The Emergency Button, The PSS 2 Goodbyes and The Battle of Wits

The Emergency Button:

Yesterday, I witnessed a female passenger vomitting and fainting on the MRT passenger cabin. I wanted to reach out forward to help her because I was a qualified first-aider but the crowd was way too packed as they edged forward to see the incident. The poor girl vomitted at least thrice and nearly passed out and another female passenger pressed the emergency red button near the sliding doors, requesting the train to be stopped at Queenstown MRT station and some SMRT staff to help the fallen passenger.

Minutes later, the two male staff arrived, but to my utter horror, they went straight to unlock the emergency button instead of going to check on the female casualty. The disgusting idea hit my mind then at once - those SMRT staff were more concerned about that emergency button than the casualty (which is supposed to be THE emergency). I watched quietly over the bobbing heads of other passengers when the two male staff finished unlocking the emergency button and I encountered the second horror of that incident - both of the SMRT staff members started walking back, seemingly forgetting everything about the vomitting and fainting female passenger!! The good Samaritan also stared at the two men and finally only one of the staff noticed the staring and went back to check on the female casualty (who looked really feeble and weak from my angle).

The MRT train started moving and I stretched out to see what happened to the other male SMRT staff member - the last glimpse was of him still walking back to the elevator, seemingly unconcerned about the female passenger. So much for passenger concern and safety - I continued my journey with a new disgust about SMRT's handling of that incident. The button and the passenger - they seemed to have chosen that cold, red "emergency" button.

The PSS 2 Goodbyes:

I watched last Thursday's voting results show fpr the Project Superstar 2's first Quarter-Finals contestants and saw all the crying, hugging and goodbyes of those who were voted out and those who remained in the cruel competition. I could see how some of the contestants were incredibly upset because I believed they did not regard the whole thing as a competition but as an invaluable opportunity to make friends with like-minded people. Yet, the show moved on and the remaining twenty contestants continued their journey to attempt to become Superstars while the other four were to move on to whatever lives they had decided to lead after the competition.

The episode reminded me of something that I had learnt many years ago - the world moves on, whether you want it to or not. For some of the contestants, it must have been a terrible night that night to watch friends leave and perhaps never return again on the same stage, but such is the reality of elimination-style competitions and perhaps elimination-style real world as well. Maybe the SMRT staff were thinking about the same thing - that vomitting female passenger had fallen behind and would be left behind while the train moved on. I personally have waved goodbyes and left behind many things as well - the schools I went to, many of those friends I made during my stays there, the people who were once important but now meaningless to me.

Who gets left behind, who is staying behind, who is moving on and who is still undecided - this may well sum up the daily struggle by everyone in whatever worlds they deemed themselves to be in. Still, I believe in one consistent thing so far - do my best for every day of my life and let my destiny unfold by itself. To the person reading this right now - are you doing your best for every day in life or you have your own unique philosophy of managing life itself? Whatever the case - enjoy this moment because there will never ever be another moment exactly the same as this one.

The Battle of Wits:

I just came back from watching the movie starring Andy Lau and I was impressed by the simple message that it was trying to bring the audience - Let go of war and embrace peace. Obviously, this message has been brought across by countless movies, celebrities, political forums, and even cartoon strips but the fact remains even more obvious - it is probably one of the hardest things to do for many people. Why? Because war gives the perfect excuse to eliminate people you don't like, don't want to like, boost your own ego whenever you score a victory, trample the egos of those defeated whenever you win, or fulfil whatever secret desires or cravings that I cannot even begin to comprehend. I am not just talking about those wars with swords, shields, guns and bullets. I am including all other forms of war in which there is a competition with the victors celebrating and the vanquished falling silent.

