if i was Raffles...

I realised that if Singapore wasn't a metropolitan city, it would have been an island, an island resorts of sort. Like Bali. Though the water might not be as clear or pristine, but i'm sure cleaning authorities could do something with that, probably close off the waters so that clean clear water would be held within Singapore waters.

Maybe Singapore should concentrate its citizens and all business orientated actitivies to the center and north side of Singapore, then create the South and East of Singapore into a tropical beach resort. You know, something like that? The repercussions of property management module. i shall present to you my version of Singapore.

I’ve already numbered the zones to give you a brief run down on what each zone entails:

Zone 1
This shall be where all the factories, water purification, dumping ground, prisons and all the ugly side of Singapore should be placed, it is strategic (as we have learned from history that the Japanese attacked as us from the north) that anyone who wants to attack us will have to come through the ugly side of Singapore. And also for many other ridiculous reasons.

Zone 2
This shall be where all the warehouses are, so that its some of like the buffer zone between residential living and business from the ugly side of Singapore.

Zone 3
This would be the CBD area, where all commercial actitivies be placed here and only here. Within the CBD area, Orchard road would still exist together with Suntec city, Vivo city, forbidden city and all the other cities within a city and so on and so forth. Companies in the city can be subdivided into 2 portions: Temasek City (consisting of all the companies that Temasek Holdings has a stake in) and The Rest of The World. It shall also have an extensive LRT system so that we can travel from one destination to another without the need of cabs. It will contain all the luxurious hotels and all the sleazy kinds from geyLand. No building should be lower than 80 storeys. Reason being the skyscrapers can see over zone 5 to see zone 6. Having a paranomic view instead of facing the mundane concrete slabs relieves city stress, rid urban pettiness. The view of the tempting resorts and relaxed suburban living may also correlate to an increases in work efficacy (I will need to prove that with regresssion). People know that they have something to look forward to and can truly relax over the wkends insteading of having the only choice of engaging themselves in stressful and hectic consumerism.

Zone 4
Basically all port activities and intense airspace activities should be concentrated here. So PSA and Changi should move there. All air and sea traffic can only come and go in unilaterally from the southwest so as not to disturb peace and tranquility of the south. Concordes should be reallowed entry because i think they're cool and pretty.

Zone 5
This would be the residential areas. All HDBs, Community centres, wet markets, ntuc should be here. Then there should be one school for every educational level since the curriculum is somewhat similar. The schools can be named Ministry of Education primary school, MOE sec school, MOE poly and MOE jc and so on. Playgrounds shall also be here. Filled with sand, not sponge (Goodness, what is a childhood without sand?) MacRitchie, Bukit timah hill and Bukit batok nature reserve shall remain the same. Throw in a few animals to make us truly tropical like all other maps suggest. Most HDBs or condos should not be over 20 storeys for the benefit of zone 3 office buildings.

Zone 6
This is where our mini resort shall be. Hey, an integrated resort for us, citizens. I've even thought of a name. It should be called Southpark. Extensive water treatment shall be enforced onto the shores so that water will be clear and blue. Instead of murky brown. Beach sand should be imported so that sand must look white and sandy like those on Siloso. Corals and fish should also be imported, together with dolphins and all the different species of rays like how Genting Resorts is bringing them in (500,000 they say). There would be free facilities such as volley ball courts and soccer courts on the beach. Other free facilitiies should also include playgrounds, street soccert courts, basketball courts.Tennis courts, indoor sports centers, indoor swimming pools, mountain biking trails, jogging and walking paths should also be built. I should be able to bike downhill all the way from bukit timah to east coast. Should also build a few sea sports recreation centres for water skiing, deep sea diving, wakeboarding, snorkelling. Should also build many chalet-style houses or even the 'island' resorts off the shore. Maybe can consider building attap houses on the water. Kelongs too. Seafood restaurants should also be placed here, so that people can eat seafood beside the sea or at the kelongs (my dream). Also build many beer gardens beside the beach like fisherman's village at paris park. Strict dress code of casual only.

