礼物论：送心意还是价值？

在大众书局逛时，看见他们又以底价卖出旧书，一桌的书，一律打70%折扣！！

自己走了过去，看一看有没有什么好书可买。也在那儿翻阅那些旧书的是位auntie。看她穿着还有绑在腰前的那小包包，应该是做sales的吧。地上的篮子，都是她选的书籍，有烹饪的，食谱，室内设计，词典，等等。她把大众的员工叫来问，是否能把那一篮的书给扣着，因为她不想当天买下，想改天才买，然后也要求给多一点折扣。

Auntie：这些书，你可以帮我先收着吗？我改天才来买，我不想现在买。

大众：这一篮都是你要的呀？如果你真的是有诚意想买的，我是可以帮你先收着，然后你过几天才来买。有回来买是最好啦。

Auntie：是是，我是真的要这些书的，但是我还没选完，我不想买一点一点，我是想买来送人的。

大众：蛤？！送人？这些都是旧书，而且有些也有点儿损坏，所以才以底价卖出。

Auntie：我知道，我尽量选比较好的。再说我送书又不是送价钱，是送书里的含义嘛，你说是不是，最重要是书里的内容嘛。我买这么多，你可以给多点折扣吗？

大众：这要问Manager，但她今天不在，我没权力做决定。反正你是改天才来，你当时才问她拿多点折扣吧。

Auntie：你也要帮我说点话吗，你说一句好过我说十句咯。。

Erm…Auntie呀。。你把自己讲到这么伟大似的，什么送书是送含义不是送价值，但是天知道，地知道，大众员工知道，我知道，你自己良心也知道，说到底，你不就只是想捡便宜而已吗！说真的，你还真是有点cheap咯！！

把书送出去时，你的朋友，亲人都会说你人真好，有心买礼物送人。大家都把你当好人看，但是你自己内心知道你自己有几cheap吧！！做人做到这么假。。。

我自己是有个阿姨也是这样，看见PDI以底价卖出旧衣，本来是RM79.90的衣，现在都只是RM5。她买了很多件，然后送了给侄儿侄女，又大声在别人面前说自己几有心思，买了名牌货给他们。哦my天，我还真是没眼看，也没耳听，只是静静看电视，不想拆穿她。

我本人不是个常买礼物送人的人。只有某些在我心里有某种地位的人才会让我花心思去想得买什么礼物，得怎么包装，得怎么送礼。我不是不想花钱花时间，而是我觉得若要送礼，就要有诚意，如果只是for show，那样我宁愿不送，因为我只是在欺骗收礼的人，也在欺骗自己还有知道我有送礼物的人，我才不会随随便便去找个东西去送给人，因为心里都不是真的想送，或是完全没送礼的心意。我不喜欢做人做到这么假。

俗语说‘物轻情义重’，礼物不需要价值连城，只要是真心诚意想送就可以了。如果我真的想送位朋友礼物，就算那份礼物是有点儿贵，但如果他会喜欢，我不会介意花多一点钱去买，若不是买的，也会花多一点儿时间去做（但说真的，我的手工不好咯。。哈哈。。所以曾收到我手工礼物的人请见谅）。

你们又是在什么情况下送别人礼物的呢？是真心诚意想送还是因为某某原因才送？如果完全没有心意去送，你还会送吗？

Don’t Spit At Me And Then Be Nice To Me

Have you ever met a person that would say so many hurtful things in very harsh tones to insult you?

Things said can be so disrespectful, so insulting. The way the person talks to you is as though you are some sort of worthless being without self value. Basically, the person’s way of speaking is basically just implying that you are a useless garbage unworthy of respect.

Surprisingly, when the person needs your help, the person can suddenly smile at you, giving you a pad at the back or even holding your arms while asking whether you can help the person in some matters.

Amazing? Surprising? Astonishing? What’s the suitable word that can be used to describe this situation? I seriously have no idea. Even if I go through the thesaurus, I doubt I can actually find a suitable word or even a collection of words to describe the person’s feelings when caught in such a situation.

It’s basically like the title which I’ve given, it’s as though somebody just spit at you but later become so friendly to you as if both of you are the best of pals. The person can actually act as though no insults were thrown at the victim at all, as though nothing had happen an hour ago. Does the person have short term memory or selective memory?

I really can’t comprehend what is going on. If someone spit at you earlier and then suddenly ask for your help, would you help? If your answer is no, then why are you doing such things to others? Can you please explain? By the way, this situation did not only happen once, but almost every week.

水石论

“水乃天地万物之柔，
地乃天地万物之刚。。”

这两句话有什么意思呢？

请问，水和石，哪一物比较硬呢？

有人会说是石头。如果石头真的比较硬的话，那么为何水又能把石头磨平呢？

如果以武术的观点来看以上两句话，大家就能看出以柔克刚的道理，也就是太极拳和永春拳的基础。

如果以人生观点来探讨这两句话，那么这两句话就是用来提醒大家，做事不要操之过急，别太急性子。水虽能把石头磨平，但这也不是一朝一夕的事。

Transformer 2: Revenge of the Fallen @ Jusco

I went down to Jusco TC today to watch the much publicized Transformer 2: Revenge of the Fallen by myself today. Once I reached the cinema entrance, I saw an extremely long queue. Normally I would just walk away but since Transformers is one of my all time favorite cartoon series, so I decided to join the queue.From the place I took the photo, I can't even see the ticket counter!! LOL~~ After 1 hour of lining up, I finally got myself to the ticket counter! And then... Tadaaa... A ticket for myself.If you thought Terminator Salvation was a good movie that deserves to be watched twice, then you should really watch Transformer 2 at least three times!!! That's how good it is!

The graphics of the movie is amazing, I totally like the robots. The battles between the Autobots and the Decepticons were extremely exciting and realistic. It reminds me of the time when I first watched the Transformers cartoon series. If you are a cartoon fanatic like me, you should know that there is a new Transformer series on TV nowadays, but frankly, the new one isn't as nice as the old series.

A memorable scene was when Optimus was out-numbered by the Decepticons yet he stood his ground to protect Sam until he was killed by Megatron. Even though Sam tried so hard to work for a normal life away from the robots until he ignored the Autobots, but Optimus still protected Sam as friend to the extend of giving up his own life! That was seriously amazing and touching!!

Every battle scene between the Autobots and the Decepticons was extremely nice. The only disappointing moment for me was the final battle in the end between Megatron & The Fallen with Optimus. Megatron has always been the Decepticon's leader which is on par with Optimus yet he was so easily defeated in the end. The Fallen who was one of the initial Primes and Megatron's Master was also defeated within seconds. I was hoping that battle to have more punch!! But nonetheless, the entire movie in general was great!!!!

Quote of the day:-

"We will all remember our past,

because from it,

we learn to move on"

Optimus Prime

I Lost 50 ml of Blood & Blood Group Personality Test

Poor little me, I lost 50 ml of blood!!!

