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Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Sunday, October 28, 2007
All the Best!
Hi,
I know barely anyone will be visiting or contributing to this blog cause of the impending "disaster"? Nah, dun think of it this way. Pls be yourself when you go into the exam hall. Dun freak out and then waste all your hardwork. After all, you look back, the O levels, you had the same feeling too, so no diff lah. You all scored well. Top 10% of cohort, so do it again :)
A few tips I learnt and with some of my friends also...
1. Have plenty of rest before the exams.
Do not mug too much on the day before, it doesn't help cramming info last minute.
2. Condition yourself for the papers.
Believe your timetable is out, so especially during the heavy test week whereby you have 3 papers a day, plenty of rest, and relax......
3. Music Therapy.
It helps. Bring along your I-Pod, mp3 player/hp and listen to music which will soothe your soul or fire you up for the paper. Research has shown that it helps you to concentrate better/increase your alertness. Depending on which paper of course...
4. Dun think about the past.
Dun let one paper demoralise you. Its not wise to discuss too much about a paper when it has already been submitted, then dwell on your mistakes. Will only lead to more errors in future papers.
5. Self-belief.
Examiners are human too. Doesn't mean you dun know how to do the question means you give up. Look for common patterns. If all else fails, scribble something on it. It may help, and the examiner may very well be convinced :)
Yep, with that, I can only send via sms and wish here in the blog...all the best. You can do it, so long you believe in yourself.
I know barely anyone will be visiting or contributing to this blog cause of the impending "disaster"? Nah, dun think of it this way. Pls be yourself when you go into the exam hall. Dun freak out and then waste all your hardwork. After all, you look back, the O levels, you had the same feeling too, so no diff lah. You all scored well. Top 10% of cohort, so do it again :)
A few tips I learnt and with some of my friends also...
1. Have plenty of rest before the exams.
Do not mug too much on the day before, it doesn't help cramming info last minute.
2. Condition yourself for the papers.
Believe your timetable is out, so especially during the heavy test week whereby you have 3 papers a day, plenty of rest, and relax......
3. Music Therapy.
It helps. Bring along your I-Pod, mp3 player/hp and listen to music which will soothe your soul or fire you up for the paper. Research has shown that it helps you to concentrate better/increase your alertness. Depending on which paper of course...
4. Dun think about the past.
Dun let one paper demoralise you. Its not wise to discuss too much about a paper when it has already been submitted, then dwell on your mistakes. Will only lead to more errors in future papers.
5. Self-belief.
Examiners are human too. Doesn't mean you dun know how to do the question means you give up. Look for common patterns. If all else fails, scribble something on it. It may help, and the examiner may very well be convinced :)
Yep, with that, I can only send via sms and wish here in the blog...all the best. You can do it, so long you believe in yourself.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Malaysia declassifies documents on bridge to rebut Mahathir
WHEN the Malaysian government recently cancelled its projected 'scenic' or 'crooked' bridge on the grounds (or at least pretext) that its southern neighbour was being overly greedy in their demands for a quid pro quo of sand and airspace for military flying manouevres, it suddenly struck me what a very long time it has been since I'd heard or read anything positive about Singapore.
Since its dollar reached parity with Australia's years ago, my own compatriots seem to have largely lost their former enthusiasm for shopping trips there, and seldom seem to pay it much attention any more. And the people of Malaysia, persisting in their sibling rivalry with the island that was originally part of their new post-colonial nation - hence the addition of 'si' into its old name, Malaya - seem to bad-mouth the city-state at every opportunity.
"Boring, lah, nothing to do and too many rules" seems to be the common consensus among Malaysians I talk to. And they never tire of the well-worn witticism, "Singapore's a fine place: sooner or later you'll be fined for something."
Which indeed you will, and savagely, for a wide variety of infractions including littering, a habit that many Malaysians appear to consider their God-given right if not outright duty, and jaywalking, which back in my days in Hong Kong seemed to be the then colony's most popular outdoor sport. Nor is it very long since chewing gum was prohibited in Singapore, ostensibly, as I was told, because children would use the stuff to block the electric-eye apertures in the doors of MRT trains.
And it wasn't many years before the gum ban that foreign males arriving in Singapore wearing their hair longer than collar-length were denied entry unless they submitted to the shearing of their locks to an acceptable length by barbers standing by at immigration for the purpose.