In the movie "Battle of the Wits", the lead character, Ge Li, played by Andy, advocated something in the movie that is still resonating in my head right now - universal love for all people alike and he was intelligently retorted by a slave which he saved in the movie who countered - learn to choose who to love more is better than blind universal love. I suppose the slave's words made greater sense because loving someone or something or some belief does not automatically mean that that love will be reciprocated. Just like what happened in the move, Ge Li's unselfish love for the people in the city of Liang was horribly twisted by the Liang King as an ulterior motive to usurp power. Ge Li's was nearly killed and learnt his lesson that not every single human in the city deserves his sacrifice and devotion to save from harm. I suppose the same philosophy can be applied to the workings of daily life - one does not need to hate every opponent or every force of opposition or negation but one also does not need to love everyone equally because, regardless whether the love will be reciprocated or not, the focused effort of loving those whom one deems important to oneself is better utilized. For me, I am going to start to smile more to the people I love and stop frowning on those whom I don't. It may still be a battlefield out there somehow, but at least I will try to learn to fight, comforted by my new peace of mind. It's a movie that I would want to recommend to my friends. Click on the link provided by the picture source below if you want to read the movie's synopsis.

One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing;
that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one.

By: Agatha Christie, Autobiography (1977)English mystery author (1890 - 1976)

(Picture Source: http://www.moviexclusive.com/review/abattleofwits/abattleofwits.htm)

(Quote Source: http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/24918.html)

Behind Those Guitar Strings

Teresa Tseng Learning Guitar:

I had a recent update from Teresa Tseng's official fanclub that the girl is learning how to play a guitar for some of her song recordings. I was very impressed to hear that because it meant that Teresa was striving hard to break barriers and learning new things to further her interest in singing and music, possibly pushing herself to new heights to bring everyone even better performances if she manages to learn guitar well enough.

As a vivid supporter for Teresa's performances, I cannot find myself sitting idly so I decided to help her in whatever ways I can by providing her with a post about guitars and guitar-playing so it will, hopefully, help to further her understanding on the instrument and express herself better behind those guitar strings. I also try to generate this post for the benefit of other faithful supporters of Teresa who may previously have not much of an idea what guitars and guitar-playing are all about and thus let them understand that it is both a very interesting and fun instrument to play on, once the initial cloud of confusion and difficulty clears up.

What is a Guitar?

The Wikipedia Free Online Encyclopedia provides quite a comprehensive write-up about guitars and its possible origins. From my deductions, Teresa should be learning an acoustic classical six-string guitar because electrical ones and any other types would usually require some experience in string instruments and given the impending studio song recordings, I don't really think she would be learning those complex types of guitars at this very moment.

The Chords On The Guitar:

I found a very cool website that has one of the most comprehensive chord builder around for guitarists. If one bothers to count the number of available chords on the fingerboard of the guitar from the below link, one can easily find more than one hundred chords, which translate into countless variations and possibilities of making the guitar-playing a fascinating experience. How many chords can an experienced player generate from those six strings? The answer by some of the maestro guitars - a stunning few MILLION....Of course, from what I know, Teresa Tseng is currently learning just basic guitar-playing but I hope the chord builder from this website http://musiceffect.com/chord/ will help the girl to understand the interesting depth of the instrument itself.

Personal Recommendations of Mandarin Songs with Guitars:

The following songs are my personal recommendations of mandarin songs that go very well with decent guitar-playing. Okay, I am more into ballads but they really sound great - just listen and judge for yourself. Hmm...maybe Teresa may reach such excellence in time to come but for those who did not own a guitar or have not been instructed on the instrument, you can still enjoy the songs, paying particular attention to how guitars can beautifully complement songs. I am already looking forward to hear how Teresa sounds with her playing the guitar.

Who? Me? Haha...I was taught to play by my father and I modestly played my first song on the guitar when I was in Primary Three, which is like more than seventeen years ago. Am I maestro guitarist? Nope, because I had not been practicing as hard as I should have. Perhaps I might be motivated again to do so once I hear Teresa play her song on the stage or on the airwaves. Yet, after seventeen years, I still love the guitar and the music behind those wonderful strings. I hope you can also enjoy the songs below and learn to love the guitar too...

1. ???? By: David Tao Che

One of the more recent songs in the song market and should be easily recognized by many of the younger supporters of Teresa.

2. ???????? By: Power Station Dong Li Huo Che

An older song a few years back by one of the then-popular duo group from Taiwan. I could only grasp in amazement by how powerful their voices are.

