Dawn of the memories

In my relative short 29 years and 5 months of life, i have gone through the inevitable of knowing and experiencing people who are either my relatives or peers' next of kin, passing away to their next phrase of journey.

The first i remembered was probably when i was 9/10 years old. The passing of my 4 grandparents was quite close apart. As far as i can recall, they left our world when i was between age 9-13. Some scenes of the funeral still plays out quite vividly in my memory. There were sadness, prayers,  chantings, offering burnings, crowd, faces you probably see once or twice in your entire life, discussion about money, the cremation/burial (the part where your tears will just flow down no matter how hard you fight it), the after-funeral prayers/offerings, the yearly offerings.

All these may just be what everyone will experience after the departure of our souls, but somehow we don't forget about them totally, probably just moved on.

I wouldn't want to state the count of funerals i have gone through, and just today, my aunt (father's eldest sister) passed on.

Personally, all the funerals i been/experienced, they were not relatively close with me. Sadly and oddly, i probably spoke less than 1 day worth of conversation with each of them before their passings. My connections with them honestly probably wasn't strong, but nonetheless, even though i'm not a person who will express sadness openly, i do sincerely felt a lot for them.

As i'm sitting in my room typing this post, i can't help but noticed my father and mum are sitting in the living room, having on-off discussions about it and watching TV just like any other day. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not judging their actions nor trying to undermine what they are thinking/feeling. If anything, i just start to ponder how fragile our living is and when it ends, the sadness and tears may come, but others around us eventually moves on.

When i was younger, i spoke a little about death. Like how i would wish my funeral to be in pure black and white setting (this isn't really possible for my birth religion), and how many would be aware and attend it. Once again, if you are reading this and you know me somehow, somewhere, i would like to take this opportunity to appeal to you, you don't have to attend, you don't have to be sad or grieve for me. Just remember the good days we have (if any), and take comfort that i have shared with you at least 1 thing good in life.

Remember, what i said may not be the best model answer, but it's a perspective, and don't lose that perspective. Because someday somehow, who knows, that perspective might just make sense, no matter how big or small it is.

The reason why i chose my post image is that i do hope, for those who has passed on, they will continue to bring their joy to the people around them in their next phrase. We all have something which is valuable to another. Just carry on with what we are doing now, and spread the love as we go.

I haven't been writing for ages. Been almost a full year since my last post, and i used to be able to write a long pieces, and probably made more sense back then. Recently i was thinking of writing a book, but as you can see, my literature isn't that good and i'm pretty much coming to the end of my post.

My prayers are out for my aunt. And i hope we don't ever have to experience too many, too soon. Not jinxing anything, just want everyone to be safe and live their life to the fullest.

I'll leave you guys with my own quote:

Be contented and pursue nothing more than what you have now, for what you have may be gone while you are seeking the joy of others.

Almost the end of 2013

It's coming to the end of the year 2013.

It seems just like yesterday when people were talking about the millennium; 2000. And without realising, it's been 13 years since then. It's also a year down the road since the famous Mayan calendar which some believers noted the end of world (21st Dec 2012).

I won't be doing a summary/review of 2013 in this post. Somehow i'm pretty much over the good years of being able to focus on writing a proper blog post. Thoughts will stray away and i get distractions from the soccer match.

Another year down, means another year added to my milestone. A lot of ups and downs and some times you just wonder what will unfold next. But as the old saying goes, life is short, what will come, will come. So instead of going through the what-if, let's just look forward to the years ahead.

Short post for this. Enjoy the last weekends of 2013!

Updates

Been a while since my last post. Time to do a quick update before i got back to not posting anything again.

Rest yesterday from work after extracting my 2nd wisdom tooth; good time since i'm just starting another project at work.

Back in August 2013, i extracted my right top wisdom due to pain and x-ray showed that the tooth was decaying. So i extracted it on the spot and paid around $250+? Not long later in November 2013, my right below tooth starts to ache as well. This time it's decay on my molar (the one nearest to my wisdom), so i did fillings on it. As the same time filling on my left 2nd molar as well. Another $250+ burned.

While i was quite certain that i wish to extract all the rest of my 3 wisdom tooth at the time, i wasn't really keen to fork out the money and not to mention the pain that comes with it (FOC).

So on Tuesday while i'm savouring the food at my friend's solemnisation, i start to feel ache at my below right tooth again. During my last visit in November, i was advised to remove the right bottom wisdom tooth as it's at an angle which is creating a void (a bad spot to clean, a good spot for food to stay there and cause decay). I was hoping to do it after January 2014, but seems like nature has it own desire.

And so, i extracted this time round, thinking i better do so before christmas and new year. Else if it starts to ache too much, i may just have to do during the festive period. This time round, i'm paying around $150+ after $350 Medisave claim. The extraction cost this round is $450. Had some stitches as well to close up the wound.

That's about it. I still have 2 more wisdom tooth on my left. But for now, i just hope they are not going to rebel any time soon.

