journey through mud

i’m agnostic.

[ agnostic

adj : uncertain of all claims to knowledge ]

Source: WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University

the new way of saying “i don’t know”.

(:

this entry is dedicated to one of the world’s greatest philosophers, Socrates.

Socrates started his pursuit of knowledge after the day when his friend, Chaerephon, asked the Oracle of Delphi if there was anyone in this world who is wiser than Socrates; the Oracle responded negatively. Socrates, denying that he knew anything, was unable to accept this and began to seek out the wise men of Athens, questioning them about their knowledge of good, beauty, and virtue; finding that they knew nothing yet believed they knew much and this led Socrates to the conclusion that he was wise only in so far as he knew he knew nothing and strived for knowledge.

Source: http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Bios/Socrates.html

in short, Socrates was the wisest man in the world, because he knew of the fact that he did not know anything.

how cool is that?!

According to Dr. Chua,

Socrates spent his days sitting near the market place where lots of people walk around, and he would stop any random person to ask him/her questions which questioned issues like morals and beauty. he was actually even known as “the stinging viper”, because his questions always seemed to leave people stunned.

Socrates did not write any of his thoughts down, and it was mostly his disciple, Plato, who recorded his dialogues with people around the marketplace. many of these dialogues actually ended with the people saying stuff like “i got to run!” and that was left as that.

hm. i think socrates is cool. really. i would rather spend my days sitting by the market place, stopping people in their tracks and questioning them about what they thought about the things around this world. lots of my classmates in philo class thought that socrates was crazy to actually do that, but i didn’t think so! i think that’s like, the best way of learning.

and exploring.

the beauty of discovery.

sigh, but i don’t think i’ll be able to be as great as socrates to ask all these questions which would stun the people who were stopped. then again, at the pace this earth is moving, i doubt anyone would even stop for 3 seconds to listen to me. oh wells.

i think, we, being humans, in the current society, are constantly being bombarded by so many different things around us. we register new inputs in our mind all the time and we will not even be able to carry through a complete chain of thoughts without being distracted by something new registering in our minds.

i believe that if only we all, could actually have the luxury of the time to stop and think, and ponder about the wonders of this earth, and the many discrepancies that we face everyday, we would definitely be a society of higher culture and more civilised people, because we would know that there are actually more to life than all these petty stuff that we pick on all the time.

if only we could be like rene descartes or socrates, to spend the rest of our lives in the pursuit of knowledge, not through books, but through the power of the mind.

but i suspect we’ll all die first.

oh wells.

sitting on a rock

i’m agnostic.

[ agnostic

adj : uncertain of all claims to knowledge ]

Source: WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University

the new way of saying “i don’t know”.

(:

this entry is dedicated to one of the world’s greatest philosophers, Socrates.

Socrates started his pursuit of knowledge after the day when his friend, Chaerephon, asked the Oracle of Delphi if there was anyone in this world who is wiser than Socrates; the Oracle responded negatively. Socrates, denying that he knew anything, was unable to accept this and began to seek out the wise men of Athens, questioning them about their knowledge of good, beauty, and virtue; finding that they knew nothing yet believed they knew much and this led Socrates to the conclusion that he was wise only in so far as he knew he knew nothing and strived for knowledge.

Source: http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Bios/Socrates.html

in short, Socrates was the wisest man in the world, because he knew of the fact that he did not know anything.

how cool is that?!

According to Dr. Chua,

Socrates spent his days sitting near the market place where lots of people walk around, and he would stop any random person to ask him/her questions which questioned issues like morals and beauty. he was actually even known as “the stinging viper”, because his questions always seemed to leave people stunned.

Socrates did not write any of his thoughts down, and it was mostly his disciple, Plato, who recorded his dialogues with people around the marketplace. many of these dialogues actually ended with the people saying stuff like “i got to run!” and that was left as that.

hm. i think socrates is cool. really. i would rather spend my days sitting by the market place, stopping people in their tracks and questioning them about what they thought about the things around this world. lots of my classmates in philo class thought that socrates was crazy to actually do that, but i didn’t think so! i think that’s like, the best way of learning.

and exploring.

the beauty of discovery.

sigh, but i don’t think i’ll be able to be as great as socrates to ask all these questions which would stun the people who were stopped. then again, at the pace this earth is moving, i doubt anyone would even stop for 3 seconds to listen to me. oh wells.

i think, we, being humans, in the current society, are constantly being bombarded by so many different things around us. we register new inputs in our mind all the time and we will not even be able to carry through a complete chain of thoughts without being distracted by something new registering in our minds.

i believe that if only we all, could actually have the luxury of the time to stop and think, and ponder about the wonders of this earth, and the many discrepancies that we face everyday, we would definitely be a society of higher culture and more civilised people, because we would know that there are actually more to life than all these petty stuff that we pick on all the time.

if only we could be like rene descartes or socrates, to spend the rest of our lives in the pursuit of knowledge, not through books, but through the power of the mind.

but i suspect we’ll all die first.

oh wells.

