Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Choices

I was watching the rubbish news on cable about Taiwan and came across this. A man was convicted by stealing a box of instant noodle from a construction site as he had no money and was extremely hungry. This was his second time he had stole for food. First was at a convenient store and was given a light sentence when the prosecutor realised his plight. However, he did it again.


If you were him, will you steal? Driven by hunger, will you beg instead? Or will you work for food?

Our life is what we have chosen. Our day to day decisions decides our so called fate. Everyone starts the same way, born into this world naked and crying our lungs out. We let our parents decides what is good for us until we have our own mind or mature to do it ourselves. After that, it is a series of action versus reaction.

The path is always there, only issue is, is it the correct path? Who is there to determine it's correct or wrong? It is very subjective. Your correct choice may seems to be wrong in my opinion. Thus, you have to beware what you have chosen and wished for as it will become true.

Every decision you made should not have a factor for regrets. When you gets older, such decisions will carry more severe consequences. Do not turn out one day that you cried in front of your child and says you have walked the wrong path of life when you are almost 60 years old and blames the whole world for it. No doubt that people around you influences you. But the final decisions are always YOUR choice.

My thought: You are what you are now because of the choices you have made in life. You chose your schools, friends, partners, work, spouse, home, etc... If you feel that life is unfair or sucks, you can only blame one person, that is YOU!

P/S: only thing that you can't choose is who your parents and siblings are.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Do You Understand The Words That Is Coming Out Of My Mouth?

"Hey relax, it's just communication break down!" We often hear these words when things goes wrong in a relationship. However, it's just like brushing away the real reason behind all the problems. So if i were to ask further... "So which part of the communication broke down?" Some people might be stunned and don't know how to answer.

There are actually steps in communication process. Creation of thoughts, translation of thoughts into words, transmission of thoughts via speaking, reception of words for intended party, decoding of words from receiving party and formulation of thoughts on receiving party.

In any of the above stage, things can go wrong. Original intention, thoughts, idea maybe twisted if it's not communicated directly from A to B. Even if it's directly from A to B, things may go wrong due to different attitude, state of mind and culture.

My thought: So to avoid "I know you believe you understand what you think i said, but i'm sure you realise that what you heard is not what i meant" We must constantly beware of what to say, how to say, when to say and who to say, in order for effective communications.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Wake~~~~~~~~

This morning at 10am i received 3 miss calls, two from my mum, the other from my ah yee... received a sms from ah yee... "AH GONG PASS AWAY". I know i should be sad, but deep down inside, a voice says.. "hey be happy... ah gong (grand father) no longer suffers".

After bringing dinoegg for his long overdue 18mth 5-in-1 jab, i headed to my mother in law place to let her look after dinoegg. After that, i immediately go over to see what i can help around at my ah gong's wake.

All the ah yees and uncles where there, mingle around.. Even those that i have not seen for long time appears. Deep down in my heart i was thinking, why when ah gong is still conscious, they did not come over to visit him? Are they so busy? Busy with what? Not even for 1 or 2 hours of their time?

For me, i have absolutely no regrets. Ever since i cut my leg, i started to cherish things and people around me. I bring dinoegg to visit ah gong on Sundays whenever we can. I remember ah gong holding dinoegg's hand, big winkled hand holding on to tiny little hand... ah gong putting his forehead to touch little dinoegg's, as he have no strength to huggle or hold on to him.

Do cherish your love ones when they are still alive, don't wait till your love one pass away then turn up to cry and go through the ritual. Before i went home, i offered the incense and look at ah gong again, he is so peaceful, seems like in his deep sleep without pain and regrets.

My thought: Spend sometime with your love ones, you don't have to wait until occasions to tell them or show them that you really care and love them. Give your spouse a great big hug when you return home from work. Bring your kiddos to visit their grand parents or great grand parents, trust me, they will be more than happy as they have seen you from little baby, turning into adult, becoming parents and bring your babies to let them hold onto, just like they hold onto you when you are just a baby. Melts your heart and warms theirs.

Friday, May 2, 2008

Wanna Compare?

Went Bangkok Thailand during last weekend to have a short holiday as wife wanna bring in some children's clothes to sell in her online store. Was a great trip to have so many friends around to feast at the same time.

While we were on our way to MBK, wife and i saw this young toddler, almost the same age as dinoegg, playing sticker alone on the overhead bridge. Besides him was a container. My heart immediately sank. Wife without hesitation took out her coin pouch and empty it into the container.

She had the same feeling as i was, he is just a young little kid, not even 2 years old, yet have to beg on the street, our little dinoegg is almost the same age, most probably irritating his grandma while she is feeding him dinner now.

Makes me feel so sad and i can't stop wondering, is there any future for this kid? Or are they only worrying the present which is to have food on the table. Poverty is a rat race, it takes something known as education to get out of it. But i doubt that this kid have this chance.