Here is a video of what happened! Just in case you guys are wondering, I seriously love the smell of blood, don't you all think it smells sweet?? Hehe...

**********************************************

BLOOD GROUP PERSONALITY TEST

BLOOD GROUP O
In a nutshell:
- Cannot stand people who hide the truth

Basic Behavior:
- Make objectives clear
- Possess great deal of confidence
- Honest, optimistic and energetic

Tolerance:
- Strength and endurance depend on their aim
- Give up easily if they find the job meaningless

How do they see their future and past?
- Positive about the past, thus do not regret about the past
- Seek financial stability for the future

How do they express their emotions?
- Usually stable and calm
- Sensitive towards sincerity
- Give frank, direct opinions

How do they work?
- Ability to concentrate vary from time to time, depending on aim
- Mostly prefer to lead
- Can overlook details

-----------------------------------------------

BLOOD GROUP A
In a nutshell:
- Pessimistic and too sensitive

Basic Behavior:
- Careful about decision-making
- Make things clear in black and white
- Care too much about social rules and standards

Tolerance:
- High tolerance for physical or repetitive work
- Cannot take changes easily
- Lose interest in a hobby easily

How do they see their future and past?
- Try hard to forget the past
- Pessimistic about the future

How do they express their emotions?
- Able to display cool outlook even though angry
- Short-tempered
- Take longer to heal a broken heart
- Sensitive to others' opinions

How do they work?
- Perfectionist
- Handle one thing at a time
- Work a line between work and personal affairs
- Highly responsible
- Tend to choose hobbies which help them release stress

-----------------------------------------------

BLOOD GROUP B
In a nutshell:
- Cannot take orders easily

Basic Behavior:
- Make decisions fast
- Can be flexible
- Do not care about rules
- Respect scientific and practical findings

Tolerance:
- Maintain the longest interest in what they do
- Seem impatient
- Dislike repetitious work

How do they see their future and past?
- Hard to forget recent affairs, but able to forget past and memories

How do they express their emotions?
- Expressive
- Cool and objective
- Although joke a lot, could actually be very shy
- Change moods like the weather
- Cannot stop complaining when they are upset

How do they work?
- Creative and possess new ideas
- Cannot differentiate between work and hobby
- Cannot take orders
- Do not hesitate to introduce innovative changes and are not worried about theirs criticisms

-----------------------------------------------

BLOOD GROUP AB
In a nutshell:
- Romantic and sentimental

Basic Behavior:
- Extremely practical
- Excellent in analyses
- Give fair criticisms
- Cannot decide when it comes to important issues

Tolerance:
- Try to be hard-working
- Tend to be impatient

How do they see their future and past?
- Sentimental about the past
- More concern about the immediate problems than anything else

How do they express their emotions?
- Sentimental
- Usually cool and steady, but can get upset with an immediate, unsolved problem
- Can get moody easily

How do they work?
- Able to handle a wide scope of jobs
- Value hard work
- Quick in understanding
- Not highly responsible and unable to follow-up on a project until its completion
- Tend to be artistic in approach

*******************************************

I guess from the table, you don't really need to be a genius to guess what blood group I am, you don't even need to be a very close friend of mine, as long as you are a person who is sincere in our friendship and pay a tiny little bit of attention to my feelings, then you will be able to guess correctly! hehe... If you are a girl and you guess wrongly, I will say you look ugly, but if you are a guy and you guess wrongly, I will low blow you!!!!

I Admit I Am Gay!!!

Me: “You getting married?”

PY: “Huh?”

Me: “Haha, don’t you get such a question a lot? I do get it from the aunties… and GOSH, it is so irritating!! Hahaha… Normally I just give a smile and walk away to get water”

PY: “Aiya, I teach you how to handle that kind of situation laa”

Me: “Oh?! How? Teach leh.. quick… quick… hehe”

PY: “Just say you are GAY laa!!! LOL~~~ Problem solved!! Nobody will ask you the question anymore!!”

Me: “swt!!!”

PY: “Yea wat! If you say you are gay, which auntie will want to ask you again about what age are you interested in getting married, got girlfriend already or not, girlfriend pretty or not, blah blah all those crap?”

Me: “LOL~~ u and ur crazy ideas!!! Hehe.. But maybe I shall use your technique the next time I encounter such a situation!! Hehe…”

Do you guys out there get questions about whether you have a gf already or not, when you plan to get married in future and so on since secondary school by aunties, whether they are your relatives or just some aunties in the neighborhood?

Sometimes it’s just so irritating you know! If you answered that you have a gf, then they will press further to check whether she is pretty or not and so on and the next day the whole society will know about your gf!!

If you say no, then they will go on with their donkey story about how young they got married back then, and when they got their first child, blah blah blah, basically the entire history of their love story is brought out!! Hahaha… Then they go on to advice you that you should get a gf fast and get married soon, settle down earlier in future. LOL~~ GAWD!!!!!!! Ain’t that a little too much to handle? Ahahaha…

For me, I don’t intend to settle down too fast… Why? I think I want to spend time with the friends that I love first, enjoy life with them first before I move on to a different life. No matter how, we can’t deny that after you get married, things are no longer the same, you can’t just keep going out with girls or even guys for movies and shopping or enjoying because you have an obligation to your family.

And btw, we don’t have to talk about getting married. Just look at your friends who already have a gf/bf, you can’t really spend much time with them also. Many of my close friends can’t really enjoy any outing because the bf/gf calls every 15 minutes to check where they are, when they are going back, and who they are with and what we are doing. Sienz… Can’t you (bf/gf) just trust each other a bit and let us (the friends) to enjoy some personal friendship time together???

Some may say, even after getting married, the husband and wife should still respect each others’ personal space and time but then, it can’t be denied, it is almost impossible to have much personal space and time anymore after that unless you want each other to start suspecting whether you are having an affair outside or being irresponsible to the family right?! Hahaha…

Ok, I think I want to stop here, talking about marriage is scary.. Hahaha.. do share your opinions though if you have any… *over & out*

"Marriage is a legitimate version of lifetime imprisonment"

Sharizal

第十句

冷漠　有时候并不是无情
只是一种避免被伤害的工具

以五十步笑百步

之前有一个人曾经取笑我说我很奇怪，不管到那儿都不喜欢那里的人，对那地方有些埋怨。

其实，我觉得他很天真。有些事，我承认他懂得比我多，经验也比我丰富，但是说到和现实社会有关的事情，他就不怎么行，但是他还是以为他懂得很多似的。他觉得他能和每一个人谈得来，所以他觉得若踏入社会，他也是一样，不会遇到什么人于人之间的问题。所以他也因这一点而嘲笑我。