But if Singapore feels like 'Singabore' for those of us who are averse to what we see as too many rules and regulations and overly-ferocious fines for breaking them, it's more like 'Swingapore' for people caught hanging around there with trafficable quantities of drugs.
Of course, nearby Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand have the death penalty for drug-dealing too, but so rampant is corruption among at least some of the laughably-entitled 'law-enforcement' agencies in these countries, that I suspect the cash-rich can cheat the executioner or even get off scott-free if, as frequently occurs, the evidence goes missing, presumably sold at considerable profit by the officials who confiscated it in the first place.
Tiny population
Which brings us to the first of the strongly positive sentiments I personally feel about Singapore - it may be Singabore, but at least it's Singapure. Squeaky-clean not just litterwise compared with most trash-strewn Asian countries, but letter-of-the-law-wise too. In fact Transparency International rates it as one of the least corrupt nations in the world. Several places in front of Australia, for example, where we like to think we make an honest effort to keep things straight, and streets ahead of most other locations in Asia.
This situation, or at least the inspiration for it, is very much to the credit of Lee Kuan Yew, who stands out as a moral and ethical saint compared with many of his contemporaries who've headed emerging Asian nations, like Marcos of the Philippines, Suharto of Indonesia and others, who've enriched themselves, their relatives and cronies beyond the dreams of avarice at the expense of their impoverished populace.
What a pity, I've always thought, that Lee has had such a comparatively tiny population on which to bestow the benefits of his fierce fiscal honesty. When he came to power, war-shattered Singapore was pathetically Singapoor. With no natural resources, no industries to speak of, not much commerce and little surviving infrastructure. Not even enough water, which - even though when it rains in Singapore it Singapours - has to this day to be purchased and piped in vast quantities from Malaysia.
Under Lee Kuan Yew's lion-hearted leadership, Singapore's made so much Singaprogress in the past half-century that today it's one of the most Singaprosperous nations in the whole region, and even ranks respectably worldwide in economic terms. Its achievements also include one of the world's busiest and most efficient container shipping ports; an amazingly user-friendly airport; and one of the best airlines on the planet.
But on the other side of the coin, unfortunately, its progress in the areas of economic success, law and order and cleanliness have been at the expense of human rights and freedoms. In other words, Singaporeans are permitted and even exhorted to work themselves to exhaustion, shop till they drop, and even, if they have any time and energy to spare from these core civic duties, to relax and enjoy themselves in a variety of acceptable pursuits.
But let them step out of line politically, by poking fun at ruling-party politicians, criticising the government in public or in print, staging unauthorised protest meetings or marches, standing for Parliament on behalf of opposition parties or voting for opposition candidates in sufficient numbers to gain them seats in their electorates, and they're in trouble.
In dire straits
Dissenters adjudged truly dangerous are jailed without trial for indefinite periods under the draconian Internal Security Act, retained in Singapore, as also in Malaysia, since back in the 1950s when it was deemed necessary to counter the curse of communism.
Opposition candidates who stand for Parliament, in which the ruling party has never won less than 90% of the seats, are routinely sued for defamatory remarks they're alleged to have made in the heat of electioneering. Like the redoubtable Mr JB Jeyaretnam, for years the sole opposition in Singapore's Parliament, and still fighting at the age of 80 or so, these unfortunates are often made an example of by the courts and either impoverished or utterly bankrupted by being required to pay massive damages.
And electorates whose voters have the temerity to deliver victory to opposition candidates are officially and openly threatened and punished with deprivation of their fair share of government expenditure on infrastructure and services.
Small wonder then that supporters of human rights and democracy see the political machine that's run Singapore all these years, the People's Action Party or PAP, as performing admirably in the peace, prosperity and pick-up-after-yourself departments, but as otherwise serving the people with pap.
The same pap to which the strictly-controlled media treat their viewers and readers, to the point that I can't help thinking collectively of the principal Singapore 'newspaper, the Straits Times, and its government-owned Malaysian equivalent, the New Straits Times, as, with apologies to Mark Knopfler and his great 1990s group of the same name, the Dire Straits.
In fact so dire is the state of democracy in Singapore, and so Singaboring in its effects on the body politic, that the city-state seems to have lots and lots of brains but precious little heart or soul. So little soul, come to think of it, that I've heard only one single, solitary genuinely original Singaporean joke, and many years ago at that: 'Just like Christianity, this place is run by a trinity - the Father, the Son and the Holy Goh'.
