FB

In a bid to feel productive, I am writing this blog post. It’s been a while since I last wrote anything and I realise that Facebook takes up a huge chunk of my time. It’s a little senseless if I think about it. The first thing that greets me when I log in is all the status updates of my 190 so-called friends. So-called because no one has that many friends. But I spend the first 15 mins just scrolling down and finding out what everyone else is (or is not doing). Plus there are those quizes that people take to know more about themselves. You would think that after all these years of being in your own skin, you would know yourself the best. But hey, a Facebook quiz is here to help you in your bid to increase the level of self-absorption. Me, I do that all the time. Number 1 is an interesting topic for a few years running now.

Then there are the games. The addictive games that takes about 2 minutes and pits your high score against all your so-called friends. It’s demanding, exhilarating and gets facebookers hooked until the wee hours of the morning. Its draw is not to be underestimated.

My favourite application, or rather function of Facebook is its ability to upload tons of pictures and for your to surf all your ‘friends’ pictures as well. Voyeuring at its best! What better way then to find out how your secondary classmates look 10 years since you’ve met. Read comments, comment yourself and it’s just amazing how the next time you looked at the clock, about 2 hours has whizzed by. Not to mention the event invitation function as well. Invitations ranging from social gatherings to wedding dinners can be done through Facebook.

Think. How often does one use the term Facebook in normal conversation? Has it become as ubiquitous as Google? And how many of us recall its sinister classist beginnings which restricted membership to college students only (or those that manage to get a college email)? Right now, your mother can be on Facebook and that is a disturbing prospect for many.

Facebook – the ultimate social website. This is not said in an attempt to advertise or to criticise. We share a complicated relationship, oh how I hate myself for loving you. It happens.

+_+

Living in a HDB flat means that occasionally I have funerals at my void decks. This particular void deck of mine doesn’t attract weddings, perhaps due to the numerous funerals. White setting means a christian funeral rite while gold, multi-colour wreaths together with chanting monks and smoke means a taoist or buddhist funeral. Either way, it puts life in perspective. How many of us get to see such death on a regular basis. And personally, I think it’s good to remind myself that one’s life span is only that 70 odd years and once it’s gone, it’s gone. One is reduced to a wooden box that will be reduced to ashes. Of course, famous celebrities’ death has the same effect, i.e. Michael Jackson’s death. One thinks, ‘wow, they die too eh? Maybe it’s not such a different world they live in after all.’ Death – the great constant. That’s why when Shulamite woman states in the bible that her love is as strong as death to King Solomon, it shows that she’s a woman with some faith in her love. To declare that her love is as unchanging, constant and certain as death takes conviction.

So that’s one of the benefits of living in a HDB flat, to be reminded of one’s mortality. Which I think most of us try to avoid. If not things become pretty meaningless. The thing is, it’s impossible to live life like you are going to die the next day, you can enjoy all you want and bathe in champagne for all anyone cares. But the issue is, what if one doesn’t die tmr. Then you’re stuck with the champagne bill and life for the living doesn’t become too fun after that.

And the other thing about living in a HDB flat is the term ‘heartlanders’. The term is derogatory to most Singaporeans. And I wonder whether the person who named the mall in Hougang the “Heartland Mall” feel like shooting himself or herself. What is the term supposed to connote anyway? A rural vs ‘I-live-at-The-Sail’ kind of city living? Its exact meaning eludes me. I understand that people judge other people according to their address and whatever district they live in. But if a heartlander means someone who lives in a HDB flat, that covers about 80% of Singaporeans. If it means the supposedly rural (read, poorer areas) of Singapore, the issue is where? If they mean a certain type of people, then why judge them by the type of estate that they owned, which is owned by a vast majority of Singaporeans? Its imprecise meaning irks me. Of course, there’s also a television program that has the term as its name, though I don’t think they were aware that it’s a not-so-nice term.

Anyhow, basically, life is short, go live it.

