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| Reality Check |
| 05.26.05 (8:11 pm) |
What is reality?
I'm force to ponder this question as I get feedback from some individuals concerning a statement I made about their relationships. My opinions are base on observations and questions that I put forward to these individuals. From their answers, I sum up an opinion that did not go well with some.
What I've come to conclude is that regardless of how a person may argue their point, the underlying truth is - there is no absolute truth.
Our opinions and spoken truths are backed by our perceptions of the reality that surround us. Those perceptions are influenced by our experiences. There is no absolute in experiences. Experiences (as a value or equation) are as sporatic as guessing the next lottery number. We all have individually, unique experiences. But the responses to such experiences may not differ that much from individual to individual.
There are generally only two responses. Positive and negative response.
Thus, when I am confronted by somebody who mentions that my observations are wrong and that my opinions are crap, I am force to re-view my opinions based on the reality that propogates the other person's mind. But when I see that the reality is in fact flawed, I am pushed to say that their opinion is wrong and I am right.
But what then is reality? To me reality is purely how you perceive and make sense of the world around you. Whatever your mind accepts as the truth will in fact build up your reality. Whatever your mind decides is an absolute value would shape the reality that you live in.
In looking at the reality that I live in, I would say my reality borders on the 'edge of chaos'. My view of reality is adaptive and fluid, bordering between chaos and order.
This state of mind keeps me open to new ideas and gives me the ability to re-formulate already set ideas.
So whats your state of mind?
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| I'm a nutcase |
| 05.25.05 (4:24 pm) |
Hm...I've been called a nutcase, insane or insanely insane...in a good way.
An old friend decided to describe me in one word "Insane". After all these years she has not been able to figure me out and I don't really expect her to figure me out. Wifey has tried and still can't figure me out.
I believe we all should keep a bit of ourselves in a state of mystery. A part of ourselves should be kept private, away from prying eyes or listening ears.
That way, it keeps people interested in us. Humans are by nature curious beings. They love unravelling mysteries or obtaining some dark secret. Don't believe me? Check out the entertainment mags that are on sale at the newspaper stands. Gossip sells big time, especially in Malaysia. any bit of gossip or secret dug up is swallowed whole stock and barrel.
I also believe you may need to be slightly insane in order to live life. Insanity helps shift the mind out of pure logic into a state of chaotic reality. In that state you begin to see things differently. In that state you open a pool of new ideas. Ideas that drives inspiration.
So I'm insane, another friend commented that I'm a 10 year old in a 30 year old body. Hm...must be when I was suffering from a lack of sugar.
So in short...I'm Peter Pan (seriously this guy needs help).
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| Yup, Oui Gon Jin and I are one |
| 05.23.05 (10:19 pm) |
Yes, thats what the personality test told me. At least I'm not Jubba.
Have not seen the third installment yet. Haven't found the time to snuck out at night with wifey. Comments from friends place it on a scale of 7/10.
All I want to see is the transition from really high-tech (Episode 1-3) to really low-tech (Episode 4-6). Yup, the beautiful evolution from touch screens to buttons. Check out Darth Vaders outfit with all the buttons.
At least one commenter wrote that he just could not understand why Amidala did not know she was carrying twins. She obviously forgot to go for her monthly pregnancy scans.
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| I ran the marathon |
| 05.19.05 (10:48 pm) |
No, seriously I've never ran the marathon.
Finally came round to writing articles for my departments' newsletter. The newsletter has been slowly generating interest within the organisation that I work in. I've finished 1 out of the 3 that I promised the editor.
I took a chance at "commenting" out against my organisation. We are a university, so we produce graduates that find their way into the industry.
My article touched on the issue of our graduates being on the unemployment lines. I wrote it to address the need for us to seiously look into ways to minimise the number of our graduates from being an unemployed statistic.
In Malaysia the figures are staggering. We have (this is debatable) 80,000 unemployed graduates. A surveyed showed that the industry just found them un-employable.
