Equatorial Musings

I know I'm showing my age when I talk about Indiana Jones (or Indy as his friends call him) but believe me you that he's one of the most successful celluloid heroes to come out of tinsel town . I watched his movies while growing up and he has never failed to deliver the right mix of action, fun, humour and even a dash of romance. What is interesting about Indy is that he's both a romantic and a cynic, which I suspect most of us are too. Its okay if we hover between the 2 extremes. The risk is that we may become so cynical that we no longer dare to take the plunge. In a way, we should try to be like Indy. Despite being betrayed and shot at by so-called friends, he has never failed to trust again. In fact, I sometimes wonder if he's a tad naive. How can anyone be in his position, i.e., stranded in some strange land or caught up in some heinous conspiracy, trust anyone so easily. And we're not talking about beautiful ladies only, which I suppose you could excuse him s...

When I was younger, I was extreme in my likes and dislikes. For example, I absolutely eschewed korean dramas and I thought followers of such dramas downright pathetic. Not that I had the moral high ground to feel this way because I used to and still watch the occasional hong kong serials. Some months back, I chanced upon KBS World on cable channel 173. It was 11 plus at night and I had trouble sleeping, so I was channel surfing. A pretty korean lady caught my attention and I continued watching the show as the plot unfolded. It turned out to be a romantic comedy called 'The Little Bride". It has an interesting premise - the grand patriarchs of 2 traditional families arranged a marriage between their grandson and granddaughter. The grandson was a good 10 years older, but the 2 families soon lost touch because the girl's father had to flee his debtors. Anyway, almost 2 decades later, the boy is a grown man of 28 years and he is now a public prosecutor. And the girl is ...

Like most people, I've had my share of good friends from school and from work. When I was younger, they tended to be more guys than gals. In fact, my best friends in secondary school were 2 guys; one was my fellow classmate Chee Peng while the other was his friend in another class. We spent a fair bit of time, including getting our monthly hair cut, together. After secondary school, we parted ways and headed off to different paths. The guy from the other class attended the same JC as I and we touched base intermittently, but I lost touch with Chee Peng . The fact that he was the bridge between the other guy and I meant that we also didn't talk much thereafter. I saw him once in a while in uni but nothing more than the obligatory "hi" transpired between us. In JC , my good guy friends were Adrian and David. Adrian was your typical ACS boy and we all know what mischief these boys can get up to. Of course, they are also charming and suave, as Cheryl my friend from w...

Early last month, I shifted out of my 3-bedroom condo in the east to stay in my brother's jumbo flat in the north for a couple of months. [I had sold my place and am now waiting to buy another apartment when the property market's softer next year.] Although its a jumbo flat, I only have a room as compared to having the whole apartment to myself in the past. This aside, I've to get used to living with my parents, my brother and sister-in-law and my niece and nephew. To say its a big change is an understatement. While I wasn't quite the hermit before the shift, I had gotten used to having a lot of time and space on my own. And the funny thing is being alone doesn't always mean you're lonely. But you can be lonely even if you're surrounded by people, which is how I feel sometimes. In addition, I've to get used to living in the north, which is not glamourous by any stretch. But it has its charms, such as the neighbourhood centre with all sorts of knick kna...

Wikipedia defines a spectator sport as one characterised by the presence of spectators, or watchers, at its matches. Such sports include cricket, basketball, football, ice hockey etc. I remember reading one of Umberto Eco's articles which likened spectator sports to a kind of voyeurism. I know that I might incur the ire of some of my friends, but I think Eco is right to some extent. Voyeurism is about deriving pleasure in watching others engage in intimate behaviours. This is not unlike a spectator sport where excitement and exhilaration come from watching the players exert themselves, albeit in a non-sexual way. The difference is that the participants are unaware in the first instance while they are very much in the know in the latter case. But here the difference ends. In both cases, pleasure is derived from watching the participants and without the spectators engaging in the act itself.

