that was one of the message conveyed by this article in the newspaper i was reading yesterday. as i skimmed through the article, what the author said struck me hard.
we live in a place where the standard of living is high. we have shelter over our heads, food on our table and a warm place to sleep in. yet, people whine/complain/nag on and on about how recession has burnt a hole in their pockets, how certain problems have been troubling them, how they can't seem to cope with their burdens etc.
please, stop being a wimp and get on with life man (note: this line serves as a reminder for myself too). there are thousands of people out there who have bigger problems to worry about, millions of people on the other side of the world who barely have enough resources to survive on. there are children out there who don't have even a set of decent clothes to put on, there are people out there who don't even have money to buy milk powder for their children, people out there who are probably struggling to survive due to some reason or another. there are tons of people out there with problems a zillion times greater than ours, yet we still are unable to feel satisfied with what we have.
and yet, they might be happier than we are
i remember writing in one of my essays on how the more we are provided with, the more we ask for. we learn in econs that humans' wants are virtually unlimited. and sadly, that's the fact of life, and at times it's the ugly side of us. i guess it's hard to change that since it's somehow the way we are made to think. i do admit recently i've been moving away from being contented with what i have. because i find myself expecting more, wanting more, and those that i want aren't even what i need. fortunately that article somehow brought me back to my senses.
i shall be me again, being contented with what i have, and really cherish and love those around be. i guess it's important to let people around you now how much they mean to you. we hear that often but we never really fully understood why. someday we will.
alright to end off here's smth meant for rvians and ex rvians only:
aaron says: how was the briefing? (on xxx's relief teaching)
xxx says: (llm)
xxx says: is friendly
xxx says: and smiley
aaron says: haha! told you!
xxx says: damn frigging amusing leh
xxx says: she was JOKING
xxx says: WTF
aaron | 11:20 PM
Friday, December 26, 2008
1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before? lots: relief teach, NS, drive, went hokkaido etc.
2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? i don't remeber making any. i believe that resolutions shouldn't be made at the start of the year but anytime you want to.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? nah, not this year
4. Did anyone close to you die? no (wth man)
5. What countries did you visit? Nihon-go! (japan)
6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008? erm... i dunno. happiness? that's damn general -.-
7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? 19th March - enlistment 11th July - out of course 14th-18th July - my batch's hellweek 15th Nov
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? pass driving? this cant compare to my list of failures man
9. What was your biggest failure? out of diving course (!@#$%^*)
10. Did you suffer illness or injury? facetal arthropathy on L4 and L5 of spine and my right hip hurts alot now from running and i have 1001 injuries from training (or rather the lack of it)
11. What was the best thing you bought? my babolat pure storm (tennis racket)
12. Whose behavior merited celebration? i dont really have much to celebrate abt this year
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? myself? i dont like to blame others
14. Where did most of your money go? driving lessons at the start of the year
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? hellweek
16. What song will always remind you of 2008? BLG's songs, cos of the live performance at nike+ human race
17. Compared to this time last year, are you: (a) happier or sadder? (b) thinner or fatter? (c) richer or poorer? (a)sadder since NS sucks (b)fatter i think (c)richer cos at least i dont take pocket money
18. What do you wish you’d done more of? play tennis and get better
19. What do you wish you’d done less of? ermm i dunno?
20. How did you spend Christmas? went for yujia's church service and spend the night talking, playing cards, playing guitar and eating good food
21. Did you fall in love in 2008? i don't know what is love
22. What was your favorite TV program? dont watch tv a lot
23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? i dont like to hate
24. What was the best book you read? the kite runner by khaled hosseini
25. What was your greatest musical discovery? dont think there was any
26. What did you want and get? posted to mindef!
27. What did you want and not get? pass driving on the first try
28. What was your favorite film of this year? the dark knight
29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? i turned 19 and i got toothpaste all over my body, courtesy of 29th batch combat divers
30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? if i knew how to cherish
31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008? wet suit, BC, fins, mask, booties, cylinder
32. What kept you sane? my friends
33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? no one
34. What political issue stirred you the most? recession
35. Who did you miss? a lot of people? and someone in particular
36. Who was the best new person you met? someone
37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008. we can never live without regrets. but we still have to try out best to do so.