但是，很好笑的是他自己。当他第一次尝试踏入社会打工时，他就碰了钉子。好笑吧！真的是名副其实的以五十步笑百步。

我在这里不是想取笑他。而是想让他知道，别一直以为自己什么都懂，自己所知道的都是对的。因为以这种态度踏入社会，吃亏的终究是自己。很多时候，自己懂得只是被美化的理论而已，在真正的社会里，就只是个理论，根本没机会派上用场的。

社会因名利斗争而变得非常复杂。很少人能真正掌握到整个社会的真实局面。很多时候，对你说话的人都带着面具，不同的场合带不同的面具。你在明，他在暗，根本防不胜防。

社会本就是个复杂地界，很难搞清楚的世界，如果他一直以一种天真的态度对待它，那么他迟早都得受苦的。可惜的是，不管我说什么，他都不会听，可能在他心里，我没资格劝导他吧。。

“把件复杂的事看得太简单，最后吃亏的是自己”

********************************************

前几天，GW过来拍拍我背然后对我说“很多事是很难讲得清的，自己要小心，要好好儿保护自己”

他想说的话是和我上面的文章有关的，其中的道理，就让大家慢慢参透吧。。。

Related link:
- Taking Things Lightly Makes Your Life Easier But Complicates Others

Aniza Asked: “What Is So Special About You?”

*A lady walks out to the counter*

Me: “Hi…” *while waving*

Aniza: “Hello!!!!! So, I guess you are the infamous guy that keeps coming down here…”

Me: “Hehe… Infamous?! I guess so...”

Me (looking at Firah & whispers): “Who is she?”

Firah: “She is the manager laa…”

Me: “Oh... So desu ka… Hehe…”

Aniza: “I would like you to know very clearly that it is a privilege that you are able to date my girls you know!!”

Me: “Hehe...”

Aniza: “Other people don’t get to do that... You have had the privilege to date every single one of my girls”

Me: “Yea, I memang tak cerewet pun, tua ke muda, I semua sapu je... Hehe…”

Aniza: “Mak ooi!! Semua sapu?! Laki nak?!”

Me: “Tak nak!!! Hahaha... Nak perempuan je!!!”

Aniza: “You should date Auntie Lily, she is the oldest here, 26 years working here...”

Me: “I know, and I do date her sometimes”

Aniza: “Oic… I really want to know, what is so special about you that every single one of my girls has dated you??”

Me: “Hehe.. I don’t know…”

Aniza: “Nobody is able to do that except you… What is so special about you actually???”

Me: *Lifts shoulders with a smile*

Aniza: “Ok… When I come back from my leave, I will date you myself… Ok!!”

Me: “Sure! Hehe.. ”

Going along with you means going against her

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend”

You can rephrase the statement to sound like this: - “The friend of my enemy is also my enemy”

Agree?

Have you ever got yourself into a situation where you are new to the environment and know nothing of the situation in the place? You started out by knowing everyone in the area. Later you notice that you click well with a certain person and you spend more time with the person chatting.

But unknowingly, you have also chosen to be on one side of the boat. Even if you have no intentions to go against others, but they have labeled you as being against them, being their enemy.
Later, all you noticed is that in every occasion, people just seems to make things difficult for you. No matter what you try to do, somebody just comes by to complicate matters for you. Giving you a hard time.

It’s not about us choosing one side and going against the other. Sometimes, we just don’t know what is going on. We may not even know that there is such a situation where boundaries have been laid and there are factions in the area. We don’t even know that by getting close to one side, it also means that the other will antagonize you. Putting the innocent you in a dilemma.

In such a situation, what can you do? Put up Switzerland’s flag saying you are neutral? Will anyone believe you or worse, both sides will take you as the third side and go against you together?

做了你的朋友，就等于做了她的敌人

Why do we dream (sweet dreams & nightmare)?

Have you ever wonder where does dream come from?

Scientifically, we have two minds: Conscious and Unconscious. The conscious mind controls everything when we are awake, our logical thinking, to what we want to do. While the latter doesn't function until we are asleep. The unconscious mind collect every thing that goes through our mind everyday. And when we are asleep, the unconscious mind come into play, letting the imagination goes wild, building a variety of images which we see in our dream.

Besides that, there are also other school of thoughts about dream. Some people believe that when we fall asleep, our soul leaves our body to wander around, maybe in this world or in a parallel universe. So, our dreams are actually what our souls see and feel and experience.

Another suggestion is that dreams maybe a way to see the future. Yes, a premonition. Sometimes I seriously believe in this suggestion as I've experience it myself for quite a number of times. On one occasion, I know that I've never been into my university library before, but when I first step into it and went to the 5th floor to find some books, I suddenly realised that the place where I wanted to sit down to study and the surrounding racks and tables and the way books were left of the table were exactly the same as what I saw in my dream. It was seriously a little freaky to me that day. And that was not the only occasion where I saw my dreams came through.

How about you guys, what do you think about dreams? Is it really a future or is it just a figment of your imagination?

Kinta 1881 (Malaysia Made Kungfu Movie)

For all martial arts lovers and also action packed movie lovers, have you heard about the Malaysian Made Kungfu Movie called Kinta 1881? This movie was released in cinema not long ago. Did you guys manage to catch this movie?

Basically, this movie revolved around an area in the Perak State called Kinta which is the focus of tin mining in the late 80s and early 90s. As we all know from the history textbooks, foreign immigrants especially the Chinese were brought in back then by the British to help drive the mining sector in Malaya.

This movie showed how these foreign Chinese came to Malaya and established their lives here and the hardship they had to went through due to the gang societies which were entrusted to control the mining sector.

Among the stars who were playing the roles of these foreign immigrants were wushu exponents such as Robin Ho, Michael Chin, Kuan Fei Jun, David Bao & Shawn Lee.

Brief Background of the wushu exponents:-
1. Robin Ho
- 1999 South East Asia Wushu Championship (2 Golds)
- 2001 Sea Games Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2 Golds)
- 2003 Sea Games Hanol, Vietnam (1 Gold)
- 2002 Asian Games Busan, Korea (1 Gold)
- 2004 Asia Wushu Championship Yangon, Myanmar (2 Golds)
- 1999 World Wushu Championship Hong Kong, China (1 Gold)
- 2005 World Wushu Championship Hanol, Vietnam (1 Gold)
2. Michael Chin
- 2001 Ipoh Invitation Competition (1 Silver)
- 2002 Sukma IX (1 Silver, 1 Bronze)
- 2003 National Competition (2 Bronzes)
- 2003 Chin Woo Association National Competition (5 Golds)
- 2004 National Competition (3 Golds)
- 2004 Sukma X (1 Gold, 2 Silvers)
3. Kuan Fei Jun
- 2004 National Wushu Championship Nanquan, Nandao, Nanquin (3 Golds)
- 2004 Sukan Malaysia Nandao (1 Gold), Nanquan, Nanqun (2 Silvers)
- 2004 World Chin Woo Federation Wushu Competition Nanquan, Nandao, Dui Lian (3 Golds), Nanqun (1 Silver)
- 2005 World Wushu Championship Hanoi, Vietnam Nanquan (No. 6), Nandao (No. 10)
4. Shawn Lee
- 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Malaysia Wushu Sanda 70KG (Champion)
- 2002 Malaysia Wushu Sanda 85KG (Champion)
- 2003 Malaysia Judo Open-Weight (Participated)
- 1997 Sea Games Wushu Sanda 70KG (Bronze)
- 1999 South East Asia Wushu Sanda 70KG (Champion)
- 1999 South East Asia Wrestling Free Style 84KG (Bronze)
- 1996 Asia Wushu Sanda 70KG (6th Placing)
- 1998 World Wushu Sanda 65KG (Participated)
- 2000 World Wushu Sanda 70KG (Quarter Finalist)
- 2000 Egypt Wrestling Competition Free Style 84KG (Participated)

