National Day Rally 2009 Racial & Religious Harmony

the increasing emphasis on secularization.

post philo exam

just had my philo exam. although writing an essay for the module is a pain in the ass, i really enjoyed doing the exam. 20 mcqs. all based on logic. the trick about logic is that no amount of mugging or reading will get you past the obstacle if you do not possess any modicum of logic. this point is best illustrated by hermoinie in the second harry potter book when she demonstrated the use of logic getting past the obstacles set by snape.

2 passages (not related to logic at all) i particularly liked from the paper:

From Plato's Republic, (371; 347c-e):
This, (Socrates) said, is why good men are not willing to rule for the sake of money or honor. They dont wish to be seen openly demanding payment or service in government, as that would earn them the name of hired hand; nor do they wish to earn the name of thief, by dipping their hand in the public till. Not being ambitious, they do not care about honor. As a result of all this, a yoke of compulsion and penalty must be laid upon their necks, if they are to consent to rule. And this, I imagine, is the reason why willingly seeking office, when one might have waited to be compelled, has been deemed dishonorable. But the essence of the punishment is that he who refuses to rule is liable to end up being ruled by one worse than himself. The way I look at it, fear of this bad result makes the good take office, whenever they do, and then they approach it, not as something good or in the expectation of enjoying themselves, but as a necessary evil since they are unable to foist off the chore of ruling on anyone as good or better than themselves. Indeed, if there were a city entirely peopled by good men, we might well find men would content as eagerly to avoid public office as they do here to obtain it. In that place it would become quite clear that the nature of the true ruler is not to look after his own interests, but rather those of his subjects; and everyone who knew this would choose rather to receive a benefit from another, instead of being put to the trouble of conferring them all around.

From Jonathan Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis (p. 21-22)
The point of these studies is that moral judgment is like aesthetic judgment. When you see a painting, you usually know instantly and automatically whether you like it. If someone asks you to explain your judgment, you confabulate. You dont really know why you think something is beautiful, but your interpreter module (the rider) is skilled at making up reasons.. You search for a plausible reason for liking the painting, and you latch on to the first reason that makes sense (maybe something vague about color, or light, or the reflection of the painter in the clown's shiny nose). Moral arguments are much the same: Two people feel strongly about an issue, their feelings come first, and their reasons are invented on the fly, to throw at each other. When you refute a person's argument, does she generally change her mind and agree with you? Of course not, because the argument you defeated was not the cause of her position; it was made up after the judgment was already made.

When i read these 2 passages i was like wow. I was reading them for the sake of gleaning insights from the words instead of reading them to attempt to answer the exam question =X

this post is dedicated to PCKK

had the talk with the team some mondays back. aired my (perhaps flawed) views and hope that some of it (the unflawed views) will hopefully be internalized in the coming semesters. and training will improve. otherwise, i'm walking. i am resolute.

throughout the entire particularly trying period, my brothers have been a pillar of strength. yixiong for meticulously and methodologically listing out the pros and cons of my course of action. zhijian for his ability to pierce the veil of fuzzy thinking and elucidate cogent observations. bernard for his ever dependable i-understand-what-you-are-going-through remarks.

we are made from the same paper (Bernard Kho, 2009). this particular statement struck a chord within me because it highlights just how much we have gone through together. from hard training together to post training bonding sessions slurping cheng teng; from gay-only climbing trips (not by choice) to cranking hard at climbing competitions, these are the people who have walked a sizeable spectrum of the climbing circle with me and understand my rationales best.

of course not forgetting felicia. for being ever patient. and for standing by a sometimes driven-till-unbearable extent boyfriend. for reading and re-reading draft 1,2...10 of my little talk. i penned it to make sure every word made an impact. i certainly hope they did.

the bottomline is truly this: i dont want to talk cock, i just want to climb hard.

glad that this entire rather uncomfortable saga is now a thing of the past. next up are exams and then it's off to hampi for a rocktrip! my first purely bouldering trip! am really looking forward to attempting the routes featured in pilgrimage.

on a sidenote, i qualified for my first open men difficulty climbing finals at rockon09! am psyched to work even harder.


Benjamin Franklin: If Passion drives, let Reason hold the reins.

yeah wadeva

Hello Team Training,

I am very angsty now. And very disappointed. Today I went down to training. We started off with 20 mins ARC. And then we went upstairs and stared into space for 1 hour. My last competition was ClimbOn just 4 days ago. I was severely aching all over from the competition (having slogged my ass out boulder circuiting everything). I can truly say that I really did this competition to the best of my ability. Everything that I couldn’t do, I really couldn’t do yet. I was really inspired by the competition. My prior training has paid off. I remember last year, a certain somebody was more than double my score. But this year, I am catching up. I have narrowed the gap. There is hope still.

Today I went to training feeling really psyched. I haven’t climbed in 4 days since the competition. Am looking forward to training hard again to reap even more rewards. I have Rock On next weekend and really should be doing boulder endurance/high wall/anything that will boost my performance within these 2 weeks. BUT NO. I WENT TO TRAINING JUST NOW AND SPENT 1 HOUR STARING INTO SPACE. after which i rushed through my boulder endurance and kena flashpumped.

I understand the inter and novice girls need some psyche in their lives. I know they need training. But to take up the entire wall at the expense of the men?!

Since I’ve entered NUS, it has always been, “open men arh. You all go upstairs, do whatever you want, later come down free climb.” DU LANZ. Open men need training one also leh. I don’t understand why open men always expected to give in to the other categories. I don’t understand why open men is always left to their own devices.

I am a YEAR 2 OPEN MEN. I don’t know about the other open men. But I HAVE POTENTIAL. I AM NOT A LOST CAUSE IN OPEN MEN. I NEED TRAINING TOO. I WANT TO CATCH UP TO MY CLIMBING HEROES OF THE PAST AND COMPETE ON THE SAME LEVEL AS THEM. I don’t want to play big brother all the time and expect to help little brother here, help this brother there. I am in fact, a little brother, too.

Ever since Year 1, I’ve come to realise that this training is not doing me any good at all. I’ve had long discussions with many seniors and seriously contemplated screwing NUS training. But I give in. Social gathering. Team bonding. Yeah whatever. DUDE, laughing and gossiping during training is NOT training. Enjoy the route yes. Climb hard and have fun yes. But sitting around gossiping and chit chatting?? I don’t know about the rest. But my goals are different. I want to TRY MY BEST. I want to attain a podium finish. I don’t know why, but I’m driven about my climbing. Maybe it’s because I HAVE A FRIEND WHO LOVED CLIMBING SO MUCH BUT DIDNT LIVE TO ENJOY IT? I feel like I have to carry on his legacy? It just irks me that I go to training and I WASTE TIME. I could have better spent that time finishing up my essay/tut/project OR doing clinical training.

Thanks team training. You have been a great help to me. Really.

K Thanks Bye,
Jansen