!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> Past. Present. Future: July 2006

Past. Present. Future

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

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i rmb my mar-der few days ago show me the during breakfast the headlines, show the petronas towers the haze covering it like a blanket. (i seriously doubt dat the above was a proper english sentence, but oh just fuckit) according to the article they say this yr’s m’sia kena but the haze bypass s’pore. whilst walking home thru the estate just now, i wondered. bypass s’pore. does it make a diff? beginning yesterday, everywhere i see pple everywhere set up their backyard furnaces n burn burn burn. burn here burn there. i’m not against their beliefs or wad, but at least they shd choose sensible spots to set up their altars n offerings. the way i see it, some inconsiderate pple position all their pai pais right in the middle of the footpath, as if beckoning pple to set over them. then pai pai already finish, just leave the ashes like that exposed all n sundry to rain, wind n weather. the wind blow just now n the ashes flew straight into our clean laundry that we hang up to dry. now we haf to wash all our linen all over again. give chinese traditions a bad name. no wonder kids these days distance themselves from all these kind of things.

today was art day. spent most of the day chionging my coursework. as a result, all my other hw r pending. listening to flamenco music while painting is way cool i can tell u. as the hypnotic tones of the guitar fill the room, the haunting rhythms n evocative solo voices mingle wif the ochres n blues of the fresh paint. i am immersed in art. i am transported to a distant, exotic land. by day i am awed by the fiery facades n the mystical ambience of spanish cathedrals. by night, guided by moonlight, i wander thru the quiet alleyways n patios of old silent, forgotten city streets. my feet planted on cobblestones ravaged by time n space, i move unseen, there in a place where no one appeared.

n a deserted spanish square, i lay sleeping there, without support yet with support, suspending all my senses.

in a breeze from the fanning cedars, all things ceased. n i went out from myself, leaving my cares forgotten among the lilies.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

a comprehended God is not God.

before u read this, i wd like to make clear again that these views expressed r entirely my own, n in reading this, u recognize that it is an open diary so NO statement over here can b relied upon as true. u r free to disagree, n if wif haf any probs, just click the x button on the top right-hand corner of the screen n u’ll feel much better!

today, i’ll share my thoughts on a very sensitive topic. Faith.

as u all haf guessed, its pretty obvious that i believe in God. my reasons r not very philosophical, but they make sense to me.

1) i’ll never ever noe if god actually exsists or not. so its better to believe than not believe, least i realize dat god really exsists after i die n then realize that i was so wrong on such a major issue. its kinda like a gamble.

2) i believe that nothing is accidental. if something is meant to b, there’s a reason behind it. if u study stats u’ll probably already deduce dat theres a 0.0000...(to infinity)1 chance that all our natural laws exsist (n strangely) always follow a neat kind of progression. to this end then, its gd to rmb that its taken scientists centuries to try to understand our natural forces (n they're still trying to do so) so its really quite naive to think dat all these occured by chance; in the absence of a god. so i suppose only god is 'powerful' enuff to engineer such a creation. n if our beloved brain stands in front of her mirror n says, mirror mirror on the wall who’s the brainiest of them all, she’ll b most infuriated to find out dat she’s not the one, but God.

3) i’ve so far had no personal encounters wif god or “allies in the sky” (which can refer to “friendly aliens who’ve come to help us” according to my gp teacher). so i if my god exsists, he remains uncomprehendable.

religion however, is as a separate matter. it does try to explain how God works, but it remains a social construct constructed by humans for humans. created by man for man, to serve as a moral framework to guide us. so it gradually morphs n changes wif time to suit our slowly changing needs. in the polically correct sense, i can phrase it as such; i believe that God is real, but the same cannot b entirely said for religion. churches n temples r just buildings. nothing more.

so wad is my god then?? Buddha? Allah? Jesus? Shiva? Bahomet? Mao? no. i believe that my God is nameless n faceless. this is the mysterious way in which god reveals himself thru us. people profess to placing faith in Buddhism, Islam, Catholicism, Judaism, Taoism n wad have u not, while others haf pop idols, success, happiness, peace as their God. that’s fine too. no faith/creed is falser than the other. the corollary is that none is also truer than the other. this revelation might come as a surprise if u noe that its coming from a baptized catholic. ya n the church probably also deems these views obviously heretical. i’m fine wif dat too.

