Abandon(ed)…
March 29, 2008 at 11:55 pm | In Life | Leave a CommentTags: abandoned, Life
… house
A newly furnished house is welcomed by its owners and wowed by its visitors. A house in which its users feel safe and secured in it will bring with it many joy and laughter with constant care and concern for its maintenance. Unfortunately, just as dynasties rise and fall, a house is more often than not an asset which is not considered an entity for life. Overtime, its owners will get tired of it and want to get a new feel, a new environment and get a new living surrounding. The house is then sold (well, i.e. if it’s still in ideal condition and the new buyers do not mind its old age) and the house shall now welcome its new owner. All its warmth and love to shelter its previous owner has to be ‘transferred’ to the new owner, regardless of its willingness. We’ve often forgotten to thank this sturdy building which has sheltered us from the blazing sun and raging storms which would have made us frightened or uncomfortable.
… pets
It’s always a feeling of excitement and happiness when we were allowed to own our first pet (especially if it’s after great persuasion and pleading with our parents). However, it’s distressing to see how we can abandon this friend which has accompanied us day and night; welcomed us when we returned from school or work; comforted us when we have no one else to talk to. All our promises to take good care of it be it in health or in sickness; in happiness or otherwise; in young or old age [*chuckles*]; have all gone with the wind.
… child
For those unintended; for those who do not know what to do after the child is born into this world. It’s always with guilt and agony after your child is abandoned, after all, it is your own flesh and blood. If it fails to live on, you are a murderer; you hope it will be found by a good family, and to be brought up well. However, you will never be able to see the results (unless of course if you managed to reconcile with one another someday).
… parent(s)
To the pair of hands which brought you into this world; fed you and cuddled you affectionately; when they are old (and you find them a bother), you would rather leave them away in an old folks’ home than to have them in your house, much as they are treasures.
… dream(s)
Sometimes, due to circumstances, we have to give up on our dreams and ambitions because we don’t have a better choice. However, do we regret giving up our dreams for others? Would we ask ourselves if it’s worth it? All of us are entitled to dreams, to work towards a hope we hold dearly to our hearts. When we have to put our dreams aside, if at that moment you believe in that decision, stick to it. No matter what it is, maybe it’s meant to be that way. Regret not.
… love
Well, be it a successful or broken relationship, same with your dreams, if you have to give up your love due to circumstances. It’s almost a deprive if you are forced to make that decision and for all you know, you will come to regret it someday. Let it be part of life.. Memories then.
Love is…
March 26, 2008 at 1:51 am | In Life | 1 CommentTags: family, love, peace, power, war
Over the weekend, I’ve witnessed how love has impacted lives. When I say ‘love’, it’s referring to love in general.
“Love is when you take into consideration the people around you when you’re making your decision.”
There is this youth whom I’ve not seen for quite a long while, in fact, the only time I remembered seeing him was the first time we met some one to two years back. We were chatting and he asked me a few questions about studying in Singapore and such [yep, he's an Indonesian] because he was comtemplating to come to SG to study. When I saw him again over the weekend, I did not instantly recognized him, it was through our conversation when it brought back the past memories. He is really hardworking and always striving for his goals. It’s really admirable. He loves his family, just as they love him, but because of some issues, he is quite uncertain about how he should face the problems without hurting his family with his decisions.
“Love is when you come to love someone imperfect perfectly.”
Cliche as it may sound, it’s how things are. How perfect are we anyway? Man ain’t Saints, don’t we always say ‘To err is human’? When we are able to pin-point to an issue just on the basis of the issue itself, we are fair [well, if you will --- unbias]. Sometimes, we fail to separate personal feelings and issues, which is not uncommon, and we tend to make decisions which we’ll come to regret later. Like parental love, it’s able to accept all flaws that we have as children; our parents do not abandon us because of a mistake [okay, unless it's really grave like disowning your own family or ancestors or something :p], instead, they will console us and give us second chances [note the plural form]. Although this love may not have worked miracle always, it’s really a factor to influence why at times we avoid committing another mistake or making another wrong decision.
“When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.” – Jimi Hendrix
Just now I was revising history [subject] with one of my tutees who will be having his exams [though my only memory about the subject was during my Sec. 1 and 2 days; so actually I know nothing related to what he was studying for this subject] and it was on WWI, WWII, the League of Nations and the Treaty of Versailles [thank goodness for the IO and NGO class I did on exchange which taught me about United Nations and touched on such issues too], I realized that love can work both ways, leading to war. A patriotic person who loves your country, wanting the best for your country, this may lead to war; when you love peace but yet unable to stop it due to conflicting interests, you have to give up your love for the greater love of your countrymen (maybe because you think they are right). When we look back, we see how regimes have rose and fell because of power; Man is always yearning for power but we are not ’skilled’ enough to handle it (remember the famous quote from Spiderman — “With greater power comes greater responsibility”?).
“Where there is love there is life.” – Mohandas K. Gandhi
Love for the animals; love for the plants; love for your neighbours; love for your friends; love for your peers; love for your family; etc. Wherever love exists, there is life. Truly.