Of course, Goh Chok Tong, 'the Holy Goh' who followed the Father as Prime Minister, has taken a back seat now in favour of the Son, Lee Hsien Loong, who recently led the PAP to victory by clinching 82 of the 84 or 96% of the seats in the Singapore Parliament with a somewhat underwhelming 66.6% of the popular vote.
What a pity
In my opinion, and in the opinion of many of the foreign newspapers and magazines that the Singapore regime suppresses by drastically restricting their circulations as punishment for publishing critical news or views, there's no longer any justification for this rigged and rigid political situation. In fact it's positively counter-productive.
Just as Singapore is a bastion of prosperity, efficiency, order and probity amid the chaos, incompetence and corruption that bedevil much of the rest of South-East Asia, it could also be a beacon of human rights and liberty.
A living rebuke to the uniformed bandits who run Burma, for example; to the politicians and patricians who keep the Philippines perpetually mired in poverty; and to Umno and its coalition partners who continue to keep Malaysians so unnecessarily under the thumb. But no.
Even Indonesia, still as agonised as it is in so many ways as a result of 30 years of Suharto's New Order - or, as some of us think of it, New Odour or New Ordure - is now, for all its prevailing problems, more vibrantly and genuinely democratic than Singapore, which seems content to represent no more to its troubled neighbour than a ready market for landfill and cheap labour, and a convenient mall for ridding Jakarta's mega-rich of their often ill-gotten rupiah.
What a pity that, realising its urgent need to reinvent itself as Bling-Blingapore, Singabore restricts itself to such projects as sanitising Bugis Street and old Chinatown, sprucing-up Sentosa, staging events like Mega Sales and an Arts Festival featuring largely imported talent, and now splashing out on a spanking new casino complex.
If only it could also see that the latent spirit of its people may be as vital to its continued prosperity and progress as their intelligence and industry have been. If only it could cease regimenting them to the point where they're seen - and even, I suspect, see themselves - as politically impotent, Singaboorish robots, programmed and controlled to within an inch of their lives, they may well become Singaborn-again into creative, free-wheeling, even fun-loving people. And the whole world might start seeing Singabore as something a lot more like Zingapore.
DEAN JOHNS is an Australian freelance journalist now living in Kuala Lumpur and a former occasional columnist for the Sydney Morning Herald.
Since its dollar reached parity with Australia's years ago, my own compatriots seem to have largely lost their former enthusiasm for shopping trips there, and seldom seem to pay it much attention any more. And the people of Malaysia, persisting in their sibling rivalry with the island that was originally part of their new post-colonial nation - hence the addition of 'si' into its old name, Malaya - seem to bad-mouth the city-state at every opportunity.
"Boring, lah, nothing to do and too many rules" seems to be the common consensus among Malaysians I talk to. And they never tire of the well-worn witticism, "Singapore's a fine place: sooner or later you'll be fined for something."
Which indeed you will, and savagely, for a wide variety of infractions including littering, a habit that many Malaysians appear to consider their God-given right if not outright duty, and jaywalking, which back in my days in Hong Kong seemed to be the then colony's most popular outdoor sport. Nor is it very long since chewing gum was prohibited in Singapore, ostensibly, as I was told, because children would use the stuff to block the electric-eye apertures in the doors of MRT trains.
And it wasn't many years before the gum ban that foreign males arriving in Singapore wearing their hair longer than collar-length were denied entry unless they submitted to the shearing of their locks to an acceptable length by barbers standing by at immigration for the purpose.
But if Singapore feels like 'Singabore' for those of us who are averse to what we see as too many rules and regulations and overly-ferocious fines for breaking them, it's more like 'Swingapore' for people caught hanging around there with trafficable quantities of drugs.
Of course, nearby Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand have the death penalty for drug-dealing too, but so rampant is corruption among at least some of the laughably-entitled 'law-enforcement' agencies in these countries, that I suspect the cash-rich can cheat the executioner or even get off scott-free if, as frequently occurs, the evidence goes missing, presumably sold at considerable profit by the officials who confiscated it in the first place.
Tiny population
Which brings us to the first of the strongly positive sentiments I personally feel about Singapore - it may be Singabore, but at least it's Singapure. Squeaky-clean not just litterwise compared with most trash-strewn Asian countries, but letter-of-the-law-wise too. In fact Transparency International rates it as one of the least corrupt nations in the world. Several places in front of Australia, for example, where we like to think we make an honest effort to keep things straight, and streets ahead of most other locations in Asia.
