A little whisper in the dark: 10/01/2003

Friday, October 24, 2003

Look, no hands

It is a newborn infant's propensity to cry. In fact its about the very first thing that it does when it leaves the mother's womb. Perhaps some may call it a programmed reaction to clear the mucus from the windpipe in preparation for the cutting of the umbilical cord. Anyhow, I am not a human biology person.

I'd like to think that the infant cries because of fear. Having been safely ensconced in a warm and cosseting environment for 10 months and suddenly thrust into a cold, bright world with unfamiliar sounds and sights is most definitely a harrowing experience. Though as we grow older we learn to hold back the tears and the crying, the sensation and feeling would still remain: we fear the unknown and we react.

Riding a bicycle with no hands is a similarly emboldening experience. We learn to ride a bicycle and we cling onto the handlebars for dear life, knowing that it gives stability and it gives direction. And then we gradually learn to ride with one hand, but still the tenacious hold is there. Still we hold on.

To ride with no hands is as un-natural as the first time the infant needs to take a dump. A part of itself is trying to leave its own body and the infant doesn't know to cope with the unfamiliar sensations. Just like the leap of faith to let go of the handlebars totally, fighting the survival instinct to grab it again, fighting to avoid the reflex process of preventing yourself falling off a moving bike.

Cross that psychological barrier, face down the fear, and suddenly you wonder why you never could do it before.

Monday, October 20, 2003

TV Mobile

For the less-initiated (that's you foreign folk as well as those Singaporeans lucky enough to have their own private transport) that's a television channel that, through the advancement of technology, makes it possible for public buses to show TV programmes while on the move.

Being the tech geek that I am, I'm all for the advancement of technology, imagine having pocket TVs with such clarity as TV Mobile's receivers! But we don't have the choice. We get on a bus, and we are subject to the sights (sure we can look away from the screen) and we are subject to the sounds as well.

It is intrusive. Its excruciating. I would rather listen to the drone of the bus's diesel engine, fingernails dragging on a chalkboard, a dozen screeching gargoyles, nagging parents, screaming girlfriends, than listen to yet another advertising jingle.

I've never been averse to watching TV. In fact, in my younger days TV was a source of entertainment and amusement. Funny how it becomes an irritant once the choice is taken out of my hands, such as simple thing as being able or not, to watch a TV programme.

And so I learn the value of the freedom of choice.

Sunday, October 19, 2003

And so I mark the passage of Time

Insofar as I have lived my quarter of a century of life, time has never been a major issue. Not when I spent three years of my life bouncing between college and polytechnic, as I termed it, searching for my place in life.

Searching for my place in life, the right route.

And so time didn't matter. one year stretched to three, before the country decided I should don a green uniform and serve her before I got too old to hold a rifle without quivering. Two years in the big green machine that was The Army, and having fellow inmates with me made things more tolerable, and I began marking Time, 22nd April 2000 as the goal.

By and large, it was a goalpost that did not move.

My next stab at polytechnic life was better, and three years passed with nary a hitch and some good times along the way. I'd found my direction, and that made the three wasted years worth the while. It was good but one thing always leads to the next and such is the game of life.

I now have goals to set, again, and it isn't so straightforward this time.

Saturday, October 11, 2003

Just something I wrote in someone else's blog today, it ended up sounding like a poem:

Without an end
there would not be another beginning.
Without pain
you would not know what pleasure is.
Without having lost
you would not treasure.
Without loving before
you would not know love is
till it hits you, hurts you and makes you cry.

Wednesday, October 08, 2003

Leong The Tree Inspector

I wish I could say it was as simple as signing on the dotted line (actually I signed a whole stack of paperwork), but I'm now an arborist.

Friday, October 03, 2003

Learn to fly, learn to ride.

I saw this one day when I was riding home on my mountain bike; a pair of motorcyclists, young man on a KTM scrambler, and a girl on a smaller motorbike. Apparently its her first ride out after getting her licence, nice new P-plate, nice new bike, and a bike that kept stalling through the inexperience of its rider.

To top it off, there was a taxi following the pair (yes they were travelling that slowly), escorting them, so to speak. And a middle aged woman in it. At that point I reckoned that the girl probably didn't deserve to get her licence, and whoever did pass her, also wasn't doing her any favours by sending out a rider clearly unable to get her own bike moving, even.

But well, as they say, hindsight's always 20/20, and the flip side of the coin is that said newbie rider probably got her licence on her own merit, and its the prescence of the taxicab and its occupant that distracted her to the point of seeming like a total loss on a bike.

I suppose, while we would all want to do our best to oversee the safety and well-being of our charges, as was the case of the mom in the taxicab, there's a time we must put our trust in certain things, like the standards of the driving test centre, and the skills of those we care for.

You can put a safety belt on a bird learning to fly for fear it would fall, but leave the safety belt on and it'll never fly high nor far.

Thursday, October 02, 2003

Impasse

Score for today's Nov '95 SAT math attempt.......same as the previous one. Seems I've hit a wall here.

A little whisper in the dark