Busy long weekend!

Good Friday and Easter weekend. Busy busy busy! With some guests from Japan (okay, relatives).

It started with a Friday at Universal Studio Singapore. We thought the crowd would be smaller since we expected people to be at church. We were a bit correct, the crowd at opening was smaller, but it grew towards lunchtime. Still, the weather was okay, it wasn't very hot, with a bit of rain to cool things down. Only thing was the technical errors at the two rides (Transformers, and Elmo) that we wanted to go for; queued for an hours at Transformers only to have to leave when the error closed down the ride, and couldn't even join the queue for the Elmo show.

Saturday was spent catching a movie, The Croods. Something for the kids (ours, and my wife's niece). Then rushed back after dinner to practise calligraphy.

Sunday, Easter Sunday, today, was especially busy. The kid had a performance at the church, and that was followed by some more calligraphy practice (I need to hand in some "homework"). And then it was again off to dinner, to celebrate the kid's 4th birthday. Time flies!

PS. Pictures will follow once I have time to sort them out.

The failing of a genius

One can be a genius and still fail. Why? How?

A genius is great at what he does. He has his own way of thinking, his own logic, his own internal system that allows him to achieve what others, the average guy, cannot.

The trouble comes when the genius tries to help the average guy. He tries to teach the average guy his system; worse, he tries to dictate that the average guy follows his system. He fails to see that his system only works for him... it only works because of the genius.

The average guy trying to use the genius' system may not do very well. He may not even succeed. He may not understand the system. Over time, the system becomes a relic. It may even get in the way.

The genius can help the average guy not by sharing his system with the average guy, but by helping the average guy develop a system that works for the average guy. That way, the average guy owns his own system, he understands his own system, and it works for him.

So if your method works, before you go around sharing it, ask yourself: does your method work because of you, or because of the method?

The Beast

Kind heart,
Fearsome shell,
Waiting,
For Belle.

Going to Navy@Vivo

RSS Intrepid is at Vivocity to support this event called Navy@Vivo. We spent the day walking around Vivocity, taking a look at the booth. What a crowd!

The Sea Hawk helicopter is out on the deck as well, for all to see.

There's a free "dress-up & shoot" section at the booth. You can wear navy uniforms and they will take a photo of your as a souvenir, for free!

Somehow, we managed to get onboard. My son found the commanding officer's chair and took a seat on it. Not easy to get on this chair, it takes years of training and hard work to get there.

昔日故人今不在

昔日故人今不在，
桌上铜镜给谁用?
伤感伤心又伤寒，
夜静无人望月叹。

Flight (the 2012 movie)

"Flight" is a film about facing up to oneself. It is about having the courage to admit to what one really is, and to have the strength to change if need be.

An addict finds it hard to kick the habit; that's why he continues the habit. It takes courage to admit that one is an addict, that the habit is detrimental to oneself. It then takes strength to effect that change, to kick that habit.

That's what the main character in this movie is. He is a hero, an ace; he saved lives. But he is also an alcoholic and drug addict. He could have continued to bask in his hero glory and lived his decadent lifestyle, but he found the courage to face up to this addiction, even though it meant the end of his career.

What he did takes a lot of courage and moral strength.

Do I have that same courage and moral strength to face up to myself and what I am?

RSS Intrepid at Vivocity

RSS Intrepid, one of the stealth frigates from the Republic of Singapore Navy, is now at Vivocity.

It is open to the public from 15 to 17 Mar 2013. Heard that tickets for 15 Mar have all been given out, do make it there early on 16 or 17 Mar to get the tickets for those days. The ticket booth, inside Vivocity, is open from 10am on those two days.

Here's the duty watch raising the navy ensign during the traditional morning colours ceremony.

2 years already

It has been two years already since the 3/11 earthquake/tsunami hit Japan. While economically as a whole, Japan may have seemed to recovered to pre-disaster standards, part of the disaster-struck areas are still struggling to rebuild themselves. For those small towns that lost most of their population, it will be a challenge to attract people back to rebuild those towns.

The road to recovery is long. The shrinking population, the pull of big cities, coupled with administrative red tape doesn't help much.

人去楼空，无可奈何

人去楼空，无可奈何，
故人不走，新人不来。
新欢虽好，不比旧爱。
伴我度过，杜康好友。

* Random ramblings on a quiet Monday night.

You need some slack to turn

In taiji, you need to relax so that you can move.

In life, I think it is the same thing. When you are going at 100%, you cannot change direction. When you are putting in 100% effort, you can't change the way you are doing things. In order to change something, you need to cut yourself some slack. Go at 80%, or even less, so that you can use that 20% (or more) to change things.

Something that I learnt from pushing hands, and something that I think applies in other areas of life too. Sometimes, pushing too hard doesn't change anything. You need to ease off a bit in order for things to change.

Self-discovery: From the heart

Something that I am learning about myself.

I hate people who don't talk straight to the point. To me, it would seem that being straightforward is being sincere. Thus, when people beat about the bush, or try to be tactful, I would most likely take it as a sign of insincerity. If you mean something, say it. If you don't have the moral courage to say what you think, then don't waste my time.

And I hate people who try to be more than they are. People who talk like experts when they do not have enough expert knowledge turns me off. For such people, I would not hesitate to call their bluff and even make them look bad. I prefer humble people.

In short, I prefer people who are themselves, and not try to be someone that they are not.

It's about respect

There is a Chinese saying, 一日为师，终生为父, which translates into "a teacher that teaches you for a day should be treated like a father for a lifetime". Some may think that this is some old, outdated way of thinking, but I think it is something that teaches us respect. If we have benefited from someone's teachings, that knowledge gained will help us in some way, big or small, for life. It will affect our lives, big or small, somehow. And thus, we should respect that person for passing on that knowledge to us. Yes, in this day and age, we may not need to treat him like a parent, but we should still pay him the proper respect.