This situation, or at least the inspiration for it, is very much to the credit of Lee Kuan Yew, who stands out as a moral and ethical saint compared with many of his contemporaries who've headed emerging Asian nations, like Marcos of the Philippines, Suharto of Indonesia and others, who've enriched themselves, their relatives and cronies beyond the dreams of avarice at the expense of their impoverished populace.
What a pity, I've always thought, that Lee has had such a comparatively tiny population on which to bestow the benefits of his fierce fiscal honesty. When he came to power, war-shattered Singapore was pathetically Singapoor. With no natural resources, no industries to speak of, not much commerce and little surviving infrastructure. Not even enough water, which - even though when it rains in Singapore it Singapours - has to this day to be purchased and piped in vast quantities from Malaysia.
Under Lee Kuan Yew's lion-hearted leadership, Singapore's made so much Singaprogress in the past half-century that today it's one of the most Singaprosperous nations in the whole region, and even ranks respectably worldwide in economic terms. Its achievements also include one of the world's busiest and most efficient container shipping ports; an amazingly user-friendly airport; and one of the best airlines on the planet.
But on the other side of the coin, unfortunately, its progress in the areas of economic success, law and order and cleanliness have been at the expense of human rights and freedoms. In other words, Singaporeans are permitted and even exhorted to work themselves to exhaustion, shop till they drop, and even, if they have any time and energy to spare from these core civic duties, to relax and enjoy themselves in a variety of acceptable pursuits.
But let them step out of line politically, by poking fun at ruling-party politicians, criticising the government in public or in print, staging unauthorised protest meetings or marches, standing for Parliament on behalf of opposition parties or voting for opposition candidates in sufficient numbers to gain them seats in their electorates, and they're in trouble.
In dire straits
Dissenters adjudged truly dangerous are jailed without trial for indefinite periods under the draconian Internal Security Act, retained in Singapore, as also in Malaysia, since back in the 1950s when it was deemed necessary to counter the curse of communism.
Opposition candidates who stand for Parliament, in which the ruling party has never won less than 90% of the seats, are routinely sued for defamatory remarks they're alleged to have made in the heat of electioneering. Like the redoubtable Mr JB Jeyaretnam, for years the sole opposition in Singapore's Parliament, and still fighting at the age of 80 or so, these unfortunates are often made an example of by the courts and either impoverished or utterly bankrupted by being required to pay massive damages.
And electorates whose voters have the temerity to deliver victory to opposition candidates are officially and openly threatened and punished with deprivation of their fair share of government expenditure on infrastructure and services.
Small wonder then that supporters of human rights and democracy see the political machine that's run Singapore all these years, the People's Action Party or PAP, as performing admirably in the peace, prosperity and pick-up-after-yourself departments, but as otherwise serving the people with pap.
The same pap to which the strictly-controlled media treat their viewers and readers, to the point that I can't help thinking collectively of the principal Singapore 'newspaper, the Straits Times, and its government-owned Malaysian equivalent, the New Straits Times, as, with apologies to Mark Knopfler and his great 1990s group of the same name, the Dire Straits.
In fact so dire is the state of democracy in Singapore, and so Singaboring in its effects on the body politic, that the city-state seems to have lots and lots of brains but precious little heart or soul. So little soul, come to think of it, that I've heard only one single, solitary genuinely original Singaporean joke, and many years ago at that: 'Just like Christianity, this place is run by a trinity - the Father, the Son and the Holy Goh'.
Of course, Goh Chok Tong, 'the Holy Goh' who followed the Father as Prime Minister, has taken a back seat now in favour of the Son, Lee Hsien Loong, who recently led the PAP to victory by clinching 82 of the 84 or 96% of the seats in the Singapore Parliament with a somewhat underwhelming 66.6% of the popular vote.
What a pity
In my opinion, and in the opinion of many of the foreign newspapers and magazines that the Singapore regime suppresses by drastically restricting their circulations as punishment for publishing critical news or views, there's no longer any justification for this rigged and rigid political situation. In fact it's positively counter-productive.
Just as Singapore is a bastion of prosperity, efficiency, order and probity amid the chaos, incompetence and corruption that bedevil much of the rest of South-East Asia, it could also be a beacon of human rights and liberty.
