10 days to enlistment...

argh the days are passing by fast enough, and this thing called NS has to come in and shorten my days even further. i heard in BMT you run 5km on alternate days. well i have never practised running anything beyond 3km at one shot before so...not great news.

anyway want to share this: knowing about someone is not the same as knowing someone. knowing about entails hearing about what the person is like, what he/she has done, etc. knowing on the other hand, entails a personal encounter and an experience of interaction with the person. how many of us know about MM Lee but don't actually know MM Lee? hope that suffices to illustrate my point.

knowing in the head and knowing in the heart are so different things.

this place has become less and less of a good "dumping ground" for my thoughts and revelations, because some of these are just too sensitive and should be really kept to myself and close friends. oh well. things change!

great week came and gone!

will very briefly summarise the takeaways (i kind of dread chronicling everything that transpired all over, if you don't mind)..

don't think so much and just believe! though my instinct would be to question and rationalise things out for myself.

head knowledge and heart knowledge are VERY, VERY different things. indeed, the heart and the mind can be so close physically but yet the two can be so far apart spiritually. knowing/hearing of an experience and living out the experience yourself are totally different stories.

if we want to help people we have to meet real needs! not perceived needs. despite how well we may think we know others or know the situation, and even despite how good our intentions are.

trusting someone can be very very easy...or very very hard!

be yourself

i hope the below (disclaimer: not written by me) can spur some of you on!

"Often we want to be somewhere other than where we are, or even to be someone other than who we are. We tend to compare ourselves constantly with others and wonder why we are not as rich, as intelligent, as simple, as generous, or as saintly as they are. Such comparisons make us feel guilty, ashamed, or jealous. It is very important to realize that our vocation is hidden in where we are and who we are. We are unique human beings, each with a call to realize in life what nobody else can, and to realize it in the concrete context of the here and now.

We will never find our vocations by trying to figure out whether we are better or worse than others. We are good enough to do what we are called to do. Be yourself!"

re-watched ratatouille today (yes i re-watch movies often) and could not help but feel the quote below (got from wiki) holds more meaning than what the average viewer might have been able to pick up.

"In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the new. The world is often unkind to new talents, new creations. The new needs friends. Last night, I experienced something new; an extraordinary meal from a singularly unexpected source. To say that both the meal and its maker have challenged my preconceptions about fine cooking, is a gross understatement. They have rocked me to my core. In the past, I have made no secret of my disdain for Chef Gusteau's famous motto, "Anyone can cook". But I realize — only now do I truly understand what he meant. Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere. It is difficult to imagine more humble origins than those of the genius now cooking at Gusteau's, who is, in this critic's opinion, nothing less than the finest chef in France. I will be returning to Gusteau's soon, hungry for more."

what struck me were the parts about criticism being an easy task but good criticisms are rare finds. and the new, the unknown, the seemingly threatening are more often than not excessively unwelcome. to staunchly defend the new that we believe in isn't something peculiar to the job of a critic; it's something that we all experience or witness in our lives. to me the point is whether we defend the beliefs to our deaths, or we relent and succumb to the pressures of the world in time.

food for thought...just like ratatouille XD

one more month to NS...

didn't get to work nor volunteer over this long break, but i did thankfully get to meet up with many friends and re-connect.

knowing something does not equate to experiencing something. many will have some inkling of the notion of death, but how many have truly felt what it's like to have someone close to you leave you for a better place? i can only faintly recall what my grandpa's wake was like when he passed away in my primary 5 year. i don't know why but perhaps at that tender age i was not able to grasp the idea of death of a loved one. i didn't really shed tears, i wasn't even quite able to muster up any feeling of sadness. come to think of it, one thing i could remember well was that there were nice shui jing baos there. i'm not proud of this in any way. i just feel that many a time, we as the mere observers can only see so much of the situation. so much else about the situation goes unnoticed, there are too many subtleties that "putting yourself in his/her shoes" may not suffice to provide a true understanding/empathy.

i often think to myself, how strong can a person be? i think one can only withstand so much before crumbling; we're really not beings made to DIY (even if self-help books do often advocate such a mindset). bad times bring out the most in people, that i do believe. in all honesty i'm not a very strong person; mean words and insults get to me easily (though i may appear nonchalant) and it's hard to not care about what other people think of me and just go my own way. doesn't help too that i can get soft-hearted and avoid doing things that are injurious or hurtful to others. sounds like a terrible combination huh?

and waiting can be a really torturous process. i think the torture stems from the feeling of "infinite" panging and longing for what you're waiting for to come. and undeniably we can only see so far into the future. sometimes we're waiting but have no clue what we're waiting for - so we just wait, and wait, and wait. eventually we just waste our lives away because we wait aimlessly. for me, i'm waiting for a vision that will show me the passions and dreams ordained for no one but me. i don't know when that will come by. but today i learnt to wait in faith, and i shall.

some things from the past few days!


love macarons with peanut butter and jelly filling! yumyumyumyumyum

helix bridge isn't much of a beauty in the day so i have to go there again at night!

marina bay sands mall is full of high-class and super ex fashion apparel so it's not a place i would want to go to shop. but the rooftop has super nice view and it's really good to take a nice long stroll and talk! =D

chinatown malls doesn't have much to look at! so don't some brands of apparel...like AX! i have a bit of a personal lack of liking for them, the designs are so little and so plain! having the words AX printed in large bold font across the front/sides doesn't sound impressive to me luh.

i am of the opinion that pool = physics + practice! (i make it sound so easy =p)

cool-down stretching exercises really help in muscle recovery, do them they're not silly nor a waste of time!

running from one place to another and stopping for abit of "sightseeing"/exploring/shopping is an interesting way to spend a bright sunny afternoon outdoors!

pullups still at 5/6 UGH. please reach 10 at least before i go into BMT!

work really removes alot of your free time! treasuring every gathering i get with my friends.

talking about old times/good times is really awesome!

i seriously need to get myself started on book-reading. i feel extremely guilty that i neglected the pages of wisdom for an entire month.

holidays can really not feel like holidays when you realise that many other things lie out there waiting for you to do besides academics. but they can be spent alot more meaningfully without the academic burden that's for sure!

still learning and loving to live and let God!


nice new way to blog isn't it? ;)