Since getting a car in early 2005, I've had limited contact with public tranport . Oh, all right, more like no contact because I don't even own an ezylink card. But that changed recently when my car broke down and I had to take the train for 3 days. I must say it was fun riding the train, and not just because its been a while since I last commuted this way. Novelty aside, it gave me time to read moving from point a to point b. I realise how I was able to read much more in the past. The ample time spent travelling allowed me to go through more books than I can now. Not that I'm making excuses for my less-than-decent contributions to a book review blog recently, but you can chalk up many books on a 1-hour ride to and from work each day. By the way, I'll have you know that I was among the top students who read a lot during my primary school days ; ) In addition to reading, there's also people-watching. I'm always amazed by the behaviour of people on public transpo...

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

When I came to work yesterday, I had the most pleasant of surprises. The people in my branch had taken the trouble to clean up and decorate my cubicle. The former cos I tend to be a bit untidy. The latter cos my birthday's coming. Given that they had stayed behind after work on Thursday evening to get everything done, I was touched to say the least. What they did was to play on my name Don and decorated my cubicle into a sushi place selling all types of don, which of course is rice in Japanese. There was also a trail of paper cockroaches being attracted to my cubicle in view of the 'food' on my table and the wall immediately behind my chair. I had a good laugh and some of the other colleagues joined in the fun too. I must say I really appreciate the time and effort they took to give me the surprise. For lunch, my people, a friend from another branch and I went to Lot1. No prize for guessing what we ate - sushi of course. But we passed on the mini dons promotion ; ) After t...

Last evening was the first time I tried my hands at baking, along with 5 other friends from the office. At the end of 3-plus hours, we made 2 desserts. I used the word 'made' cos one of my friends, Wei Ching , pointed out you don't technically bake tiramisu . Touche. Anyway, the other dessert was mixed berries oats crumble, which entailed baking. The verdict - it was really fun, even though the 6 of us were split into 3 tables cos we arrived a tad late. Jason, June and Siok Ling were at one table, Cheryl and I another while Mei Ling kindly volunteered to join a third. What made it fun was the fact that the instructor was a nice man with lots of patience. He went through the recipes with us and completed some of the more time-consuming processes (like making whip cream and boiling syrup water etc). During the making of the crumble, we were supposed to add in the eggs one after another into the mixer, but one of the groups did it a bit too fast and with hilarious results. ...

This is turning out to be a year of many firsts. In Jan, I started a blog after toying with the idea for years. Then, I bought a digital SLR, again after many years of thinking about it. Now, I'll be trying my hands at baking. Come this Friday, I'll be making tiramisu , among other delectable desserts. It's one of the many welfare events that my company organises and I was inspired to go for it after seeing the email. I also promptly roped in my colleagues, who may have obliged because I also happened to be their boss. But I'd like to think they also look forward to learning how to bake too, and perhaps not to the same extent, spending some quality time with me - ha ha . I must say I'm looking forward to learning how to bake. I've always been amazed by how chefs can whip up the most dazzling and delicious dessert. I'm sure its both an art and a science. An art because it takes an artiste to create new recipes and present their creations in a way that is both...

For some reasons, I've always liked Einstein. But then who doesn't. Although a genius, he was not one to take himself seriously. One only needs to look at the way he styled his hair to know he had a great sense of humour. And he wasn't just smart too. He was wise beyond his time. And there's a difference between the two. Smarts may give you a good living, but its wisdom that makes a life. If you don't believe that Einstein's wise, check out his quotes . I especially like his quote on insanity, which is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. You'd think that this should be obvious to all of us. Yet, if you look around, you'll realise that things are quite the contrary. In fact, we ourselves are often to blame for this. We wonder why we're stuck in life when we keep doing the same things day in day out. To move ahead or out of the place that we're in, we need to change. And it starts with our mind before we can p...