5. David Bao
- 1995 Jing Mou Cup, China (Champion)
- 2006 50th World Tai Chi Championship (Champion)

Despite their great background in wushu and being specialist in their own style of wushu, I feel that the movie had failed to depict their prowess in their respective styles. To me, even though the movie is more than an hour long. But I felt that there was no story line and the real movie was just about 15 minutes in the beginning. If you noticed, the real story was just at the start, and later, it was just the characters recalling the incident again and again.

I seriously think that the so called special effects for the fighting scene was terribly unnecessary. The beauty of fighting scenes is being as raw as possible, to be realistic, rather than having cartoon-type blood flying here and there. So, to me, I totally dislike the movie and found it extremely boring and not worth a watch.

Well, what is your opinion on this movie?

Firah Wants To Know My Age

Firah "Hey, what's your age ah?"

Me "Har?! Why?"

Firah "U kno, I'm so tempted to dig out your file to see how old r u!!"

Me "Y r u so interested in my age?"

Firah "I duno, I just want to kno, becoz sometimes u look younger than us, but then sometimes I feel like u r younger"

Me "Hahaha.. I'm younger than u lar.."

Firah "How can dat b?! Nobody is supposed to be younger than us... how old r u actually?"

Me "It's a secret..."

Firah "Secret?! Since when is the age of a guy a secret?! Only girl's age is secret la!"

Me "I dun care, it's a secret!!"

Firah "aiyaa, come on laa.. we share share"

Dee "ok ok, I'm 26, how old r u?? I want to kno oso"

Me "I din ask ur age Dee!! hahaha... I'm not telling!!!"

Firah "Aiyaa, cannot like dat laa... we share share k.. I tell u mine, u tell me yours..."

Me "I dun wana kno ur age leh! hahahaha"

Firah "aiya, can laaaa, dun like dat..... i wana kno.... i can't believe u r younger..."

*This is the third time we all got into this issue about my age coz ppl can't seem to believe that I'm younger.. hahaha....

Money = Respect

KS said to me “You must always respect the person who pays you the salary”

In my opinion, there is a very big problem with that statement. Why? Because money does not in anyway equate to the amount of respect one gains.

There is a simple saying which goes “To be respected, you must first respect others”. I agree with this saying and believe that we earn the respect that we want by first respecting others.

Money does not come into play at all unless if you are just a shallow person who bootlicks anyone who has authority and money. To me, such people have neither pride nor integrity. For money, they can do whatever they are told to. Just like the grass swaying along with the wind, having no spine or personal stand.

Because someone pays you the salary, then you must always respect the person? Agreeing with the person when the person is actually wrong? Standing by the person’s side when the person is actually victimizing the innocent?

Some people may say respecting the person doesn’t mean agreeing with what the person does all the time. But then, if you go against the person when you noticed the person is wrong, then what kind of impression do you think the person has on you? Obviously, the person would think you are going against the person and you have no respect for the person. No matter how you see it, for a person who thinks that money can buy everything including respect, your act of going against the person will automatically be seen as disrespectful.

Is this how the world works? Using money as a benchmark to various aspects of our lives? We may have achieved various advances when it comes to technologies, but I wonder how much improvements have we achieve in moral and ethics.

Man Killed on Russian Talent Audition

I've seen this video over and over again but I just couldn't tell whether that was in their acting or is it real (as in the accident really occurred and the guy got killed during the audition).

What do you guys think??

第九句

为你的难过而快乐的　是敌人
为你的快乐而快乐的　是朋友
为你的难过而难过的
就是那些该放进心里的人

Things I would do for a friend (or someone important)

I don’t mind traveling 1 hour just to meet you because you are my friend.
I don’t mind taking a longer route to send you home because you are my friend.
I don’t mind sending you a weird message because you are my friend.
I don’t mind applying for holiday to go out with you because you are my friend.
I don’t mind listening to your problems because you are my friend.
I don’t mind putting in a little more effort to help you because you are my friend.
I don’t mind staying up late for you because you are my friend.
I don’t mind canceling off other appointments for you because you are my friend.
I don’t mind saying things that others won’t because you are my friend.
I don’t mind letting you beat me up when you are frustrated because you are my friend.

If you are not my friend, I won’t even travel 5 minutes to town to meet you.
If you are not my friend, I won’t even bother opening the door when you call me from outside.
If you are not my friend, I won’t even care reading your messages.
If you are not my friend, I won’t even find time to talk to you.
If you are not my friend, I won’t even want to listen to what you need to say.
If you are not my friend, I won’t even think of how to spend time with you.
If you are not my friend, I won’t even waste time figuring out how to help you.
If you are not my friend, I won’t even spend any of my leisure time with you.
If you are not my friend, I won’t even think of you.
If you are not my friend, I won’t even look at you.

With all being said, I ask no more from you, as my friend to just be sincere to me…

对情人得重情，
对朋友得重义，
但是表达的方式大同小异。。

Earth May Crash Into Venus or Mars

Using powerful computers, astronomers have looked at 2501 scenarios on our Solar System for years to come. Interestingly, they found a number of cases which involve orbital instability (orbital chaos) where the planets move away from their original track going into a collision with another.

The possibility of Earth crashing into either Venus or Mars is around 1 in 2500. Seems like it is harder to strike lottery than to have two planets collide. In one model, Earth and Mars will come so close to each other that there will be only a 794 kilometers gap between the two planets (roughly the distance from JB to Penang!!) Even though there will not be a ground-to-ground collision, but I guess that the gravitational pull between both planets will rip both apart.

It seems like the main cause of such orbital chaos is due to Mercury when its orbital comes into resonance with Jupiter's and having the smallest mass in the solar system, its orbit will some how be disrupted causing this haywire in the solar system.

