无谓忙碌

千忙百累无闲暇，
日夜奔波到头空，
无谓忙碌不是我，
不如漫步诗人梦。

温柔的夜 by 邓妙华

我的心是悠悠的湖水
温柔的月色是你的倒影
你把自己浸在夜里
未湿的长发牵动我的相思

我的心是轻轻的涟漪
开展的波纹是我的情绪
若能让你向左湖畔
你眼睛将是我梦里最美的心

多希望拥有小小的衣裳
轻轻为你点亮一盏灯
让我看清你 让我看清你
怕过了明天你不是做梦的年龄

多希望拥我全部的生命
滴滴为你清唱这爱情
让你感觉我 让你感觉我
思念的湖水里浮动你的倒影
让我看清你 让我看清你
怕过了明天你不是做梦的年龄

This used to be an ending theme for a TV serial, and I managed to find it on Youtube.

Still too early, but...

Winds blow,
Footsteps slow,
Rivers flow,
Boats tow,
I know,
It will snow.

(Written 11 years ago, on 4 Nov 1998, when it was still too early to snow...)

Calligraphy piece - 精湛 exhibition piece

This is the actual piece displayed during the exhibition, after all the work thinking up of the phrase, practising for it, and finally preparing it.

Besides the main exhibition at Tokyo, my teacher will also be helping me to enter this in the local exhibition in Yokosuka.

Calligraphy exhibition

The exhibition by 温知会 took place from 30 Oct to 3 Nov. It is an event that happens once every two years in late Oct or early Nov. Below are the pieces displayed at the exhibition, written by my calligraphy teacher.

The first is a set of 76 Chinese characters written by my teacher.

Next is a set of kana written by her.

I will be posting my piece in a separate post.

The Secret History of the World

I recently finished reading this book. It is about how things can be explored in a different way. Instead of the way of science that we are so used to, it asks us to consider exploring the world as how our ancestors would see it, in a more spiritual way. It also touches on the development of secret societies and how these societies seek to preserve the spiritual thinking of the past, and how such thinking actually helped to evolve mankind, and will continue to evolve mankind.

The book tries to draw a parallel between creation of the world as outlined by Genesis (and some Greek mythology), and creation of the world as proposed by science (Big Bang and evolution). I thought it was quite interesting to see how such parallels could be drawn, to see how passages in the Bible could be interpreted in a more conceptual sense rather than taken at face value (word for word meaning).

I think the more interesting idea to explore will be to look into the creation myths of other cultures (such as the Egyptians, the Indians, the Chinese) to see how the theories proposed by science can have parallels to these other creation myths. After all, if what the book proposes is true, the spiritual way of thinking is handed down in various cultures and thus their creation myths must in some way contain similar parallels.

Secret (2007 film by Jay Chou)

Okay, I am not a Jay Chou fan. In fact, I don't really know any songs by him.

I watched this movie because I had nothing better to do. And of course, the girl's (she is actually 桂纶镁 Kwai Lun Mei) face on the DVD cover looked pretty. I found the DVD lying around in office, and decided to take a look. It did help to kill some time.

What I liked about the movie is the simple yet romantic plot. The endearing process of two people meeting and falling in love. And then it seems that they cannot be together. But by some effort, they managed to be together again. Sounds amazing like the Return of the Condor Heroes. But hey, like I said, I am a sucker for love stories.

As said, I like the plot. Impossible yet romantic. And maybe it is because the plot is impossible, that makes it all the more romantic. Recommended for those who like love stories, and impossible romantics.

The moon

We share the same bright white lamp,
No matter where on the earth we tramp.
White light bringing a gentle glow,
Even as the cold winds blow.
The changing intensity of the light,
From bright to dark, dark to bright.
Changing slowly with each day,
As I look up from the bay.
Far apart but close at heart,
It is a pity we must part.
Yet know that here the moon is full,
How I wish you were here too.
To share with you this bright full moon,
And my life, be it midnight or noon.
How I wish you were here with me,
Instead of the miles between us that be.
Watching the moon while holding your hands,
It beats sharing the moon in different lands.