Zone 7
The whole of Pulau Ubin should be OBS. In fact, Ubin should be reclaimed all the way to Tekong so the NSmen can have more space for OBS training. If possible, reclaim all the way to mainland so we can put the cumbersome ferry services out of business. The poor NS boys may also feel a stronger attachment to the land they're defending.

Zone 8
Sentosa shall stay as it is.

Jurassic Park IV

This is what you do when you come out frustrated about the paper you just had at the examination hall. You do the crazy.

I made so many barneys today.
(fyi...a barney is a blunder or mistake. source: dictionary.com)

The Fray - How to Save a Life

"How To Save A Life"

Step one you say we need to talk
He walks you say sit down it's just a talk
He smiles politely back at you
You stare politely right on through
Some sort of window to your right
As he goes left and you stay right
Between the lines of fear and blame
And you begin to wonder why you came

Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life

Let him know that you know best
Cause after all you do know best
Try to slip past his defense
Without granting innocence
Lay down a list of what is wrong
The things you've told him all along
And pray to God he hears you
And pray to God he hears you

Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life

As he begins to raise his voice
You lower yours and grant him one last choice
Drive until you lose the road
Or break with the ones you've followed
He will do one of two things
He will admit to everything
Or he'll say he's just not the same
And you'll begin to wonder why you came

Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life


Been a long time. You're not forgotten.

Morning Glory live in Singapore

I recognise this union jack...gf and me should be just next to bugger filming. Just close those eyes and relive the experience.

Oasis - Morning Glory live

Brilliance shear brilliance. Thriving mancunian rock at its best!

Hayao Miyazaki Fan

With just spirited away, i’ve become a Hayao Miyazaki Fan. It's the third time watching and amidst these times of worldly madness, it helps to be drawn into the realm of fantasy at 2am in the morning.

I'm becoming a fan of the fantasy world - Lord of the Rings, Macross, Gundam, Bleach, Star Wars, and those olden movies which involved Samurais, Chinese Dynasty.

Hayao Miyazaki have created a fantasy world that children would not get frightened even though if reality were to have it, scare the socks out of any adult.

Spirited Away is about this family that have decided to move to a new city where driving towards their house when they took a wrong turn up a hill that lead through a trail up towards a building with tunnel. Family decided to venture into the tunnel, which seemed like a station of sort. they went out of the station and into this vast greenery. The father being the adventurous stupid sort, went on further to find a town that only had restaurants but all were closed, he became the dog and sniffed out the only place that was opened. The daughter of family was scared too eat and went further to a temple looking sort of building where she meets a boy that warns her of the place and tell her to run away, she went back only to find her parents became pigs and the town comes alive with golums of sort.

She has nowhere to run and realised that she’s stuck in another world of monsters, frogs and giant chicks. This movie follows how she went on to save her family from being eaten with her new found friends in this opposite world where monsters and weird things rules the day.

Now, i just have to watch...

Princess Mononoke (I think aaron has)
Howl’s Moving Castle (I think corrine has)

After those papers that is...the papers are taking too long to come and go.

She is my sin by Nightwish

From wishes to eternity...when will we ever have something like that in singapore?

Library of Babel

"The universe is composed of an indefinite and prehaps infinite number of hexagonal galleries… From any of the hexagons one can see, interminably, the upper and lower floors. The distribution of the galleries is invariable. Twenty shelves, give long shelves per side, cover all sides except two; their height, which is the distance from floor to ceiling, scarely exceeds that of a normal bookcase. One of the free sides leads to a narrow hallway which opens into another gallery, identical to the first and to all the rest… Also through here passes a spiral stairway, which sinks abysmally and soars upward to remote distances. In the hallway there is a mirror which faithfully duplicates all appearances… The Library is a sphere whose exact centre is any one of its hexagons and whose circumference is inaccessible." - Jorge Luis Borges’

If only one day I could say something like this and be forever immortalised.

pain & grief is good for you

santa claus

Contrary to popular belief there needs to be a purpose for pain and grief.

