Category: random thoughts

It’s nice to finally see a face after hearing their voices on the radio for the longest time!

Next to me is Keith De Souza and Barathi Jagdish who are both the hosts for Fresh! – A programme on the radio that I tune in each morning on the station 938live.

Each weekday morning, they would open up an interesting topic to be discussed with the listeners, usually about current events and I emailed them about my thoughts some while back in response to a caller who thought that the Singapore National Anthem should be changed from Malay to English.

I was pleasantly surprised to see a reply from Barathi that my email was read on air and I was given an invite to participate in their live talkback outdoors session. I asked around if there were anyone interested and thus, I was accompanied by the two handsomes Mus and Vandalin.

It was a very interesting session for me. At the risk of sounding geeky, it felt like a Secondlife discussion! – We sat in down to listen to the panelists and can join in the discussion at any time.

I really enjoyed hearing the different thoughts and opinions, regardless if I agreed with them or not.

The first topic of discussion was :

Are we a sporting nation? Do we support our local athletes enough? Do we encourage our children to take part in sports? Are we ready to host big international sporting events?

We were joined by National Swimmer, Teresa Goh, her dad, Senior Parlimentary Secretary of the MCYS, Teo Ser Luck, as well as sports editor, Raj Kumar.

There was a parent who said that schools should be more proactive in spotting out young talents and to groom them into sportsmen with more sports activities to be made compulsory in schools.

I thought to myself, why do we always have to depend on the schools when it should be the task of the parents more. If you see that your child is good and interested in an activity, regardless of what it is, why wait for the school when you can do something about it?

And Mus added, an institution could have the best policies in the world, but if the child isn’t interested, there isn’t much point to it.

The second topic was :

Is the job market too competitive? What employment issues do you face? Do women face problems going back to work? What do you feel about the employment of foreign talent?

We were joined by MP for Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC Josephine Teo. I couldn’t catch the other panelist’s name.

I was a little cheesed off when there were one foreigner commented, “Why are Singaporeans so afraid of us taking over jobs when they are not skilled enough to fill them up?”

In any case, it was quite an experience to sit in a discussion. It has been a while since I’ve seen a real life debate and I really did enjoyed myself.

Thank you Mus and Vandalin, it was wonderful to have your company and insightful thoughts. Can’t wait to go to the next one 🙂

Sidenote : Can anyone notice something interesting here?

I first saw this clip from Hillary and later on, I found out from Mintea that the clip was directed by Yasmin Ahmad – an acclaimed film director. She also told me that Yasmin Ahmad directed the Petronas ads that never fails to make me feel so sappy in the end.

Seeing how easygoing their innocent love for each other made me ponder if we as adults putting in too much emphasis on race?

Here in Singapore we would have our annual Racial Harmony Day each July 21st which is supposed to make us more appreciative of each other’s races.

Racial Harmony Day 2007

But somehow along the line, this seems to have backfired as it has made each other more aware of their differences and ironically now, people would rather stick to their own. Its odd as time ago, before the implementation of racial harmony day, we were already mixing around naturally, happily.

For me, I believe that people should mix around with the people that they enjoy being with, rather than focusing on their skin difference.

Like the little girl in the video clip, I had a best friend back in primary school. His name was Micheal and he was a Chinese. Being in the same class as well as neighbours, we’d always roam around the neighbourhood together.

And I remember the first time when I celebrated Lantern Festival with him, holding candle lit lanterns in the playground and then eventually a group of Malay girls came up and chided, “You’re not a Chinese. You shouldn’t be playing with Lanterns!”

I was lucky in the sense that mum was open minded about letting me celebrate the mid-autumn festival and I’m glad that I didn’t listened to those group of girls and continued  to befriend Michael. I didn’t care that we were of different races, he was a nice friend and most importantly we had fun together.

So how on earth did race become such a big deal?

I can still remember a section in my geography book that I read at 14 about population on how there are countries that has a homogeneous population like Italy and Japan. But we know that it is not true in today’s context as we see so many once homogeneous countries now teeming with migrants from all over the world.

