The Crisis of Credit Visualized

Explains the credit crisis in simple terms and nice graphics.

Life is funny...

Life is funny.. perhaps not in the context of guard duck's gf returning.

For me its just when I never really think of finding someone, the idea of just living my life alone and do my own thing.. someone just pops up.. when I least expect it? I'm dating someone and I've gota make plans for V day within 72. And its kinda super last minute? What's the odds of that?

Personally.. my opinions of v day sorta represented within the quote below...

“Romance is dead - it was acquired in a hostile takeover by Hallmark and Disney, homogenized, and sold off piece by piece.” - Lisa Simpson

Yup, pretty much Valentine's day is just some special secret idea came up by florists and too highly commercialized.

A familiar feeling of cognitive dissonance resounds within me. I trudged around town today to find a perfect present, sure budget is an issue per se, but the main thing to me is to find something which holds real meaning. I'm not really a gift giving kinda person but when I buy something for someone, it has to be meaningful. And yes, I didn't manage to find something I liked today...

We're kinda opposites. Our lives, our family backgrounds are different, our approach towards things in life are different. However I believe that she will be a positive influence in my life. She can make up for and help me to change my short-comings and as I can do for her's. We both can bring a different aspect into each other's lives, that we lacked.

The challenge here is for both of us to take time to listen to each others needs, and accept that we just work differently towards a common goal. Understanding that our approach is different but our goals are the same and appreciate that we both have good intentions; albeit both of us use different ways of expressing ourselves. I guess .. Life was never meant to be easy.

Where will we go from here...
Life is funny.. Only time will tell.

Chris Brown hits Rihanna with an umbrella ella ella eh eh.

Chris Brown attacks Rihanna, arrested
Bang! Showbiz | Monday, 09 February 2009

Top-selling R&B star Chris Brown has been arrested for reportedly attacking Rihanna.

The Run It singer handed himself in to police after officers responded to a phone call at around 12.30am on Sunday morning from an unnamed woman who accused the 19-year-old singer of hurting her.

Los Angeles police officials have declined to identify the caller, but the Los Angeles Times newspaper claim the Umbrella singer was the victim.

A statement released by the Los Angeles Police Department said: "The identity of the victim will not be released. Any victim who's involved in a domestic violence incident is entitled to confidentiality.

"Mr Brown and the alleged victim became involved in an argument. After stopping his car, Brown and the woman got out and the argument escalated. The woman suffered visible injuries and identified Brown as her attacker."

The incident is alleged to have occurred during an early morning argument in Chris' car on a quiet street in Los Angeles' upmarket Hancock Park neighbourhood.

Chris was not at the scene when police arrived.

Both singers pulled out of a planned appearance at last night's Grammy Awards following the incident.

Speaking at the ceremony, American Idol host Paula Abdul said: "I'm hearing some mixed things about what happened. All I can say is I hope Rihanna heals quickly. She's a lovely girl."

Despite reports the alleged victim showed visible injuries, Chris was not arrested on suspicion of physically hurting her.

However, Los Angeles Police Sergeant Bridget Pickett revealed the charges may change at a later stage in proceedings.

Pickett said: "There may be domestic violence charges added later, but that will be up to the district attorney's office."

Chris - who was partying with Rihanna at a pre-Grammy's party - was released after posting US$50,000 bail.

Source


maybe Chris Brown hit Rihanna with an umbrella ella ella eh eh.

Mnemosyne and Lethe

I wish to drink from Mnemosyne and Lethe.
May they grant me everlasting knowledge and wash away my pain.
Keep the knowledge I want, forget all the painful memories.

Been there, done that

Poor guard duck, I share the same sentiments. Went thru that process..

What doesn't kill you, simply makes you stranger.....

A man's value

A man's value is measured by his ability to accept his mistakes and atone for them.

Random snippets of conversation

Rosalind wroteon January 29, 2009 at 8:50pm
Western/European girls mature faster physically than Asians. It's quite common to see them having perky breasts at the age of 14. By 20, them boobs would have sagged.........:p

You replied to Rosalind's poston January 29, 2009 at 9:11pm
actually as a whole, it seems that women are maturing earlier.

physically of course, mentally its still a crawl.

Kartini replied to your poston January 30, 2009 at 10:57pm
You wrote 'physically of course, mentally its still a crawl.'

You must be referring to the male species .... right ?

:)

You replied to Kartini's poston January 31, 2009 at 5:45am
actually the maturity part is crap.

girls just talk about emotions/love at a younger age, where most guys will still be into games/sports.

unfortunately they tend to talk about emotions in a very childish way. ever noticed most of the young fans of celebrities and singers are young teenage girls?

