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we are waaaay too cynical about our own people and i'm not using enough As.

just look at the postings on stomp talkback section. everyone complains about an action and make the sweeping statement "singaporeans are (insert complaint)". it's odd though and it's a very bad culture that we fail to tackle the issue and instead, tackle the people.

recently, a colleague of mine, who is of a supervisory position in the company, was thrown a problem from the client. he wondered how to reply because the communication broke down on the client's side.

this client has another colleague who liases with us. and both of them didn't communicate which resulted in the problem.

my colleague was quite troubled by the problem, he had asked me if we should just throw the issue to the client who liases with us. after a short pause, he asked if i could reply instead. i did. and i chose to address the issue without naming anyone. i don't know when but i have this very faint memory that i was ever taught always to tackle the issue and never the person. i digress.

and i can't remember what i wanted to say.

i was never taught never to digress.











the public transport is getting noisier and noisier.

following a plethora of irritating and unnecessary announcements at the train stations and the tv ads that threaten to burst your earphones, the buses are doing the same.

today i boarded the new 854 bus and when the front door opens, the bell goes "ding dong" followed by "thank you for travelling with smrt" and just before the back door closes, there is the familiar "doors are closing... dit dit dit dit dit dit dit dit"

yes. the buses now have the same warning as the train doors. and it is bloody irritating.

the employees always ALWAYS (i can't stress it enough) think that more function = good. actually they are just trying to show that they are doing work.

PLEASE!!! give commuters some peace...


one of kiyosaki's lessons to us - pay yourself first. never dig into your savings for your bills. this is important but difficult to do.

he says that when you pay yourself first every month and the remaining amount is not enough for your bills, you will find ways to get that money because you need it to pay. sadly, most of us choose the easy way out - to dig into our savings. or we would always pay the bills first and pay ourselves with the remaining.

recently i caught oprah's best life week (if you have cable tv, you can catch the special on hallmark channel on the 5-9 jan week in 2009).

yes, i watched it first =D.

anyway, kiyosaki's point was reiterated by a statistic brought up by suze orman, an internationally acclaimed personal finance expert. the following information will wake you up. it is shocking.

on average, a homeless drug-addict in america spends usd$140,000 a year on drugs alone. that's more than usd$15000 a month. approximately sgd$21000 a month. how the hell did they get that amount of money?!

when interviewed, they said, "you just need the money"

so you see, when you are desperate enough for money, you will find some way to get it. i'm beginning to believe those shows where the pie kias manage to get ten over thousand of dollars to pay off debts within 3 days.

我只给你三天的时间。。。

it's always 3 days, i wonder why...


i was watching an episode of the oprah winfrey show today. it showed a recap of a little boy, who by now have passed, giving an interview. he was on life support and wheelchair probably since he was born but the words that he said were enormous. it was beyond what any adult could. he felt and touched what most people can only dream about. he reached a state of spirituality and was at ease with himself.

while watching the recap, a colleague walked over and asked what i was watching. i gave him a rough idea what this boy went through and he asked...

him: then 为什么你没有流眼泪？
me: 为什么要流眼泪？
him: 哎哟，没有慈悲之心。
me: 为什么要流眼泪才有慈悲之心？

why must i tear if i have compassion?

why must i display my compassion?

for a devout buddhist, he relied too much on the physical, which by the teachings of buddhism, is all but transient.

does tearing mean i have compassion? does not tearing mean i have none?


it's been raining quite a bit these few days and today's no exception. there wasn't breakfast at home today. sounds quite random but you'll see the connection soon.

when i reached my workplace, i went to the canteen to get a bun and a curry puff. while walking to the office, there was this small area where there isn't any shelter. i wondered if i should make a detour, but seeing that the floor is wet either way, i decided to walk straight. suddenly i slipped real hard and just when i thought i could avoid injuring my head, my neck gave way and the back of my head went straight for the wet tiles. *ouch*

my bun's flattened and my curry puff crushed.

2 men saw me fall but that's not so important. i wondered why my neck couldn't hold my head. for the rest of the day my neck was aching such that if i tilt it backwards at a certain angle, i can feel the strain on my neck and can't hold it in that position. i would have to let it fall back. it feels like something broke.

now i'm wondering if the ache came from the fall or earlier when i was doing crunches this morning without warming up properly.

the good news is, i still managed to finish my bun and curry puff.

now, why didn't my bun cry when i fell?

i'm certain it had fillings...


how long has it been since this book was first launched? i have no idea. but it was not until recently that i finally borrowed a copy of this book from max to read. i have no idea why.

i was previously very repulsed by the idea that all this book teaches is for you to join a multi-level marketing company to receive passive income. no it isn't. whoever told me so, you suck. i can't remember who anyway, so you don't have to admit it's you.

for some unknown reason, while i was at max's place on tuesday, i recalled that he has a copy of this book and decided to borrow from him. i still don't know what made me want to read. maybe i've begun to doubt whatever i've heard. and so, i finished the book in 2 days. it was such a good read, i didn't want to put it down after i started.

but i had to.

can't sleep with my hands holding the book up.


when i was told about the impending lawsuit against coldplay from guitar master joe satriani, i was like wtf?

after listening to coldplay's viva la vida and satch's if i could fly, i couldn't help but notice the similarity between these two songs. even for an untrained ear, the similarity is so stark, you'd wonder if one was the cover of the other. nah... just kidding.

i'm a mini coldplay fan and i don't listen to satch at all. however, i am not going to defend coldplay by saying that it's not the same or that the world has so many other songs that sound the same. but look at the mandarin pop market. you can handle over 80% of the songs with a C Am F G progression.

when i heard of this issue, what immediately came to mind was an article i read off carol's assignment some 1-2 years ago. that article was written by mark twain and the topic?

