a little too gay for my liking

i have a friend. i think he's gay. just had a rockclimbing competition over the weekend, and this friend of mine, whom i've 'climbed' up with over the last 7 years or so, did totally gay shit stuff on a whole new gayness level.

for the qualifiers we finished the exact same route using the exact same moves. it's as if we share some telepathic link.

for the finals we both had the exact same result. and no we did not liaise to fall at the exact same places beforehand.

it's as like we were made from the same factory. in fact, he said it himself once before. we are made from the same paper. gay shite. sends chills down my spine. think i better stop hanging out with him so often.

bernard kho, if girls get scared off i'm holding you responsible.

p.s. bernard is nice guy who is loyal, faithful and will not break your heart. please take him away from me. for his sake and mine.

nepalese visitors in my house

totally random! my dad went for some buddhist artifacts expo at the singapore buddhist library and made two nepalese friends. they are involved in the manufacturing, retailing and exporting of items of worship and promptly became best of pals with my dad, who is a huge fan of such items. a testimony to his passion is the house. almost every nook and cranny is crammed with art pieces depicting various gods.

i profess to say that while i do not believe in the notion of a god, i cant help but get infected with my dad's enthusiasm for his collection. words cannot described how thrilled he was while parading his art collection to his guests. guess he finally found people who shared his joys, as opposed to the usual bored face he has to put up with when trying to get his sons to appreciate the (in his opinion) super-duper intricate/precise/kingly carvings.

personally, i am a do-er more than a collector. i would prefer to learn how to do the thing instead of have someone else do it and then i buy the item from him. wouldnt you agree it kinda takes away the joy derived from the enduring process of mastering the craft. well, to each his own!

anyways i struck up a conversation with the guests. i started the ball rolling by asking them about nepal, and whether they prefer singapore or nepal. was expecting answers along the lines of 'oh we dislike the concrete jungle that is singapore' or 'we love the fresh mountain air and tranquil, majestic scenery of the himalayas'. but no! they started espousing the virtues of singapore. how the whole country is spic and span; how the system here is efficient; how the country is not plagued by crippling strikes like nepal is, etc. the things that i have taken for granted are very much appreciated by them! indeed, the grass is always greener on the other side.

they shared with me how the country used to be governed under a monarchy system, until it was replaced recently by a democratic system. at this point, let me digress a little. i remember a while ago whilst conducting a climbing workshop, i had an interesting conversation with a PRC citizen who is currently working in singapore as a futures trader. i asked him, "which political system do you think is better? singapore's democracy or china's communism?". his reply made me laugh real hard. "singapore is not a true democratic state and neither is china is a true communist country. i cant comment". shrewd.

anyways, back to the nepalese. they shared with me several interesting tidbits.

1. the maoist terrorists are creating a lot of problems in the country. the people have allowed the maoists into government, which they promptly screwed up. the pissed-off people voted them out, and as a resort they turn to terrorism to force their agenda onto the nepalese.
2. the country is predominantly buddhist and hindu, with a christian and muslim minority. i asked him if they fought among themselves, and he laughed. no no he reassured me. nothing of that sort.
3. he complained about how hard nepalese people work, but because of a lack of opportunities, they can never seem to break out of the poverty cycle. he seemed resigned this fate facing many of his fellow countrymen. but i can see him earnestly trying to be the change that he wishes to see. dear nepalese friend, i applaud your gung-ho attitude and your derring-do, making the journey all the way to singapore to hawk your wares and trying to improve your lives! i respect you and think you certainly have more ambition than the author of this prose.

as usual, i started talking to them about rockclimbing and how i can pursue it in nepal. after establishing some facts about the place and the proximity of the climbing hotspots to the capital of nepal (kathmandu), i'm currently entertaining the idea of going down to nepal come the end of this year for a rock-climbing trip. especially psyched after hearing that the trip costs about $1k and is a 5 hour plane ride away.

a funny note: i very enthusiastically asked him whether he knew david lama, and he gave me a blank look. "david who?", he replied. i told him david lama is a famous rock-climbing athlete from nepal and how i'm a big fan of the way he gracefully eases up hard-as-hell routes, and then ends off his brilliant climb with just a shy smile. narayan (the nepalese dude) laughed. he said he has no idea who this david lama is, but he would certainly know who the big handicraft dealers are. on hindsight, i laugh at my lack of understanding on the subject of cultural relativism.

all in all, an interesting night!

'from eden to exile' and 'predictably irrational'

been doing some reading lately, and want to share 2 books which i particularly enjoyed.

the first title is 'from eden to exile' by eric. h. cline. the book approaches biblical stories from an archaeological perspective. through the various chapters in the book, in order of the garden of eden, noah's ark, sodom and gomorrah, moses and the exodus, joshua and the battle of jericho, the ark of the covenant, the ten lost tribes of israel, the author examines the evidence unearthed in close to two centuries of archaeological work. he presents the evidence from various parties in an even-handed manner, and encourages the reader to draw his own conclusions. i find this approach very amenable and feel this is the approach every intellectually honest person should adopt.

the author points out how some researchers start off with a priori assumptions (e.g. the holy book as literal truth), and as a result commit the fallacy of confirmatory bias. also, throughout the history of many archaeological expeditions, there have been numerous under-qualified and over-zealous charlatans ready to sell the impressionable public their unjustified or exaggerated claims. overall, i find it peculiar how the religious thoughts of top biblical scholars remain detached from those of their 'flocks'. for example, some biblical scholars have long renounced the existence of a personal god and acknowledge the sullying of the bible by human hands. funny then, how the common church-goer still believes in a personal god and trumpet the bible as divine inspiration .

