unhibernated*reminiscence

What only comes from within....

2011-05-26T23:27:00.007+08:00

This post will be personal......

Frankly speaking, I've been feeling rather down in overall through this 2011......

Maybe feeling down isn't exactly the right description, perhaps I shall replace it with feeling disappointed...yeah, I think it sounds better....

I started the year from some sort of an all time low...emotionally...but hey, me being me, I got on my feet and I was up and running again pretty soon.....

But just as I thought I could have potentially found myself a positive, life-changing...what I would term as cornerstone of my future...it didn't happen......

It didn't go according to what I had pictured in my mind.....though I was never a hundred percent certain that it would happen, seeing that end product or result or whatever you wanna call it devastated me...thoroughly, especially so when I barely got past my 1st major hurdle for the year.......

Slowly but surely, I got up again, through anger or determination? I wouldn't know, but to not credit either one of them just doesn't seem right....and this was still just barely coming near to March of the year.....

But as March arrived, I received a piece of great news...I am not sure what others would feel and think about it, but from what I knew, this news would be a VERY bad news for them. But to me, it was exactly what I needed, considering that both earlier ordeals still vividly lingers in some parts of my mind and occasionally, in surges, within my heart.....the news of what exactly? I can't reveal it to you, but it is work related and this "project" required me to be consistently and constantly at least at my 100% for a good one whole month......

I did real well for that project, individually, but it wasn't meant to be, the project turn out to be a failure, mainly due to some external factor which I am also reluctant to touch on......

And down to earth I went, again and again, plummeting and landing hard.....the phrase "IT WASN'T MEANT TO BE" which have always been my favourite phrase to console myself with suddenly seemed to have an opposite effect on me....that phrase was just too much to take, used too many times within too short of a period of time.....

I began to wonder if the yearly lunar new year chinese zodiac readings I had chance upon in a mall was really proving me its accuracy.....and from the looks of what had been happening to me throughout this 6 months, even if it wasn't trying to prove me that it's right, I am starting to believe in it.....

And to be honest, to whoever reads this, and especially to myself, my health is deteriorating.....I may look fit, and may have passed my annual fitness test easily, but I know something is wrong with the body of mine. My digestive system, though not the strongest as compared to others, has never given me such a worry before.....but, I have decided, and I have made an executive decision that I shall not be dwelling on it....yet...I shall take the risk and concentrate on my other concerns in life...hopefully, things work out...I have my contented life back and my health would in turn, return back to normal.....

So just as I thought life, this year that is, has thrown in the last challenge its gonna give me, I am up to face another challenge....not that this particular challenge hasn't been faced and dealt with by me before, but to happen again within this year is just bad timing......

But hey, I am still me, and I need to know and remind myself, heck, we all should know and remind ourselves that life isn't about counting back on our regrets, it shouldn't be about what and how many obstacles we have faced. Life should be about what I can do better in the future, what I did to conquer those obstacles and it's usually the littlest things in life that gives life colour......

Like how privileged I was and still am to be part of the team of brave and good men and women in that project....the new and strong bonds that I made over there during the month.....

I should also be thankful that my parents are still around to be taking care of me and them helping me with the miscellaneous stuffs or chores that many others in my age would have already been sick and tired of doing.....

As for this lil' story that might or might not develop further...for now, I apologise....I'm not sure if I am simply just not ready or am I just confused about what I really want to do....but I hope you can understand what kind of predicament I am in.....I am not looking to dive straight in as a failure again would be too much to take....but I know time is not on your side.....if it doesn't work out now, at least I wasn't really attached to it....I know it sounds really cruel and selfish....but I gotta do what I gotta to do to protect myself.....

Before I go......a little something in which in life, we should learn to take some time to appreciate in order to have known what life is....

lyrics from a song, beautiful melody with wonderful vocals.....

Turning Tables- Adele

Under haunted skies I see you, ooh
Where love is lost, your ghost is found
I braved a hundred storms to leave you
As hard as you try, no, I will never be knocked down.....

I can't keep up with your turning tables,
Under your thumb, I can't breathe....

awakening memories...like never before...

We're gonna start by drinking old cheap bottles of wine....

2011-02-02T14:07:00.006+08:00

Second post of the year.....good start I guess?....

Hmmm...first things first...for the first time I'm actually using my own photo for the entry...and let us keep our fingers crossed cause' I hope this won't be the last time I do that.....

