With or without?

Is the chair lonely without a sitter or is the chair better off without one?

I feel the chair is lonely without a sitter. What do you think?

Understanding misunderstanding

Yes, it takes quite a bit to understand misunderstanding.

Perhaps it is human nature to assume the worst of things and to defend themselves, born out of their survival instincts. It doesn’t help that what goes unsaid and a typical (sub)conscious action is construed to have an implied meaning.

Time is also an important factor to understand someone new or unfamiliar. And no matter how honest or open one may be, everyone hides their true self behind a carousel of masks (intentionally or unintentionally, good or bad).

I’ve had my share of misunderstandings and/or perceptions moulded out of the nooks and crannies of my face. I do not blame them for I do not give a very ‘positive’ feel to anyone who sees me without a smile. Or even being thought of  harbouring an implied meaning other than what I have truly expressed.

If there is something common that each of us is working towards, we will then strive to achieve that goal in our unique ways. All of us on this earth have our unique strengths and weaknesses and we are the unique pieces that form a huge completed jigsaw puzzle.

Let’s not get upset over who gets the bigger share of the pie. Working together hand-in-hand means everyone gets an equal share of the pie and eat it. I do not have the nature of slugging and fighting it out to take over unless absolutely necessary.

Hopefully I have understood misunderstanding a bit more.

I *heart* Toby

I *heart* Toby.

Die Another Day

Man (in general, women included) can be such a slut for the worst to happen before they come to their sense.

Me included.

For me, you can say I deserve it. Nonetheless, I am glad I do not have to reach to a point of almost-no-return to come to my senses, there is some form of redemption.

And the behaviour that contributed to the situation I am in now contradicts what I have been trying to live out.

I am but human.

It’s almost scary and it is only because of God’s grace and providence that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Sounds bad…it really isn’t as bad as some cases out there but it can snowball to that.

So, I get to ‘die another day’.

The world of plenty…and the world of little

Photo courtesy of Frederik Buyckx

I live in a world of plenty.

I have a job that pays me salary, and the salary gets me the things I need and want.

Looking back and looking at now, there has never been a time when I lack in anything. The things I had deemed lacking previously in my life were merely my wants, not my needs.

In the world where I live, it’s easy to overlook the fact we have so much. Everyone wants to have a piece of what the other person has. Everyone wants to be richer or achieve a higher status than the man one rung or several rungs above them. It’s easy to overlook, that we have happiness within our grasp, that we have plenty.

The world I live in has stopped becoming grateful for what God has bless us with, for the people that we bond with. We were not made to experience the hardships of war, scarcity of food and water and what it means to sleep in fear or in the cold.

Education has not made many of my fellow men less barbaric or cultured than our forefathers. We continue to live in detest or suspicious towards people of different skin colour, thinking not for others but ourselves only and other actions that we’ve grown so accustomed to that it has become a part of normalcy.

I am grateful for the awareness of my blessings and to this photographer and his photographs that speaks of the other world out there that words could not express. I salute the other photographers out there who take such photos as well and why I mention this particular photographer is because his photos inspired me to write this.

As the hours of breaking dawn creeps slowly into my world, and as I once again get drawn into the vicious cycle of the world I live in, I know for sure for these things right now: I am grateful, I am hopeful and I am inspired to take pictures that paint the real world out there, the world beyond our world, to educate my fellow men.

To cherish. To love. To be grateful. To hope.

*gasp* Have I truly grown much older?

Well, technically the answer is a yes, given I am already in the last year of my twenties. And as I progress downhill (physically that is) on my human lifetime, I do realise the subtle changes in my taste and appreciation for things.

Like how I have come to appreciate the finer things in life, such as learning not to run a mad rat race and to take a breather every now and then. Or how the old, crummy-looking shophousees at Amoy Street and Joo Chiat washed me with a wave of deep appreciation for its cultural and architectural beauty and heritage.

I guess it applies even for music. As with every generation, we’ll say that the music of the yesteryears (be it decades ago or just a few years ago) rocks so much more than a lot of the music of today. And though I’ve not heard the songs of this iconic man, the chance has come for me to hear a glimpse of the classic songs of P. Ramlee through Rosli Mansor’s intepretation.

Hey, it is free so why not head down to check it out? And then I’ll be tempted to go chill out the rest of my Sunday…

No, we should not have licences for cyclists!

“Cyclists should pass test and be licensed” – http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20090710-153935.html

Mr Tan, I hope you are not one of the many car drivers on the road who gives no hoot to the safety of other fellow road users such as cyclists.

Singapore is very well regulated already and I believe we don’t need more rules to govern us or further regulate the society. If cyclists are indeed such bad users of the road, is it not because sometimes other drivers don’t give them the due respect on the road? No doubt there are always those cyclists who are oblivious to their surroundings and is a prime target of danger. However, in a country that’s barely 700sqkm big with increasing population, soaring vehicle and oil prices and in the face of global warming, we should do more to encourage cycling and not discourage it, as implied per your suggestion.

“Subjecting cyclists to tests and a licensing process will not cause them undue problems, and will also serve to ensure safer roads for all road users.” BTW, it’s not as if those who’ve got the licences to drive on the roads have served to ensured safer roads.

Shern Wong, Singapore’s upcoming rock instrumentalist

Shern Wong is an upcoming rock guitarist who has recently released his EP titled “Bloom”. With melodious tunes and fast guitar riffs packaged in one, guitar and instrumental fans will be excited to check out what Shern has to offer.

Here are some of his worth-drooling songs (ok, it’s in my opinion drool-worthy. )