A couple was boarding the bus. It was crowded but not packed, but the woman was carrying a toddler in her arms. Someone eventually gave up his seat for her but that's not the point here.
What was atrocious was that this woman was at least 5 months PREGNANT. And the man, who was obviously her husband, let her carry the toddler in her arms up the bus, and left her to squeeze through the people standing in the bus WHILE THE BUS WAS MOVING while he, carrying nothing but a haversack, quietly followed behind her.
A colleague asked me a weird question yesterday... She claimed that her friend asked her some time ago:
Who's worse - someone who doesn't know how to do evil? Or someone who is capable of doing bad things, but intentionally refrains from doing?
I guess for Christians, this question is pretty straightforward to answer, especially when we remember the story Jesus told about the creditors who forgave two people of their debt. (Luke 7:41-43)
What credit is it to a man who is good not because he chose to be, but because he can't do evil? Conversely, which is worse? Someone who doesn't know how to do good, or someone who knows but chooses to commit crimes and do heinous deeds?
Spiderman says, "With great power comes great responsibility."
I recently blogged about how the seasons are changing for the better in my life, and as if to prove it, life became more challenging right after I put up the post.
Over the weekend, there were more challenges, problems and temptations than I had in a long time.
Yet I count it all joy... One CG member called me out of the blue to ask him the verse reference for this verse that says something about how we enter the kingdom of God through trials and tribulations. I later found it in Acts 14:22: "...and saying, 'we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.' "
You know, I never believed in coincidence and this was almost as if it was God's word for me for this season...
The Lord has been teaching me a lot about seasons recently...
For one, I have felt that the seasons are changing in my career and I have been feeling the urge to move on to another job recently. Immediately after I had and accepted that thought, doors of opportunity simply opened up through several people around me! Without having to even look actively, I have at least 4 different job prospects I can pursue!
Then is the spate of ordeals I had to go through the past few days. You would have read about the trouble I went through just to get the new handphone for Rachel. If you have also been reading her blog, you would have read about the problems we've been having with the maid. Just yesterday, after going for a job interview, I decided to make an unannounced trip to the maid agency to sort things out "once and for all".
It went well, and I believe God was with me throughout the whole time! I didn't have to raise my voice, I did not have to demand for or insist on anything. I simply went in, asked in a very neutral tone, "So how?" and everything just turned out alright, thank God! In the end, it was decided that we would bring the maid back to the agency next Wednesday and start choosing for a replacement. We'd lose some money on the insurance and some other smaller items, but at least we did not have to pay for her air ticket, interim lodging and other stuff.
Also during CG and my quiet time, God has been challenging me to rise up and use the guitar not just as a musical instrument, but as a spiritual weapon of warfare and intercession. God reminded me how the children of Israel brought down the walls of Jericho simply by praising God. I'm going to start using the guitar to bring down a more tangible presence of God!
The next season change is the most exciting. For my life, the seasons have changed from a time of restoration to a time of growth. It's going to be a time where I move up to a higher level in life. It's going to be a time when I go to a place where I've never been before!
I suppose (and hope) this will wrap up the whole handphone story...
As mentioned in Part 2, I went back to the handphone shop to get the phone changed today. It didn't turn out ugly (of course lah, I'm such a nice guy...) but it got kinda tense for a while.
When I showed him the defect, he claimed that it's a software glitch and a simple software upgrade will solve the problem. (Yah, another one of those trying to pull a fast one... but I wasn't so easily fooled..) So he suggested that I bring the phone down to the Sony Ericsson service centre at Wisma Atria to have them look at the phone and fix it.
I told him the phone is brand new and should not have problems like that, and insisted that he does a one-to-one exchange for me on the spot. He flatly refused saying that they are no longer authorised to make such exchanges. I asked him if I had taken out the phone and realised the defect on the spot, what would he do? He immediately said, oh of course he will give me a new one! So why not now? Afterall, I haven't even really used the phone yet, just enough to determine the phone is working properly and the fault is not due to some wrong settings we made!
