My shoe is now sticky and smelly. I probably wont be wearing for sometime. Thanks man. But I still think some of us guys will miss your farkup British accent, and being forced to drink more alchohol with you. Yesterday, I counted as least 10 times that you shook my hand before I left.

But we all knew you were farking drunk

On that note, please take care and study hard. Did you say 1st Class honors?

* Pictures were resized, go to my flickr link on the right if you want it BIG

See you next year.

Today is 15/09/2007.

In exactly one month back, I started working. Today, I shall raise my cup towards in the sky and celebrate my very special one month anniversary.

Cheers Jensen.

For starters, I was not fired. In fact, I have managed to settled in pretty decently considering the very different - serious and adult environment. I cannot help but feel like I am working together with a lot of uncles and aunties. Truth is, they are seriously not that old.

I guess my expectations for myself are new, working along with different people. Or rather, it is to find out what are their expectation of me. I certainly think I done pretty OK. Or at least that is how I feel right now. In any case, my direct boss seems pretty keen to impart all that I should know asap. If I shall add - so that she can peacefully go on maternity leave. So I have to seriously pay attention. Catch here and catch there.

Actually, I work in a HR outsourcing firm. In job terms, it is not very exciting. I suppose not all spectrum of HR are dull, but certainly the operational part of it. In value of derived work satisfaction, it is not much and I cannot picture myself doing it for the rest of my life. Still, kudos for those who are deeply involved into the art and efficiency of operational HR, as for me, I guess I need a more a visual goal alignment. But its only 1 month and I shouldn’t get too carried away.

Problem Sum
J lives in Singapore. He is currently one of the 80% from the average working Singaporean. Based on the above scenario, calculate his life statistics.

Step 1:
Let X be the the potential retirement age

hence X = 70 years old

Step 2:
Average Working Lifespan = (retirement age) - (Age to start work)
Average Working Lifespan = 70 - 22
Average Working Lifespan = 48 years

So, average working lifespan is: 48 years

Step 3:
Life Statistics = (Avg working lifespan) X (Wake up, Go to work, Sleep)
Life Statistics = 48 X (Wake up, Go to work, Sleep)

Conclusion
Hence, an average Singaporean will work like a DOG for 48 years in the near future.

Yes. After about close to 3 months of doing pretty much nothing and yet religiously depleting my already very shallow bank amount, I have finally got some good news to share.

I AM GOING TO START WORK

Tentatively, my first day would be this coming wed, August 13th, 2007. I am going to circle bold and underline this date on my calender. Because I feel 1 year later, I would probably and shamelessly ask for a pay increase if I am still working there. Anyway, the job’s pay isn’t spectacular, but it’s a good clean start. You know how folks like to say - the most important step is always to take the first step. I think I can hear a sigh of relief from my parents, especially my mum. Honestly, I think she is quite sick of me already, but I am quite sure she is gonna miss me eating her lunch.

Just now, I was punching my calculator here and there to count some numbers. The total amount of CPF contributions immediately spoil my mood.  The 20% is really quite sian.

I guess Govt damn scared of beggars, desperate people to spoil their image or ask for welfare. I think it is probably due to my shallow ignorance, but I still feel the CPF scheme can definitely be modified for the better. Anyway, anything that can help free up some cash flow.

I have a resolution. I going to save more and spent less. Just a few things I want, not need - a slim tie, a snazzy black belt and a Newcastle jersey.

I didn’t manage to catch it during their release and it is only yesterday that i saw it on DVD. I enjoyed this wonderfully original story from start to end. A story that reaches out to the heart and soul of Singaporeans on their hopes, dreams and discovering life.

Singapore Dreaming chronicles a working class family living in a capitalistic society, struggling with the frustrations of unfulfilled middle class ambitions. Its explores a Singaporean drive to attain the riches of the 5Cs, feeling frustrated by the gulf between his middle class dreams and his working class reality. There is always a bigger car to want, a nicer condo to live in. It is portrayed as the generalized way of how Singaporeans tend to see, judge and give their respect.

Like how the China beer girl sized us up in the movie, “Singaporeans love to complain about everything, yet they are willing to give up their dreams and do something else - because of money”.

The seven deadly sins or so called the Christian’s capital sins are the attribution of immoral vices that have plagued man since of dawn of society. As I quote from Catechism of the Catholic Church 1998, “sin creates an inclination to sin; it engenders vice by repetition of the same acts. This results in perverse inclinations which cloud conscience and corrupt the concrete judgment of good and evil. Thus sin tends to reproduce itself and reinforce itself, but it cannot destroy the moral sense at its root.”

Do the traditional immoralities of the seven sins have any relevance to society today? In any case, the human capacity to convince and justify their own actions is quite extraordinary. We are naturally self deluding people, who can admittedly commit evil things, and yet choose to ignore or even rationalise it. In a broader sense, giving us an excuse for everything sin that we commit.

Let see how we normally apply sinning in a contemporary setting.

———————————————————————————————————-

1. Lust - Excessive craving for the pleasures of the body
Need I say more. Our eyes and hormones are there for certain purposes.

2. Gluttony - Excessive desire to consume more than one requires
Is fine dining and wining your high life? Do you binge alcohol when you go for parties? Do you always fancy a buffet meal, which most of the time you would leave scraps of wasted food behind - even though you know for a fact there are people out there in the world that lives perpetually in hunger.

3. Greed - Excessive desire for material wealth or gain
Are you working simply to survive, or are you carving for more money to give you all the material luxuries that you seem to want everytime you go window-shopping? Is that your life motivation? Do you engage in impulsive buying that is beyond your means, resulting in credit debts or installment terms?

4. Sloth - The avoidance of physical or spiritual work
Do you procrastinate? I figure it is one of the most popular words being used nowadays.

