KNNBCCB not ok, naked photos ok?

Is it hypocrisy, snobbishness or just stupidity to complain about hokkien acronym and expletives?

Sept 9, 2005
Spare us these foul phrases

I BROWSED through a recent copy of MediaCorp Publishing's Lime magazine and was taken aback.

A monthly section dedicated to weblogs to watch out for mentioned one titled Top Rock (rockson.blogspot.com).

When I looked at the accompanying graphic, I was astonished to find several Hokkien expletives referring to male and female body parts in the text in fine print.

I then visited the website and, to my horror, most posts were laced with such vulgarities.

Why no one complain about FHM, Maxim and those magazines showing male and female body parts? In pictures ok but in hokkien not ok is it?

Songs with explicit lyrics ok as long as they are not in hokkien is it?

People hugging each other, groping each other in night spots ok but hokkien acronym not ok is it?

Young girls wearing little and dancing during exhibitions ok but hokkien expletives not ok is it?

Sexy models using their bodies for advertisements ok but hokkien not ok is it?

Everyone has a choice to make use of or avoid hokkien acronym or expletives but I cannot understand why people are offended by it when we are surrounded by male and female body parts from all kind of media around us.

In the context of the cyberspace where one can find tonnes of porn and perverted materials, how silly can you be to complain about a blog with hokkien acronym and expletives?

Katrina

No respectable blog these days should be caught without a post on Katrina. So I better post something about it too.

And since everything under the Sun has aleady been posted, I though I just quote some interesting facts from The Economist magazine Sept 10 to Sept 16, 2005 issue.

According to the magazine, these were the reactions from top US officials after Katrina struck America and in areas equivalent to the size of Britain.

(1) George Bush was listless and confused. He said that 'nobody had anticipated the breaching of the levees even though people have been worrying about the possibility for years and an official report published in 2001 warned of impending disaster.

(2) Dick Cheney, the vice president, remained on Holiday in Wyoming (Remark: I assumed it is not flooding in Wyoming).

(3) Condoleezza Rice, the highest ranking black in the country, saw a Broadway show "Spamalot".

And interestingly, after 11th Sept 'Osama Bin Ladin' day, the US has poured billions into creating the Department of Homeland Security to deal with catastrophe events. All this new stylo milo Department of Homeland Security did after Katrina was to just act blur and do nothing. I guess, maybe...flooding doesn't pose any security risk to the Homeland?

Being cheem can be a result of being stupid

After reading some posts between BlinkyMummy and C_F_L_L_N, and especially this statement,

生活真的那么辛苦meh? - C_F_L_L_N

I feel some 墨水 flowing out.

I get the feeling that some people believe that they are bery experience, mature or wise about life just because they can be cheem. But having lots of questions and no answers is no better than living a simple life. It just means you are incapable of solving your problems. Nothing else.

One thing is confirmed, those who are cheem are very good at words, just like journalists can write lots of craps but are just empty sounding gongs.

Being successful in life is simple; that means you are happy with life. Every person needs different things in life to be happy. So everyone has to find their own formulas and ingredients.

Do you have to find what you need before you can be happy. Not really. The process of finding can be equally enjoyable. In the meantime, we have to enjoy the simple pleasures of life. Reading a book, listening to music, watching a good movie, spending time with good friends, doing your job well, writing a good blog or book, learning a new subject or a new skill can all be enjoyable.

People who get too cheem and cannot find answers eventually turn depressive and suicidal. These people are too engrossed about themselves. They are like frogs in their own wells and cannot see beyond their own self-created darkness.

I read this somewhere...(but don't remember where liao).

Once you realized how insignificant you are in the universe, in your God's plan (whatever your religion), in your country, in your local community, you can then care about other people. The earth doesn't revolve around you.

You don't have to wait for other people to make an impact in your life. There is a lot of things you can do to make an impact in others' life.

You have to be contented and happy in your life before you can make another person happy. Otherwise, do not drag another person into your temple of boredom, sorrow or pain.

Are you stressed?

Being stressed is a common experience and everyone goes through it right?

I beg to differ. I haven't felt any stress for many years. Maybe 10 or maybe 15 years. You ask "How is it possible that you don't feel stressed?". Why should I? Being stressed is a choice and once you realised it is counter-productive and borderlining stupidity, you may want to take control of your emotions more often.

Why do we choose to be stressed? Why are you stressed?

Ah..so many things to worried about? So many deadlines? So many things can go wrong?

But how does being stressed help you? Does it postpone your deadlines? Does it make your problems go away? Does it make you more productive?

Some told me they worked harder when they were stressed. The point is, why can't we work without being stressed? Why can't we motivate ourselves in other way?

I think being in a state of stress actually lowers your productivity and lessen your time to think of solutions or to think of better ways of solving your problems.