Sounds scary? Hehe.. Even if such a scenario doesn't occur. The Sun, a ball of burning gases will in the end stop burning and turn into a red giant engulfing the planets in the solar system. So.. In other words, no matter what. The life on Earth will end sooner or later.

So what can we do now? Hmmm.. Destroy Mercury? So there won't be a resonance between its orbit and Jupiters? So the orbital chaos scenario can be prevented?

But anyway, do you want to live forever? I know I won't be here when the collision occurs or when the Sun turns into a red giant. Even without all these catastrophic events (or Extinction Level Event) happening, I wonder whether there will still be life on Earth by then. Who knows.. With the advances in Artificial Intelligence, we may come up with robots and computer systems which will some how become self-aware like Skynet in Terminator or i-robot which assume human race as a threat to ourselves and starts killing everybody. Maybe we will all be dead due to the pollutions we caused. Maybe we will lose our lives to a global pandemic. Who knows, we may just just even kill ourselves when human race turn against each other using nuclear weapons (Weapons of Mass Destructions).

All said.. I guess there are too many possible models of the future that can be analyzed by computers. The best way is to live by the day. Hehe... Thanks for reading... LOL~~~

Source:
YahooNews
Cosmos Magazine
Laskar, J & Gastineau, M. 2009. Existence of collisional trajectories of Mercury, Mars and Venus with the Earth. Nature. 459: 817-819.

Taking Things Lightly Makes Your Life Easier But Complicates Others

Have you ever met someone who loves to take things for granted? Or in other words ‘Take things lightly’ or ‘Not serious in handling matters’ or ‘Taking life to easily’?

For example, when I send an SMS or email, some people just love to take it very lightly. Maybe what they do is just have a glance through it and then just send a hasty reply. Well, I don’t really mind if the person answers the issues which I’ve raised. But the problem is the response given doesn’t actually address my issues at all or only answers part of the issue.

Don’t you guys find that irritating? When somebody takes the time to write a message for you, shouldn’t you have the simple courtesy to actually address the matter raised by the other party? If you take things so lightly, isn’t that being disrespectful to the other person in someway?

You may think that the matter raised is not important at all, but then, if it is not important to the other person, would he have raised it in the start? Why would he have wasted so much time and energy to write the email/SMS in the beginning? What is not important to you may not be an unimportant matter to the other party too. Shouldn’t you put yourself in the others’ shoes and think about it before you give a lousy reply?

Because of one person’s attitude of taking things likely, it may screw up the plans of other people who are involved in the matter. Is that not obvious? Is that so hard to understand? Taking things lightly or taking things for granted or taking things too easily every time will obviously make your own life easier too, because all the person has to do is just to make an irresponsible decision, but have you gave some thought to the others involved? Don’t you know that your attitude is making other lives miserable! Don’t you know your so called ‘taking things lightly’ attitude is actually making things more complicated than usual for others? Don’t you think you are being extremely selfish just thinking about how to make your life easier but you forgot that you are actually ruining other lives?

I seriously don’t understand why some people just can’t learn to be more considerate. The worse thing is: they don’t think they have done anything wrong at all.

“The world doesn’t move in a way just because you want it to”

Darling XiaoJun

What my darling is actually trying to say is: Don’t always assume that what you think, what you do or your concepts are always correct and expect everybody to follow your mindset.

Conclusion: Be a little considerate to others. If not, you will just hurt those who cares for you.

你说了一万遍的你爱我
你说了什麽我都懂
因为爱很久
所以我都懂

可是我发现没人能永久
就算我们曾勾勾手
还是会寂寞
没有你之后

我才明白的更多
你看着我来
我看着你走
生命有太多分分合合
难免要承受的痛

你看着我来
我看着你走
就算捂住耳朵
我还能听见你呼吸的温柔

(就算我会心痛 你的好永远都填满我心中)

我算什么东西吗？

这篇文章是YV写的。但是我突然也想问一问自己同样的问题，所以就把她的文章抄过来自己修改一下。

问题： 如果能用一样东西来衡量你的生存价值，你会选什么？
选择： A. 财富 B. 学历 C. 友情 D. 爱情 E. 其他

财富：
在钱财方面，我不是个很会经营生意的人，所以只能为别人打工受气，赚的钱也不多，花的更不用说了。

学历：
我觉得这可能是唯一能让自己感到骄傲的一点，虽然学业方面比大多人都强一些，但是一山还有一山高，没人能够永远做第一名，即使学业好，但是自己还是因其他因素而没法走自己原初想走的路。

友情：
我认识的人很多。但是大多数就只是认识而已，不是朋友。自己身边真正的朋友到底有几个，我自己也不知道。有些在我心里是把他们当朋友，但是在他们心里我是谁，也是朋友吗，还是只是个过路人，我就不知道了，但有时，他们给我的感觉是：我不是他们的朋友。但这感觉是否正确，我也不知道。

爱情：
这个就很像没什么好说。曾经的一次，就只是那一次。

其他：
其他？什么其他？还有什么能用来衡量自己生存价值的？我不知道咧。暂时也想不到。。

衡量自己的生存价值？？。。。。。这文章我接不下去了。。。。。。

Rude NUS Students

Firah, Dee, Elaine & I sat down together at a bench to enjoy our packed lunch. All of us happily opened our Nasi Padang, Japanese Rice, Toast & Fried Fish Bee Hoon Soup.

Me: "My Bee Hoon looks nice, first time trying this"

Firah: "I prefer the fish fillet bee hoon soup to this fried one"

Me: "Oic"

Student: "Can you all move to another place as we need this area?"

Me: "For what reason?"

Student: "Har?"

Me: "For what reason are you telling us to leave?"

Student: "We have an activity over here later and the students are coming.. About 20 students"

Firah: "You can't expect us to leave when we are eating right!"

Student: "You have 15 minutes to eat"

Me: "What?"

Firah: "How can you expect us to leave when we are eating? If we haven't started eating then it's a different story, but we are eating now, how can you tell us to leave?"

Student: "You have about 15 minutes to eat"

Firah: "You expect us to finish in 15 minutes?? Sorry, we can only finish in 30 minutes, that's the fastest we can eat"

Student: "But we need the place"

Firah: "Sorry, the fastest we can eat is 30 minutes, OK!"

This was what happened two days ago when we were trying to enjoy our lunch. Actually we don't mind moving to another bench but we just couldn't stand the way the student approached us and telling us to leave. It was extremely rude of him to do so.

When he approached us, there wasn't a smile, there wasn't an 'excuse me', there wasn't any politeness, just a sudden statement asking us to move to another place. Is this the attitude a student should have studying in one of the so called top university in the world?

别再哭了 (Don't cry anymore)

"不属于你的，也不要遐想了咯。。。因为没有可能了的话，还要继续，不但没有痊愈，反而更伤痕累累"

Darling小俊

How long do we have in this life?
How many things will we get to possess in this life?
How many people will walk into our lives?
How many things will we lose in this life?
How many people will walk out of our lives?