Sounds of Emotions

Tick. Tick.

With his utmost strength,

He picks up the rope.

Beep. Beep.

The rope entwines,

Seemingly entangling his fingers.

Drip. Drip.

He struggles to make them straight,

But the rope seems to have come alive.

The robots,

Pushes their hooks into his skin.

The fluids,

Clawing their way through him.

He struggles yet again.

The rope listens,

And follows his hands.

Magically, a loop is made.

Laughter.

The brilliance in his face,

Brightens the lives of others.

The rope lies lonely,

Once again.

-dedicated to all who have contributed to magic therapy in one way or another.

out of the world

i mentioned something about other possibilities arising in the future before,

so we shouldn’t make our conclusions so quickly.

was discussing something close to this with wy the other day,

and she was telling me about an article she read.

on philosophy of course

if one is deaf,

one will never really know sound.

if one is blind,

one will never really know sight.

what if,

all of us are missing that “sixth sense” in the world,

which allows us to understand things of another dimension.

experiences which do not belong to sight, sound, taste, touch and smell.

we perceive the world according to our five senses.

and we assume that everything in this world can be judged by our five senses.

but the truth is,

we are blind to what we cannot experience. (no pun intended.)

maybe,

if we have that sixth sense,

or seventh,

or eight,

we would be able to answer the questions raised by philosophy.

but where’s the fun in that?

(:

dot and spot finger

i went to the children’s cancer foundation event for a while after speech day today and found this booth under Bone Marrow Donor Programme.

Bone Marrow Donor Programme is kind of like a registry where people register their bone marrows and when a cancer patient is in need for a transplant, the hospital can search through the registry and hopefully, they would be able to find a matching bone marrow donor. the chance of success is very low, there is only a 1 in 20 000 chance that there would be a matching donor.

all it takes is just for us to register as a potential bone marrow donor and they’ll just do a finger prick test to get about 10 cc of blood from your finger. that is really, really little.

i was quite inspired by the movement, and decided to give it a shot.

at first, i was quite freaked out,

because i was afraid of pain.

i used to think all those strange thoughts about how it would be wonderful,

if a person never ever has to experience pain.

as a child, never to fall.

as a teenager, never to experience heartbreak.

as an adult, never to fail.

it would just be so heavenly!

and as an extended strange thought, i wanted to make sure that i don’t fall down so that i won’t feel pain.

but it’s actually not true, because i know i have quite a high threshold for pain. i used to do physiotherapy at alexandra hospital, and they had those machines where they send electric pulses into your muscles so that your muscles can be strengthened. (amazing huh? results without work!) but it’s a really really painful thing, and the higher the rating, the better it is for your muscles. i used to go till the max (140) all the time and the physiotherapists will always praise me, telling me about some aunty or uncle who were screaming out loud at 40. oh wells.

okay, irrelevant. anyway, i decided to go to register under the Bone Marrow Donor Program. haha. i was like the youngest “donor” at that time? and i was still in school uniform!

it was pretty painless. it’s something like a bite, but it’s so quick that you won’t even feel it. but after that, you may feel a continuous pain cause they have to squeeze the blood out of the tiny dot on your finger.

it’s really inspiring, to see these people encouraging others to register themselves as potential donors. the strange thing was that none of them approached me. i had to ask the guy myself. haha.

… do you know what it is like to have cancer?

… do you know what it is like to be a child and know that you have cancer?