So I kept insisting he swaps the phone and he kept refusing. He offered to help me bring the phone down to the service centre to get it changed but that would take 2 weeks! I told him siao ah, then the next 2 weeks I use my shoe to make phone calls lah? (Okay, I didn't really say that, but you know what I mean... I need a new, usable phone NOW!)
Finally, after much ding-donging, he resorted to calling the person from Sony Ericsson and held this suspiciously scripted one-sided conversation (since I can't hear what the other party was saying) about how he knows it's against policy to do one-to-one exchange blah blah blah... and then put down the phone and said, "See? I tried, but like I told you, they said cannot."
I wasn't fooled. he could have said anything he wants on the phone... Who knows if he even called anyone in the first place? For all you know he was talking to himself or his wife over the phone and we would have been none the wiser. So I asked to speak to the Sony Ericsson person MYSELF. He reluctantly gave me the number, saying he was already "breaking the rules" by doing so.
To cut the long story short, I eventually managed to convince them to swap for a new phone, but my victory was short-lived... They didn't have another red colour model to do the swap and I would have to swap it at Wisma afterall.
Thank God Rachel didn't mind the black one (which I think actually looks better, albeit a little more conventional) and I agreed to switch the black one instead.
This last hurdle cleared, I walked out of the shop FORTY MINUTES later satisfied, not for the customer service or the new phone, but for perservering till the end and keeping my cool throughout the whole ordeal.
Now back to configuring the phone so dear dear has it all ready to go when she lays her hands on it tonight... =)
I sent out the feedback email without even expecting them to reply... After all, it's a handphone shop, what do you expect?
Anyway, I got the phone from another shop at Suntec and when we were fiddling with it at home, we realised that the pictures taken by the phone camera were not as sharp as they should be. In fact, the left side of the picture would be sharp then it becomes slowly blurred as it moves to the right, as if someone had smudged the lens. It was also somehow unable to focus and even simple shots came up blurred.
We concluded after a while that the phone must be faulty and decided that we will bring it back to the shop to get it changed the next day. There goes my lunch break again...
What was more frustrating was that I spent quite some time configuring the phone, transferring the settings, contacts and data on the memory card, only to have to erase everything so that they can be returned to the shop! Grrrr.......
Anyway, a slightly more uplifting development in this whole ordeal was that at about 10pm, I received a call from a manager from 6range, the phone shop I complained about in Part 1. In slightly broken English she explained to me why there was a price difference and apologised profusely for her sales staff's miscommunication.
While I still do not fully accept her explanation, I was impressed that they actually bothered to call me back. She assured me that they will make the necessary adjustments to the stores and even gave me her handphone number and asked me to call her when I next want to get a handphone...
Don't ask me what good calling her will do... Discount? Better service? But well, at least they bothered... and they got a customer back, so ah well...
Maybe I am just a sucker for sweet voices! Hahaha...
As you might have read from my wife's blog, her handphone broke down for the second time in a year a few days ago... She can't hear her caller on the phone and the camera went kaputt too. So I offered to help subsidize half the price of her new phone from my "PC Upgrade Fund"...
Being the brilliant woman she is, she has to choose the latest model, the Sony Ericsson C902. It's for the 5MP camera lah... because before her phone broke down we have been deciding between getting her a new phone or a new digital camera. We figured if we get a new phone with a good camera, it will make up for the need (more or less) for a new camera.
ANYWAY, I went by Suntec to buy the phone during lunchtime yesterday. I'm not going to rewrite the whole ordeal, so I will just post the feedback letter I sent to the handphone shop. I'm sure they will explain everything...
6range's Bewildering Pricing Strategy
Dear sir/mdm,
I am writing to register my disappointment with 6range's services.
I saw on separate occasions at your website and the Boon Lay MRT outlet that the new SE C902 is priced at $686. Having decided to purchase the phone, I made a trip to the 6range outlet at Carrefour, Suntec City during lunch time today.
When I noticed that the banners at the outlet stated the price as $716, I asked the sales staff if the price has risen (overnight). She said no and told me that in fact the prices have dropped. Assuming she meant that the prices have dropped from $716 to $686, I asked if the price printed on the banner was the old price, to which she replied yes.
