Irony

Today, like any other day was pretty routine in the morning. Had the usual, "I'm too tired, and I just want to sleep". Had to drag myself to the toilet and wake myself up by taking a shower and then off to sending my mum to work. Interestingly, my mum and her colleague were talking about something that happened in their office the day before. Apparently, their female manager (of sorts) screwed up big time. Lets not go into too much details. Suffice to say, that the police were involved. I jest, but mean no insult, but the manager was a female.

i·ro·ny
n. pl. i·ro·nies

1.
1. The use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning.
2. An expression or utterance marked by a deliberate contrast between apparent and intended meaning.
3. A literary style employing such contrasts for humorous or rhetorical effect. See Synonyms at wit1.
2.
1. Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs: “Hyde noted the irony of Ireland's copying the nation she most hated” (Richard Kain).
2. An occurrence, result, or circumstance notable for such incongruity. See Usage Note at ironic.
3. Dramatic irony.
4. Socratic irony.


Why the irony? Well, on "the Morning show" FD and VL hot topic of the day was, "Are female managers or male managers better?" A lot of statistics were quoted saying only 25% of top management in Singapore are women etc etc *yawn*. There was much talk and a lot of testosterone and progesterone flying over the airwaves. All that ego that was exchanged over SMS or the phone calls....EGAD! I really wonder what is the purpose of such topics? Gender wars? I mean we have the chauvinistics in one camp and the feminist on the other. Both of which are extremes.

Did you know that in the Creation story, Adam was first created, then followed by Eve. That was the order that they were created. Man from dust, Eve from Man. And also interestingly, Eve was created from a rib bone from Adam. Why? Well, Eve was created from the side of Adam. Not from a part of him that was above him or a part that was below him but from a part next to his heart. So Eve was made an equal to him, beside him. Interesting huh. Go figure......

War of the Worlds

The book written by HG Wells is a classic. Not very attractive by today's standard, but a true classic. Story line was simple, punch line tremendous. The ending can be quite anti-climax of you are looking for some spetacular reversal on the aliens by the humans, liberation from oppression etc. But the ending was of simplicity and yet had a tremendous significance.

But life is like that isn't it? The Chinese have a saying, "I've eaten more salt than you have rice." At the heart of that idiom as we call it is experience. The interesting about experience is that its a very personal commodity, it not common per se because its always unique. Its personalized and its yours. No one can take it from you, it'll stick to you till you die. We have earned that right, because we went through it. With blood and sweat (I exaggerate but you know what I mean).

Like any commodity, experience is something you need to use so that you can get something out of it. There is no such thing as a bad or lousy experience, all experience is good. But it's only good if we learn from it, if we don't, then its just a wasted resource. So really, its a matter of the attitude that we take with reagrds to the things we go through. Do we come out stronger, or do we come out of it unchanged, unlearned? You decide.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. (George Santayana)

Escapade

The windows down,
the wind blowing,
hair in the wind,
sunnies on my bridge.

You body is a wonderland by John Mayer in the background.... Time for an escapade.

Rain on my face

Its finally that time of the year. The monsoon rains are here to bring the much needed relief from the scorching sun. The downpours are pretty heavy, flooding certain areas in Singapore. To quote the Flying Dutchman, "There is ponding in some areas in Singapore, and if you are a tourist and haven't seen it before, you should go and take a look".

Have you ever wondered what an irony water is? Its so precious that it brings life to a lifeless desert, and at the same time, it can cause collateral damage of gargantuan proportions as witnessed in the recent Boxing Day tsunami.

When I was younger, my pals and I used to hang out at the beach pretty much. We really didn't have that many hi-tech toys to play with then. The sand and the sea were convenient mediums to satisfy our childhood fantasies. And one of the things which I've notice was how every time a wave came crashing onto the shore, it took a piece of land with it. And after many time (over the years) a portion of the beach just fell away. This was what we learnt in geography as "erosion".

e·ro·sion
n.

1. The process of eroding or the condition of being eroded: erosion of the beach; progressive erosion of confidence in our legal system; erosion of the value of the dollar abroad.
2. The group of natural processes, including weathering, dissolution, abrasion, corrosion, and transportation, by which material is worn away from the earth's surface.

But now, the Parks Board has rebuilt that portion, strengthening that area by builing a concrete structure.

