Begin.
Friday, November 2, 2012
Friday, October 12, 2012
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Piles of study stuff
Like the Hulk; like a venerable mountain
Multicoloured, rising
They rise from the great brown plains that is the floor of my room
Each a challenge
Each waiting for me to scale
Multicoloured, rising
They rise from the great brown plains that is the floor of my room
Each a challenge
Each waiting for me to scale
Friday, August 17, 2012
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
More on religion
The following will be my personal view, reiterated once more, since I do believe that I've typed a post on it before.
I am, as what I've said for a very long time, a free-thinker who believes in everything. It's probably about 50% Christian/Catholic/branches that worship Christ, God and associated saints, and 50% every other imaginable faith... because I've mostly only stepped into churches, and because I agree with some parts of the faith, and yet I don't agree with others.
I abhor proselytising.
My take on things is this:
I live in a multireligious society, Singapore. So perhaps somehow, the messages got through to me and I'm a truly multireligious person. I pick up things I like from everywhere. I believe in Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism because I am Chinese, and behind me is a very long history of Chinese people and their culture. I believe in not sticking my chopsticks and spoon in a bowl of rice to avoid attracting spirits and ghosts, because that is the culture of us Chinese and my best friend in primary school once scolded me for doing so. After all, better to be safe than sorry, no?
I believe that ghosts exist, yet I believe very strongly also in Science. Sometimes, when people walk past alleys at night, there is the tendency to rush and get into the safety of their home. This is quite normal; according to science, our ancestors learnt to fear the dark, with its norturnal predators that posed a severe danger to them. Science says that the ghosts we perceive are in fact brainwaves. Yet science also cannot explain everything.
How do you reconcile science and religion? Dan Brown, in his many books from the Da Vinci Code series, explores a little. One books says that the soul does indeed have a little weight; at the final point of death, when the last breath is exhaled, the body becomes infinitesimally lighter. Perhaps that's real research; perhaps it's fiction. Perhaps that's just the weight of the last ounce of air leaving the body (not very possible). What is certain is that both science and religion seek to explore and define our surroundings. Did man not invent gods to define what they saw as supernatural? Religion tells us that the wind is to some a god; it comes and goes at a whim, sculpts and shapes landforms. Science says that it's due to hot and cold fronts clashing to bring us weather patterns like storms and even bigger hurricanes, tornadoes, cyclones. They may differ, but to some, God is up there, and has created the world. We seek to understand His greatness through science; we worship for the moral values to apply to science so we do not go astray.
How do you reconcile religions in the context of the special type of free-thinker like me? I'm not an atheist; I believe in God(s), a devil, heaven, hell. What's all this to me? What is common, really, to all religions? Do not all religions teach morals? Religions let us believe in something greater than ourselves, mortal man. Religions put our faith in someone higher than us, someone who has transcended our beings, who has the ability to shape our lives. God(s) go by different names: God; the Egyptian sun-god Ra; Quetzacoatal (I don't know how to spell this); Buddha; Allah. Men of God preach to congregations and tell them to be faithful to their spouses; to rid themselves of sins and evils; to rise above Evil; to be loyal to friends; to love their children; to be filial. Hence, do religions not have a common goal? Whatever people believe in, they find real. I simply respect people's wishes because their religion is real to them; I have no power in deciding what is real or false for them. I may present them with my viewpoints, but if they want to adopt a different style of thinking after, then that is up to them. I will be glad that they have changed their religions if they do because they have found their route to walk; not because they have switched to something superior in my biased eyes. To me, all religion is equal, because all religion teaches values, except in different phrasing. If one interprets holy texts like the Bible and the Koran/Quran without twisting the words within for their malicious own purposes, then is not all religion similar?
Hell and evil, too, have different names for different religions. Dante (not a religion), in Dante's Inferno, has his view that there are circles of Hell and the devil lies in the icy innermost ring. The Chinese have their 18 levels of Hell. Other hells are infernos, with fires kept burning eternally. Hells are generally places of suffering where people who have sinned are judged and atone for eternity. Some hells, too, contain a nicer area, analogous to the heaven found in other religions.
Evil goes by different names. The Devil; Beezlebub; Saturn; a fallen angel. What all this means is that evil comes to you and whispers in your ear and sometimes wins over an angel of good from your other, better nature - think of the classic paintings and cartoons of a person with a devil and angel on either side. This simply represents the frailty of man - that nobody is perfectly good or evil, be it whether one believes that one is born completely evil or completely good. There is always a battle that rages inside of us. Religion personifies this, and helps us to find the good in ourselves. Buddhists believe in doing god deeds and altruistic acts - so, too, do Christians, who donate to their Church, to the society they live in. To give is to receive spiritual fulfilment.
What, then, do I not agree with?
Some religions practice barbaric acts, such as the sacrificing of people to appease their god.
God says to go to war, and he will help the Israelites win and triumph. I'm very much against war.
Perhaps I may not have read the Bible throughly, because at a young age I read that and decided that such a God went against my principles, but that has stuck with me. Perhaps I may have unconsciously formed a biasedness without realising it. But until I touch a Bible again, that shall remain.
The Bible also states, at one part, that Man is above all animals because he alone has something called spirit; the self-awareness to want to seek God, something you can never imagine any other animal doing.
But is not the duty of Man, who is self-aware and smarter than any other mammal, to not proliferate so much so that one endangers everything else on this Earth we call home? Is our duty not to live sustainably, among Nature, to appreciate other living things and landscapes for the beauty that they bring? To want to conserve the genetic biodiversity that is so evident, even on a single humble plant that you pass by every day and perhaps endanger through vehicle exhaust?
Why must we pillage and crave for so much? To see the destruction of other species while consuming as much as we can as something that may even be endorsed by the religion we believe in? Have we not gotten out of touch with our roots?
Why must religion contradict and refute empirical evidence that Science brings forth? Who dares to dispute the fact that we share a common ancestor as other primates when it runs in our very DNA? Are we not, perhaps, slightly smarter hominids, a product of evolution? Are we choosing to be blind in this case? Is such a religion, then, falling short of what we aspire to be?
My strategy is to pick the things I agree with for religion and indeed, life in general. From everything, there is always something to learn, be it good or bad. I pray to whoever is higher than me, a mere mortal, when I am in need - and hopefully someone listens and helps. I seek the help of friends and older people, when I see that I aren't imposing too greatly. I try to help myself, because whatever change has to start with the individual - who will help and what will change if we don't help ourselves?
I pick out points I agree with and try to stick to them as best as I can. Perhaps I'm still an immature person, but I have gone a long way since secondary school.
Perhaps I really am doing everything wrongly.
Perhaps there is a God above, punishing me now for the wrongs I seek in persisting in. That I'm abhorring proselytising. But how would I know? Have I been wrong thus far? Am I on the wide path that a pastor has recently spoken of, not the straight and narrow?
Indeed, is there even a heaven above, and a hell below to go to after death? Or will we perhaps be reincarnated into different animals based on how we have led our lives, in a complex circle involving life and death?
But for me now, as long as I have this strong moral compass within me, and singing songs to give me the spirituality I crave, is that not my religion already? To believe in Science, to believe in religion and the inherent tendency of humans to do good, to seek spirituality through singing. That is good enough for me, because as long as I have no regrets (I do), as long as I have dreams and goals towards which I work towards honestly, then to me, this is a life well lived.
I am, as what I've said for a very long time, a free-thinker who believes in everything. It's probably about 50% Christian/Catholic/branches that worship Christ, God and associated saints, and 50% every other imaginable faith... because I've mostly only stepped into churches, and because I agree with some parts of the faith, and yet I don't agree with others.
I abhor proselytising.
My take on things is this:
I live in a multireligious society, Singapore. So perhaps somehow, the messages got through to me and I'm a truly multireligious person. I pick up things I like from everywhere. I believe in Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism because I am Chinese, and behind me is a very long history of Chinese people and their culture. I believe in not sticking my chopsticks and spoon in a bowl of rice to avoid attracting spirits and ghosts, because that is the culture of us Chinese and my best friend in primary school once scolded me for doing so. After all, better to be safe than sorry, no?
I believe that ghosts exist, yet I believe very strongly also in Science. Sometimes, when people walk past alleys at night, there is the tendency to rush and get into the safety of their home. This is quite normal; according to science, our ancestors learnt to fear the dark, with its norturnal predators that posed a severe danger to them. Science says that the ghosts we perceive are in fact brainwaves. Yet science also cannot explain everything.
How do you reconcile science and religion? Dan Brown, in his many books from the Da Vinci Code series, explores a little. One books says that the soul does indeed have a little weight; at the final point of death, when the last breath is exhaled, the body becomes infinitesimally lighter. Perhaps that's real research; perhaps it's fiction. Perhaps that's just the weight of the last ounce of air leaving the body (not very possible). What is certain is that both science and religion seek to explore and define our surroundings. Did man not invent gods to define what they saw as supernatural? Religion tells us that the wind is to some a god; it comes and goes at a whim, sculpts and shapes landforms. Science says that it's due to hot and cold fronts clashing to bring us weather patterns like storms and even bigger hurricanes, tornadoes, cyclones. They may differ, but to some, God is up there, and has created the world. We seek to understand His greatness through science; we worship for the moral values to apply to science so we do not go astray.
How do you reconcile religions in the context of the special type of free-thinker like me? I'm not an atheist; I believe in God(s), a devil, heaven, hell. What's all this to me? What is common, really, to all religions? Do not all religions teach morals? Religions let us believe in something greater than ourselves, mortal man. Religions put our faith in someone higher than us, someone who has transcended our beings, who has the ability to shape our lives. God(s) go by different names: God; the Egyptian sun-god Ra; Quetzacoatal (I don't know how to spell this); Buddha; Allah. Men of God preach to congregations and tell them to be faithful to their spouses; to rid themselves of sins and evils; to rise above Evil; to be loyal to friends; to love their children; to be filial. Hence, do religions not have a common goal? Whatever people believe in, they find real. I simply respect people's wishes because their religion is real to them; I have no power in deciding what is real or false for them. I may present them with my viewpoints, but if they want to adopt a different style of thinking after, then that is up to them. I will be glad that they have changed their religions if they do because they have found their route to walk; not because they have switched to something superior in my biased eyes. To me, all religion is equal, because all religion teaches values, except in different phrasing. If one interprets holy texts like the Bible and the Koran/Quran without twisting the words within for their malicious own purposes, then is not all religion similar?
Hell and evil, too, have different names for different religions. Dante (not a religion), in Dante's Inferno, has his view that there are circles of Hell and the devil lies in the icy innermost ring. The Chinese have their 18 levels of Hell. Other hells are infernos, with fires kept burning eternally. Hells are generally places of suffering where people who have sinned are judged and atone for eternity. Some hells, too, contain a nicer area, analogous to the heaven found in other religions.
Evil goes by different names. The Devil; Beezlebub; Saturn; a fallen angel. What all this means is that evil comes to you and whispers in your ear and sometimes wins over an angel of good from your other, better nature - think of the classic paintings and cartoons of a person with a devil and angel on either side. This simply represents the frailty of man - that nobody is perfectly good or evil, be it whether one believes that one is born completely evil or completely good. There is always a battle that rages inside of us. Religion personifies this, and helps us to find the good in ourselves. Buddhists believe in doing god deeds and altruistic acts - so, too, do Christians, who donate to their Church, to the society they live in. To give is to receive spiritual fulfilment.
What, then, do I not agree with?
Some religions practice barbaric acts, such as the sacrificing of people to appease their god.
God says to go to war, and he will help the Israelites win and triumph. I'm very much against war.
Perhaps I may not have read the Bible throughly, because at a young age I read that and decided that such a God went against my principles, but that has stuck with me. Perhaps I may have unconsciously formed a biasedness without realising it. But until I touch a Bible again, that shall remain.
The Bible also states, at one part, that Man is above all animals because he alone has something called spirit; the self-awareness to want to seek God, something you can never imagine any other animal doing.
But is not the duty of Man, who is self-aware and smarter than any other mammal, to not proliferate so much so that one endangers everything else on this Earth we call home? Is our duty not to live sustainably, among Nature, to appreciate other living things and landscapes for the beauty that they bring? To want to conserve the genetic biodiversity that is so evident, even on a single humble plant that you pass by every day and perhaps endanger through vehicle exhaust?
Why must we pillage and crave for so much? To see the destruction of other species while consuming as much as we can as something that may even be endorsed by the religion we believe in? Have we not gotten out of touch with our roots?
Why must religion contradict and refute empirical evidence that Science brings forth? Who dares to dispute the fact that we share a common ancestor as other primates when it runs in our very DNA? Are we not, perhaps, slightly smarter hominids, a product of evolution? Are we choosing to be blind in this case? Is such a religion, then, falling short of what we aspire to be?
My strategy is to pick the things I agree with for religion and indeed, life in general. From everything, there is always something to learn, be it good or bad. I pray to whoever is higher than me, a mere mortal, when I am in need - and hopefully someone listens and helps. I seek the help of friends and older people, when I see that I aren't imposing too greatly. I try to help myself, because whatever change has to start with the individual - who will help and what will change if we don't help ourselves?