The majority of people that I come across actually told me they were incapable of doing anything because they were too stressed. Some said their minds were 'blank' due to too much stress. So...why be stressed? Don't we all learn from our own experience?

Maybe by claiming that we are stressed, we can give excuse when we are incapable of thinking?

Being stressed is as useless as being angry. Both are weaknesses that should be managed if a person wants to achieve greater things in life.

Mayday New Album

Woo hoo, so happy. Bought Mayday's collection "Contented" with 6 new songs.

Finally after 5 years, a proper collection is released.

Interestingly, Monsters wrote 3 out of the 6 new songs. I am not sure if this is good or bad. Good in that Mayday can rely less on Ah Sing but then Ah Sing is such a wonderful songwriter that you don't want him to write less.

I think Ah Sing has written some songs in the last 5 year that will one day be acknowledged as rock anthems and Hokkien folk songs.

Strongly recommended for anyone who is into light rock and good music.

The Cover of a Book

Since young, we were taught not to judge a book by it's cover. There are lots of children stories and chinese proverbs teaching us not to rely on outward appearance for our judgement and on treating others.

But in real life, outward appearance is important. At times very important.

To judge someone by his or her outward appearance is shallow but to ignore the power of good looks is naive as well.

All things equal, being good looking always help. In job searching, in making casual friends, in forming alliance and in business proposals, good looks helps a lot. If anything, we always prefer to have someone pleasant to look at when we are selecting a businss partner or a friend. If that someone makes your heart races, all the more better. A sincere and good looking face is the most convincing combination when it comes to business proposition.

A beautiful or a handsome colleague always brightens up an office and instil new energy to surrounding colleagues. Suddenly there are more jokes being cracked and more volunteers to do things around the office.

A potential employer conducting interviews among many potential candidates will prefer someone that he likes to look at every day; especially if it is going to be his direct subordinate.

I can only think of two main disadvantages of good looks.

(1) You tend to attract all sorts of people who want to love you. At times, it's hard to tell if they love you for your looks or your characters. But since in reality, looks always precede characters, then it really doesn't matter. You just have to be wise, don't be vain, and choose your partner carefully. At least you have a wide selection to start with.

(2) Being good looking sometimes can get into one's head. Good looking people are usually popular. Sometimes popularity can be misinterpreted as a result of being capable or intelligent. In such case, it may reduce the motivation to improve oneself.

For those with good looks, be thankful that you have natural advantages that others don't.

For those without good looks, work extra hard to compete with those with good looks. The only way to beat them is to offer more results and higher quality of work.

This brings us back to something which I have posted before - life is not fair. Your looks are determined from the time you were conceived and hence you are affected by it no matter what you do in life. The truth is - life is never meant to be fair. If you don't have good looks, and all you do is bitch about how unfair you were being treated versus your good looking competitors, you are not going to achieve much and be happy in life.

Definitely plain jane

Wah biang, last few days when I accidentally switched channel to Channel U, I caught glimpses of the contenders for "Definitely Superstars" contest.

Did I see wrongly? Got one cock-eyes and the rest looks like very ordinary people. I think the Ah Bengs of Blinkymummy maybe better looking and more talented.

So what 'star' qualities? What is the point in having this "Definitely plain jane" contest?

Money lor. 2 steps to easy money.

(1) Invite any tom, dick, harry, lily, lucy and lian who want to be famous (there is no shortage of them) to sing and dance for free and to make a fool of themselves on TV.

(2) Make the TV viewers feel important and that they are empowered to be the judges in deciding the fate of these silly people. Ask them to sms many many times.

Each sms = 50 cents. 500,000 sms = ?

I think Channel 5 was right not to have Super Idol every year. Where got so many steady pon bi bi idols around? Even the spokeperson of channel 5 said so in Straits Times

"We are not saying we don't have enough Singaporeans who are good enough to be super idol, but Singapore is a small country".

By twisting words, using multiple reverse logics and by using long sentences mean people won't know what you are saying is it?

Not to mention Super Idol is not as cheap to run as "Definitely Plain Jane" contest because Channel 5 has to pay lots of money to the company who owns the "Super Idol" franchise.

Many other channels also started some kind of quiz or lucky draw contests and asking people to sms so that they can win $1,000 or a cheap mobile phone. Some companies even think it is worth it to make an advertisement, paid mediacorp for air-time and ask people to sms for some word quiz.

The power of mass media and mass sms!

By the way, how come sms gambling no need licence? Isn't it like buying 4-D? Ah..I gamble 50 cents to win $1,000, maybe I sms a few times can win?

The value of education

We often hear comments like "Why are you doing this? This is unrelated to your degree or to your training?" What a load of rubbish? Why must our job be related to our degree or to our training so far?