38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
all american rejects - move along
when all you got to keep is strong move along, move along like i know you'd do and even when your hope is gone move along, move along just to make it through move along
aaron | 10:43 PM
boxing day today. nope, didn't see a lot of boxes around. neither did i go boxing with my friends. did a bit of tennis though. hoho.
so i was wikipedia-ing on what boxing day was about and this is what i got:
no wonder they have epl matches every year on this day.
i like the guitar intro!
aaron | 4:33 PM
Thursday, December 25, 2008
finally got over with my department's family day recently. been visiting RSS Endurance (ship) quite a bit recently because of it. and i just love the feeling of standing on the deck, staring out at sea and just letting the sea breeze caress my face. and i always get the thought that when i get a gf next time i'll definitely go on a cruise to enjoy that experience together. (and i was told i'm boring when i told someone that hoho)
anw this year's christmas is really one of the few christmases in which i didnt spend my day stoning at home, lazing around or just fixing my eyes on the computer screen all day long. well, at least this year i saw something different, like 2 years ago. getting to know a bit more about why the others celebrate christmas and all.
then the night was spent having fun at yujia's house with the usual track gang + eng ping. just chilling out, having dinner, playing cards, playing the guitar and talking cock with her brother. it's these little moments that remind me that "hey, i still have a life man. let's not brood all the stupid things that are bothering me and really cherish the people around me and the times we spend together"
feliz navidad
aaron | 11:46 PM
Monday, December 22, 2008
quoted from naraen (or lim xiao hong as he calls himself in denial of his own race) (ok i'm kidding man don't kill me)
"...I love challenges. I love it when ppl say that i'm lousy and sucky. It makes my day when u say that i can't make it. Coz its gonna be all the more fun to shove the shit back down ur throat. And if i fail, i'll die trying at the very least..."
"...When we're all dead and gone from this world, nobody will wanna know how u died, they'll wanna know how u lived."
aaron | 9:58 PM
Sunday, December 21, 2008
so the lions will be taking on the vietnamese at the national stadium later. i guess it's time to see if the home crowd really does their part in backing our nation's sportsmen. actually, i won't be expecting much. most football fans will probably be more interested in the liverpool vs. arsenal match happening later in the night. i won't be surprised if that's the case.
anyway, all the best to the lions! eat some 汤圆 before the match la. after all it's 冬至 today. ok crap. but i haven't eaten any 汤圆 yet! i want some man. especially the 汤圆豆花 at bukit timah food centre =P
oh btw regarding sundown marathon, i'm still looking for a running companion! i don't want to be holding thomas and tuckwen back since they'll probably be too fast (maybe too furious) for me. and i don't feel like being the lightbulb running with darren and corrine again (you know, it's the SUNDOWN marathon). so ya somebody? i'm really slow la. last time i did 5hr 50mins for standard chartered back in 2007. think some old ah pek can trash me for that.
psst. i am posting from my linesolinesflinesflinesilinesclineselines right now
(sorry for security purpose i have to encrypt that message. to decrypt, just read between the lines)
ok i'm just being lame.
anyway i've always thought that it'll be a good idea not to take leave when everyone else around does so since it'll probably mean that you can be free-er to a certain extent when in the office. but just yesterday i realised it isn't true all the time.
woke up with that mega sian feeling (refer to previous post as to why) in me, trying to decide whether to go to work or to take mc. decided on the former and that greatly backfired on me.
so i reached the office, only to realise that my NSFs colleagues are all on leave/off/mc, which leaves me being the only NSF around. so basically all the urgent work the superiors needed that day got arrowed to me like how the qing dynasty army rain arrows on their enemies. the rest is history, shall not bother to describe my ORDeal. somehow they think that NSFs are ORDinary people with extraORDinary working capabilities.
well, at least everything's back in ORDer.
(there are certain alphabets that stand out a lot recently when they're arranged in a certain way)
aaron | 8:39 AM
Thursday, December 18, 2008
another half day off today. this was kinda taken at the last minute since thomas asked me to join the gang only last night. but no doubt it was great, just eating together and talking cock, lan gaming although i'm not much (or not at all) of a lan gamer. and dinner and drinks and timbre kinda summed up the day out.
i really enjoyed talking cock with them, exchaning our experiences in army abd sharing with one another skills on how to chao geng in saf. and lan gaming with them was rather hilarious. here's the prove to show that we're not ready to go to war despite being saf soldiers. we were playing battlefield 2 when this took place:
someone: eh, the enemy just captured (our base)
a few of us: ok we're going back to re-capture it back *moves in*
someone else: eh i just arti-ed that place (called for artillery fire on that place)
the few of us: oh...
haha it was quite hilarious seeing how screwed up everything gets. and dx 'scolding' naraen for being a camper and all.