A living rebuke to the uniformed bandits who run Burma, for example; to the politicians and patricians who keep the Philippines perpetually mired in poverty; and to Umno and its coalition partners who continue to keep Malaysians so unnecessarily under the thumb. But no.
Even Indonesia, still as agonised as it is in so many ways as a result of 30 years of Suharto's New Order - or, as some of us think of it, New Odour or New Ordure - is now, for all its prevailing problems, more vibrantly and genuinely democratic than Singapore, which seems content to represent no more to its troubled neighbour than a ready market for landfill and cheap labour, and a convenient mall for ridding Jakarta's mega-rich of their often ill-gotten rupiah.
What a pity that, realising its urgent need to reinvent itself as Bling-Blingapore, Singabore restricts itself to such projects as sanitising Bugis Street and old Chinatown, sprucing-up Sentosa, staging events like Mega Sales and an Arts Festival featuring largely imported talent, and now splashing out on a spanking new casino complex.
If only it could also see that the latent spirit of its people may be as vital to its continued prosperity and progress as their intelligence and industry have been. If only it could cease regimenting them to the point where they're seen - and even, I suspect, see themselves - as politically impotent, Singaboorish robots, programmed and controlled to within an inch of their lives, they may well become Singaborn-again into creative, free-wheeling, even fun-loving people. And the whole world might start seeing Singabore as something a lot more like Zingapore.
DEAN JOHNS is an Australian freelance journalist now living in Kuala Lumpur and a former occasional columnist for the Sydney Morning Herald.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Monday, September 24, 2007
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Random post
Blaming YOU, blaming ME...
Endless assigning of responsibility...
Feeds my illusions - Gives sense of control
At least now I know why my life's in a hole!
And negative feelings have somewhere to go...
Expressions of rage about life's bitter blow.
Feelings with targets can flow with such ease
What matter if reason is brought to its knees?
Nothing can happen without someone at fault
Giving me permission to give them a "jolt".
Oh how I love my blaming game!
Take on my judgement! - Hang head in shame!
I rise superior - Moral high ground is mine!
Others feel terrible - but I feel quite fine!
For I never make mistakes - I am never wrong
And I like to press advantage - It makes me feel strong!
Much better this, than face that awful truth...
that life is chaotic and can even be uncouth
That rough goes with smooth and sorrow with joy,
Winning goes with losing - like girl goes with boy
When I rise to accept what life and destiny bring...
I leave judgements to God and focus just on BEING
I free-up the present - for doing creative things
I free up the guilty - to unwind their own heart strings
I create a richer future - Free from curs-ed blaming games
For without judgemental conflicts - consequences still remain
Everyone is responsible - We reap what we have sown!
If I deal you a wrong one - my future I have blown.
When I rise to accept what a challenging life can bring
Leaving judgements to God - Focussing just on BEING
I free-up my future from the curse of 'blaming games'
I free-up my present by NOT 'naming names'
My feelings stay PURE, GRACIOUS, DIVINE
Supporters draw near - And I'm soon feeling fine!
Endless assigning of responsibility...
Feeds my illusions - Gives sense of control
At least now I know why my life's in a hole!
And negative feelings have somewhere to go...
Expressions of rage about life's bitter blow.
Feelings with targets can flow with such ease
What matter if reason is brought to its knees?
Nothing can happen without someone at fault
Giving me permission to give them a "jolt".
Oh how I love my blaming game!
Take on my judgement! - Hang head in shame!
I rise superior - Moral high ground is mine!
Others feel terrible - but I feel quite fine!
For I never make mistakes - I am never wrong
And I like to press advantage - It makes me feel strong!
Much better this, than face that awful truth...
that life is chaotic and can even be uncouth
That rough goes with smooth and sorrow with joy,
Winning goes with losing - like girl goes with boy
When I rise to accept what life and destiny bring...
I leave judgements to God and focus just on BEING
I free-up the present - for doing creative things
I free up the guilty - to unwind their own heart strings
I create a richer future - Free from curs-ed blaming games
For without judgemental conflicts - consequences still remain
Everyone is responsible - We reap what we have sown!
If I deal you a wrong one - my future I have blown.
When I rise to accept what a challenging life can bring
Leaving judgements to God - Focussing just on BEING
I free-up my future from the curse of 'blaming games'
I free-up my present by NOT 'naming names'
My feelings stay PURE, GRACIOUS, DIVINE
Supporters draw near - And I'm soon feeling fine!