wad's more important to me is wad i have learnt from church. which is that it has so far quite effectively taught me how to lead a good life. all these years, it has in no way been any source of pain or trouble, so i'm ok sticking wif it. moreover, i participate in church not because i fear my mortality or feel like glorifying him, but more because i see goodness and fellowship in the masses i attend and sometimes play the organ in. i do not see the mass as an opportunity to experience the divine, but i take pride in the fact that it unites n bring people together, though only for 1 hr. dats good enuff. if u want world peace dats the closest u can ever get. one gd eg i can think of is (ohno we're venturing into gp here) accompanying my godparents every sat for novena. come to think of it, it actually forms a good pretext for meeting up regularly wif them and keeping in touch. in fact these novenas haf allowed us to get to noe one another better as we go for makan b4 n after the thing. they haf almost become a second set of parents to me now. kinda like my "extended kin".

the pomp n uplifting music is sometimes a plus i guess. church history is also very colourful n reading up on it is entertaining (to me at least). it makes me take pride in the fact that my faith is very much rooted in culture n tradition, which also makes it very human. so i'm more able to relate to it.

i’m very religious coz i’ve been brought up to b like one. which is why the priesthood crossed my mind, but i decided against it. thats coz i don't hold jesus, mary n the saints as truly exsistent in some time or place. but i also cannot bring myself to say that i don't believe in them either. years of brainwashing haf stopped me from doing that. but for the ritualistic habits that i'm bound to continue practicing, such as sunday mass, i've come up wif my own own secular beliefs. to reconcile my ideas wif wad others tell me to believe in.

in a sense, i’m more agnostic than christian. but at the same time, i can recite the apostles' creed at sunday mass wif little effort as singing ini-lah.

Monday, July 17, 2006

the dream

the work of Luis Barragán.
surreal, unsettling and timeless. kinda like wad we want life to b doesn’t it?


First we shape our buildings, then our buildings shape us.

i hope to change the world by building stuff wif more soul, buildings more true to life. buildings that speak of silence, solitude, serenity, joy, death and nostalgia. amen.

see this?

The Pritzker


i’m going to work my ass off to get this some day. Some Day. trust me.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

On English

GP results r back. sometimes i really think dat some r born n bred for gp n some r not. under exam conditions, grammar, spelling n punctuation mistakes miraculously sprouted out of nowhere, page after page. it revealed in me the true complexities of this language orginating from the land of Mr Bean. n this eudora character can strongly testify to the distress n trauma she was subject to when we were asked today to switch scripts n correct each others lousy engrish.

but face it la, i seriously think that English spelling is many a time unnecessary difficult; take for example: cough, plough, rough, through and thorough. what i think is clearly needed is a phased programme of changes to iron out these anomalies. especially since English has been chosen as the preferred language in the EU. i propose dat this programme shd, of course, be administered by a committee staff at top level by participating nations. like UN lidat!

in the first year, for example, the committee would suggest using 's' instead of the soft 'c'. sertainly, sivil servants in all sities would resieve this news with joy. then the hard 'c' could be replaced by 'k' sinse both letters are pronounsed alike. not only would this klear up konfusion in the minds of klerikal workers, but typewriters kould be made with one less letter.

there would be growing enthusiasm when in the sekond year, it was anounsed that the troublesome 'ph' would henseforth be written 'f'. this would make words like 'fotograf' twenty persent shorter in print.

in the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. governments would enkourage the removal of double letters which have always been a deterent to akurate speling.

we would al agre that the horible mes of silent 'e's in the languag is disgrasful. therefor we kould drop thes and kontinu to read and writ as though nothing had hapend. by this tim it would be four years sins the skem began and peopl would be reseptive to steps sutsh as replasing 'th' by 'z'.

perhaps zen ze funktion of 'w' kould be taken on by 'v', vitsh is, after al, half a 'w'. shortly after zis, ze unesesary 'o' kould be dropd from vords kontaining 'ou'. similar arguments vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.

kontinuing zis proses yer after yer, ve vud eventuli hav a reli sensibl riten styl. after tventi yers zer vud be no mor trubls, difikultis and evrivun vud fin it ezi tu understand ech ozer. ze drems of zes glorios ledrs vud finali hav kum tru.