Sometimes when i drive (i think the most while driving, because i need to think to keep myself from killing myself, which i'm sure many would wish that would happen) i think about the things you could say to the other person you have dropped off or have left.

Don't worry i'm like the most safe driver in the world and zzzooooooommmm

I've never been in an accident.

Of course go home safe and sound la!

Wait for my sms okay?

Aiya i’ll message you when i reach home la.

Then we meet into an accident and before we know it we’re surrounded at mount vernon for a gathering most would not want to come...and then people could actually say:

1. he has always been a safe driver, its so cruel
2. he has always been a reckless driver, i should have forewarned him

And then we grief on a whole lot of levels.

We feel the lost in our lifes, and we think we cannot go on without he/she but of course we do…

Which brings me back to what i wanna say, whats the point in grief and pain then? Everyone somehow gets over it…

When someone dies, why cant we just move on immediately from the incident and get on with our lifes, delete his number off our mobile phone, delete his contact on msn, inform his friends that he has passed on.

Why can't we just do that? Wouldn’t life be just so much more simpler?

Of course this applies to things like, death of a love one, bankruptcy, rape, assualt, sickness, break-ups, and everything else that breaks out heart.

Of course, for one thing, if we don't feel for anything, we wouldn't cherish what we have.

But besides that, there must be something else to that right?

Why is there so much pain in this world then?

Couldn't be because a lesson on cherish needs to be learnt? Africans don't need that lesson, neither do proverty stricken countries… but maybe singapore needs.

And if its anthony robbin’s word on “growing as a person”, the world doesn't seem to be growing a whole lot. People are still selfish, self centered, money minded, digusting bastards and jerks. Afterall we all live in a largely democratic, not in a santa claus state of karl marx.

So why must there be pain and grief, there must be a reason to feel this way, if not, there wouldn't be such a feeling right?

academia

I guess it’s only fitting that i write on something else that when my mom reads, would not flip, but sigh a deep sense of relief. My academic future. As of now, my current professional future, unattractive resume, romantic ideals of a communications and media student and expectations of those closed to me have ignited a deep and different impact on me to re-evaluate my current position and how i would like to proceed from here on.

I’m quite ashamed about my time in NUS, marks COULD have been spectacular but i don't have much to complain about. Communication & Media has been a breeze other than the minor hiccups in the first year when i didnt choose my subjects more wisely and when i squandered my life away on sports and games.

But right now, after 3 and a half years of living in school, having nerve wrecking experiences and getting tired of the whole system, i’ve taken a grip of myself and finally did what i wanted to do - Get a hold on myself. Though many people always say that they will make this year a better year by studying harder, for i am one of them too, i think this time would be different.

I’ve finally left the crossroads and look set on taking that path towards the destination. For the past 2 years, the foggy haze has left me somewhat jaded about the media/communication profession and unsure about other alternatives. I was left stranded and unsure, with no proper guidance apart from the occasional comment that “a social science degree is a mediocre degree ”, i was a lost sheep without its shepard. Of course, this was still no reason to attain bad grades for my highest responsibility and priority is to be a student - study hard, produce the grades.

Right now, what i fear most of all when prospective employers start taking a look at my resume and wonder to themselves whether they would want to employ this inexperienced fresh graduate to deal with public relations, due diligence reports, investment portfolios, industry research, relationship management. With this in mind, i’ve decided to set myself a target of doing the best i can what what’s left of my 1/2 year to elevate my grades to prove to them that at least it’s possible in me to do well academically. But hey...what's left for me to work on? Too late for realisation.

So please pray and support me in whichever way its possible. Kick me in the butt when i’m too lazy or decide to give up (yes gerald...don't always tamade me when i'm watching anime or playing football manager).

So here’s to the future and my remaining semster to prove that i have it in me, instead of just being a student of one of the 'top' universities in the world.

Good luck peeps for all your exams! Remember...life is jus phases...wadeva needs to be done will eventually be done.

to have something to die for

Was listening to queens of the stone age and the lyrics kinda said something like this

to have something to die for, is the best way to live life

To have something to die for… wouldn't that be something special? i can't really think of an individual thing to die for. Maybe a handful of things i dont mind dying for.