dinner at timbre after that was superb. almost got drunk today for the first time. i guess naraen was right in saying that we should all get drunk some time in our lives to know how it really feels like (although i do admit this is not the correct time because i still have to work tmr). but ya like i said it was indeed quite an experience. you'll really understand what people mean when they say that they want to drink to forget. because most of the things in this world you'll never really know unless you experience it for yourself. well, life is short. and as long as it isn't anything harmful, why not try it? of course just don't go over the limit =)
well this morning hasn't been a good morning at all. must really thank the few of them for dragging me out.
and even when i'm dead from all the drinks, even when i can't think properly, there's someplace within me that still thinks about you, somehow.
aaron | 12:18 AM
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
finally i felt that the leave i took was worth it. thanks for today =)
btw, it's pretty amusing when you hear about the stuff people say behind your back
but amusement turns to horror when the more you listen to more you realised how facts get twisted so badly even though it has only been passed from one person to another, once.
what an interesting day hoho.
i hope you're doing fine though,
aaron | 12:03 AM
Sunday, December 14, 2008
aaron | 2:25 PM
Saturday, December 13, 2008
ok i just came back from ocs's comissioning parade. although i must say i wasn't officially invited but we were smart enough to enter the unorthodox way - smokescreen. just that yichun almost gave us away with his non stop laugther after we successfully passed the ticket checking area.
the OCTs finally got their 2LT rank after 9 months of hard work. the moment when they tossed they hats/berets/turban in the air sparked off massive cheers from them. it was pure elation that filled the atmosphere.
anyway it was kinda chaotic after that with the families and newly appointed officers running here and there taking pictures (think prom). so yea i didn't really manage to find all the people i wanted to. only thomas, darren, qing sheng, selwyn, yeowlin and some others. was looking for justin but couldn't find him. bleh
but ya nevertheless it was quite an experience since i'll never get to be part of the parade in my 2 years in ns (no i did not POP in tekong)
photos are on facebook btw =)
aaron | 11:37 PM
mr. indian erm... i mean naraen just got his driving license. haha congrats dude. this increases the number of drivers from the nj track 06/07 batch to erm... 5? joshua, chi hua, me, yujia and naraen. haha ok this is entirely random.
and i have this sudden urge to get a bike license too =X
and no i don't have a girlfriend
and i doubt i'll be getting one anytime soon, or anytime not-so-soon
with that said, the next person who asks me if i have a girlfriend (less those who don't know me) will get whacked by me.
and i'd murder the next person who asks me "why not?"
aaron | 11:34 AM
Friday, December 12, 2008
i think the polar bear is cute man
aaron | 10:08 PM
Thursday, December 11, 2008
it's fridayyyyyy tmr!!!!
which means: -weekends coming -can sleep late (sunday) -get to rest -have to help my dad out -get to drive -new chapter of naruto and bleach -have to find stuff to occupy myself
ahhhhh right now i just want to (insert any of the below) my heart out.
1) tennis 2) run 3) soccer 4) (any sport eg. basketball, badminton) 5) scream 6) eat 7) sleep 8) can't think of any more at the moment
because i still don't know what the f*** is going on. i can only guess, and every night i go to sleep frustrated.
remember that quote from the kite runner, that we can never bury the past, because the past claws it's way out eventually. so right now i'm really trying to dig them up again, myself, trying to confront what i've buried due to fear. hopefully i can find something, something...
aaron | 10:56 PM
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
got my fudomine gakuen jersey!
fudomine gakuen from prince of tennis:
aaron | 9:01 PM
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
ok haven't really 动笔 to draw anything since quite some time ago, though i didn't really have anything to do at home. been lazy i guess =P
this is ookazaki shinichi from nana, this time he's with his acoustic guitar instead of his usual bass guitar. though the picture isn't that clear (because i dont have a scanner) but he's really trying to light his cigratte (and yes i know he is underaged)
anyway this is just a tribute to one of the best anime i've watched so far =)
alright back to the battlefield tomorrow. got tons of work waiting for me to do. and i can confirm my eyesight is really detriorating.