Bibliophiles of the world, unite! I've always wanted to do that, so please indulge me. Anyway, for the uninitiated, I was borrowing a phrase from the Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels. It just seemed fitting to do so since the manifesto, like a book, comes under the category of reading material, and bibliophiles just love to read. But of course, this manifesto had an immense impact on human history, as it was the ideological undergird of every communist wannabe state from Cuba to China, not to mention Russia of the iron curtain era. Anyway, this excuse of a blog entry is about books. I've always loved books, and not just for their ability to transport you to seemingly parallel universes or to another world that you'll never know if not for our glorious writers. I'm also very much taken by how a new book smells, how it feels to the touch and how it promises to deliver a good read. There's so much anticipation wrapped up between the covers of a book, and I suspe...

For those into philosophy, "Heraclitus" should be a familiar name to most. After all, he's probably one of the first to say that character is fate. But I first came upon this notion during my junior college days. As part of my class' English Literature syllabus, we had read Thomas Hardy's "The Mayor of Casterbridge ". And of course we debated at length if Henchard's character caused his rise and downfall. For a long time, I've always thought that we were destined for greatness or ignominy based on our character, and there was nothing we could do about it. I'm talking about those of us who aren't born great and who aren't likely to have greatness thrust upon us. But I was wrong, and I suspect I'm not the only one. Of course our life is an outcome of the choices we make. And our choices are grounded in our character. But we're not victims of our character because we can decide to change our character, and this is what differen...

A sky shot I took from my yard while doing my laundry. I must say it turned out quite decent ; )

When I was younger, I believed wholeheartedly that love is rooted in one's emotions. If your heart flutters when you see someone you like, then it must be love. Or if you sleep with someone and experienced sexual highs, then it must be love. But I'm afraid they're nothing more than just lust in action. And of course, there's no such thing as love at first sight. Lust definitely, but not love. When people fall in love based on their emotions alone, they basically choose to react to their instincts. And when this happens, they come close to acting like an animal. An animal, as we all know, reacts only to instincts, such as to preserve, protect, feed, propagate itself etc. Love, on the other hand, is rooted in one's will, i.e., you choose to love after finding out more about the person. It's usually accompanied by emotions but love is very much a conscious decision. And once you've decided to love someone, you then cement it by a commitment to that aforesaid pe...

As one of my weekly must-dos, I had dinner at my brother's place last Thursday. After dinner, we settled down to watch tv and do some light catching up. My nephew, whose name is Yong Jie , decided that this was the night he would push the envelope of acceptable behaviour. He started with asking to play the PSP , which his mom and dad both said no to. He then offered to teach me how to play the racing game on it, which was his favourite, in case I was dextrously -challenged. Of course, his parents saw through the ruse immediately and my brother in particular told Yong Jie in no uncertain terms to behave. But my nephew chose to up the ante and tried to manja his mom, in an attempt to play one parent against the other. That got on the nerves of my brother, who promptly gave his dear old son a few whips of the cane. Of course, my nephew threw a fit and started crying, which only earned him more caning. It's not easy to see a kid being caned, much less your own nephew. While I do...

These are some of my recent flora/fauna shots. Of course, they were processed with an image software to bring out the colours more vibrantly ; )

I just caught another re-run of 'Saving Private Ryan' on HBO. I first watched it in 1998, which was when it came out, after my second relationship ended. I watched it again with my wife during our honeymoon in the Maldives in Nov 2004. To say this movie holds a special place in my heart is therefore a gross understatement. I've since seen it countless other times and it never fails to deliver. There are many seminal moments in the movie. One had Tom Hanks' character, CPT John H Miller, diffusing a potentially explosive situation among his subordinates by telling them his job back home. Apparently, the soldiers had been betting on what his profession was. And of course who can forget the intense 20-plus-minute opening which depicted the Omaha beachhead assault during the D-day invasion of Normandy . But to me, the key moment was when Miller lies dying on the bridge, just after they had thwarted the Germans' advance. He pulled Ryan to him and told him to "earn t...

