change has come!

Or has it?


In my opinion, the people have changed but the war will remain.
Within 24 hours, he has already picked a fight with the world's largest population.
Not very wise indeed.

Perhaps it was to quench the bloodlust that his people demanded.
Have change really come?


Its still too early to judge, but never to early to be critical of these glamourous promises.

Acting 101

Find a motivation behind your lines.
Make your lines mean something.

Resonance

Like a large brick that hits my head,
I finally realise why Ryuichi Sakamoto's Merry Christmas Mr.Lawrence strummed such a powerful cord of resonance in my memories when I heard it for the first time last year during dance practice.


Heart Of Asia- Watergate
UK#3 1999
might have subtly implanted the powerful melody somewhere deep into my head while I was studying for PSLE.

1155

Blog entry 1155:
Fish tanks.

A relatively unknown random fact about Pedro (to my university/hall friends):
He is a tropical fish enthusiast.

That's right. I have been keeping my own fish tanks since the tender age of 14 in Secondary 2.
His first tank was an impromptu fish tank set up after he won some fishes in a carnival from Monkshill Secondary.

As his father was a goldfish enthusiast in the past, there was an old tank available. All but 1 (an orange molly) of his fish in that plastic bag died, the survivor lasted for almost 9 months before eventually dying too.

In his span of 8 years, I have experimented with a wide range of fish, which includes, goldfish, guppies, tetras, sucker fish(plecos), archerfish, arowana, ropefish, senegal birchirs, walking catfish, sturgeons, pacus, the list goes on...

I've noticed that in many ways, you can tell what kind of person an aquarist is by observing his aquarium. A fish tank is the window to the aquarist's soul.

Some aquarium are very grand. Lush vegetation, brilliant lighting, high grade planter soil with fertilisers and carbon dioxide dissipater (for photosynthesis). Hiding within the overwhelming and imposing amounts of vegetations, a small number of fish happily rest in their abundant shelters.

Other aquariums are suprisingly bare. One luohan ,an air pump. That's it. Water change shall be done manually. Plain and simple.

Certain aquariums are aesethically pleasing. Colourful shoals of guppies flutter about, making way for the giant dragonfish that slowly glides throught the water. It contrasting size in fish may be interesting but it hides the fatal undercurrents. Every night... more guppies disappear into the giant's belly. A tank that has planned to fail.

Aquariums may also have a natural layout. The rocky lakes of Congo. The colourful cichlids hide in their caves all day. While these fish would require some effort to spot... they spot the most splendid hue due to their high level of comfort.

Some tanks are just in a mess. contrasting fish species; predatory, territorials fighters, aggressive bullies. Wrong plant species. Algae boom. Unchanged water and decaying filter. No excuses, you are just messed up.


so which aquarium do I belong to?

Green Again

Relationships are like traffic lights. Before I entered university, I never heard about this analogy, now that I have, things seem a lot clearer.

Recently, a large number of my friends returned to the green realm, some have turned red and others stuck in the limbo.

But there are more to traffic lights than just colours. They regulate the flow of people and in this case, what they should do with their feelings. If one is to drive without heeding their warnings, there are bound to be severe consequences.

Red. Taken.If you are thinking of dashing across a red light, don't even think about it. Although you may come across a red light in the dead of the night,and crossing the line may seem like the reasonable thing to do, there will always be consequences.

You'll never know if there is a motorist around, or perhaps a camera watching your actions silently, waiting to expose you to the world.

Amber. Yellow, the universal colour of caution. Amber may mean two things; it is in the phase of turning Red from Green, or Green from Red. Many facebook users will relate this to the 'It's complicated' status.

The truth is that it means a lot more than just ambiguity. When you come across an amber light,most will choose to stop. some will choose to make a dash.

The point of amber being there as a transition, is not to proclaim he/she will be green( or red) soon. It means what its supposed to mean. Caution. Amber indicates that this is a stage of change and transistion. It also indicates that one should excercise utmost caution when approaching this sign.