… do you know what it is like to know that there’s hope out there, but no one’s willing to help you?

i don’t. but i want to try.

uh…

[ my blog in trash words. ]

lol.. spastic!

now i wonder, why would anyone want to speak that way? isn’t communication about getting your message across? what’s the point if no one is going to understand what you’re saying? perhaps, one might argue that it’s kind of like an “exclusive” language, where only people in the “loop” will understand what they are talking about.

but why hide? why be so unconfident about your own identity? why do all of us struggle to belong to one group or another? is it so important to say “oh, i belong to this group and we only speak this certain language and i’m so disappointed to tell you that you don’t belong and you will never understand what we’re talking about!”?

if you have nothing to hide, then why be afraid of letting others know what you’re talking about? oh i know! one might be hatching a secret plan to destroy the world!

i think it’s very unhealthy to persist in using one’s own “exclusive” language. not only is it unnecessary, it is very inconsiderate as well. i absolutely dislike it when people suddenly break into their own “language”, eg. mother tongue, especially among some races, because i would feel really out of place, like “what are they talking about that they can’t let me know?” isn’t it supposed to be a open discussion?

singapore is a multi-racial country, we should be more considerate about what others might think and feel and not “exhibit” the fact that you belong to a certain group. we’re supposed to be all singaporeans! …or global citizens if you like.

but then again, i guess it’s necessary to practice your mother tongue since language is a vital part of one’s culture. if the mother tongue gradually gets eroded away, perhaps the culture (which is oh so important) will be washed away as well. (by longshore drift! wahahaha. zigzag?)

i just realised that i may be bordering towards some dangerous grounds and i should stop harping on this. but i do realise that consideration for others is very important. =D speak english. haha!

“when we are able to laugh at ourselves, it then shows how confident we really are in our own identities” – unknown.

my oral quotation. makes a lot of sense right?

but it reminds me that i screwed my orals up. as i stared as the quotation, my eyes started to lose focus, and the word “laugh” started to appear funny. actually if you stare at it long enough, you will start to feel that it looks weird. really. at least to me it does.

laugh at yourself today.

you bet

js, i shall exercise my freedom of speech and write a…

big.

fat.

RIGHT.

on my blog as an answer to your current entry.

heheheheheheheh.

fired

haha.

this must be the most hilarious joke of my life.

the joke about myself.

as my pop has always said,

“what is yours, will be yours.

but what is not yours, will never be yours.”

it’ll never be mine.

never.

haha.

no amount of waiting will bring anything.

hmm.

by the way,

there is still no such thing as unrequited love.

so don’t fall into the trap!

(:

you don’t know how lucky you are…

bedside

do you know what family bonding is?

i know now

family bonding is when you know your whole family is comfortable with each other.

it is when even though you have big disagreements with each other,

you are still able to communicate with them.

it is when everyone, no matter big or small, busy or free,

sits together

and talk,

and laugh,

and enjoy each other’s company.

i know that now.

it is simply beautiful.

say “i love you” to your family today,

hugs are effective too.

i love you, pop

i love you, ma

i love you, ah cheh

i love you, gor

*hugs*

you all make up the most beautiful family one person can have.

one where love exists in the numerous quarrels with have,

one where care exists in the scoldings we get.

one where the word “family” is too simple a word to describe what i have.

thank you.

move apart

“if you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” – Mark Twain

beautifully said, not easily done i think.

but so true.

if only everyone could tell the truth, then no one will be unreal. things would be so much simpler, because everyone would know that everyone is telling the truth. and then, we won’t spend so much time and energy trying to interpret what another person is saying, afraid that we read or figured them wrongly. the world would be a much nicer place i think.

why remember so much? … but it’s impossible. how can we tell the truth forever? there are so many things that we, ourselves, have to protect ourselves for. precisely why no one is perfect, everyone knows this, but we just cannot stop ourselves from blaming another person when they do wrong. blaming ourselves, when we do wrong.

innocence.

the most beautiful thing in life.

to have the ability to say what you want, do what you and think what you want. it has a trace of egocentrism, and even be seen as being insensitive to others. but why do we still think that childhood is the best period of our lives? because of the innocence portrayed, which is so endearing. does it mean that the more years we live on this earth, we “automatically” have to not be innocent anymore? it is not even logical in this sense.

why can’t we live our lives being innocent? i don’t think it would affect any of our work, career or studies. is it really that important to be mature?

don’t be unreal, just hold on to your innocence.

being unreal will bring you somewhere,

but not to the right place.

can you still have your innocence and grow up?

sigh, my dad has to admitted into hospital. hope he’s going to be fine. my dad’s one of the most important people in my life, one of the people i highly respect. his life was not exactly the finest, but instead, i think it has the most learning points for myself and everyone around him.

i respect him for who he is now.

pop, please be alright and take care