How good would it feel to have exclusivity to almost everything in the world?

Well, nevermind the world, you'd probably be happy if anyone gave you positive exclusive treatment just for that one occassion.....

My point is, exclusivity feels great....and if you don't agree with me, you probably won't like it when your partner treats you differently as compared to his/her friends, you won't like it when you parents treat you differently as compared to how they treat other people's children....

You WILL like it when your best friends has 4 million other best friends, and when your girlfriend does the same for you as she did with all other guy friends.....

Regardless of preference, in my opinion, positive exclusivity is being bias towards, it is also being given special treatment....with special being out of the ordinary, or of particular importance or extra quality

But my real question is, when and who?

for me, everyone around me that I know deserves to enjoy some sort of exclusiveness from me, at least, they should feel like they have it, some sort....negative or positive, they deserve it.....

I know that from what I usually write, this would only be just a start, but I think I'm not in the best frame of mind right now to complete this entry, perhaps I'm feeling the fatigue from work.......and from watching shaytards' vids, munching lunar new year goodies, or watching free limited time only movie channels on my cable TV.....still, it's fatigue...hahaha

Thus this entry shall be left unfinished....and I shall see if I ever get the inspiration to finish it.....till then...

Happy Lunar New Year to all Chinese in the world

Here's a little piece of rap that I wrote from no where....

312 and there were no love lost
312 all those love was for lost cause
reaching desperately for peace, in chaos amidst
every time a clenched fist, each opportunity missed
just like the princess, her mattresses and the green pea
I'm having sleepless nights with every little you in me
I was lookin' round and I was lookin' down
But to whom it should have mattered, it won't matter now....

and some lyrics from.....

All Time Low - The Wanted

I can't even find a place to start
How do I choose between my head and heart
Till it ceases I never know
How do you get up from an all time low

awakening memories...like never before...

In pursuit of happYness

2011-01-05T21:08:00.006+08:00

courtesy of Jetphotos.net

I'm not gonna do the traditional "I'm back!" post...

Not because I wanna be different...

But due to the fact that, in all honesty, I have no idea when I'm gonna post anything again on this blog.....

Since it's almost 2 years ago since my last entry...I do feel like I owe the world wide web some updates...

Few might have followed this piece of waste-blog in the past, but that's 2 years ago, so I doubt there's any now...

Anyway, having readers or not, it does not matter, I shall update you vividly...

2 years may not sound long enough for many, but truth being told, many things could have happened within 2 years...

People may have developed addictions, habits, affections, hatred, rage and what have you....

I, got myself hooked on Youtube...well not exactly hooked...
Youtube has gradually become my second television, I have been following Vlogs,
I mean if you follow Youtube's development and evolution as well, you'd know that it's gonna be like the next thing after cable TV...
where you'd be catching Youtube created series,follow Youtube channels, blah blah and blah...
and here's my recommendation for those of you who wants to find out for yourself, search for whizzywaiter or shaytards and just go ahead and watch a few of their vids...

If you're not hooked now, you'd be hooked someday...trust me...

I'm still single, pretty much available, but I've already found my second wife in my life...my job.....
Yes, I shall save a space for my real-life-actual-person-slash-human-being wife, should one come by...

Here, a quote from a song by Natasha Bedingfield, Soulmate.....

Here we are again, circles never end
How do I find the perfect fit?
There's enough for everyone
But I'm still waiting in line.....

Enough for updates already.....let me get back to business.....heh

Do you believe in karma?.....I do, this belief has kept me going despite all obstacles thrown in my way.....

I also believed in patience, and that patience can bring me sucess eventually.....

It was not so long ago, that finally, believing in the both of them kinda paid off.....

I wouldn't elaborate 'cause I wouldn't allow myself to.....no, not to you anyway......haha.....

But if you followed my earlier entries in my windows live account, you shall be enlightened....

Tu-160 if you recall, callsign GM^2(2).....entered my airspace once again.....

This time, there was only a single blip on my radar...yes, no escorts, no bogey 2, no bandits, nothing, Tu-160 entered my airspace and were in comms contact with my air traffic control....

The pilot allowed my fighters to do a friendly escort, to have my pilots take a good look into the cockpit.....

My pilots were top guns, fighter aces, cream of the crop.....they, despite the friendly gestures, began sizing up the intruder...

They gave their visual confirmation that it is indeed GM^2(2), they also reported that it was not armed.....

