In 14.5 hours time I'll be flying to LA. Finally back to the golden state! I guess I should be feeling all excited and pumped up right now, but for some reason I'm not....
Perhaps its the flu. What a bad time to have caught the flu. And by the way, its the third time I have the flu since the start of the year!!! Something tells me I never really recovered but probably just did too many silly things and got the virus taking over my body again.....
But perhaps its more than the flu.... I guess these days I'm searching for more direction and yet I can't find it. It's almost like I'm a wandering soul who does not know what he wants. And I don't know who can help me. I have choices, but yet there's no certainty that any path I take in any aspect of life is going to lead to greater happiness.
We hear of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" and I believe every word of it. Like the trailer of Will Smith's new movie "The Pursuit of Happyness" I believe that if one has a clear goal like Will Smith, and goes for it, he will eventually find happiness. But what if one doesn't have any clear goal? How then is the pursuit of happiness going to happen? Perhaps life and liberty are sufficient?
In my two and a half years back in Singapore there are probably only two things that have brought happiness: contributing to society, and earning recognition for good work. But then again such events don't come by often, and it takes a lot of sweat and tears for a short moment of happiness. Perhaps there's more ways to be happy. Some guru's say that one should be happy with a positive attitude approaching every task at work. I try so hard to do so, but unfortunately the positive attitude thing doesn't really last past the first hour of the day, or the last hour (knowing that I'll be out of there soon). Where do we go from here?
Perhaps I will learn more about "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" in the "Land of the free, and the home of the brave (BEARS!)".
Friday, February 23, 2007
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Didn't you know that?
I've spent a large part of the last 2 days reformatting my hard drive. Some windows error was causing it to get more and more corrupted so I had to do something about it before the CNY weekend.
Happy Chinese New Year everyone! (Before I forget)
I found out something interesting. Did you realise that many supermarkets in the US stock goods that are $4.99, $9.99, $XX.99 etc? Well we always thought the idea of using the .99 was to make goods look cheaper than it actually are. Which is kinda dumb anyway, because the consumer really isn't that stupid... It turns out that supermarkets price goods at $XX.99 on purpose so that the cashier has to ring the till during a purchase since most people won't have exact change. The practice came about because too many supermarket cashiers will pilfering the money paid for goods without putting it into the till. It's difficult for them to do that if the till has to be opened for change, because there will be a record. Betcha didn't know that!
You know kids always put things into their mouths? I saw a documentary that says that kids keep doing that and it's alright, because the body needs that to build up extra resistance to foreign germs/bacteria. By eating and being exposed to these harmful germs, the body will produce antibodies to fight against them. Interestingly however, I also read a health book that says if you want to get sick less often (for adults only), wash your hands before you eat! Poor hand hygiene is the biggest cause of most adult sicknesses (flu, stomachache etc), which is quite surprising compared to the kids huh?
There is a big tussle in Oregon about some euthanasia law. Voters generally refer to it as "physician-assisted suicide" but advocates object that "suicide" refers to "cut(ting) short a life that would otherwise continue, whereas terminal patients are simply hastening a death that is already near". I think this line of thought leads us down a dangerous path. How near is a death that is near? Everybody dies, eventually, and I doubt anyone can predict death accurately all the time. People given a few days to live have often lived a few more years, and vice versa. Euthanisia is a form of suicide regardless of whether you find it morally appealing or not. Nobody can decide with absolute certainty that death is actually "near" enough so that life would not "otherwise continue".
Happy Chinese New Year everyone! (Before I forget)
I found out something interesting. Did you realise that many supermarkets in the US stock goods that are $4.99, $9.99, $XX.99 etc? Well we always thought the idea of using the .99 was to make goods look cheaper than it actually are. Which is kinda dumb anyway, because the consumer really isn't that stupid... It turns out that supermarkets price goods at $XX.99 on purpose so that the cashier has to ring the till during a purchase since most people won't have exact change. The practice came about because too many supermarket cashiers will pilfering the money paid for goods without putting it into the till. It's difficult for them to do that if the till has to be opened for change, because there will be a record. Betcha didn't know that!
You know kids always put things into their mouths? I saw a documentary that says that kids keep doing that and it's alright, because the body needs that to build up extra resistance to foreign germs/bacteria. By eating and being exposed to these harmful germs, the body will produce antibodies to fight against them. Interestingly however, I also read a health book that says if you want to get sick less often (for adults only), wash your hands before you eat! Poor hand hygiene is the biggest cause of most adult sicknesses (flu, stomachache etc), which is quite surprising compared to the kids huh?
There is a big tussle in Oregon about some euthanasia law. Voters generally refer to it as "physician-assisted suicide" but advocates object that "suicide" refers to "cut(ting) short a life that would otherwise continue, whereas terminal patients are simply hastening a death that is already near". I think this line of thought leads us down a dangerous path. How near is a death that is near? Everybody dies, eventually, and I doubt anyone can predict death accurately all the time. People given a few days to live have often lived a few more years, and vice versa. Euthanisia is a form of suicide regardless of whether you find it morally appealing or not. Nobody can decide with absolute certainty that death is actually "near" enough so that life would not "otherwise continue".
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