Nua weekend

So this is the first nua weekend after very long...

Since the start of this year, I don't think I've had a weekend where I didn't do any work / study anything. It has been THAT hectic, and while I had some slight regret over not bring that laptop home, I am glad for some me time without any work interruptions. So I went out, had fun, stayed at home and baked a little.

Life's good.

While life is happening here, I can't help but feel for the Sabah quake victims. These students had so much, but.. Life's pretty fragile in this sense. :( The parents must be beyond my imagination of grief. Condolences to the victims' families, and hope that they will pull through. 

This incident has only served to remind me how lucky I am to be alive, and to treasure every day.

忙裏偷閒的第七個二月二十九

In the midst of a lifestyle change now. 

I have no idea what prompted me to wake up at 6am everyday to go for a short run / gym @ the office before work. It was just a "I miss running" thought and that thought went viral in my little head and the thought then materialised. It was purely because I knew I will never have the resolve to run after dinner (talk about bad habits!). Thus, I have been waking up at 6am everyday for the past few weeks and feeling damn proud of it! I'm glad I have managed to do it so far because I also noticed a significant reduction in my sleepiness during work hours. Highly suspect a strong correlation between the two - would anyone like to do a study on that? =P

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I also talked to my insurance agent on Monday, and apart from the panic caused by the parents' non-existent medical insurance, one topic we talked about struck a chord. He had noticed a trend in the differing leisure hobbies that "good school students" have and "neighbourhood school students". And so according to him, neighbourhood school students tend to play ball, sing karaoke, chat at the kopitiam, etc etc while good school students have more atas hobbies like reading. Though I maintained that I also do the activities that he does, it got me thinking on whether there really is such a segregation. I'm sure I read because I like to read, and it's a habit cultivated from young. Or is that the correlation with being in a "good" school? Confused much. This line between the two seemed to be demonstrated on a regular basis, the latest being my cousin maintaining that we (i.e. rest of cousins, uncles who went to fairly famous schools) do not understand him because he was an ITE student. Albeit now being an NUS undergrad, this was the sentiment that he had. Though we all refuted that as a possibility, none of us can really prove it, can we. 

So is this divide for real?

I love the collage~

Felt really happy doing it.. :) Bits and pieces of my life. Just included my work mates in as well :))

The special people in my life. Now I can be reminded of them everyday!

I think this is what I need. A reminder of it.

Blood type A donors needed urgently!

Dear A Blood Donors, your type is needed urgently. Please donate at Bloodbank@HSA in Outram this weekend. Call Red Cross 62200183 for more info. Thank you. - Red Cross.

Anyone with a bit of spare blood and time to go donate? If nothing goes wrong, I'll be heading there tomorrow. (: Owell, other blood types can also donate too, you don't have to wait until an emergency to respond.. Heh. Contact me if anyone is interested in going tomorrow morning!

End of yet another week

I'm tired (what's new?) but thankfully this week has been rather kind to me, being at home on Wednesday AND Friday for dinner with family.

And so TGIF! While tomorrow is Saturday, the day after is Sunday, and then after that it's back to Monday.. Feeling pre Monday blues even before the weekend has ended -.- Burning myself out probably. Thanks to forcing and pushing myself to the limit -.- I need more gym to release those stress hormones!

Did not hit my savings target for the month due to the super high expense last weekend, something which my GST Credits cannot even offset :( I need to be more prudent in managing my finance for the upcoming horrible 800 a month and other stuff which I will in time start to contribute money to, like insurance and the likes.

Feel like just taking a day off and go to the beach for the sea breeze, probably with a book in hand or with a friend to chat, and a cup of nice cool lemonade. That'll be great for the stress hormones too =D

Have to stop nua-ing and find that sense which has been missing in life for quite some time. I think more than one thing is missing in my life right now, if I have the time to chase them back or acquire them, I will.

Will stop nua-ing.. With a couple more of Restaurant City, Typing Maniac, Bejeweled etc. Heh.

Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will

Interesting topic to talk about.

"Is the cup half full, or half empty?" - This is normally how people gauge whether one is pessimistic or optimistic. Strangely, I think people answer that actually based on impulse. Would you really go deep in thought over whether it's called full or empty?

Had a miniscule discussion this morning with ze over pessimism and his quote: The law of pessimism: The law of pessimism: For every 50-50 chance of getting it correct, 90% of the time you'll get it wrong.

And so I was arguing that in reality, that 50% stays as 50% because actually no one will complain if they get something wrong.. You only hear complaints when something goes wrong, and therefore the misassumption of 90%. --> There's nothing to be proud of when you get it right for a 50-50 chance thingy. Lol.

Happy pessimist: sounds ironic, but that's what he described himself as. Argument: Happy or sad is mutually exclusive (omg stats term) from the thought process. Counter argument: If you're born a pessimist, then wouldn't your subconscious just tell you that "no this will not work" and hence affect your mood? Counter counter argument: A pessimist is always bound to be right, or have a pleasant surprise. Hence since they always expect the worst.. Anything above that makes them happy.

In the end I was confused by whether a pessimist or an optimist will be happier. Haha.

Optimism and pessimism are the opposites from the philosophical point of view, but not from the psychological point of view. And hence the title of the post. Being more pessimistic doesn't mean that you are less optimistic. In fact from pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will, it strongly indicates one spurs to action, having the resilience to believe that action will result in meaningful change even in the face of adversity.

Still trying hard to absorb the earlier statement :D

Too many types of different optimism and pessimism to delve into; moral pessimism, naive optimism, pessimism realism, etc. Too chim a subject.

Me, I think I'm a pessimistic optimist. :]

Mitch Albom

In light of having the PSP truly returned to its original owner, I start doing what I normally do when I'm bored: Digging out old books to reread. The advantage and beauty of buying books :)

And so for this couple of days I was rereading "The Five People You Meet in Heaven", and then I realize that I still love this book as compared to when I first read it. Generally I was told that Tuesdays with Morrie was the big hit and The Five People You Meet in Heaven was just something that came along after that big hit.

Not for me. I liked Tuesdays with Morrie, but I preferred The Five People You Meet in Heaven. Both are insightful books, but I guess The Five People You Meet in Heaven just hit me harder than Tuesdays with Morrie did. I have no idea why, but the impact upon reading the book was as good as the first time when I bought the book and read it the first time round. I guess life after death is just something that everyone would be curious in. And I happen to like the way life after death is presented in the book. An explanation of what went through in your life, and the impact and consequences of every little action that one takes. Anything could potentially steer another life in another direction forever. The complications of homosapiens' acts, and the interactive web that they weave in, huh.

I personally believe that life after death exists, because.. Life can't just simply cease to exist when the last breath is taken. I don't believe that. Afterlife HAS to exist. Somehow somewhat.

I'm just so taken with the book. Must have looked awfully silly on the train this morning when I was reading the later part of the book. :s

Meanwhile, Tuesdays with Morrie will be my companion for today and tomorrow at least. :) I wasn't very impressed with For One More Day, but maybe I should reread it again in case I change my mind.

The same old condition came back this morning when it's disappeared for a while, and I didn't dare to wake up in case I scare my dad. Sigh.

And I need to send my phone in for servicing, soon. The space/0/next line is driving me nuts.. Can't even type a proper sms in peace now. And it takes me 3-4 times as long just to finish an sms :(