That was not all.....through the observations of the cockpit, there was an obvious lack in manpower, it seemed to be lacking in a co-pilot...and then further visual observation reports from my fighters, showed why it had returned to my airspace.....

there were multiple damages on the surface on both its wings and tail and they also mentioned that one of its engine appears to be down.....

Recent reports from my intel tells us that the pilot could be a defector, from the country that now has internal conflicts everywhere and defecting probably isn't a bad option for anyone who has the chance...

the damages on it suggested that it must have been some kind of a struggle to get out from there, that the pilot probably put up a fight.....before attaining freedom in a neighbouring airspace.....
mine.....

I gave GM^2(2) permission to land and hopefully the pilot could be of good use to my airforce.....but there was one issue.....one big issue.....we do not share a common language and there wasn't a trained translator available.....

nonetheless, GM^2(2) landed and I ordered my men to render any assistance to the pilot to the best of the ability......

Soon enough, the aircraft was fixed, fuel tank filled to its rim and it was almost as good as new......yet, we could not get anything from the pilot, no one could understand each other, and everyone were still cagey, interactions kept minimal.....

it was becoming worrying, I could see that all my men could think about is whether the pilot is a spy.....

But as soon and sudden as GM^2(2) arrived, during one serene and silent night, GM^2(2) left, along with the doubts and questions in all our minds....

Hmmm....I guess this entry won't have a moral of a story, nor would there be a message I wanna put across.....
If anything, I am probably trying to see if I still have the ability to blog again.....so I guess this blog still just might live on....maybe 2 weeks later....or maybe it's gonna be another 2 more years.....

Thank you.....you would know who you are.....and why I'm thanking you.....hopefully

Before I leave....

Talking to the moon - Bruno Mars

In hopes you're on the other side
Talking to me too
Or am I a fool
Who sits alone
Talking to the moon............

awakening memories...like never before...

Bad things happen for a reason.....

2009-03-17T19:28:00.004+08:00

What are the chances of you striking lottery?

What are the chances of you scoring a one-on-one with the goalkeeper?

What are the odds of you landing the job amongst the rest of the interviewees?

How unlucky would you be when you open up the chocolate wrap and found maggots in it?

How much of fate would be responsible for you to see a stranger 3 times in a day at 3 different occasions?

Just what am I talking about?
Mathematics, YES, I am talking about mathematics...and chances.......

We humans have 2 ways of looking at things.....

Either through statistics and science, or, through luck and chances.....

Statistically, people who believe in luck and people who choose to take their chances against odds are impractical.....and the chances are that practical people would normally lose it than risk it to win big......

Just recently, I had the privilege to catch a few shows here and there on TV due to the nature of my shift duty timings...and I managed to catch one or two repeat telecast episodes of the show “变奏曲” or “Rhythm of life” during one of the weekends.....

The show bears the interesting concept of save and load in the cyber world, where the male lead gets to travel back in time to that one particular incident and make crucial decisions which subsequently changes the future fate of his love ones.....

The male lead couldn’t accept the fact that his indirectly role in the death of one of his close friends would spark the negative effects of his other friends.....and was one day, given a chance to change things again.....

He went back in time, to save his friend in the nick of time, but found himself sacrificing the love of his life.....

He took his chances, and despite the fact he knew what would happen in the future...there were still too many things beyond his control.....

And that’s the fact of life.....

There are so many things beyond our control that we’re only left with statistics and odds and faiths to rely on.....

However, we did come up with ways to defy odds based on statistics.....

Things like betting on more than one option to increase your odds in winning...or doing your research of the company before your interview... or having more practice sessions on your composure and finishing to beat the goalkeeper.....

But chances are that you’d still lose all of you money, get rejected by your potential employer and fail to score.....due to some other factors beyond your control.....

And I guess all these apply to relationships as well......

There’s been this saying that there’s one for everyone somewhere out there.....

Personally, I think that’s a perfect excuse for lazy people to sit and wait for things to happen.....

But let’s just say that that’s part of the things beyond our control......

You may have found the one for you, but you might not be the one for him/her.....

And things like your looks, your upbringing, your intelligence, your taste and your job takes major roles too.....

You could have likings in someone’s characters, but you may be looking for someone with better looks, or higher intelligence.....

Then of course, we are normally more attracted to certain factors and eventually it overcomes the other not so satisfactory qualities of that person....and we adapt to it....get used to it....and finally be contented with it......