I wouldn't even die just to own a aston martin db9. Or would i?

fulfillment

An untouchable girl in India: National Geographic

While i try my best to live my day to the fullest and even though i pale in comparison to many others who do, i still endeavour towards that goal at my own pace.

So what exactly is fulfillment? It has eluded me and even eluded the most proactive, aggressive people i’ve known. It’s an attainment that never ends, the never ending road that really leads to no where.

Thinking about this fulfillment issue and the tasks i’ve set myself out to do like swim, riding, study sometimes serves no end at all. It serves a purpose for keeping memories sake, getting smarter, better at sports, but ultimately it doesnt serve an end at all. Or rather, it serves no direct and long term end. I always thought im long sighted but when i think about the future, i realised i’m cutting short of my own short term plans/goals/life. Or maybe its the other way round, im cutting short of my long term goals and focusing on my short term life. It can be seen both ways, everything is relative, just like how HSBC brands itself.

And while doing these things do make me happy somewhat, knowing that i have fully functional body parts to achieve it all, i can't help but helpless when things don't add up.

I think of myself and i remember the plight other children are facing out in the world, some smiling some not… So what’s fulfillment afterall? And what end does it serve?

toilet habits

Some people wipe the toilet seat before sitting down.

Some people use wet towels to wipe the seat before sitting down.

Some people buy towel seat covers for 20c. (I’ve only seen this available @ City Hall Mrt)

Some people bring in some form of material to read.

Some people play games on their mobile phone/psp/gameboy.

Some people watch EPL on the LCD Television infront of them, in their swanky Million Dollar apartment toilet.

Some people have lunch/break quickies.

Some people take 5 minute power naps.

Some people ponder away.

Some people hide in there.

Some people live there.

Some people look at the tissue after wiping their ass.

What are your toilet habits???

Go enjoy your shit today!!!

Hahaha......-_-"

Funny how

It’s funny how we started as irrational individuals for the first 10 days and now requires us to be mature and responsible adults in maintaining what we have and striving for what we want for the future.

And seriously, i think it’s just so special that way.

A stupid thought

I just had a thought just now while watching a trailer on another war movie. I was thinking, what if the predominant percentage of men were gay, and were brought to war. How would that turn out?

Well, honestly speaking, the gay men might probably lose. It’s like getting straight guys to go to war with women. It’s like we’re killing potential mating partners! I mean, what if a gorgeous women was at the other side of the battle field, would you shoot at her? Well maybe you would if you’re necrophilia, but i dont think many people are.

Maybe that’s the reason why countries like Singapore do not promote homosexuality. Afterall, if a country that has 4 million citizens, a dot in the world map and has no natural resources makes conscription compulsory, i dont think they want their men to be gays and unfightable machines.

Oh well, just me and my stupid thoughts…and ya...its nearly 5 and i'm halfway through my paper. Yay.

efilsidas

"Life is sad so sadness is something that shouldn't be avoided or denied" - Robert Redford

Baby Blues

It is amazing to watch a kid grow up. From the moment he is born, innocent and fragile, to his first steps, to when he is able to give rational retorts. The upbringing itself - the evidence of model behaviour, the TLC showered, the cultivation of values - in which the child should be consigned to a conducive environment, perhaps, can be considered the most intrinsic part of our lives.

Watching the cutie wriggle around and mumble unintelligible stuff at the dinner table and snuggling up to his mum, I'm suddenly struck with this apprehension. Of whether the babies i know of have been subjected to the best possible childhood within our capabilties. (That baby definitely has...i just think of weird stuff.)

Actually I think there isn't a right or wrong childhood. Just happy or sad ones. But a sad one must be certainly fraught with the "wrong" kind of upbringing. Being a parent or a role-model to a kid is not easy. Our every action and word shapes his cognition and sometimes, although it may not be deliberate, our unconsciousness/negligence is a bane to their healthy psychological growth. So I do wonder from a perspective of a father, whether I could fulfill this role? It's like watching this little kid from a chubby little thing cradled in my arms to a pre-teen waiting to enter adolescence. This feeling is of a love only such kinship withholds.

manitou table lamp!