Random post
A carrot, an egg, and a cup of coffee.
A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.
Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil; without saying a word. In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl.
Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me what you see."
"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.
Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg. Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma.
The daughter then asked, "What does it mean, mother?"
Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.
"Which are you?" she asked her daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean. Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart? Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean? May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human and enough hope to make you happy. The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way. The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; you can't go forward in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.
When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. Live your life so at the end, you're the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.
A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.
Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil; without saying a word. In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl.
Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me what you see."
"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.
Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg. Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma.
The daughter then asked, "What does it mean, mother?"
Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.
"Which are you?" she asked her daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean. Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart? Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean? May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human and enough hope to make you happy. The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way. The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; you can't go forward in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.
When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. Live your life so at the end, you're the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.
Random post
Smart man + smart women = Romance
Smart man + dumb women = Affair
Dumb man + smart women = Marriage
Dumb man + dumb women = Preganancy
Smart boss + smart employee = Profit
Smart boss + dumb employee = Production
Dumb boss + smart employee = Promotion
Dumb boss + dumb employee = Overtime
A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs.
A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn't need.
A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.
A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.
A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend.
A successful woman is one who can find such a man.
To be happy with a man, you must understand him a lot and love him a little.
To be happy with a woman, you must love her a lot and not try to understandher at all.
Married men live longer than single men do,
but married men are a lot morewilling to die.
A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't.
A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change, and she does.
A woman has the last word in any argument.
Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.
Old aunts used to come up to me at weddings, poking me in the ribs andcackling, telling me, "You're next."
They stopped after I started doing the same thing to them at funerals.
Smart man + dumb women = Affair
Dumb man + smart women = Marriage
Dumb man + dumb women = Preganancy
Smart boss + smart employee = Profit
Smart boss + dumb employee = Production
Dumb boss + smart employee = Promotion
Dumb boss + dumb employee = Overtime
A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs.
A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn't need.
A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.
A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.
A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend.
A successful woman is one who can find such a man.
To be happy with a man, you must understand him a lot and love him a little.
To be happy with a woman, you must love her a lot and not try to understandher at all.
Married men live longer than single men do,
but married men are a lot morewilling to die.
A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't.
A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change, and she does.
A woman has the last word in any argument.
Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.
Old aunts used to come up to me at weddings, poking me in the ribs andcackling, telling me, "You're next."
They stopped after I started doing the same thing to them at funerals.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Random post
Found this in my notes lol. Imagine you ask your teacher something and he tells you this.Sunday, September 09, 2007
Rush of Blood to the Mind? Relax...
Woa... What a deludge of posts in the past week! The number was below the number of posts in my class blog, but now it is above! Haha. Looks like the less I blog, the more post will come out. So next time I shall blog less often :P
Anyway, yah guess all of you are stressed up, thats why you all keep posting jokes here to help each other relax. This is a good sign. I keep a few spam mail in my office so that whenever I feel stressed, just take a break by reading it then it will perk me up again. Its a proven remedy. So I feel very guilty not contributing, but I think I will now lol...
Ok here are some which I remembered from office:
It is mandatory that UPS pilots have to submit a report called a "gripe sheet" to the maintenance engineers after every test flight. This is for feedback on any faults and allow the engineers to rectify it. The latter will then submit the reply to the pilot for the follow up.
Never it be said that ground crew lack a touch of humour. Here are some true examples when the pilot (marked with a "P") submits a report, and the Engineer gives the solution (marked with a "S"):
P: Left most tyre almost needs replacement.
S: Almost replaced left most tyre.
P: Evidence of leak at rear wing.
S: Evidence removed.
P: Dead bugs on wind-shield.
S: Live bugs on back-order.
P: Suspected crack in windshield.
S: Suspect, you are correct.
P: Engine 3 missing.
S: Engine 3 found after brief search at wing.
P: Altitude hold produces 200 feet/min descent when in air.
S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.
P: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.
S: IFF will ALWAYS be INOPERATIVE in OFF mode.
P: Aircraft not flying straight.
S: Aircraft is warned to behave, fly straight and obey orders.
P: "Auto-land" very rough.
S: "Auto-land" not installed on this aircraft.
P: Faulty Mouse.
S: Cat installed.
