Merry Christmas!

Christmas, to me, has always been just another ordinary day, it has not been particularly significant but it has not also been particularly insignificant.Perhaps in some way, the festive season is all about doing something for someone you care about, about gathering with others, giving something to someone in need of your help, about toasting with others, about being cosy at home, about dreaming, you know all those good stuff.And everyone has their own unique way of spending it, however they choose to do so is really their personal preference and nobody really should be able to comment on the way Christmas (be it eve, day or boxing day) is spent, for to do that would be to impose your own idea of Christmas on others, which may be a very subjective notion altogether.

I am a very homey, home-like sort of person, I enjoy spending quality time at home with people I care about, doing perhaps the most ordinary things as I would every other ordinary day because I think it is more important to be nice to people you care about every other day rather than just on special occasions / days. Then again, because home is such a comfortable place for me that I don't really see the need to go out and indulge in the commercialism of the festive season. Then again, maybe the reason why I'm thinking the way I am now is perhaps attributable to the fact that I've once celebrated Christmas eves, days like never before when I was then a teenager. I would hit the town with my friends, be where the crowd would be and join in the crowd in the countdown to Christmas day, you know, the really typical things you do when you are a teenager.

Now, all I want to do during Christmas is to spend time with people I care about, be it watching some cheesy chick flicks or just a simple not too elaborate dinner would be fine.

Christmas is sometimes a tad too overly immoderated, celebrated and overly commercialized and sometimes it makes one think for a second that the season of giving is but a mere euphemistic way of describing the celebration of materialism. I mean people (in particular, in Singapore) no longer celebrate Christmas the way it should be, it's a spending quality time with people you care: it's calling people up (or texting/emailing) wishing them well and going to visit some of them, it's renting cheesy Christmas movies or cartoons that depicts the story of Christ so that we can appreciate his sacrifice for us a little better and also facilitates as a form of reminder of the purpose of his sacrifice and how we should all become better Christians, its about seeing your loved ones' smiles. In my humble opinion, that is the spirit of Christmas. Not the rushing and gushing down to malls to wipe the shops' shelves clean, it's not some expensive dinner at a swanky restaurant in town, it's not even about how much cash you've got or what your beliefs and experiences are, it's much more than that.

Christmas is really just spending time with people you love with that touch of coziness and sense of happiness, and whoever you are, I sincerely wish you from the bottom of my heart that sense of happiness and coziness for you and your loved ones on Christmas.

Merry Christmas in advance everyone!

I'm not someone who's exceptionally good with words or compliments, so whenever I pay someone a compliment, I mean it and whenever I say something that's so not me, I mean it too. Sometimes it's hard to tell what's real and what's not because of one's preference in seeing / hearing what one wants to see / hear, thereby becoming all so oblivious to the patent truth but then sometimes its just because one's been fooled one too many times, so much so that, he/she is afraid to trust what's said and done.When that happens, the best thing to do is to sit around a little longer, observe and draw conclusions on your own, I believe time is always the best measure / proof for anything said /done and actions often speak louder than words.

I'm not someone who's exceptionally good with words or compliments, so whenever I pay someone a compliment, I mean it and whenever I say something that's so not me, I mean it too. Sometimes it's hard to tell what's real and what's not because of one's preference in seeing / hearing what one wants to see / hear, thereby becoming all so oblivious to the patent truth but then sometimes its just because one's been fooled one too many times, so much so that, he/she is afraid to trust what's said and done.When that happens, the best thing to do is to sit around a little longer, observe and draw conclusions on your own, I believe time is always the best measure / proof for anything said /done and actions often speak louder than words.

It's funny how the past haunts you in a variety of way, leaving you with the deja vu feeling when something happens or when history sort of repeats itself. It's scary how you can't sometimes shake off those feelings when you vowed a long time to start anew and forget all about those feelings and I desperately need to change my mindset before I turn to someone whom I'm not.

"Note that Law students who do not participate in the feedback exercise will NOT be able to access their results via the phone, and access via the internet would only be available FIVE DAYS after the official release of the examination results."

Never have I ever in my life felt so compelled to fill in feedback forms and mind you, not because I want to but because I HAVE to. Talk about living a life of choices, times like these makes me feel like I have none.

It's bounderish to reduce women to nothing but mere body parts of certain sizes and/or shapes. Regardless of what they have said or done, nobody is entitled to pass rude remarks that degrades women in such a way that nothing else but the size of the boobs matter.

Get a grip, be more cultured and civilised, pinpoint only what the person has said or done but not the person's physical attributes, it is what she said that matters not what she has as a female.

