Nobody said that life is fair. And nobody said that life will be a smooth-sailing one. Life is about overcoming challenges and obstacles that are presented to you. It is a process of learning the best way of living a fruitful and fulfilling life. Indeed, it is easier said than done, and that itself is also a challenge which we have to live with. So we have to stop procrastinating, that including myself, and start embarking on the conquest of life's challenges and turn them into your glory!

Sometimes we don't have to be too persistent. By learning to let go, we could be free and relieved from the breathlessness we unknowingly feel in this rat race society in which we live in. Don't wallow in self-pity or lament over your fate, instead recognize how blessed you already are and learn that simplicity is a form of happiness too. One might not be materially abundant but the most important thing is to be spiritually rich and happy.

Be loving and grateful :)

Went to Sentosa yesterday with Scandalous for picnic. Had a great great time playing erm... 'water frisbee'? haha... It's been ages since I've been to Sentosa already... It's fun throwing et the clerk down the water! lol

First of all, just to follow conventional opening style, Happy New Year 2010!

On the first day of a brand new year, I shall, however, pen down some deep-seated thoughts I have had in mind, especially after watching the anime Naruto Shippuden. Yes, don't be surprised. Watching Naruto does stimulate one to reflect and examine about life itself, at least it works on me.

So in this particular arc of the anime, it deals with whether the attainment of peace is achievable or simply a fantasy. The antagonists deny that peace can be achieved by love itself because love breeds anger between people, and subsequently evolves to become hatred and soon, everyone seeks revenge. With hatred, it breeds more hatred, and this cycle continues on such that peace is thus never possible - peace is a mere utopian world that everyone is dreaming of.

The main protagonist, Naruto, couldn't give an answer to how such chain of hatred could be resolved. In the end, he successfully enlightened and convinced the antagonist by saying that with faith, anything is possible. Naruto has been entrusted by his Dad, teacher and captain to find out the answer to how peace could be attained as they, too, desire to achieve peace. And Naruto believes in what they believe in. So he gave the answer "faith" and he would continue to find the key to break the vicious cycle of the breeding of hatred, to bring peace to the world.

While reading the online manga, I also wanted to find out how can we put a stop to this unending breeding of hatred amongst people. It is only human nature to feel angry if somebody were to harm somebody whom you love. Why would the person want to try to harm him/her whom you love? There are many valid reasons one could think of but the most compelling one would be the different ideology each individual has. I.e., because Person X sees Person Y as a threat to the safety of X's nation due to different ideology, out of love for his citizens, X declares war on Y's country. Such phenomenon is not uncommon in today's world. There, a classic illustration of Love -> Anger -> Hatred -> Seek Revenge -> Peace impossible.

At present, I still haven't found the key to prevent such unfortunate chain of emotions leading to unrest. Perhaps humans are all selfish and because of this selfishness, not even love, such a powerful emotion, can enable us to achieve true peace. So does it mean that by eradicating this wicked emotion - selfishness, we can then achieve peace? I have no idea. Maybe there would be other factors which we have overlooked now that would still lead to the same unfortunate ending. Or it might be that like what Naruto has proposed, faith could do the trick. As an idealist, let us put our faith in God and in ourselves that grace and humaneness in the world is, alas, possible.

One of the resolutions I have for myself is to forge eternal friendship with those whom I have thought I could communicate with spiritually and subsequently, developed a heart-based connectedness. Basically, I wish I could have friends with whom we could understand what each other is thinking without the need to explicitly voice out. How lucky one would be to be able to find such friends! Imagine your friend can understand you inside out, what a great companion you have found for yourself in your life! He/She would do the appropriate and necessary to complement with how you are feeling so that you guys can fully enjoy yourselves during that special moment. How wonderful!

Thank God for allowing me to meet some great friends, be it in schools or in NS. Not that I like NS but it's just that I treat it as just another social gathering where God has let me meet some great friends. Thanks to 2 particular friends, one in JC and another in NS, who have introduced me into the world of God and Jesus. :D

Shall blog a brief recount about my Australia trip Part II around 2 months ago.

