Sunday, March 30, 2008

The eraser thing

I remember in my younger days in school, I used to get so very annoyed whenever someone came up and asked, "Can I borrow your eraser/pencil/ruler" WHILE taking it from my pencil case. Many a times they'd argue that they've already asked permission.

I often ended up neither giving them an outright 'yes' or 'no' to borrow the goods in question, but telling them that when you ask a question, it doesn't mean you get a consent. It was a matter of principle. It was definitely not that I didn't want to share, but because they couldn't just wait another second for the reply.

I often made a racket about these things and some teachers have told me I was the one in the wrong, and I should just share in the first place. (This is how they ground you to get ready for the real world in our sunny little garden city, the uniquely Singaporean way with peace and harmony)

Anyway until recently, I've come to realise what a snotty, shitty little bugger I've been. I used to say that when we ask for permission, be prepared that the answer could go both ways, even if intentions are good. Now, I understand that putting principle into practise is no easy feat.

When we ask for permission and it gets turned down again and again, we feel 'lousy' would be an understatement. We'd feel bothered by it for longer than we realise. We start questioning our efforts, our image, our worth. This 'No' could be the straw to break the camel's back (never really understood the saying, though). Putting yourself in the shoe of the recipient, one would just feel like shit.

Lesson 1: Sometimes principles just don't work in the real world, and going against it might just make our world so much better.

Lesson 2: No matter how small an act may seem to you, it could mean the world to another.

I'll never deny anybody an eraser again.

Posted at 1:08 PM

Saturday, March 29, 2008

A person's a person, no matter how small

Caught Horton today and I thought it was a really clever show.

'People are ponies who eat rainbows and poop butterflies'

Anyhoo, Dr Seuss is a genius.

Posted at 12:20 AM

Friday, March 28, 2008

Musings #001

I was reading a brilliant book by Alan Fletcher on the bus today and came across this page that really made me pause and think.

"At one time, the mind was considered a blank page only written on by experience. Today we favour the seed and soil theory. For example distinguishing colour, line, pattern and shape are innate, but doing anything with them can only be learnt.

The fact is that the mind thinks with ideas not information, so acquiring knowledge is useless unless one learns how to use it. A dictionary may contain all the words but no one can tell a poet which to choose or what to write."

I think this is so true and relevant in today's context.

"Knowledge is the only instrument of production not subject to diminishing returns. Furthermore it increases at a spectacular rate. 90% of all the scientists who ever lived are alive today. In the 500 years since Gutenberg invented printing some thirty million books have been printed; and an equal amount has been published in the last five years.

The quantity of information doubles every eight years. This means by the time a child born today graduates from college, the amount of knowledge in the world will be four times as much, and by the time this child is fifty it will be thirty-two times as great. By then 97% of everything known will be learnt since that child was born. "

I'm not sure what this amounts to. But to me, as we evolve and time goes by, we find out more and more about less and less. We're probably not too for off from the day where we'll know everything about nothing.

Who knows, perhaps one day we might end up processing information in a way so brilliant and sophisticated that we only know and use what is needed. Devoid of unnecessary things that fill the mind, leaving us more room for ideas. Perhaps we might just end up the way we started off; the mind considered a blank page only written on by experience. Then we'll realise all that persuit of knowledge was just a waste of time. But of course we wouldn't really know that now, would we?

Posted at 12:29 AM

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Nonsense

Don't know why I notice these, I just do.

Noticed the brand of the gutter in the little boy's room.

So is it meant to be this?

Or this?

Either way, what were they thinking?

Posted at 11:37 PM

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

How?

So how do they get teflon to stick to the pan?

Posted at 3:02 PM

Pictures from the phone

Some interesting things I found while looking through my phone.

Posted at 1:45 AM

Monday, March 24, 2008

Wouldn't it be nice

I look forward to the day
I can look back on today and laugh.

Posted at 3:23 PM

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Helter Skelter

Other than giving me the gentle reminder than my fitness is slowly rotting away, Sunday's adventure race was pretty fun(and painfully tiring, no pun intended). I actually believed we had a chance of winning. For the first 5 minutes, anyway. We made it back 6 hours later, and you might not understand this, but all I felt like doing was to have a seat. I've also realised that there are so many nooks and crannies around the little red dot that we never knew about. Disturbing.

I'm proud of us. And I suspect we'll be back for more...

Posted at 7:10 PM

Friday, March 14, 2008

I'm not usually very much a fan of American Idol. But this guy, I'm rootin for.

And Paula is still high or something.

Posted at 10:14 PM