I pick out points I agree with and try to stick to them as best as I can. Perhaps I'm still an immature person, but I have gone a long way since secondary school.
Perhaps I really am doing everything wrongly.
Perhaps there is a God above, punishing me now for the wrongs I seek in persisting in. That I'm abhorring proselytising. But how would I know? Have I been wrong thus far? Am I on the wide path that a pastor has recently spoken of, not the straight and narrow?
Indeed, is there even a heaven above, and a hell below to go to after death? Or will we perhaps be reincarnated into different animals based on how we have led our lives, in a complex circle involving life and death?
But for me now, as long as I have this strong moral compass within me, and singing songs to give me the spirituality I crave, is that not my religion already? To believe in Science, to believe in religion and the inherent tendency of humans to do good, to seek spirituality through singing. That is good enough for me, because as long as I have no regrets (I do), as long as I have dreams and goals towards which I work towards honestly, then to me, this is a life well lived.
Monday, July 2, 2012
Confused.
Life has been pretty harsh to me lately.
They say, bad things always happen in threes.. Indeed, I've had a harrowing time lately. First is family issues. Next is friends... especially someone whom is very, very close to me. Lastly, I just realised that the memory card for Chorale trip has been lost. This matters not because of the physical loss of the memory card, but because of its implications... How many have been waiting for me to upload their precious photos that contain all the memories? How can I share them with family and friends? How can I have any memory of what I took? To be sure, a kind soul has offered to give me her photos, but can that really be the same if our lens were pointed at different things?
Why is all this happening? Because of coincidence? Because there really is a God up there, deciding to punish me for my dislike of proselytising? Because someone has decided to put me through what seems like endless trials? I feel so lonely now... Who can I turn to? My friends don't know me well enough; those who do have their own problems to settle and I don't wish to worry them, as do my parents...
Where is a figure of authority when I need one? Is this supposed to turn me towards God? Am I fated to renounce my identity as free-thinker, something I treasure greatly? Who will guide me through the many dilemmas I face? Or am I destined to spend the remainder of my energy mired in this and end up throughly broken, unable to mend?
All the pressures, all the things I've had to deal with. So muh that I don't agree with. Someone whom I've let down greatly. How? How do I cope... How do I bring smiles back to faces?
They say, bad things always happen in threes.. Indeed, I've had a harrowing time lately. First is family issues. Next is friends... especially someone whom is very, very close to me. Lastly, I just realised that the memory card for Chorale trip has been lost. This matters not because of the physical loss of the memory card, but because of its implications... How many have been waiting for me to upload their precious photos that contain all the memories? How can I share them with family and friends? How can I have any memory of what I took? To be sure, a kind soul has offered to give me her photos, but can that really be the same if our lens were pointed at different things?
Why is all this happening? Because of coincidence? Because there really is a God up there, deciding to punish me for my dislike of proselytising? Because someone has decided to put me through what seems like endless trials? I feel so lonely now... Who can I turn to? My friends don't know me well enough; those who do have their own problems to settle and I don't wish to worry them, as do my parents...
Where is a figure of authority when I need one? Is this supposed to turn me towards God? Am I fated to renounce my identity as free-thinker, something I treasure greatly? Who will guide me through the many dilemmas I face? Or am I destined to spend the remainder of my energy mired in this and end up throughly broken, unable to mend?
All the pressures, all the things I've had to deal with. So muh that I don't agree with. Someone whom I've let down greatly. How? How do I cope... How do I bring smiles back to faces?
Friday, June 29, 2012
Numb.
I will walk on, and obstacles will block me. Arrows will be shot through me. Fore will burn me. Water will attempt to drown me. When I cannot walk anymore, I'll crawl forward, with the roil of emotions in my head for company. I'll move forward mechanically until finally, the day comes when I cannot anymore. And there I'll stop and cease to exist, alone, while the world that has been passing me by continues on as usual.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
(Hasty) reflections
Ho, I've not logged into Blogger for so long and look what happened to them.. got a new look! I suppose things change, along with people, huh... The milieu we live in is just that, constantly changing. I think I've mentioned somewere before that I'm not one to like changes very much, even on trips overseas. So, anyway. In the past two months,
- I've had my biosoc farewell
- Chorale trip to Austria; Czech Republic, Olomouc (where I've previously been to, so it was deja vu and very welcome, though I did wish for a different hotel...); Poland, Krakow for choir competition; then back to Czech Republic, Prague
- Last Biosoc outing for J2s (informal)
- Some more personal stuff which I may touch very briefly on... mostly bad, though. I realised though I've mostly gained, I've caused her harm... feel very guilty about it, always. What to do? Hopefully it wasnt all harm?
- Got to know a chorale J2 friend closer, even through his blog.
Now, since I've got no time I will not blog more now. But the stress from exam is piling on ever since I returned and I've about one and a half weeks left to prepare. So much things to do, so little time.... sigh. Hope I can finish what I need to do. Which is in itself very difficult, since I'm basically a sloth at heart, and perhaps (but hopefully not) a coward too.
- I've had my biosoc farewell
- Chorale trip to Austria; Czech Republic, Olomouc (where I've previously been to, so it was deja vu and very welcome, though I did wish for a different hotel...); Poland, Krakow for choir competition; then back to Czech Republic, Prague
- Last Biosoc outing for J2s (informal)
- Some more personal stuff which I may touch very briefly on... mostly bad, though. I realised though I've mostly gained, I've caused her harm... feel very guilty about it, always. What to do? Hopefully it wasnt all harm?
- Got to know a chorale J2 friend closer, even through his blog.
Now, since I've got no time I will not blog more now. But the stress from exam is piling on ever since I returned and I've about one and a half weeks left to prepare. So much things to do, so little time.... sigh. Hope I can finish what I need to do. Which is in itself very difficult, since I'm basically a sloth at heart, and perhaps (but hopefully not) a coward too.
Monday, April 9, 2012
PW
Hmm. Went to see my pasts last year and the 5 from 2010... So, I was that emo in the past? Though thankfully, i think I've become a slightly happier person, but one who still enjoys brooding on issues etc. for me, the time spent alone thinking about things issuing satisfying (this brings to mind a certain article called "the joy of quiet"... I think...)
Anyway, I received my PW results today and I was really happy! (for a short period of time)... It felt like I had this great crushing pressure relieved (如释重负）and my heart was beating really fast... Then I sat in the wrong seat -.-
But of course, there's no denying that I got a B for Chinese... So, based on these two experiences, and when my friend SMSed me a reply of "Shit." when I asked hi, how PW was, I felt like typing a short blogpost... So here I am.
I have typed this when I received my O level results, but it occurs to me more strongly now, knowing the sense of crushing defeat when you expect/ get a B (or below) especially when you know you've put in so much effort. It's so painful you're willing to block out the world, not care about other parties' concerned queries, etc. Education in Singapore seems to be a zero-sum game that requires some people to suffer in order for others to "win", in a sense, and derive their happiness.
It seems to me that this may be necessary. After all, There is a very real need for assessment of children's or any student's abilities- how good is he/she at solving math problems, for instance. But there is a trade off involved, which is that those who are not performing as well tend to firstly be classified unconsciously by teachers as weak, and this biased form of thinking would then favour those perceived to be smart, who generally live up to expectations, and disadvantage those who are perceived as less academically inclined - and they too feel that the teachers aren't focusing as much on them and hence their grades are correspondingly weak due to the lack of encouragement.
Secondly, the economy as a whole suffers. If students were graded based on how hardworking they were, the willingness to learn, and learn from mistakes, then that would be a far better skill for use in the working world. Studies have shown that whatever is left of our knowledge after graduating from school can be condensed into a short two weeks or so. Thus, what is more important is the inculcating of values such as being hardworking as staed above rather than a focusing of how well one can memorise and regurgitate content. At the very least, exams need to incorporate much more application skills rather than rote memorisation. Otherwise, discouraged students would not want to study, and would be less likely to earn a higher-paying job due to the lack of connfidence and lack of skills. In the macroeconomics lecture I just had, it mentioned that structural employment also has a "discouraged worker effect" where retrenched people become less and less likely to be reemployed after falling into unemployment, due to the loss of working skills and simply being discouraged to want to apply for a job. This could be caused by the zero-sum nature of education. Hence, it can be seen that getting rid of or minimising the association of grades with education would benefit society as a whole as individuals would be more confident and competitive, leading to an increase in national output.
Anyway, I received my PW results today and I was really happy! (for a short period of time)... It felt like I had this great crushing pressure relieved (如释重负）and my heart was beating really fast... Then I sat in the wrong seat -.-
But of course, there's no denying that I got a B for Chinese... So, based on these two experiences, and when my friend SMSed me a reply of "Shit." when I asked hi, how PW was, I felt like typing a short blogpost... So here I am.
I have typed this when I received my O level results, but it occurs to me more strongly now, knowing the sense of crushing defeat when you expect/ get a B (or below) especially when you know you've put in so much effort. It's so painful you're willing to block out the world, not care about other parties' concerned queries, etc. Education in Singapore seems to be a zero-sum game that requires some people to suffer in order for others to "win", in a sense, and derive their happiness.
It seems to me that this may be necessary. After all, There is a very real need for assessment of children's or any student's abilities- how good is he/she at solving math problems, for instance. But there is a trade off involved, which is that those who are not performing as well tend to firstly be classified unconsciously by teachers as weak, and this biased form of thinking would then favour those perceived to be smart, who generally live up to expectations, and disadvantage those who are perceived as less academically inclined - and they too feel that the teachers aren't focusing as much on them and hence their grades are correspondingly weak due to the lack of encouragement.
Secondly, the economy as a whole suffers. If students were graded based on how hardworking they were, the willingness to learn, and learn from mistakes, then that would be a far better skill for use in the working world. Studies have shown that whatever is left of our knowledge after graduating from school can be condensed into a short two weeks or so. Thus, what is more important is the inculcating of values such as being hardworking as staed above rather than a focusing of how well one can memorise and regurgitate content. At the very least, exams need to incorporate much more application skills rather than rote memorisation. Otherwise, discouraged students would not want to study, and would be less likely to earn a higher-paying job due to the lack of connfidence and lack of skills. In the macroeconomics lecture I just had, it mentioned that structural employment also has a "discouraged worker effect" where retrenched people become less and less likely to be reemployed after falling into unemployment, due to the loss of working skills and simply being discouraged to want to apply for a job. This could be caused by the zero-sum nature of education. Hence, it can be seen that getting rid of or minimising the association of grades with education would benefit society as a whole as individuals would be more confident and competitive, leading to an increase in national output.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Movie Review - Contagion
Okay, fine, this was an old movie, but I hadn't seen it before it was screened in Biosoc camp.
And anyway before I begin this short post, Happy April Fools' Day :D
Okay, so..
Contagion is about the horrors of what can really go wrong in our current world, increasingly interconnected via so many ways - by airplanes, ships, and cars and buses, etc.
When a virus passes from a bat to a pig, and then to a human, the virus decimates every cell it infects. But in the short amount of time it takes to kill a person, the period of time when a person is a carrier leads to many more infections happening. The movie introduces a term called "R-nought" - for example, with an R-nought of 2, the number of infected people increase like so: one squared equals two; two squared equals four; four sqaured equals sixteen; and so on and so forth. Imagine the number of people infected within just a couple of months. The movie introduces that possibility and makes it a very real threat.
The virus hence progresses rapidly from an outbreak to an epidemic, then a pandemic. An what' even more devastating is the fact that human behaviour, as it so often does, leads to catastrophe. Self-serving people who only tell loved ones what's happening cause hoarding of food. Then they tell their own loved ones, and pretty soon new media, like calls, social networking sites, blogs, SMSes spread the message like wildfire and everyone rushes to grab whatever they can. Medicines, food. A return to the basic needs. Riots happen and there is widespread looting. Anarchy is a terrible thing.
I feel tempted to discuss the movie more but there really isn't enough time... So I'll just leave it as, the husband of the original carrier is immune, is very protective of his little (teenage) girl after his son died as well, and forbids her meeting her boyfriend... but love will bloom no matter what, and once a vaccination is found by a brave biologist who uses herself as the test subject, things start to return to normal slowly, and the girl dances with her boyfriend in her house on prom night. The movie concludes shockingly with how the virus went from bat to pig to a chef to the first human carrier, the mother of the girl.
This movie, to me, is a powerful reminder of how things can quickly degenerate when people are self-serving in the midst of a crisis, and gave some insight as to how grave a disease outbreak really is. While enjoying ourselves and going about our daily lives, one must not forget to be cautious.
But of course, that's no cause for OCD and things... like being saliva consious.. (;
And anyway before I begin this short post, Happy April Fools' Day :D
Okay, so..
Contagion is about the horrors of what can really go wrong in our current world, increasingly interconnected via so many ways - by airplanes, ships, and cars and buses, etc.