These are questions which we will have no answer until the first question is answered. But then, do the remaining four answers matter at all if we already know the answer to the first question? Do you get what I mean? After we have all exhaled our last breath, we won't really get to count the figures for the latter four questions, right? Even if we do, does it really matter? What significance does it have?

Some time ago, pcbon always advise me to look at things we have at hand rather than pondering too much on what we once had or even anticipating on what we might have in the future.

Reason is we can't change the past, whatever we have lost will always be lost and we can't change that fact. Pondering too much about it will bring us no where and it will not be any better. (But to reject the pass totally is foolish, as the saying goes "Learn from mistakes", mistakes is a past but also a guide to the future)

Thinking about the future will be exciting, trying to anticipate all the wonderful outcomes which may come with our plans, but then all plans may not just come out the way we initially planned. The outcome may change even if our plans didn't as the outcome is influenced by so many other uncontrollable factors. (To blindly jump into the future without proper planning is also foolish as you may just jump into a land mine, we can always dream of something nice in the future, but to just do without thinking at all, without a proper plan, you may just end up in failure; if you have done your best, plan well, even if it fails, you still know that you have 'really' tried. But how do we plan? Obviously, we use our experience or experience of others in the past as a reference or guide to the future; Thomas Edison did not invent light bulb through blind luck, but he looked at the past failures before moving forward with new components as the filament)

Excessive thinking of the past or the future will cause us to neglect the present, what we have at hand, in front of our eyes, the things and the people around us. People come, people go. They may leave our lives by themselves or they may leave the world completely. If we don't cherish them all when they are around, then we won't get the chance when they are gone and the worst thing is we will never know when will people leave.

Some relationships are forged within seconds, some takes time. Some will last forever while some will be broken by forces from within and of external origins. Regardless of how and when it will be broken, all the relationships will still mean something to us in our hearts, if it doesn't worth anything, then both parties wouldn't have built it in the first place.

Even if the relationship is broken, I will still remember your smile, the laughter we had together, the bickering, the fights and quarrels we had between each other, because all those were the moments we had in our journey together, a very beautiful journey.

Tears will flow, that I can't deny, but I will smile with the tears...

伤心情歌听过几遍了
你对眼还是红红的
生命总有些过客
现在不过多了一个

结束了何必再拉扯
有些事总该遗忘的
你听着听着又哭了
我明白的谁都难免不舍

别再哭了多不值得
笑一笑把爱情看透彻
生活苦涩该他负责
他会后悔他做了这选择

别再哭了多不值得
失去也是另一种获得
伤心情歌不属你的
幸福不一定非爱谁不可
难傲的会经过的

爱错了又能如何

别再哭了不值得
笑着把爱情看透彻
生活苦涩他负责
他会后悔他做了这选择

别再哭了多不值得
失去也是另一种获得
伤心情歌不属你的
幸福不一定非爱谁不可
难傲的会经过的

Related links:
- 两位好老师
- Amelia Earhart
- Trust: A Bridge To The Heart

Your Photo Is Fake Wan Ah?

Charmaine: "Your photo is fake wan ah?"

Me: "No ah, real wan lor, there, this one is me"

Charmaine: "Har?! Really, don't look like you wan"

Me: "Really? It's me la.. Why you say so?"

Charmaine: "But the photo looks so big size"

Me: "I always so big size wan mar.. LOL~~"

Charmaine: "No ah, you look ok, but the photo really very different lor.."

* I hope she wasn't comparing me with the other guy in the photo, but then can't be lor, coz I was pointing at myself at the photo... LOL~~ Do I look different? hehe... Maybe dats the reason why Sherwynd couldn't recognise me, even kYi oso said he almost can't recognise me (but he mumbled dat the other day, so I'm not sure whether he was really referring to me).. hehe.. wats so different about me?? hmm... I wonder...

第八句

没有一百分的另一半
只有五十分的两个人

伟杰欣怡走了

耐了两个星期，终于顶不顺了。

他很不开心，没办法支持下去，我看了也真的是很可怜他。有尽力维护他，但是还是没用，自己觉得他没错，但是。。咳。。。我的话又有何用呢？

最后，他决定离开。

希望，他到别的地方去会比较开心。

欣怡只撑了两天，过后也决定离开。

她觉得自己没法应付这儿的环境。

咳。。还以为可以认识两个新朋友。。

没想到，这么快就走了。

愿你们俩在别的地方能够加油，做得开心，学得更多。。。

You're Always Right & I'm Always Wrong

When was the last time you got such a feeling from somebody? Actually, I’ve bumped into such people quite often. When you try to discuss something with them, they will always say or imply that their ideas are right while yours are not only wrong, but totally wrong.

Do you find such people irritating and annoying? Well for me, there are two situations: most of these irritating people are just people that I know in my life, meaning, they are not my friends, I just know that they exist in my daily life and I know their names, that’s all. So, I don’t really bother much about such people who are not worth a cent to me. I’ve expressed my views and if they want to reject it and say it is wrong and they are the only ones correct, then it’s fine with me, that is their problem, not mine. I’m not going to get a headache over people who are just not worth it.

The second situation is that such people happen to be my friends. Not many of my friends are like these, extremely few, luckily. But sadly, the ones that I care for the most are the ones which are like these. This is the worst case! I don’t know why, but it just happens that the friends I choose to care for the most and like the most are the ones which always think that they are right and I’m wrong. Do you guys out there understand how hurtful it can be?

Well, let’s try to be realistic, whatever the case is, whether the people doing this are my friends or just people that I know in my life, nobody can always be correct; neither can they always be wrong. So, how can I always be wrong? When you get into a discussion regarding a topic, everybody starts off by giving their opinions. Then when it is obvious that there are differences between my view and yours, we try to substantiate our point of view and explain why we have such a mentality. But is it right to keep rejecting every single explanation and examples and views given by one person and saying they are all wrong and keep emphasizing that your own opinion and only yours is correct to the extend that there isn’t a single flaw? Is that the whole point of the discussion? To say I’m wrong and you are right?

“When a person keeps changing his views over a short period of time, then we have to start thinking whether he really realizes that he is wrong in the first place or he just wants to make sure that he is always right and others are always wrong…”

A very common catch-phrase that such people like to use is “Based on my experience...” If your experience is right, then I’m willing to accept it. But to reject every single thing I said based on your experience alone; is that fair to me? Does your experience constitute to the experience of the entire population of human race? Is your experience the law of nature that we have to abide with? Doesn’t my experience worth anything then? Only your experience means something while mine doesn’t? Is this fair? Is this logical? Is this rational? I will sit quietly before you to listen to whatever you need to say because I respect you as a friend and our friendship. But to reject every single thing I say and be an extremist in saying you are the only person correct, is that right? Do you think it is right to blindly hold on to your personal believes while rejecting others, when others are trying to let you see from another perspective?