From this number: 56% - were weak in English, 36% - bad social etiquette, 32% - demanded too much pay, 30% - degrees were not relevant, 23% - fresh grads were too choosy and 14% - had no vacancies for graduates.
I just felt that the university was not truly addressing the issue in a systematic and planned approach. Heck, the decision makers are academics not strategist.
Anyway, I find this interesting. 35% of software installed in 2004 was pirated and Asia di not come tops (damn).
The full article is located here.
Well, do you think Bill Gates cares? Nope, he's happy that inspite of 35% piracy, 90++% of the world runs his Windows system. As long as they are tied into his products, he still makes money.
But then Bill Gates is also one of the biggest donors to medical research. So he kinda balance himself out.
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| When bad news is really bad |
| 05.17.05 (3:53 pm) |
In watching the Newsweek debacle, I can't help but feel sorry that 15 people lost their lives because of bad reporting.
Hence, the power of the printed media as a tool to create negative actions. All it took was one press-conference where a cricket "legend" blurted out how the US treated the Koran that sent the muslim world into up-roar. Once again, regardless of whether the story was true or not, US image abroad was tarnished.
I could see Osama smiling away in his cave telling his supporters," I told you so, just the reason why I did what I did."
Who needs Osama when their own people can bring down a nation.
Newsweek has always been suspect for bad reporting. Thats why its not that welcomed in Malaysia by virtue of their reports on the former PM, Tun Mahathir. Newsweek wasn't on his dinner list and I guess not on anyones dinner-list for a long time.
I believe Newsweek should learn the thought patterns of Asians and Middle-easterns.
One, religion to us is really personal. We take our religion seriously and would go to great length to protect it, be it Christians, Buddhist, Hindus and Muslims. Remember in Asia religion is a lifestyle and an important part of an individuals identity and also of the community. In this region of the world, you have the most diverse collection of religions. We've learnt to tolerate and respect each other both in action and speech.
Two, freedom of speech works in your country but not necessary elsewhere. The are certain topics mentioned only within closed doors and dealt with behind close doors. We don't readily air our dirty laundry. We merely gossip a lot about it, even then only within a select circle.
Three, we already believe that we are being bullied by the bigger nations. We are the under-dog, we've had to fight our way in all aspect of world governance. Be it economics, social standings or development. We were brought up in a society that says influences from the west are bad, that it is corrupting our eastern values. We are at a transitional stage where east meets west. We only need a pinch of bad news concerning the west in order to further enforce our current bad perceptions. Thats why this Newsweek report was taken so seriously. It enforced, further, our bad view of the west.
I don't hate westerners. In fact I know for sure that though the American foreign policy is crap, Americans, as a whole, are friendly, hospitable and easy-to-live with characters. But surely you've got to shoot Newsweek for such bad reporting, its really bad news. In this case it didn't just sold more copies of Newsweek, it cost 15 lives just to realize the mistake.
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| Songs of Solomon...my take. |
| 05.13.05 (6:49 pm) |
I've been pouring over documents on the Songs of Solomon.
Its 8 chapters long and probably one of the most mis-understood books. Partly because of the vivid descriptions or analogies used by the lover to his love.
It has no apparent straight forward teaching on theology and only has one(1) reference to God. Its sensual, provocative and totally out of step with the rest of the Bible stories.
What is it really?
I've found that it's a love letter. Plain and simple. An intimate letter from someone madly in love with a maiden. It's a love song or collection of songs that were probably written by Solomon, to express his love towards a certain lady. Solomon knew how to woo ladies, the dude had 600 wives and a harem of concubines. Some estimates say that his women companions numbered 3000.
To read it in a biblical-teaching mainset will not get you anywhere with this book. Rather is should be read more like a romance novel. It paints a picture in your imagination that conjurs up emotions. No wonder some say Jewish men were not permitted to read this book till they reach 30!
If you choose to look at it from a biblical-teachings perspective. View it as a love letter from God to His people or from Christ to His church. It would show-case how God feels towards His people. How Christ views His church as His bride.