Of course, this cycle of adaptation would occur multiple times, and eventually, we would all have taken our chances with one or another, and whether we regret those decisions or not?.....I guess by that time, it’d be all too late.....

I guess this is a rather random one of mine.....

All I’m left to say is that I hope none of you would have regrets in what you do, whichever way you choose to decide upon, on statistics or on odds.....

Sometimes taking a leap of fate might turn out to be good.....

And sometimes, playing it safe with statistics won’t be that bad either.....

awakening the memories...like never before...

Judge me, but judge us not

2008-12-28T17:08:00.003+08:00

Have you ever known someone that you were dead sure that they would become a wonderful person, but as the years go by, and you start to realise they just weren’t turning out to who you thought they could be?

During my not-so-long time on the face of Earth, I have already seen quite a few......

Doesn’t that make you rethink on how you would come to any conclusions on anything?

I am not saying that one should judge a person, that’s just wrong to SAY.....

But really, everyone needs to have an impression on everyone else and in fact almost everyone’s doing it...

He/she doesn’t have to tell us, they would seldom want to, and neither have we the rights to know, but through observations, we need to have a credible and accurate conclusion on them, in order to act and react accordingly...

That is why not all of the people around us, that made contact with us becomes our friends...and not all friends remained as friends.....

That is also why and how we put high hopes in others and lesser hopes in some...

So who are we not to judge? .....We all judge, and the action of telling someone to not judge someone else, is in actual fact, an action of judging......

Since judging is inevitable, let us all please judge with a conscious, fair and unprejudiced mind.....

Things happen, but they don’t just happen without reasons, it could be because he/she had a bad day, yes, he/she may have to learn a better way of handling his/her anger, but you too, maybe the next time you feel like cursing someone for making you pissed off, try placing yourself in his/her shoe......

People handle things differently, especially when it comes to emotions, some would choose to head out and spend, and some would take the gourmet /glutton path, while others might choose violence......

Personally, I would choose to sleep it off, well talking about it with someone else works for me too.....But at the end of the day, when I start to feel better, I would try to think of a reason on why things happened, and not waste time whining about the fact that it did......the more negativity and less understanding you put into certain bad things, you’re just making it happen again, trust me on that...

And this is where benefit of the doubt comes in......’cause we may never get to really find out why someone would do this or that, but c’mon let’s all give them the benefit of doubt shall we?

“I believe in humans, I would rather think and be good and get myself disappointed again and again, time after time...”

That’s just a quote from somewhere, but it works for me, and this following quote works in conjunction of it.....

“A good person falls seven times, a wicked person only once”

Since X’mas is over, and 2009’s coming, I wish all of my friends and family members to have a MUCH MUCH better year in 2009 and for a few, a better Christmas and Silent night, and to some other few, I hope you guys get your future directions right soon....

Yours sincerely,

XzR

awakening the memories...like never before...

When you're gone...

2008-06-19T22:17:00.016+08:00

Kitty Hawk left Singapore on 2/6/08, for Australia...to study...

Courtesy of Shorpy.com

Kitty Hawk is Kitty Hawk because she's first to have flown and in fact still very much flying within my airspace…

As the sending-off-party waved her on her final few “departure” steps into the security gantry and off to the departure hall...more tears flowed down from the eyes of a mom who can't endure the sight of sending her child away for such a long period of time.....

The right decision?......for your own good?......I wouldn't really know, but nonetheless, i told auntie that "it's the right choice"......

Well...i hope you make full use of this opportunity......and hopefully, fulfill what is expected of you and return home once the objective is achieved......

Right….back to where I was, I turned and saw my friend flooding her eyes out with tears, and as I jokingly mocked her, she “bet-ing-ly” replied, “you’re gonna cry when you get home, I bet!”

That didn’t happen, but my mind was thinking about Kitty Hawk’s departure for the rest of the entire day……Her leaving, made me wonder…..wonder on the issues of departures and how things like going away and in fact, death, affects those who stayed, or are still living…..

Didn’t had much break through though, as I also had my mind and day occupied with sleeping and playing computer games, until I caught this really, really delayed telecast of the Oprah Winfrey’s Show…..in which she invited children of some of the victims of 9/11 and interviewed them on how they had to adjust themselves to the sudden departure of their parent(s) and cope with their death emotionally and psychologically…..

Then it struck me to write about this, but me, being me, had to think more, one just wasn’t enough…so yeah, there I go, spending more time confirming my own thoughts, debating over and over again in my head.

