Be a Millionaire

Just watched Slumdog Millionaire today. Fantastic show. A sweet exploration of this idea of destiny, "It is written". The show is about a slumdog, Jamal, battling all odds to find his Latika. Really poignant. Haizz, I can't find the words to describe it. All I can say is that he became a millionaire, not because he won the money, but because he could find Latika. That made him a winner. 

Another review which calls us to question, "What's MY destiny"? All of us, especially at this turning point of our lives, would definitely feel this question resonate within. What are we trying to pursue? What would make us the millionaire that we all want to be? Better still, do we, or should we, believe in this proposition of destiny and fate? There are too many grey areas, clouded and shrouded from view... Like I said, a poignant film. 

And of course, thanks to Filbert's effort, the CT2 topics are now up. Practically everything is tested. Apparently, the school wants to test our limits. Not long now before you see zombies coming to school.. Year of the living dead. 

Bummer.

Be aware

Singapore has recently been awarded as having the highest standards of living worldwide. For such a small, almost unnoticeable country plopped on the map, it is of great wonder that we should have been able to achieve such a ranking. However, it does come with a price.

I would like to draw your attention to but one today. Noticed how our children and youths no longer care what's happening outside this small bubble we call home? Awareness and thought are being dulled by our comfortable lifestyles. As we grew up in such an utopian milieu, albeit certain concerns about our politics/way of governance etc which I shan't go into, it's not a surprise that we no longer care about this world. We think the world is a safe, perfect place where people have the luxury to complain, complain, complain. We think the way of the world is as simplistic and blissful as our life here in Singapore. 

But we forget, Singapore is an anomaly in human history. 

We weren't meant to be born. We were destined to be Malaysians once upon a time (thank god we didn't go there). We are an accident, a shot-gun birth nobody wanted to claim responsibility for. But somehow, it turned out to be a fairy tale. We didn't become a communist fortress or some failed fishing state. We became the best country in the world for anyone to live in. People don't starve, they are stuffed instead, with all your delicious hawkerware. People don't turn blue from drinking tap water. People aren't persecuted for their ethnicity. People aren't forced under dictatorial rule (some will disagree, but hoot). Girls aren't forced out of school and moulded into breast-feeding, clothes washing, submissive cooking machines. No one poaches and kills off our wildlife, disrupting our biodiversity (assuming we have any). Instead, we are a PSP-wielding, ipod-holding, broadband connected bunch. With a Starbucks in one  hand and a blackberry in the other, we have lifted ourselves beyond the life of your normal human that you would see elsewhere. Such comforts have diminished our perspective of what this life is about. 

~ "If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other had, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence." - Bertrand Russell, Roads to Freedom ~

What I am trying to say here is that people live in worlds of their own and we are living in a world which would not be feasible elsewhere. I just wish that as a society, we would be more attuned to the cries of this world. Thus, it really irks me to see teens wasting their time on nonsense like underage smoking and sex. Skipping school and having a slanting fringe because it's cool, not being responsible for their education and blaming the system for their failure in life. The potential growth in everyone of us blessed bastards living within reach of such amazing educational infrastructure is exponential. It's irritating to see these wasted youths not seeing what they can achieve. All because they see through the comfortable eyes of a Singaporean. If they think beyond this box of ours, they will see how competitive the world is out there and if they don't wake up, that's it. Where's the ambition? Where's the drive?

I hope this is a fact we'd all take time off our facebook breaks to scrutinize and think about. 

Be more alert and critical. Be aware.

The Scientist

Coldplay - The Scientist piano sheet

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Sheet Music & Lyrics piano scientist

For all you Coldplay and piano players. A gift.

What a cruddy time to fall sick. Right smack during the nationals. Bummer. This freaking virus sure can pick a time to infect my cells. Screw you bug. You and all your other like-minded clone cronies. I'll pump in some Fedac and see how you like it now. See if you can transform fast enough to gain the Fedac resistant plasmid haha. Even if you do, you still have to come up against my Anarex. You are so messed up this time. Picked the wrong dude to infect. Die you f-ing bug, die.

