Thoughts on a particular writer to the forum

I never thought that this is even remotely possible... Someone wrote in to forum pages of Singapore to ask for dogs to be banned in HDBs. His reason? Some owners are ikrresponsible and never clear the outputs of their dogs from common areas. Also, he mentioned a particular incident on an owner failing to remove the dog out of his way....

Now, let's think about it... This might actually be a good idea. Yup, we will ban dogs from HDB flats. In fact, since we know for a fact that some people are irresponsible road users, we should ban all types of personal vehicles. There are also irresponsible people who leave their things along common corridors, maybe we should ban these people from leaving their homes. On further thought, we should ban all people from leaving their homes, there are definitely some people who are irresponsible when walking from point to point, not looking where they are going and bumping into people. We have definitely met people who are irresponsible when it comes to their work, let's ban all Singporeans from working, that might reduce the problem. How about irresponsible parents? Let's ban children from Singapore as well...

Hopefully, who ever wrote that letter to the newspaper will read this and realise just how narrow-minded his suggestion is. He is DEFINITELY not a dog-lover, but he must realise that the world does not revolve around his likes and dislikes. He should stop behaving like some spoilt brat asking the parents to solve his problems.

Haizzzz to the world

Ok... I know.... I have been very lazy with this area here...

Still, I have something, finally, to write and so here I am.
I was on my way to lunch on a certain afternoon and I saw a few kids and an adult standing together. The kids in concern here are in Primary three - meaning they are only 9 years old.

Now, before the story, let us introduce the main players.
We have an indian boy, let's just call him A and his mother.
We also have a malay boy, B, and his friends, C, D and E.

So this is the story.

A,B, C, D and E are playing together. A won and B told him not to get too haughty over it.
A then got unhappy and scolded B's father... who happens to be 6 feet under...
B then got unhappy and whacked A....

Understand so far? Yes? Good!

Now A got beaten once... Ran back home and told his mum.
Mum came down and confronted B... The price for touching A is for A to slap him back...

When I approached B later, I got the same accounts from C, D and E.

I wonder what the mother was thinking when she allowed her son to slap the boy? What values the mother wanted to instil in her boy?

Can anyone out there please enlightened me? Is my thinking too backward?

P.s. I know I should have approached the boy earlier, but I was afriad of getting into trouble myself. I hope I had more courage then but I did have a good talk with the boys.

Weird

Hi.... I am back again.
It has been a long time and I am as usual, too busy to write anything here...

Nevertheless, here i am again... to complain. About what?

I read in the papers recently about this guy asking the authorities to ban the usage of handphones in public transports. He did it through the forum... Apparently, he found that to be a really good idea cause there are many people who talks too loud on the phone and there are people who would prefer to have peace and quiet during the trip.

There is no doubt that people who talks too loud or even show off their phone's capability to blast music are irritating at times, but talking about banning the phone??? I do hope that the rest of the world do not see this as an option to curb the problem.

While the ban would be effective and it would have instantaneous results, it is hardly the right way to do it. What we need is to make these rude commuters realise that they are invading into other peoples' spaces and learn to restrict their enjoyment to themselves. They may want the world to enjoy the news they are sharing with their listeners or they might want to share their love for music with the rest, but they must also realise that one man's meat is another man's poison.

On a more serious mode, the mobile phone can be a useful tool when it comes to emergencies. Imagine the time wasted that could have been used to help save a person suffering from a heart-attack, just because of a lack of coverage by service providers in public transport.

And honestly, I do not want to pay for the devices that are installed to jam signals through an increase of my daily travel expenses.

A take on Right and Wrong Part 2

It isn't always easy to make the right decisions. In fact, it is always difficult to make the correct decision. Our society is just too complicated, with too many people judging us and too many eyes watching our every move.

I wish to continue from where I left off from my previous post: Doing the right thing or Doing the thing right. Sometimes, one might just do something just because the society or the system deems it to be the thing to do. Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to say that rules are bad, in fact, I like the existance of rule. It is just that people are so rigid with these rules that they tend to forget that these rules only serve as a guideline. They are not absolute! While following the rules will ensure thta one always do the thing right but sometimes, one has to bend the rules a little in order to do the right thing.

I have seen people trying to do the right things blindly. I cannot state too obvious examples for fear of offending anyoone that might read this. But I guess the previous paragraph will ring a note to many individuals.