As you know, I recently acquired a 2 nd -hand camera; a Canon EOS 300D. But by some happenstance, I chanced upon something about my camera. Apparently, it shares the same platform and almost the same CMOS (or Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor - which is used in microprocessors , static RAM , and other digital logic circuits) as its bigger and costlier brother; the EOS 10D. Because of this, it's possible to install unofficial firmware modifications (or hacks) to enable some of the features on the 10D that were disabled in the 300D. They include allowing a higher ISO setting, flash exposure control, mirror lockup, single-shot auto focus and and a host of other custom functionalities. Given that the 10D used to cost more than twice the 300D, I was of course anxious to check with the previous owner if his camera was "juiced" up. To my delight, the answer was a resounding 'yes'. Not that I've mastered the basic functions of the 300D, but knowing that my...

I've been in HR since 2001. While there have been many ups and downs, I must say I still enjoy my job. Especially my current portfolio which allows me to participate in more strategic-level thinking and doing. As part of my on-going education, and I do believe one is never done learning, I try to suss out new ideas and trends from the web that may be useful to my work, or for that matter, my life. Recently, I came across a blog by 2 HR consultants; Frank Roche and Sarah Chambers, called Know HR . While there're many websites and blogs about HR, this one stands out for its straight-talking style. The authors make it very clear they don't like HR jargon, unless they're making fun of it ; ) But they're not cynical have-beens in the HR profession. Rather, they really believe that people want to do a good job and that there are ways to motivate them, but communication is key. I especially like their recent post about the way to interview someone. Basically, you should ta...

Here's a pic of a Bali-themed unit at the condo across from my place. I think it looks quite fetching and I wouldn't mind staying there ; ) I'm also playing around with night shots. This one is taken at a high ISO setting to compensate for low light without using the flash, but its grainy. Apparently, upping the ISO results in such 'noise'. By the way, ISO stands for International Standard Organisation - go figure. For more pics, please see my picasa album: Random Pics

Here are some shots I took of my nephew and niece. I think they're not great but they're better than those taken by a digicam ; )

After talking about it for so many years, I finally bought a dslr camera. Mind you, its a second-hand one but I thought I had better try it out before plonking in serious dole on a really high-tech one. (If you want to know, I got the Canon EOS 300D, which is 3-4 years old and can deliver only up to 6.3 mega pixels of picture quality.) For the uninitiated, dslr stands for digital single lens reflex. The main difference between a dslr camera and a digicam is that you compose your shots through the viewfinder and not the LCD display. The image that you see is directed from the lens by a mirror upwards to the viewfinder. This means that you see more details of your shots and you don't have to worry about the glare on your LCD. Of course, a dslr camera also gives you more creative control as you can adjust the shutter speed, aperture value etc. If you're just gonna leave your dslr on automatic mode, you're better off with a digicam . Ever since I was initiated into the ...

Not too long ago, I was musing to myself that I needed to tweak some of my resolutions for the year. I've never been one to list down the things I should do at the start of each year. But I did so during this Chinese New Year ( CNY ) as the urge finally came upon me. I had asked 'to have the wisdom to change when the time has come for me to do so'. I've not talked about this before, but I also added specific things I wanted to do this year subsequently; like serving in church, running the marathon, among others. So far, I've served in my church and started a blog ( I count this as one of my resolutions even though it was started before CNY), so that leaves running the marathon and a few other small resolutions. Given that I'm still reeling from the toe incident, I think I should try for the half-marathon instead. At least, I can still say I've achieved half of this resolution - ha ha. I can imagine my friends thinking that this is more lame than I was when I...

In the last 1-2 years, which was the most traumatic period of my life, I've realised that there are only 2 important things in life. If you get them right, then you should be fine. If not, then there's a good chance that things will not be hunky dory. Essentially, you must have a faith that guides you and you must be careful who you marry or befriend. In this world that we live in, we are constantly bombarded by all sorts of rubbish. They're downloaded into us by what we read, what we see and what we listen to. Unless you've a moral compass, or better still a spiritual anchor, you're likely to have everybody else dump trash in your mind without you even knowing it. By trash, I mean all the self-centred, consumer-based and hedonistic nonsense that masquerades as the essentials of a good life. Basically, their bottom line is that things will make you happy and fulfilled. But trust me, things will never be able to do that. They merely fill a void that hungers for more...