When a virus passes from a bat to a pig, and then to a human, the virus decimates every cell it infects. But in the short amount of time it takes to kill a person, the period of time when a person is a carrier leads to many more infections happening. The movie introduces a term called "R-nought" - for example, with an R-nought of 2, the number of infected people increase like so: one squared equals two; two squared equals four; four sqaured equals sixteen; and so on and so forth. Imagine the number of people infected within just a couple of months. The movie introduces that possibility and makes it a very real threat.
The virus hence progresses rapidly from an outbreak to an epidemic, then a pandemic. An what' even more devastating is the fact that human behaviour, as it so often does, leads to catastrophe. Self-serving people who only tell loved ones what's happening cause hoarding of food. Then they tell their own loved ones, and pretty soon new media, like calls, social networking sites, blogs, SMSes spread the message like wildfire and everyone rushes to grab whatever they can. Medicines, food. A return to the basic needs. Riots happen and there is widespread looting. Anarchy is a terrible thing.
I feel tempted to discuss the movie more but there really isn't enough time... So I'll just leave it as, the husband of the original carrier is immune, is very protective of his little (teenage) girl after his son died as well, and forbids her meeting her boyfriend... but love will bloom no matter what, and once a vaccination is found by a brave biologist who uses herself as the test subject, things start to return to normal slowly, and the girl dances with her boyfriend in her house on prom night. The movie concludes shockingly with how the virus went from bat to pig to a chef to the first human carrier, the mother of the girl.
This movie, to me, is a powerful reminder of how things can quickly degenerate when people are self-serving in the midst of a crisis, and gave some insight as to how grave a disease outbreak really is. While enjoying ourselves and going about our daily lives, one must not forget to be cautious.
But of course, that's no cause for OCD and things... like being saliva consious.. (;
Saturday, March 24, 2012
The Hunger Games
Finally, I get to post this. Even though three days have passed since I watched the movie (and then read the book), I hope enough retains for me to at least briefly touch on this hugely popular film and book, the first in a trilogy.
I shall comment on the movie, which was really good and worth the $9 I was scammed of by the price-discriminating Junction 8 cinema. Anyway.
The movie is about 24 boys and girls between the ages of 12 and 18 to participate in the inaugural Hunger Games. One boy and one girl from each District, numbered 1 to 12. Thirteen districts rebelled against their authoritarian leaders in the Capitol, and the last was annihilated; the rest were subdued, and their people specialise in different areas due to the geography. District 12 for example mines coal.
The setting reminds me of William Golding's Lord Of The Flies. I read that when I was in lower Secondary and I don't think I'll ever forget how harrowing it was to read about the complete chaos that comes about when people are divested of rules, and try to set up their own in a new place (in that case, an island; in The Hunger Games, an America that has been destroyed by civilian warfare over scarce resources). People get into cliques. Fight each other. Lie. Anything to ensure their own survival, at the expense of others. Life is but a zero-sum game to them. But to the heroine, Katniss, it is not. And while others killed to get weapons and food, she escaped and sought only to survive.
The Hunger Games also reminds me of Liar Game. In the first game, people are given a million dollars - a loan by a company. They are expected to return all that at the end of a given period of time, and hence end up neither gaining or losing. But they can steal other's money, and thus get that amount of money while the loser ends up in debt to the company. Human greed does the rest while the company benefits. But that changes when a girl, Nao, and another man is thrown into the picture. They seek to overthrow the system, to defy, much like what The Hunger Games does.
Another book that isn't really similiar is George Orwell's 1984. A dystopian world where people are constantly being watched, register to ths and that. My memory's hazy on this book, so I can't comment too much, but there are some similarities between the Capitol, with its deployments of Peacekeepers to towns to keep an eye on the people; where people are mutilated, their tongues cut off for daring to rebel and run away. Rule through fear. Big Brother is watching you. The Capitol is watching you, always.
The Hunger Games are just that, a grosteque game, not about hunger, but about betrayal, about humans turning against one another for survival, for fame, for glory. What lies at the top after killing off twenty three others is fame, money, and riches showered upon the winning district for that year till the next Hunger Games. It's nothing more than a sick ploy by the Capitol to keep any rebellious thoughts in check.
The brilliance of the film (the book is not as compelling, but nonetheless a very good read) comes in precisely that - reflecting upon all these issues, getting people to think about what is happening in the movie. About its relevance to our modern-day society, the rich-poor divide within a country, the divide between developed and less developed countries. No amount of politically correct terms - MEDCs versus LEDCs, DCs versus LDCs - will ever hide the truth that the poorer countries suffer much more than the richer ones.
For satire, to poke fun at the ridiculousness of the Capitol, people are made to put on a lot of face powder; exotic pets; crazy hairdos and attire. In contrast, the people living in the districts are made to survive on little food, with hunting not allowed (technically, but the rules are lax in Katniss's town so she gets to hunt for some income to support her mother and sister and herself) in order to ensure most goes to the Capitol; that starving people would not dare to revolt. The opulence and glamour of the Capitol, the abundance of technology and luxuries are contrasted with those serving those who live there - rebels with their tongues cut off, Avoxes; and the plight of those living in the dstricts. And if you think this isn't happening in the real world, think again. Googlesearch. Poor Africans, with malnourished bodies and huge bellies that signify extreme malnutrition, putting the food on the developed countries' table. The ornate ballrooms of our local Resorts World Sentosa and Marina Bay Sands. Urban in the newspaper featuring strangely dressed models with weird done-up hairdos by stylists. They call this fashion. I think nothing of it. Impractical. Resource-wasting.
This is the world we live in.
It makes me sick. To think that The Hunger Games are actually being played out, unknowningly to virtually all of us in the developed world. We are benefiting at the expense of others. I'd be surprised if terrorists didn't exist. But sadly, they don't lobby for just causes, but for their own good. Just another example of the greed of human beings.
And I find it strange why this has happened. Both in real life and on the movie screen. shouldn't freed people be much more productive, given more technology, a higher standard of living? Wouldn't this benefit the Capitol more than it does from twelve poor districts? I don't have a reason for this, but perhaps they fear that such a thing happening is tantamount to an uprising. There would be vengeance and ultimately the Capitol would lose all that it has. Another reason is the power that they enjoy, knowing that they control the fates of others.
And the Hunger Games are practically entertainment for those living in the Capitol. No way of knowing how people feel when they're being hunted. No way of knowing what it's like out in the wilderness, shivering in the cold, being chased by beasts and not knowing what to eat. They laugh and place bets on who would win. The value of human life has gotten a price tag.
And there are volunteer Tributes, who want to be picked for the Games. Not knowing that they would be playing right into the hands of the Capitol, ejoying the status quo, that their lives are good now because they produce luxuries and are paid handsomely for it; that they would want to willingly pay the price of having blood on their hands in exchange for a life of glitz and glamour. But it all seems so empty to me. How much parties can one go to before one is sick and tired of it? To walk around, a moral bankrupt, not knowing what has been lost. I pity them.
The premise of the movie is that thankfully, there is hope yet, in the form of Katniss. In the book, she is slighty less bloodthirsty than in the film. But overall, she replaced her sister just because; she tried to not kill anyone, unlike some who simply ran straight to get weapons and started massacring others who were daft enough to stay and fight. And a little bit of romance. Well, in Pandora's Box, even after all the evil, sins and whatnot that have afflicted mankind since we came into being, at the very bottom ofthe box lies a wisp of hope. Small, but strong, can be nurtured, can grow and start a movement, and lead to the betterment of society and the environment.
I cross my fingers and hope.
I shall comment on the movie, which was really good and worth the $9 I was scammed of by the price-discriminating Junction 8 cinema. Anyway.
The movie is about 24 boys and girls between the ages of 12 and 18 to participate in the inaugural Hunger Games. One boy and one girl from each District, numbered 1 to 12. Thirteen districts rebelled against their authoritarian leaders in the Capitol, and the last was annihilated; the rest were subdued, and their people specialise in different areas due to the geography. District 12 for example mines coal.
The setting reminds me of William Golding's Lord Of The Flies. I read that when I was in lower Secondary and I don't think I'll ever forget how harrowing it was to read about the complete chaos that comes about when people are divested of rules, and try to set up their own in a new place (in that case, an island; in The Hunger Games, an America that has been destroyed by civilian warfare over scarce resources). People get into cliques. Fight each other. Lie. Anything to ensure their own survival, at the expense of others. Life is but a zero-sum game to them. But to the heroine, Katniss, it is not. And while others killed to get weapons and food, she escaped and sought only to survive.
The Hunger Games also reminds me of Liar Game. In the first game, people are given a million dollars - a loan by a company. They are expected to return all that at the end of a given period of time, and hence end up neither gaining or losing. But they can steal other's money, and thus get that amount of money while the loser ends up in debt to the company. Human greed does the rest while the company benefits. But that changes when a girl, Nao, and another man is thrown into the picture. They seek to overthrow the system, to defy, much like what The Hunger Games does.
Another book that isn't really similiar is George Orwell's 1984. A dystopian world where people are constantly being watched, register to ths and that. My memory's hazy on this book, so I can't comment too much, but there are some similarities between the Capitol, with its deployments of Peacekeepers to towns to keep an eye on the people; where people are mutilated, their tongues cut off for daring to rebel and run away. Rule through fear. Big Brother is watching you. The Capitol is watching you, always.
The Hunger Games are just that, a grosteque game, not about hunger, but about betrayal, about humans turning against one another for survival, for fame, for glory. What lies at the top after killing off twenty three others is fame, money, and riches showered upon the winning district for that year till the next Hunger Games. It's nothing more than a sick ploy by the Capitol to keep any rebellious thoughts in check.
The brilliance of the film (the book is not as compelling, but nonetheless a very good read) comes in precisely that - reflecting upon all these issues, getting people to think about what is happening in the movie. About its relevance to our modern-day society, the rich-poor divide within a country, the divide between developed and less developed countries. No amount of politically correct terms - MEDCs versus LEDCs, DCs versus LDCs - will ever hide the truth that the poorer countries suffer much more than the richer ones.
For satire, to poke fun at the ridiculousness of the Capitol, people are made to put on a lot of face powder; exotic pets; crazy hairdos and attire. In contrast, the people living in the districts are made to survive on little food, with hunting not allowed (technically, but the rules are lax in Katniss's town so she gets to hunt for some income to support her mother and sister and herself) in order to ensure most goes to the Capitol; that starving people would not dare to revolt. The opulence and glamour of the Capitol, the abundance of technology and luxuries are contrasted with those serving those who live there - rebels with their tongues cut off, Avoxes; and the plight of those living in the dstricts. And if you think this isn't happening in the real world, think again. Googlesearch. Poor Africans, with malnourished bodies and huge bellies that signify extreme malnutrition, putting the food on the developed countries' table. The ornate ballrooms of our local Resorts World Sentosa and Marina Bay Sands. Urban in the newspaper featuring strangely dressed models with weird done-up hairdos by stylists. They call this fashion. I think nothing of it. Impractical. Resource-wasting.
This is the world we live in.
It makes me sick. To think that The Hunger Games are actually being played out, unknowningly to virtually all of us in the developed world. We are benefiting at the expense of others. I'd be surprised if terrorists didn't exist. But sadly, they don't lobby for just causes, but for their own good. Just another example of the greed of human beings.
And I find it strange why this has happened. Both in real life and on the movie screen. shouldn't freed people be much more productive, given more technology, a higher standard of living? Wouldn't this benefit the Capitol more than it does from twelve poor districts? I don't have a reason for this, but perhaps they fear that such a thing happening is tantamount to an uprising. There would be vengeance and ultimately the Capitol would lose all that it has. Another reason is the power that they enjoy, knowing that they control the fates of others.
And the Hunger Games are practically entertainment for those living in the Capitol. No way of knowing how people feel when they're being hunted. No way of knowing what it's like out in the wilderness, shivering in the cold, being chased by beasts and not knowing what to eat. They laugh and place bets on who would win. The value of human life has gotten a price tag.
And there are volunteer Tributes, who want to be picked for the Games. Not knowing that they would be playing right into the hands of the Capitol, ejoying the status quo, that their lives are good now because they produce luxuries and are paid handsomely for it; that they would want to willingly pay the price of having blood on their hands in exchange for a life of glitz and glamour. But it all seems so empty to me. How much parties can one go to before one is sick and tired of it? To walk around, a moral bankrupt, not knowing what has been lost. I pity them.
The premise of the movie is that thankfully, there is hope yet, in the form of Katniss. In the book, she is slighty less bloodthirsty than in the film. But overall, she replaced her sister just because; she tried to not kill anyone, unlike some who simply ran straight to get weapons and started massacring others who were daft enough to stay and fight. And a little bit of romance. Well, in Pandora's Box, even after all the evil, sins and whatnot that have afflicted mankind since we came into being, at the very bottom ofthe box lies a wisp of hope. Small, but strong, can be nurtured, can grow and start a movement, and lead to the betterment of society and the environment.