Happy Halloween

I guess Halloween is not something usually celebrated in Singapore, but it has recently caught on (I guess it has to do with the exposure to Western culture) so here's wishing everyone a happy Halloween!

On Facebook

I am finally on Facebook.

After resisting it for so long...

Why the change of heart? I realised that quite a few of my colleagues were on Facebook, quite some friends as well. One of the reasons I didn't join Facebook was because my sister wasn't on Facebook, and she told me that I can't be more tech savvy than her. But with everyone else on Facebook, I guess it is only a matter of time before the wave caught me.

You can find me here.

我是真的真的愿意 by 小松小柏

我是真的真的愿意

如果云彩上有不雕零的花，我愿攀上天梯采下，放在你脚旁
伴随着你，用心期待，等你弯腰亲吻着它
如果山顶上有不褪色的虹，我愿谱上绚丽音符，藏在我心中
默默为你，附上新诗，直到你能为它歌唱
我是真的真的愿意，生生和世世只因为爱你
你是否愿意为我守候，让未来的路以永恒为期盼

如果山顶上有不褪色的虹，我愿谱上绚丽音符，藏在我心中
默默为你，附上新诗，直到你能为它歌唱
我是真的真的愿意，生生和世世只因为爱你
你是否愿意为我守候，让未来的路以永恒为期盼

我是真的真的愿意，生生和世世只因为爱你
你是否愿意为我守候，让未来的路以永恒为期盼

(I can't find this on Youtube, so just the lyrics. Recommended by a friend of mine.)

Another collision

Just when you thought things have quieten down for the JMSDF, they decided to get themselves into the news again.

Japanese destroyer tried to stop before collision: defense chief

Not a good thing, too many collisions in too short a timespan.

In collisions at sea, the naval vessel usually comes out the loser. Because you would think that a warship, tasked with shooting the enemy, would have better sense that to get itself into navigational problems. It is hard to shoot the enemy if you can't even navigate safely.

"The mark of a great shiphandler is never getting into situations that require great shiphandling." - Ernest J. King

Other sea service quotes can be found here.

Carrying a notebook

To most of your, carrying a notebook around probably makes you think about carrying a portable computer around. After all, unlike the good old days, when portable computers cost a bomb and weighed like one, the netbooks available nowadays are small and cheap as well.

But no, I am not talking about computers here, I am talking about the paper kind of notebooks.

I used to carry a notebook wherever I went. I would jot down thought, phrases that came to mind. I would then use these to expand on for prose and short writings. The recent spate of works were results of my notebooks.

But I haven't been doing that for a while.

Then an established writer, You Jin, mentioned in a recent newspaper article that she always carries her notebooks with her wherever she goes. It reminded me of my past practice, and I have once again decided to stick with it.

A notebook allows you to capture your thoughts before your forget them. They serve as ideas or references for future expansion, even if eventually you choose not to work on them. The ideas noted down can be built on, expanded, combined with other thoughts/ideas. Or left alone. But if you don't capture them down in a notebook when you can, you will end up losing them. Because too many things race through our minds each day, it is just impossible for us to remember each and every thought/idea.

Calligraphy piece - 精湛 exhibition prep

While in Japan, I spent some time working on my calligraphy piece, which is going to be part of an exhibition organised by 温知会 from 30 Oct to 3 Nov. The final products are below.
One of them will used for the exhibition, depending on my teacher's decision. A vast improvement from the drafts so far.

At Le Soleil

We visited a place called Le Soleil while in Japan. It was a farm theme park, where children get to see flowers, farm animals, even ride on ponies and milk goats. But, it happened to be raining on the day we went, and all the animals went indoors and there wasn't much we could do.

The baby, though, managed to see some goats, and even got a chance to feel a guinea pig. Guess it wasn't a totally wasted trip after all.