PS: I'm not on her side, elitists like her disgusts me through and through. I will post my views on this whole drama when I'm done following it, at least enough to make some responsible comments.

Faith, the musical

A very dear friend of mine, who's also one of my favourite friends, Kelv, a raw talent, fresh on the musical production scene, is in the midst of staging Faith. Faith (http://faiththemusical.blogspot.com).

"It's essentially a love story. Whether about loving yourself, loving someone else, loving a friend, and the kind of relationships that evolve. and through the eyes of the characters which i have created, my life appears in a whole new perspective. All that I have loved and cared for, is that the kind of love they want, and is it the kind of love they expect. and what kind of love do i want." - Kelv

SO if you are in UK and am reading this, do visit the website and more importantly, go watch the musical for not only is it a musical you wouldn't want to miss but it is also a charitable event, whereby the profits goes to Singapore Children's Cancer Foundation's Wishlink programme. Now that's what I call entertainment with value.

Balance

Believe it or not, living a life of balance is a lot of hard work, it's not something that happens by default but something to be lived with a lot of effort. A well balanced life requires constant thoughts and energy and changes, we should always change something when we can.

This runs totally parallel to the thought that if you want to do something right, there's no easy way, but once you get it right, everything is well mapped out for you.

So, I am going to work towards living a well balanced life from now on. It's probably a lot of hard work but well, need to manage it somehow.

Someone please hand me a battery pack so that I can maintain my effort to lead a healthy balanced life!

Friend: "What happens if I don't know if I'll ever love anyone?"

Me: "Don't worry, the right one will help you figure all that out. You'll love like never before and you'll enjoy a love that's ever so blissful"

Friend: "Really?"

Me: "Yes, really."

The groundless things I say...

Stop whining and do something

People who incessantly complain about how life is unfair and that how unhappy they are with people who supposedly live a very charmed life should just all shut up and/or give themselves one tight slap on either side of their cheeks.

Sure, we all whine, do we not? But just whining alone is not going to change anything, neither is it going to help make yourself feel better. The only way to bring about changes is to DO SOMETHING constructive or at least something that appears to be constructive.

Whenever I see people whine about how life is unfair and how others have it better than them. Babies, grow up, LIFE IS UNFAIR, who told you life was ever fair? It is your responsibility to effect the changes, either to change the thing at hand or to change the way you think about something. And believe it or not, someone must have worked hard to get to where they are today or at least their parents / grandparents must have worked hard to let their children / grandchildren lead an extravagant life.

And not everyone is smart, just because you are not as smart as A doesn't mean life is unfair, we are all made differently to achieve different objectives in life or to fulfill different roles in the society. A rather good friend of mine once told me, because he is not as smart as the rest, he tries to make up for his inadequacy in the mental faculty department by working hard, that's his secret for doing just as well as the other bright dudes around him. He made an effort to level the plain fields. What did you, the whiner do apart from ranting like some madman on the loose?

When I was in polytechnic, some several years ago, I was envious of my friend being listed in the business school's director's honours list but I didn't just stop at being envious, I worked my ass off to be listed on that same list consecutively for straight two years (which happens to be my penultimate and final year), thus graduating as one of the top 10% students in my cohort for my diploma. My other close friend of mine wanted to beat me in terms of studies because he was too envious of my status in the Dean's list, too worked extremely hard and graduated as the top student for one particular subject and was offered the most prestigious scholarship at SMU, look what doing something did for him. Had we both just happily stuck ourselves in the perpetual state of envying others, would we have gotten this far? No, for all I know, we might both turn into some jealous freaks who only know how to whine.

I particularly hate it when all people do is to whine / bitch about how someone is leading a better life, how someone is richer, how someone is smarter etc etc and more importantly, how life is unfair because of whatever reasons they conjure up, seriously, stop making excuses for your inadequacy, just admit you are not as good as others and from there move on and do something to change your life, make it a better one so that others can whine about how unfair it is that you lead such a good life or that what a smart guy/girl you are. Period.

'Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you.'

'If you forgive others, you will be forgiven.'

- From the Bible, Chapter Luke.

In bad times or darkest moments, all that I can think of is to hope and pray that the Lord will always be with me and see me through these insufferable times.

In bad times, I tell myself that God has made me a much more stronger person than who I really think I am and I tell myself that I must only become stronger and stronger with each passing day to survive and to live.

In bad times, I tell myself to have a grip of myself and to have constant faith in the Lord.