Another phrase they like to use is “If you don’t believe, you can ask anyone, I’m sure they will say I’m right” (There's a guy in S'pore who often use this). Are you sure everybody will agree with you? What if I ask others and I ended up with a result of 9 out of 10 agrees with me and disagrees with you. Then what? You are going to change your point of view to another view but still disagreeing with mine?

Another trait of such people is called 'Selective Commenting'. What I mean by this is you will often notice that they will try to avoid topics which they are not familiar with or maybe because they know they can't defend their notion, or they know they will be wrong in the end which they really don't want to accept. They will only engage in topics which they think they have sufficient idea of what is going on so to avoid themselves being proven wrong.

To all my fellow readers, what do you all think? Have you all been through such situations with your friends or other not-so-important-people? Have you ever felt that you are the only one always in the wrong side of the issue?

Taylor Swift - You’re Not Sorry

All this time I was wasting,
Hoping you would come around
I’ve been giving out chances every time
And all you do is let me down
And it’s taking me this long
Baby but I figured you out
And you’re thinking we’ll be fine again,
But not this time around

You don’t have to call anymore
I won’t pick up the phone
This is the last straw
Don’t wanna hurt anymore
And you can tell me that you’re sorry
But I don’t believe you baby
Like I did - before
You’re not sorry, no no ohhh

Looking so innocent,
I might believe you if I didn’t know
Could’ve loved you all my life
If you hadn’t left me waiting in the cold
And you got your share of secrets
And I’m tired of being last to know
And now you’re asking me to listen
Cause it’s worked each time before

But you don’t have to call anymore
I won’t pick up the phone
This is the last straw
Don’t wanna hurt anymore
And you can tell me that you’re sorry
But I don’t believe you baby
Like I did - before
You’re not sorry, no no, ohhh

You’re not sorry no no ohhh

You had me falling for you honey
And it never would’ve gone away, no
You used to shine so bright
But I watched all of it fade

So you don’t have to call anymore
I won’t pick up the phone
This is the last straw
There’s nothing left to beg for
And you can tell me that you’re sorry
But I don’t believe you baby
Like I did - before
You’re not sorry, no no ohhh

万莉对我说爱

"爱有很多种，
情侣之间的是一种，
朋友之间的是一种，
兄弟之间的是一种，
姐妹之间的是一种，
父母之间的也是一种，
但不管是哪一种爱，
说的就只是要真心地去爱，
勇敢地去爱，
不要怕，不要犹豫，
因为不管是什么爱，
凭的只是感觉，
感觉对了，就是对了，
但也不能忘记，
爱得起，就得放得下，
虽然被伤害，
但也可以继续坚持去爱，
但千万不能恨，
背着恨去过活是很辛苦的。。"

万莉

***********************************************
梁詠琪 "愛得起"


如果拥抱不够亲密　
就溶化在你怀里 合二为一　
是两颗心最近的距离

你说这城市太拥挤　
如果只剩下我和你　
还会不会 在乎那些阻力

既然爱了就要爱得起　
懦弱会让自己看不起
燃烧了心　只为尽兴　

豁出去　爱才有意义
相信爱了就会爱得起　
就算输了我也输得起

爱是一种 与生俱来的能力　
遇到你就有 用武之地

花光我所有的力气　
我不怕一贫如洗 爱越彻底　
快乐的感受就越清晰

没什么深刻的道理　
爱就是唯一的真理　
这场游戏 你玩不玩得起

浪漫 不怕浪费 爱不分错对
完整才算完美　
奢侈一些 更显得珍贵

既然爱了就要爱得起　
懦弱会让自己看不起
燃烧了心　只为尽兴　
豁出去　爱才有意义

相信爱了就会爱得起　
相信自己不会输不起
爱是一场 命中注定的战役　
胜利的权利 在我手里

Related links:
- 恒星流星
- 心墙
- 爱情=鬼
- Love is to sacrifice oneself

恒星流星

恒星会永远在自己的馗道上行使，
而流星只是瞬间的灿烂，来去匆匆。

恒星必须永远承受着孤独，
而流星无法享受到永恒。。。

两者都处于不同的世界，
有不同的宿命，
无法在一起。。。

会不会有一些时候，
觉得自己是恒星，
而身边关心的人则是流星。。？



无数个光年 犹如昨天
我静静等待着你的出现
看着星空的变迁
心里想着你的脸
突然有种擦身而过的错觉

无法回去的昨天
不只一万个光年
太遥远又仿佛近在眼前
在你离开的时候
一颗流星坠落
好像嘲笑着我的孤单

我是恒星 你是流星
你注定要走 我注定厮守
我无法改变
你在我的世界里不能永远
只能期待着
下一次与你幸福的擦肩

鹰爪功与合气道

从波斯传入中原的明教有名震江湖的紫白金青四大法王。他们当中的白眉鹰王以自己的绝学：鹰爪功威震江湖。当明教教主阳顶天失踪后，明教里各个高层人物为了想夺取明教的控制权而搞得四分五裂。白眉鹰王也因此离开了明教，自立门户，创办了天鹰教。

在大众书局走走时，我经过了武术部门，突然在书架上看到了一套武学密集，对了，就是鹰爪功。我可万万没想到原来武打小说里白眉鹰王的独门武学竟然在现实生活中也存在。我因好奇而随便翻阅了这本武功密集一会儿。

看了又看，觉得有点奇怪。如果不提步法，只提手上功的话，这套鹰爪功真的和日本武学之一的合气道非常相似。鹰爪功里用来破解敌方攻击的招式的确和合气道没什么分别。

说来奇怪，一个是中原武术，另一个则是日本武学，怎么会这么相似呢？日本合气道是由祖师Morihei Ueshiba所创，一共有三千多的招式个能分为左右两式。鹰爪功则是象形拳之一，起源于中土明或清朝时期。所以这两套武术应该没有什么关系才对。

真是百思不得其解。。

两位好老师(Inspired by Leong)

早上六点半一起床就看到梁兄update了。读读一下就让我想起了两位好老师。

一是中一的科学老师，Cik Endom。还记得那时，全中一被她教的学生都埋怨她这人超级凶！没有一次进lab都不被骂。回答不了问题她都会让我们罚站，从新把答案抄写一遍。而且她的习惯就是随时都可能会有测验！！学校的惯例是每个月有个小测验，六月一个中年考试，九月一个终年考试，而她一个月里可能会有几个小测验，而且全都有算进成绩册里！！！！因为每次都是突击测验，让我们防不胜防。还记得她教书很快，还没到年底，就已经教完了，过后的就是练习练习练习，她橱里有堆积如山用不完的练习题还有考卷，所以大家都对她多有埋怨和投诉，但是不知道为何，我就是喜欢她。是她让我认识到科学，了解对科学真正该有的态度，这是我过后到大学都没有一个教师有教到的。我对Cik Endom只有感激。可惜的是，上完大学第一个学期后，在回家的途中，看见她家很冷清，她家就在我家大路的路口，天天都会经过。过后，才从邻居那儿知道，她因癌症突然去世了。