Sigh. I do really want to play. After training so hard for the past 4 months, you can't expect me to just sit through the entire season as a twit-like linesman right? Argh, this is so annoying. Especially when the medicine makes me drowsy and I lose my ball-hitting motor skills. Damn, I tried sparring with the wall and guess what, I got owned. Haha not like you can ever beat the wall anyway. 

Yes, on a happier note, this is my first post on my new Mac. It's super sexy, and the sound system stuns, much better than windows although it takes some getting used to.

Ok, let me just go and finish off my bio SPA now.

Hmm, wow, I can't remember when was the last time I came online. Pardon me here as I try to re-learn typing on the keyboard.. It's just been so hectic and busy these few days. Training and all. Pure madness. I think I've practically wrangled out every last minute I have of Mr time, but yet, I still feel that more could have been done in those minutes.

Urgh, work work. Dammit, I wish I was a wee bit more hardworking last year. I think I pretty much played away 2008, dang, what a waste. I could well do with an extra 365 days worth of time.

Simple laughs

Some things

I love tennis.

It's my absolute passion. Training was pretty wicked this week, probably will stay reddish-black for life. Now I wouldn't mind that sexy over-tan, if it weren't just my face haha. Singapore's weather rocks my polka-dotted socks. It reminds me of a mood-swinging girlfriend who just can't make up her mind to either rain or to burn. Messed up bro.

Nothing beats the satisfaction that comes from a well-placed forehand and backhand. In a game, you just give it your all. Run down every damn ball like a dog and when you get a winner, oooh yea, it's a winner. That burst of accomplishment is addictive, especially when you know that you deserve it.

The technique behind the game is immense, top spin, drive throughs, slicing and all. You have to be 100% aware of all your shots. From the crouching to the back swing to the ball contact and drive through. I think the most satisfaction comes from having improved your game. The drive to constantly emmulate the best, ehem Nadal, is always there, so it seems.

Yep, Nationals are coming. I'm hoping to make it into the first team. That means I'm going to push it even harder. I can make this, for the love of the game. The aching shoulders, screwed up ankles, black face, it's all worth it.

~~~~~~

Today has got to be the greatest JTS I've been to. Not that I've been to any other but yes hell, it beat last year. Dang, you can't help but love the juniors, totally surpassed expectations. Impressive indeed. Hopefully we are really cutting it out as seniors given their wacked up enthusiasm.

Hehe, it's weird to see the girls so hyped up in the juniors. A complete reversal from us. I would say that us guys are the more crazy ones in class. Fish & Co. was an excellent choice. Didn't know it was that in, what with their fishy cheer or something like that. And not to mention the mother lode of Victorians present.

Right so I'm pretty much aquainted with the juniors and that's great. So on to STJ then shall we. Such dinners are the ultimate stress relievers. You just forget all else but the good time you had with your friends.

Oh yea, Happy Birthday Teng and Sze Zhin. Lucky buggers =)

~~~~~~

Ok, a couple of friends asked me why I didn't plan for a tag box here. Well, truth be told, I did consider that option. Yet, I felt it better not to do so. People have different purposes for different things. I prefer not to have a tag box to keep things thinking here.

I've seen so many blogs wasted for mindless purposes. Usually, people just regurgitate every specific detail of their day in their posts and expect their friends to tag something spectacular. You become very dependent on it and it somehow kills your desire to truly write when all you care about are the tags.

Your blog becomes shallow and it won't last long. There's no purpose in broadcasting every mundane crook and cranny of your life because there's no thought into it. There's no sincere reflection, and I think that genuine reflections or feelings are the ones worth sharing and reading. I don't give a damn that you changed your toothpaste or that your dArlinG xxBoIFreWnXX ate polka and was so cute as he munched away this morning. Seriously.

EIE camp pics

There, I finally got the pics yes =) Haha, if you click on the pic to enlarge it, there's this girl in white, the very first from the right, second row. She's a Mrs teo spawn right haha, she's ST by the way yup. Oh damn, can't imagine Mrs teo doing that mid genetics lecture.

