My Blog

Nothing in this world stays the same. Time changes everything. Objects change. Wood eventually gets chipped off, paintings would discolour, equipments would slowly be worn out. The environment changes. One moment the sun is shining majestically, the next it could be raining cats & dogs. Tide would rise and subside. Rocks could be eroded by the mighty waves.

Change doesn’t always mean something negative. Time is an important ingredient in this special recipe. Simple stones could turn into precious gems. Grapes could turn into wine. Perhaps change is complementary to progress. There won’t be any progress without changes. Animals have evolved to become what they are now. They evolved to suit changes that happened around them, whether it was climate change or habitat change.

It takes months, maybe years to ferment grapes into wine. It takes decades for climate pattern to change significantly. It takes hundreds of years for animals to evolve. But it takes us only a few seconds to change.

We change the fastest. Besides our DNA and fingerprint, nothing about us stays the same. Fashions changes, mood changes, hobby changes, everything changes. There’s no such thing as loving someone as much. You either love more, or less. You’ll either like to play a computer/board game more, or less than before. You won’t like it as much. As we explore the world and everything in it, we see so many new things. When we see so many new things, we also tend to see things differently. Our views would change. It’s just like looking at oysters. When one day you discover that there could be pearls in oysters, you would look at them with a whole new perspective, never the same again.

Things around us would change, our environment would change, our lifestyles would change, the people around us would change. Those who can’t keep up with these changes would fall back in progress, very very badly. It’s not that some people don’t want to adapt, sometimes they just don’t realize that things are different. If they don’t do something fast, they would loose out.

Some people realize the change, and they try to keep up. These people would survive. But those who make the effort to adapt and look for opportunities when times are different, they are the ones who would succeed. It’s not about keeping up with whatever is different around you, it’s about making the best out of everything. Learn something in every difficulty you face. Understand yourself deeper when you encounter problems or participate in activities.

Nothing in this world stays the same. It’s like running a treadmill. If you don’t keep up with the pace, you’ll fall behind. There is also no point running too fast. Best is to run just nice with the speed. Some suffer when they take it as a difficulty to train. Why not just enjoy the exercise? And make the best out of it.

Everything would change. But your priority should stay the same.

You were busy studying for a test tomorrow when your hand phone reminder went off. It’s your best friend’s birthday tomorrow! Thank god for the reminder you thought to yourself… but how about the delicious herbal duck dinner you thought of cooking for him? O_O. You totally forgotten to prepare the herbs and worst, you don’t even have a duck =.= , your special duck recipe requires a minimum time of 1 day to marinate. It’s 9 pm and the mini-market is located quite far away.

What should you do? There aren’t any restaurants which serves nice duck dishes. You could marinate it for half a day tomorrow… but it won’t taste nice. You could cook a special herbal chicken or turkey instead. Or you could take the effort to make it to that mini-market. You start thinking, while staring at your watch looking at the seconds hand ticking away…

You really feel like cooking that herbal duck for your best friend, he loves duck. But you didn’t do any preparation =.= , Nevermind, you just went to get changed and grab your wallet. While walking to your room upstairs… you thought about other things. How are you going to get to the mini-market? Nobody around you has a car, there is no taxi service at your place, the only way is the irregular bus service down the road. It’s ok, you want to cook your best buddy this duck dinner, you won’t mind waiting for the bus which might not even turn up.

It’s late…what if the bus service stops before you want to come home? Are you willing to walk for 45 minutes carrying a duck and a whole bunch of herbs? At that instant you wish that you had done your preparation. You wished you had at least found out the bus schedule. Of course you’re cursing yourself about why you didn’t prepare all these before hand. But there’s no use beating yourself now… lets think of what can be done.

It’s all going to be worth it, you want to make that dinner. But how about the washing up? So many utensils would be used…the blender, wok, cooking ladles, all the bowls and the stove. You’ve been procrastinating, you’ve got a lot of datelines to meet… but it is your best friend’s birthday.

Even if you manage to buy the duck and herbs tonight, you still have to blend the herb and marinate the duck. You think of your best friend… and you look at your unfinished study material lying on the table. You could study for the test which contributes 10% to the module mark. Or you could take the trouble to prepare a delicious duck dinner and try to study later. There is a third option you thought to yourself… you could study for your test, AND cook a herbal chicken dinner instead. It would also be quite nice… but deep inside you’re thinking about the herbal duck.

You are the only person to blame for not preparing. You feel guilty and filled with regret. Nevertheless, it would be better if you figure out something and take measures to solve the issue. It all depends on how you look at it. You want to cook a herbal duck dinner. How much do you want to cook it? Other factors like transportation and time are worrying you. Should you just prepare the chicken instead? You wanted your best friend to taste your herbal duck, but you didn’t do any preparation for it. He’ll be leaving to overseas within the next few days, you’re not sure if you have the chance to cook the duck for him anymore. You might… but you’re not sure.

It all goes down to your priority of cooking this dinner…how much do you want to cook it? If you really want to, should you worry about other things?

Why should anyone express equations like “ (21x³ +6x³ +5x³) / (28x³ + 8x³ - 4x³)” when they could just use “½ + ½” ? They both would give the same answer, no?

It feels great to answer a simple, but at the same time very complicated equation. There are many different ways to go about an equation. Some people would stop after getting their first answer. Those who aren’t confident enough, or would like to check their answer would fiddle around with more than 1 method. If the answers for all the different methods match, I’m satisfied with my answer.