I cross my fingers and hope.
In Response
I refer to a letter in The Straits Times by Ms Vivienne Yeo.
She talked about how the label of "branded schools" is "loaded with snobbery and hardly neutral" and suggested that "the Education Ministry could fashion an equivalent term to 'Ivy League'." I would like to say that while these terms may help, they will not solve the underlying problem- that people will discriminate no matter what and even if such loaed terms and labels are abolished a seemingly innocuous term hat steps up to take its place would be associated in much the same manner, and ultimate the effect is to make such a mindset more prevalent and the association of the new label with certain schools to be an unspoken rule. As what has been suggested in the debate on school branding, what needs to change is ultimately the mindset of Singaporeans, and the provision of more and better facilities to schools that aren't as well known now aids in this change in mindset significantly.
Also, she stated that "intelletual arrogance is a deplorable attitude, and how too many Singaporeans place undue stress on academic performance, job status, appearance and presentation". This may be true, but there is logic behind this, and as usual,the pragmatism that us Singaporeans are known for. To be honest, I detest the fact that academic performance and credentials are paramount to getting a job, an internship. But this is the way of the world, since companies would much rather hire someone who knows his stuff that one who is a complete greenhorn in the area, or at least has been proven to so far not display any sign of leadership or stellar grades. It is much more cost effective to simply get a more experienced, capable person - appearance and presentation certainly do matter, to the job interviewers, to portray a sense of professionalism, to bring across a point more effectively. Perhaps she meant that all of these are important, but there are other things to be taken into account, such as character.
But unfortunately, the real world does not work this way. It has its own rules and reglations and those who do not comply are often booted out. The rule has been set in place for so long that people take it as social convention and blindly, or otherwise, follow. To change all of these requires people who are determined and have the courage to be game-changers. More would then start following, and hopefully, there would be significant results. And yet, for one to survive in this sort of world, one has to play be the rules and be a nice obedient person, at least in the eyes of those who make the rules. Quiet dissent will simmer, but ultimately people will not go to extremes and challenge the status quo. Such is the world we live in today.
I do agree that intellectual arrogance is a deplorable attitude as put by Ms Yeo. When one states with some satisfaction that he or she is a Master's in some field or whatever, always remember that there are things that others know that they don't. Real-life skills on how to cook? To clean? Older people have more experience. One of a lower income and academic qualification may have a unique take that nobody else has. And so in this way, we are all made different and so we should respect others for their uniqueness; academic qualifications often mean nothing if the privileged bearer doesn't know how to apply the knowledge to real life, to benefit others in some way, to flaunt it, or is completely clueless as to why he or she is working as such, purely for money, and deriving absolutely no satisfaction whatsoever from the job.
This links to whatever was going through my head. I became quite stressed out yesterday and was fretting on lots of things. What is the point of education, then? What's going to happen to me? In degree-hungry Singapore, where such academic qualifications are of paramount importance to securing a job? What's going to happen to my university choices? What course should I take? Will the university even accept me based on my dismal scores? My sad, sad B for Chinese, even after retaking it? The point in memorising songs at home and not through singing and loving the song in preparation for auditions to go to an overseas competition? The tons and tons of homework that I haven't finished? The guilt that came from reading a storybook while all these pieces of work waited for me and kept growing in their ranks?
I broke down somewhere. I felt like a man in his mid-life crisis, stuck, with nowhere to go, nobody to turn to. Abosolutely alone. Like nobody would care even if I disappeared off the face of the earth, right now.
(some more explanation of this is in another post, but that one's in a much more personal diary that nobody but me will ever look at, at least not in full, unless someone breaks the last wall of defence that I have erected around my heart - that everyone has erected around their hearts. )
She talked about how the label of "branded schools" is "loaded with snobbery and hardly neutral" and suggested that "the Education Ministry could fashion an equivalent term to 'Ivy League'." I would like to say that while these terms may help, they will not solve the underlying problem- that people will discriminate no matter what and even if such loaed terms and labels are abolished a seemingly innocuous term hat steps up to take its place would be associated in much the same manner, and ultimate the effect is to make such a mindset more prevalent and the association of the new label with certain schools to be an unspoken rule. As what has been suggested in the debate on school branding, what needs to change is ultimately the mindset of Singaporeans, and the provision of more and better facilities to schools that aren't as well known now aids in this change in mindset significantly.
Also, she stated that "intelletual arrogance is a deplorable attitude, and how too many Singaporeans place undue stress on academic performance, job status, appearance and presentation". This may be true, but there is logic behind this, and as usual,the pragmatism that us Singaporeans are known for. To be honest, I detest the fact that academic performance and credentials are paramount to getting a job, an internship. But this is the way of the world, since companies would much rather hire someone who knows his stuff that one who is a complete greenhorn in the area, or at least has been proven to so far not display any sign of leadership or stellar grades. It is much more cost effective to simply get a more experienced, capable person - appearance and presentation certainly do matter, to the job interviewers, to portray a sense of professionalism, to bring across a point more effectively. Perhaps she meant that all of these are important, but there are other things to be taken into account, such as character.
But unfortunately, the real world does not work this way. It has its own rules and reglations and those who do not comply are often booted out. The rule has been set in place for so long that people take it as social convention and blindly, or otherwise, follow. To change all of these requires people who are determined and have the courage to be game-changers. More would then start following, and hopefully, there would be significant results. And yet, for one to survive in this sort of world, one has to play be the rules and be a nice obedient person, at least in the eyes of those who make the rules. Quiet dissent will simmer, but ultimately people will not go to extremes and challenge the status quo. Such is the world we live in today.
I do agree that intellectual arrogance is a deplorable attitude as put by Ms Yeo. When one states with some satisfaction that he or she is a Master's in some field or whatever, always remember that there are things that others know that they don't. Real-life skills on how to cook? To clean? Older people have more experience. One of a lower income and academic qualification may have a unique take that nobody else has. And so in this way, we are all made different and so we should respect others for their uniqueness; academic qualifications often mean nothing if the privileged bearer doesn't know how to apply the knowledge to real life, to benefit others in some way, to flaunt it, or is completely clueless as to why he or she is working as such, purely for money, and deriving absolutely no satisfaction whatsoever from the job.
This links to whatever was going through my head. I became quite stressed out yesterday and was fretting on lots of things. What is the point of education, then? What's going to happen to me? In degree-hungry Singapore, where such academic qualifications are of paramount importance to securing a job? What's going to happen to my university choices? What course should I take? Will the university even accept me based on my dismal scores? My sad, sad B for Chinese, even after retaking it? The point in memorising songs at home and not through singing and loving the song in preparation for auditions to go to an overseas competition? The tons and tons of homework that I haven't finished? The guilt that came from reading a storybook while all these pieces of work waited for me and kept growing in their ranks?
I broke down somewhere. I felt like a man in his mid-life crisis, stuck, with nowhere to go, nobody to turn to. Abosolutely alone. Like nobody would care even if I disappeared off the face of the earth, right now.
(some more explanation of this is in another post, but that one's in a much more personal diary that nobody but me will ever look at, at least not in full, unless someone breaks the last wall of defence that I have erected around my heart - that everyone has erected around their hearts. )
Monday, March 12, 2012
The Church Experience
I went for my first ever visit to church in a very long time on Sunday, at the bequest of my cousin. City Harvest Church, pretty much the largest church in Singapore, had its services held at "the smaller location" (in comparison to Suntec", Jurong West. I was a little bewildered at first by the massive structure: Four storeys high, with a rooftop that conained a baptism pool and a shallow wading pool, and a childrens' playground; four basement levels, with a massive auditorium in which the service was held. Small? I don't think so.
The place was very modern with modern amemities and atchitecture, bearing almost no resemblance to my idea of a more traditional church with steeped roofs, arched hallways, etc. No, this church was flamboyant, with a water feature at the Level One reception, lifts, a putting ground, a massive two-storey carpark (that's only aboveground). Even the toilets were modern and bling with reflective tiles and high-quality oilet paper found in domestic households and glass washbasins. This was a modern church.
I first witnessed a water baptism where the pastor just leaned the person being baptised backwards into the water, said something like "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, I baptise you..." (Hope this is correct... suggestions for amendments are most welcome). The process was over in a few seconds and then soaking wet people in white shirts posed and took pictures. I watched the whole process with some measure of incredulity but some ritual involving salt, fake/ unlit candles and an apple calmed me down. At least they stick to (what I believed was) the traditional practices, I thought.
Another part that freaked me out was when they started praying by speaking in a tongue - I can't say what tongue that is, because I don't know the language - but generally, I prefer people sticking to English, pure and simple. The explanation given was that speaking in tongues would being them closer to Jesus and hence closer to God and spirituality. To a non-church member, some doubts ae obviously raised.
After an hour or so of lazing around, it was time for the main service to start at 12 noon. I went down to Basement 4 where upon entering, I saw a huge auditorium stretching out and down before me. Hundreds of plush seats. A stage where a rock band was strumming away and where at the other side of the stage, people were feverishly dancing up and down as the red lights strobed onto them. I hurried after my cousin and her friends - which form a "cell group" - and got seated.
My misgivings were somewhat settled when singers came up and people clapped and sang along to the songs. But to me, it felt a little like a cult, where people held out their arms and sang, closed their eyes, spoke in tongues at times, and the whole procession was lead along by singers. Is this the modern Christian's idea of a church, a service? But at the very least, these songs were all praising Jesus, praising God. From what I gathered, from my rudimentary knowledge, Christianity worships the Holy Trinity - God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are one. Catholics see Jesus as God's son, and the Holy Spirit is a seperate entity. Then there are Presbyterians, Orthodox, and all manner of different sects.
I shall digress for a little here to talk about the conflict between those of different faiths. Remember the civil war between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland? There was a comment about how absurd it was for a people who believe in the same god to fight. Indeed, why can't people just accept that they believe in the same thing? Sure, there may be minor differences, but in the end both worship the same supreme being; both just need to compromise a little, tolerate each other and recognise that they may be a little different, but yet are essentially the same. Only then will peace be achieved.
And as for Protestants and Catholics, so it is between North and South Korea: a people divided into two by idealogies, fighting a ridiculous war because they're being stubborn; Sunnis and Shi'ites, who squabble (and do much worse) over the issue of who is their one true prophet, despite both teaching the ways of Allah; humans waging war against themselves, despite being in the same race.
I once read the bible, but stopped when God encouraged His people to go to war against their enemies - I believe in peace. Just War theory may say that wars might be justified, but if people took steps to resolve things before they got to such a point, then the loss of human life is prevented, unnecessary.
The pastor (founder of City Harvest Church, Kong Hee) who came up next was charismatic and brought up a parable in the bible about a father and his two sons. I shall not explain the meaning behind that, but he brought in many real-life Singapore examples. Which I didn't really like, because to me, the church serves as a shelter against real life and values should be given a greater emphasis. (Just checked out the City Harvest websit and realised just how accomplished Kong Hee really is, but anyway this blogpost isn't on that, so moving on...)
So anyway. They started singing a song which I knew from primary school days because my primary school is Catholic and I attended Mass and sang hymns. So I sang along, and started to tear. Because after all these years, I had finally discovered, once more, where my passion for singing came from; and the joy in believing. Simply believing, obeying a higher authority. Memories of my primary school days surfaced, and I struggled to stop myself from openly crying while singing the song. When my knuckles brushed my eyes, they came away, wet. I have discovered the joy of Christianity, of religion, but yet at the same time, City Harvest Church seems to jar with my ideals. So I'm sorry, my dear cousin, but I'll probably not become a church member. Not at CHC, anyway, though I might come back to explore the Suntec facilities. (Someone in the cell group told me that he preferred the Jurong West auditorium, to which I responded with mirth: More intimate? This huge space, with no cross, no statue, no whatsoever? Hardly.)
To compare the traditional, old churches with new ones like CHC seems to be comparing apples to oranges: no common point of similarity, apart from the fact that both are fruits. However, I interpret CHC as simply a new generation's answer to a church that needs to be reinvented to suit the modern context. They may hold services that seem like rock concerts and be radically different from the convention of a church, but still, CHC is a church, and a very popular one at that. You may think that only the younger Christians frequent this place - and it is true that the majority of the member demographic is young adults and teens and even tweenies, but 30% of the churchgoing population of CHC is actually comprised of people 40 years old and above. CHC is the answer that young people have come up with as they became stifled by the rigidity of the old system. Hence, even though pastors may be slightly flamboyant, wearing jeans and formal shirts to deliver sermons instead of a long white flowing robe, and members jump up and down (but not in a partying manner) at the chorus of rock songs that praise the Lord, the culture is largely still intact, and has simply adapted to the needs of modernity.
As for the church, it is an institution, the house of God, and people contribute donations to keep churches up and running and pastors and other staff get their salaries and so on. Hence, while it irks me that CHC has such enormous facilities, showing their enormous cash kitty, it is a necessary structure that is required for the functioning of the religion. But what is wrong is when donations are misused.