It's really coincidental, but I recently met up with 4 of them last Saturday for the economics talk. Speaking of which, it was fuggly boring. All I remember is there were a bunch of fuggly old dudes who seriously must form a superhero band to rid the world of insomnia. Ok there was this game theory prof who was not bad. The last ang moh speaker wasn't bad too, just that his armpits were uber sweaty. Yikes.

Good thing I met some old pals. Not only from EIE but from pre-u sem too, imagine that! Didn't know my friend took H3 econs. Impressive. Rashid (first guy from the left, first row) shaved botak haha, he's really friendly.

Cheers

For I wander alone

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

- William Wordsworth


Beautiful poem. Who'd knew he'd quote Wordsworth...

Every June, as my birthday comes round the corner, my grandfather would send me a pink envelope wishing me fortune. There, at the back of the envelope, is a short paragragh, written in cusive. The first of these 4 paragraghs came 5 years ago, the last coming in in 2008. I never knew who he quoted from, till now, he never said, but each paragraph would end in a "to be continued..."

I treasured these 4 letters. Although I was puzzled by his choice of poem, especially when I received the first one, it seems clearer to me now. Life as a teen is full of incidences and laughter, it is fast and it is furious. With one getting so caught up in his coming-of-age party and the world, it is rather easy for him to forget himself, or the simple pleasures that solitude can bring.

We chase after wealth. We chase after companionship and recognition. We chase after grades. We chase after trends. We chase after that cute girl in school. We chase and we chase and we chase. Life is always in motion, a constant pursuit of new found material wants. We innundate ourselves in our hedonistic ways, oblivious to the world, yet fully immersed in it.

One day, when we look into the mirror and see the first signs of aging, will we start to panic about the youth lost accomplising nothing? Will we see ourselves moving so fast, dashing through all the beauties of this world yet not truly experiencing any of it?

One has to take a step back from the faceless crowd. To bask in himself as he breaks away from the presto pulse of it all. Solitude cannot be underestimated. It allows a person to enjoy, not life, but his living it. Solitude tempers the soul, strengthening one from within as he removes himself from this malestrom called society.

To live in this flux-ed up world and yet hold on to the simple truths that Man was created to uphold. Optimism, contentment, fortitude, kindness, charity, temperance, justice... All of this characters cannot be forged while we are still caught up in the corporal. We have been distracted for too long now, pushing Solitude out of our lives. It beckons us to return, when we are bogged down by school and when the weight of it all bears down on us. We should listen and do so.

So for once, fight that incessant need for your cellphone to be switched on 24/7 and seek Solitude for a minute. You may just find that rejuvenating daffodil field that Wordsworth did.

EIE camp

It was a 2 day, 1 night camp, entitled Explorations in Ethnicity by onesingapore.sg. Despite it being so short, I believe I had a rather raw and unrestrained discussion regarding this issue of racial discrimination in Singapore. It does happen, indeed it is rather naive to think of us as a completely racially blind nation. Although we are not as bad as others, ahem, think neighbour, it still is present.

As part of the majority, it is impossible to fully understand what your fellow friend of another race is experiencing in his daily life, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't care. I am very blessed to have led such a life hitherto, and I finally have an insight into the lives of other races.

~~~~~~

The camp was pretty fun. Our facils, Shera and Audrey were really friendly and the group I was assigned to was really awesome, other than the quirky 2.. xS Too bad I had to mug econs till late at night.. kinda ruined things. My new friends were mainly from PJC, seems like it was some sort of class chalet thing haha. But yea, I met really cool people. Rashid, the poledancer, Fareez, the shredder and Daryl, the insurance salesman wannabe. Hmm, there was giggly Vivien, with an "e", ST, who looked and behaved exactly like Mrs Teo and XY, the anime prodigy.

WE ARE THE "BALL BANGERS"! hehe

~~~~~~

Sigh, after such a break, it's now back to work.. So I'll leave with a poem.

Looking out

It must be odd,
to be a minority
he was saying.
I looked around
and didn't see any.
So I said,
Yeah
it must be.