We then went through the whole process of checking the phone and finalising the purchase. It was only upon payment did I realise that the selling price was in fact $716 and not the lower $686. When queried, the salesgirl claimed that she said that prices have dropped from $868 to $716. When I told her I saw on the website and the Boon Lay outlet that the price was $686, she told me that was the outlet price and that these prices do not apply to their counter.
It is ridiculous to suggest that the price of a newly launched phone would drop by more than $150 (from $868 to $716) within 2 weeks of its launch. It is even more bewildering to be told that different 6range outlets sell the same equipment at different prices. In this case, it was a difference of $30! I noticed that the prices of some of the other phones were also $30 higher than the prices shown at the website.
What I would like to ask is, why the pricing difference? If there is indeed such a significant difference in prices (for whatever reason), should not customers be told that they can get it at a cheaper price at the other outlets right from the start and not only when paying? Imagine I had not known the lower price, I would have been "cheated" of $30 simply by buying it from the "wrong" outlet.
Besides, what is stopping the Carrefour outlet from selling their phones at the same price as the other outlets? If it is because 6range has to pay Carrefour a levy for every phone sold, then I suggest it close its sales counters at Suntec and Plaza Singapura because it is doing its business more harm than good.
Which reminds me... I bought my previous 2 phones from 6range outlets... One from Carrefour Suntec, and the other from Carrefour Plaza Singapura. Now I'm wondering if I had paid $30 more on each of those 2 phones when I bought them!
Anyway, I later bought the phone I wanted from another shop down the alley in Suntec for the same price ($686). In fact, it was a better deal because this other shop even threw in a 1GB memory card for free!
Looks like I will not be buying phones from 6range for a while.
I pass by the Lakeshore on my way to and from work every day and recently realise that people have started moving in en masse. In the evenings, I would be able to see through the full length glass panelled windows into the beautiful living rooms, like sparkling jewellery in individual boxes in the drawer...
My wife and I have been telling ourselves, our next house would be a condo, and to me, something like Lakeshore would be great!
(Out of curiosity, I checked out the Lakeshore website at www.lakeshore.com.sg... It's a beautiful place!)
Recently, I realised that they have been quite active in the underpass area at Tanjong Pagar MRT. They have also mastered this technique to exploit this tendency to take and shake a hand offered to you, so instinctive among the Shenton Way crowd.
How does it work? They slither close to where you're walking towards so you'll walk past close to them, turn around the last minute, beam a wide smile and offer you a friendly handshake. If you take the bait (or are simply taken by surprise) and shakes that hand, you'll be stuck there for at least the next 5 minutes!
I'm sorry, but I totally detest such waylaying tactics. Worse, whenever approached, I'll feel compelled to lie about how I'm in a hurry, or something, just so they'll let me go...
But so far, the most effective way of keeping them away from you is to simply whip out your handphone and either pretend you're busy SMS-ing or talking on the phone. Once they see you can't talk to them, they'll leave you alone!
Anyone else got any tips on avoiding these people? I know they are just trying to make a living, but I would really rather they leave me alone and respect my private space, even in public!
The lead paragraph on today's My Paper cover story read: "Hollywood star Sharon Stone has become the latest celebrity to face the incendiary wrath of the increasingly nationalistic Chinese people."
Besides the fact that Sharon Stone made a really stupid comment, I was wondering why the media kept referring to the Chinese people as 'nationalistic', while say, American citizens protesting over people who insult their country are called "patriotic".
Why the difference?
While patriotism denotes all things positive, nationalism carries with it a tinge of chauvinism, imperialism and territorialism, even reminiscent of its historical fascist relations. Perhaps it is just part of the baggage of China's Communistic roots?
The Collins Essential English Dictionary defines nationalism as "patriotism, sometimes to an excessive degree". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language writes that nationalism is "the belief that nations will benefit from acting independently rather than collectively, emphasizing national rather than international goals."
Both are not very flattering definitions, are they?