In conclusion, religion is so widespread as people seeking asylum from their hectic, stressful life get the shelter that they need, a quick reprieve from work, an affirmation of the good that they are doing and a moral compass that guides them along. This is even more so for religions involving mass participation, like Christianity. The power of the many that the religion pulls together helps to create a driving force that more often than not goes to help the needy. That is not to say that those without a religion are without morals, however. And I am happy with having no religion for the time being - my spiritual well-being is fed by singing religious songs even though I am not a Catholic or Christian.
The different shrines enacted to worship whichever god is part of the faith evoke different types of emotions in people - cathedrals give a sense of awe, timelessness, peace in the deafening silence that comes when one is alone in the cavernous hall, helping one to relax. While religions will always continue to mobilise people, places of worship will continue to adapt to changing times.
Perhaps, the God that people have been worshipping for millienia, have been reaching out to, is actually the indomitable human spirit that bonds people together, that sends goosebumps up the spine when people sing together, when people invent new technologies for the betterment of humankind, when people help the less fortunate. In this sense, God has, perhaps, been among us all along. Just keep doing what you believe is right, help for the sake of helping, be morally upright, and the omnipresent being will smile upon you and bring happiness. Miracles can be achieved, but only if we help ourselves understand this first.
The place was very modern with modern amemities and atchitecture, bearing almost no resemblance to my idea of a more traditional church with steeped roofs, arched hallways, etc. No, this church was flamboyant, with a water feature at the Level One reception, lifts, a putting ground, a massive two-storey carpark (that's only aboveground). Even the toilets were modern and bling with reflective tiles and high-quality oilet paper found in domestic households and glass washbasins. This was a modern church.
I first witnessed a water baptism where the pastor just leaned the person being baptised backwards into the water, said something like "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, I baptise you..." (Hope this is correct... suggestions for amendments are most welcome). The process was over in a few seconds and then soaking wet people in white shirts posed and took pictures. I watched the whole process with some measure of incredulity but some ritual involving salt, fake/ unlit candles and an apple calmed me down. At least they stick to (what I believed was) the traditional practices, I thought.
Another part that freaked me out was when they started praying by speaking in a tongue - I can't say what tongue that is, because I don't know the language - but generally, I prefer people sticking to English, pure and simple. The explanation given was that speaking in tongues would being them closer to Jesus and hence closer to God and spirituality. To a non-church member, some doubts ae obviously raised.
After an hour or so of lazing around, it was time for the main service to start at 12 noon. I went down to Basement 4 where upon entering, I saw a huge auditorium stretching out and down before me. Hundreds of plush seats. A stage where a rock band was strumming away and where at the other side of the stage, people were feverishly dancing up and down as the red lights strobed onto them. I hurried after my cousin and her friends - which form a "cell group" - and got seated.
My misgivings were somewhat settled when singers came up and people clapped and sang along to the songs. But to me, it felt a little like a cult, where people held out their arms and sang, closed their eyes, spoke in tongues at times, and the whole procession was lead along by singers. Is this the modern Christian's idea of a church, a service? But at the very least, these songs were all praising Jesus, praising God. From what I gathered, from my rudimentary knowledge, Christianity worships the Holy Trinity - God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are one. Catholics see Jesus as God's son, and the Holy Spirit is a seperate entity. Then there are Presbyterians, Orthodox, and all manner of different sects.
I shall digress for a little here to talk about the conflict between those of different faiths. Remember the civil war between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland? There was a comment about how absurd it was for a people who believe in the same god to fight. Indeed, why can't people just accept that they believe in the same thing? Sure, there may be minor differences, but in the end both worship the same supreme being; both just need to compromise a little, tolerate each other and recognise that they may be a little different, but yet are essentially the same. Only then will peace be achieved.
And as for Protestants and Catholics, so it is between North and South Korea: a people divided into two by idealogies, fighting a ridiculous war because they're being stubborn; Sunnis and Shi'ites, who squabble (and do much worse) over the issue of who is their one true prophet, despite both teaching the ways of Allah; humans waging war against themselves, despite being in the same race.
I once read the bible, but stopped when God encouraged His people to go to war against their enemies - I believe in peace. Just War theory may say that wars might be justified, but if people took steps to resolve things before they got to such a point, then the loss of human life is prevented, unnecessary.
The pastor (founder of City Harvest Church, Kong Hee) who came up next was charismatic and brought up a parable in the bible about a father and his two sons. I shall not explain the meaning behind that, but he brought in many real-life Singapore examples. Which I didn't really like, because to me, the church serves as a shelter against real life and values should be given a greater emphasis. (Just checked out the City Harvest websit and realised just how accomplished Kong Hee really is, but anyway this blogpost isn't on that, so moving on...)
So anyway. They started singing a song which I knew from primary school days because my primary school is Catholic and I attended Mass and sang hymns. So I sang along, and started to tear. Because after all these years, I had finally discovered, once more, where my passion for singing came from; and the joy in believing. Simply believing, obeying a higher authority. Memories of my primary school days surfaced, and I struggled to stop myself from openly crying while singing the song. When my knuckles brushed my eyes, they came away, wet. I have discovered the joy of Christianity, of religion, but yet at the same time, City Harvest Church seems to jar with my ideals. So I'm sorry, my dear cousin, but I'll probably not become a church member. Not at CHC, anyway, though I might come back to explore the Suntec facilities. (Someone in the cell group told me that he preferred the Jurong West auditorium, to which I responded with mirth: More intimate? This huge space, with no cross, no statue, no whatsoever? Hardly.)
To compare the traditional, old churches with new ones like CHC seems to be comparing apples to oranges: no common point of similarity, apart from the fact that both are fruits. However, I interpret CHC as simply a new generation's answer to a church that needs to be reinvented to suit the modern context. They may hold services that seem like rock concerts and be radically different from the convention of a church, but still, CHC is a church, and a very popular one at that. You may think that only the younger Christians frequent this place - and it is true that the majority of the member demographic is young adults and teens and even tweenies, but 30% of the churchgoing population of CHC is actually comprised of people 40 years old and above. CHC is the answer that young people have come up with as they became stifled by the rigidity of the old system. Hence, even though pastors may be slightly flamboyant, wearing jeans and formal shirts to deliver sermons instead of a long white flowing robe, and members jump up and down (but not in a partying manner) at the chorus of rock songs that praise the Lord, the culture is largely still intact, and has simply adapted to the needs of modernity.
As for the church, it is an institution, the house of God, and people contribute donations to keep churches up and running and pastors and other staff get their salaries and so on. Hence, while it irks me that CHC has such enormous facilities, showing their enormous cash kitty, it is a necessary structure that is required for the functioning of the religion. But what is wrong is when donations are misused.
In conclusion, religion is so widespread as people seeking asylum from their hectic, stressful life get the shelter that they need, a quick reprieve from work, an affirmation of the good that they are doing and a moral compass that guides them along. This is even more so for religions involving mass participation, like Christianity. The power of the many that the religion pulls together helps to create a driving force that more often than not goes to help the needy. That is not to say that those without a religion are without morals, however. And I am happy with having no religion for the time being - my spiritual well-being is fed by singing religious songs even though I am not a Catholic or Christian.
The different shrines enacted to worship whichever god is part of the faith evoke different types of emotions in people - cathedrals give a sense of awe, timelessness, peace in the deafening silence that comes when one is alone in the cavernous hall, helping one to relax. While religions will always continue to mobilise people, places of worship will continue to adapt to changing times.
Perhaps, the God that people have been worshipping for millienia, have been reaching out to, is actually the indomitable human spirit that bonds people together, that sends goosebumps up the spine when people sing together, when people invent new technologies for the betterment of humankind, when people help the less fortunate. In this sense, God has, perhaps, been among us all along. Just keep doing what you believe is right, help for the sake of helping, be morally upright, and the omnipresent being will smile upon you and bring happiness. Miracles can be achieved, but only if we help ourselves understand this first.
Chorale Camp 2012
Umm. Due to CTs next week I shall try my best to KISS.
This camp felt very rushed to me, like how I felt that the O'levels and prelims before that and CTs now were just way too sudden and there wasn't enough preparation, and I feared the worst. But luckily even though I only got to know certain things on the day itself/ a day before, things ran pretty smoothly and it concluded pretty well.
I was a slacker who was only in War Games comm(ittee), whereas others had to be in several: Station Games, Fright Night, morning PT, et cetera. And I wasn't and am not in the exco and so had far more slacktime. But anyway.
I got to know a few new J1s, even though I still don't know about 10+ girls (being in bass, the guys were physically closer and there was less of a guy-girl gap) and hence didn't fulfil my objective of at least saying "Hi" and recognising which girl was whom. And I had to get high for the sake of stirring up convos within the group because I was the group leader and my fellow GL wasn't around most of the time due to being stuck in two comms. (The energy died out by Day 2, though).
Something that was a blotch marring the perfect scenery of the camp was the fact that I had at least two not-so-participative guys in my group, which lead to great frustration at times. Hopefully they'll open up a little more. One of them said that he doesn't talk much due to a throat problem, but still joined Chorale because he liked the secondary school version (Raffles Voices) - In that case, how can someone who likes Chorale so much not speak up and interact with others? For a choir is made up of individual people and interaction, synchrony is key; how can these be achieved if one simply sits at a corner and retreats into his own shell while others play games and sing together? But I was quite delighted that a former Red Cross boy had decided to join us because he liked to sing. That, and the fact that he interacted more with the girls. But I was slightly miffed at his action (or rather, lack thereof) during the second day, as said below:
Now, the J1s bring in their own atmosphere and all. Each batch is slightly different; my batch is more musical, reserved (though I lack the former and am too much of the latter), but the new J1s are more rowdy, excitable, less mature (in a way), but absolutely charismatic, in the sense that they bonded together very well and did stuff together. On the second day after station games, we were waiting for results (then the J2s prepared for a performance while they did Finale games - explained below) when dear Dexter C. and S. started playing the piano. All the pop songs came out: Viva La Vida, Adele's songs, etc. Then they danced to Viva La Vida: Dexter C. and W.Y lead the dance, while S. played the piano. From a few girls sitting in the front row swaying to the rythm, to girls forming a line and trying (and failing) to alternately stand and squat, to Viva La Vida where virtually everyone went down and acted out the music - it was a snowballing effect and most J1s were compelled to join in the fun and at least stand on the "dance floor" and jam it out. From this, I could also tell who the future leaders of the choir - Sectional leaders, non-music exco- were liable to be: Dexter C., S. , W.Y., and a girl, K. . I bet I'll be proved right after elections in the coming few months.
And of course, there were those who refused to go and mingle with their fellow J1s, including the aboveforementioned Red Cross dude in my group. He crossed his arms and refused to budge when I nudged him, saying that he was fine where he was, there was inertia to not move, that he could feel the atmosphere where he was. I gave up eventually. Well, those who don't really partcipate are those who don't feel a strong connection to Chorale - If you don't give, you won't receive, and the more you give, the more comes back. So that explains my slight moodiness.
The J1s however were really bonded as I said, from the jamming in LT4, and when they came together as a batch after chorale was over for a batch dinner. They even decided to treat the J2s, something my batch didn't do, to pizza - though this left many of us feeling extremely awkward. This is why I love their batch. So many are participative, and this makes for a Chorale with an extremely strong spirit, shining brightly. It's a really good start.
However, that also got me thinking. Already, it's March. Chorale camp's over. Once elections have concluded, the J1s would be taking over the mantle from our batch. And Chorale would be theirs alone once the J2s officially left.
One and a half years... Life seems to have passed by so quickly. To form bonds as a group, only to tear them apart when we have just fully bonded... Isn't life a little too cruel sometimes?
I know for sure that when the time comes for handover, I will cry or at the very least, tear. It'll be waving goodbye to another small slice of my past life and moving on to new things - hopefully, bigger, better, allowing me to soar ever higher than the doldrums I seem to be mired in right now.
And of course, I'll always come back for a visit to see how they have fared.
This camp felt very rushed to me, like how I felt that the O'levels and prelims before that and CTs now were just way too sudden and there wasn't enough preparation, and I feared the worst. But luckily even though I only got to know certain things on the day itself/ a day before, things ran pretty smoothly and it concluded pretty well.
I was a slacker who was only in War Games comm(ittee), whereas others had to be in several: Station Games, Fright Night, morning PT, et cetera. And I wasn't and am not in the exco and so had far more slacktime. But anyway.
I got to know a few new J1s, even though I still don't know about 10+ girls (being in bass, the guys were physically closer and there was less of a guy-girl gap) and hence didn't fulfil my objective of at least saying "Hi" and recognising which girl was whom. And I had to get high for the sake of stirring up convos within the group because I was the group leader and my fellow GL wasn't around most of the time due to being stuck in two comms. (The energy died out by Day 2, though).