Someone comment to me that there is a hint of racism in this book. All I can say is that there are mentions of a person Shemulatite (I think thats how its spelled); if name calling is basis of racism then we're all done for.
I'm totally against racism cause I've encountered it in the early 80s when Asians were considered slightly lower class. Living in a foreign land during those days was difficult especially when people tend to think that you are from a communist country and was yellow in color.
The world has matured to say the least but still certain things are perceived as racist.
Songs of Solomon is a love letter. It's sensual, yes, it's graphic, yes, but that's nothing compared to the offerings we get on todays tv or movies.
It's sensual in an innocent way. It's poetry, it's a song. Treat it as such. Some say it was the best of many songs that Solomon wrote. Thats why it revered in the Torah and made its way into the Bible. It's the best-work of Solomon.
A message to us today, that we too can express how we feel towards God and towards one another. In doing so we express the best that we can and use the most intimate of words. That is what makes an eternal love-letter.
I think I'll read it to wifey...
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| On the shoulders of giants |
| 05.13.05 (7:24 am) |
Another long week is over.
I'm back from travelling and am really bum out. Overall, I need a vacation to recover from the travelling.
Finally, managed to buy an iPod Mini. I got the 6GB model. Its small and silver - which gives it an evergreen look. I currently have 386 songs on it. Most of which belongs to my sis. She has been hogging my iMac the past few months...."acquiring" her mp3s.
Tomorrow, I'm expounding the book of Songs of Solomon to the young people of my church. Yup, everyone has an opinion about this book. I've heard that some churches don't even read it. I guess some christians are just embarassed at this book.
I'm looking for historical records as to why this book is included in the first place in the bible. I know that it is highly revered by the Jews so it probably became part of the bible by virtue that its part of the Torah.
But its a lovely love letter.
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| Dude where are my slippers? |
| 05.05.05 (9:45 pm) |
Work to pay the bills and I love my slippers.
Have been busy conducting training courses this week. Have not been able to post entries into this blog. Sad because irregular postings will surely kill off your blog fans.
So what has happened this past week or so?
I've recovered from my flu enough to play soccer again with my office-mates.
Settled the bang-up-car business. Dished out RM600 for that affair. Lesson learnt: There's no such thing as a small scratch on a car, especially when its on a black Toyota Vios.
My office dumb-blonde-wannabe gurl is extraordinarily dumb. She designs webpages but can't tell the difference between a gif file and a jpeg file.
What?
GIF and JPEG are the fundamental image formats. On the web we generally use JPEGs for photo-prints whereas GIFs are for drawings or cartoonish artrwork. After working almost 4 years in my department, designing webpages, brochures and the like; she still does not know the difference and when to use them.
Dude, the end of the world is near!
The aliens should kidnap her and do experiments on her mind. Once that is done they'll probably think that all humans are like her and then either:
(a) Drop the idea to invade us because they don't want to taint their cross-breeding program with dumb-DNA or
(b) Invade us thinking that we're too stupid to tell the difference between a flying saucer and an empireal-class-photon-bea m-touting-mothership. An invasion which they will loose since they did not watch ID4 and learn that we have viruses that can infect their computer systems.
I put off a phone-marketeer the other day. She was stuttering away trying to get me to buy her holiday-program. I saved her from the humiliation of talking into a brick wall and told her I was turning down her offer.
A disgrunted employee is threatening to sue my boss. Sad thing is that, this employee has cases of documented mental-problems.
I'm watching this drama unfold cause the dude is so stupid everything he does is interesting. Like sms-ing staff members that he was planning to sue my boss before actually sms-ing the threat to my boss.
Now, I've heard he's planning to sue the HR department. Claiming that he has info on bribery practices and stuff.
The craze-dude was transfered out of my department cause he went AWOL and because he did not even complete a critical project which really embarassed my department.
Craze-dude is still (technically) working for the organisation. and doing these things are just giving the organisation enough reason to fire him.
Ain't life interesting?
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