Archive for April, 2006
16 Apr, 2006
Welcome to life after death
Welcome to life after death.
You do know it’s life after death, don’t you?
Yes, yes, welcome.
Shall you like a cuppa tea?
Ah, coffee, no Englishman I see.
Shakespeare, you do know who he is?
once said all the world’s a stage –
not very true: a play’s got to end
sometime, but he knows it now.
He has quite a legacy, don’t you think?
Yours were footprints in the sand,
maybe you’ll do more this time?
Ah, there she comes! the lovely lady –
she’s yours for this life, but you’ve got to find her;
she could be placed anywhere, anywhere at all.
Maybe Asia, maybe Scandanavia — it doesn’t
matter.
Find her before she finds out who’s hers,
things will be simpler that way.
God’s taking a break this time, so
you’ll probably be an aethist, unless he decides
to come back for whatever reason — six lifetimes’
an awful long time to work, and he likes to take
a rest during number seven: it’s his favourite
number.
So run along now, and go out and live your life.
Any reason you need to return here, just go
to any of the designated spots (we’ve marked it
out for you in your brain), and choose the option
called “death”. You’ll come back to this place,
where you can decide whether or not to continue,
or restart your life again.
Quite simple, yes?
14 Apr, 2006
Anger Management: Limited Options
I received a call from camp today. I was told some interview booklets that were supposed to have been submitted yesterday had not been submitted. I therefore have to return to camp either during the weekend, or Monday, on which I am on leave, to return them.
When I received the call and fully understood the news I flared up, and was on the verge of spewing the most obscene vulgarities I could muster. Thankfully, only one obscenity escaped my lips, and in a muted manner.
My tone though, was livid, and it showed throughout the conversation. Again, I must stress, that inside I was burning up. Much like a plugged volcano just itching to erupt, I was close to exploding. If I did explode it would have been a spectacularly nasty scene.
It was strange though, that being angry — using angry tones, spewing vulgarities, perhaps even throwing things if time and space permitted — seemed so right.
One method of tackling anger is that of rationalisation. Step outside of yourself, and think logically about why you are angry, and what benefits (if any) anger would bring about. But, it seems, I had more reasons to be angry than otherwise.
A display of anger allows me to:
- Show displeasure: This dude calls me up, and tells me bad news. I want to tell him that I am upset at the news.
- Minimise chances of event happening again: By showing displeasure, and by passing on the unpleasantness of the situation, I hope to make him associate calling me with regards this particular piece of news an unpleasant experience. We humans, as do most creatures, tend to try to minimise unpleasant experiences, thus he will not call me again unless absolutely necessary.
- Release inner tension: An outward display of anger means that less anger is directed inward, which can lead to stress or depression. Of course, too much outward expression of anger can have far reaching consequences, if the displays of anger are too extreme, so prudence must be taken.
It was due to the above-mentioned reasons that made being angry feel so right. But at the same time, I was thinking,
“It isn’t his fault that he’s calling me. I am in part, to blame too, as I had not confirmed the need to submit the booklets yesterday. He too is distressed over this incident (otherwise, why would he call?), so I really mustn’t be too hard on him.”
I managed to control myself somewhat and calmed down a bit. But I feared that, though this time I was able to control myself, what about next time?
Anger, like nuclear energy, can be used in a very constructive manner, as I have mentioned above.
But, like nuclear energy, if it gets out of hand, almost nothing can surpass it in its potential destructiveness.
The anger I felt was difficult to control, and could have gone either way: it could well have ended with me throwing my handphone on the floor.
I thought about alternative ways to handle the situation: what else could I have done besides being angry? Could I have done it any other way, while achieving the same goals I had listed above (on the expression of anger) achieves?
I deliberated over it, and came to no conclusion. What else is a man to do when faced with such a scenario? I have limited options, and thus I am angry.
9 Apr, 2006
Tammy NYP
I came across an article called “Tammy NYP“. It had nothing to do with Tammy or NYP. By the writer’s own admission,
Let’s see what this does to visitor counts…
it was an experiment to see if it could lure visitors to his site through the simple heading, “Tammy NYP.”
The result? According to him, it works,
Update, 1 day later: it works…
Just Who Is Tammy, Anyway?
The article has the author saying — (regarding the search terms “Tammy NYP”):
Obviously the hottest thing on da net, whatever it is…
(emphasis mine)
All I can say is, “you mean you don’t know??”
The Sex Scandal
In case you really don’t know, the reason why the search terms “Tammy NYP” is so hot is because it has to do with sex.
Tammy, a 17-year-old girl from NYP (Nanyang Polytechnic), had her handphone stolen, allegedly by a jealous fiend. It contained videos of her having sex with her boyfriend ala Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee.
