Spread The Love #loveothers14

So, during these 2 days, a group of very sweet and kind people have been going around Singapore to spread the love by giving you some lollipop or Choco Roll with a message of encouragement attached to it! If you've received one, good for you and I hope that they made your day! If you haven't/didn't, maybe you'll get it soon, so don't fret!

Anyway those people are from a church called Heart of God Church, it may not exactly be a well known church or have many members in it but what counts are the thoughts and effort that they go through in order to brighten up someone's day. I'm not from that church nor am I writing this to publicize their good doings but I just thought I would share my thoughts on this. As you know, twitter is limited to 140 characters and that is definitely not enough for me. (I like to talk/type alot :P)

To start things off, I would like to give a round of applause to the people that probably spent a good few hours preparing the goodies with the messages and giving them out. It is quite brave of them too to approach random strangers and hand them sweets. (Remember kids don't take sweets from suspicious people) Jokes aside it was really a good initiative for them to take the step to brighten up someone's day. I'm sure most of us would be taken aback by the sudden gesture but that just proves how much more we need to learn how to receive graciously.

So, what exactly should you do after receiving the sweet and message? Well of course by all means enjoy the tasty treat but there was that hashtag #loveothers14. So do what it tells you to do, spread the love! The act of kindness doesn't stop the moment you receive the sweet, it should carry on to others as well, hence the phrase "love others". No one's asking you to go give sweets to random strangers but you could always give up that seat for someone who needs it more. :)

So once again kudos to the people at Heart Of God Church and also to those who boldly approach strangers to offer them a dose of kindness! Hopefully we can all learn from this that it isn't that hard to be kind, and even the smallest acts of kindness can make someone's day. #loveothers14 , the kindness doesn't have to end here.

@livinginsg

Well hello there...

Hello everyone...remember me?

If you noticed(most people probably won't), that I've been MIA, or maybe active once every week or so, it's firstly because I've been busy with school, and secondly maintaining a quote account and having to think of funny/interesting/hilarious/mindblowing tweets isn't always easy. Partly I'm getting a little lazy as well...

But anyway this post is just to tell you just that, and this blog is for me to say things I want to say in more than 140 characters. Now I haven't checked this blog in ages, not because I forgot about it but because I really had no idea what to say. So this is really just an impromptu thing for me to do LOL. Anyway I'm really surprised that this blog has over 6000 views now! :O So whoever's been mindlessly reading the old posts that go way back to last year, thanks for the views! Not that I'm particularly craving for views but it just has a feel-good kinda feeling.

So to end off this really stale and boring blog post, I shall just say that I shall try to continue tweeting. I would really hate to see livinginsg die off like so many other SG quote accounts but it takes a certain level of discipline to keep tweeting(I know it sounds weird). So I'm going to try my best to be more active, even though I'm having my final year in poly, which means, for the younger ones that don't know, my final year project.

If you still care enough to read till this point, thank you. :)

@livinginsg

Bullying. it's more serious than it sounds.

So recently I had a few questions on ask.fm about bullying. One of them was bullied because of weight and the other because of looks. I answered both questions how I would normally answer any question related to bullying. Don't be bothered about them because it's how you look at yourself that matters, and find someone to share your problems with. I thought this answer would be helpful, and it is to a certain extent.

But I know that an answer like that will never be enough for the person him/herself who is the victim of bullying. It's not so easy just to ignore the remarks of others, especially when the words spoken can be really nasty and hurtful, and it can go on for a long period of time. Over time the person suffers really badly, both mentally and physically. Their mood changes, they get scared really easily, and they become a totally different person. It's scary how a person who is usually hyper and cheerful can turn into someone who is totally quiet and afraid of being sociable anymore. The damage someone can suffer because of continuous bullying is not just being hurt emotionally for that one or two days, it can change the person totally.

Whatever I've said up to this point will not make the person feel any better or make the bullying stop. It won't help the person overcome his/her fear of being bullied in school or at home. But I just want to let people know how serious bullying can get. The reason for the huge number of teenage suicide cases is getting higher and higher every year, if you remember who Amanda Todd is, she is just one of the hundreds of thousands of people who commit suicide every year. And the reason for many of these suicides? Bullying, both face to face, or through being anonymous online, yes I'm referring to ask.fm.

In Singapore itself, we already have that many cases of bullying. Just look around in your school, the people who are “weird” are the ones who get bullied. I'm talking about the special needs students, who may be autistic, or physically disabled. Not only that, people get bullied cos of their looks and size. What was that about not judging people, society? On the outside, the victims keep quiet and are timid, but on the inside they're being torn apart bit by bit and sooner or later they reach the breaking point and then...

BUT, there's is a way to stop bullying, both in school, out of school, or even online. Most bullies are pretty timid inside, they bully others to feel strong and all mighty. But deep inside they too are scared of being bullied by others, so instead of being the victim, they choose to be the culprit. What we can do to help those being bullied is to stand up for them. I'm not asking you to fight the bullies or even bully them back. By just saying something like “Hey! Stop bullying him/her, it's not funny!”, the person being bullied knows that he/she is not facing the bullies alone. That alone make them feel better, and the more people who stand up against the bullies for them, the more they will feel that they're not in this fight alone.