Anyway, yah guess all of you are stressed up, thats why you all keep posting jokes here to help each other relax. This is a good sign. I keep a few spam mail in my office so that whenever I feel stressed, just take a break by reading it then it will perk me up again. Its a proven remedy. So I feel very guilty not contributing, but I think I will now lol...
Ok here are some which I remembered from office:
It is mandatory that UPS pilots have to submit a report called a "gripe sheet" to the maintenance engineers after every test flight. This is for feedback on any faults and allow the engineers to rectify it. The latter will then submit the reply to the pilot for the follow up.
Never it be said that ground crew lack a touch of humour. Here are some true examples when the pilot (marked with a "P") submits a report, and the Engineer gives the solution (marked with a "S"):
P: Left most tyre almost needs replacement.
S: Almost replaced left most tyre.
P: Evidence of leak at rear wing.
S: Evidence removed.
P: Dead bugs on wind-shield.
S: Live bugs on back-order.
P: Suspected crack in windshield.
S: Suspect, you are correct.
P: Engine 3 missing.
S: Engine 3 found after brief search at wing.
P: Altitude hold produces 200 feet/min descent when in air.
S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.
P: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.
S: IFF will ALWAYS be INOPERATIVE in OFF mode.
P: Aircraft not flying straight.
S: Aircraft is warned to behave, fly straight and obey orders.
P: "Auto-land" very rough.
S: "Auto-land" not installed on this aircraft.
P: Faulty Mouse.
S: Cat installed.
Saturday, September 08, 2007
Haha I know where that one came from! It's from a seriously old issue of Reader's Digest. Haha.
--------------------------
A man was walking down a walkway with his wife on the way to their house back from dinner and minding his own business, when a car went haywire on the road next to the couple and crashed into the man. He was sent into a coma for two days and when he woke up he saw his wife next to his hospital bed. Joyfully the wife took his hand. With tears in his voice the man started to speak.
'When I was struggling in university, trying hard to not get expelled from the school because of my mediocre grades, you were always there by my side, encouraging me to go on trying.'
She squeezed his hands as he continued, 'When I went for all the major job interviews and failed to clinch any of them, you were always there by my side, cutting out the job ads for me to apply..'
A small smile appeared on the woman's face as she fought to keep from crying. The man went on, 'When I finally started work at a small company, I was given an important project to complete. I blew it because of a small mistake, and ended up losing my job after less than a year, but still you have been there beside me..'
His wife was in tears.
'After being jobless for a long time, I finally managed to land myself another job, but I never seem to be promoted or recognized in any way. Still, you have been by my side, all these years.'
She flung herself onto him, sobbing with tears of deep emotion. The man continued in a thick voice, 'Now, I meet with a road accident and when I wake, the first thing I see is you sitting beside me. There is something I'd like to say to you..'
His wife looked into his eyes, waiting for the words to come out of her husband's mouth, her mouth clamped tight to prevent from crying out loud. Finally, the man cleared his throat and said,
'I think you bring me bad luck lah.'
------------------------
~Blitzed off by Wakka02~
--------------------------
A man was walking down a walkway with his wife on the way to their house back from dinner and minding his own business, when a car went haywire on the road next to the couple and crashed into the man. He was sent into a coma for two days and when he woke up he saw his wife next to his hospital bed. Joyfully the wife took his hand. With tears in his voice the man started to speak.
'When I was struggling in university, trying hard to not get expelled from the school because of my mediocre grades, you were always there by my side, encouraging me to go on trying.'
She squeezed his hands as he continued, 'When I went for all the major job interviews and failed to clinch any of them, you were always there by my side, cutting out the job ads for me to apply..'
A small smile appeared on the woman's face as she fought to keep from crying. The man went on, 'When I finally started work at a small company, I was given an important project to complete. I blew it because of a small mistake, and ended up losing my job after less than a year, but still you have been there beside me..'
His wife was in tears.
'After being jobless for a long time, I finally managed to land myself another job, but I never seem to be promoted or recognized in any way. Still, you have been by my side, all these years.'
She flung herself onto him, sobbing with tears of deep emotion. The man continued in a thick voice, 'Now, I meet with a road accident and when I wake, the first thing I see is you sitting beside me. There is something I'd like to say to you..'
His wife looked into his eyes, waiting for the words to come out of her husband's mouth, her mouth clamped tight to prevent from crying out loud. Finally, the man cleared his throat and said,
'I think you bring me bad luck lah.'
------------------------
~Blitzed off by Wakka02~
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