The result was that I managed to recall this one episode from, AGAIN, a really delayed telecast of “Chicago Hope” by our/my local television network. That episode toys with the issue of righteousness and death.

In that episode, was a positive girl, with good grades and a bright future ahead, the only set-back she had was a very critical heart condition. Then came along this really negative man who had lost his will to live after some accident that caused him to be paralysed(at least that’s what I could remember) and that man contacted a local doctor of his and told her to end his life and donate his organs away.

As America has this integrated computer network system between hospitals and stuffs (I am not sure whether it is at the same level real life though), they discovered this man’s heart was a match to the girl’s body. But it is also under the law of their country not to allow the man to be “euthanased” (now, really, don’t question my memory and just let me go on with it, though I must really apologise for any misinterpretation of their law or even the show)…

So yes, it’s a heart, it’s not like kidney where humans could still live happily after losing one…back to the story, the parents learnt about the news and held high hopes that their daughter could finally end the long wait for a “natural” donor and be cured.

Now here’s the deal, the surgeon of the girl refuse to give this act of “kindness” a thumbs up, as she felt that it is not right to end one’s life just to save another, at least not in the medical sense. Her concern (as they need to make their local state judiciary agree to this before the surgery could be carried out legally) was that, if they would allow this case to proceed, more of those who plans to make a killing off organ sales, would go all out forcing others to die (basically kill them and make them look like they wanted to do it “to save lives”) so that they could sell their organs and the fact is that organ sales do make a lot of cash if made legal…

Anyway, such act is mostly considered unethical by the society and so the doctor was torn, she, herself, had very much wished that the girl can leave the hospital healthy, but in the end, she decided, no, she has to be responsible for the others who may be affected should this proceed “unnaturally” and in the end she chose “Righteousness”, the girl’s parents could not accept this and they went to court in attempt to make this “transaction” possible…but to no avail.

The girl however, remained positive and understood the doctor’s point of view, her future, whether she lived or not, was unknown (to me at least)…

Right, back to Oprah and the children…

Everyone in the show had a chance to share their experience post 9/11 after their parent(s) tragedy…one was a 16-year-old girl (if I remembered correctly), she had a 3-year-old brother, their mom, was a single-parent and she was one of the 9/11 victims…

They’re now living with their grandmother, but despite that, the 16-year-old felt like she had suddenly became a mother herself, trying to take care of her young brother. In the show, she caught my attention by telling Oprah that she is trying hard to hold up the family like her mom had always wanted to, and other kids on the show too, like her, tried to live their lives like how their late parent(s) wanted them to, to be a good person and stuffs like that…

I told you guys that the show struck me to write this, but what is it?

It is death, and departure…

I began to explore and wonder around this issue that is considered to be rather sacred to human beings, regardless of race, language or religion…

Death of a human being normally means a lot to the people around the person, so as departures, for a certain amount of time, but for my convenience, let’s just stick to death.

People grieve, people remember, and that’s why death is always, always more than just one less living thing on earth…

If you could choose to die now and save the world, would you?

I would not hesitate to say yes, provided my death would really have such positive effect…alright, I think my tagboard is rather quiet, let’s just say, if you’re reading this, answer my question on my tagboard would you?...thanks…

As I was saying, death is more than that person going to hell or heaven, but hey, who in world knows what those 2 places are like?...Who knows?...Hell could be a lot more air-conditioned than heaven…but I am agreeing to the fact that people actually do believe in such things, because, like many religions, it gives people a sense of direction on how they should be living their life, if they do more good, they are “most likely” gonna be headed up to the clouds for a better “afterlife”, so why not right?...It makes people do good and be nice…I think…

Then here comes my next question, let’s not ask you to die again, heh, this time, if you knew, your presence in the surrounding of certain friends of yours or even lovers of yours would have negative effect on them, would you leave them?...Get away from them?...Get some distance?...So that they would live a better live without you?...In simple terms if you found out that you’re a burden to a team or to your partner, would you leave?...Do me another favour dear readers, answer that too would you?

In my opinion, death/departure is so powerful it changes things, it’s like a spoiled child without his mom, he learns, to be independent, to deal with life. For me, if I have to leave my friends for such good reasons, I would. But of course, if I feel that staying with them I could have a change to make a positive impact, I would stay.

You may think that death and leaving is too extreme, well, the fact is, I do too, but just how much does it take for humans to learn?