unconscious plagiarism

and it works like this. you read so much of someone's works that your thinking begin to formulate the same way and after some time, you don't really recall what exactly you've read. but when you begin to write on the topic, you unknowingly plagiarise the content thinking you came up with it yourself. and this very content has already been residing in your mind after having read it off that person's works.

mark twain did it and he wrote a letter of apology explaining the circumstances of his unconscious plagiarism to the original author.

i believe it works the same way in music too. sometimes i hum something that sounds nice and think i came up with it. but later, found it actually came from some song i've heard.

so all you honours students out there, prepare a letter of explanation on unconscious plagiarism and you can freely plagiarise next semester. if you get caught, just submit this letter. =)

just don't quote me. it's ok if you claim this idea as your own.


had a throat infection that caused even my left ear to hurt when i swallow and a swollen gum near the back of my teeth made it almost impossible for me to eat anything. but i still had to swallow without chewing much. any movement on my jaw makes the pain even more pronounced.

*ouch*

while i was downing a bowl of hot fish porridge, the pain was so bad, i was hoping if only i couldn't feel the pain. but that changed in a matter of seconds when i recalled reading an article about a toddler who can feel no pain. there's nothing else wrong with her nervous system. she can feel it when she touches things or people. she can feel the weight of a heavy bag on her shoulders. but one thing she can't feel is pain.

and her mother said she would do anything to let her precious daughter feel pain.

sounds sick? think again...

pain is an important feeling. it tells us that there's something wrong with our body. it tells us that something needs to be fixed.

by now, i've visited the doctor and am almost fully recovered and it's all thanks to this extremely unpleasant feeling.

the visit to the clinic cost me $87.70... speaking of unpleasant feelings. = =


it's been a year since i left school. no, i'm not missing school. not one bit. the thought of research papers will drive me crazy especially after my final semester effort. but somehow, leaving school has made me lose touch with writing.

for the past few entries, i am no longer able to find the right words to express myself and always ended up settling for something having similar semantics but not at all close to what i had in mind.

is my brain deteriorating from all those late nights? maybe. a few hours ago at 6pm, i ordered liangteh from a particular coffee shop. hours later at 830pm, i was at another coffee shop and when the drink stall lady came to ask if we ordered drinks, i thought i already ordered liangteh. = =

on a very random note, i've decided not to go for lasik after reading horror stories of someone who got it done 10 years ago and is now blind in one eye and partially blind in the other.

i want my eyes... T_T


*names have been changed to protect the actual parties

some time ago, i was having a meeting with one of our clients. let's call her lippy*. the first time i met her was some months ago at their office somewhere in the city. before we met, the image of her was pretty intimidating. how she was so strict with our work.

a few months after that first meeting, though my impression of her grew better, it still felt like she was the serious adult who is always prim and proper. after all, she's already a mother and parents always have this same image - no games and don't try to be funny.

but during that particular meeting a few weeks ago, i noticed something different. the meeting was pretty much a drag. it took quite a while to end and towards the closure, i noticed her scribbling something on her notepad. i glanced over and saw her drawing her name on it like a restless school kid who can't wait for the class to end. she was literally decorating the individual letters that spelt lippy*.

it made me realise, in spite of the managerial position she holds, there's a child hidden somewhere inside her.

now i feel more comfortable talking to her. i'm better with children.


some time ago, after constantly reading of homicides in the papers, mum grew quite disturbed by them. she said it was quite saddening to be reading of these murder cases every so often.

but i had a differing opinion.

i told her that we should feel happy or fortunate that we are reading about them. i do not mean that we should rejoice at the deaths of innocent victims. but we should be thankful that when such things happen, the papers blow a large headline over it, exhibiting their disbelief at the atrocity of the perpetrators.

these things are huge news because they do not happen often. because we are a civilised and cultured society. imagine living in a place where killings happen every day. it is in those countries that murder is no longer news. they stop publishing about killings because it has become a routine. should there be zero murders in a day, it would probably be a huge news.

ZERO DEATHS FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 150 YEARS!

or something to that extent. thus, we should rejoice the fact that murder cases are huge news. should one day it becomes nothing of interest, we may begin to realise that all evolution did was make us less hairy.


sometimes when i read the entries of stomp star bloggers and form an opinion of their writing, i begin to wonder what i would write if i were one of them.

ya i know i'm not a star, but if i had to blog once a week on the topic they give, inevitably, i will be writing nonsense on some weeks because some topics are too hard to write a good entry.

but if i have no pictures to put, i wouldn't go search the net and throw in random pictures because they make no sense and have no purpose being there. some bloggers do that though, just to make the page look more colourful but i think it's...

heck! who cares what i think. i'm not a star blogger.


i can never forget the lyrics of paul's original - that famous street. especially the two lines which i have yet seen any other professional able to produce.

they say the world needs a new hero
i say those heroes need a better world...

these 2 lines are simple but huge.

it's a simple phenomenon.

each time something unsatisfactory happens and people want things to change, they hope for someone to speak out for them. they look for a hero.

but when someone actually stands out and voice the people's concern, everyone backs out for fear of trouble. they hide behind and not show their support. these heroes do need a better world.

i'm wondering if a certain infamous chee can fall into that category. i wonder...


after years of contemplation i finally bought a new guitar under mike's recommendation.

tada~



love this guitar to bits. the body shape was what i had been looking for all along. and the smooth matt finish just makes it better.

the sound is significantly better than what i used to have.

the originally $799 price tag was, after a 20% discount, down to $639. having sold my 6-year-old guitar at $100, i'm just paying $539 for this beauty. it's really a steal. the fact that it's 24-frets is a bonus.

let's swing!