Kartini replied to your poston January 31, 2009 at 10:26pm
.... because 99 % of teenagers ARE immature and childish... :)
oh, that 1 % would be me ^^, who had avoided those immature & childish girls - couldn't stand them & that's why I was a loner most of the time as a teenager. Poor me, eh ? heehee-

You wrote 'girls just talk about emotions/love at a younger age, where most guys will still be into games/sports.'
You forgot one more thing about the guys ... sex !

You replied to Kartini's poston February 1, 2009 at 1:15am
K,

well personally i was pretty much a loner/social outcast growing up. but it's alright I guess. Doesn't matter where you were back then, but where you are now and where you will be in the future ;)

I concur with the sex part, however guys tend to be more able to separate sex from love. But considering the fact that men can't get pregnant and get left carrying the baby or the need to go thru an abortion, I can't say that I'm really surprised.

So to all the girls out there, you can always get your guy to go for a vasectomy, just keep a few of his protein specimens in a bank. You won't risk getting pregnant, you don't need to argue about him using protection. Win Win Situation.

Ignoring the pregnancy part. Men are more likely to finagle sex with a /promise of a relationship, whereas women are more likely to finagle a relationship with sex.

Rosalind replied to your poston February 1, 2009 at 2:43am
Quote - "Men are more likely to finagle sex with a /promise of a relationship, whereas women are more likely to finagle a relationship with sex." - Unquote

Eric, this is one of the most honest phrase I've ever come across. How wise of you!

Kartini replied to Rosalind's poston January 31, 2009 at 10:29pm
aaww, Eric doesn't favour girls at this moment ? .... it's 'coz he hasn't met ME yet ! heehee-

.... if you haven't noticed this yet, it's all about me this time !

You replied to Kartini's post25 minutes ago
K,

actually I'm more looking forward to gaining more knowledge, experiences and sorting out my future nowadays.

I won't say that I'm not interested in girls. Its more like, few manage to pique my interest long enough for me to want to follow up.

I'm at the stage of my life that I need to make certain things my priority. I do meet people, I do go out. The question is whether the individual or the activity interests me enough to bother. ;)

You replied to Rosalind's post23 hours ago
Ros,

I'm just speaking my mind, based on my perceptions.

I'm not against sex, I enjoy debauchery as much as the next person.

However I am against the manipulation and mind games.

Stephanie replied to your post3 hours ago
Gasp! and I thought its the manipulation and mind games that we all live for!
oh the lies!
* drowns herself in sorrow *

You replied to Stephanie's postabout an hour ago
*waits to see if steph floats*

Stephanie Nguyen replied to your postabout an hour ago
* floats by *
Personally I think most people live wanting to be deceived until they're trapped with emotions that wont let them go, that's why manipulation and games are so rampant.

You replied to Stephanie's post37 minutes ago
*jabs with a hot iron poker*

Its all about stimulating the right chemical reactions in the body and pressing the right buttons in the mind. Exhibiting or nurturing or creating a false impression of qualities/personality traits which appeal to the category of people that you hope to attract.

Looks and money being the most universally desired qualities, though importance is subjective from people to people.

Success in the "game" itself would depend on what you view as your "end game".

If you're interested. Here's the link for the thread.

Trainspotting, Choose Life.

Renton - Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players, and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol and dental insurance. Choose fixed-interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisure wear and matching luggage. Choose a three piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked-up brats you have spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life . . . But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life: I chose something else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin?

George Carlin on the 10 commandments

Here is my problem with the ten commandments- why exactly are there 10?

You simply do not need ten. The list of ten commandments was artificially and deliberately inflated to get it up to ten. Here's what happened:

About 5,000 years ago a bunch of religious and political hustlers got together to try to figure out how to control people and keep them in line. They knew people were basically stupid and would believe anything they were told, so they announced that God had given them some commandments, up on a mountain, when no one was around.

Well let me ask you this- when they were making this shit up, why did they pick 10? Why not 9 or 11? I'll tell you why- because 10 sound official. Ten sounds important! Ten is the basis for the decimal system, it's a decade, it's a psychologically satisfying number (the top ten, the ten most wanted, the ten best dressed). So having ten commandments was really a marketing decision! It is clearly a bullshit list. It's a political document artificially inflated to sell better. I will now show you how you can reduce the number of commandments and come up with a list that's a little more workable and logical. I am going to use the Roman Catholic version because those were the ones I was taught as a little boy.