5. Wrath - Anger is manifested in the individual
Are you a racist? Do you have a vengeful opinion of someone which sits in the back of mind, which you occasionally play with the idea that you can seek some revenge? Do you have an uncontrolled anger when someone ticks you off?

6. Envy - The desire for others’ traits, status, abilities, or situation
Jealousy, you know what it is and it not a good feeling. It is pretty close to envy. Do you feel inferior, angry and unfair - because a particular person is much luckier, smarter, more attractive than you?

7. Pride - Excessive belief in one’s own abilities
Pride is called the sin from which all sins, also known as vanity. One could describe pride as the feeling of being superior and better then others. Do you often judge people? Do you form a negative opinion of a person, when you figure that he has a lower education level then you do? When someone gives you an advice, would you belittle it and think they are trying to act smart?

Do you? Do you?

A good deed is done, only if you expect nothing back.

It is almost easy to say present society have long fallen into a cauldron of hate. anger and complication. There are ills and cries of unjust, indiscriminate hate, a rampant virus that spreads across the papers we read to the streets we walk. For every devil’s misdeed, I like to believe there is still an equally goodness and graciousness among us. An inspiration for immoral people like myself, to have a real sense of hope and faith, or like what people always say - a beacon of light.

A person who guides their life around the simple values of what is right, what is wrong. Righteousness. Nothing should blur it.

Gov’t rewards kindly scrap collector with hukou - March 23, 2007

For Yao Yide, abandoning a baby is tantamount to taking a life. “Theirs are lives that I cannot give up,” said Yao.

Despite the financial strain, Yao, 53, and his wife, who make a living by collecting scraps and doing odd jobs, have adopted 14 abandoned baby girls in Chengmai County, Hainan Province, over the past 18 years. Touched by Yao’s compassion and magnanimity, the Chengmai County government granted a hukou, or household registration, to Yao and his wife, who came to the county from Central China’s Henan Province 18 year ago.

The county government and the government of Fushan Township have raised funds to build a new house for the couple and their adopted daughters. Work on the two-storey house should be completed soon. Yao was moved to tears as he stood before the site where his new home was taking shape over the weekend.

“As a man who earns his keep by picking up waste, it never crossed my mind that I might be able to live in such a good house,” Xinhua quoted Yao as saying.

He described the joy and grief that have defined his life in the past years to local media. Yao and his wife are accustomed to living from hand to mouth, but that did not stop them from adopting the abandoned baby girls they found in local streets. Baby girls are often abandoned because of the traditional preference for male children. “They are living beings,” said Yao, who added that he could not leave a child to die in the street.

Things started to turn around after Yao’s deeds were reported by local media in January 2006. News of Yao’s efforts to care for the abandoned children caught the public imagination. Support for the couple started to trickle in from the community. Many local residents have donated rice, noodles, cooking oil, quilts, color TV sets, washing machines, computers and other goods to Yao and his family.

“In addition to granting our hukou and building us a new house, the Fushan Township government has also waived tuition fees for all of my adopted daughters,” Yao said. “I have nothing to worry about. What I expect now is that my daughters will study hard and do well in school,” he added. He said he hoped his family, which has survived for so long off the scraps that other people had thrown away, would soon have a university student.

Source: China Daily

http://english.people.com.cn/200703/23/eng20070323_360319.html

10 July 2007 / News Flash

The former head of China’s State Food and Drug Administration, has been executed for corruption.

Its not written wrongly. This fella was found guilty for taking bribes and duly sentenced with the death penalty. If you ask why corruption in China commands such a capital punishment, you may want to ask the many victims who have gravely suffered from of his ill-ignorance. Honestly, I think it is very well called for. I harbour no sympathy towards this man who has no other excuses but his greed. Though the sentence was seen as unusually harsh, the execution echos China’s intention towards better food safety standards and maybe help improve its image . As China’s impressive economy is build around its unprecedented trade surplus and volume, its exports are suspiciously questionable.

In a commercial context, the mismatch between profit and ethics has always raise a reasonable grey area of application. Where why and how should an organisation divide resources for ethical efforts? However, it is clear that the owner of such stirring operation has an extreme weakness for profit who will resort to anything irregardless of the means. Heartless?

Stuff I have heard through the grapevine:

1) Sealed bottled water filled with tap water.
Fear Factor 4/10

2) Contaminated toothpaste.
Fear Factor 5/10

3) Watermelon injected with industrial red dye to make it look red!
Fear Factor 6/10

4) Pork buns made of cardboard fillings and other interesting solvents. Huh?
Fear Factor 7/10 <— Fake Story

5) Frozen 1 year old dumpling, resteamed for sale. OMG
Fear Factor 8/10

6) Variety of processed food mixed with other fascinating compounds that kills.
Fear Factor 9/10

Whether you’re a fan of trance music or not, you have got to watch this video at least once. Just once. But you have got to make sure your audio set is cranked to a high volume, preferably with alot of bass. When I saw it for the first time, I lifted my ass off the chair and went kee siao, I felt like peeing in my pants.

I have an urge to caution how the music may have a potent effect on listeners.

Get high without inducement.

There are so many happy memories whenever I think about Doraemon. For starters, you could try by imagainig the different possibilities and ideas you could do with his gadgets. At that time, I remembered how incredible I can be, if i have doraemon as a companion.

There was the bamboo copter and all the super stuff that fit inside his soft white pocket. He would reach in and draw out something with his fingerless white hands and yell some crazy name for the object and what it could do. Incredible.

Doraemon was not exactly the anime that I grew up watching. There are many other english cartoons on sat morning, yet doraemon remains a fragment of youth that forms a part of my kiddo days. I recently came across it in youtube and it was like back to those innocent days of wishing and envy. It left a big smile on my face

Theme Song - Doraemon

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