第二位是娇小玲珑的英文老师，Pn.Rosnah。其实她不是我中四班的英文老师，她是教第二班的。我因在学校英文辩论对选拔赛时被几位老师，学姐和学哥提名而被选入校对。过后的半年，我就被她训练。我在中学时，能说是无人不知，无人不晓。所以人家都知道我是出了名的孤僻，很静，不和人说话，突然要我上台和别人用口舌来交战会有点难，所以她就时常和我说话，和我聊，让我在别人面前轻松些。和她在一起，没有老师与学生的感觉，就只是很象朋友在一起的感觉而已。其他的同学也是这么觉得。有一次，其他队友都有事不能去训练，所以只有我一人在练，她给的题目是 'A working mother will better contribute towards the well being of a family'。当我对这题目做出评论后，她突然就问了一句 'Will you miss someone that you don't know?'。当时，我就只是随口把自己的想法说出。过后她所做出的回应是我没想到的。也因为那次的话题，让我每次见到她，都会聊得很久，因为我们两人有相同之处。比赛结束一个月后，她收到通知，她被升为柔佛教育部英文主任。她和我们说她会接受那新职位，因为她不只是能教导一个学校的学生，而是整州的学生，提升他们在英文的语言能力。她在新山做了一个月后，我们又得到她的消息，这次不是好消息，而是她得了癌症。当她在家养病时，我打了好几通电话给她，终于有一次能和她说话，就只是说'Ma'am,please be strong',但她就只回答说'sometimes, it's just too hard, too difficult to hold on'。过后，因为药物的关系，她就睡着了，她丈夫就只是说谢谢我们给于的支持。中四年底，又收到她的消息，她在家里去世了。大家都很伤心，我只是知道，自己又失去了一位好老师。

象Leong说的，世事难料。珍惜身边的每一人。。。因为我们都不知道，谁会在哪一个时候离开。。。

我和诗莹出门前的对话

我： 明天只有我们两个人出门咧，你ok吗？

诗莹： ok啊。。

我： 真的啊？

诗莹： 哦。。你做墨哦？

我： 没有啦。我们才见过一次面，而且那也是一年前的事了，毕竟我们只是blog里认识的人而已，我担心你感觉怪怪吗，等下怕你说我们不熟，我却装得很象我们很熟似的。

诗莹： 蛤？！不会啦。。

This was the conversation I had with Tze Yin before we went out the next day in Jusco for the movies.

I ask Leong the same questions to be safe when I went out for movies with him too as I couldn't manage to get KX & Zhmn to go along.

PS: Thanks to Tze Yin for the nice biscuits from Perak, taste real good!!!

Mr. G says...

"I don't understand why a person would complain that you are being nice to the person..."

"Multitasking" During Conversation Is Extremely Rude

While interacting with Caucasians, I noticed a big difference between the ways they communicate with others compared to many Asians (in this text, I’m referring to Chinese of various origins).

When I go up to a Singaporean Chinese, China Chinese or even Malaysian Chinese (hereafter referred to as ‘Chinese’) to speak to them, they will mostly be continuing with their work (e.g. staring at the computer monitor, reading their documents, meddling with their stuffs) while talking to you at the same time. Most of the time, their responses are short and worse, sometimes not even relevant to what you are trying to say, showing that they are not interested in the conversation.

But try speaking to a Caucasian (American, Irish, Australian, Croatian, European), they will always stop what they are doing within seconds and turn their entire body towards you to look at you and to speak to you. The difference is enormous!! Speaking with Eric, Laura, Sharon, Margon and Darija make me feel very comfortable compared to speaking to many Chinese (including my own friends who are not from my work place). They don’t make me feel like I’m bothering them or disturbing their work as they show their willingness to communicate and to listen to what I need to say.

At first, I thought that this uncomfortable feeling which I have when speaking to people who doesn’t really want to concentrate on our conversation is a personal problem, a feeling which only I myself feel. But I found out from my foreign friends that it is not. They too feel extremely irritated and annoyed by the way people in this region communicate with them.

They and I agree that sometimes when people are extremely busy, they will need to continue with their work, hence they will do their things while talking. Even then, you can still see that whether they are genuinely interested in the conversation from their responses. But most of the time, many people just show the “Couldn’t-be-bothered or Lazy-to-entertain-you” type of attitude when responding to you. I, personally haven’t met a Caucasian who would work (do other things) while talking to you. They will just stop everything or do a few things in a matter of seconds and stop their work for awhile so they can speak to you with full attention. My Caucasian friends also told me that they couldn’t understand why Chinese interact with others in such a way, not giving their concentration towards the conversation and don’t even bother looking at the speaker.

From the foreigners, I understand that they do this because of one reason: Respect. You can say it as being courteous or it is a courtesy to give the appropriate attention to the person who is trying to speak to you. But to them, it is more of the ‘respect’ we should give to another person who wants to speak to you, regardless of what they want to say. Such respect is even more important when the matter/topic of conversation is regarded as important to the speaker or receiver (listener).

We, the so called Eastern people who keeps boasting about our noble culture and tradition doesn’t seem to understand this simple point: To respect the person trying to communicate with us. I wonder why? When somebody walks up to you and tries to speak to you, this shows he/she recognizes your presence, and wants to share some thoughts with you, even if it is a joke. If I don't give a shit about you, do you think I would bother wasting my time and energy to approach you to speak to you? Doesn’t that deserve some respect?

Do we not understand the word “Respect”? Or do we not know how to respect others? Is it appropriate to meddle with a pen, stare at our spectacles, looking at another direction when somebody is trying to speak to us? Or is it appropriate to suddenly say “Wow, nice car just drove by!” or “Hmm... The decoration here is rather nice...” while somebody is discussing their personal matters with you? What do you think? Please tell me.

R.E.S.P.E.C.T is a moral value that we all learnt during primary school, but sadly, how many of us really appreciate its true meaning and practice it in our daily lives? Do you think you respect the person talking to you? If you choose not to use the moral value 'respect' in this case, then what values should you use? If you choose not to use 'respect', then can you explain why you choose not to? Is it because the speaker doesn't deserve it? Or is it because you are not willing to commit to a conversation? Or do you think your relationship with the speaker doesn't worth anything at all? What is the reason? This is something that we all should ponder on when we choose to be voluntarily be distracted from the conversation (in other words, refuse to concentrate on the conversation).

Related link:
- JC Told Me To Sell Fish
- 心墙