3. ???? By: Sky Wu Si Kai

This song was from my secondary school era. I remembered vaguely that I fielded this song for one of my school's annual singing contests. I did not got through to the next round because the microphone was not working properly then? Haha..oh well..

Music has charms to soothe the savage breast To soften rocks, or
bend a knotted oak.

By: William Congreve, The Mourning Bride, Act 1 Scene 1English dramatist (1670 - 1729)

(Image Source:keela84, Apr 01 2005, Flickr)

(Quote Source: http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/1486.html)

17 November 2006 End of the Day Post

How the day moved on:

Port Royale:

The morning started a simple breakfast of instant mee goreng and a glass of grape juice, followed by a gaming session on a computer game known as Port Royale. The game is about developing towns' economies, trading commodities, moving settlers, fighting famous pirates, fulfilling governors' quests, retrieving a long-lost sister and just when I thought that was already a long list, the game threw a surprisingly difficult quest again - rescuing my in-game wife from a pirate abduction.

This new quest is considerably more difficult because the pirate captain requested for a ransom of $900,000 from me. That is a huge sum of in-game money because I usually only make around $100,000 a week, which means a horrific surrender of nine in-game weeks of gameplay (translated approximately into 4 days of real-time game-play). The other option is to spend $90,000 on an in-game intelligence agent and pinpoint the location of the pirate's hideout and rescue my in-game wife in the less diplomatic way - cannons and rifles blazing. However, there is another problem, the pirate captain is no pushover small-time bucanneer - he has at least nine galleons and nearly a thousand pirates in his fleet. Galleons are easily one of the most powerful ships in the game and it takes a lot of time to recruit one thousand sailors (considering that each port only provides around fifty sailors for hire per week) and even more money to upkeep the salaries of the sailors.

I have decided the course of action, the guns blazing one. Why? Because paying the ransom will only make that pirate captain richer & more powerful and it does not guarantee that he will not try the same trick again anytime in the future. Though it will take me a long time to prepare the ships and sailors for the naval firefight ahead, I am determined to save my in-game wife because she looks quite alike to a real-life person who gave me the computer game as a gift in the first place. Call me bloodthirsty if you want to, but regardless of the costs (probably a number of ships and hundreds of sailor casualties), I am bent on sending that nasty pirate into Davy Jones locker and rescuing my in-game wife. I simply enjoy the challenge provided by a good game.

Pastamania Treat:

Lunch was at Pastamania because I wanted to give my parents a lunch treat. I usually work late and thus I make use of this period of rest days to be nice to them. Both of them are already so old but they were nevertheless very happy to know of the treat this morning and took time to dress up for the occasion. We had three plates of spaghetti (all different flavors) and my dad ordered a huge glass of Italian soda and my mom happily tucked into her chocolate mousse. It was not the best lunch treat in the neighbourhood but I suppose they looked happy enough. I wanted to order more for them but they simply refused, patting their stomachs contentedly.

What is a simple pleasure? Perhaps a lunch treat will do. The thought of my parents' mortality crossed my mind again. With age catching up, there may be fewer and fewer time left to make them contented or happy. I can only do what I am able to and hope that can at least repay a tiny fraction of my eternal debt to them - for bringing me up. It was a good lunch with my parents.

Same Gym, Different Feel:

Today's gym session was more unusual because I usually go to the gym in the mornings and even though it was the same old gym, the atmosphere exuded this afternoon was one of calmness and quietude because the radio was not blaring with the usual morning FM 98.7 music but was gently playing retro songs from FM 90.8. The gym crowd this afternoon was considerably different and much quieter than the morning one - almost nobody spoke and everyone was merely soaking the music and quietly doing whatever training they were at. Even the usual morning jokes, laughter and grunts of effort at heaving the weights were missing in the afternoon gym crowd. I was not uncomfortable but more amazed at how the same familiar place could have such a different feel altogether in a different time of the day. To make sure I can happily harmonize with the afternoon group of gym-goers, I kept my silence throughout and finished my weight-lifting session in an hour's time.

