Lessons in gambling

Upon reflection after a mahjong session on Friday that i found that i still cannnot break through the problem of “ 得 与 失 " clearly.

Still have long way to go...

Retrieving the Car

Send my car to my father's friend's workshop at Premas Jaya to do the paint job the past week. And due to work, i can only retrieve it this weekend, particularly Saturday. Played mahjong at my friend's house the night before and sleep till afternoon before setting out to cross the Bridge.

Traffci jammed from 4 pm onwards. Did a U-turn to wait out the heavy traffic before finally setting out to cross the Bridge at around 6pm.

Finally successfully retrieved the car at 8pm. By the time i got back to on local soil, it was 9pm.

Drove down to my colleague's baby party even as it was long over. The month-old boy was quite cute. Hmm... forgot to take photos....

Apparently, its a religious requirement where 2 goats were to be slaughtered for a one month-old male baby. (1 goat if its girl). In S'pore, the goats are slaughtered elsewhere with the "slayer" saying a prayer under the name of the baby and their parents. Its more symbolic here locally.

Interesting...

Winning local Elections, the maverick way.

Over a 2 years period, achieve the following :

If you cannot provide an viable alternative to the current administration, its ok to copy the incumbent's framework. Actually, its almost the same else where.

Champion a popular social cause as part of your manifesto.

Start small fund-raising for charities (or multi-charities) and be reported on all media. No need to be fancy. As many as one can handle. Success or failure doesn't matter.

Choose a catchy slogan, cute mascot and colour (taking a leaf from Taiwan politics).
The powers of association / framing.

Run snap polls to sow public opinion or grouses. Try to be as accurate as possible.

Write to various forums / blogs on the current issues or grouses of the public. Even better, go on national TV to participate in forums. Must appear to be engaging the public even if you are not effective. This must be on-going for at least 1 ½ or 2 years.

Argue against capital punishment first to gain at least some support from foreign media before attacking the death penalty.

Be seen also a pro-businesses party. Tie up with businesses (SME) and your championing cause and charity work if possible. A source of income to maintain your campaign. Solicit some funds if possible. Doesn't matter if there is only a little donation from them, put their company logos together with your Party's colour, if possible, put in your logo to achieve effect of being “pro-business” and pro- entrepreneur.

Also remember to engage the young electorate demography by starting giving small scholarships / bursaries to neighborhood schools. Organise road trips, activites for the charities, and whats nots with the young eletorate as the main focus.

Do not spare any efforts to pervade your party colours in all your campaigns. The logo can be sparingly used. Mascot and Colour to be pervasive when ever your party members make appearances.

Obviously, the actual groundwork must not be forsaken.

Wining the next election has a higher prob due to the increase in % of the young voters.

In a nut shell, it's a branding exercise. Market the party and your candidates well. Must be seen as more "hip", "prob-business" and "more in touch with the ground".

Employ a professional publicist to do the marketing of your party brand if possible.

The only draw back is the cost.

痴汗大叔 “强暴”美少女实录

Weird but interesting.

Here are some classic photos of his recent outing….

I'm guessing his pillow would be fluorescently lighted under UV lights? Ha ha ha….

If you can actually read Japanese, you could go to his blog.

Perverted but interesting concept. Got to give him some credit. If I’m not wrong, this guy was featured before somewhere….

Boston Legal - Truly, Madly Deeply

The closing scene for the above mentioned episode as both Alan and Denny recap on Denny's misadventure :

"Denny: It's fun being me. Is it fun being you?

Alan: Most of the time.

Denny: Then what else is there?

Alan: Indeed "

So. Are you fun ?

Sub-conscious Racism

Read about the recent criminal judgment on incest in which the father was punished with 30+ years in jail for having sex with his own biological daughters and causing a few of them to be pregnant. More ridiculously, it was done with the “blessing” of their biological mother. Apparently the accused re-interpreted his religion to justify his actions.

What really pisses me off, besides the crime itself, is that when one talk about incest cases here is that most people would associate it as a problem particular to the one race because most of the cases reported in the news came from them. WTF.

I do not understand why any person would think that incest does not happen in their own race. As a matter of fact, I am actually more worried about my own race and the other remaining races because none of them had reported any such cases in their own community, or at least bringing suspected cases to the authorities. There could be already many such cases that are not brought up where the victims are still suffering silently or had already grew up with such traumatic experiences. Only the ignorant and the self-deluded would think that "no reported case = no such case".

It is ridiculous to think that any race is immune or more / less prone to any social problems.

It is perhaps a sub-conscious mental mechanism that naturally occurs in most of us. Like what the Germans experienced during the Hitler's reign that triggered the 2nd world war starting with their prosecutions against the Jew.

Or maybe its just a problem of the Ego. No one likes feel like a loser by being associated to problems. Hence the innate reaction to put others down, thereby implicitly/unconsciously implying their own superiority, to make oneself feel better.

Such insecurities in our human race.

American Beauty (Fifth viewing)

Watched American Beauty for the 5th time on Saturday. Besides the part on the twirling plastic bag, these two quotes/dialogues from the movie seems to resonate to me.

"Ricky: Have you ever known anybody who died?
Jane: No. Have you?
Ricky: No, but I did see this homeless woman who froze to death once. Just laying there on the sidewalk. She looked really sad. I got that homeless woman on video.
Jane: Why would you film that?
Ricky: Because it was amazing.
Jane: What was amazing about it?
Ricky: When you see something like that, it's like God is looking right at you, just for a second. And if you're careful, you can look right back.
Jane: And what do you see?
Ricky: Beauty. "

"Lester: I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me ? but it's hard to say mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst. and then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupd little life. You have no idea what I am talking about, I'm sure. But don't worry. You will someday. "

A Lesson from Fairytales 3

The Stone Soup

A wanderer who pulls a magical soup stone out of his pack and shows it to the astonished villagers. Asked to demonstrate it, he has an onlooker fetch a cauldron, into which he places the stone, with appropriate ceremonyand gestures. Now, he requisitions a bunch of carrots and several large onions fromthe village storehouse.