Relationships are like that. We are constantly subjected to wave after wave of emotional torment and perhaps irritation until one day after all the erosion, we finally succumb to the pressure of the wave and collaspe. The relationship is broken.
Of course you can just lie there in bitterness or in defeat, or you can choose to build something out of that wreckage. Something stronger than what is was before, to build a bridge to overcome that portion which has eroded away.

Are you a bridge builder?

The unfortunate state of mind

πετρα: pierisaurus http://dashblogconfessions.blogspot.com says:
who are the less fortunate?

Evil is what evil does. says:
Ummm.

Evil is what evil does. says:
good question.

πετρα: pierisaurus http://dashblogconfessions.blogspot.com says:
who's to say?

Evil is what evil does. says:
Nah

Evil is what evil does. says:
I think those who thinks that they are less fortunate, are less fortunate.

πετρα: pierisaurus http://dashblogconfessions.blogspot.com says:
less fortunate is more of a state of mind that a physical state...

πετρα: pierisaurus http://dashblogconfessions.blogspot.com says:
yup! agreed

Evil is what evil does. says:
it is just your mentality.

Evil is what evil does. says:
bingo, your right!

πετρα: pierisaurus http://dashblogconfessions.blogspot.com says:
i'm gooooood ahhaah

Evil is what evil does. says:
Bring to mind the fortune teller story.

Evil is what evil does. says:
Heard of that one?

πετρα: pierisaurus http://dashblogconfessions.blogspot.com says:
??

πετρα: pierisaurus http://dashblogconfessions.blogspot.com says:
nope. pray pls tell

Evil is what evil does. says:
Okay.
Evil is what evil does. says:
THere was this fortunre teller, rumoured to be very accurate.
Evil is what evil does. says:
so one day, someone.. let say David, decided to pay him a little visit.
Evil is what evil does. says:
The fortunre teller look at him, and said that he is going to have bad luck.
Evil is what evil does. says:
and that he is going to meet up with a little accident.
Evil is what evil does. says:
And when he went to work after that, he met up with an accident, and was hospitalised for three days.
Evil is what evil does. says:
after the three days, he was simply wowed by the fortune tellers ability to forsee the future, so he decided to pay him a visit again.
Evil is what evil does. says:
THis time, the fortune teller says he is going to have a good fortune.
Evil is what evil does. says:
and with that in mind, David went to work again.
Evil is what evil does. says:
And met with an accident yet again.
Evil is what evil does. says:
And was hospitalised for three days.
Evil is what evil does. says:
So this time, he went back to the fortune teller and demanded why he saw good fortune in him this time, where he clearly met up with the same accident and got him hospitalised three days again.
Evil is what evil does. says:
the fortune teller said. "Well, you are still alive, aren't you?"
Evil is what evil does. says:
end.

πετρα: pierisaurus http://dashblogconfessions.blogspot.com says:
yeah....pple want to believe the things they want to believe in

Evil is what evil does. says:
Well, I never believed in star signs and predictions.

Evil is what evil does. says:
yeah, exactly.

Evil is what evil does. says:
you know, you could write something like that in your blog.

Evil is what evil does. says:
pretty interesting stuff.


(this is for my net buddie, Roger. Cheers dude)

Nonsense and Insensibilities

Phua Chu Kang immortalized the saying, "Use your blian (brain)". Although it might be redundant to say, its amazing how little people exercise their brains or bother to really use it. The brain in a muscle, at least that's what Michelle Pieffer in "Dangerous Minds" claims. And like any other muscle, you need to exercise it to strengthen it. While I might not totally agree with her, I must say that some people have atrophied brains.

at·ro·phy Pronunciation Key (tr-f)
n. pl. at·ro·phies

1. Pathology. A wasting or decrease in size of a body organ, tissue, or part owing to disease, injury, or lack of use: muscular atrophy of a person affected with paralysis.
2. A wasting away, deterioration, or diminution: intellectual atrophy.

v. at·ro·phied, at·ro·phy·ing, at·ro·phies
v. tr.

To cause to wither or deteriorate; affect with atrophy.

v. intr.

To waste away; wither or deteriorate.

The readily available common sense somehow does not seem to be so common after all. If natural selection was a process that really determines the survival of the human race, one would really have to wonder, why humans are still around. Evolution indeed!

I was driving my usual route this morning, off to do my usual errands before work. I usually take the ECP to work and there, Lo and Behold, was a man standing by the side of the road waiting to cross. Mind you, this is the morning traffic that we were talking about. Not to mention that it is dangerous and can prove to be fatal if your feet were a tad slower than your brain when dashing across the road. Guess that is strike one for uncommon sense already. There was a bridge Further down the road, less than 50m, which he could take to cross the road. Strike 2 for uncommon sense.

