Update

Life has been busy these few weeks. Besides homework, I've also been busy with Beauty World, applications, midterms etc. etc. So far so good, satisfied with the effort I'm putting in thus far, and the amount of gaming I'm doing:).

Computer has been acting strange, with overheating problems going off now and then. I'm currently in one of my anti-social moods recently, so forgive me if I don't stop to say hi. Still trying to be as sociable as I can be though.

Car wise, settled for $900. I expected half, around $1200, but I guess $900 is more than reasonable, given the company's stand. I guess, in a way, the $1400 repair job for the car is reasonable, considering I will sell the car for around $3k in 3 years time?

Hope family is doing well. CNY was fun. I guess being antisocial just prevented me from really celebrating this year.

Have fun. Cheerios

lip
ranting

Modern Love: Eros VS Agape.

Pope gives views on modern love

Pope Benedict XVI has published his first encyclical, or letter to the whole Catholic Church, devoted to the meaning of love and charity.

In Deus Caritas Est, or "God is Love", he says physical love must be redefined by Christian faith and attacks modern obsessions with the "commodity" of sex.

Recent associations of God with "hatred and violence" make Christian love "timely and significant", he writes.

The encyclical has been published in seven key languages, including Latin.

In Italy, one million copies will be distributed within the upcoming issue of the country's most popular Catholic magazine.

'Debasement'

Written in Pope Benedict's native German, the publication is thought to have been delayed by translation problems.


Eros, reduced to pure 'sex', has become a commodity, a mere 'thing' to be bought and sold, or rather, man himself becomes a commodity
Pope Benedict XVI

In the encyclical, the Pope stresses the importance of charity, which he describes as an intrinsic part of Nature: "An indispensable expression of her very being".

He is critical of modern interpretations of Eros, or physical love, while conceding that it has always played a part in human existence.

With Eros reduced to pure "sex", the Pope writes, physical love has become a commodity to be bought and sold. Man himself has become a commodity, he adds.

"This is hardly man's great 'yes' to the body... Here we are actually dealing with a debasement of the human body."

Papal proclamations are often taken as a sign of the possible direction of the Roman Catholic Church.

Theologians are expected to scrutinise Pope Benedict's first encyclical for any hints at how the former head of Catholic doctrine will lead his flock.

Love and charity

Pope Benedict, who succeeded Pope John Paul II last year, has recently been dropping hints about his new teaching document.

Last week he told pilgrims that the "gift" of love between man and woman could develop over time into an unconditional love of Jesus, or "agape". Agape is a Greek word used to describe the unconditional, selfless love taught by Jesus.

The full text of his encyclical elaborates on the distinction between erotic love and God's love for all of mankind.

He also explains how love means Christian charity - giving to those in need, particularly in the developing world, says the BBC's David Willey in Rome.

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I guess after a few years out of church, I don't fully support his arguments, but I also concede that it makes sense in a world full of STDs and HIV. I mean, how can you trust a man's word on sex when he has never had sex before? Compared to Rousseau, who views it as a basic need of Man, i find views on sex has always been convoluted and also, hard to discuss.

Agape is definitely what we need in this world today, Selfless love. Or if we discourse to Rousseau's "Origin of Human Inequality", Pity would be a more apt word to describe. For we will try to help others in a Lockien conception of altruistic man but ultimately, we are destined to preserve ourselves. What good is it to us if we get killed trying to rescue a man drowning in the sea?

lip
ranting

A comment to a post I removed

Boo-fucking-hoo. Be a man, you pansy piece of shit. If some girl's not right for you, she's not right for you. MOVE ON. Get a fuckbuddy. Or whatever it is you're after. Worst you can do is pretend to be a man and then sob like a little girl online, FOR EVERYONE TO SEE. I don't even know who the fuck you are and I think you're a coward, a wuss, probably compensating for diminutive genitalia.

Unlike this anonymous gentleman over here, maybe expression for different people is different and we all have our own outlets. If you don't know me, well, then why are you judging and commenting sarcastically? I think i might just know you, and perhaps we don't agree. But we agree to disagree, and in my book, that's enough.