Investments and its iffy-ness

Temasek Holdings sold its Barclays and Bank of America stakes, causing many to wonder what the hell it is doing. Yeah, what the hell is it doing?! That was my first reaction. I didn’t know their investment strategy except to see alongside the news (that they have sold the relevant stakes) a small article on how they have a very good transparent rating. Now, I’m no investor, but the amount of money lost is truly staggering. It was money to the tune of about S$4.6 billion. Now, to be honest, that much money doesn’t even mean anything to me. It is simply a figure, numbers thrown in the air. I do not know what a billion dollars look like, I cannot see how much money that is in my head. It could be the same number of atoms on a drop of ink on a page, but it still doesn’t mean anything.

Well, at least they are transparent, all Singaporeans now know exactly how much was lost.

It’s true that everything is much clearer with hindsight, and perhaps no one could have known that BOA wouldn’t be nationalised, which would greatly diminished the value of its stock. What would anyone do in TH position? Well, your guess is as good as mine and there is simply no way of foretelling the future. To me, it’s just another story concerning big dollars and hence newsworthy. It won’t increase or decrease my taxes. It won’t have a significant impact on anything that I do. Ergo, I’m not too bothered by it. It’s not apathy, it’s numbness.

Musings

It’s twelve noon and a cool draft is in the room. It’s nice being able to sit in front of my computer, listening to the sounds of life that are still about – the last train roaring back to wherever it came from, the occasional motorcycle and the buzz of the refrigerator. There I was, randomly surfing and wondering whether mr brown (no I’m not going to hyperlink him, that’s what google is for) is the only popular serious blogger we have in Singapore. I can think of many popular bloggers in Singapore, who blogs for a living but they’re entertainers and I find it hard to believe that they strike a deep chord in other people. Entertainment is entertainment ultimately and there may be substance to it, but that is rare.

Which makes me wonder why we haven’t got more serious bloggers to date? The region’s blogging scene seems quite active to me, including Malaysia and especially Korea where the approval or rather disapproval of the internet community is enough to make their artists commit suicide. Maybe Singaporeans are just lost in Facebook or Twitter and blogging actual paragraphs and detailing events and incidents is too much effort. But I find twittering slightly stupid. What is the point of me telling the world what I’m doing at 2.37pm in the afternoon? (1) who is interested in that sort of triviality? (2) A series of actions taken separately makes no sense in itself (3) I can think of better things to do with my time. But maybe I might be wrong and it’s like the haiku version of a poem, reduce it to 17 syllables and poetry will come out of it and blossom like a pretty flower in spring – simple and natural.

Hmm, somehow I doubt it.

Not that I mind Facebook. I think it’s a great tool to get hooked up to the rest of the 180 friends that I have and superpoke each other till kingdom come but sometimes, the idea of it eludes me. I’d rather spend time with a good friend or two then waste all that social energy on something that might or might not be able to reach another person. Surely we all have a limited amount of social energy, and once expended it will surely take time to be replenished. We are all disembodied commentators of uploaded photos with a profile picture. But hey, I think it’s convenient, fun and useful to amalgamate photos and commenting on them. It’s just that once the whole world started doing it I was a little perturbed. Once everyone gets on the bandwagon, it becomes the norm without question. And everytime when facebook tells me that I’d be granting access to the rest of my information once I clicked on an application, I would rather not have the application. Eventually, we all accepted it as the norm, regardless of whether they are your colleagues (or even your boss!). And so we surrender all our personal infomation, good thing I have not updated my records and details for the longest time.

On an altogether separate final note, I hope the economy will bounce back on its own two feet and I’ll stop feeling guilty for shopping.