On the way back to our hotel, i saw another kid, told my wife most likely a victim of syndicate. His palms and feet were missing. Too coincidental to be born with such defect. What is happening to the human society, how can one be so cruel to exploit kiddos as a tool to make a living?

My thought: Poverty drives people to come out of ways and means to solve their current problem. But to get out of it, one must plan, think and look far ahead. Poverty won't kill you, but the harm which the kids suffer will follow them the rest of their life. If you can't feed yourself, don't give birth to children who will eventually suffers under your hands.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Attitude~~~~~~~

Training to be soldiers
To fight for our land
Once in our life
Two years of our time
Have you ever wonder
Why must we serve
Because we loved our land
And we want it to be free to be free.... YA

Who can ever forget the process of boys becoming men, it's a system which turns you into mean fighting machine known as National Service. Sissies becoming fearless warriors through unarmed combat n bayonet's fighting.

But it's also a topic which puts most of the wivies off when men starts to talk about NS days. Reason? They cannot relate the terms used and experiance we had.

To some brothers, it's mere going through the system, minimium participation, just wanna serve and forget (SAF). But to others, it brings out the best memories that one could ever have. Why is there such a big difference? Reason is your ATTITUDE towards it.

Your attitude brings you to see things in different perspective, during 911, when market crashes, many people sell their stocks and shares but some saw it as opportunity and buy, price grew almost 4 times for some stocks as of today.

According to a well know platform speaker, average millionaires suffers 2 - 3 times of bankruptcy before they becomes one. It's their attitude towards life that makes the difference, they do not fall into self pitiness and blames the world for their failure.

My thought: When problem arise, do you blame others or give excuses? Or do you reflect and see what went wrong? Your attitude makes or breaks your life.

Taxi~~

I have this habit of taking the front seat whenever i'm not with my family or friends. I like to engage small talks with the taxi uncles as they tend to have weird opinions on all issues, ranging from life, politics, housing.... almost anything under the sun. They are much older then me, seen more things then me, so there might be some worthy life experiance i can learn from them.

However, most of them are negative about life. They think that
1) HDB flats is a scam which gov used to suck away their CPF by providing them an expensive flat for 99 years.
2) We "rent" cars from gov as COE is only valid for 10 yrs.
3) Gov wants them to work till they die by holding their CPF.
4) Taxi companies earn all their $ via rental income and don't bother if they are sick or not
5) Singapore life is too stress and wants to migrate to Australia
6) Travel around for hours before they can find a passanger like you
7) Companies increase fare as tourist complain that they cannot find cab during peak hour
The list goes on and on...

Most of the time, depending on my mood, i will carry on the conversation with them when such topic arise as i find it too negative to start my day with it especially in the morning to work. At times i kept wondering, if life is so difficult, do they have a choice to quit driving? At this age of 50+ 60 what can they do?

However, there are also some drivers who are positive too, some are holding high post or owns companies before they were retrenched during the late 90's where economies were real bad. You can tell the difference when they address certain issue with their choice of words.

My thought: Words that comes out of your mouth reflects what your mind is thinking. What your mind can concieve, you can achieve. Thus you will become what you think you are, so choose what to speak and what not to.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

HUAT AH~~!!

IR coming soon, are you prepared? Recently there is a case in the papers where a man jumps due to stress of having a gambling addicted wife. This man happens to be my friend's neighbour.

This is not new, when i was studying in my poly, my neighbour's husband also jumps due to the same reason.

The question is why? Why women when come to gamble issue, they can be much much more scarier than men? I admit that i do buy 4d, there were more than once i saw ladies in front of me placing bet that could be of a month's salary for a factory worker. Scary ya? What are the odds of striking? 23 numbers out of a 10000? Play 1 2 dollars i can understand, 1 to 2k per bet? That i don't!

Just today, a young lady in front of me

cashier: miss are you sure you wanna place this bet?
lady: yes, is there anything wrong that i mark wrongly?
cashier: miss, you marked system bet and place 50 big 50 small
lady: yes, i know, i dunno how to buy so i ask my husband to mark for me
cashier: it's 24 permutation so it will be 2400
lady: oh ya i know, do you all accept nets?
cashier: yes we do

I almost fainted when i saw this! The total bet of this lady is not only 2400, she bought some other numbers as well all system bet. TOTAL AMT: 3561!!!! Her nets won't exceed limit? I wonder how she do it... If she have special arrangement with the bank then this will not be an isolated betting case... Scary....

My thought: Woman can be very extreme when they are focus, engrossed, addicted to certain things. Please wake them up if you are a close friend of theirs. There is a big difference between chance and pure risk, chance is basically a calculated risk, means you might be able to win. Pure risk? YOU HAVE NO CHANCE AT ALL.