There is one particular case that I like to mention though. I have a friend who was stuck in the middle of two guys. One was a guy that she had a relationship with for a couple of years, the other was someone that she felt comfortable with and she could be herself whenever she is around him. She has made her choice for quite some time. But till today, although I respect her decision, I cannot accept the reasoning for that choice. Her reasoning was as such:

"I don't think my parents can accept him for they like the other guy better and my friends all feel that his educational level is too low for me."

Before she actually went on with the guy of her choice based on this decision, she yo-yoed between the two guys. She felt obligation for the guy that she choose but she said that she knew she loved the other guy. I guess she did the thing right for the rest of the world approved of her decision and supported it. I guessed she did the thing right for there was no objections from her parents. I guess she did the thing right for her friends all seemed to thank god that she came to her right senses. But did she do the right thing? I guess only time can answer that question...

A take on Right and Wrong Part 1

Hi! I realise it has been quite some time since I added an entry in here.

The issue that struck my mind (which in turn, reminded me of this poor neglected blog) is something that most of us are aware of. Aware, yes, but strangely, most of us, in our freedom of choice, seem to have forgotten or worse, chose to ignore about. So here I am, making an entry here, in a hopeful bid to remind myself to do my part to make this world a better place for people around me and myself.

Now, we are 'blessed' with a mind which surpasses all other animals known to men. With our ability to think, we are also assuming a superior role on our planet. In fact, the planet itself is suffering due to our intelligence and our ability to 'advance' in the name of technology and the better of all mankind.

There are disadvantages though. Because of our power of thought, we must fight our instincts sometimes and we have to be aware of consequences when we make decisions. So I guess what they say in Spiderman is correct - With great powers comes great responsibilities.

The sad thing is that although we usually know, either naturally or through experiences, what the right path to take is, we do not always choose to follow that path. It might be due to circumstances, it might be due to selfishness, there are thousands of reasons that we can give.

I, for one, do not dare to say that I always take the right path. There were times that I took the easier way out, only to end up regretting in one way or another. True, there were also times that I got away with it and ended up winning the day but the chances of getting away with it is much lower.

There are many sayings about making choices and one of the most common that I have heard is this particular one - "Do anything you want, but don't get caught!" Good advice, you might say but think of the implications of such an advice on our moral values. We may get away scot-free, but we forget that we still have to answer to our own conscience at the end of the day (if that conscience still survives this modern age).

There is also another aspect of doing the right thing or doing the thing right. There is a difference. Are you aware of the difference? Think about it... Hopefully, such understanding can guide one to make the best decisions...

To all those insecure people out there

Hmm....

Here's to some of the people that I really care about out there...

You will know who you are, and I am not refering to only one person... although I must admit that I am writing this because of something that happened to one individual recently...

One of the songs that my mum introduced to me when I was still a small little boy was "Everything is Beautiful", the chorus goes like this:

Everything is beautiful, in it's own way,
Like a starry summer's night or a snow-covered winter's day.
Everybody's beautiful, in their own way,
Under God's heaven, the world's gonna find a way.

I wish to bring your attention to the third line, people are beautiful, one way or another.
There might be someone that you have met, who appears to be a spawn of the devil, but that is only in your opinion. The same person might appear to be beautiful to someone else.

It is not easy living in our society. There are too many things that we have to take care of, we have our finance to take note of, our social status, our image, our outlook, if we are classy enough, whether we are cool enough, just to name a few. Because of all these, it is easy for a person to get insecure. Cause unless you are one of those lucky few born with a silver spoon in your mouth, there are just areas that you will have to sacrifice in order to enhance other areas.

In our modern age, we face different challenges from our forefathers. And in my humble opinion, our greatest challenge is to be comfortable with ourselves. With the advancement in technology and together with it, the media, our infomation sources is almost endless. We just need to click either on the mouse or the remote, and we get to know the latest news and trends, no sweat at all (unless you choose to sit in an enclosed room without even a fan).

With this endless chain of info, people tend to forget their contentment and want something more, something better, something new. The sad thing is, most people not only compare material stuff, but also their physical attributes. Everybody wants to be noted for their good looks and their lovely faces. And because of their quest for the perfect look, they forgot that there is something deep inside that counts more, something that they should treasure.

We all have our strongs and weak areas. We should all learn to be comfortable with whatever we have. No, I am not saying that we should be complacent. We should always try to improve. In order to improve, we should start by knowing ourselves and be comfortable with ourselves. We will try to improve in areas that are within our means and accept other areas that we cannot improve. Not only accept but love our flaws that are impossible to change.