Translation For Teresa Tseng Fanclub:

Today, I did a translation of an I-weekly magazine article on Teresa Tseng and the Idol Drama for the fanclub because I realized that some of her supporters may not be that conversant in Mandarin to understand the article's content. Why am I doing this? Aren't I over-aged for joining a fanclub and supporting a young singer who is at least two generations younger than I am? The reason - she makes a lot of genuine effort to better her singing and she has the potential to become a great iconic singer if she wants to be. For me, Teresa is indeed a true gem in singing. Don't take my word for it - go watch her performances and decide for yourself.

Most of the supporters of Teresa are actually very nice people, spanning several age groups and I think doing them a little favour is not that difficult for me. I hope Teresa can truly understand how deep the support goes behind her and realizes the power within her hands (and voice) to change many things for the better. The supporters I got to know over the few months may not be the most vocal or visible, but they know their reasons for supporting the girl and they truly believe in her. That is a rarity amongst the local music and entertainment scene.

In a nutshell at the end:

Ah....a simple day. Sometimes, it is such a luxury.

Happiness is when what you think, what you
say, and what you do are in harmony.

By:Mahatma Gandhi Indian ascetic & nationalist leader (1869 - 1948)

(Picture source: ycon108, 16 Jun 2006, Flickr)

(Quote source: http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/31095.html)

Flowers For Algernon

Flowers For Algernon:

I wanted to write about this story because it is a literature piece for two of my secondary school students and it has got me thinking about what exactly is intelligence, how much people have been craving for it, and how much of it is considered enough for people. The topic may sound a little heavy for those looking for a light-hearted post on my blog but I hope it wil interest those readers who are keen to probe the very same topic themselves.

For those who have never heard of the story, it is about a man named Charlie Gordon who had volunteered for an surgical experiment to artificially increase his intelligence by threefold because he wanted to be "as smart as his friends". Algernon was a white laboratory mouse, which went through the same surgical enhancement. However, the surgical experiment's initial success was not permanent and after Algernon died from neuro-complications from the experiment, Charlie himself also experienced an equally rapid decline of his mental capacity a few weeks after the surgery.

Charlie struggled in futility to keep his intelligence and his new-found knowledge and the story ended with him leaving the town in the hope of leaving the memories of the experiement and the consequent experiences behind him. Charlie's final wish in his journal was to get his language school teacher, Miss Kinnian, to put flowers on Algernon's cheesebox grave because he considered Algernon as his only compatriot in his meteorite-like life.

What is Intelligence?

The ability to score high marks for IQ and academic tests or examinations? The ability to read pages of information and transform what one has read to knowledge? The ability to wise-crack with everyone in sight and impress them with witty jokes? The ability to solve problems in a spontaneous and creative way? The ability to gain acceptance from people and ensure one's continual survival in the highly competitive world today?

There are so many competing definitions for intelligence right now that it is really hard to say. But for the story of "Flowers for Algernon", it was definitely about social acceptance. Charlie Gordon simply wanted to be smart so that he could better enjoy the company of his friends around him and make himself more useful to the people around him. However, the harder he tried, the further those very people shrunk away from him. And as Charlie gained knowledge and understanding of the people and events around him, he realized how he had been made use of as a walking target for jokes and mass beatings.

What do people crave to have intelligence?

Social acceptance? Self-acceptance? Positive advantage over others in life? Multiplier factor in enjoying life to the fullest? I have asked many people in my life the same question above and the answers often vary. I am inclinced to believe that each and everyone of us have a slightly different answer in our minds and hearts but most of us agree that a higher level of intelligence is a good thing. Yet how much is enough? Do we ourselves know how much intelligence can we fit into our minds without risking some sort of "mental overload"?

How much intelligence is considered enough?

Charlie Gordon in the story "Flowers For Algernon" , though had thrice his original intelligence, had not only problems in trying to integrate himself into his immediate social circle but the very human society as both tried to alienate from him because he was being considered as "abnormal" now (on the other end of the intelligenece spectrum). The story never really discussed how much intelligence is considered enough but it did mention that the human world may not yet be ready to be friendly towards highly-intellectual people.