In bad times, I never give up on myself, I continue to live life as fully as I possibly can and seek to enrich my tortured soul with good deeds.

What do you do in your bad times?

And you are...

I know you not for your social status, where you live, your job occupation and the school you are from, I know you for who you are, I have genuine interests in finding out what you are all about, forget about what you have to offer me, you are not some commodity that walks on two legs.

I was once told by someone that, a man loves you not when he cannot bring himself to show it to you how much he cares and I cannot agree more.

I'm not sure if being shy can be a valid justification for holding back or even fear of being rejected is a valid reason, all I know is, if you truly care, you'll give it a shot, regardless of the result, love's not a calculated risk.

Nip it in the bud for buds feel no pain.

Happy Birthday Singapore!

There is perhaps no such thing as a Chinese, Indian, Malay or Eurasian thing to do but rather a Singaporean way of doing things in Singapore. Over the years, I find it increasingly difficult to distinguish what is uniquely a Chinese, Indian, Malay or Eurasian custom, for the different races don't just indulge in their own race's customs and traditions but too what is known as a Singaporean culture that is common to us all regardless of race, language or religion. Besides it is not uncommon at all to see a Singaporean Chinese being invited to attend Deepavali celebration by his/her Indian counterpart, in a way, the many different ethnic races often welcome each other to attend their festive parties.

A jade bangle on a malay lady, a chinese wearing a nonya kebaya, a group of old ladies of different races and/or religions chatting happily at the void decks of HDB flats, young adults speaking singlish, a fusion of culture and languages is perhaps what makes Singapore a special place though it's size on the map is but a dot.

We've come a long way to get to where we are today, an interracial, democratic and equalized society with minimal prejudices and discrimination, interracial friendships and fellowships without prejudices, the mutual understanding and respect we share and have for each other's cultural lifestyle and habits and last but not least, more importantly a common language, which we all own a part of, Singlish, a fusion of english and various ethnic races' language, of which little explanation is required when spoken to a fellow Singaporean, something which outsiders aka foreigners just won't get.

A little "kayu" (clumsy in malay), a little "sian", a little "teh tarik sio" (hot tea with milk), a little sharing of festive goodies among various races, a little of yours and a little of theirs, a little fusion of cultural habits, a little of fusion of the various cuisine, yes, yes, a little fusion of this and that, that is perhaps what makes us uniquely Singaporeanish!

I can't help but feel that it is with such unique qualities that allows each and every Singapore citizen to progress individually and collectively together as a prosperous nation and hey Singapore, it's ya birthday again! Here's to a better Singapore in the making and may we progress like never before, Happy Birthday Singapore!

It bugs me to no end when people constantly call me a feminist. I hereby ban everyone from calling me that because I simply am not a feminist.

I don't advocate for equality between the sexes, all I've been doing is to advocate for respect for women from sexists, the male chauvinistic king kong pigs who believe that women should be treated differently from a sliding scale of bad to being treated poorly.

I dislike conservative ideas such as women in general should know how to cook, should stay home after marriage or after pregnancy so as to be a perfect wife or parent. I simply don't think it is the men's call to decide what should their wives do or know. I believe a marriage is ultimately a partnership, it means the wives should be the ones deciding to give up their career or not for family, they should be the ones deciding whether to learn culinary skills or not, they are afterall the ones undergoing such changes. It's a simple theory, you are responsible for yourself, as in which organizations to work for, when to quit etc etc, yes no? So going by this theory, it simply means as a human being, you decide what is it in life you want to learn, achieve, do and give up. It's very simple ay? So what is it exactly, about this theory that makes me a feminist?

Sorry for the long absence. I'm back!

Just a good 11 days ago, I bid my undergraduate days goodbye. 3 years of life experiences all jam packed into 2 t-chest boxes, 1 big luggage and 2 small luggages.

Gimme a lil bit more time to settle down before I start blogging again, in the meantime, go get yourself a good book to read.

Liv

Compare and contrast

Guy: "Women = bitches, too petty to be offended. You can't live without them and you can't live with them. Life's indeed a bitch"

Girl: "Men = self gratifying creatures, all they care about is themselves, with too simple views, debating with them is such waste of time. Sometimes you wonder why they even exist in the very first place."

Are we extreme or what? LOL

Slightly amused by what sheer coincidence of an article I was reading just today, right after I blogged about betrayal of trust yesterday.

In clear simple terms, the formula with regards to trust and the antonym of trust according to this author is as follows:

Trust = Naivety

Cynical = Clever

Somehow I cannot agree with his formula equations. What say you?