red tape...

okie this flick is quite old... old like it's in the 7 day catergory of video e-z... it's the movie swat... special weapons and tactics... in it i learnt that doing the right thing is not necessarily right... especially when the thing that has to be done is tied with like miles of red tape... lets take my life for example... more specifically my army days... as a medic... i don't need to tell you all this but the medical profession is tied up with not just red tape but proberbly all other colours of tapes imaginable... we have a job to do and it's never easy to do the proper thing... usually it's just because your leaders expect you to complete the task given to you while expecting the task to be done in a manner that requires one to disregard the proper authorities... hence most of the time we try to work around the system... during audits, everthing that has to be done are completed... but on usual working days, much can be said about working attitudes... like i've always stated... army teaches us 2 things: how to be creative and how to think out of the box to solve ones' problems... talk about doing the wrong things right... if you asked if any of us would have done it the right way... everyone would proberly tell you their right way...

recently i had a de ja vu... apparently army does have some connections to real life... now that i've ended army i've joined back into the uniformed organization that i've left when i entered army... in the space of 3 odd years, i've returned to a place that i am a total stranger to... the people are different, the place is different, the system is different, the flavour is gone... i've always wondered why the people of my batch left... first they went to another company then they left altogether... i always thought it was a rash decision on their part, considering their reason for leaving was that they didn't feel that they have defined roles and were not utilised to their full potential... i told them the right thing to do was to take the matter into their own hands to forge a new future... maybe that's why they kept insisting on going to another company... now that i've been back for about 3 weeks i kind of understand why... there is red tape everywhere... i was told that now we couldn't do many "things"... many of these "things" we did, we did it openly and regularly... that was long ago... but the policemen at that time had already began wearing long pants... furthermore apparently these "things" were deamed not constructive... therefore it was taken away... i wouldn't really say that such "things" we did had held any purpose or were constructive in any manner... but honestly these "things" we did did mould us into physically and mentally stronger people...

in my time in the army, i've always felt that the new recurits had better and better lives... simply because the army too believes that some of the activites they conducted no longer held any importance and therefore had to be retired... i felt that the army was churning out a less prepared solider and was doing it for the sake of doing it... churning out soliders...
now it has come to pass that we have a annual leadership camp to hold... when i went for it, it was the one thing that everybody dreaded... if you've survived it, you'd have the honour of wearing the badge with pride... unfortunally now it's been claimed to be boring and as one of the older boys put it... it had no direction... apparently now it's just another camp in just another year... yet part of the fun of the camp was to tell of the horrors that you survived through...

everything that is done has to be done for a reason... and it better be a good reason... as the higher up put it... if it can be done in another way why then must we put them through the old way where they have to suffer to learn something? but then again if you don't suffer, the lesson usually don't stick very long... does it? suffering doesn't really make a good reason, it definately doesn't make a right reason... but if the right thing to do is to reason that the right is now considered wrong, why do we still condone the wrong things when they are being dished out?

i've just watched coach carter... if you want something you must go get it... and even if you feel that you deserve to get something... that doesn't mean that it'll be given to you... the gym lockout was the right thing but the parents sure didn't feel that way... they forced the school board to reopen the gym (reasoning the right thing's wrong...) because they felt that basketball is more important than studying... and the kids needed basketball to get into college even though no college would except them... and the board excepts this because they don't want trouble from the parents(condoning the wrong thing)...

is this how life has changed while i was protected in the army? honestly i always thought army was too soft... is it because of what i've alredy been through or is it because they need to accomodate the softer people in times to come? a right decision here would be to follow the direction that the school has set... in part for the children's safety... but really are we becoming so pampered that the wrong decision here would seem so cruel? but maybe the right thing is to follow the direction given... even if it seems wrong to us...

driving...

i've offically been goning for driving lessons for4 days... i tend to stall when i start or stop... but it got better today... today i stalled only three times... it's quite an achievement already... on the third lesson i stalled like tens of thousands of times... okie maybe just ten odd times... it's actually quite tiring to go everyday... i think the instructor's also quite tired to see me... hahahaha... completed stage 1 today... hahaha...

what movie???

just finished watching the movie swordfish... was actually clueless about what it was about... i mean did you know what the movie was about? at first i thought it was a hacker movie... i mean that's what the flick is mainly about... like the ad said "the world's best hackers could do it in sixty minutes... i need a person to do it in sixty seconds... then i thought it's one of those ovies with a mixed gendre... a bank stealing movie plus computer hacking movie... i mean that's true too... the were planing to steal some money by hacking through the bank's system... then it got wried again... the film incorperated another gendre... the police story... then right at the end... john travolta's character clears it all up in an amazing 15 minutes... it turns out that the movie is about national security... he's doing all the bad things all for the good of his country and their way of living... then right at the end of the movie they show john's and halle's character killing one of the world's most infamous terrorists... okie maybe... if they did a show about killing terrorist maybe they can have sequels... there were many terrorist to kill... hahahaha... sorrie to any terrorist out there... the flick was cool though... it was a interesting... the plot twist were great... and the pic was filmed great... the bombing scene was totally cool... i mean if anything... the way they handled the hostages most terrorists can learn from them...