-Watch “The Happening” it’s a good movie-

HOW MUCH DOES IT TAKE?

If anything, the victims of 9/11 helped the rest of the world to learn to not take security for granted…

Szechuan earthquake helped the world to put away differences/nationalities and help each other...

The slavery in America teaches us to respect each other, and that all humans should be treated equally…

The many, many, many accident victims on air, on sea and on the road, taught people how to prevent it, how to stop it and how to survive it....

The Chinese pharmacologists who died from staying indoors for 10 consecutive years to compile a book of medications and remedies to illnesses, which we now know it as 本草纲目 or Compendium of Materia Medica, taught us that one’s little effort and sacrifice could turn out to be one of the greatest contribution of mankind…

But despite all that, WE HUMANS JUST DON’T LEARN…

The Americans didn’t learn from all of its 9/11 victims that violence can only cause more tragedies and more violence.

The accidents and the death toll reported in everyday news fail let people learn not to drink and drive, and it failed to educate people why we should drive responsibly, driving without a license is definitely not being responsible. It isn’t being cool, that’s call being foolish…

We humans like to enjoy life, always want to and always will. But sometimes, we live in our own world too deeply to realise that whatever we do to make ourselves feel better affects others in many ways…

-Watch “Into the wild” it’s a good movie too-

But all those that I’ve said would mean nothing, when your death doesn’t matter…

How would you feel if you’re living a life that doesn’t matter to anyone?

Whether you are there or not it wouldn’t have made a difference?...

My friend told me about this quote, “Life is like making a movie, make it a blockbuster”…Movies like “Ironman”, “Armageddon” and “the Day After Tomorrow”, you must have seen it yourselves, if not, at least heard of it, but if the movie you made or are making wouldn’t even matter in the box office, why make it?...In other words, you might as well die now…..BUT WAIT, don’t die yet, no, not yet, just because you’re still alive, you get your second chance, START NOW, you might not succeed, but in my opinion your spirit and determination would absolutely mean something when you DIE TRYING.

“Don’t strive for success, Strive for SIGNIFICANCE”

and I personally believe, when you get significance, you would have achieved many successes along the way

Start now, MAKE DIFFERENCES, my friends…

And last but not least,
“Happiness is only real when shared”

awakening the memories...like never before...

2 dollars midnight taxi ride.....

2008-05-27T00:17:00.009+08:00

the night of 18th May 2008...

after i left my work place and to a cab ride with my colleages to orchard to take a nightrider/#N home.....this was exactly what had happened.....

my colleagues had stayed in the cab and headed down to Kallang, while i travelled on foot to the bus stop opposite Far East Plaza to wait for the bus "NR3"......

20 minutes had passed, and the expected crowd at the bus stop where i was, started to show signs of impatience(it was obvious to me that they were already there for quite some time...)as some had decided that they should stop waiting and take a cab home, but...usually, if you're someone who takes those late weekend bus services frequently, you would know 20 minutes is not quite something you would want to start worrying about yet.....

30 minutes gone...and i decided to quench that irritating feeling of thirst in my mouth...so i cross the overhead bridge to Far East Plaza and walk to a 7-eleven to get myself a drink...after which...i crossed the overhead bridge again(it's not about the overhead bridge though...it's just me trying to blog like some other blogs i see...so anyway...).....this time...as i got down the bridge at the other end, i suddenly remembered a notice that was about some changes to the NR services which i saw a day before at some interchange, and gut feeling told me it's got something to do with the "absolute-no-bus-in-sight" phenomenon.....

so i went on to the places where i most likely might see notices at a bus stop, and to my "excited-horror", i found the notice.....(excited 'cause i was right on the money, horror 'cause that translates to no bus ride home).....

being me, i went to tell the others at the bus stop about the notice...pointing to them where i had seen it, just in case they decide to doubt a stranger, who wouldn't right?.....then i saw this young man, in his late 10s and beggining of 20s....which i predict he's actually the same age as me.....still patiently waiting for the bus while enjoying songs in his MP3, i tapped on his shoulders and he took one ear piece out and looked at me with the look of enquiry.....