I must confess, however, that all of us are like that. Brainless even when we meet obvious face to face. It sometimes feel like cataracts, not that I have them (not that old yet), and that blinds us to the common wisdom that human beings should have. After all, we do rule the Earth right? Its our selfisness and thoughtlessness, and the list goes on, that really jeopardizes our continued existence. Sin... the bane of mankind.

Absolutely Relative

I'm been pretty much a computer geek for the most part of my life. Have always loved "techie" stuff. Think some of you have seen how excited I get when I talk about gadgets and stuff. Sigh... what a bliss to have tech! My first computer was an Apple. It had a monochrome monitor and it sat on the CPU. Beside it was the disk drive. What we now know as the hard drive was non-existent then. If you know something about monitors, they have progressed slowly over time. From the monochrome (Which was green on black by the way and not white on black) to the CGAs, the EGAs and finally the VGAs, the super VGAs and now, the LCDs. (Hmmm that was a mouthful of acronyms huh)

It just occured to me that in the olden days (20 years ago) the shades of the image that the computer can generate has vastly changed. From monochrome to a myrid of colours. Even the shades of grey have changed tremendously that now we have what you call gradient colour. (ie many different shades of a colour). Its funny you know, life in the 80s was simpler. Things were usually right or wrong. I never really had to to wrestle with things like I do nowadays. Life then was like the monochrome monitor. 2 tones, right and wrong.

In the new century. the new buzz word is relative (not the family relation kind of relative). Everything seems to be relative. Its no longer right or wrong, its relative. Its on a grayscale now. It depends form person to person. Its like the super VGA. Many varaitions. And this reflects the attitudes and lives of people in this century. Everything (almost that is) is no longer right or wrong, but its relative to one's experience in life.

In math, I remember that we had to learn this number line theory. It was basically a line and on it you indicate a zero and then on the right of the zero you place a positive integer and to the left of the zero you place a negative integer. That helped me much in my math and I think that also helps us see clearer into life. While we might think that eveything is relative, there cannot be a relative without an absolute. In the case of the number line, without the zero (the absolute) the positive and the negative doesn't mean anything at all.

So, what's your absolute?

Looking forward, looking back

To use a cliche phrase, "Time flies" is an understatment in my present state. In a blinking of an eye, I've turned 30. Yes the big 30! And yet, at the age of my prime, I am hesitant to move forward. Why? Ironical actually.

I remembered when I was young, much younger. Perhaps in my single digits. One of the thrills in life then was to put on the glasses of your grandparents. Thinking that they look cool and made you look more mature. Nevermind that the high degree of the spectacles made you dizzy as you peered through those glasses. You would have to wonder, whether looking through the eyepiece gave you a glimpse of the future. But there was that eagerness, goal in life, to grow up as fast as you can.

Schooling days were even better... Especially in primary school. Being the youngest then (primary one) was the worse of all. You were the smallest and eveyone else was bigger than you. You make a vow to yourself that you want to grow up faster. You want to be the biggest in school. And when you finally reach Primary 6, there was a sense of acomplishment, a sigh of satisfaction, of relief. You were big brother. But only to be brought low once again when you entered Secondary school.

University was of course the climax of it (well at least for the education part) as the years go by, siganlling the start of work, earning a financial independance. Finally a metamorphosis occurs and behold, a young adult. The gravel road only begins and the journey a long one.

If processes and mental deductions were to work, then it would be natural to assume the pursuit of growing up should continue. But yet I find myself at the cross-road, looking back, no longer forward as a child. I wonder why. There is much to look forward to actually... marriage, starting a family, bringing up children, retiring and finally dying. Exciting no doubt, but I look back earnestly, wishing I could turn back time, that I could enjoy once again the freedom as a child.

So I ask why? I conclude, its the responsibilites that we take on that scares us.... but it is those that we take on that builds us up in character. Afraid to fail, but its only in failure can there be true success. There are going to be many more times when I'm gonna lament and wanting to look back, but I know that I need to look forward, to finish this race of life. And I want to finish strong as a winner of a crown that I am due.