Cheerz.

lip
ranting

mmmmmmmMONSTERKILL!!!!!

Ah yess... Dota is back. I just got a few games back under my belt. Beginning to throw away the suckiness. I think I am quite good at it:). Managed a 22-6 game with Chaos Knight, and another 4-7 game with Clinkz. (grrr, KS all the way). Also had a few good ward traps with Shadow Shaman. i.e. Blink Dagger, Turn enemy to Chicken, put wards around him. Shackle another enemy. DOUBLE KILL!.

Yeah I rock at Dota.

On another note, Must start to study soon. Math Midterm next wed, Paper due on Tues, and I don't think I'll ever get started on the homework till like it's ALMOST due. Feeling superbly lazy, engine hasn't charged up yet. And Beauty World rehearsals are a PITA. Dammit.

Good to hear you are in Sweden nice and safe Shar, hehe. Will visit you come June. I'll be going to Germany for internship and world cup, then flying back to Chicago straight! No ermm... Holiday in SG for me. Maybe should stop by Hong Kong too. See how it goes la.

Sigh. So many decisions, so many distactions from work. And Spring Break is coming up. Don't really feel like studying liao. WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME!!???

MMMMMONSTERKILL!

Ok, back to Reality. And i've class in 10 mites. Ciao.


lip
ranting

S papers and Education System

I was just going to rant on the education system in Singapore, where the elite route is pretty much top 5 sec school/top 3 JC/S papers/Scholarship/Overseas University.

Sis has been down lately because of S papers. Well, it is important for a scholarship, but now, do you really want a scholarship? Being an IES scholar studying in Uchicago, I can weigh the pros and cons of a scholarship with some expertise.

Definitely, the best thing about a scholarship is the money and the job. People like me who do not have enough cash to study abroad aim for a scholarship, mainly to fulfil a dream and the "elite" path of studying at a elite overseas university. Nevermind it's not Harvard or Stanford; University of so-and-so is being branded as a "good undergraduate business school" or "the conversative school of economics" etc etc. As long as a Singaporean gets a scholarship, and the chance to study abroad, he is made.

Or is he? Along this path lies many cons as well. Namely, the decision we have to make at age 18 to decide our career path for the next 10 years or so. Or even our interests. Who are we to say that I like economics after just 2 years of exposure in a JC? Furthermore, the education system in JC is such that we aim not for the knowledge of a subject, as should be the joy of learning, but rather, the fundemental "10-year series" answers that would guarantee us success at the National Examinations.

Scholars are just paying for our education with our future earnings. I might love investment banking, the pay, the perks, the hectic and stressful high powered lifestyle, but I'm not given an opportunity to intern at an I-bank, simply because I have other summer commitments to a contract I signed. Sometimes, I envy my friends who have not a scholarship, but came on their own accord (because they are rich enough) and have the freedom to explore their interests. But then , the grass is always greener right?

Ultimately, it is not about the money, or about the studying, or about society's viewpoints of whether you made it or not. The busker who is performing at the MRT station garners as much respect from me as the investment banker who enjoys his job, mainly because he does it with a passion. I love music. I would love to work in theatre, compositions, performing, teaching. But I do that on the side. And having a passion for something that you do is important, because if you cannot live up to societal standards, you need to live up to you own standards of excellence which YOU set.

Carpe diem Sis.

from your brother,
ranting

Clubbing Pics

Jo!!! Maria!! Shar!! haha. miss Singapore clubbing. And all the fun times we had dudes. Clarence and Jared haha. Damn, I realise I haven't been clubbing much in Singapore. Time to cut down the alcohol. Back to school zzzz...

What happens in a club stays in a club.

The mantra for clubbing has always been "What happens in a club stays in a club". Everything goes, as long as when you wake up in the morning, you can live with yourself and what you have done. I mean, there's a reason it's called CLUBBING. and if you can't take the fact that at a club: PEOPLE DANCE. and people drink, well, so sorry to you.