Let's start with the first three:

I AM THE LORD THY GOD
THOU SHALT NOT HAVE STRANGE GODS BEFORE ME

THOU SHALT NOT TAKE THE NAME OF THE LORD THY GOD IN VAIN

THOU SHALT KEEP HOLY THE SABBATH

Right off the bat the first three are pure bullshit. Sabbath day? Lord's name? strange gods? Spooky language! Designed to scare and control primitive people. In no way does superstitious nonsense like this apply to the lives of intelligent civilized humans in the 21st century. So now we're down to 7. Next:

HONOR THY FATHER AND MOTHER

Obedience, respect for authority. Just another name for controlling people. The truth is that obedience and respect shouldn't be automatic. They should be earned and based on the parent's performance. Some parents deserve respect, but most of them don't, period. You're down to six.

Now in the interest of logic, something religion is very uncomfortable with, we're going to jump around the list a little bit.

THOU SHALT NOT STEAL

THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS

Stealing and lying. Well actually, these two both prohibit the same kind of behavior- dishonesty. So you don't really need two you combine them and call the commandment "thou shalt not be dishonest". And suddenly you're down to 5.

And as long as we're combining I have two others that belong together:

THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTRY

THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHBOR'S WIFE

Once again, these two prohibit the same type of behavior. In this case it is marital infidelity. The difference is- coveting takes place in the mind. But I don't think you should outlaw fantasizing about someone else's wife because what is a guy gonna think about when he's waxing his carrot? But, marital fidelity is a good idea so we're gonna keep this one and call it "thou shalt not be unfaithful". And suddenly we're down to four.

But when you think about it, honesty and fidelity are really part of the same overall value so, in truth, you could combine the two honesty commandments with the two fidelity commandments and give them simpler language, positive language instead of negative language and call the whole thing "thou shalt always be honest and faithful" and we're down to 3.

THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHBOR"S GOODS

This one is just plain fuckin' stupid. Coveting your neighbor's goods is what keeps the economy going! Your neighbor gets a vibrator that plays "o come o ye faithful", and you want one too! Coveting creates jobs, so leave it alone. You throw out coveting and you're down to 2 now- the big honesty and fidelity commandment and the one we haven't talked about yet:

THOU SHALT NOT KILL

Murder. But when you think about it, religion has never really had a big problem with murder. More people have been killed in the name of god than for any other reason. All you have to do is look at Northern Ireland, Kashmir, the Inquisition, the Crusades, and the World Trade Center to see how seriously the religious folks take thou shalt not kill. The more devout they are, the more they see murder as being negotiable. It depends on who's doin the killin' and who's gettin' killed. So, with all of this in mind, I give you my revised list of the two commandments:

Thou shalt always be honest and faithful
to the provider of thy nookie.

&

Thou shalt try real hard not to kill anyone, unless of course
they pray to a different invisible man than you.

Two is all you need; Moses could have carried them down the hill in his fuckin' pocket. I wouldn't mind those folks in Alabama posting them on the courthouse wall, as long as they provided one additional commandment:

Thou shalt keep thy religion to thyself.

--

Love watching his videos on youtube. Too bad he already passed away.

I respect people's faith, I respect people's strength in their beliefs.

Too often, religion has been used as a tool towards ones own ends.

Why can't we all just get along and not shove things down each others' throats?

Mahjong lessons, Whats the odds of that?

Was at sher's place yesterday, she offered to teach me how to play mahjong and how to count how many "tai". It something new, new experience for me, but I admit I felt restless sitting down for such a long time.

Was at her place at around mid noon and then I played with her and her friends. She was kind enough to guide me and share. Personally I was happy not to have to pay "school fees", lady luck was on her side yesterday, She was the only winner last night.

Got to know her friends, amos, mag, andy and her brother Ethan. Shared some alky with em, random chit chat and played with amos/mag's dog Del( not certain of the spelling). She's a greyhound, very uncommon in singapore.

Took a picture of her with her favorite chew toy Eeyore.



You can tell by now I really like dogs, however she got on my good side because I happen to not like Eeyore nor any of the Winnie the pooh series characters. Kindly refer to picture for an example.

Had alky with them during the mahjong session, It was fun and the bunch of peeps were hilarious.

Watching lotsa movies lately, Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire were excellent. Gona be watching The Nightmare Before Christmas later. Still got a nice long list of to watch, next is to catch up on my to-read list.

Experiences, Experiences, The pursuit of knowledge and experiences. What Fun! What Joy! Choose life, Choose who you wana be and who you wana be remembered as (=