Something that was a blotch marring the perfect scenery of the camp was the fact that I had at least two not-so-participative guys in my group, which lead to great frustration at times. Hopefully they'll open up a little more. One of them said that he doesn't talk much due to a throat problem, but still joined Chorale because he liked the secondary school version (Raffles Voices) - In that case, how can someone who likes Chorale so much not speak up and interact with others? For a choir is made up of individual people and interaction, synchrony is key; how can these be achieved if one simply sits at a corner and retreats into his own shell while others play games and sing together? But I was quite delighted that a former Red Cross boy had decided to join us because he liked to sing. That, and the fact that he interacted more with the girls. But I was slightly miffed at his action (or rather, lack thereof) during the second day, as said below:
Now, the J1s bring in their own atmosphere and all. Each batch is slightly different; my batch is more musical, reserved (though I lack the former and am too much of the latter), but the new J1s are more rowdy, excitable, less mature (in a way), but absolutely charismatic, in the sense that they bonded together very well and did stuff together. On the second day after station games, we were waiting for results (then the J2s prepared for a performance while they did Finale games - explained below) when dear Dexter C. and S. started playing the piano. All the pop songs came out: Viva La Vida, Adele's songs, etc. Then they danced to Viva La Vida: Dexter C. and W.Y lead the dance, while S. played the piano. From a few girls sitting in the front row swaying to the rythm, to girls forming a line and trying (and failing) to alternately stand and squat, to Viva La Vida where virtually everyone went down and acted out the music - it was a snowballing effect and most J1s were compelled to join in the fun and at least stand on the "dance floor" and jam it out. From this, I could also tell who the future leaders of the choir - Sectional leaders, non-music exco- were liable to be: Dexter C., S. , W.Y., and a girl, K. . I bet I'll be proved right after elections in the coming few months.
And of course, there were those who refused to go and mingle with their fellow J1s, including the aboveforementioned Red Cross dude in my group. He crossed his arms and refused to budge when I nudged him, saying that he was fine where he was, there was inertia to not move, that he could feel the atmosphere where he was. I gave up eventually. Well, those who don't really partcipate are those who don't feel a strong connection to Chorale - If you don't give, you won't receive, and the more you give, the more comes back. So that explains my slight moodiness.
The J1s however were really bonded as I said, from the jamming in LT4, and when they came together as a batch after chorale was over for a batch dinner. They even decided to treat the J2s, something my batch didn't do, to pizza - though this left many of us feeling extremely awkward. This is why I love their batch. So many are participative, and this makes for a Chorale with an extremely strong spirit, shining brightly. It's a really good start.
However, that also got me thinking. Already, it's March. Chorale camp's over. Once elections have concluded, the J1s would be taking over the mantle from our batch. And Chorale would be theirs alone once the J2s officially left.
One and a half years... Life seems to have passed by so quickly. To form bonds as a group, only to tear them apart when we have just fully bonded... Isn't life a little too cruel sometimes?
I know for sure that when the time comes for handover, I will cry or at the very least, tear. It'll be waving goodbye to another small slice of my past life and moving on to new things - hopefully, bigger, better, allowing me to soar ever higher than the doldrums I seem to be mired in right now.
And of course, I'll always come back for a visit to see how they have fared.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Dramafeste 2012
Going to keep this short because I don't feel like I have much energy left already... Three posts, a few hours, a few hours left for homework and revision.. Argh. The houses performed in this order: BW, HH, MT, BB, MR. The theme was "Space". I didn't like like the explicit mention of this word by BB and MR, which ade it seem as though they had to do that in order to comply with the theme.
BW: Not an astouding performance, but I felt that it was pretty okay. Until I saw the other houses perform, that is. It was an act about androids wanting to be human - A lying wife, her pilot husband, an army of pseudo-humans. "Human package: Download complete." An ominous ending to the play, but the plot, on retrospect, seemed shallow.
HH: "Please Mind The Platform Gap" - what happens when the MRT breaks down with an unemployed female biased against foreign workers, a "foreign talent" (FT) who knows how to repair the train but whose advice gets rejected, a six-year-old kid who is dragged along to act as the woman's daughter to prove that she has a family to feed and sees the truth that the FT is just a kindly person with mouths to feed back in India; the train manager and her cronies, who soothe the public without actually doing anything useful (also the general public's view of Singapore's MRT operators); and a graduate rushing off to an interview? A not- very-deep inquiry into the state of the Singapore public system. 人生如戏，戏如人生。So as the play reflects real life, so does real life reflect the play... We seem to be caught up in this issue of foreigners stealing our jobs, our pay; different opinions on them, what the public perceives the transport operators SMRT and SBS to be.
MT: "Everybody Wants To Be Perfect" - A tale of a man who is pulled right and left, who aspires to be an actor but is driven to perfection by himself. Pressure and doubt pile on him by his fellow female lead, who snubs him for being only second-best and tells him to be content with that forever; his mother, who wants him to become a doctor (achieving A for everything: A lawyer; A doctor); his father, who s fine with him being an actor as long as he is perfect (since the male lead got a B, he replies that you can "B doctor, B lawyer, B actor" to his wife); the director, who says that he's merely okay; his childhood friend, who advises him to quit and remember how he tripped and fell as a prince in a primary school drama. He eventually succumbs to pressure, and becomes mad. A chilling, cautionary tale of how everyone- after all- wants to be nothing short of perfect. The male lead's acting skills helped too to me thinking very highly of this performance.
BB: "The Singaporean Dream" - Where the father is a civil servant whih absolutely no sense of romanticism, the mother puts up with her in-laws, the daughter is forced to become a civil servant too because of the iron rice bowl, but detests her parents for being plaid and content with their boring lives; the grandparents, who blame the wife for their son not speaking to them (when it's actually his own fault). They all put up with each other and it's apparently an nice happy family who gets along well until the truth is revealed with many thinly masked barbs at each other; the mother pushes the granddad out of his wheelchair at one point in time, which surely violates tradiotional Chinese Confucian ideals. Extremely bizarre ending where the daughter storms off, the grandpaprents and mother retreat to their own room, and the curtain closes on the dad.
MR: "Going Up" - A play using modern lingo as usual, and examines what might happen when young people, usually reliant on their phones to keep themselves company, are trapped in a lift. There is a guy who follows internet memes; a bimbotic girl who posts every random thing she does on Facebook, has many friends, but none of them with the possible exception of her "boyfriend" (also in the lift) ever follow what she says, in a sad scenario that tells us what has happened to modern-day connections, and a girl obsessed with Harry Potter, who incites some thought she says (to the same effect) that the boundaries between what is real and what's not - the online and real world - have been blurred. And people can choose to fool themselves into living only in the online world, but there is something about watching people reject the real world and being hermits in their own enclaves online that makes you wonder what this world is coming to. Yes, FaceboAll Is Well andok and Twitter are useful for communication, but not to the extent of virtually living in a world of SMSes, Facebook posts, Twitter feeds and Tumblr. We should accept that these are only merely tools and our place is in the real world where communication with real humans, with real touch and speech, etc, instead of a flood of information on Facebook feeds; people being reduced to piles of data and information; useless updates on what they've had for breakfast for that their cat just took a dump somewhere. In effect, MR's play is about the loss of communcation that makes substitution phones for actual communication in a lift extremely hard and gets us to think about these issues.
My verdict from first to last: MT; MR; BB; HH; BW
The judges' verdict: MT; HH; BW; MR; BB
BW: Not an astouding performance, but I felt that it was pretty okay. Until I saw the other houses perform, that is. It was an act about androids wanting to be human - A lying wife, her pilot husband, an army of pseudo-humans. "Human package: Download complete." An ominous ending to the play, but the plot, on retrospect, seemed shallow.
HH: "Please Mind The Platform Gap" - what happens when the MRT breaks down with an unemployed female biased against foreign workers, a "foreign talent" (FT) who knows how to repair the train but whose advice gets rejected, a six-year-old kid who is dragged along to act as the woman's daughter to prove that she has a family to feed and sees the truth that the FT is just a kindly person with mouths to feed back in India; the train manager and her cronies, who soothe the public without actually doing anything useful (also the general public's view of Singapore's MRT operators); and a graduate rushing off to an interview? A not- very-deep inquiry into the state of the Singapore public system. 人生如戏，戏如人生。So as the play reflects real life, so does real life reflect the play... We seem to be caught up in this issue of foreigners stealing our jobs, our pay; different opinions on them, what the public perceives the transport operators SMRT and SBS to be.
MT: "Everybody Wants To Be Perfect" - A tale of a man who is pulled right and left, who aspires to be an actor but is driven to perfection by himself. Pressure and doubt pile on him by his fellow female lead, who snubs him for being only second-best and tells him to be content with that forever; his mother, who wants him to become a doctor (achieving A for everything: A lawyer; A doctor); his father, who s fine with him being an actor as long as he is perfect (since the male lead got a B, he replies that you can "B doctor, B lawyer, B actor" to his wife); the director, who says that he's merely okay; his childhood friend, who advises him to quit and remember how he tripped and fell as a prince in a primary school drama. He eventually succumbs to pressure, and becomes mad. A chilling, cautionary tale of how everyone- after all- wants to be nothing short of perfect. The male lead's acting skills helped too to me thinking very highly of this performance.
BB: "The Singaporean Dream" - Where the father is a civil servant whih absolutely no sense of romanticism, the mother puts up with her in-laws, the daughter is forced to become a civil servant too because of the iron rice bowl, but detests her parents for being plaid and content with their boring lives; the grandparents, who blame the wife for their son not speaking to them (when it's actually his own fault). They all put up with each other and it's apparently an nice happy family who gets along well until the truth is revealed with many thinly masked barbs at each other; the mother pushes the granddad out of his wheelchair at one point in time, which surely violates tradiotional Chinese Confucian ideals. Extremely bizarre ending where the daughter storms off, the grandpaprents and mother retreat to their own room, and the curtain closes on the dad.
MR: "Going Up" - A play using modern lingo as usual, and examines what might happen when young people, usually reliant on their phones to keep themselves company, are trapped in a lift. There is a guy who follows internet memes; a bimbotic girl who posts every random thing she does on Facebook, has many friends, but none of them with the possible exception of her "boyfriend" (also in the lift) ever follow what she says, in a sad scenario that tells us what has happened to modern-day connections, and a girl obsessed with Harry Potter, who incites some thought she says (to the same effect) that the boundaries between what is real and what's not - the online and real world - have been blurred. And people can choose to fool themselves into living only in the online world, but there is something about watching people reject the real world and being hermits in their own enclaves online that makes you wonder what this world is coming to. Yes, FaceboAll Is Well andok and Twitter are useful for communication, but not to the extent of virtually living in a world of SMSes, Facebook posts, Twitter feeds and Tumblr. We should accept that these are only merely tools and our place is in the real world where communication with real humans, with real touch and speech, etc, instead of a flood of information on Facebook feeds; people being reduced to piles of data and information; useless updates on what they've had for breakfast for that their cat just took a dump somewhere. In effect, MR's play is about the loss of communcation that makes substitution phones for actual communication in a lift extremely hard and gets us to think about these issues.
My verdict from first to last: MT; MR; BB; HH; BW
The judges' verdict: MT; HH; BW; MR; BB
(Short) Movie Review: Three Idiots
So, about the movie.
The film is about three friends at the Imperial College of Engineering (ICE) in India - Raju, Rancho and Farhan. Rancho is the exceptional one who dares to challenge the boundaries and gets good grades - during the freshmen initiation ceremony, he uses a metal spoon on a wire to conduct electricity form the mains to shock a senior who threatened to urinate on his door (as Rancho didn't want to participate in the initiation, which involved pulling one's pants down and showning deference by stamping a sign on the freshmen's buttocks by the seniors), with painful effects for the senior, though I don't think it's scientifcally possible, but I wouldn't want to try. When the headmaster "Virus" gives a speak on being competitive, and says that 32 years ago his headmaster gave him an astronaut's pen and told him to give it to an exceptional student (implying that he hasn't found that student yet), Rancho questioned why the astronauts couldn't have simply used a pencil, leaving Virus dumbfounded (he later said that graphite splinters would prove very dangerous by floating around, and that Rancho wasn't always right... and gave Rancho the pen, albeit very grudgingly).
Rancho believes in learning the correct way, not simply to cram hard facts into one's brain and memorise definitions and spewing them ou, with many examples along the way. That is what makes the movie so inspiraional - I teared more than a few times. Add comedy, dance, music and the movie becomes something that you would not want to miss.
So anyway, back to Rancho. His favourite phrase when he's in trouble is "All Izz Well" - Saying that to give one the courage to face up to problems. I suppose i need this.
He also believes in learning what you love to, and makng it a career. Farhan is an excellent wildlife photographer and is only in ICE because of his father. Hence he doesn't do well in class. Later there is a touching moment when his father finally realises that he should let his son lead his own life when Farhan begs him to with all his sincerity.
Raju comes from a very poor family and has many fears on his mind - the fear to excel even though he likes engineering, because he is expected to become an engineer to provide his sister's dowry, to care for his paralysed father, his mother. And when Virus cruelly asks him to choose either him being expelled - "rusticated form college", as the movie said - or his friend Rancho, he chose to jump, resulting in him being paralysed just as his father recovered. Thankfully, he recovers, but then again, this illustrates the dilemma in choosing between self-preservation or sacrificing onseself for a friend, for family.