i dun like racists and...

today in the papers the papers there was an article on how singaporeans view racism... racsim is a real danger in singapore especially since we are a multiracial country... with a history or racial riots and a fear of terrorism... how can we of all people be as insensitive about the people that we have to rely on to keep this country well oiled and running...

apparently many that wrote in believed that racism is okay as long as it wasn't used in a direct malicious way... there was this one guy who wrote that the stereotypes of the various races was something that identified themselves... really? i as a chinese would not like to be known as yellow skined as much as an indian would be insulted if someone refered to him as black...

there was this other person who wrote about keeping the races "pure"... he is totally against interracial marriages for himself and his children... but don't children of interracial marriages turn out to be more often than not the bueatiful people... in this day and age this sort of mentality is quite surprising... especially in singapore where the government is actually encouraging interracial interaction... maybe this person's actual intention was lost when the papers wrote down his comments or maybe he just lives in a very chinese part of singapore... which i don't believe exists...

there was this lady who writes that she was turned down for a scholarship application because she was malay... in her face... because they didn't want to employ her later as malays and indians are known to create trouble... apparently these people subscribe to the honesty is the best policy too closely... but these troubles would be easliy avoided if these events don't exists... maybe i'm navie...

having a happy and cohesive community is probably the most effective way to combat the evils of terrorism and racial disharmony... obviously some people just don't understand it... stuck in the 12th century perhaps... sorry to sound like i'm bitching but it is...

boredom...

too much time is the greatest boredom imaginable...

life III...

love is only a word...
what matters is the connection it implies...

life... part 2...

innocence
allows us to see the world in a grain of sand,
heaven in a wild flower,
hold infinity in the plam of your hand
and spend eternity in and hour...

life...

life is like a box of crayons...
some are bright...
some are dull...
some are sharp...
some are blunt...
some are all too common...
some have weird names...
but they all live in the same box...

no pain no gain...

todae i went to play badminton...
was it fun?
yes...
was it painful?
yes... but only my right forearm...
got tennis elbow...
and a super sore wrist...
which explains most of the typos...
hahahahaha...
especially since after 3 hours of badminton....
i played three games of bowling...
crazy?
no...
but it was a whole lot of fun...
did i mention that my fingers can't stop shivering....
maybe thats not so funny...
but it was fun...
at least...

the lord of the files...

i just finished reading the book... i happened to come across it when i was going through by bookcase... thought it had something to do with the flick the fly... horriblily wrong... it's actually about a group of boys stuck on a tropical island with no adults... think of it as the reality show surivior with the pretty girls and the one million dollars... it's actually a book that was used as a literature text in school... found that out when someone saw me reading it... okie... it's not a bad book... it's actually quite interesting... but as all literature text goes... some parts are totally lost in itself... the book goes on about how different ideas will fracture the relationship between people no matter how simmilar in character the persons are... as in the main characters ralph and jack... the book was set in the time at the end of the second world war... i think... and the boys are all brits... don't take it wrongly... but i think the brits are not all that high and mighty... as the expectations of them to be a civilised bunch... the author writes about something that we all can relate to... the chance to let go... to let go of the conformities and social norms that we are so attached to... on the island the boys were at first civilised... they tried to set up a structure... a social structure... then as time went on some of them found clay which they used to hind their faces when they went hunting... this liberation gave them a freedom they had never tasted before in the rigid english society... accidicted to this freedom they abandoned the structure... they became savages... lived by the primal law of survival of the fittest... the weaker were pushed out and a new more barbaric structure took over... but living on an island, no matter how prefect, alone is still no way to stop fear from seaping into society... in the book it says of a monster which comes out of the ocean in the night... a monster so frightening that none have the courage to face it... my friend said the book's about how no adult supervision and direction will lead to a society where everything goes and only the fit can survive... mainly that would be the case... but i feel that the book is more of the will to survive... given the circumtances the boys were in they still managed to live on regardless of the presence of an adult figure... nothing can triumph over this primal instinct in us all... just like the boys on this island... the author probably lived through the war with nothing more than his will to survive to make it through the darkest and bleakest time of his life... only he didn't do it on a tropical island with food available... he did it on a island surrounded by the enemy... the enemy just like a monster coming out of the ocean every night...

for all those that need to read the book but haven't you can use whatever is stated here...