Sure, one person standing up against a group of bullies will not make much of a difference. But the more people join in, the more the bullies will feel like they're being the ones bullied instead. Of course, there's is no need to start bullying the bullies. Bullies target people who have no one to stand up for them, like friends. The moment others start to stand up for the bullied, the less courage the bullies will have to continue. You don't have to go to the extent of threatening them, but just tell them off. One person may not make a difference but a group of people can.

And lastly, to the bullies who are reading this, if there are any. How would you feel if you were the one being bullied and had no one there to help you?

(Sorry for the long read, it's not easy to say everything I want to say in such a short post, but I hope I got the point across :D)

The Fox Says...

Well that was an attention grabbing title wasn't it? WA PA PA PA PA PA PA POW!

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Not funny ah? K. Anyway by the time you read this it will still be Sunday but you will be feeling even worse because school reopens tomorrow for the secondary school students. :)

Just kidding I'm here to cheer you up, down, left and right! So what if there's school tomorrow? So what if you're going to face the same boring teachers with the same boring lessons giving you the same boring homework? So what? You've survived school this long, you've persevered, you've endured the long hours of torture under the Cher's menacing glare and long hours of repetitive maths examples. You've also endured the "short" principle's speeches which go on for half an hour and makes even the Chers fall asleep!

Be proud of yourself, cos you're the sperm that swam first to the egg. Be proud that you've come to where you are without being frustrated enough to actually "burn your homework" which you've said countless times but have no actual guts to do it. Be proud that you can still go to school everyday even though you've wished countless times for it to burn down/flood/explode/get abducted by an alien spaceship.

You can do this, you can survive 5 continuous days of torture and hardship in classrooms! Look forward to recces where you can gossip with your classmates while being in the insanely long and slow queues! Be excited for the science practicals where you can get really cool reactions from watching your teacher's demonstrations which you never really have a chance to do! Be happy that you can finally get out from class at the end of the day to go to your CCA which lasts until dinner time!

With that many good things to look forward to from a school which you thought was boring, dull, full of unreasonable teachers and classmates who talk behind your back, what's there to dread? Look forward to tomorrow when you can see your classmates and copy homework from them as fast you can!

Here's wishing all students a good Monday tomorrow! :)

Note: If you detect sarcasm in this post, you're really really smart. Bravo.

@livinginsg

Singlish

Someone asked me to do this so....

For all those blur blur ones out there, Singaporeans included, here is a list consisting of my Singlish knowledge.

FYI Singlish is a mixture of English, Malay and dialects.

1. BO JIO: Why didn't you ask me along too? Used when you know your friends are outside but they didn't include you.

2. WAH LAO EH: Used an expression to express frustration/disappointed/anger/just about anything you're not happy with.

3. LAH LEH LOR: Used as an expression also. E.g I don't want lah, I saw it leh, anything loh.

4. BASKET: Singlish form of BASTARD

5. HOSEHBO: Means "How are you?", used mainly by Ah Bengs, and by students trying to act cool.

6. SIMI: Not see me, but simi, meaning "what?"

7. HUMJI: Means no balls/no guts.

8. GUAI LAN: Used to refer to a person who is an asshole/douche.

9. LANGA: Getting hit by something.

10. KENA/KANA: Means either "like/got" e.g Kena sai lah (like shit), he kena detention(he got detention)

11. SIAO: Crazy E.g You siao ah?

12. BODOH: Means an idiot in Malay.

13. CEPAT: Means hurry up in Malay

14. HANTAM: Means to beat/hit, also used when someone is going to get into trouble. E.g Wah later he confirm kena hantam by cher one!

15. CHER: Short form for teacher, created by Singapore students.

16. CHIOBU: Means pretty girl. E.g Wah chiobu sia!

17. CHAO DA: Burnt, overcooked food. E.g OI you cook so long already not scared chao da ah?

18. SIBEI: Literally means "Die father", but used as an expression for "extremely". E.g This food sibei tasty man!

19. CHAO KENG: Means to pretend to be sick/injured in order to be excused for something. E.g Wah lao he pretend he sick sia, chao keng only!

20. PENG SAN: Meaning to faint. E.g Eh drink more water if not later you halfway peng san!

21. STEADY: Means being smooth in doing something. e.g Wah lao see he run so fast, steady lah!

22. MATI: Means die in Malay, used when getting into trouble. E.g Eh shit teacher saw us already we mati!

23. DIAM: Asking someone to shut up, in a rude way.

24. SIAM: Asking someone to move out of the way, in a rude way.

25. Ka Ni Na: A vulgarity, literally means "fuck your mom". But used with anything, Singaporeans as usual.

26. Chao Chee Bye/Chao Chee Bong: Literally means "smelly vagina" but as usual, used as a vulgarity that goes with nearly anything.