1. Behind that brave, masculine front, is often a man who is insecure and seeking affirmation and assurance from the people who matter to them.
2. It often only takes a simple encouragement to inspire a man to make a life-changing decision.
3. Honesty is the best policy between 2 men, but not always between a man and a woman. Sometimes, it's just better to shut up... but woe to you if you ever get found out.
4. When a man keeps quiet about something, it doesn't mean he does not feel hurt, troubled or offended by it.
5. Most good men are either dead, married, or gay.
6. Men and women worry about completely different sets of things - but often have absolutely no idea of such a difference.
7. To women, there are two kinds of branded goods: authentic branded and fake branded. To men, there are two kinds of sex: Love-Sex, and Sex-Sex.
8. You are the hardest - and also the easiest - person to forgive.
9. You can always find answers to your own problems in the lives of others around you.
10. 90% of the people who watched this show probably never thought this far about it.
No, I did not get the title wrong, because as far as the movie was concerned, there was a lot more about the city than there was about sex. (Sorry guys, no 'Lust, Caution' there...)
Still, it was an interesting show, especially when before that I had a whole lot of comments from my female colleagues. Some said they were interested in the show although they had not watched the HBO version on TV (why, they could not explain). One said it has a cult follwing... Another said she would watch it just for the fashion/ clothes in the show.
After watching it last night, I was like, "What fashion? You mean there was any?" Not unless you consider that 2 mins' worth of footage of the girls at a runway show fashion? Ok, yes, the movie kinda revolved around a whole lot of top brands and labels... and ended with the woman saying that labels are in the end, well, just labels. It's the value we give to them, and not the labels and names themselves, that truly matter.
Reminded me of what Dr AR Bernard preached once about putting value on something...
And well, I still cannot understand the pre-occupation the world has over chasing labels, which by the way, going by the clothes the women were drooling over at the runway show, were just impractical fabric impressions of some overpaid fashion "guru".
(It surely didn't help when the first question I was asked after the show was "So now you know why women are so into labels?" Erm duh, no? )
Sex and the City is one show I think couples should watch together, and is also one show I believe most couples would walk out of thinking very different things. It's one of those shows that portray a BRUTAL truth in the most FEEL-GOOD way. It's one of those shows where the guy would go "aww... poor GUY!" throughout the show, while his female partner would probably go "aww... poor GIRL!" or "that guy is such a jerk/idiot/a**hole!" (or any such variations, to which I believe, there is plenty!)
Don't believe? Go watch the show yourself and then start talking about it with a friend of the opposite gender and you'll see what I mean...
As for me, I'll probably buy the video when it's out, for keepsake and for future study and research... =)
Some time ago during an industry networking session, this grudgy half-drunk guy kept blabbering about how inefficient and a waste of time the whole Gebiz system was. The few of us sober ones purposely rebutted him just to spite him. Now I see some truth in what he stuttered...
You get "invited" to send in a pitch, you do tonnes of research, you do your best and put together what you think is your best proposal yet and submit the bid, full of hope they'll call and say you're hired one day.
Then two weeks later, you see on that same unfeeling website that it has been awarded... to someone else! Like a man left waiting at the altar for his runaway bride, you get this disappointing feeling you've been manipulated and cheated of your ideas, energy and soul.
To add insult to injury, they don't even bother to send you an email to thank you for submitting your bid! How difficult is it to send a generic email to the 16 other bidders? This is just rude.
Being on Amber Alert for the first time in 11 years sure has its effects on me. I have not been to the Beach Road Army Market so frequently in my life and for the first time, I bought stuff online from the E-Mart website and got the stuff delivered to my house... Cool!
First up, I was busy packing my field pack, which was practically non-existent! A good 8 years since my last ICT, what do you expect? Anyway, the first hurdle was looking for the field pack items list, which was quite a challenge in itself, because different sources tells me differently! Some (apparently) lao-jiao NS man told me that you can "chin chye pack" because they won't really check and no one would know! I don't really intend to be a 'Siao On' NS man, but I sure don't want to be the 'siao' NS man either!