Monday, July 10, 2006

monday blues

packed hectic weekend, but very fulfilling. gd stuff. old ao3 class outing at glass house on fri evening n ps kopitiam after dat really gave dat warm n fuzzy feeling of meeting old friends. sat was novena was usual, spent some quality time wif my godparents. as for band concert, i felt last yrs song selections were way better.

n by sunday morning my tyre so parn chek that i cdn’t get out of bed. haha then parents watched world cup conveniently also cannot get up. so no church haha. but was co-erced to go for some family gathering though. haized. now i understand why they say blood is thicker than water. havent seen my relatives since cny n yet the my parents haf seem to haf a thousand n one things to say to say to them. but i was so out cold that i just stone.

n i thank god that altho we conveniently skipped church last sunday, god forgave this hideous abomination to give monday for me catch a breather. in other words, a waste time day. n not bad leh, this mr lee seems to read my thoughts, or this blog (GASP). today hor, he come to me n tell me he give me permission to go home n paint during art lessons hoho. i’m one hell of a lucky boy.

world cup has ended. n i tot the italians only knew how to make spaghetti, cappuccino n popes. p.s. the old granny is hot!

Friday, July 07, 2006

wrong

my world cup prophecies all wrong. sorri if u based ur bets on my advice. sorry. n now u haf to sell ur house. nenenipupu! other than the occasional world cup match, the week has been – just grey.

free periods being dished out like confetti, hrs after hrs stoning n just talking nonsense in canteen, n of course, the occasional leaks here n there from teachers who just can’t keep to themselves their glee of slaughting us in the cts. right now as it is, results have been bad bad bad n just bad. just horrific to the point that u just can’t believe ur bloody eyes when u see the marks. how the hell did i get slow low? i m capable of such barbaric marks? unbelievable. now i’m praying n hoping for the best. but uneasy anticipation has been dampened by my art teacher’s threats to fail my art grades. on wad grounds? for going home to complete my a lvl coursework instead of staying in school thats wad!

the relationship between student n teachers as we all noe r; teacher plans lesson. student goes for lesson wif the aim of 1) completing the syllabus, 2) giving the teacher the respect he/she should b accorded given 1) the teacher’s expertise in the field, n 2) recognizing teacher’s effort placed into planning for the lesson.

art lessons do not fit this convention so on wad basis do u haf to co-erce me to turn up for ur f*ing lessons. theres no syllabus, but rather the aim’s to complete coursework. a kind of ‘laissez-faire’ system for u to do the final mad dash to complete ur coursework just in time for the As. mr lee doesn’t do any lesson preparation given this.

paintbrushes, masking tape, canvas n all the other stuff r at home so wad do u expect me to do if i turn up? n theres really no space at all in the art room for me to work. u’ll understand once u’ve seen the size of the canvas. pple work in the art room coz its supposed to b “The place” for art-making. but its hot, its grey, its cramped, noisy, stifling when u go to the art room for lessons at the end of the day. its totally uncondusive!

there was an agreement dat i’ll see him periodically wif pics of my progress on my canvas at home. but it seems he has just went against this agreement wif his outbursts of unfounded anger.

he threatened to kick me out. well if he does, he still can't stop me from sitting for the A level art exam. i paid the exam fees.

this is no time for me to b nice. the system’s meant to facilitate ur progress. if the system doesnt work, discard it. noe ur aim n work towards it. he said “we shd from now on work together to finish the dam coursework by a lvls is dat alright?” well said, mr loser. just try to put ur words to practice for once alright?

Monday, July 03, 2006

so,



the stayover at east coast which practically signalled the end of the week really took my mind off alot of stuff. feel like the exams r really over. but they r not. shit. so much to do but no mood to mug for art history. bah. i’ll try starting after lunch.

well i caught the world cup bug finally. abit late haha. i think the turning point was watching the arg-ger match sat night at sean’s place. gd stuff. now i begin to slowly get wad is it wif those die-hard soccer fans who treat this game like a religion. world cup to them must be like conclave. the anticipation that comes wif who’s goin to b crowned the next pope.

n i never expected italy to go so far. the pope must haf prayed for their soul. oh r but i forgot hes german. oh well. my wild guess is dat the finals r goin to germany - portugal. portugal the dark horse will win. yes its quite an unbelievable gamble, but seeing wad happened to the yellow-green pple yesterday, i guess the only certainty is uncertainty.

saw the schedule for the matches dis week. dam. i guess i’ll haf to catch the repeats then.