But Tammy isn’t just any ordinary girl. She’s from Singapore: a seemingly ultra conservative country where just about anything to do with sex is taboo, which just makes it all the more novel and interesting! (I guess after this you’d have to think twice about using the term “conservative” to describe us now.)
To have a 17-year-old Singaporean cheerleader record her sexual exploits on a handphone, having that handphone stolen by a jealous schoolmate, and having the videos released on the Internet, and for that to happen in boring Singapore…
…that’s as likely as lightning hitting you 10 times in a row, each time on a different toe…
…it’s like porn being freely distributed in Iraq, for Christ’s sake! (And the Lord said, “Take this, all of you and watch it; this is her body which hath be given up for you. Do this, in memory of her.”)
Public Opinion of the Tammy Sex Video
This sex video created quite a stir (not as James Bond would have had it: shaken, not stirred), eliciting both damnation and compassion from the general public, as well as a not insignificant amount of lust and curiosity.
Every one in my camp was talking about it for a while, so much so it has become synonymous with the term “porn” — “yo, got Tammy on your PDA? Ooh, Japanese Tammy, nice.”
Okay, so I’m exaggerating, but you get the idea.
The hooha wasn’t limited to just Singapore. Like Avian Flu, it has spread throughout the region and beyond. Malaysians, especially, got as caught up with this saga as we Singaporeans did.
The Malaysian Spirit
Their entrepreneurial spirit, comparable to the Chinese (the current ruling champions of procuring money from all sorts of strange and sometimes — no, oftentimes — unethical ventures), made them do what they do so well: produce bootleg copies of the video compiled on VCD and DVD.
It makes me wonder: the videos (there are 4 separate videos in total, I’ve done my research) take up less than 10 megabytes of data — so what’s contained in the remaining 600+ megabyes of storage on the VCD? Or the whopping 4.2 gigabytes still available on the DVD? Special extras perhaps?
Sex Video: Special Extras
Imagine if these special extras included digital versions of the Bible, Koran or Buddhist scriptures — the juxtaposition in seeing “Tammy Sex Video.gp3″ and “Bible Studies: Away From Temptation.pdf” would prove interesting to say the least.
Singaporean Tammy a Nobody in Germany?
So, he — the guy who wrote the article… I’m assuming he’s German from the “.de” extension of his site — doesn’t know who Tammy is.
I wonder if that’s true of all the Germans. But I guess it’s for the best (especially for Tammy’s sake) that they don’t know about her, lest they publish her photos in the newspaper: in the name of freedom of the press. If they — the Europeans — can do it to Muhammad, they can do it to her.
9 Apr, 2006
Fast Food Calories
I came across an article on the amount of calories certain foods of some popular fast food chains contained. It’s not the first, nor the most comprehensive, but it was quite enlightening anyway. You’ve probably come across something like this in some weight watcher’s magazine or school science textbook, but nonetheless, here’s the link:
Maybe it’d make you think twice before sinking your teeth into that Whopper.
7 Apr, 2006
What is Personality?
I’ve been a strong believer that personality is inherent in a person, that we’re born with certain general traits that do not change no matter what happens in life.
I’ve been taking personality tests quite regularly since I discovered personality typing, first in books I borrowed from the library, and later on in websites that carried personality testing applications.
Throughout these years, my personality has generally stayed the same, though there have been some changes every once in a while. Take for example the tests based on the MBTI (Myer-Briggs Type Indicator), which is itself based on Jung’s theories on psychological typing.
On these MBTI tests, I’ve often been typed as INFJ (the very first test I took), occasionally INFP, and very rarely INTP. The last result was one I got a long time ago; being such a rare event, I dismissed it as an outlier, a result so extraordinary it should not be taken into consideration.
I have experienced quite a bit of change these past few weeks; these changes have been external and internal, though it was the internal changes that led on to the external, ergo the changes should be considered purely internal.
I knew that the changes were happening, but I did not quite have proof that they were. It was entirely intuitional that I discovered my thinking about things had changed, in subtle but consequential ways. Curious as to whether my thinking had really changed, I decided to visit SimilarMinds.com to take a personality test.
I’ve alway taken personality tests using my present self to answer the questions. There are some personality tests, namely the Enneagram, that require one answers using the untainted or innocent self, the very first self you remember yourself having. You have to answer the questions as you would have as a child — in theory, your personality for the enneagram should remain the same your whole life, since the answers are based on childhood memories.
MBTI is not like that. You answer the questions in as honest a manner as possible, as long as it applies to the you that you feel you are; you answer as who you are, not as who you were.
So when the MBTI gave me a INTP, which is considerably far from the INFJ I prided myself to be, I was surprised. But upon reading the description of that personality, I have to admit that that’s exactly the way I’ve been behaving these past few weeks.
Is personality thus a fickle thing?