Eager volunteers contribute beans, scraps of meat, and various spices, all of which goes into the pot. Two strapping young peasants fill the pot withwater from the nearby well and hang it over the communal hearth.

The water begins to bubble, and soon a tantalizing aroma fills the air.

The wanderer sniffs at the soup,tastes it, then nods sagely. He reaches in with a ladle, removes the stone, and returns it to his pack after letting it cool.

The grateful villagers fill a large wooden bowl with thedelicious soup for him, and he eats until his belly can hold no more. His hunger satisfied, he departs, leaving behind him a wondrous tale of a magical stone that conjures up the best soup that anyone can remember.

A Lesson from Fairytales 2

The Lion and the Crane

When a lion was eating some meat, a bone stuck in his throat. The throat became swollen, he could not take food, and in consequence he suffered terribly.

A crane that was perched on a tree looking for food, saw him suffering like that and asked, "What is the matter?"

The lion told him.

"I could free you from that bone, but I don't dare to enter your mouth for fear you might eat me."

"Don't be afraid. I will not eat you; only save my life."

"Very well," said the crane, and made the lion lie down on his left side.

But the crane thought to himself, "Who knows what this fellow will do?" and placed a small stick upright between the two lion jaws so that the lion could not close his mouth. Then the crane put his head inside the lion's mouth and struck one end of the bone with his beak. The bone dropped and fell out. As soon as he had made the bone fall, he got out of the lion's mouth, striking the stick with his beak so that it fell out, and then settled on a branch.

The lion got well, and one day was eating a buffalo he had killed. The crane, thinking 'I will speak with him," settled on a branch just over him, and said:
I have done a great service to youTo the best of my ability.What return shall I get from you?

The lion answered:
As I feed on blood,And always hunt for prey,It is much that you are still alive today.

The crane slowly understood: "This lion does not much good. He is not doing as he would be done by either. There is no gratitude in him, and to serve him seems useless. His friendship is not won by the clearest good deed. Better softly withdraw from him." And then the crane flew away.

Lesson learnt : A trapped Lion that is still a lion.

In my case, A fat smiling fox is still a fox.

A Lesson from Fairytales 1

One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree.

"Which road do I take?" she asked.

"Where do you want to go?" was his response.

"I don't know," Alice answered.

"Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."

April's monthly gathering

Organized my monthly gathering again this Wednesday.

Attendees : Ter, lips, Hon, DY, Dan, Cam, joceline and Anna (joceline & lips s’ friends)

Ate dinner at NYDC before settling down at Ice Cold Beer.

Darren asked me to be part of his Brothers for his traditional wedding on the next Fifth. Accepted it gladly. Now have to take leave for that day. Oh yeah, his honeymoon will be in Korea. And also, he will be changing his job scope to Accounts Manager which is commission-based. Look like he’s on a roll man.

Ter found a new job few weeks ago with his friend as a sales executive. Apparently his friend are involved with a lot of different and varied products. He just got himself a min-cooper last week. Definite a babe magnet, he says. Hmm…

Lips came back permanently last week. Now is either rotting at home or playing mahjong while waiting for May’s windfall to fuel his expenditure in the coming months. Now looking for employment, with his primary target aiming at NIE.

Cam and Hon are still busy with their jobs as normal. Oh yeah Dan is still stressed with his bank job but seems to be doing well.

Joc, who has lasted 1 year with Far East, is traveling to Taiwan over the weekend to meet Albert for their 甜蜜蜜时光。

Wanted to drag KS and Bob down. But one is studying and the other tutoring salsa to her performance mate.

Oh. JM has to look after his Princess.

On the surface, looks like I’m the one in the worst shape among them. Hahaha…

In a nutshell, what I have arrived at these days, after considering the above, can be easily summarized as

“ 这个世界越夸张就更要笑得更大声。”

Return of the money-burning machine

Stole some time from work to retrieve my vehicle in the evening. And it rained like no-body business again. Think the rainy session came early this half of the year.

Spent a total of 1.2K so far. Going to do the paint job over the other side of the bridge. Think i'll go for bright bloody red. The original dark paint looks too.... dark and lifeless. Not sure if its too expensive to do a full paint to the body.











Going to drive it around for a few days before going back to the garage to fine-tune the repairs, which is a lot... sianz...

1) when moving, there is a continuous knocking sound
2) the steering wheel is not straight
3) the gear box indicator doesn't shown the correct gear being engaged
4) Headlights are flickering and look brownish
5) The CD player is spoilt...

eh... let see if i can find out more problems by Friday before i send it back.

Also dunno i find the enough cash to last through the month...

Oh well...

Busy

Doing tendering for the other 4 stations this few weeks. Getting busy again. Managed to shake off some unrelated work duties. But still busy with calling people and preparing documents.

Conversely, I’m hanging out more with Ter these days? Guess i'm getting bored with my normal routine. A bit of external input should do me some good.

Maybe.

There is a Taoist story of an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. "Such bad luck," they said sympathetically. "May be," the farmer replied. The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. "How wonderful," the neighbors exclaimed. "May be," replied the old man. The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune. "May be," answered the farmer. The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son's leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out. "May be," said the farmer.

So... am i lucky this time round? Maybe.

April's Fool.