We spent a large part of our life getting educated. From pre-school to tertiary education, and then post-tertiary and external courses we took, we probably spent 1/4 of our life studying something. Maybe that gives many people the impression that we should be in a career that is related to our degree.

What should education provide us and what are the greatest benefits of being educated?

Education should equip people in three important abilities:

(1) The ability to analyze

(2) The ability to communicate

(3) The ability to learn fast

The abiiity to analyze
Some big organizations adopt 'logical tests' to select management trainees. This comes in a form of about 50 paragraphs and participants will be given 5 answers for each paragraph. These 5 answers describe what each paragraph is trying to convey and only 1 answer is the most appropriate.

The good news is that you don't have to be good in English to fare well in such tests. In fact, people who speak good english and write fluently can fare badly in such tests. Being good at English doesn't make a person automatically good at logic.

Being good at logic, vertically or laterally, is important for one analytical skill. Having good analytical skill leads to good discretion and better understanding of issues.

The ability to communicate

Having strong analytical skill and good discretion enable one to have clarity of thoughts and this is the basis of good communication. You must be clear what is in your mind in the first place. Then you can organize your views in a systematic and clear manner.

Once you sort out your own views, you need to sort out the views of the intended recipient. In an effective communication, you cannot be saying things without taking into consideration the intended recipient. Let's use an example.

Assuming you need to persuade your boss that your business plan is the best amongst your colleagues. Firstly, you need to be clear what are the strengths and selling points of your business plan. This enables you to present them so that your boss can understand you.

Next, you need to judge what would be the objections of your boss and if your boss would have other personal or politic issues. You need to handle such issues. Otherwise, your business plan is not going to be adopted.

To be a successful person, you must understand this important rule:

Good communication is both ways; and both ways are your responsibility.

The ability to learn fast

The market place is changing so fast that what we learn in our school or in our degree get outdated soon. These days we need to learn and adapt on a daily basis.

The most important benefit of education is that it forces us to discover which type of learning techniques or methods are best for us. Those who are constantly scoring well are usually people who are effective in their learning process. They are not necessarily genius or smarter than the rest.

Those who keep trying to memorize and read every pages of their textbooks will fare badly and eventually drop out of the system. Unfortunately no one can teach you how to learn effectively. You need to experiment.

I have a friend who is an Arts graduate. In the last few years, I witnessed him learning how to use Excel in structuring complicated investment spreadsheet, writing professional reports and setting up a computer network for about 100 people in his office. He keeps re-inventing himself and this is perhaps the reason why he is highly regarded by his employer and holding a senior position compared to his peers.

Someone like him will never lose his job. In fact, employers love such employees.

In every position that we occupy, we have to learn fast to be effective. To be successful in every assignment that we undertake, we have to analyse different situations, the behaviours of all the stakeholders, keyplayers and identify the critical success factors and sort out the threats.

In every assignment, in every position and in any business, we need to learn and re-learn everyday because things change everyday.

Is Singapore's education system able to teach you all these? Is it the fault of the education system that you didn't pick up these 3 skills?

Reality versus upbringing

I frequently come across people who complaint about being treated unfairly in their working places. They were very upset. Some lost sleep, some got depressed and some got very angry so much so that their family and personal time was affected. So...one bad experience (unhappiness in office) leading to more bad experience with family and with oneself. How stupid could that be?

By being upset with your boss and your colleagues, will they suffer? I doubt they know you are suffering in your little corner.

You are the only one suffering when you get angry.

But why must your boss or your colleagues be fair to you?

From a recent survey that was published on the Straits Times, apparently one main source of unhappiness came from the working place and I think this notion of fairness must have a lot to do with it.

In our upbringing, our parents and school tried to teach us that fairness is important and it should be upheld. This somehow got into our system and we grow up thinking that we should be treated fairly but this is wrong.

In reality and in life and in every circumstances of life, nobody has the duty to treat you fairly. The sooner you understand this fact of life, you can live a happier life.

Even we cannot be fair in all our dealings and to all our loved ones.

In your career, working hard and contributing the most will not always bring the necessary recognition and rewards. This is a fact of life. Just because you think you should be treated fairly doesn't mean it will happen. Wise up. Find out what will get you your recognition and rewards, then assess if you have what it takes, then decide if you want to do those things.

That is how people get promoted and that is why some people will always move faster than you. Because they understand reality and you don't. Who says your boss has to be fair to you?

If you don't think you want to do things that will get you promoted, then rest your case or look for another employer. The last thing you should do is to mess up your family and personal life on some childish notion that people should be fair to you.

Fairness is merely an idealogy. We should try to be fair ourselves but let's not expect others to be fair to you. You can be a happier person and a much more effective person once you adopt this mindset.