While it is nice for someone to accept us but it is IMPOSSIBLE to please everyone. Even if you really want to please a particular someone, and that particular someone don't see enough of your good points, so be it! Remember: there are always someone who appreciates you. OPEN YOUR EYES and look around. If you choose to fall, these are the people who will feel the hurt. We all have our own treasures, we should make sure we protect our own treasures before we seek for others to treasure us...

Hmm... I hope I make sense here... and I hope this will help some of you out there...

Good Guys finish last?

Hehe, been quite some time since I added a post. Was too busy to even on my computer. Haizzz....

Anyway, I have been wanting to write this post for quite some time. So here goes....

Recently, a female friend commented to me that a guy should not be nice. And she is referring to a guy who is in a relationship. Then she went on to telling me how her friends treated their girlfriends (and they are, of course, nice deeds), and how they got dumbed instead...

This conversation reminds me of another friend, a guy, who used to be the most caring guy that I know. He is very attentive and he makes life easy for the people around him. We used to share the same dreams on building a family (not together, don't get the wrong idea, no gays here), but that has changed for him.

Now he is claiming that he will not wanna marry, and that he has given up on finding the right one. He said that gals nowadays only want material stuff and that they are too blind to see the good stuff that is in the person rather than what is shown outside. And this changed occured not because of a single gal.

It is quite sad to see the change in him. Nowadays, he can be quite mean towards gals and I am not talking about attitude only. I wish for him that he can find a gal that will change him again to his sweet old self.

Now for my nagging question: "what's wrong with being nice?" I am not saying that I am nice but I still do not understand what is so wrong with it. Is it wrong to show concern nowadays, to be there for another person? Does being nice equate to being taken advantage of? If a person is nice, is he supposed to increase his niceness towards his girlfriend as times go by?

We have read a lot about unfaithfulness in the papers recently. And I am not talking about guys being unfaithful. It might even be true that most guys are more concerned about being faithful in this modern era... Now, that should be a piece of good news... but on hindsight, with our thinking getting more liberal... Is it really good news? That's a sad thought...

The Worst Tasting French Fries Ever

I saw something today that I guess will forever be a part of my memory. I was at Burger King today and I saw a couple walked in, chatting happily. They bought two packets of fries and sat down at a table in front of me. The way they were talking to each other made you feel that they were very in love. You'll feel happy just by looking at them, I hope you know what I mean.

Suddenly, for reasons unknown to me, the atmosphere between them changed. They must have touched on a very sensitive issue between them. There wasn't any shouting or actual quarreling. The atmosphere just changed. I can see it from their expression. The guy tried to improve the situation by offering the girl a french fry. She refused to eat it. She then tried to reach for the fries herself. The guy then tried all ways and means to block her from reaching the fries. He would use his hands to sweep her hands away, or use his cup and the empty fries cartons to block her way.

He even took all the chilli sauce and put it on his side of the table. Again, she tried to reach for the chilli sauce and this time, he blocked her successfully. She then concentrated on the fries, which is more accessible.

So here I am, watching two grown adults fighting over two packets of fries, trying to gobble up the food as fast as they can. They were practically stuffing their faces, one fry after another. At some point of time, she cried. And the way she cried, it seemed as though the fries were the most horrible thing that anybody could eat in this world.

I don't know what caused them to become so unhappy with each other but I guess the resultant behaviour is a product of pride. The kind of pride that prevents a person from apologising or admitting that he/she is in the wrong, the kind of pride that makes a person say or do things that he/she will regret later, the kind of pride that will destroy a relationship if it is not kept in check. And such pride, in my humble opinion, will more often than not lead to anger.

Or is it love that turned these two adults into childish beings, trying to hurt and defy each other by fighing over the food that was intended to be shared?

Initially, I had to try very hard to prevent myself from laughing when they started fighting for the fries, but when the gal started crying, there was no need to try. It was a very sad scene. In a short span of 15 mins, a loving couple turned sour before my very eyes. I wonder if most relationships are so fragile? I really hope not.

Lost love...

Maybe it's because I am drunk from being my friend's liquor buddy... or maybe the mood is just right today...Whatever it is, I am going to rant about some personal stuff...

I have fallen in love many many times before in my lifetime, some are unrequited and some... well, let's just say that I rather they remain unrequited...

I admit, there was a time that I did betray the heart of a girl, but that was a long time ago, when I was still young and foolish. I regretted my actions, it was not much, just a white lie... but it did break someone's heart and that is that.