Our training area is located about 180km north Brisbane. The plane touched down at Rockhampton airpot at 2025hrs. 3 hours later, after the collection of our luggage and settling the administration matters, we reached our training area by coach. The temperature at night reached as low as 17 degree Celsius which was rather cooling. The sun rises around 0445 and sets before 1800. During the period when we were there, the area was in the transition from cold to hot and humid weather. Hence the nights were felt to become less cold. Thankfully it wasn't very humid and so the days were still bearable, much better than Darwin, with max temperature around 31 C.

Both the accomodation and toilet facilities couldn't be anywhere near satisfactory level compared to the previous training area. Imagine yourself sleeping above soil and ash (due to the recent burning), or having to muster strength to pull the buckets of filled water up, using simple pulley system that is primarily made of rope, after a tiring day just to bathe to feel clean. And imagine that whenver you wipe your face with wet tissue, it always turned out to be black; or blow your nose and it's black too. It's all due to the ash.

Though the living conditions weren't as good compared to the previous traning area, I would prefer the training in Rockhampton to that in Darwin. Basically, it's because I had got less things to do. That's why. Haha. Anyway, I sustained yet another injury. I hurt my left thumb with a 5-kg hammer while trying to knock some metal out. There was internal bleeding, evident from my thumb nail. Luckily, I could still move my thumb and so there was no fracture. The dried up blood is still visible now inside my nail.

I also enjoyed my free-and-easy time more. We stayed a night over at Welcome Home motel. Indeed, everything was much like you've come home, cosy and heartwarming. At night, we decided to explore the small little town of North Rockhampton and bought a bottle of Whiskey, and Breaka milk from Coles situated inside the new plaza, whose name I have forgotten. We rented a DVD too, Sex Traffic, and watched it while drinking Whiskey mixed with coffee milk. Anyway, the movie was about the illegal trading of women to brothels in eastern Europe - to me, it's too sad a story that I wouldn't want to finish watching it and left to sleep midway through. I had bacon with egg for breakfast the next morning. It's delicious even though the bacon was a bit too salty.

It's 3 freaking weeks and I was glad that it's over, finally. Well, that's only like Part I of my Australia trip. Part II is just round the corner and everything would be worse.

It's a relief to find out that the accomodation and toilet facilities were not as bad as expected. Well, perhaps we had been through worse than what was presented to us. The only aspect we didn't prepare ourselves for is the hot and dry weather. Cloudless days aren't rare and the dryness is capable of making your lips crack and bleed, which happened to me twice, at least. Drinking water is definitely a must. Speaking of which, the water is way too alkaline. It feels nothing wrong, in fact it feels like mineral water, if you drink only a few gulps of water. However, if you were to drink 500ml at one go, your tongue would be able to sense the bitterness of the water, and it's really bitter till it makes you feel like vomiting, not to mention it makes your throat feel, ironically, dry.

Shan't blog about anything that is prohibited from sharing. I can only say that sleeping is a luxury.

Nothing beats the day on which we were given a day off! I needed a break, quite desperately indeed. It just felt so great without the need to touch hard, solid metals which are so unfeeling and apathetic. As Darwin is a really small city, the group of us explored the whole city in less than half-a-day. Okay, one highlight we found is the topless bar. Lol. The condoms we have could be put to good use. Wait! Watch your thoughts! What I meant was to sell the condoms that were issued to us to those people inside the bar, and we could make money. Well, we didn't, of course, in the end.

An unfortunate accident happened to me. I injured my little finger during my last "working moment". My flesh tore and blood was seen oozing out and soaked my gloves. Yes, it was really painful. I didn't really dare to see the condition of my injury at first. The injury brought me some inconvenience as I was reminded not to get it wet by the medics. One of the attempts made was to wear the condom on my little finger. haha. Well, that was my first time touching a condom and its lubricant. So my crewmate helped me wear the condom, on my little finger of course.
Luckily, my finger could still bend and after verification from my visit to NUH yesterday, there's no fracture.

On the whole, there were happy moments and angry moments for us. Those angry moments were brought about, as usual, by those brainless idiots. Of course, these people shouldn't be the ones occupying our brain. They don't worth a damn to us. In contrast, those happy moments we had had together, whether captured or not by the cameras, shall always be remembered dearly in our hearts. =)

Back to the question: How often do you get to go overseas with your NS friends?
My answer: 3 freaking times, ok?!
laughs...