Another thing that i have been working on lately is this program called DS Domination: http://dsdomination.com

Click on the link at the top and check out the video of what it does.

I haven't set my pace into it completely. But i do hope next month i can share the experience of how to earn money online by copy and paste. Literally copy and paste from Amazon to eBay. Basically tapping on the internet to get some money. So far i managed to sell about 30+ items and earn about USD130. Not bad, but since i'm a starter, i did spend quite some time for the past 1 month to get this result. Definitely not fantastic, but well, not bad for passive income.

I'll probably write up a post next time on this to elaborate, but if you have question or is interested about this DS Domination, just drop me a comment here and we will see how we can work things out.

It's saturday today, i hope everyone is having a good time chilling out.

Thanks for reading and stay tune for more updates!

MINDEF banned singing Purple Light

"Purple Light", a marching song sung by many NSmen, which included the lines:

"Booking out, see my girlfriend

Saw her with another man 

Kill the man, rape my girlfriend

With my rifle and my buddy and me."

Can't help but decided to post this after reading it. Though it's just another move by the institution on something insignificant to the well-being of the nation, i just feel angst for the halt of the song.

Maybe it does sound rude and un-gentleman, but man, a song is a song. You can't ban a culture which went through generations of NSFs.

There are tonnes of other more detrimental issues in the institution, which calls for more review and actions and not this which is really a show of bad faith with the guys who put their body and soul into the National Service.

I'm not against National Service, and i understand some of the measures they do to keep the national security intact, but this? Come-on, give NSFs a break.

IPPT for NSMen are causing more deaths then singing a song like this. Where is the review and ban for that?

Only in Singapore.


Source: http://therealsingapore.com/content/mindef-banned-nsfs-singing-purple-light-because-lyrics-are-degrading-towards-women

New blog up

After 2 evenings of codings (sorta convinced myself that since i'm doing less programming at work now, this is a good reminder of how i should minimally get myself some revision) to get it back and running with a new template, i finally managed to get this blog "revived".

Not a fanciful one, just like the simple look and feel. Spent most of the time working on getting the initial template which i got online into cleaner look and feel. Most importantly to "host" the necessary background and images myself. For those who had experience with blog would appreciate that. Because after you ripped someone's template, the hosting of the images for the blog to appear, may just be gone any day without notice.

So advice to all, do host your own images if you're just as lazy as i am, taking free template which uses icons/images to create the look of the site.

I'm pretty distracted now. Reading some internet stuff. Will share it if i happen to dwell deeper into them.

Till then.

Revival of Blogging

It's been eons since i last blogged. Yes, despite attempting to move away to Wordpress, i guessed i still didn't want to ditch my 10 year old blogging channel. And boy, how time flies. It's been a real solid decade since i started this humble blog. Blogging has never failed to make me ponder over life and definitely is one of the key factor that contributes to making more sense with my language.

I'll probably attempt to revamp this site over the coming weekends. Time to give the blog a new look. It certainty feels like an abandoned site. With dead video link and stuff. Not to mention the odd layout which is eating up the middle content portion.

Ok, a good start for now i hope. Wish me luck to have the discipline to update it this weekends.

1 quick share; i finally convinced myself to spurge on a MacBook Air. I'm typing on it now. Still getting myself familiar with Mac OS.

That's all for now. Will be back (Fingers crossed).

WordPress

Updates in http://jericholaw.wordpress.com/

Possible migration

http://jericholaw.wordpress.com/

Something's lacking...

and so i was thinking and i can't help but slowly realised that i'm lacking something lately. Humour. Great deal of it i reckon. And... somehow, just like the new mv in my blog, i guess the only thing left is just to show you my 风度

and so...

time flies once again. Been almost another month since my last post, and now its a period of study and mugging for exams. Actually not very applicable to my case, cause i can't really bother. Just do what i can from now till my papers.

The past 2-3 weeks was probably the toughest period for my 3 semesters in NUS. Barely catching enough sleep rushing 2 major projects and having tests and presentations along the way. Before i dwell further into school stuff, i'm just gonna update alittle about today. Call it ill-fate, or carelessness, i just think it sucks to be me.

The drama started this morning. As i stayed out the night, i made my way back home around 11am. It started with me having to do a run to catch the bus. And speaking of which, the short distance although didn't cause me to pant like a dog, but i can feel that my legs are not running as fast as my mind and body wished to. Time to seriously lose some weight and get back in shape.

Just as i thought my day started on a bad note, what lies ahead is just what i need to make my sentiments dead on.

So when i was about to reach my doorsteps, i realised i have forgotten to bring my keys out. And so i knocked on the door. After few knocks and to confirm what i fear most, the gate is knocked too. And... this only means my parents is out. Viola, there you go, my god-knows-how-many-times i'm stranded outside.

And so i went downstairs and sat near the playground looking at the familar kitchen windows and only myself to blame for forgetting my keys. Unsure how long my wait will be, i took a slow walk and got myself the papers and went back to the bench and start reading every single article that interests me.