of course, the book acknowledges that the absence of evidence does not mean the evidence of absence. that is to say, the fact that we do not have any evidence yet does not mean that we can never find that evidence in the future, and we shouldn't draw any premature conclusions. however, the book also points out countless instances, whereby based on current evidence, biblical stories do not corroborate with other historical records (Egyptians or Babylonians). a fact that left an impression on me was that if sodom and gomorrah really did suffer the destruction on the scale described in the bible; or if the walls of jericho really did come crashing down, then these ought to leave behind traces of evidence. and yes as you pretty much could have guessed by now, there is zero supporting evidence.

another book which i really liked was 'predictably irrational' by dan. ariely. he asserts how human beings are not only irrational, but predictably so. highly interesting read, illuminating how the human mind works in peculiar ways. have become more conscious of my every action as a result. the gosling imprinting effect, the expectations effect, the FREE! effect and the placebo effect, among others, cast illusions on the mind, which affects the rationality of our actions. i want to master my mind.

will end off with a video which i think is a brilliant response to people of faith who use emotional blackmail in their attempts to convert non-believers.

and they keep coming in...

Jansen,

Sorry I don't usually message strangers out of the blue- but I read a friend's twitter which featured your post "Letter to a Christian Girlfriend."

Let me preface by saying that you are brave for sharing your thoughts and I applaud you. I reached exactly those conclusions in my life. Mind you, I was indoctrinated at Sunday School as a kid & attended Bible Study as a teen and was even a Christian Fellowship President (ahh.. the irony) at school. However, I did question the teachings and decided that it wasn't for me.

Suffice to say you obviously have support amongst your friends, and this message from me says that you have support amongst strangers. Take care!

PS: I see that you boulder. Nice v10s btw. too bad they dont make 'em anymore.

the passing of a titan

"the Economic Development Board, the Jurong Town Corporation, the Monetary Association of Singapore and the Government Investment Corporation were all initiated by the economist with a PhD from the London School of Economics'

''.. cut through hierarchy and preferred to deal with young officers. he was a tough boss who refused to suffer fools.."

"the only way to avoid making mistakes is not to do anything. and that will be the ultimate mistake.."

"Dr Phua spoke of her late husband with spirit. throughout his many illnesses, his battles against diabetes and a stroke, she stood by his side, fiercely protective.."

"He's a very simple man. he was a man who sometimes didnt even carry money around with him"

".. how Dr Goh's thriftiness remained undiminished, even in hospital. when using the tissue paper in the ward, Dr Goh tore each sheet in half, saving the other for future use. if his wife used an entire sheet, he chided her by saing: "it's taxpayer's money"."

"the man who valued above all simplicity, privacy and humility.."

"a fitting reception for one who spurned all excess, pomp and circumstance"

"instead of mesmerizing a nation with eloquence, Dr Goh chose to be the fix-it-all lieutenant who conjured up and carried out almost every major decision the then-government made"

a new adventure!

07/05/10: finally finished my last paper. !@#$%. peers finished their exams like 1 week before i ended mine. spent entire day shifting out of hall. made like a gazillion trips to and fro room and car. reached home and realised i forgot to return the damned room key. horrors.

08/05/10: all that stuff shifted out of hall had to end up somewhere. assimilated them within acceptable standards into the house. spent slightly over an hour washing the car only to have the rain pour down when driving to the airport to send the new zealand gang off.

a friend: they 3 months new zealand leh. shiok.

me: i also 3 months. shiong.

09/05/10: climbX event. loved the routes. expected nothing less from the route-setting guru. first time competing in a climbX even though i'm an alumnus from the school. nostalgia..

10/05/10. start work at 9am. peak hour jam. got swamped with company operating procedures and acronyms. visited 3 sites in the afternoon. 1 construction site wear long sleeve leather shoes (office wear) chiong sua over muddy terrain. sweat like a pig. 2 shopping malls walk until leg shag. ma chiam shopping except i'm shopping for building defects and maintenance issues. unpaid OT for 30mins. peak hour jam. end of first day at work. prelude to working life?

i learned a lot though and saw the world from an entirely different perspective. really appreciate my superior for being warm, sincere and down-to-earth. want to absorb everything like a sponge.

writing all these down in singlish once in a while feels good.. no need for overly uptight grammatical correctness.. educated singaporeans should be able to code-switch between the 2

the unconsidered life is not worth living

the oft-quoted words of Socrates, who for being a gadfly to Athens, paid the ultimate price for his unwavering insistence on discourse.

often, when encountering issues i perceive as unjust and feel very strongly against, i feel compelled to speak up. most of the time, i get lambasted as being strident or for not caring about the feelings of others; or for being too radical. i've learned that forceful reasoning on its own is insufficient. only when weaved together with tactful persuasion, then can it create lasting impact.

i go around sussing out popular opinion and end up asking the inevitable question - am i the only person holding these views? when i speak to other like-minded individuals, i realise that people share the same views as me, but do not speak up for various reasons. because they gain no reward out of the enterprise, or because they prefer to take the easier option of drifting behind in the tide i've created.

the most amusing reply i've received is to not think too much. if your belief (on whatever issue) is infallible, then it should stand up to scrutiny. defend your arguments. 'don't think too much' might be good advice for certain people, but it lacks intellectual honesty, so i cannot let such an adage form a core value in my life.

this video serves as a good reminder to me to constantly reflect on my life, and decide whether i want to just take the easy path and 'go-with-the-flow', or whether i should shape my life with my own hands.