Second hurdle was in the uniform. My existing uniform is still without all the new patches and "koh yio por" (medicated plasters) like the "Singapore" label and name tags on the plain olive green background. Also lacking was the vocation collar badge. So one fine night when baby was away at my sister-in-law's place, I slowly sewed them on my uniforms until 4am!
My brother says he has never seen an NS man as 'on' as me and my wife agrees too, but truth is, how many NS man do they know? Haha... =)
My last hurdle is also one I have yet to resolve. My 'wife' during my army days was the venerable M-16. After I went for the pre-ICT briefing a few weeks ago, I discovered a few things:
1. My new unit just ORD-ed in late 2006. This coming ICT is their first in-camp. 2. During their active days, this unit was the best infantry unit in SAF. 3. There is a live-firing shoot on day 2 of the training program. 4. They trained on the new SAR-21, a rifle I have not handled before.
The officer from SAF (yes, I CALLED them) told me not to worry because everyone will be brought through a training session on day 1 and I will learn how to use the rifle during that time. It's either they have great faith in me, or they were simply brushing off my concerns, but I don't think I can pick up a new weapon and be certified (as required by Training Safety regulations) to shoot it (live) the very next day! Maybe the new rifle is REALLY so simple to operate? We'll only know by day 1... For the first time in my life, I feel like I can get away with shooting someone! Haha...
When my colleagues and I were having lunch at an Indian Muslim eatery today, I sat across this Indian man (not sure if he was Muslim too) at the table.
As I was saying grace over the food, it suddenly struck me that it's only in very few places around the world can you go into a Muslim eatery and say grace at their table without feeling looked at! Somehow the feeling of how blessed we are in Singapore came to mind and I quietly gave thanks to God for the religious harmony we have here.
Sure, it's not perfect and we still have a long way to go, but it's sure better than a lot of other places overseas where I remember feeling awkward saying grace blatantly in front of a Muslim in a Muslim eatery...
After a harrowing verbal exchange between my company's office manager and our IT guy, I came to the grand conclusion that men see most things in black and white, while women see them in full glorious colour!
To a guy, things are either yes or no, right or wrong. There are no considerations of any feelings, emotions and past memories. For the woman however, everything comes tagged with a thought, a feeling, a link to the past.
As a result, what may seem simple and straightforward, even mundane to a guy, may be filled with so much emotion, and strong feelings for a woman. What happened was my office manager wanted to buy a few computer monitors for the office and called the IT guy to tell him about it. The guy then asked her if she knew which model to buy, what size, what's the market price etc. What started as a simple fact-finding efffort on the guy's part turned out to be perceived as an insult to the competence and critical ability of the woman. And from there, things can only go downhill...
The woman saw the matter in colour. It wasn't as simple as just black or white, yes or no. It was spiced up with questions and assumptions on the person's intentions, motives, predispositions, bias and what-have-yous.
How does a colour blind person differentiate between red and blue? He can't. They all look like the same shade of grey to him!
It seems apparent that Oprah Winfrey has started a new religion that calls itself "A New Earth", promising believers spiritual 'awakening' through its spiritual classes over webcast.
Unknown to many, Oprah openly denied Chirst was the only way to heaven a few years ago on one of her shows... although she repeatedly claims that she's a Christian!
So what does this New Earth teach?
1. Who you are requires no belief. 2. Heaven is not a location but refers to the inner realm of consciousness. 3. The man on the cross is an archetypal image. He is every man and every woman.
More specifically, it teaches that:
1. My mind is part of God's. I am very holy. 2. My holiness is my salvation. 3. My salvation comes from me. 4. Let me remember there is no sin. 5. Do not make the pathetic error of "clinging to the old rugged cross." 6. The only message of the cross is that you can overcome the cross.
In essence, she is behaving like Lucifer himself, believing that we can be like God... No, she is saying that we do not need God because we ARE god! Scary...
Very soon, we'll find Oprah declaring herself as some modern high priestess and leading her TWO MILLION followers to self-destruction. Or maybe with the power, wealth and influence she now has, she is ALREADY the high priestess.