There was also a character who commited suicide, unable to withstand the pressures as Virus put him down completely and did not spare him a few more days to finish his helicopter project - a mini spy helicopter with four rotors, equipped with a webcam. Just as Rancho finishes the helicopter for him as a surprise, too late - he had hung himself, scrawling "I Quit" on the wall. An eternal goodbye to the pressure cooker environment that has ruined many before him. An unhealthy competitive atmosphere that reflects real life, a truism that shows the other side of the education system in many countries - India, South Korea, the US, Singapore, the UK.
After the graduation ceremony, after four years of school, Rancho graduates as the top student and vanishes without a trace (go read up/watch the movie yourself, not going to spoil too much), and the two "idiots" left behind, Farhan and Raju, search for him in vain till 10 years later, when they meet Rancho's self-professed arch-rival "Silencer" (due to his silent, incredibly potent farts) who has gotten by on rote memorisation and has bet wth Rancho to see who was more successful after ten years. After lots of dragging along (in a flashback sequence with Farhan narrating), they discover that Rancho has set up a school in a small village with dusty mountains all around and brillant blue waters to die for. A place that I would realy love to go to someday. The village has many, many inventions - a bicycle that drives a razor to shear sheep's wool via a dynamo, for instance. The village children study in a plce brimming over with Rancho's creations, and it turns out that Rancho has become a scientist, sought by many and world-renowned with over 200 patents under his belt (and the man whom Silencer wants to strike a deal with).
Isn't it very inspiring to see someone with this pure, simple love for engineering turn it into a lifelong profession and benefit the poor with it? I wish I could be like him too. But where do I start? I don't even know what profession I would liketo be in. The doors are open, but yet at the same time, they feel like they have already closed shut on me.
To make up for the mediocre thought process out into this blogpost I shall post two songs from the movie - Zoobi Doobi and All Is Well. Extremely hilarious and yet thought provoking at the same time, if you read hard enough into them. Watching the movie helps. All Is Well shows the extremely positive attitude of the three friends to bounce back when something assults them (in this case, no shower water).
The film is about three friends at the Imperial College of Engineering (ICE) in India - Raju, Rancho and Farhan. Rancho is the exceptional one who dares to challenge the boundaries and gets good grades - during the freshmen initiation ceremony, he uses a metal spoon on a wire to conduct electricity form the mains to shock a senior who threatened to urinate on his door (as Rancho didn't want to participate in the initiation, which involved pulling one's pants down and showning deference by stamping a sign on the freshmen's buttocks by the seniors), with painful effects for the senior, though I don't think it's scientifcally possible, but I wouldn't want to try. When the headmaster "Virus" gives a speak on being competitive, and says that 32 years ago his headmaster gave him an astronaut's pen and told him to give it to an exceptional student (implying that he hasn't found that student yet), Rancho questioned why the astronauts couldn't have simply used a pencil, leaving Virus dumbfounded (he later said that graphite splinters would prove very dangerous by floating around, and that Rancho wasn't always right... and gave Rancho the pen, albeit very grudgingly).
Rancho believes in learning the correct way, not simply to cram hard facts into one's brain and memorise definitions and spewing them ou, with many examples along the way. That is what makes the movie so inspiraional - I teared more than a few times. Add comedy, dance, music and the movie becomes something that you would not want to miss.
So anyway, back to Rancho. His favourite phrase when he's in trouble is "All Izz Well" - Saying that to give one the courage to face up to problems. I suppose i need this.
He also believes in learning what you love to, and makng it a career. Farhan is an excellent wildlife photographer and is only in ICE because of his father. Hence he doesn't do well in class. Later there is a touching moment when his father finally realises that he should let his son lead his own life when Farhan begs him to with all his sincerity.
Raju comes from a very poor family and has many fears on his mind - the fear to excel even though he likes engineering, because he is expected to become an engineer to provide his sister's dowry, to care for his paralysed father, his mother. And when Virus cruelly asks him to choose either him being expelled - "rusticated form college", as the movie said - or his friend Rancho, he chose to jump, resulting in him being paralysed just as his father recovered. Thankfully, he recovers, but then again, this illustrates the dilemma in choosing between self-preservation or sacrificing onseself for a friend, for family.
There was also a character who commited suicide, unable to withstand the pressures as Virus put him down completely and did not spare him a few more days to finish his helicopter project - a mini spy helicopter with four rotors, equipped with a webcam. Just as Rancho finishes the helicopter for him as a surprise, too late - he had hung himself, scrawling "I Quit" on the wall. An eternal goodbye to the pressure cooker environment that has ruined many before him. An unhealthy competitive atmosphere that reflects real life, a truism that shows the other side of the education system in many countries - India, South Korea, the US, Singapore, the UK.
After the graduation ceremony, after four years of school, Rancho graduates as the top student and vanishes without a trace (go read up/watch the movie yourself, not going to spoil too much), and the two "idiots" left behind, Farhan and Raju, search for him in vain till 10 years later, when they meet Rancho's self-professed arch-rival "Silencer" (due to his silent, incredibly potent farts) who has gotten by on rote memorisation and has bet wth Rancho to see who was more successful after ten years. After lots of dragging along (in a flashback sequence with Farhan narrating), they discover that Rancho has set up a school in a small village with dusty mountains all around and brillant blue waters to die for. A place that I would realy love to go to someday. The village has many, many inventions - a bicycle that drives a razor to shear sheep's wool via a dynamo, for instance. The village children study in a plce brimming over with Rancho's creations, and it turns out that Rancho has become a scientist, sought by many and world-renowned with over 200 patents under his belt (and the man whom Silencer wants to strike a deal with).
Isn't it very inspiring to see someone with this pure, simple love for engineering turn it into a lifelong profession and benefit the poor with it? I wish I could be like him too. But where do I start? I don't even know what profession I would liketo be in. The doors are open, but yet at the same time, they feel like they have already closed shut on me.
To make up for the mediocre thought process out into this blogpost I shall post two songs from the movie - Zoobi Doobi and All Is Well. Extremely hilarious and yet thought provoking at the same time, if you read hard enough into them. Watching the movie helps. All Is Well shows the extremely positive attitude of the three friends to bounce back when something assults them (in this case, no shower water).
Rant.
Was going to post on Friday or Saturday about Dramafeste, but I procrastinated (as usual). Lots to do. Been on a little bit of an emotional rollercoaster ride this weekend... The feeling wasn't eaxctly pretty. And it started off with my absolutely dismal H1 Chinese results. Which left me feeling extremely empty, like something's missing. And what would have changed, on Friday, in the short term, as well as in the long term - How much happier I would have been on Friday, the lack of straight A's already. I didn't use to be so hung up about results. But the expectation was an A, and to get a B once again - especially after one year of Monday afternoons being wasted, in a sense (but it was fun while it lasted). And my oral/aural got a distinction this time round, unlike in sec 3 when I got only a merit. Which means that my written paper sucked all the more. Maybe it's time to admit that I'm just not good at Chinese. Or that I didn't put in enough effort. Which implicaes so much more. My year of forsaking econs will come back to bite me. It's not going to be pleasant. And I'm so much more worred about PW now, which is going to come out in two weeks time. I really think I'll be broken if I get anthing less than an A for this, too. But the only person whom I can blame is myself, for I alone know how much effort I put into it. I relied on a miracle in PSLE, relied on another miracle in secondary 4 for O'levels. And I've been getting too complacent, thinking that miracles will happen to me all the time, that I can do my usual thing, continue slacking around, and get that A, somehow. Apparently not.
I'll keep my grades in my file, and hope that that will motivate me to work harder. I need to start doing homework desperately. The pressure is mounting, because I've been slacking far too much. The expectation that I can get good grades, MUST get good grades, must go to a prestigious school in the UK or US - Oxbridge, UCL, Harvard, MIT, all the Ivy League colleagues. So many things to overwhelm me with.
Fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear that I wouldn't get straight As, at least for my six other subjects. Fear because of the high bar that the seniors have set us, have set me. Fear, pulling at my legs, sucking me down.
Fear.
And this links to the next post about a movie, "3 Idiots". It was produced in 2009, an Indian film, a blockbuster, a runaway success, about the education system, about values, about learning. I wish I could be like the male lead.
I'll keep my grades in my file, and hope that that will motivate me to work harder. I need to start doing homework desperately. The pressure is mounting, because I've been slacking far too much. The expectation that I can get good grades, MUST get good grades, must go to a prestigious school in the UK or US - Oxbridge, UCL, Harvard, MIT, all the Ivy League colleagues. So many things to overwhelm me with.
Fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear that I wouldn't get straight As, at least for my six other subjects. Fear because of the high bar that the seniors have set us, have set me. Fear, pulling at my legs, sucking me down.
Fear.
And this links to the next post about a movie, "3 Idiots". It was produced in 2009, an Indian film, a blockbuster, a runaway success, about the education system, about values, about learning. I wish I could be like the male lead.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Nostalgia.
I just came home from walking home (because i left my ez-link card in the school photocopy machine by accident and it was too late to get it back and I already spent an unnecessary $1.50 on a. Standard ticket, so I might as well not waste any more money and walk home.)and there was many thoughts passing throu my head. Wanted to present this in a nice structured way, but as I walked my thoughts wandered, so I might as well present it as it was.
The scenery was pretty nice. I saw the coffee shop that had been there since I was born- and probably before that- being revamped, not knowing if the original tenants would be coming back. I saw a URA sign saying that the plot of green grassland was up for sale, and I missed the place dearly, and I don't want into be gone - gone like how Kovan Melody took the place of another plot of land opposite Heartland Mall, like how beside it another condo has sprung up, and the trees that I used to cut through chopped down.
I thought, it's been so long since I hast walked through this path, this route. So long since I walked into Goodrich Park (which I didn't do), so long since I bought stuff at the local minimart, so long since I've experienced the changes along this boulevard of memories...
Growing up can be so hard.
And all too soon, I was back at what is now familiar to me. Perhaps all too familiar, these buildings, drab and brown, telling the world that there was no sign of life in them but for the warm orange glow of lights of units within. I tried to stifle the tears as i walked to the lift - thankfully i didnt cry. I do regard this block of flats as my home now, but somehow, it's less rich a life than before. I saw the beautiful sunset, saw the columns of seemingly never ending beige walls and columns forming the exterior of my block, imagined green creepers spreading out over them, a sight for sore eyes, fruits hanging tantalisingly to those below.
I saw the manufactured, artificial triangular green grass patch, saw the private apartments next to it, people in their units, in the place they call home.
And I stood still for a few seconds, letting my thoughts run wild, run freely, unlike the person they belonged to.
Memories.
The scenery was pretty nice. I saw the coffee shop that had been there since I was born- and probably before that- being revamped, not knowing if the original tenants would be coming back. I saw a URA sign saying that the plot of green grassland was up for sale, and I missed the place dearly, and I don't want into be gone - gone like how Kovan Melody took the place of another plot of land opposite Heartland Mall, like how beside it another condo has sprung up, and the trees that I used to cut through chopped down.
I thought, it's been so long since I hast walked through this path, this route. So long since I walked into Goodrich Park (which I didn't do), so long since I bought stuff at the local minimart, so long since I've experienced the changes along this boulevard of memories...
Growing up can be so hard.
And all too soon, I was back at what is now familiar to me. Perhaps all too familiar, these buildings, drab and brown, telling the world that there was no sign of life in them but for the warm orange glow of lights of units within. I tried to stifle the tears as i walked to the lift - thankfully i didnt cry. I do regard this block of flats as my home now, but somehow, it's less rich a life than before. I saw the beautiful sunset, saw the columns of seemingly never ending beige walls and columns forming the exterior of my block, imagined green creepers spreading out over them, a sight for sore eyes, fruits hanging tantalisingly to those below.
I saw the manufactured, artificial triangular green grass patch, saw the private apartments next to it, people in their units, in the place they call home.
And I stood still for a few seconds, letting my thoughts run wild, run freely, unlike the person they belonged to.
Memories.
Monday, February 6, 2012
D'arvit
Bought Artemis Fowl and The Atlantis Complex.
Managed to not read it for the first day... Then on the second day (today), I succumbed. The book's read, from cover to cover... And my homework, comparatively, is relatively undone.
I've always been very easily addicted, and to put a book within (near) sight, in a wardrobe I have to open to get my sleeping stuff, is folly. Moreover, I've been putting off the urge got read books for a pretty long time already. And an book on how to pass my IPPT and another, the autobiography of my choir conductor's journey to becoming said conductor, don't really count as what I like to read. Oh, well. The guilt's come out in full force, what's been done has been already done, and so I should get to doing my homework.