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (Paul of Tarsus)

The Best Mixtape

Today's traffic on the road was surprisingly light, could drive on the ECP from Bedok to the Meyer Road exit without having to stop. The weather was cooling after a whole night's worth of rain, the roads wet. I decided that this would be the ideal situation to drive with your windows down. Actually, not really... You see, after the rain, your windows tend to get wet and if you wind them down, they will have these ugly streak marks when you wind them up later...but what the heck...the weather was too good to pass.

The radio was blaring in the background, that's how I like my music. This brought me back to when I was 14, I had just gotten a new radio... a Samsung I must add, and one of my top expenses then was to get tapes. Tapes that I could record the nice songs I heard over the radio. That's how I started my music compilation. Sometimes if the songs were really good, I'll copy the same song in succession of one another. Forgive me, technology was not so advance then that we could set our players to repeat mode, we had to make do with what we had. All we had then was high speed dubbing... the effect that makes any singer (including yourself if you wanted) sound like Alvin. You know Alvin? The Chipmunk.

Think it was the mission of most kids I knew then to come up with the best mixtape, a compilation of the best, most outrageous songs that would get us going. Till this day, that is still one of my pursuits in life. Its interesting how many genres of music there are out there, from the mainstream pop, rock to jazz, the blues and now, alternative, punk rock, alternative rock... No wonder we get lost in a music store. Finding a life partner is like that isn't it? Finding that best mixtape of qualities that bring out the best qualities in ourself... I'll never stop looking for that best mixtape. Just make sure you don't get lost in your music store... your world.

You gave me the best mixtape I have
And even all the bad songs ain't so bad
I just wish there was so much more than that
About me and you (Butch Walker)

Oxy 5,10,15

Along side with Clearasil, Oxy was one of the best friends of a pubesence teenager, especially when there was an outbreak of acne. The thing with Oxy and any other anti-pimple cream in that barbaric age was that it actually did more harm than help. It was bad enough that you had this itchy zit on your face, and that it was big, bulging and just waiting to burst to reveal its gooy content, it was another to apply the cream to assist the eruption of the pimple! It does that by eroding the skin around the pimple, killing it so that it starts to flake and then "eruption" haha. Good ole days huh.

Anyhow, why was I talking about Oxy in the first place? Well, its kinda far-fetched but was thinking of oxymora (the plural of oxymoron, see below) actually. What is an oxy-what? Well here goes...

ox·y·mo·ron Pronunciation Key (ks-môrn, -mr-)
n. pl. ox·y·mo·ra (-môr, -mr) or ox·y·mo·rons

A rhetorical figure in which incongruous or contradictory terms are combined, as in a deafening silence and a mournful optimist.

[Greek oxumron, from neuter of oxumros, pointedly foolish : oxus, sharp; see oxygen + mros, foolish, dull.]oxy·mo·ronic (-m-rnk) adj.
oxy·mo·roni·cal·ly adv.

Oooo big word huh. The first time I heard of this word was when Ms Fernandaz spewed this word in Literature class when we were learning about Romeo and how moronic, I mean romantic he was, trying to impress Juliet with his repertoire of contradictary terms. Hard to believe I took literature in school? Trust me, I hated it and till this day, I still remembered how Ms Fernandaz taunted me saying I would fail! Boy did I show her, the moment of trimuph was when I waved my O level results in her face! Ha!

Anyway, back to oxymorons, you should try it some time. I'll give you a headstart...

Beautiful diasaster, Vertical Horizon. ENJOY!

Why blog?

Someone asked, "Why on earth would someone want to share your life to the whole world over the web?" I wondered for a while and decided "Why won't anyone want to share their life to the whole world over the web?" Guess its a really personal thing that we have our opinion about.

Some people are more private about their lives and their thoughts than others. I never suffered from that kind of restriction before, I always spoke my mind. But I must say that sometimes it has gotten me into trouble. I remember the time when I was in primary school, talking was alway my forte. I never had problems expressing my thoughts, much to the dismay of my math teacher. Remembered that she called my mum and told her that I talked too much. I got a good trashing for that.

I digress. I guess at the end of the day, I just want to put my thoughts down. I know that I'm really lousy at journalling and stuff, I think about alot of stuff and it lingers for a while and then its gone, almost like a fleeting moment. Some peole collect saga seeds, I want to collect my thoughts. And guess this is the best way I can think of.

Echo, echo...
We come, we go
No I don't want to be just another
Echo, echo...

Do you hear me?
Cause I need to, just to reach you
Do you hear me?
Coming clearly?
Am I hollow?
Just an echo (Keith Kane)

I don't just want to be an echo.

Beginnings