Thinking about it, there was another girl that I loved, but I refused to step into a relationship with her because I knew I was not ready. In fact, she tried to start a relationship but I did not accept her advances. Haha... that action, which was meant to be a responsible one, led her to be in a relationship with another guy two years down the road. That would be an acceptable ending if not for the fact that he made her pregnant, made her go through an abortion, scolded her bitch and slut, and all these resulted in her suicide. She died in my arms. I'll never forget that feeling, the feeling of her life-force slipping away. It was a horrible sensation, one that I hope no other living soul would experience. She was my best friend, the only person that I could talk about anything with. I let the chance pass but I have no regrets.

There was this other girl that again, initiated a relationship with me. I took the chance and I tried to be true to my heart. I loved her as much as I loved anyone. She took my innermost thoughts and left. Why? Because she felt that logically we could not be together. She sited my bad habits as reasons, but she knew I had them before we were together. She sited my family background as another reason, and the irony is that she knew so much only because I was honest. She even sited her study trip to Australia as a reason. The sad thing is that she knew she'll be going when we got together. All this happened a month before she left. A week before she left, she came into my favourite hangout and asked me if I still loved her. I should have lied. I didn't and we went out as a couple the next day. That was the last time I saw her before she left. We talked on the phone and all she could tell me is that she has to meet many of her friends before her trip and she has no time for me. She still tells me that she misses me when she flew over initially but I think it was all bullshit...

I am going to talk about this other girl, who gave me many theories and ideals on how a couple should be like. Her thoughts coincide with mine. I thought we were a pair made in heaven. She later told me that she has another boyfriend, and that he treated her like shit. She entered into a relationship with me because she wanted to feel what it feels like to be with someone who actually cared for her and attended to her needs. She said that she enjoyed the time we had but she also said she never loved me. She entered into this relationship just for fun. Apparently, she was two-timing me but she broke off with him first, then me... as though that will really be a consolation...

Even if I do meet the girl, I guess I will have no guts to admit it or even do anything about it, I guess I am scared.... haha... coward... bleah...

For most of my life, I only wanted to find someone that I can build a family with. It's my motivation in life as well as the ultimate goal that I wish to measure my life with. It seems that I am fighting a losing battle. People in my generation, in general, seem to have different concepts about relationships and what is important when in one. Still, I will not give up... I fought many losing battles and I've won many of them so far. I had my losses but hey, they were worth it. I just hope that at the end of my life, I won't regret fighting for this dream of mine.

Good night... to the people who actually bother reading this... and good luck to you all in whatever you wish for...

Thoughts of children

I was going through my photos when I saw these. I wonder what happened to them. I do not know them... they are just children that I met on the way to somewhere...

Anyway, I was thinking, it must be good being children, where you can live in fantasies, believe that everything is possible. Not have to be worried about how others think of you or be wary of people's intentions when they are friendly. Hell, I am wary about being friendly to people, especially girls cause I am worried that they will be wary of my intentions, which in most cases, there are none. Sigh.....

I can't help but to notice that this age of innocence is getting shorter with each generation. I was alone waiting for a friend in Ang Mo Kio MacDonald one day and this group of primary school students (estimated age is 9 or 10) walked in. I overheard their conversation (non-intentional) and I was quite affected by it. It went something like:

Child 1: "My dad is picking me up later."
Child 2: "What car does your father drive?"
Child 1: "Umm... I think it's a Honda..."
Child 2: "So lousy! (laughs) My dad owns a BMW..."

and child 2 went on to describe how good the car is while the rest all listened in awe, using terms that I am sure I did not know when I was his age.

These children even talked about diamond rings and their prices. God! They are like walking catalogues for Soo Kee, Lee Hwa and such. They were trying to outdo each other by saying what type of diamonds rings they will get for their weddings. I am sure they will make very good promoters in any one of such retail shops.

I am disturbed by their conversation. At their age, they are already so into the materialistic mentality of our modern society. I wonder how they will grow up to be. I wonder what they talk about at home with their parents. I wonder if they are representative of the rest of their generation.

I hope not. Children should enjoy their childhood. Our educational system has reduced most children's childhood by a fair bit, the situation would be worse if they start comparing material stuff. Don't get me wrong, having dreams are good, but it worries me when dreams of our future generations are based on material gains. If this phenomenon continues, I wonder if the children in the future are capable of smiling like this....