So what made her start on this perverted journey? Simply because years ago, she heard her pastor say that God is a "jealous God". But come on... surely a single comment could not have condemned 2 million people years later to hell?
Watch and pray, guys... We are seeing more and more of these people around in these last days...
It's amazing how I can't seem to finish talking about this topic... Maybe it just proves that work is really something men feel very strongly about? Hmm...
Anyway, I wanted to talk about the popular saying "Behind every successful man is a loving and supportive wife/woman."
Perhaps the rules of society has changed since the time this saying was first coined, or perhaps gender roles have become very different today, but I feel that this saying still hold true for me personally. When you know you have a supportive wife, you feel llike you can conquer the world (figuratively at least) and that you can face up to any challenge life brings.
Think of the men going to war and their wives kissing their husbands and sons good bye. Archaic notions? Apparently not. For me, I find much significance in the good-bye kiss with my wife every morning before I set off to work, and I used to lament whenever she leaves the house without doing so!
It's more than just a kiss. It's a powerful message that tells the man "I believe you can do it... Now go!" It's a vote of confidence in his strength, abilities and commitment to you and the family!
By this, I'm not saying that women go through less stress, headaches and heartaches at the workplace, because the truth is that they do toil as much, if not sometimes more than their male counterparts in the office.
However, if the bible is anything to go by, God only asked Adam to tend the Garden. It wasn't Eve's job to be in the fields, at least as far as God is concerned. God's ordained role for Eve was to be a helper to Man.
So what does these all mean for us today? For Women Only wrote that even if the wife "personally made enough income to support the family’s lifestyle, it would make no difference to the mental burden he feels to provide."
Whether we like it or not, and regardless of what society today is saying, men have always been hardwired to be the providers. Whether that mental burden translates to greater stress at work may be debatable, but it seems like it is one less thing that women need to worry about - not the physical need of having to help put food on the table, but the psychological burden of having to do so.
Generally speaking, the implications of this are tremendous. Men measure their credibility as men by their level of success at work. If they do not do well in their career, and are not able to comfortably provide for the family, they see it not just as a failure as a father or a husband, but as a failure as a man. Afterall, doesn't the bible say very starkly that he who does not provide for his family is worse than an infidel?
This explains why a lot of men would devote so much time to their work. It does not mean that he is hiding in the office because he hates to spend time at home. In fact, it means the opposite! Working hard and providing for the family is his way (and maybe also God's way?) of showing love to his family. Conversely, when the man hits a hard patch at his workplace and feels less able to provide, he would naturally feel his ability to love his family diminish. Rewind to the days when men were hunters, every man would return to their folks with a deer on their backs... And you? Just a tiny chicken? How would that man feel? How would his wife feel? How would other men see him?
Once you look at it that way, and multiply that with men's competitive nature, men's burden at work becomes more than just bringing in the paycheck every month. It's about him as a person, as a man. It's a measure of his manliness!
The bible clearly states in Genesis 2:15 that it was Adam's God-ordained task to "tend and keep" the Garden of Eden. Man, it appears, was created to work and by extension, find his fulfilment and destiny through it.
However, the toil of work is the curse that came as a result of Man's fall. Like in the same way we say that it is not money itself, but the loveof money that is the rootof all evil, work by itself is (at least for men) a task that was originally meant to be enjoyable and fruitful. But because Man has fallen, it has now become a chore to work.
Some of us have written about how it has become so hard-going at our workplace, and we would readily recognize that these difficulties are by and large the result of man's fallen nature. I believe this why the bible exhorts us to work "as if unto the Lord" and commit the toils of work to Him. Only then are we able to break through the curse of the toil of work and see work for what God has made it to be: fun, pleasureable and fruitful!
Having said that, it seemed that only the men were 'inflicted' with this curse, since women were already made to experience pain in childbirth (I wouldn't swap that, thank you very much!). Does that mean that women may actually have it easier at work than men do?
hello bro matthew!!! this is xiaowei........ glad to see you in mulitply! didn't noe u have a blog till i see u in xuan's multiply comments........ happy blogging :o)
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