Now...how cool is that?

Nonchalance

One of my friends told me recently I'm very nonchalant. In the dictionary, that means "behaving very calmly and seeming not to care and worry about anything." Nonchalance has its pros and cons I guess. Its good in the sense like how in the face of problems, you don't fluster and cave in that easily to your emotions.

I like that. I think having control over your emotions is very important...so you think with your head rather than feel with your heart, especially for occasions when sensibility is necessary. I sound like I'm such a person but for people who really know me, they know otherwise. I guess that over the years, I've grown numb. Like once you fight in one too many battles, you get worn and weary. Bao jing chang shang. (Great, I've actually thought of a Chinese proverb...-_-")

The vigour, the zest and the innocence of youth - are lost. You don't feel pain when you get stabbed or slashed because you have grown accustomed to it or perhaps, you just don't care anymore. Nonchalance is bad because sometimes it means you are devoid of feelings...lifeless? I wonder if he meant it in this context. Like nothing interest you anymore and it probably take a bomb to re-ignite the flame. Sounds familiar.

Anyway, if it rubs people the wrong way, then perhaps more sensitivity should be injected.

Pain

Imagine a finger against the ceiling fan on 3.

Ouch.

Honesty

Hardly a day goes by without some sort of controversy erupting on the local blogosphere these days. Who thought writing could be so wildly exciting- its almost like a contact sport.

I guess controversy and notoriety makes for strange bedfellows. Still it can be a double-edged sword because more readers also means more chances of you offending someone whether intentional or not.

I usually try to stay away from the controversial stuff, activate a grenade and smoke out so that things do not become apparent on this site (not like I need anymore aggravations in my life). Trying to be controversial and provocative can only go so far before it turns around and bites you in the arse. As the chinese saying goes- one who goes up the mountain on too many times are bound to meet a tiger...pardon the translation.

Apparently some people thinks honesty is a license to say all kinds of things or that a joke is perfectly acceptable no matter how insulting it might be. Like if you don’t get it, the fault is with you. What people are going to realise that with honesty also comes responsibility. You might feel one way about certain issues, but that does not grant you the license to speak your mind without being mindful about others who do not share your viewpoints. I am not asking people to be dishonest, but to be respectful of differing viewpoints.

People can boast about how strong they are, but eventually fierce public criticism will bring anyone down- unless you happen to have sociopathic tendencies. I can’t help but feel some people are just being blatantly manipulative when they threaten to stop blogging because of all the negative comments they are getting. It's because they know the legions of the lunatic fringe that they can count on as their loyal fanbase will surely beg and grovel for them to come back- a little boost to the battered ego, no?

Well I'll love to wait with bated breath for the next storm in the teacup.

baby

I just submitted a 25,000 research paper.

I feel a little lost and naked now.

The Amazing Race

I used to run the 1500m and 3000m steeplechase during my school days and the last lap run the track is always the killer. Your lungs are burning, every step is a labour and you’re always afraid of the the guy behind catching up. Meanwhile you can hear the screaming and cheering in the stands but you’re not sure if they cheering for you or cheering for the guy behind to overtake you. So your heart is pounding at 150 beats a minute and the one thing in the world you’d really like to do is stop right there and then- so tired you can drop any minute.

And this is how it always feels like wherever you reach the last round of submissions. It feels exactly the same now. Its the last lap of the race and mentally it feels so draining now. The bounce in the step every morning is nothing but a faint memory now and it gets just a little harder to drag your ass out from bed every morning. I wonder if this feeling ever goes away.

Thankfully, there will be a good break after, a welcomed respite from the daily grind of churning out presentation and papers. Not that I am complaining, but I wished there were some mental redbull for the days when you’re literally running on fumes. The break couldn’t come fast enough.