Sometimes being confident about an answer doesn’t mean that it’s correct. Time will tell. If it is an equation… after spending time checking it with figures or situations, then if both side balances, you can’t go wrong. Unfortunately, not everything can be equated. We’ll have to use other methods to check these questions. Run some tests maybe? Time will tell…

In math, there is a chapter called differentiation. If ‘you’ were to give me an equation for me to differentiate, I might roughly think about it and give an answer. But by doing so, I placed myself in hot soup. Maybe because I wasn’t serious enough and wanted to provide an answer fast that time so that I don’t have to worry about it. But after I worked the equation out, gave it a lot of consideration and wrote out all my steps, my answer might be different. I won’t say it’s correct though… time will tell. Definitely this answer I produce after taking my time doing some working would be more confident than the one I did mentally and in a hurry.

However, this math question is not over. It proceeds to ask about ‘locations’ ,whether will a coordinate (x,y) be a maximum or minimum. Again, I would differentiate the differentiated equation, work things out, and try to give my answer. But, the question cannot be answered if ‘you’ never gave me the position in the first place. The funny thing is, the person who came up with the initial undifferentiated equation is trying to differentiate his own question. He, however, could not provide sufficient data to complete his own question. Ironically, in the midst of all the eagerness and curiosity to answer his question, he dare not ask for the final missing data. Scared? Worried maybe? Or perhaps just not sure enough.

The final answer which should be underlined has not been worked out yet. Nevertheless, to most of the equations out there, my answer would be … ‘1’.

A million or more strokes are required for an artist to paint out his inspiration. There is no way an artist could describe his or her process of painting in words. It is easier done than said.

The mind is a very powerful tool. A tool, that doesn’t exist in matter form. Should it be referred to as a pseudo-tool? Or should it not be considered as a tool at all? Things run through the human mind continuously. If a mind were to be associated to a tool, I’d look at it as a problem solving tool. A tool just like a spanner which could be attached with many different bolts for different screws. Depending on the type of screw which we’re confronted with, different type of bolts should be used. In the middle of a chess game, the best bolt to use could be logic, experience and maybe some cunningness to lure your opponent into a trap.

Would interest be considered from the mind? Or would it be more of from the heart? Sometimes, when a feeling of wanting to do something suddenly arises, you would ponder whether is it from your heart or from your mind. I guess there are instances when both of them are involved when you like something. When interest must be used as one of the bolts, some people might be reluctant to turn the spanner. This special bolt requires agreement from both heart and mind. When the screw is huge, and the heart bolt gives a vague answer… the mind would have to start thinking both ways, should the screw be turned clockwise? Or anti-clockwise?

The feeling of wanting to do something is sometimes confused between interest and one of the most dangerous bolts of all…emotions. There are times when the heart expresses interest but the mind tends to split into 2, half supporting the interest, but the other half comes out with doubts whether is it really interest? Or is it more influenced by emotions? Although this half of the mind does not fully support the interest, but it is also not against it. Maybe it’s just trying to see whether is it the best thing to do. It would start to bring in other bolts…logic, capability, mental strength, determination and many others.

To some screws at certain times for some individual, interest would be the best and only bolt preferred to be used. But because the mind is such a powerful tool, it would confuse both the mind and heart whether is the decision made purely on interest, or also influenced by other feelings? Many people speak about using only the bolt of interest on certain decision making screws. In some cases, it’s not as easy as it seems…it is easier said than done.

Our life is a reflection about the choices we made. Choices are something we make everyday. The moment we wake up, deciding which feet we get off our bed is the first choice we make to start our day. To brush our teeth or wash our face first is something everyone decides (unless you don’t usually clean yourself up… like me =P). Every moment we have choices to decide. Sometimes we are so used to getting up, landing on both feet and heading straight for the bathroom to brush our teeth and for some people washing their face with cleansers that it becomes a daily routine. A routine, in my opinion is different from choice, it is something we’re used to doing. A routine can also be looked as a choice we made a long time ago…and we’re just sticking to it. Now, what if there is a better possible routine for us out there?

What if instead of washing yourself up, it may be better to hang up the curtains so that the bright sunshine would give you a bright start to your day? To these choices, we wouldn’t know which order we would prefer unless we tried them all. To these choices, there’s no harm trying… and we have all the time in the world to test how we’d like to start our day.

But there are choices and options that cannot be tested, choices which leads to pathways which we might never have explored before. Some people who are prepared and determined would take a better look and think deeper before choosing these roads. To know more about the paths before taking them, we should first look at road signs to see where they lead to, ask passengers who went through the path before, or those who are going through it. By right, everyone should know what they’re going for, where they wanna go and whether they want to get there in the first place before choosing to walk down a long pathway.

Some people enjoy walking through it and know that they’re going to enjoy what’s waiting for them in the end. Some people are just walking through a dark path but at least they know that at the end of this path is something they really want and they’d do anything to reach it. But there are some people who are walking a route to a junction. And they plan to decide where to go when they reach this junction. They sort of have a rough idea of what’s waiting for them at the end… but the question is do they really like it? Is that the ‘end’ which they want? Some people don’t really mind. The main question is… ‘what if’ the path you really wanted , the path you’re built for is not the one you’re walking right now… but is just adjacent to it. There are U turn signs along the path…or signs which lead to the beginning of other paths. It’s up to the individual to decide. Making a wrong decision is understandable. Refusing to search continually for learning is not.

If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is a compromise. Some people decide not to take certain paths without thinking twice about it. They give all sorts of reasons not to venture into it. But later on when they think back… they start asking themselves ‘why?’. It’s something like placing a roadblock too soon… what if the road block wasn’t supposed to be there in the first place?