I've always clubbed with friends. I dance with friends. My interaction with other girls at a club (termed picking up girls by the general population) is limited to at most buying a drink for someone at the bar, talking or generally just a spot of dancing before returning to my friends. Sorry, I don't do stands, or handstands or whatever kind of other stands the male human body is capable of.

SO it was kinda pissy, when suddenly, I have a huge posse of people judging my actions in a club. Hello? You don't KNOW me. You see me dance with friends. And you judge. Fine, I can accept the fact that people judge all the time. But when a lame reason such as PROTECTIONISM comes in, that's when I get really pissed off, because frankly, who are you to judge and poke your nose into others? Yeah of course, friends will be friends. But perhaps a better time for protectionism may have come when someone else living in close proximity was screwing over your object of protectionism.

I don't like conflict. But when shit happens, it happens. No point running away from shit hitting the fan. It splatters all over. I just don't like it when shit hits the fan without me knowning that someone has thrown the shit.

Enough said. Pictures! later.

lip
ranting

Ms. Rachel Barton Pine

So there's this concert violinist right, http://www.rachelbartonpine.com/ and she was teaching a masterclass. Shani managed to get me the job as an accompanist for the Suzuki children, rather cool.

So after the concert (i messed up a song, mainly cos I didn't know it was that song and it was fiendishly hard), she performed 2 pieces. Damn zai. A Bach piece for single violin with like triple stops and Yankee Doodle, fiendishly hard. Harmonics, semiquavers galore etc...

And then she asked me to accompany her for a song, and I think I did well at the start, but in the middle, I kinda got lost. haha Sight reading sucks, I need to improve it.

Well, we'll see if I can get a permanent position at Hyde Park Suzuki. :)

lip
ranting

Greetings from Chicago

Yup, I'm back in Chicago... has been a hectic few days for me, what with shopping for classes, beauty world, and warcraft 3:).

Right now, I'm waiting for my copy of Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes to be brought back to the dorm by my roommate. Fuck him. I need it NOW! and later, I'm going to purchase a garage for my car, and get the documents from my car to file a complaint to the BBB about the transmission problem in my car.

Meanwhile, Classes... Been good thus far. I forgot a lot of math:), and I don't really like the Hum teacher, because she feeds us too much information instead of us coming up with our own point of view. She likes to lead the discussions, which I feel should not be the case. Maybe I'll shop for another teacher? But the readings are interesting though. Che Guevara's Motorcycle Diaries. Wow.

And it's about travelling, which I feel I should have an advantage in, having been to many places, whether for studies, backpacking or stuff. Oh well, we'll see.

Meanwhile, shall blog and update soon. I need a resume for my Study Abroad to Cape Town application (perhaps Oaxaca as well), and also Barcelona. Haha. Then I'll need to confirm my fourth class, hopefully, I won't have to take Music 15200. It's BORING. They are like CHORD 4??? WTF.

TTYL later dudes. Updates soon!

lip
ranting

Happy New Year

Just found out a couple of hours ago that I'll be leaving on the 2nd 11:15 pm instead of the 3rd.

And my laptop is overheating. Better after I undervolted it to 1.164V instead of 1.354 default voltage. I now play WC3 at like 85 degrees. Instead of the crazy ass 102 degrees I was getting.

Hopefully, the cold of Chicago will help. If not, looks like I have to get myself a laptop cooler.

So New Year's resolutions? Well, not much. I spent the stroke of New Year driving up Benjamin Sheares Bridge to catch the Esplanade fireworks with my mom in the car. We were just getting home from my cousin's wedding. Congrats Uncle Yong. Huey Bin looks great:) Oh, now it's auntie.

anyway, the pressure is on! Haha. I'm the eldest male grandchild of my generation. Hmmmm... Well, let's see what kind of pressure I will get in like 10 years time. Haha. now still young.

Happy New Year. Bon Voyage all. Will miss you guys back in SG!

lip
ranting