(I personally, however, see no need for such a classification. things are either red or green. I blame this on my low level of personal constructs.)

Finally, GREEN. Green means go. You may proceed on with this road. It doesnt mean, you must take this road. Green may not be the best road to your destination... but HEY! You can take it for now.

Many see green as a sad sign, other see it as freedom. I am neutral about the whole issue as it is a matter of personal choice.

Being in a relationship isn't a result of circumstances, it is a result of many recurring occasions and choices that results in the eventual decision to be together. Like my previous analogy, its taking a roadtrip.

There are many paths with many traffic lights. Some will choose to dash from lane to lane, trying to make it for the Green lights. Some will choose wait patiently for the Red to turn Green. Some will try their luck with an Amber or even a Red. They ought to be fined.

Others... (like my very very very hot and available roomie) will park his car and take his time with the street directory before making his decision. He has been reading it for 22 years However, we should take note. In the journey of life, we can observe the flashing lights as much as we want, but there is no guarantee where each path ends.

Things may not always turn out the way we envisioned them to be. Very often, we find not only the paths that we take changing, but ourselves as well.

Reaching the dead end of the road doesn't mean that your journey is wasted and over. Mark it down in your street directory, park your car or go the gas station if you must. The journey is far from over.

Would you hit back?

Fight or flight. Two very basic instincts embedded into our behavioural fabrics.
In Singapore, however, another instinct we have is to camouflage.

During lunch, my friends and I had an interesting debate. We were engaging in P2P experience sharing when one of us recounted how a lady screamed that she was molested on the train. She very violently 'apprehended' the culprit. Obviously, she needed no help making herself heard. but as usual, most bystanders simply ignored her calls and made it none of their business.

I form part of the majority. I don't really care whether she was molested or not.
Instead, I posed a perplexing dilemna:

If you are guy,
and you stumble upon a couple caught in a heated argument. Suddenly, the man slaps the woman.


What would you do? What should you do?
Should you take a firm moral stand, step in and tell the man off?
Should you step in to just break up the fight and prevent it from escalating?
Should you stay back and observe from afar, only to step in if the situation escalates?
Should you just STFU and stay out of other people's affairs?

At the end of the day, it really boils down to how concrete you see your abstraction of moral values are. There is a very fine line between mutual repsect for privacy and a coward. There is an even thinner line between courage and being a self-rigtheous brat.

My friends, what would you do?

Back Home

Sorry Audrey, I could not resist not doing this.

20th January

let this be my feeble attempt at viral marketing.

*note. I am NOT the panda.

Hello 2009

After reading YongXi's review of his previous blog entries for 2008, I decided to do the same.
Being a slightly more photo-based journal than his, I took a much shorter time to recap the entire year.
Every blog entry works in the same way as a photo. Sometimes, when we see something amazing, the sense of amazement and awe tend to override our logical observations. In our biological memory, the emotional tag tends to be more prominent than the actual details recorded. Thus distortion occurs.
A blog entry allows a proper capture of our thoughts and emotions at that particular frame of time. without being distorted by the happenings after the event.

I have no inspiration to write any inspiring entry or revelation today. The previous night's worth of emoing is more than a recommended dosage of self-imposed misery for this month.
Every time I come back to HK, my emotions are on the extreme. Extreme nostalgia. Extreme comfort. Extreme shock and happiness. Extreme distraught. Extreme melancholy. Well, whatever the emotions I feel now, I should not let them get the way between my tastebuds and the food, or my ears and the augasmic music selection.

cheers everyone. The worst kind of misery is the one that is self-imposed.
The race will begin again in 2 days, its time to pick ourselves up and keep our eyes on the road.

First and worse

Every year I try to end the year or start the year with some meaningful or philosophical post. Screw it this year,
my mouth reeked of long island tea,
My eyes were tired and i was tired of waiting on the phone for a cab that won't come.

2007:
Best decision- to be with you
Worst mistake- to have lost you.