It was about 0720 on Friday morning. I was wearing my full gear, ready for the test. Upon "GO!", I started running at a controlled pace for a distance of 700m. Determined not to repeat the mistake of running too fast lest compromising on my ability and speed for the rest of the test, I decided to time myself this time round.

I took 3 min 45s for the first 700m rundown, which is considered "good timing". It's time for the clearing of obstacles. At the low rope, I grabbed for the rope and tried to pull myself up, while my feet were trying to make a loop for me to step on. Unable to lift myself high enough hence unable to make a complete loop, I dropped to the ground. Not allowing myself too much time to conjure up any negative thoughts, I quickly grabbed for the rope again with the determination to touch the beam. Yes! After successfully making 3 loops, I managed to touch the beam and rushed to clear the rest of the obstacles.

It's the last obstacle, finally. Running halfway up the ramp, I could feel that my legs were tired. Again, not giving myself time to waste on any negative thoughts, I jumped off from the height of 2m. I looked at my watch immediately and found out that I still had 3 min 30s left to run 600m. Realizing that I still had hope of passing, my legs started to move and spread out immediately. I was panting hard. Run...run..run... I looked at my watch again - 2 min left. I continued to run. 1 min left and about 150m left. "I need to run faster!" About 25m left and I looked at my watch once again. 10s was all I had left. I was so close and I ran at my fastest possible speed. Finally, I crossed the finishing line and immediately I bent my body down, trying hard to catch my breath. My friends kept telling me while trying to stretch out my hand to take my number chip but I ignored them. I was breathless and I needed to be left alone so that I had more air for myself. Okay, I told myself, I had to take the number chip or my result would be voided. Then I looked at my watch again. It showed 7s after the passing time. I had no idea how much time I took before I managed to take the number chip from them. Did I pass?

I had no idea. And I didn't want to think about it and I couldn't think because I got a sudden headache everytime I lift up my head. I had to face down with the back of my hand supporting my forehead so that I wouldn't feel so lousy. My heart was still racing and I felt as if I was going to vomit any time. I definitely wasn't feeling well. It lasted for about 20min before I got a little bit better.

My friends asked me if I pass. I told them, "Either on the dot or fail."
It was then time to fall in and our results were made known to us.
"Ming Xian. 9:57." The passing time is 9:59 and below.
I passed!!! Never ever have I dreamt of clearing SOC. I was elated!
HAPPY :)

Then again, seriously, I would have been studying in uni right now if not for you-know-what.
LOL

I wan enlightened after reading a book "The Way We Are". We tend to assume that we know what life is all about and take them for granted, without giving it a deeper thought. In fact, we know very little of what we are and we are largely the opposite of what we think we are.

What is the main difference between us, the homo sapiens, and the other animals? The enlarged consciousness. And because of this, there's always fear lurking in our minds; fear is constant in our life, even in our pleasures. We never feel safe as we are aware that there are dangers remembered and anticipated, not to mention the fact that we know we will die, eventually. Hence humans seek refuge in strength. (WARNING: MAY BE SENSITIVE...) Man created "infinite intelligence" (so as not to offend anyone's beliefs) and formulated taboos, and sin, morality and guilt come into being. Our fear and weakness impel us to honour these taboos and obey our leaders. This makes possible for few to control the many. Work comes into being which serves no purpose in our life but which is required by "infinite intelligence" who (we have come to believe) will protect us. Servitude is invented.

This was just one of the many lessons I learnt from the book. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who have an open mind to welcome new and unorthodox (perhaps to some) ideas and opinions about who we really are and how nature really works.

It is madness. No treatment is required, indeed none is effective. Loses contact with reality, clutches something one believes to be a treasure while others see plainly no better than a loaf of bread. Perhaps the right way is to accept that it won't last. Accept , not in the sense of resigning one's self to value. I shoulda sad inevitability but in the sense of celebrating a process that unavoidably entails the ending of a passion that presently appears as life's supreme feel an unmixed celebration of what I now have. I should accept change not because I cannot anyway prevent it, but because it is life itself. The beginning and ending, should be praised as one. Phew, my mind is freed!

MINGXIAN
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