This is inevitable. And as the world advances, naturally it is so much easier to socialise with different people. Even interracial-relationships isn’t something new. On a micro level, I read through blogs and printouts, and hear from friends at how they are involved with someone of a different race.

Truth be told, before I met Cartcart, I’ve always assumed that I’d end up having a serious relationship with a Malay guy and settle down here in Singapore – same race marriages makes it all the easier and more convenient.

Interracial-relationships does has its own problems. But regardless of race, doesn’t all relationships have its own problems? A better judgement on how your partner is suitable for you is when you ask yourself :

Does he make you feel safe? And does he makes you smile and does his presence alone lifts your spirits?

To me, the most important part is the person’s character rather than his race.

 

Recently, I saw the blog of one of the editor of tomorrow.sg taken down because she didn’t pay her hosting bills.

Thing is, she passed away for about two years already. Does that mean that all her online memories are gone?

In the middle of this year, I did a meme on what my last post might look like. But what happens next?

At this time of writing there are still many sites that hosts the pages of people whom has passed away – for example friendster and myspace. It can be heart wrenching to the messages that they posted while they are still alive.

While we are still around, there are some of the things that we could do. Darren Rowse advices on creating a blog will. Afterlife.org, a non profit organization will help to archive your webpage.

For me, I guess I’ll write a blog will, to include passwords and instructions like how to do backup and think of whether to keep the domain or have it transported to a free host.

If you are a blogger yourself, what would you do? If you are a blog reader, would you care for the blog to be preserved? What do you think?

Last tuesday was the graduation ceremony for the graduating batch of students at the school I am working at.

As they went up the stage and said their goodbyes, my heart ached a little. These was the batch of kids whom I first encountered when I arrived here. Slowly one feels an attachment to them and now it was time for them to leave the nest.

Its always easy to take things that you are used to, and take it for granted, benignly believing that things will always stay that way.

And I start to wonder if this was a fraction of the feelings that mum is feeling, knowing that I too, will one day leave the nest.

Its not easy to let go. But life goes on.

I cant believe that she’s gone. Its so surreal. Just a few months ago she and her family visited my dad after his accident. She seemed fine then.

It was unreal for me to hear that she passed away while having heart problems. She was only 42.

I feel sad for my cousins. She will be missed dearly.

Over the time that I’ve been blogging, I’ve seen a number blog suicides.

One of the latest to fall in this adversity is the blog by Shaz and Aidil – two bloggers whom I have profound respect for the community efforts that they have started. I think that its such a shame to see them pulling the plug. The reason to this is because of an increase of unwarranted and callous comments from judgemental random visitors for one of their posts.

Different people have their own opinions. That is their perogative. But at the same time, I believe that opinions should be presented in a constructive manner instead of attacking the person and being hurtful. But the reality is, that a number of people find joy in attacking others while there are some who dont seem to fathom how sharp their words could be. Most of these will be entertaining fodder for some.

I am glad that I have not reached this threshhold as of yet. Not to say that I have not had any attacks on me before, the first few times when I received these type of comments, I fought hard to control my emotions. But throughout the years, I’ve mellowed up and pretty much take these type of comments with a grain of salt. Besides, its much easier on the heart to concentrate on the positive 🙂

Have you ever had hate comments in your blog before? What would you do in this situation?

p.s For future hate comments, I’m going to give these people my scary evil look. ROAR!

We could have so much more.

We could go so far but sometimes, for the majority of us, I feel that it is a catch 22 – we are potential victims with the choices that we make.

Sometimes I dont understand why we can be so egoistical. That we would not seek help when we are in trouble. What is it that makes a person make decisions unfathomable to us, rather than to seek legitimate help? Is it because they are unaware of the help rendered?

And why is it that we can be so apathetic? That we would rather keep quiet and willingly let others take advantage of us. How did this happen? When did this happen? What is the root? I dont understand.