27. EH/OI: Calling someone, like "hey!"

Ok that's all I can think off. Now my brain already want to mati already.

@livinginsg

RT for a....

RT for a tbh
RT for a rating
RT for a impression
RT and I'll blah blah blah

RT and I'll touch your face with a jackhammer traveling at a speed of 100km/h.

Enough please there's more to twitter than RTs, what about favoriting and following and quoting and unfollowing you cos this shit is too mainstream?

Guys headache ah really. I remember we migrated from facebook to twitter cos we hated all the like for this and that. Now you want to bring these foreign things here? Sorry ah I don't want, go back to where you came from, facebook.

There's a good reason to be pissed off. I don't think most people actually give an honest opinion of people, most of the tweets I see are extremely ego and morale boosting. If you wanted to make someone's day better just tweet them, anytime and anywhere. You don't need a TBH or RT for a something to do a good deed like that.

Are people just following the bandwagon cos it's the mainstream thing? Yes.

Is it a good thing? Yes, somehow we're spreading the love around.

Is it genuine? Not really no, most people have really bad things to say about people, they just choose to say something fake.

Does it make the other part feel good? Yes definitely, who doesn't love compliments?

Now, if only you could do the same thing for them everyday. Just send them a text or even DM them and say the same thing everyday to make them feel better. You don't a twitter trend to do that please, if you really care for people and want them to feel less emo, do it.

If I received a tweet or DM from even a few friends wishing me well I would be happy for that day. Perfect good morning tweets to wake up to also.

So my advice to people. Sure go on ahead and do such a thing, I won't deny it's good to a certain extent. But please, don't do it for the sake of RTs or following what is mainstream, do it because you really care for others and want to brighten up their day.

FYI, criticism can be good too, a high ego can be potentially harmful too.

@livinginsg

Studying in Singapore

Hey guys, I bet you saw my tweets already. I could go on for quite awhile on twitter but that would be spamming your timeline. Instead I decided, at the last minute to do this blog post to basically offer my opinion on this whole matter.

Brace yourselves for a lecture, but trust me it's a good lecture. :)

First off, our current system, how's it like. We go to school in the morning, go through a shitload of lessons, most of which are theoretical concepts drilled into us through hours and hours of repeated examples and questions, most of which we have no idea what we're actually doing but just by FOLLOWING THE FORMULA we were taught, we're able to obtain the answer. We don't know what the reasons behind learning it are, we don't know what the use of it is in the real world and we most certainly have no idea how the shit it actually works.

That is basically what you go through everyday in school and that is basically what your Primary to Secondary school life is all about. Being drilled in the theories and concepts, which includes maths and scientific formulas, different rules of grammar and vocabulary and a whole load of other things that we forget by the time the lesson ends and our minds are dead.

That's not all, I'm sure many of you have tuition. Extra lessons paid by your parents which you are forced to attend against your own will to "improve your understanding of the subject". Truth be told yes tuition is helpful to a certain extent because it's conducted at a smaller scale (Group tuition) or even at a personal level (home tuition). The problem is, it still follows the same concept. Drilling theories and all the awesome stuff that makes shit sense to you because firstly, you just need to memorize it and vomit it out on paper without even knowing how it actually works. Secondly, as usual you forget lots of it after the lesson ends.

When was the last time the teacher actually demonstrated something out live in front of the class. For maths, bringing in those gigantic set squares, protractors and what not into the class. And actually showing you on the board some stuff? Hardly? Yes I agree, most teachers walk into class with a shitload of work sheets that end up you never do by yourself and get help from those that actually understand the lesson.

So my main point here is, I can't change the system and neither can the government that quickly because firstly, schools in Singapore do not have enough resources to buy so much equipment or items to make the lesson "more lively" like actual models of stuff that you learn in science or maths. Nonetheless I find video lessons very helpful, especially if it's interactive. NOTE, there are two kinds of video lessons, the type where the narrator talks on and on in that super boring voice when eventually you fall asleep to, OR the type when the video pauses and you get to actually work with whatever is inside. THAT's the kind of video lesson I like.

More ever, teachers and the society alike are always asking students to "explore" on their own. Well that's fine with me but what the heck is there to explore if I don't even know what to explore? Please teachers, at least give us some websites or books that we can ownself look into if we really don't understand your lesson, in which most cases it's like that, or at least tell us where we can look for more info. All I ever hear at the end of lessons are "Ok class, these are the homework for today, please complete them by when and when".

Homework, yes it's useful in helpful us recap and revise what we learn during the lesson...if we understand it. Whenever teacher says if you have any questions come find me after school...yea well the thing is teachers always have meetings after schools until dunno what time and students have CCA's also. And you wonder why so many people are stressed.

To end this post off, just want to say even after you read this, if you actually did, know that I'm not trying to fight the system, I just want to offer my opinion on it. There are certain reasons why we can't change our education system in such a short time but I just hope in the future, something better will happen.

@livinginsg