At this point of time, if you guys are wondering why didn't i call my parents, just for the records, they don't carry mobile phones, in short, out and unreachable. My brother's probably working and so this sum up my alternatives to get the keys to my house.

After an hour or so, i know the wait is gonna be a long one, so i head to have my lunch alone. Seriously, to date, i don't recall me having meals alone outside that often. Kinda sucky to do that. Went to the prata house near my place and to make my day even more gloomy, my crave for mee goreng wasn't available until 3pm. So i settled for 3 plain pratas and i sure took my time and sat till 1 plus.

At times i felt like calling my friends out, few who actually stayed quite near me, the thought of doing so just flashed by and i just dropped idea without much hesitation. I guess i'm the kind who rather suffer being alone than to trouble others. Maybe it will make my situation even worse when i get rejections or shrugs for suggesting them to head out and accompany me for lunch, just because i'm locked out.

So i head back to the playground and sat for another half an hour, only to see my psp died on me. How nice. Real icing on the cake perhaps.

As i repeatedly attempt to call home, hoping for my parents to pick up if they're back and staring most of the time at the windows, i start recalling the last time i had the same situation. Guess that was probably many years back when i was in secondary days. I remembered i had few lock out in my primary days as well. And for the record, today wasn't the longest at 5hours+, i think i had a record still standing at 6hours plus. That was alot worse too, for that i didn't have the luxury of having my lunch and playing my portable console game.

Around 2pm, i made my way to amk centre. Decided to head where the crowd is and prevent myself from going senile with the wait. So i took the slow 15minutes walk and started window shopping at Hub's NTUC at my first stop. Surprisingly, i stayed there for almost an hour. And... NTUC is quite a good place to get most of the stuff you need at home. At least for AMK's one, i saw pretty much quite some items i would seriously consider having them for my house in the future. 

I was also picturing myself as an old uncle shopping with my wife for goceries and stuff. Can't blame me for having this thought, for every 10 steps i took, i'm bound to face 1 eldery couple. Guess it's a norm in supermarkets.

After the "window market", i walked around centre, and with no where else to head to, my last destination was the AMK National Library. Side-track a little, have you guys wonder why AMK's library is located at such a "wulu" place? I know it have been there since i was born, but seriously, it's super isolated. And despite this, it's still crowded. Singaporeans like to mug and read? Maybe... And, i just couldn't find a section where all the magazines are shelved.

Call me a library idiot, but seriously, i think the layout despite being more modern, it's quite hard to get what i want, and... i just don't understand why there's an Indian studying corner. Call me "R...ist", but i'm just wondering how and why is there a need for such segmentation.

As the thunder start roaring from the sky, i decided to make my way back before it start pouring and me getting stuck again. And with that, my call back home finally got answered and i officially reached home at 430pm.

Define ill fate and i will show you what it means.

Back to school stuff. Monday's my first paper, and i haven't got the thought of touching it yet. Maybe it's open book and it's business communication, so the preparation work isn't alot. But if you ask me, like i always say, examinations: A test of brain memory and if coupled with good command of English, you are able to crap your A out. 

What? Me being negative and labelling examinations as something not desirable? Yes. I am. I don't care how much you wanna argue with me that studying without tests and exams ain't gonna work, for you will never know how well one has managed to comprehend the ideas taught, or apply it in the correct perspective. 

My only statement for this is that, if you know all the exam questions, and you got them all correct, does it mean you're more knowledgeable? I can give you 2 cases of such scenarios. 

1 super mugger who can literally read and write every single word out from text and lecture notes and he has distinction for English. I'm sure you guys won't have discrepancies that he is bound to do well right?

2nd case, 1 super lucky guy who decides to take the shortcut and mug only selected chapters which happen to be the majority of questions tested. Lucky but manage to do reasonably well too.

So with the well-proclaimed bell curve system, these 2 categories of students got the As and Bs. And so now you asked, how about those who mug hard, didn't have good command of English to express their answers even when they already got what is supposedly the correct ideas to the question? Sucks to be them right? Cs and Ds became their friends.

Now you tell me, is education a medium whereby we start becoming 'racist' to individuals' intellectual growth or capabilities?

In this world of extremes, where there are categories/stereotypes of hell and heaven, kind and evil, ugly and pretty, police and thief, tall and short, fat and slim, rich and poor, famous and anonymous...

Tell me is it a choice for us to choose where we fall under? Along the way in life, yes, maybe we can choose to be ugly, choose to poor, fat... choose to be all the negative craps no one desires. But choosing to be rich, pretty, slim, famous... is it alot easier and attainable? You tell me.

Some might also be thinking, why make one's life so tiring with all these meaningless thoughts and negatively of life. Indeed, we don't have to go through all these, for we never get to achieve the ideal state of living no matter how we yearn it.

To end off, i urge you guys reading this, to think about what is it in life that makes you special from others. Maybe if you can come out with something, most likely you are now living in a better life as compared to others.

Till then.