I see promiscuity dribbling from their very tongues. It flows like liquid muck, slithering down their bodies, scarcely clothed, with a putrid stench. Still, many enjoy watching the spectacle; it is entertainment to them; and they do not mind it. It becomes okay. It becomes perfectly okay.
Espresso is your friend. But no more than two cups a day, lest you get palpitations. And none after 6pm. Especially not a double-shot.
They ask you to come to work at 8.30 a.m. for a good reason: the computer takes half an hour to boot up, so, you really start work at 9. Many people use that time to read the newspaper, or make some coffee.
There are two types of workers: those who are at their cubicles most of the time (like, ahem, myself), and those who are at other people’s cubicles most of the time. You might take a guess at the difference.
Sometimes you see people reading the newspaper. At first sight, you might think they have so much free time, or they’re slacking. But where I work, they’re studying the company’s competitor’s ads.
You sometimes send email to your colleague just a cubicle away. You know that it’s much faster to talk face-to-face, but hey, you tell yourself, “I might just disturb a busy person”. Or, “it’d be funny if I keep popping my head to talk to him every once in a while.” So, you click “Send”.
It’s really nice to have a gym at work. The best time to go is on Friday, after work, when work ends early, and when everyone else eagerly rushes home for the weekend. You’ll own the gym. It feels like that for me, at least for now, as a bachelor.
Friday is ‘dress down day’. Wear jeans and T-shirt to remind your usually bourgeois self that that’ll be what you’ll be wearing when you get retrenched.
Check out the unassuming vending machines. They might sell drinks cheaper, like 60 cents for a can of Coke. Of course, this wouldn’t apply if you’re at Google or Microsoft.
You might be working in a telco company, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s free wifi where you sit.
Company canteens can sell rather cheap food. Like $2 a plate. Not too bad.
Sometimes, you may knock off from work still having work in your mind. It is sometimes not easy to clear your mind, so, sometimes, it’s quite wise to do some overtime to complete a task, for the sake of your own sanity.
Otherwise, you might have trouble sleeping at night. It happened to me. Like many others, I try to listen to some music. If you’re like me, you might struggle to find the right kind of music, and end up still sleepless, pressing quite maniacally on the Skip button in iTunes.
Here are some rare gems I could find in my collection, with some comments, and favourite lines:
The Beatles – Here, There and Everywhere
Found on Absolute Radio. People don’t make this kind of music any more. Love the intro.
To lead a better life I need my love to be here
[...]
I want her everywhere and if she’s beside me
I know I need never care
But to love her is to need her everywhere
Knowing that love is to share
The Kings of Convenience – The Weight of My Words
The weight of my words:
you can’t feel it anymore.
Radiohead – Scatterbrain
I’m walking out in a force ten gale
Birds thrown around, bullets for hail
The roof is pulling off by its fingernails
Your voice is rattlin’ on my window sill
Chet Baker – My Funny Valentine
But don’t change a hair for me
Not if you care for me
Stay, little valentine
Stay
Each day is Valentine’s Day
Dandelion Wine – While My Guitar Gently Weeps (The Beatles cover)
This cover is marvellous.
I look at the world and I notice it’s turning
While my guitar gently weeps
With every mistake we must surely be learning
Still my guitar gently weeps
2. Psychoanalysis a related group of emotionally significant ideas that are completely or partly repressed and that cause psychic conflict leading to abnormal mental states or behavior.
Perhaps this is it. The explanation. For hypersexualisation in the media, and the existence of pornography, contrasted against the equanimity of the people who go on to consume them. It would be unsurprising if hypersexualised media indeed fills in them the void that is left by reality, where the institution of marriage is crumbling, and becoming more remote in people’s minds, and lives. They are trapped in their subconscious. What they see, and what they hear, numb them. They do not see beyond what is apparent. They do not even realise as they sway to the rhythm and the beat that hypnotises them; they just sway on, unfettered. Truth and reality turn from obvious, to ambiguous, to unnecessary, until they completely elude them.
I was rather late in keeping up with the recent troubles concerning AWARE and MOE. Unsurprisingly, a tremendous amount of views have already been aired on the Web on the matter; one only needs to search in Google using the right keywords.
One thing which struck me, among other things, was the phrase I quote in the title. It has been part of the instruction manual for AWARE’s sex education courses, approved by MOE, which are directed towards young children.
Several things are wrong with the quoted statement and the preceding paragraph, and they themselves allude to several other tricky issues, some of which I will discuss below.
On the role of sex in society
The prevalent view that has been promoted of late is that sex is for pleasure, and everyone has the right to that pleasure. What was implicit, and rightly pointed by some others, is the fact that sex is being decoupled from the values of marital commitment, and love. This is highly consistent with the media images that are being dished out to us today, particularly, in films, TV shows, music videos, and songs—which I from time to time review and berate.
I might remark in passing here that while (let us not say ‘Western’, but) decadent society has made great advances towards making sex more accessible and promoting their ideology about sex, ‘traditional’ societies have failed to keep up by failing to make marriage more accessible as well. Could one even spell out the barriers to marriage at present? I could spell out a few—extended period of ‘education’, lack of money, lack of knowledge—which can be properly addressed if one makes an effort to.
On the ‘rights’ of homosexuals
I stand by my position that there should be no room for such perversions.
This largely due to my religious beliefs, but for the sake of fairness, we may also go into empirical evidences: for instance, you may find out for yourself that the findings of scientific inquiry and research has shown that there is no ‘gay gene’, and that the physical design of humans is greatly in favour of heterosexuality (and opposed to homosexuality).
With this in mind, what is worrying is the fact that a significant portion of homosexuals are actively promoting their values in order to gain wider acceptance in society, and part of this effort has been to reach out to the people who will eventually matter: our young children. The fact that MOE has gone to approve AWARE’s methods of carrying out sex education in schools, regardless of whether or not it was an oversight, only tells us that we cannot afford to entrust the matter to others, and that it is our due responsibility to ensure that others do not usurp on what should be our very own liability. To this end, I see myself refusing to send my children to public schools in future, if the present situation does not improve sufficiently by then.
see what they see
hear what they hear
sing what they sing
wear what they wear
speak what they speak
eat what they eat
drink what they drink
think what they think
and with them
become one
and with me
become none.
And apologies for not being able to update much of this blog, for I have been extremely busy with school work.
It was not until someone tried to reset my password at 5.50am this morning that I went to check my stats, and noticed the jump in the number of hits.
To address the visitors of some of my most popular pages:
How to fix the Invalid Sibling Link error: Congratulations to those for whom the methods I described worked. Please pass on the information to those who might value it. I will continue to try to help those who are still facing problems on a case-by-case basis.
WPlite: It is very obvious that many of you have requested that I upgrade it for WP2.7, and obvious too that I haven’t been responding, for the same reason mentioned above. I am sorry. No promises on when I can begin to do it, too. However, if you’ve hacked an upgrade already, I will be glad to feature it on my page, free of charge.
On Dina Zaman’s writings: Bring it on—no, just kidding. It’s just that the more recent comments have been rather provocative, and I hope I have answered them well.
Here’s to the spirit of “Mahal kita”.
Here’s to the constancy of faith, love, and belief.
Here’s to more words of everlasting value and meaning; not short-lived cries of whim and fancy.
I would give up many things for the untangible, and subtle.
Material things do not nourish me.
Undying, unwavering faithfulness does, and constant conscience.