Watchmen

Watchmen is a mixture of gore, slow-motion action scenes and cool CGI mixed into a three hour film that flies by as the body count in the movie increases. It’s got an M18 rating but honestly, some scenes were so ghastly that I wanted to gag at some parts of the show. Talk about a graphic novel, this will be it. It’s got bloodfest written all over it and though presented in a somewhat artistic manner, the sheer violence of the main characters and the comic book villains is nauseating. Although it seeks to be thought-provoking in a does-the-ends-justify-the-means kind of way, the point seems to be lost in the cool CGI and the action-packed sequences and yes, the blood or blood + water or just mashes of flesh and blood mixed together. And throughout the film, there’s a monotonous raspy voice as the narrator. Boy, you know from the beginning he’s not normal.

Normal is not what this film is. It’s not the normal superheroes movie and seeks to be the anti-superhero movie. It’s not just about the good bad-boys or the bad-good boys, but its about the disillusioned demi-god good bad guys that makes the cynical bad guys look good. All in all, it’s a cool movie and it is unpredictable (that is, if you haven’t read the graphic novel / its synopsis) shocking and absurd. The director definitely did not pull punches in this one, and each plot turn hits you in the face. I seldom cover my eyes and turn my face away in a movie but I did that a couple of times in this one.

Maybe I’m just squeamish. But the whole effect of the movie is unsettling – its raw, unbridled violence exhibited without qualms by the main characters and the elegance and efficiency of pure evil are all portrayed. All in all, this makes me uncomfortable. So if you want a feel-good movie on a Saturday evening, go catch something else. Leave this dark and brooding movie for another dark and gloomy day. There is definitely no good triumphing over the evil in this movie and it’s all about exploring the gray side – and I paraphrase the Comedian ” .. it’s all a practical joke, I thought I knew how the world works, but it’s all just a joke.”

Do catch the movie though. It makes good fodder for post-movie discussion.

Expression

I’ve always wondered what’s the point of expressing your feelings, especially negative ones when it doesn’t do any good, spreads that negative energy around the space you’re in and anyone within that radii and basically infects the people you’re with? I realised that one needs to do that in order to stay sane, so that the knot in your stomach will go away and that black ball of fury (or assorted other emotions) does not cause you to implode within. It is essential, so that one can get over that feeling and move on to other things. That’s why people need someone to talk to I suppose, they need that outlet to vent.

The futility of feelings, of communicating them when it doesn’t do a whit. The necessity of it nevertheless. The problem with logic is that the force of it is never quite as strong as feelings. One can understand logically, but it won’t cause the feelings to abate. Instead it adds to that sense of frustration, the frustration that one understands the other side but yet can’t help feeling the way one is and feeling smaller as a result. Ahh, the evil that empathy can do to oneself.

Personal Hygiene (/public health)

Yes, I’m talking about personal hygiene. There I was having my dinner at a coffeeshop at Ang Mo Kio and I see this family of four by the walkway. They stopped and the mother decided to relieve the daughter at this bush. Let’s call it the peeing bush. Well, the daughter did what she was told to do and gladly relieved herself there. All the while I was having this really great porridge. Needless to say, the porridge became less savoury after I witnessed the incident.

I was amazed that such things still happen in Singapore. Singapore, the lauded first world country, Singapore, the clean and green garden city. What’s worse about the incident was how stupid and thoughtless the parents were. I mean, think about it, that girl was about 3 years old. And she’s a girl, so even if she can aim better than the kids her age, the chances are that she’ll make a mess. So although they were near the bush, most of the pee ended up on the walkway, and some of it on the mother’s pants because she was helping her daughter. And the father stands by the side and grins as if it’s all a joke.

I can’t see the funny side of it, and I’m quite appalled at the incident. It seems straight out of one of those horror stories in travel books about backward countries. And I didn’t understand why the parents made the kid pee there. I mean, there was a shopping centre, the vast AMK hub just 100 metres away. They have toilets, which comes with a flush and basins and clean water. And the family was quite well dressed. The kids were decked out in cute outfits and there they have their daughter peeing near the sidewalk.