What is love? Well, I suppose love is what we make out of it. If we are able to live with love every moment, maybe the world will be a better place to live in?
Viral
March 22, 2008 at 1:18 am | In Adolescent, Technology | Leave a CommentTags: google, internet, Technology, youths
“It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.” – Albert Einstein
Well, the issue about the sponsored ad on google is more or less part of the past now. The ads are changed and there have been quite a number of ‘discussion’ on the blogosphere for the past few days. Oh well, for the better or the worse, the parties involved did not step out to take the issue by the horn.
This can mean two things: 1) yes, slowly, people will stop talking about it and it will become ‘just another in(ac)cident of the past; 2) many years down the road, when someone do a search online, all these will still surface because even though the wind has died down, the damage is already done, and it’s permanently there on the web.
This whole issue has shown that ‘word of mouth’ is faster than ever in this new era with the advanced technology. Just like the Edison Chen’s case which made headlines for at least 1.5 months. It was precisely because of the internet that the culprit could upload the pictures and ’share’ them with everyone anywhere in the world. This is where people comment, support, comfort or slam the characters involved; this is also where journalists could send back reports faster than ever before. If rumours have legs, those legs must have made good friends with technology to work hand-in-hand.
“Technology makes it possible for people to gain control over everything, except over technology.” – John Tudor
It’s very real. It’s viral. Previously, during one of the forums that I attended, one of the speakers was speaking on the topic about how children can access restricted content because they were able to gain access to the internet where information is widely shared. If it was in the past, to learn about another country, you will probably have to borrow a book from the library; right now, you may just type the country name into any search engine, and ta-la~ you will know right away its population, religions, places to visit, find accomodation etc –> all with a click!
This is so amazing!
Social Media is fast.. and can be deadly..
March 19, 2008 at 11:34 pm | In Technology | 3 CommentsTags: deception, google, NTU, SMU, sponsored link
Okay, I’m trying not to make a big fuss over this but oh well, for those of you who haven’t know, the story went this way. Today’s mid-day, we were having class when one of our colleagues randomly type ‘SMU Singapore’ and googled that [well, we were having class on social media and social bookmarking see]. Little did he expect to see the following (click for full view):
yep, you didn’t see it wrongly. For some ‘weird’ reasons, the sponsored link featuring ‘Smu Singapore’ had the URL for www.ntu.edu.sg -.-” And if you click on the ‘Smu Singapore’ word, it will link you to the NTU’s website for registering for admission to their university. Well, for clarification purposes (and not be bias), I tried to google ‘NUS Singapore’ and ‘NTU Singapore’, but all I got as results was a NTU advertisement on the right-hand side of the page. (Note: the sponsored link in the SMU case was a banner on top.. and it’s a sponsored link; not just some ad!)
Apparently, I do think someone has a lot to answer to; especially since this has come to the attention of many in the blogosphere. (see here and here and here) I’m sure they will come to realize that social media tools can be quite deadly since it’s so fast and everyone and anyone can push this information out to the virtual space so quickly! It’s viral! Anyway, when I came back about 1.5 hrs ago and tried to google it again, first it disappeared, then it appears as a sponsored link by the right-hand side now; if you google those words on www.google.com.sg, you do get to see the full-sponsored link-banner just like the screenshot above.
Seriously, whatever were they thinking by putting up something so misleading?
Social Media as a Teaching Tool?
March 18, 2008 at 11:41 pm | In Technology | 2 CommentsTags: blogging
Well oh well, a couple of weeks ago, my tutee was asking me how to set up a blog. Primary 4 mind you, and the reason for her wanting to set up a blog [and in the first place know about this] was because her school teacher wants the class to learn how to set up a blog and will share teaching methods there.
Woah.
And so they did. Out of curiosity, I went to their class-blog to see how the teacher is engaging them. Gosh, there are holiday assignments, answer-keys etc all there! Wow!
And the best part of this e-learning has got to be the parents getting involved too! Okay, maybe I’m making a big fuss here since the kids are still so young and new to blogging, the parents should be joining in too, but my point is, not all parents are into IT-related stuffs and blogging [well, my tutee's mum can't, and neither of my parents can either]. I remembered seeing a mum posted a message on the tagboard asking the teacher how to help her child insert a tagboard on his/her own blog. [side-note: every single student of the class has his/her own blog, and they are to post up their composition and book reviews; how cool is that? =D]
Well, I guess this is quite a wonderful project since the teacher is introducing and exposing the students to the social media tools, slowly but surely. Well, if only all the students in the class has access to internet at home, else how would they be able to upload their compositions onto their own blog right?
How do you see it? Is this a splendid idea to actually get the students onto this social media platform? I believe it’s not too bad, since children will be excited at being able to learn new tools and use the computer. However, since they are exposed to the virtual world at a much tender age than before, will this mean that they’ll be more susceptible to the ills of the virtual world than ever before? They might well be accidentally accessing sites that they shouldn’t be viewing [oh, unless they are on the FOL --> err, or is it AOL? Some family safety thingy.], right?
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