blow wind blow

what many recall it to be a childish game

is now a medium turning full strength typhoon

about to toy with anybody that crosses her path.

we always say mother nature is angry.

but is she by nature, just a violent drunkard mother?

.

even so, none of us want to leave her side.

no one wants mars or venus taking custody of us;

we'd rather remain beaten and battered.

after all, the wind can only blow on and

soon this will all pass.

okay, i think i should elaborate on my previous entry; partly because i was uber tired and fatigued from yesterday's work and could only manage to write that puny condensed entry with the mangled remains of my brain.

it started with a 4km run in the morning right afetr i woke up that left not just me, but everybody tired and sluggish. giving everybody only 45mins to bathe and have breakfast was uncomfortably impossible and that obviously made the entire situation worse. we were the living dead in green. and then the arrows started coming in.

there was to be a conference later that day- mind you, that conference is apparrently one with the highest protocol, other than the presenters the members were of a rank of at least a major- and our camp had to present some projects taht we were working on. i was arrowed to come up with a presentation slide, Just the slides. and so i did, within half an hour; cause remember, i was tired Already. and then the vetting of the slides started and the person who was supposed to present it couldn't explain it properly, so i guessed i just added in a few words here and there to explain in greater detail - i honestly think the idea is a good one and didn't want it to go down the drain just because the bars and crabs didn't have a clear picture about it - and then, the nonsense happened. base commander asked me to present this particular project at the conference that day. imagine my expression: STUN.

butterflies in my stomach throughout the journey to the meeting venue but i thought, what the heck. just get it over and done with. and so i did. it went well, so well that the project was apporved almost immediately albeit some questions here and there. but we did well. good. so then we were supposed to return back to base camp at 1700h and then the next nonsense happened. base comd asked me to send the rest back to camp, then go to his house to pick up his wife and then send her back down to meeting place. apparently there was an impromptu dinner for them. crap.

so i did just that. by the time i got back to camp it was already 1915h and i was already fatigued. another trip down would honestly kill whatever energy i have left. but what to do? i couldn't deviate this arrow and soon found myself back in the very same city i was in 4hours earlier. i only left the city at 2200h and reached back to camp at 2330h.

a quick bath and a quick check on the inbox and then a quick short puny entry of the entire day's work forced me to go to bed at 0000h. and then i had to wake up at 0350h to go to the airport.

so here i am at the airport writing this seemingly elaborate description of what exactly happened yesterday. i'm still tired and sleepy; nothing much has changed physically since yesterday. but i think i'm quite satisfied.

what a day.

completed a presentation within thirty minutes

presented at the highest local conference

been to taipei twice and back

and i'm supposed to be up at 0350h tomorrow.

screw it.

4D3N of travelling has resulted in sore feet, aching limbs and many happy memories. uhhuh, DUDES I'M BACK! a brief outline of where i went: kenting, kaoshioung, tainan, jianhushan theme park, and other small crappy places which i do suppose were meant to kill time. pictures would be duly uploaded and tagged on facebook soon, so keep a look out for it!

lots of time were spent on travelling

zooming through the head and reality.

i used you to get to my dreams

but you brought me to unreal fantasies.

after months of preparation, Finally the anniversary is over. *sigh of relief* honestly, so much work has been put in in the preparation and all that absolute nonsense, not to mention all the crap our ears had to endure during those hour long meetings which at the start didn't settle anything, rest is what we really need now. and it's apt that the upper management is giving us a half day off tomorrow. awesome or not, that's not the point. the point is, ANNIVERSARY IS OVER. and sleep is my best friend.

well done darren.

you did well.

if only love can be told

from blowing leaves

and autumn-gold wind.

That feeling's starting to creep in

and i'm not entertaining it;

hoping, just hoping that like the wind,

it's just a passing thing.

dinner with singapore in taiwan was lovely.

it was heartening

it was encouraging

i think it was plain awesome.

ah, soon that day will come when

dinner with singapore will be a daily affair.

jeremy said, "safety seminar changed to two o' clock."

i heard it as, "please send some apples to my block."

i guess some things Just don't change

women can parade their underwear in the presence of men.

but men cannot, at least in the eyes of this organisation.

that proves that men can be marginalised too.

