Sigh

Someone once mentioned how recent decades have failed to bring about any mind-blowing invention or phenomena that has rocked the world. Nothing like the airplane, the telephone, the television-- even the most pervasive modern technology, the internet, has its roots in the 60s.

While I do not have any concrete explanation for this observation, I do have something to suggest. Inventions have come and been there with us for many centuries already. Hence its hard to create that 1 new niche area that is so completely new it blows us off-- complete originality is, surely, the first and foremost quality a product has to have before it qualifies itself to be an invention as opposed to an improvement. And yet at the same time complete originality is, however creative one is, so hard to achieve now these days, because our ancestors had the advantage of casting the first brick. A flying car can easily seen as an improvement on cars, and cars themselves can, albeit with more difficulty, be seen as cousins of trains--they just utilize lighter engines, rubber tyres and a different frame. Wi-fi can be seen as the modern-day telegraph system, blogs the modern-day form of a diary, a radio station, a propaganda tower, a sex gallery, whichever you prefer.

On top of all that, such new inventions, while creative, are still themselves in the hands of other technologies. Simply put, its hard to get that really WOW discovery or invention which was entirely new, like the steam engine and electricity, simply because with the large number of inventions already out there, chances are, something has got to be gotten from something WOW before it already, so it cant be that magnificently original. Its like jeans in some way. Someone came up with jeans. Its cool. So someone else comes up with stone-washed ones. He comes up with low-cut ones. He comes up with faded jeans. They are, on this scale, excellent designs (beg to differ though, because the only pair of jeans i own is a black one which I bought because it was cheaper than a black dress pants, but looks like one from afar), but are, by and large, still jeans. So someone wants to be original and come up with something else. So he thinks of bermudas. Nope, already taken. So he thinks of skirts. Nope, already taken. Dress pants. Already there. Culottes? Thats 18th century. You can think of any new design that corresponds to any length of leg they cover, but when everythings been taken, you cant have a WOW thing just like the initial pair of jeans did. You can only improve, like short denim skirts, but not innovate, because any variable length of the leg has been convered already.

Of course, science isnt as restricted as fashion. Recent decades are not totally devoid of discoveries as they are deficient in romance. We've got genetics, we've got robotics. Give them time and there'd be WOW stuff. There probably is already, just not on the scale that is needed to revolutionize our lives, our thinking.

Exquisite burst of bubble

Intermittent, excited chatter throughout.

A: Hey guys, we'll plan the (platoon) barbeque on the 12th, vesak day, that ok? Anyone needs to go to the temple that day?
F: Can confirm later on anot now still early.
B: No you see we've got to do it now because we've got to book the pits early. [Raises voice] So how everybody can?? [Goes around asking one by one]
C: Are we going to stay overnight? [Increased chatter]
D: And sleep in what? Bashas?
A: Ive got a tent.
E: Dont sleep lah.
C: Need to bring girls? [Significant increase in chatter]
D: Dont bring lah.
A: Bring lah.
M: No girls to bring. You can bring my share.
B: Alright so around 20 of you can make it now, the rest of you confirm later. Khoo make sure you go hor. Ok, that finally settled.
X: No thats not finally settled. What if we've got guard duty on that day?

Silence.

-

5 guys asleep, in varying states of undress, on 4 beds. Such was the most memorable experience I took away from my first guard duty. The room we slept in after completing our night duties was as barren as it could be: grey concrete floor, 4 fans, a bare cupboard, no curtains, no bedsheets, walls with the most depressing shade of beige.

I thought the scene artistic in several ways. It reminded me of the kind of place that would qualify as a fugitives’ hideout, the kind you see in movies every now and then. Or of an artist’s room, minus his many sheets of drafts that would be strewn all over the place and that would, in the future, bring about a change in his fortunes. It reminded me of the kind of place a jew would be hiding at in germany in world war II—Adrien Brody, The Pianist, that’s it. I thought the sunlight streaming in was unnecessary though; it spoilt the scene by being unnecessarily bright. Nope, you cant have sunlight in that kind of scene. It’s not artistic.

I found out more about the guy lying beside me. He smokes, has been in and out of relationships, was from laselle, learnt video, and has written and made amateur films which have found themselves in both local and international circles—Berlin arts festival, can you bloody imagine. Hes bagged several thousand dollars consequently—not a lot, definitely, but it’s enough to support his smoking habits and besides, who knows, he could be the next royston tan. What’s important is that he let me in into this small firm that specializes in exporting and circulating amateur films—very interesting, would need to find out more about all this underground stuff going on here and there.

Really you know, the coincidence.

On a separate issue, fashion-lites, strong romantics, and other pretentious classes of people have come to my attention recently. Normally I prefer not to bother myself with them, preferring instead to observe people who dislike them bother themselves with them (only to realize, at a later time, that they are the very people they dislike), but I feel tempted to say a word or two; an essay is in order. For now though, allow me to say that I am pleased my own group of friends are classless and would, one day, rule the world. Tehehe.

Standing at different gates

2 people I know got into ntu's chinese faculty, another person got into smu's infomatics whatever. All 3 of them got, shall I say, less than excellent grades but that isnt the point--the point is, they got in (presumably) on the basis of certain talents or character attributes they have, and I'll tell you that I appreciate this kind of people alot. Well done. *Smiles*

That being said Ive got to say the interests of the people around me vary to a large degree. As a matter of fact I have not, to this date, found 2 friends pursuing a similar tertiary education, apart from business administration, of course. Theres mathematics, theres all the various types of engineerings, theres philosophy, theres mass comm, media design, business, law, econs, psychology, history, sociology, and, of course, chinese and infomatics whatever. On top of all these there are others who took, or are taking, different paths altogether: we've got people who voluntarily skipped the A levels path, we've got a sailor (havent seen him for over..half a year already), we've got the laselle people.