我不要!!!!!!
aaron | 11:02 PM
Monday, December 8, 2008
slightly disappointed since the cosplay shop at suntec is somehow smaller than i had expected it to be after hearing shaun talk about it. didn't manage to try on the d.gray man uniform! and most of the costumes they have there are quite small in size >.< ok the next time i go there i shall try to get a chance to put on that d.gray man uniform. and naruto's jackey looks ok to me, nothing very exotic.
haha it's nice to try something different once in a while =)
oh man it's back to work again tomorrow after a long break since thursday. wonder how much work has piled up for me. and it's the last week before my upperstudy ord! after that it'll be all up to me already. scary. let's hope i don't screw up =X
aaron | 8:35 PM
Sunday, December 7, 2008
it's standard chartered marathon today. honestly i regretted a teeny bit not signing up for it. but oh well, i doubt my back is strong enough for me to take my second shot at the full marathon yet. next year it shall be then. maybe i should aim to like complete 10 marathons in my life or something. nothing too difficult haha.
ok nine more to go =P
and i still dont think beer is sweet >.<
Your subtleties, they strangle me I can't explain myself at all. And all the wants, and all the needs All I don't want to need at all.
aaron | 11:15 PM
Saturday, December 6, 2008
usually when things come at an unexpected timing it has a greater effect on us.
thanks lynette =)
aaron | 2:01 PM
(quite a number of us are missing but ya it's a weekday so not all the guys could make it)
how long has it been? 7 years? time sure flies doesn't it. now the girls are all getting on with their live in uni while the guys are still slogging out in ns (note that both guys there are from mindef. ha! one medic and one clerk)
somehow gathering with this bunch of people always felt... different. the last time we saw each other was what... chinese new year i think. then before that was gathering at suling's place on new year's eve. but nonetheless they were all enjoyable times, talking about the past, stupid stuff that happened during trainings and races. like how we would chao geng on the other side of pandan reservoir when we were supposed to be doing our long runs and how cheryl shook the official's hand after the race when the official was asking actually for the baton (i still find this damn hilarious).
and the girls always never seem to fail to mention how i've been short back i was in sec1 and how much i've grown taller since then. but some things just never change. xinying is still as grumpy, wenrong still hates chinese, suling is still as anime crazy as before (or crazier). jiazhen is still as fair, cheryl still looks blur and zhenjie is still... erm... let's see.... ah ya. zhenjie still has his bomberman hole in his chest (i think).
then there were the juniors. michelle's batch was almost mia except for melissa and desmy who came, disappeared, reappeared and left -.- lirui's batch was mostly present except for some. lirui is still the center of attendtion as usual, with his mega crappy-ness. it's quite a surprise to find out that ms chng is his civics tutor and physics teacher and it's bloody hilarious listening to him complain about her. and low kwee peng is teaching amanda and iris champagne is teaching ningxin gp. lucky them =)
and then there was claire's batch which i don't really know well (except siew hwee was trying to disfigure the chickens at the bbq pit ytd). beyond that batch i could only recall the faces i saw back i was teaching in rv at the start of the year.
ah... those were the times (note: i'm not old). these little things really made me realise how much athletics actually meant to me in school.
aaron | 8:56 AM
Thursday, December 4, 2008
it sucks when you care so much for someone but at the same time feel that that person is trying to push you away as much as possible.
aaron | 11:06 PM
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
it's a given fact that your emotions rubs off on others. especially if you're close to that person, or you're someone important to him/her and he/she really cares about you.
i guess that is why most people prefer to keep their thoughts and feelings, most of them which tend to be unhappy ones, hidden, for the simple fact that they don't want to affect people around them, people close to them.
but then again this doesn't always work.
aaron | 11:45 PM
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
yes i am posting everyday. and yichun no i am not as smart as you are please. and i don't intend to take double degree because 1) after hearing my friends complain about how busy uni life is, double degree is definitely not for me to consider and 2) not that i think i can't but i lack the motivation to study hard in uni.
i was somehow glad that they didn't accept my application for electrical engineering and business double degree. whew.
and it sucks when i'm new to the office and there're lots of work i'm still unable to do, so i can only stare helplessly as they are being pushed to my nsf colleagues who, in the first place, already have more task than me at hand. this is wrong. firstly because i'm suppose to be helping them out instead of being a burden (which irritates me quite a bit) and secondly i'm suppose to not give a damn about ns life but why am i even bothering about work.
haha, i guess it doesn't take a rocket scientist to tell that my thoughts are really messed up right now =P
even if we tread on the same path over again, the things we see may be different
not exactly as nice as i had expected because 1) it doesnt have a decent climax and 2) it's really hard to understand. but the plot really provides some food for thought
aaron | 11:43 PM
Monday, December 1, 2008
ok shin splint bugging me again.
thought it's an old problem cast away into oblivion already, but apparently wounds never fully heal, injuries don't go away so easily. bleh.
35 million seconds left to ord! ok i love messing with the ord countdown timer on my office pc. haha.
aaron | 10:06 PM
Aaron
210389.
qifa pri
river valley high
national junior college
hq rsn
nus??