And it wasn't particularly satisfying, anyway. I realised that the genre of Artemis Fowl is catered to a younger target audience, probably tweenie boys (lower secondary). The words were a little simplistic, though I still can't figure out the darned symbols that line the bottom of each page and the start of each chapter. And there was an attempt to bring in romance between Artemis and Holly (will not bother to explain.. >.<) and some of the dude's alter ego, Orion as well. Well, suffice to say that I didn't find it extremely troubling, but smiled a little... Which went on to affirm, once more, something that has already affirmed itself an infinite number of times already. Which may or may not be troubling in itself.
Anyway, I just came back from running 2.5 rounds around the local stadium, about 3km (very roughly), and it was done in about 15minutes, also very roughly. Approximation is a good thing in this case because it bouys my confidence and makes me want to run more, all for the sake of passing my 2.4km run for NAPFA with flying colours. To the one who encouraged me, who set this target for me to meet, thank you.
And get well soon (:
Managed to not read it for the first day... Then on the second day (today), I succumbed. The book's read, from cover to cover... And my homework, comparatively, is relatively undone.
I've always been very easily addicted, and to put a book within (near) sight, in a wardrobe I have to open to get my sleeping stuff, is folly. Moreover, I've been putting off the urge got read books for a pretty long time already. And an book on how to pass my IPPT and another, the autobiography of my choir conductor's journey to becoming said conductor, don't really count as what I like to read. Oh, well. The guilt's come out in full force, what's been done has been already done, and so I should get to doing my homework.
And it wasn't particularly satisfying, anyway. I realised that the genre of Artemis Fowl is catered to a younger target audience, probably tweenie boys (lower secondary). The words were a little simplistic, though I still can't figure out the darned symbols that line the bottom of each page and the start of each chapter. And there was an attempt to bring in romance between Artemis and Holly (will not bother to explain.. >.<) and some of the dude's alter ego, Orion as well. Well, suffice to say that I didn't find it extremely troubling, but smiled a little... Which went on to affirm, once more, something that has already affirmed itself an infinite number of times already. Which may or may not be troubling in itself.
Anyway, I just came back from running 2.5 rounds around the local stadium, about 3km (very roughly), and it was done in about 15minutes, also very roughly. Approximation is a good thing in this case because it bouys my confidence and makes me want to run more, all for the sake of passing my 2.4km run for NAPFA with flying colours. To the one who encouraged me, who set this target for me to meet, thank you.
And get well soon (:
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Revelation.
Hmm. Just realised something while wishing a few people happy birthday on Facebook... Even thou it's only Facebook and hence isn't very sincere >.<
Anyway, so I looked at the profile picture of my junior, now just in sec 3. Which means only one year plus has passed since I left school, and last seen him. He's 179cm now, and I totally couldn't recognise him from the profile picture. People really do change so quickly... I must be getting old to say this sort of thing. And I suppose boys will become men one day, and girls women, for this is inevitable. But it makes me a little sad to not witness this beautiful transformation from child to maturity. That I see my soccer-playing, occasionally foul-mouthed classmate posing with little children in what is evidently an overseas CIP trip, and think "wow!" because I never knew that side of him, or maybe it had developed after we went out separate ways after graduating from VS, or that I regret or having spoken to him a little more often.
And I suppose this is one of the chief reasons why people become teachers - for a few years, you get to touch someone else's life; you get to nurture and groom him or her, and when you see the transformation that has taken place, the road that they have embarked upon, the rewards are immensely gratifying; especially so when students come back and visit you and don't forget about you after they leave school, or change classes. Teaching is, truly, a noble profession.
And perhaps, the moral of this little anecdote is to teach me that I should treasure life more, and live it to the fullest, for every little bit counts. Why spend your time doing nonsense when you can be doing something so much more meaningful?
Anyway, so I looked at the profile picture of my junior, now just in sec 3. Which means only one year plus has passed since I left school, and last seen him. He's 179cm now, and I totally couldn't recognise him from the profile picture. People really do change so quickly... I must be getting old to say this sort of thing. And I suppose boys will become men one day, and girls women, for this is inevitable. But it makes me a little sad to not witness this beautiful transformation from child to maturity. That I see my soccer-playing, occasionally foul-mouthed classmate posing with little children in what is evidently an overseas CIP trip, and think "wow!" because I never knew that side of him, or maybe it had developed after we went out separate ways after graduating from VS, or that I regret or having spoken to him a little more often.
And I suppose this is one of the chief reasons why people become teachers - for a few years, you get to touch someone else's life; you get to nurture and groom him or her, and when you see the transformation that has taken place, the road that they have embarked upon, the rewards are immensely gratifying; especially so when students come back and visit you and don't forget about you after they leave school, or change classes. Teaching is, truly, a noble profession.
And perhaps, the moral of this little anecdote is to teach me that I should treasure life more, and live it to the fullest, for every little bit counts. Why spend your time doing nonsense when you can be doing something so much more meaningful?
Monday, January 16, 2012
Confessions of a slacker
No surprise that I haven't done much. I went to Chinatown the night before to see the lights and soak in the crowd. And obviously, didn't do a single piece of homework in the entire day... Chinatown was fascinating, because I haven't been there for several years already. So many new eateries have sprung up. There are modern pubs and shops catering to tourists, and a very expensive Tintin shop. Yet underneath Ll the glitz and glamour of the new year, Chinatown remains unchanged - people hawking, both the old ones remaining and the new immigrants from China and the young twentysomething's. Litter underfoot as people accept or casually flich melon seeds, peanuts, roasted chestnuts, eat, and throw them on the floor. But overall, the experience was a good one. I haven't had much time with my parents, so this was a good opportunity to take part in something with them.
I also learnt how to sympathise with ezema sufferers. Lately, there's been a really itchy spot on the back of my right knee, nd I've been scratching at it. There were warming signs, all of which I ignored. The skin turned an ugly shade of grey. Then a line of red appeared. Then ugly red welts suddenly came out, like miniature volcanoes in a sea of desolation. They oozed, with pus for magma, and new ones were threatening to erupt. The alarm bells finally started ringing, and I have to control my desire to scratch the area. It's not as easy as it sounds.
I've also just listened to [那些年] a few times through, and I see why people are so in love with the song and the movie. Somehow, the song resonates with me too... I sort of understand what the story is trying to say even though I didn't watch the movie. And I feel like watching the movie now..
好想想象的是在现在，因为不想错过。
I also learnt how to sympathise with ezema sufferers. Lately, there's been a really itchy spot on the back of my right knee, nd I've been scratching at it. There were warming signs, all of which I ignored. The skin turned an ugly shade of grey. Then a line of red appeared. Then ugly red welts suddenly came out, like miniature volcanoes in a sea of desolation. They oozed, with pus for magma, and new ones were threatening to erupt. The alarm bells finally started ringing, and I have to control my desire to scratch the area. It's not as easy as it sounds.
I've also just listened to [那些年] a few times through, and I see why people are so in love with the song and the movie. Somehow, the song resonates with me too... I sort of understand what the story is trying to say even though I didn't watch the movie. And I feel like watching the movie now..
好想想象的是在现在，因为不想错过。
Saturday, January 14, 2012
New, yet old.
It seems so long mince I last posted... I think the habit of blogging is fast slipping out of my grasp. First time using my iPad to type a blog post... It seems a little strange somehow, and my laptop is languishing somewhere, left untouched. Even though I have a lot of homework to clear, yet I'm not really doing much at all. Life has changed, yet it remains the same in so many ways.
My class now has a homeroom.
The class is still segregated into boys versus girls.
The GP, economomics and chemistry teacher changed.
The DSA people and RGS/RI people have a
Ready joined Chorale.
I'm a J2 now.
There's no more CIP to look forward to.
I'm still not giving my best for homework.
I suppose change comes inevitably, yet it seems perfectly reasonable to want to freeze time at this moment, let things remain forever the same, let us bask in the familiarity of each other.
So many things to do, so little time... How do people go about doing the best they can?
My class now has a homeroom.
The class is still segregated into boys versus girls.
The GP, economomics and chemistry teacher changed.
The DSA people and RGS/RI people have a
Ready joined Chorale.
I'm a J2 now.
There's no more CIP to look forward to.
I'm still not giving my best for homework.
I suppose change comes inevitably, yet it seems perfectly reasonable to want to freeze time at this moment, let things remain forever the same, let us bask in the familiarity of each other.
So many things to do, so little time... How do people go about doing the best they can?
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Belated greetings: Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Well, apologies for the extremely long delay in typing this blogpost. Actually, I should be doing my homework and not blogging, but I figured that a New Year greeting was in order. Even though I'm four days late.
I actually celebrated Christmas last year (since it's technically a new year already). Well, actually I celebrated quite alot last year, which is unconventional for me. I went bowling with two dear JC friends and went to catch a show at Resorts World Sentosa, even though I dozed off a little bit halfway >.<
To recap the whole year seems sort of surprising. I myself am mildly surprised at just how much took place last year: Orientation, Chorale, Biosoc, homework, new friends, new everything; countdown too, at the end of the year. So much has been experienced. A few regrets, chiefly being unable to revisit VS as many times as I would have liked to. And this year marks a new beginning (Time magazine says it's the start of something new) - being a senior, taking the A levels, Chorale tour in May-June. I guess when I look back and reflect a few years for now I'll see JC life as being the busiest of my schooling life (thus far, at least) and one of the most fulfilling. I probably grew up, opened up, became more social... and had a very important person step into my life.
Anyway, countdown was deeply rewarding in a sense. I had to dance in order to try and engage those who came along for the event (party rock anthem helped quite alot); I got to act like a kid once more, throwing confetti at people, as though it was snow (I still haven't seen snow yet -.-), lugging stuff aorund, painting, doing brainless jobs and getting really good at them - a little too good - organised a game; taught others; did something for the community. And of course I hope the waka waka dance from Shakira's song for the African World Cup would stick with me forever.
The party has ended, though, and it has been sobering to see stacks upon stacks of undone homework... Reality hits pretty hard. So IT'S ABOUT TIME (heh) to start on homework and hope against hope that I can catch up!
And I've made a few New Year resolutions, though I've probably violated them already by procrastinating for this blogpost...
I resolve to do something about my dismal NAPFA scores and academics by working hard and fnding determination. Procrastination remains one of my biggest evils. Sloth is one of the seven deadly sins.
I want to continue giving back to the community, though in smaller, less time-consuming ways than countdown and maybe Carebears... I might start again next year.
And I want to give more care and love to those dear to me.
Oh well.. That's about it, I guess? Once again, have a very happy new year, but don't indulge in only play or work; a healthy balance is needed :D Let's race towards our own finishing lines. There is an entire year ahead of us, and the early bird catches the worm... so, gear up your engines, and get ready for the hectic times ahead! There'll be challenges and onbstacles, but we will survive, and it'll all become sweet memories with time to come.
Till the next post (:
- The Author.
I actually celebrated Christmas last year (since it's technically a new year already). Well, actually I celebrated quite alot last year, which is unconventional for me. I went bowling with two dear JC friends and went to catch a show at Resorts World Sentosa, even though I dozed off a little bit halfway >.<
To recap the whole year seems sort of surprising. I myself am mildly surprised at just how much took place last year: Orientation, Chorale, Biosoc, homework, new friends, new everything; countdown too, at the end of the year. So much has been experienced. A few regrets, chiefly being unable to revisit VS as many times as I would have liked to. And this year marks a new beginning (Time magazine says it's the start of something new) - being a senior, taking the A levels, Chorale tour in May-June. I guess when I look back and reflect a few years for now I'll see JC life as being the busiest of my schooling life (thus far, at least) and one of the most fulfilling. I probably grew up, opened up, became more social... and had a very important person step into my life.
Anyway, countdown was deeply rewarding in a sense. I had to dance in order to try and engage those who came along for the event (party rock anthem helped quite alot); I got to act like a kid once more, throwing confetti at people, as though it was snow (I still haven't seen snow yet -.-), lugging stuff aorund, painting, doing brainless jobs and getting really good at them - a little too good - organised a game; taught others; did something for the community. And of course I hope the waka waka dance from Shakira's song for the African World Cup would stick with me forever.
The party has ended, though, and it has been sobering to see stacks upon stacks of undone homework... Reality hits pretty hard. So IT'S ABOUT TIME (heh) to start on homework and hope against hope that I can catch up!
And I've made a few New Year resolutions, though I've probably violated them already by procrastinating for this blogpost...
I resolve to do something about my dismal NAPFA scores and academics by working hard and fnding determination. Procrastination remains one of my biggest evils. Sloth is one of the seven deadly sins.
I want to continue giving back to the community, though in smaller, less time-consuming ways than countdown and maybe Carebears... I might start again next year.
And I want to give more care and love to those dear to me.
Oh well.. That's about it, I guess? Once again, have a very happy new year, but don't indulge in only play or work; a healthy balance is needed :D Let's race towards our own finishing lines. There is an entire year ahead of us, and the early bird catches the worm... so, gear up your engines, and get ready for the hectic times ahead! There'll be challenges and onbstacles, but we will survive, and it'll all become sweet memories with time to come.
Till the next post (:
- The Author.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)