Due to human stupidity, I recently injured my left fourth toe. Alright, it almost came off because my left foot was caught in the kitchen door. Based on the responses I've been getting, it seems that people are baffled as to how a grown man like me could've put his toe in such peril, not to mention getting it caught in the door in the first place. I'm sure they must've thought that such acidents happened only to kids. Even teenagers should be free from such everyday threats to life and limb. Obviously, a more detailed explanation is in order - it doesn't pay to be modest when people already think you're stupid. So for those of you who haven't been to my house, the living room is elevated vis -a- vis the kitchen and the kitchen door closes in towards the living room. So I was standing between the 2 areas, and my left foot was perched with my toes dangling from the living room towards the kitchen. When the kitchen door closed on my foot, it was wedged against...

When I was in university, I majored in history and economics. But it is history that has always been my first love, which was why I opted to do a fourth year in the discipline. And truth be told, it was the best year of my tertiary education, what with attending seminars and writing an academic exercise, not to mention the mischiefs that honours students get up to. For some of my friends and many of my relatives, they never understood my fascination with history. To them. the past is passe and should stay that way - there's no value in studying what had transpired in the corridors of time. But I must respectfully object because history is more than a collection of facts about the past. In many instances, facts have nothing to do with history. History is what the victors made it out to be. (You don't see the vanquished writing history, do you?) Very often, this is to justify their victory and legitimise their subsequent rule. Even when facts are involved, there can be different...

As you already know, I do quite a fair bit of reading. The books I read range from non-fiction to serious scientific stuff. I started reading the latter genre during my national service days. And the first book I read was Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time". It was an intriguing book, partly because I understood so little of it and partly because it talked about time travel. I'm sure we've all thought about going back and forth in time. There must have been something that we did or said or did not do or say that we'd have preferred to do the reverse then. (Of course I wouldn't mind going back in time to catch myself slamming the door against my toe ... sigh.) But once done or said, whether in the positive or negative, there's no turning back the clock for their effects will ripple through time into the future. While to err may be human, not to err is definitely more divine than having forgiveness after one has erred. For not everything can be f...

Has it ever occur to you that we don't exercise the choice to be happy very often? How we feel tends to be a function of our circumstances. If we're going through good times, we feel happy. If not, then the reverse is true. But we do see those who're happy despite going through adversities. And unless they're crazy or delirious, then they must have decided to feel happy. How do they do it? From what I can see, the answer runs the gamut from giving in to fighting on. Either way, the consequence is they're happy or at least happier than before. For those who throw in the towel, they no longer feel the need to fight their situation. There's a calmness that comes from not caring and being bothered anymore. They know that worrying will not solve anything. But instead of focusing on what needs to be done, they simply throw up their hands and quit. For others who refuse to bow to their circumstances, they have a conviction that their situation is transient. That what t...

When I was growing up, I developed a predilection for quotes, especially those of the humourous persuasion. I especially liked Mark Twain's quotes. They're funny but with grains of truth littered throughout them. For example, he once remarked that "all you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure". Besides Twain, I've encountered countless other writers with witty quotes and one of them pertained to human stupidity. Essentially, it warned that we should never underestimate human stupidity because it'll always better itself. And this has been true throughout my life in the things I've witnessed people say and do. But last night, while having dinner at home, I paid personal homage to the abovementioned quote. I was leaving the kitchen and heading back to the living room when I realised that I forgot my condiments. (How can you have pasta without some salt and pepper - it just won't do.) The problem was I was closing the do...

Words are containers of power. They can build up a person or tear him down, and thereby move him along the right or wrong path. They can galvanise people into constructive or destructive action, and consequently shape the course of history. One only needs to recall JFK's speech where he exhorted the American people to ask not what their country can do for them, but what they can do for their country and Hitler's speech about Lebensraum (living space) for Germans which precipitated WWII and caused the death of millions. The right words spoken at the right time can escalate or defuse a situation, and skew the course of events at the personal, national or international level. On a personal level, the words we speak come from our hearts and define our existence. For a pessimistic person who expects things to turn out badly, he's likely to spout gloom and doom, and this is how his life will unfold. For an optimist who looks forward to favourable outcomes, he's likely to look...