I personally feel that intelligence is considered enough if it is able to establish an integrative, stable, and contented connection with the world. If the level of intelligence cannot integrate with the existing knowledge of the world and society around that intellectual, it may only serve to destroy, not build the foundations of the world and the society. When that happens, such levels of intelligence may be met with hostility, alienation and even abandonment. If the level of intelligence cannot be sustained on a stable basis for a purpose (hopefully for contructive ones), it may only be disintegrated either through procastination, distraction or negligence. If the level of intelligence cannot fulfil an achievable contentment level within the individual who possesses it, it may ignite an uncontrollable ambition to attempt to amplify the intelligence level through whatever means possible and thus simultaneously putting the previous two conditions mentioned at risk.

Simply put, it's like balancing a see-saw with three conditions atop of it. So what is my verdict? Intelligence cannot stand alone because it is a multiplier, needing many other skills to work its magic.

It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival
value.

By:Arthur C. Clarke English physicist & science fiction author (1917 - )

(Image source:lemon drop, 03 Oct 2004, stock.xchng)
(Quote source: http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/777.html)

11 November 2006 End of the Day Post

How the day moved on:

It's a slacker's saturday today, with a long drawn-out rain that is continuing all the way from noontime till the night. Hmm...9.30am seems to be the standard time for waking up whenever I have my rest days and this time, I have three consecutive rest days to catch up on my sleep, my games, and watching my vcds. Ah...it's good to have a nice break after all the hectic running about during those examination periods. Breakfast was a packet of mee goreng and a glass of orange juice - simple, filling and lazy's man's way out.

Playing Titan Quest:

After breakfast, I spent quite a few hours today enjoying the role-playing game, in which the storyline stretches from Greece, Egypt to China. The graphics of this game is the best that I have seen but the game does crashes once in a while so I had to backup the game files everytime I reached a safe point (in the game, this is known as a rebirth fountain). My Brigand (Archer + Rogue dual-class) character made very good progress today, travelling the entire length of the Silk Road, completing difficult quests with relatively ease because of a careful selection of skills and equipment. The character relies heavily on poison attacks, slowing the movement of monsters and injecting confusion into the minds of monsters in order to tackle the really powerful monsters, especially the Elder Draconians (large dragon-like monsters which are extremely fast, deadly and scary). Gaming Fun +1

A Comfortable Nap:

After a simple lunch of rice, chicken fillet and cai xin, I made full use of the cool weather from the afternoon rain to take a long comfortable nap. Two solid hours' of sleep without a single stir was the result and I woke up refreshed. What a joy to be able to do this because I am usually working in the afternoon so such naps are quite a luxurious rarity for me. Yawn~~ Energy + 1

Deep Impact:

VCD time! As I have said, today's a slacker's day so I decide to snuggle up at home to re-watch some of the vcds in my collection atop of my study cabinet. The choice for today is Deep Impact, another disaster themed vcd, which I had bought together with Armaggeddon. The storyline is about the same - giant meteor with the potential to destroy all life heading right towards Earth. The character focus in Deep Impact however is much broader, because it moves from various groups of characters to show how such groups handle the crisis. The one that moved me the most is the enstranged relationship between the daughter and the father. The daughter hated the father for his divorce with her mother, and in turn marrying another young girl who is only a couple of years older than she is. The mini-story of these two characters climaxed with the eventual acknowledgement that both of them still loved each other despite their differences and both the father and daughter perished in embrace on the beach as the tsunami wave from a smaller meteor crashed inland. Maybe it is not death that is scary, but a lifelong regret of not being able to resolve a human difference and reach an understanding that had really mattered to oneself.

Broken promises:

Today was also a day of broken promises - three of them to be exact. The first one came from a parent of a student who had been making use of me as a stand-in tutor while waiting for a tuition class to get organized. I was infuriated because the parent lied about committment to the assignment to both myself and the tuition agent and it had cost dearly because I had turned down assignments just to keep the student's timeslot. The second broken promise came from a friend, who was supposed to call me and confirm if there was going to be any morning jog. She did not manage to confirm anything from last night till this morning and I believe she had totally forgotten about it - still it's a promise broken. The third one came from a third party relay, who was supposed to pass a small loan to one of my friends in Indonesia. Apparently, this third party had failed to do so and there is already suspicion that she has absconded with the money. I am alright with the loss but it is nevertheless a broken promise because this person had promised me to pass the much-needed money to that friend of mine. Who honor their word these days? I hope I am not the only one left - that will be quite scary.

