 34-year-old aspiring teacher who left Indonesia for Virginia Tech three years ago to pursue a doctoral degree in civil engineering.

He was two semesters away from achieving that dream -- a dream that included returning to Indonesia to begin teaching -- when he was killed in Norris Hall on Monday.

A native of Medan, the capital city of North Sumatra, Mr. Lumbantoruan earned his master's degree in civil engineering from Parahyangan University in Java and arrived in the United States in 2004. His father told The Associated Press that his family had sold property and cars to help Mr. Lumbantoruan pay the $8,000 a semester he needed for tuition.

"We wanted him to succeed," said his father, Tohom Lumbantoruan, "but he met a tragic fate."

According to Teguh Wardoyo, a spokesman for the Indonesian Embassy in Washington, Mr. Lumbantoruan's body will be returned to Indonesia.

One of 32.

As soon as I saw this page, my heart aches. Every one of them is such an amazing human being. My prayer goes to all of their family and friends.

Conversations with Other Women

My friend S is a great story teller. S works in a professional training company and has to call clients all the time. The following are S's stories and I never had such a good laugh in such a long time.

S: "Hello, I'm calling regarding [insert some conference name here]. May I speak to Mr. X?"
X: "Oh! I can't make it during that day!"
S: "What day?"

If you gotta say no....say it well.

S' colleague K graduated from a reputable University. One day, another colleague M (a middle-aged man who was used to speaking Singlish and want to make sure his grammar was correct in an sms to a client) asked both K and S: "'Has she been approved by the Manager?' or 'Have she been approved by the Manager?'"?

S immediately answered, "Of course it's 'has'!".

K butted in, "Definitely 'Have' lah! Where got 'has'! You don't use 'you' with 'have' right? Right??"

S sees no point in arguing with K. I agree, how could you argue with such a person? S lets K have it.

K then threw tantrums, "If you don't trust me, then whatever lah, you either ask me, or your ask S. If you ask me, then S better not answer. If you ask S, then I won't answer for you."

M scrambled to make amends between the two. He sensed K's anger and proceeded to (pretend) to agree with K.

Plenty of other stories, but I'll leave the story telling to the great story tellers. I aspire to be them one day.

Wasted

I just spent the past 2 hours tweaking the template of this blog. I've already spent enough time yesterday on it. If you're editing the blog template manually instead of using Blogger's new editor, remember to back your template up. Or you'll end up like me, lost most of the chunk and ended up with an empty blog with non-sensical looking HTML codes.

Panic set in. Cussing silently, I went "Bye bye blog, see ya later" (trust me, it's much more civilised than that). In the dead of the night, red eyes, dark circles and all, I went to work on it, figuring I have to start all over again. I ... will...not...give...up...until...I...finish...it.

And that I did. Turns out, Blogger has this great Help resource, a quick "missing template" search led me to this entry. The trick is to search on Google a cached version of your blog, get the source code and paste those onto your template. Voila!

Happy now. Though still mad over WHY THE CHUNK OF CODES DISAPPEARED ALL OF THE SUDDEN?

Okay, enough of angry-speak. Calm down..calm down.

Looking forward to weekend again. Plenty of shut-eye awaits.

I had a dream

To be so many things, to do so many things. All took form of a simple thought, often in the late evening, or in the afternoon, sometimes in the morning. Thoughts flashed my mind all the time, inspired by the things I see and I hear.

- To be humanitarian worker
- To go vegetarian
- To be bald
- To be wanderer of the world
- To open a cafe
- To make more friends
- To write more
- To read more
- To take lots and lots of courses
- To focus
- To be more disciplined in my life
- To be kinder
- To be vigilant
- To guard my mind against negative thoughts
- To "be"

Believe me, the list goes on til the end of the world. Then again, I came back and reflect, how many of those "to"s have I achieved? What I'm doing is trying to improve point number 7.

Millions of other thoughts. My palm shows. So little time. So much to do.

Hope. What does it mean?

Funny

On the news yesterday:

Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck bans foie gras, caged chickens from new animal-friendly menu

I don't know what to say. Should he be congratulated? Is this a betterment of the world? The juxtaposition of "humane" and "killing" appears to me as such an irony. I couldn't help but shake my head and smile. Humane killing. Go figure.

The concept is absurd.

P.S.: I'm haven't given up on meat yet.

Movie: First Time's a Charm

Go watch. Don't read anything on this entry yet. Stop. Just go watch.

Then read if you still want to.

Often times people would tell me how great, how brilliant a movie was. As a result, I would unwittingly built up high expectation. Even when it turned out to be really good, it would never come up as far as a great movie I discovered myself.

Before Sunset belongs to the latter.

One of THE greatest romantic movies of all time (another being Sabrina). I was stumped the first time, I didn't expect it to be THAT good. I practically see myself in both of the characters and found myself agreeing with every word Ethan and Julie uttered. It's been two years, and yesterday, I got out and finally bought the DVD (took me a while, I very very rarely buy DVDs). Went home and watched it immediately. Second time's still exhilarating, but hey, first time's a charm, as far as movies go.

Ah...memories...Love, passion, desire, one night, one afternoon, and most importantly, "connection".

Words are the life, the soul of this movie. But words can't describe how great it was.

What can I say...