I'm always amazed at how many things we think of to occupy the spaces in our lives. I'd have thought that since we live hectic lives, we'd appreciate having time to ourselves. But strangely enough, this is not the case. As if it's not enough to be busy at work, we need also to be busy outside of work. We pack things into our lives so that we can boost of living fruitfully and productively. But how about spending time with ourselves? Listening to our thoughts and getting in touch with our feelings. I'm not talking about being a new age sensitive person. That, I think, is just being oversensitive and no one likes a naggy and petty person. I'm referring to knowing ourselves so that we're aware of what makes us tick, what makes us happy and contented and what makes us who we are. Very often, we go through life assimilating the wants and desires of other people (our parents, friends and society at large). We end up being one of the masses with no unique personali...

Lately, my life seems to be defined by words starting with the letter 'R'. In fact, there are 3 words to be exact. Besides reading, all I seem to do in between is running and reminiscing. Of course, there's work but I'm talking about what I do after work and on weekends in case my bosses get the wrong idea ; ) Reading is something which I've always loved. Books have an ability to transport you to seemingly parallel universes or to another world that you'll never know of, if not for our glorious writers. I'm very much taken by how a new book smells, how it feels to the touch and how it promises to deliver a good read. There's so much anticipation wrapped up between the covers of a book, and I suspect an equal amount of disappointment for those who are eventually let down. But I believe that those gems of a read that come one's way make up for the other not-so-good ones that you've to go through in the process. Or perhaps we should be less critical...

For those who know me well, I can come across as a foodie. This is because I really like my food and I'm prepared to drive to out-of-the-way places to try out new finds. I also heartily share with them good makan places whose cuisine I've savoured or delectable eateries I've stumbled upon. Most of my friends appreciate how I go ga ga over good food, but one went to the extent of labelling me an epicurean. Trust me, I did a double take too when she called me that. An epicurean is someone who's fond of luxury or indulgence in sensual pleasures, especially in eating and drinking. You can imagine my indignation because I merely wanted to avoid wasting calories on yucky food. When it comes to people who love their food, the question inevitably arises as to whether they live to eat. Or should it be a case that we eat to live. The former seeks to indulge the physical and physiological, with no regard for the higher purpose of living. One only needs to think of Socrates' ax...

The dictionary explains serendipity as an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident or good fortune. For me, I can't say I've not had my share of good fortunes. But some of these turned out to be bad from hindsight, so I'm inclined to wager that most people wouldn't say they live serendipitous lives. For others, its a case of simply not recognising such moments and missing out on simple gestures of kindness that God or Lady Luck, depending on your religious persuasion, chooses to dispense to them. Don't get me wrong, this is not an attempt at promoting my jadedness. I'm simply trying to extrapolate my personel experiences and those of my friends' to arrive at a fact of life. I won't even say its a truth for that's another matter altogether and which is eternal regardless of our circumstances. Anyway, I always joked about squandering my quota of luck during my childhood years to my friends. When I was a kid, I had the uncanny ability to co...

Starting a blog has always been my one of my many resolutions, but there's something masochistic about laying bare one's inner thoughts and emotions. This is why this blog took such a long time to gestate, although some would attribute it to good-old-fashioned procrastination. Truth be told, I've always known that I would've a blog - it was just a matter of time. But there's been so many false starts that it felt for a while that this was not meant to be. Now that I'm going to write down my thoughts, I feel obliged to say why I started this blog. For as long as I can remember, I've always loved the written and spoken word. I'm amazed at how words can evoke the most loving or terrifying response, and how it controls our lives more than we care to admit. Words are vessels of power that can build up or destroy one's lives. They are the medium through which our thoughts and feelings impact those around us, be it good or bad. They can galvanise people to ...