In a nutshell at the end:

Reputation is what other people know
about you. Honor is what you know about yourself.

By: Lois McMaster Bujold, "A Civil Campaign", 1999US science fiction author

(Picture source: weirdvis, 24 Apr 2004, stock.xchng)
(Quote source: http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/30945.html)

10 November 2006 End of the Day Post

How the day moved on:

Woke up late today at around 9.30am because I was watching the vcd Armaggeddon starring Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck all the way until 1.40am. The morning past by simply with a nice tiramisu cake, which I bought from The Coffee Bean the day before and it melted in my mouth - absolutely sinful and delicious!

The Clean-Up:

After slow breakfast savouring the cake, the first task of the morning was to clean up the interior of my desktop CPU because my computer hanged up on me the night before while I was in the middle of some MSN chat sessions. Armed with newspapers, a screwdriver, a toothbrush, a mini-fan and a piece of wet cloth, I started cleaning up the CPU and it's coolants fans and it was a grimly task. Lots of dust balls were removed and I was wondering how much dust was accumulated because of the recent haze in Singapore. I took a second look at my computer table and decided I should clean that up too and started moving all the peripherals and scrubbed them all. The task ended at around 1pm and I headed to buy lunch.

Surfing and Singing:

Lunch was a styrofoam box of rice, drumstick, cabbage and char siew. Not exactly a spread but it tasted good after fiddling with all the cleaning and dusting. The afternoon was divided between reading some of the blogs from MediaCorp on the Project Superstar 2 and I practiced my singing with a number of songs from the Internet to keep myself in shape. The practice song line-up for the afternoon was:

1. Fei Ji Chang De Shi Dian Ban (David Tao)
2. Pu Tong Peng You (David Tao)
3. Piano (Fan Yi Chen)
4. Kiss Goodbye (Wong Lee Hom)
5. Qian Li Zhi Wai (Jay Zhou and Fei Yu Qing)

Song practice ended around 4.30pm and it was just right because the afternoon rain was over and I headed off to the gym for my training session. The 2.4km run today was tough because I was trying to push myself to go faster and the result was a satisfied but breathless Sean Ho. Weights training was kept a minimum today because the accelerated run took most of the wind out of me but I considered the session fruitful enough. Gym was wrapped up at around 5.30pm and I headed home for my cooking lesson on pancakes! Phyiscal Stamina + 1

Learning about pancakes:

My mother decided to teach me how to prepare pancakes and I grabbed the opportunity to learn more about pancakes because her pancakes tasted great and I hope to upgrade my cooking skills so I can prepare pancakes myself in the future. Mixing the batter, pouring the batter onto the hot pan and learning how to get the pancake cooking properly without burning it took a good part of 30 minutes but I managed to pick it up. Hopefully I won't forget all the steps when I have to prepare pancakes myself! Cooking skill + 1

In a nutshell at the end:

I suppose today was more of a discovery day for me because for my song practice and my pancake cooking episode, I learnt that it is important to continue to keep an open mind and don't self-assume about the development of things. For example, I had sang "Piano" countless times without realizing that I was locking a part of my vocal box for some of the lines at the chorus portion until today. So I was making a conscious reminder not to do that again the next time round (because volume projection of those lines will be affected). Also, although it was not exactly my first pancake cooking lesson from my mother, the experience this time round was different because the batter was much thicker and the oil used from far lesser than the previous time. Looks like life remains very much a journey of continual self- (or re-) discovery of things around oneself...

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the
illusion of knowledge.

By: Daniel J. Boorstin US historian (1914 - )

(Picture source:Lex in the city, 8 Jan 2006, Flickr)

(Quote source: http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/1972.html)