It's very pleasing to see everyone going their own respective paths. Im a person who detest uniformity, and I think its going to be very interesting to see how everyone turns out in the future.

You will find that seeking the charms of a lady cannot be compared to the charms of being one

The Magic Fundoshi gives one good reason why we shouldnt blithely forsake local plays for West Side Story.

We are all just prisoners here lalala

I cannot believe they're giving another half day off tomorow, a decision that would extend the long weekend to an even longer one.

My, er, new-found buddies want to do some side-betting worth $200. Dont know if Im up to it, think Im getting too old for such adventures, my heart probably cant take it. I do not have a healthy heart. In fact sometimes I wonder if I have any heart at all.

I love one of my instructors. At the age of 50 plus he played hotel california for us while we were resting. The song's music intermingled with the sounds of idling engines and hammers on metal, and, coupled with the dark and dank environment of the workshop, gave me a rather exquisite taste that, surely, cannot be felt anywhere else unless you were a lone traveller lost in a desert.

I suspect my instructor has a healthy heart.

GRR

Yet another early dismissal today, but theres no one available for a quick outing. Such an irony, that I had people but no time in the past, and time but no people now in the present.

My orientation is good

There is silence—
At my doorstep
And no one seems to be coming.

Have you fallen—
Down the staircase
Or have you been trapped in the lift.

Have you forgotten—
My address
Or are you merely too tired to walk.

I am lying—
On a sofa
Flipping through my diary.

Missing footsteps aside, A Language of Their Own gave me the idea that plays can be accomplished through static dialogue alone. You dont need a good plot-- I myself wasn't particularly taken by the "nature of love, desire, sexuality, and self-definition" they tried to portray--if you've got good lines and good actors, and a play with a backbone can easily be inferior to one without.

For $35 I discovered I am not as liberal a person as I thought myself to be. I viewed the kissing of 2 male actors, the play's diatribe of I-Love-You-But-We-Can't-Be-Together- (But I still love you), as well as several explicit terms and expressions pertaining to the issue of making love with moderate distaste; worse still when I noticed there was a sizeable number of 2-man parties in the audience. The alarming thing is you can never have discerned they were of a minority orientation from their outward appearance. In fact they generally look mature, charming, just like me, though it should, at this point, be immediately established that I am of a majority orientation.

That issue aside, today's sunday times has an article on alpha-females. I think that concept itself is a load of rubbish. Just like feminism shouldnt be reduced to bra-burning females, females shouldnt be reduced to mindlessly comparing themselves with males; they should be proud of their own orientation, and while traits such as independence and confidence and a gym-toned body are desirable and absolutely vital in today's society the very attempt of females to make themselves on level ground with males presupposes the fact that both male and female can, in every sense of the term, meet eye-to-eye.

Leading a very, very relaxed life now. Too relaxed, probably. So if you come across competitions and the like do let me know about it. Need the money and the motivation to start reading seriously. On a more heartening note, just 1 or 2 more books and 1 or 2 more plays and I should be ready to start writing, if not for competitions then at least for self-improvement.

The month of april

Had a trip down to The Mind Cafe earlier. It's perfect, if you minus the over-excited youngsters and adults who scream the whole place down.

Tried out I'm the Boss!. It's perfect, though it isnt really of the all-time classic board game calibre.

Well, I guess it's no more playing cards down in foodcourts and void decks anymore. Can say goodbye to monopoly and risk too, at least for the time being.

It strikes me that there are just so many games out there that we didnt, and would never, know of until we get ourselves down to experiencing new things. For that 1 game I unlocked today there are, as I witnessed down at the place, so many others that could very well be so much more sophisticated, and hence enjoyable, than the classics we have stood by for perhaps over a decade now, and if you think of it that way I guess it's inevitable you feel a sense of frustration that time spent in the past could have been more effectively spent. Then again, you could always view the cup as waiting to be filled and push on, making sure that the future minutes of your time would be, indeed, more effectively spent. While classics are timeless they are, perhaps, sometimes too lost in their own timelessness.

That being said I've got to admire I'm the Boss! for its game construct; any board game that has a simple game mechanism and yet give its players a wide range of strategic options and have an uncountable number of game permutations is, surely, a successful game. (One need only look at the master of all board games, chess, to realise so). At the same time what I find truly remarkable about the game is that it makes its players laugh. The fluidity of the game is impressive, and I'm not merely referring to the straightforward fundamental game-play here. The game is designed such that much human interaction is required, and the structure is such that surprises can come from everywhere, and that's when good friends have a smashing time. If simple sophistication is the hallmark of an excellent game, the ability to induce laughter between players in the midst of many-sided competition is the hallmark of an ingenious one.

It's a damn pity most of my male friends are unavailable every weekday and, on the most part, every weekend since I dont think they'd have much time to spare for such time-intensive outings. Yup, quite a pity, and for once I feel kind of inadequate without the presence of so many people. It's a good thing there are some leftovers though, people who are currently on a different path from many of us, and on a different path we shall go shall we, lets take the path to the mind cafe.