BUT i guess we never lose out, OOPS.

urgh, headaches suck.

it's ironic that singapore has a national heritage board that aims to preserve certain iconic structures that represent the national spirit, as well as those which showcase the history of this small republic, AND still allow some of these known buildings to be demolished Just Like That to pave the way for the new up-and-coming mrt track.

does this mean that history, regardless of its richness and antiquity, can and should be erased off the face of the earth if and when it collides with the plans of the future? do we restore only those historical structures which somehow, miraculously, do not fall into the Grand masterplan for the future?

i'm sure, give us just 5 years from the demolition of the 7th Storey Hotel, and we would CLEANLY forget our roots and the history that piece of land once had there. because in the name of making singapore a better place for the Future, we seem to somehow forget our Past.

okay so here are my few cents worth, after reading some local news online:

first. the fourth university. okay, rather education in singapore in general. honestly i think there is definitely space for a fourth university in singapore, now in present terms. i mean it took just a Fraction of the cohort of the '88 dragon babies to make a statement that there is just no space for our children. this still happened despite the fact that there was already an increase in the total number of spaces by the three universities. that's short term. in the long term however, judging from the low birth rates would the birth of a fourth tertiary instituition be justified? well, i may be myopic and don't enjoy having much numerical data at hand, but would and could this pose as a problem? could the fourth university in the long run, prove to be an extra educational instituition.

singapore can take pride in her educational standards. we have topped or at least nearly topped some educational research/ surveys/ studies done at a global scale, and our education models are widely followed in many countries. in the country that i am in right now, there are hundreds of tertiary institutions that even the locals claim them to be just degree mills. amongst them, i have only so far noticed only two universities in the ranking list of some forgotten year. as compared to singapore's two out of three universities making it into the top 100, one even to the top 50, i think it speaks a lot of our standards. so that brought me to my abovementioned point? would the fourth university, on top of the private instituitions And overseas universities- that some organisation has been desperately bidding for them to come and set up campus here- be ultimately just an ordinary top 500 degree mill?

--

that leads me to the article about local employers being concerned about local talent leaving to work abroad. first question: of what proportion are our local graduates intending to work abroad? and secondly: of what proportion are our singaporean graduates studying overseas, leaving the country to work? i think when we break those numbers down, we would get a clearer picture wouldn't we, of not just the reasons but the solutions, if there are any, as well. if the graduates who study overseas stay overseas then it's really not surprising to me that those who majored in finance, business and real estate do just so.

okay, why finance/ business? despite the fact that both the business schools of NTU and NUS are globally reknowned and the up-and-coming one at SMU, the academic requirement for entry into these schools are roughly the same. well at least on paper, or website, it is. 4As and at least a merit in your GP is the BASIC requirement. so one may then argue that it is only necessary to set such high standards for entry to ensure that we attract the top students not just locally but internationally too. but what about the general population? those who didn't get those pristine grades? those who marginally did not make the fianl cut, be it at the interview or the grades? uhhuh, real estate then? from what i know, only NUS offers a degree in real estate and it's a rather small crowd actually. so those who have the interest but don't make it, where do they go? for all three disciplines, you guessed it. they go overseas. why would they not come back to work? question we should be asking is why should they? maybe the jobs there pay more, maybe they completely forgotten what being singaporean is all about (although i hope not, if not there would most definitely be a revision to the social studies subject at secondary school)

--

which leads to me back to the question of education. we definitely don't want a degree mill that compromises on eduational standards. i wonder. it would also be senseless if every child of singapore ends up getting a degree, it would just fuel the sick lust for that coveted paper qualification, but where and when does it end? in my course of choosing a university i've considered some australian universities and what caught my eye was the fact that despite the lower entry requirements, as compared to singapore, these australian universities fared better than our local unis on almost all of the global rankings. of course, some may argue that the rankings are not all that important, they could be flawed as well. but they do give us an indication of some comparison, at least.

so bottomline is, are we flawed in giving our general population an education?

(heyhey, don't get me wrong. i still believe in the education standards of my homeland and what it has done and will continue to provide for this country. and it is only because i believe so much in it, that is why i question what else more can we do, so that others can benefit from it)

a bottle which has drifted far out into the sea

never returns back to his roots with the waves.

no, he leaves behind a legacy; a memory, if ever, remains.

and if that bottle would one day return to that sandy beach,

let him be filled with the salty water he has been in before.

for it would be futile if the owner

picked him up,

found him empty

and then throw him back into the salty waters again.