"erm...i saw a notice there(pointing with my hand) that says there won't be NR services tonight..." i said

"are you waiting for NR as well?" asked the young man

"yeah..." i replied shrugging my shoulders

he then asked me where i was going, and after i told him my destination, he proposed the suggestion of sharing a cab since it was on the way for him...

thinking that he wouldn't have enough money to pay for a cab ride himself, and that he looks like he misses home badly (it's really just me thinking a tat too much, i know)...i actually agreed, even though i know at that time all i need to do was to cross the freaking bridge and walk towards lucky plaza to take the bus 3N home...cheap but slow...but i had time on my side.....

so we agreed...and as we started to walk down the road in search of a cab...we saw this couple, who, after my announcement, decided to take a cab home as well...so the young man being rather desperate to reduce his potentially expensive cab fare, asked them about their destination as well just before they closed the cab door and move off, and what so happens is that they too, are heading to similar places as us...and then again he proposed the suggestion of sharing a cab to the couple who rather reluctantly agreed.....

so the "5-stranger-taxi-ride" began(why 5?...let's not forget about the driver alright?), and it was absolute silence in the vehicle, other than my music from my mp3 player, and the cab's engine's noise, there was nothing else(pretty much not the best time to have gas in your tummy)...

as the ride was coming to an end soon for the young man, he offered me SGD10, and asked me for like a change of SGD4, which was probably the right amount of change...but at that time i only had a small change of SGD2, and i told him exactly that...

"it's okay" he said, passing me the 10 and taking the 2, while alighting the cab.....

as the door close, we proceeded on to the couple's destination...that portion of the journey was pretty fast, like about 2 mins or so, the cab came to a halt upon the couple's request...

the couple, both in their late 20s, handed me three SGD2 notes.....feeling rather guilty of making the young man pay too much, and that we kinda robbed the couple off their lone, quality time in a cab, and making them feeling awkward and all, i only took one SGD2 note from them.....and they alighted...not saying thanks and all(perhaps it's just me who didn't hear it)...but well....at the end, i was the last one to alight the cab, and the fare was in total, SGD16, inclusive of the slight discount given by the sympathetic cab driver, and the ruthless midnight charge......

okay...so after that long winded story....."WHAT'S THE POINT?"

the point(s).....

why hadn't the couple offered to give the young man his change when they had so much change in their wallets?.....

why didn't anyone in the cab, including the driver, offered a change of small changes with the cab driver?.....

i would just like to thank the young man here, if you happen to be a blog hopper, and you are living somewhere around Bukit Panjang, tanned skin colour, wore a white shirt, a pair of bermudas and held a plastic/paper bag that night...i thank you for your generosity...

awakening the memories...like never before...

so others may live......

2008-05-15T19:55:00.020+08:00

Photo from http://www.ifrc.org/

i have decided to stop using my previous "space", but i do not have the intention of taking it down, you may want to take a look at my old memories, hence my old MSN space address.....

http://readandforget.spaces.live.com/

well, at this time where i am sitting down infront of my computer, getting comfortable and all, my air-conditioner running, ceiling light shining and TV making the most cheerful of sounds......

there are people in Myanmar hurting, evacuating, starving and wandering about on the streets trying the best to recall what their own houses used to look like from a pile of cyclone-hit debris....

Photos from http://www.ifrc.org/

and 10 days after Cyclone Nargis devastated Myanmar, demolishing 95% of homes in the largely populated city of Yangon and affecting an estimated 1 million people.....an earthquake that registered 7.8 on the Richter scale shook Szechuan, China......

Photo from http://www.channelnewsasia.com/

Photos from http://www.mercycorps.org/

the cruel tremor, killing an estimated 14,800 people already, with that death toll expected to rise further as rescuers are trying their best to move deeper into more affected areas of the around the epicentre, where 80% of the buildings collasped......this hugely demoralising statistic also comes with the fact 26,000 people are still buried under rubble of collasped structures......

i would normally take you guys to the informative part on how earthquakes and cyclone come about, but this time, i wouldn't want to waste the time of yours and hope that everyone of you can help whenever you can, whatever you can to both disasters' victims...time is of essence, the less time we take to help, the higher chances of survival for the victims......

here's how you and rest of the world can help....

For aiding the disaster victims of Myanmar:
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/cyclone/

For giving a hand to the victims in Szechuan you may like to try the following links:
http://www.mercycorps.org/chinaearthquake/?source=1062
or
http://www.ifrc.org/what/disasters/response/sichuan-earthquake/index.asp

Thank You....

awakening the memories...like never before...

Testing Test Test

2008-04-28T23:46:00.000+08:00

Check 1, 2, 1, 2