I can always count on Simon to deliver all the good stuff out there. Check out his blog.

Here's what I learned today:
1. There's cheese on moon. Google Jokes, Sometimes...
2. Horror! Horror!
What Happens to Your Body if You Drink a Coke Right Now. To think that I just had a bottle of Coke this afternoon (half actually, satisfied my thirst for the first few minutes, then blah).
3. The meaning of life. Well, almost there...
4. Links, links, and links! If I didn't read Simon's entries, I wouldn't have ventured out to Coke, moon, "answer to life, universe, and everything" (it's 42, by the way), then meaning of life, and Google Romance. Same analogy with life, connections, connections, and more connections! Gets you everywhere.
5. There was a baby called Inuka, he was born in 1990 and he's a polar bear. Check out his profile here.

Oh! I just got Tony Buzan's Age-Proof Your Brain. I'm serious. Will see how that goes.

Memory

I was typing away on my laptop earlier. I grabbed my phone and smsed my friend to buy dinner for me.

Upon replying, I realized, I just HAD dinner. JUST. What's wrong with me? I still have some soup sitting on the stove, the unwashed plate and bowl on the table, right in front of me! Then it hit me. Hit me hard.

It's short-term memory loss. And I have it. The realization came plenty of times before, but never this serious.

There were the times when I came into the room looking for something, but that something never manifested itself in my mind. Then someone told me a fact, and I struggled to remember that, repeating the same question each time I bump into that person.

People say we only remember the things we want to remember. I suppose that's true in a way. But this is getting way out of my control. Argh.

What am I going to do? What am I going to do? I tried enrolling in an online memory class before, but it turned out to be just another disguised-as-foc class that required you to purchase their own textbook. I gave up then.

Time is running out. I must find an alternative.

Saturday

Perfection lies in imperfection

Oh well...

So, the other night, I was throwing away some stuff at ground floor. Before I can hit the button of the elevator, a gust of wind blows into my face. Intrigued at how pleasant it was, I decided to venture beyond my normal block vicinity, which sadly involves only the route I take from the train station to my house.

A playground, some plants along the sides, a small park, a few elderlies having a loud conversation on the park bench, and a few cute guys jogging...The soft light illuminating the park, combined with sound and sights of people doing their own thing and the soft blow of the wind, sort of give you that resort, ooh-ahh feel. Further down, I arrived at a mini-hill, the half-moon path runs along the edge of that hill with apartment blocks surrounding it. Then I saw it.

BBQ pits!!! How on earth could I miss that before? I envision this to be a great hang-out place. A few tables, good lighting, and of course, the BBQ pit itself. Just perfect for light conversations or juicy gossips, AND good food.

Problem is, how to get a booking?

Anyway, it's Saturday again!

Enjoy.

Life

"Is that your kid?"
"Yeah"
(Looks at me with amazed eyes for a few seconds)

I get kicks like this when people saw her picture on my phone. Can't blame them, I readily show her to people too.

Last week, I was playing the part of the most irritating aunt around; played during her moments of waking up, watched her pooed one morning, watched her took her bath every morning, lurked in to check on her every 15 minutes, basically annoyed her to bits.

Life is a beautiful thing.

Things you already know

I'm going to list them out anyway. Don't say I didn't warn you.

1. Ill-mannered people are extremely annoying.
2. 'definately' is still annoying.
3. iPhone is going to revolutionize the phone business again.
4. Low-fat cake? It compensates in sugar, and packs calories.
5. Flowers never fail.
6. Waiting for that someone? Start looking, they'll never come.
7. Family is really what matters at the end of it all.
8. You're never too full for dessert (Did I hear cliché?)
9. Handwritten letter makes a person's day.
10. People don't really change.

UPDATE: Number 3 is no longer valid. :P

Blog of note

daily dose of imagery

Dedication. Focus. Discipline.

Sam Javanrouh has been photo-blogging for every single day for the past 3.5 years, sometimes leaving the posts on auto-pilot when he's traveling, spending hours every day and on weekends editing and lining up his pictures for the next week.

The result? Astounding success.

Hiya

I remember reading on a website that you never blog about blogging. It stuck with me until this moment. I'm about to break that rule now.

I had grand vision of how my blog will look like, how I will commit myself to write an entry every single day, how many people will actually spend time and read it, all to serve narcissistic purpose. Exciting times. All the grandeur of actually having a blog.

Half a year after my last entry, I have achieved nothing of the above. I'm not going to think I will either. Anyway...

Things have been quite stagnant over the past 6 months. Still a fan of YouTube + Google. Hope these two giants will come up with something nice to surprise people like me (and no ad on YouTube please!!). Looking to upgrade my banner but lacking the skills, any volunteers ?? :)

Ah! Tonight, finally got a glimpse of Harry Potter No. 5, nice surprise. July 13th, 2007, it stated on the trailer. They all grew so big, reminding me of child actors who grew up with the audience...

Anyone knows what's the story of Peter Rabbit like? Saw the book on another Potter (Beatrix) but never heard of this story. My childhood was filled with Chibi Maruko Chan, Doraemon, soppy J-Dorama, Cinderella, The Frog Prince and Gulliver's travel storybook. Do kids actually read these stories anymore? Or maybe they prefer Madonna's books?

I'm spewing out random stuff like a machine gone wrong.