Well, they walked away as if nothing happened, and there was no passer-bys who were shocked enough to stand and stare and chide them. So it was all fine and dandy. So the rest of the world continues as if nothing happens. You have pretty, dolled up young ladies stepping on the puddle of pee unknowingly, thinking perhaps that it’s just water or something. Oh boy, if they only know.

NYE

The New Year beckons. A brand new 2008 with no mistakes in it. The proverbial clean slate, and all within the next 24 hours. As you get older, the years slip past and it’s harder to keep track of the days. There are parts of the day when you sleep and then there’s the rest of it when you hustle and bustle it away. One entire life span can be divided in this way, the wakening hours and the non wakening ones.

Right now I want to enter into the non-wakening time zone but am thwarted from my sleep by angry thoughts that bubble to the surface of my already exhausted mind. I want to sleep, I do really, but then, I get so angry thinking about stuff that I can’t sleep. Even though I’ve already made a conscious choice to not think about it. That’s the thing about that in-between state of mind, your brain doesn’t really listen to you.

But yeah, I shouldn’t allow myself to get so mad, I should simply detach and elevate my soul / emotional being into another plane of existence. One where things don’t matter, and I see things through the macro lens of eternity. And then things don’t matter. Lack of money doesn’t matter, lack of clothes doesn’t matter. Polish or rather more accurately, lack of polish does not matter. Time and chance happen to us all.

If one refuses to be a victim, to do something about their lives. One would be infinitely better off, obtain the desired improvement in one’s quality of life and get on with the program. One wouldn’t resent other’s improvement but think that they can do it too. Life’s better for one and all.

Perhaps the next big thing to overcome is insecurity. Insecurity about oneself can make one a cantankerous person that cannot be lived with without exhausting another’s store of patience and kindness. “I know where I come from and where I’m going.” That’s perhaps sums up the way of perfect security, perfect comfort in one’s own skin. To know where you come from and where you’re going solves the better part of life’s problems in my opinion.

The alternative religious view

This blog post is to offer an alternative religious view of the recent uproar over section 377A, especially with regards to Christianity. It is my opinion that bible-believing Christians have been misdirected in their efforts to keep 377A because the bible makes it very clear that sodomy is wrong.

 

I would like to draw an analogy to what C.S. Lewis wrote about divorce in UK during his time. Below is the relevant extract:

“Before leaving the question of divorce, I should like to distinguish two things which are very often confused.

The Christian conception of marriage is one: the other is the quite different question — how far Christians, if they are voters or Members of Parliament, ought to try to force their views of marriage on the rest of the community by embodying them in the divorce laws. A great many people seem to think that if you are a Christian yourself you should try to make divorce difficult for every one. I do not think that. At least I know I should be very angry if the [Muslims] tried to prevent the rest of us from drinking wine.

My own view is that the Churches should frankly recognize that the majority of the British people are not Christians and, therefore, cannot be expected to live Christian lives. There ought to be two distinct kinds of marriage: one governed by the State with rules enforced on all citizens, the other governed by the Church with rules enforced by her on her own members. The distinction ought to be quite sharp, so that a man knows which couples are married in a Christian sense and which are not.

from Mere Christianity, the chapter on “Christian Marriage”, c 1952, 1980 by C.S. Lewis Pte. Ltd., Harpercollins Edition, 2002, p112)

In the same way, the majority of Singaporeans are not Christians. As such, Christians (myself included) should not impose our views that homosexuality is unnatural and sinful on the community at large. To do so would be to reinforce the view that Christians are judgmental and diverges from the primary message of love and compassion in the New Testament. Just as Jesus spoke kindly to the adulterous woman at the well, so should Christians embody that same love and compassion when they talk about the present issue. Ultimately, a person’s sexuality is their own business, it should not be the prerogative of Members of Parliament, however well-meaning, to regulate it and bring it to the straight and narrow.

 

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” John 3:17

fodder

On the Korean Wave in Singapore: The IHT

and…

Radiohead’s latest album is out: In Rainbows