--

i've looked at life from both sides now

and i realised i've never known life at all.

i've looked at love from some sides now

and i realised i've never known love at all.

nowadays i just think of life, not you.

these days, i don't even bother thinking about love.

they say that when you find love, love doesn't come to you.

when you're desperate, love also doesn't come to you, either.

i guess there are those times when you dream of falling in love and wanting to get attached and all that nonsense, but truth be told i don't want to commit all of that. or at least, if i can help it. there is so much nonsense involved that at the end of it all, are we just acting according to what society wants us to be? and if not, does the society that we leave in today permit singles, or worse, those who havent had a relationship by the age of twenty, to fully participate in societal activities? housing becomes a problem, and i;m sure there are many other problems that accompany the housing one.

falling in love, surprisingly is a modern concept. think about the old times when marriages were arranged and the couple involved don't even know one another till the day of marriage. falling in love before marriage would be an obscure thought, if not an impossible one. and for that matter, if the couple were to fall in love after marriage, that might even be an unlikelihood. so what's with the whole deal about falling in love.

ah. love.

it makes us say the dumbest things.

who knows? i may say all these opposing words today

and be full of praise of it tomorrow.

the funny things of love.

love, the funny thing.

my heartfelt condolences.

"kor kor...."

"什么事？”

- he plays with the child.

"kor kor...."
"什么事？”
- he plays with the child again.

"kor kor...."
"什么事？”
- he plays with the child yet again.

finally,

"kor kor...."

"kor kor 要睡觉啦。"

"kor kor...."

"kor kor 头痛了，不要吵。"

"kor kor...."

"哎哟，都跟你说了不要吵 kor kor 了。”

"kor kor...." .....

"kor kor...." .....

"kor kor...." .....

--

such is the joy of being innocently a child.

what happens in vegas, stays in vegas.

what happened in singapore, stays in singapore;

and more.

it's aptly forgotten.

here are some of the words used during a pre-ippt briefing held

"ippt parcipitants" - it's meant to be par-ti-ci-pants

"masharrers" - it's meant to be mar-sha-llers

and the best....

"testees" - it's meant to refer to those taking the test.

wth.

--

anyway, onto more interesting news abroad. i understand there has been a recent row about the display of nude children's photos in an art exhibition under the context that it is art. since my younger days studying art history and all that nonsense i was taught that art was meant to be a personal thing in the first place. art is meant to inspire, encourage, give hope, and even, anger, disappoint and even raise controversy. however the latter negative impacts are just to give effect to the former positive ones. they are not meant to remain as a source of anger or controversy. so with this in mind, has the artist crossed the line of censorship and art? years ago, the distinction between high art and low art was blurred with the incoming of movements such as the dada period and surrealism. with this furore is there going to be another blur in motion? or is this just downright immoral. then again, maybe this IS the purpose of the art at hand- to create a whooha.

ah. i love art. it's just so personal. you can never fully understand it, let alone study it in detail. because there is absolutely no way one can ever comprehend fully the significance of the art piece to the artist who conceptualised it. i love art.

i believe musicians and choristers would agree with me on this too. we're just a different breed of people as compared to those who play with their rackets or worse, ball.

OOPS.

people come people go,

but life still needs to go on.

those were definitely memorable times

and i'm sure there will be even more to come.

thank you my dearest friends

for the memories, encouragement and love.

so now here i am

four months away from home

and life needs to go on.

go catch American Pastime, a 2007 film.

a film of the war that america fought in europe and how the japanese-americans fought alongside their native caucasian counterparts even to the point of saving them and how despite all that they've done out of the states, there is still much discrimination back at home. maybe it's something that we as asians can understand. then again, maybe it's something i cannot understand fully considering that i'm chinese, the dominant race in singapore. but i still think it's a relatively good movie because there are so many issues close to the heart- an interracial love relationship, dignity for your race and pride for your country. possibly the first film i watched that made me see clearly how the military affects and changes the lives of societies and families. while there may be too many issues that are being highlighted and how they are not properly well-linked, it's still a relatively should-watch movie. having said that however, those negative points did not cause confusion but rather if they were done well, it would have made this film way better. but as i said, you should watch this movie. it's a personal favourite though.

you'll like it especially if you like jazz

or baseball.