I believe in the law of attraction – we think of what we want to achieve and we can control our destiny. Of course, success would need effort on our part.

True, some of us may not be rich enough, or famous enough, or know the right people. But what would make me upset is that we dont at least try.

We could have so much potential.

We could have prodigies in our mist but even prodigies need to be nurtured. To spot out and nurture these talents, they will need the support of their environment.

Its a cycle really. What qualities are we imparting to our future generation? Is this the future that we want?

Last night, after our yoga session , my good friend Juli and I decided to have dinner together. During our dinner, I pointed out that the practises are getting more challenging and that most of the people in our yoga class are annoyingly skinny.

She quipped, “Leos gain weight the easiest!” (Juli and I were both Leos)

I looked at her with skepticism for some time. And she looked at me beamingly, “Its true!” But she didnt give me an explanation. I looked at my glass of water and was suddenly inspired.

Is it because our bodies are made up of 70 percent water? We all know that the moon causes tidal effects on the sea. When the moon turns one direction, it will cause the sea to go to high tide and vice versa.

Thus it is possible that it could effect our moods and also our weight.

I was also reminded of a book that I read in regards to a Japanese scientist, Dr Masaru Emoto. He believes that because our bodies has a capacity of water, human thoughts will affect a person, depending it be positive or negative.

A crystal formed with the words Love and Appreciation

Can it be possible that our constellation affect our weight gain? Hmm …

p.s Last evening, my host was down for four hours! I almost went ballistic. Calm down Marina, calm down … Ohm … Ohm … Ohm …

Even in her 50’s, my mum is an exercise buff. Since being interested in exercise some years back, she is now currently participating in various activites, such as line dancing, kebaya-robics and conducting an aerobics class herself!

Now that she’s already completed her Basic Exercise Course, she is currently persuing her Advanced Exercise Course that will make her a qualified aerobics trainer. Wow! I really admire her determination.

That makes me reflect about myself.

This is me at 12 years old

I used to be a really skinny kid. For years, I’ve been pretty much that way. I’d enjoy my daily run in the Jurong Lake Park.

This is me at about 22 years old

But since I’ve started working, I’ve really neglected myself. I don’t exercise at all and it shows. Clothes that were loose some years back, are really very snug now. Some of which, were deemed as inappropriate by my mum that she actually threw it away!

My weight in 2005. I’m 65kg now.

Sometimes I look at myself and I wonder how I got so large. (Ok, so I binge eat a lot) Back in school, I’d never go more than 50 kilograms. Nowadays, I’d be lucky if I dont tip the 65kg mark. Lets face it, I’m almost overweight.

My arms are as large as Brennan’s thighs

I’m more or less fine with the way that I look actually. In fact, I actually like my voluptiousness. Women should not berate themselves for not being skinny enough. A woman’s self worth should not be measured by slimness of her waist.

But the truth is, it does get depressing when trying to buy new clothes, finding that you need several size larger than what you normally used to wear.

It is even worse now that I feel more lethargic than have ever felt before. I can’t do 2.4 km without gasping of air. Just climbing up the stairs will leave me panting.

Just on Monday, after having dinner with some of the ping.sg gang, I was so tired, that I dropped my scooter and almost couldn’t concentrate on the road.

This is bad.

Luckily for me, I have my mum for guidance. Even my good friend Juli is asking me to join her for Hatha Yoga. At least with friends, they give you some form of motvation. Hopefully it won’t be so bad after all.

Just signed up for the course at the newly opened Jurong West Sports Complex and was just astounded at how lovely the place was. I explored the building and I found the place to be as posh as a country club.

The view from the gym and the dance hall was really picturesque. In the distance, you can see bungalows and a temple, all surrounded by trees.

And I don’t even have to pay that much for attending a course here as the sports complex is government funded. 12 sessions is about $76. I think that’s more affordable than a commercial one.

I think I will like it here.

p.s I don’t believe in diet pills and I don’t intend to take it.