Pointing the right way

If you immediately know the candlelight is fire, then the meal is cooked long ago.

If you already have a preconceived idea, then your mind is made up and closed to alternatives.

Take some time to consider this.

Immanuel Kant in his definition of the moral law - that because the reason in me is the same as the reason in you (we share a common capacity to reason), from this common ground, we can then reason out a moral law that is universal.

That meaning that circumstances cannot extenuate one from the moral law. There are no circumstances that can make us come to a compromise that the moral law can be broken. Every single time you break the moral law, it is out of choice and by the act of choosing, you decide your moral value.

And indeed, the universe is vast, and we are so small. In the end, there is only one thing we can truly control - whether we are good, or evil.

Atonement

One day others may try to convice you they have forgiven you. That is more about them than you. For them, imparting forgiveness is a blessing. How do I go on? It is simple. You will never forgive yourself. Accept it. You hurt others, many others. That cannot be undone. You will never find personal retribution. But your life does not have to end. That which is right, just, and true can still prevail. If you do not fight for what you believe in, all may be lost for everyone else. But do not fight for yourself. Fight for others — others that may be saved through your effort. That is the least you can do

Quoted from Stargate

Biggest Mistake

It took just a dinner to realise my greatest folly.

Atonement.

It took me an entire weekend to come up with the word. The previous considerations were "karma", "retribution" and "punishment", but they all did not fit the description of the situation- there was no spite involved.

I guess it is a small step forward nonetheless. It's like finding yourself after being lost for ages.

crashed and burned

A random epiphany just hit me and I'm wondering if it's a sign or a coincidence... Nonetheless, I'm already drifting, like always, but somehow this time it seems different.

cosmic insignificance

From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again that dot. That's here, that's home, that's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

carl sagan - pale blue dot

用你给我的翅膀飞

我感觉己够安慰....

亲切感

好久好久没用华语交谈了

到了NUS，每个人好像为了不要和来自某国的同学们列为同一类，都选择以英语为主语。英语不是不好，但就是缺乏那么一点的亲切感。 以英语为主的交际，似乎参杂着那么一点的虚伪跟虚荣感。或许是我自己厌倦了吧，但我真的怀念那种不必带着面具，畅快大谈的感觉.....

forbidden city

Like children need their mother
Like river needs the sea,
Like lovers need each other,
Like prisons need a key,
Like winter night needs fire,
Like temple needs a shrine,
Like lovers need desire,
Like prophets need a sign

for good

I felt that the lyrics were too good to go unnoticed, so here goes the entire song

(Elphaba) I'm limited
Just look at me - I'm limited
And just look at you
You can do all I couldn't do, Glinda
So now it's up to you
For both of us - now it's up to you...

(Glinda) I've heard it said
That people come into our lives for a reason
Bringing something we must learn
And we are led
To those who help us most to grow
If we let them
And we help them in return
Well, I don't know if I believe that's true
But I know I'm who I am today
Because I knew you

Like a comet pulled from orbit
As it passes a sun
Like a stream that meets a boulder
Halfway through the wood
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
But because I knew you
I have been changed for good

(Elphaba) It well may be
That we will never meet again
In this lifetime
So let me say before we part
So much of me
Is made of what I learned from you
You'll be with me
Like a handprint on my heart
And now whatever way our stories end
I know you have re-written mine
By being my friend...

Like a ship blown from its mooring
By a wind off the sea
Like a seed dropped by a skybird
In a distant wood
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
But because I knew you

(Glinda) Because I knew you

(Both) I have been changed for good

(Elphaba) And just to clear the air
I ask forgiveness
For the thing I've done you blame me for

(Glinda) But then, I guess we know
There's blame to share

(Both) And none of it seems to matter anymore

(Glinda) Like a comet pulled from orbit
As it passes a sun
Like a stream that meets a boulder
Halfway through the wood

(Elphaba) Like a ship blown from its mooring
By a wind off the sea
Like a seed dropped by a bird in the wood

(Both) Who can say if I've been
Changed for the better?
I do believe I have been
Changed for the better

(Glinda) And because I knew you...

(Elphaba) Because I knew you...

(Both) Because I knew you...
I have been changed for good.

fantastic lyrics, the play on the words good and better was totally sublime.

Listen to my heart, can you hear it sing?

i guess not...

It's like with music. Play with heart. Play because you love playing and that you are happy playing it.

come what may

i believe my world needs a healthy dose of optimism....

Rag showed the best and the worst of human nature. The best invoked the passion from the heart, bringing tears to even the most stone-hearted person. The worst reveled in narcissistic ego. The worst kind of ego - one that indulges in self pity and blames the circumstances to provide solace to one's ego. Joel said something that struck a chord within me today: The first step is taking responsibility. If you are not willing to take charge of the circumstances, you cannot be given credit when things go well.

It's only 3rd day of school and I'm thinking, maybe i should end it all. This whole game is getting quite ridiculous.

wishing you were somehow here again

It's like with music nothing else matters. <-- My facebook status. Some thought it was just the euphoria of the concert making me say that, but I really meant it.. as in I really felt so after the concert. It's like finding back a part of you that you have lost.

From Ju hua Tai onwards, I was totally sucked into the music. Everything just felt so right. Phantom was a first just a wonderful melody, but reading the lyrics a few day before just added so much emotions and energy into the song. Music of the night became so much darker and wishing you were somehow here again started to have a hopeful/optimistic ring to it.

It was like the past year had been a horror story, too much spite and negative energy, like the lyrics in the music of the night. The last 2 months were appalling Now it doesn't feel right either. I am now willing and able to walk out on any and everyone that pushes me too far, but that's still too much negativity eh. Oh well, at least it is a step forward from taking everything that comes along.

"Human are political animals" <-- that has been my favourite advice to people lately and to be honest, it's getting a little too much on my nerves. Our "leaders" today do not fight for the collective good, nor do they ponder about it, instead, they fight for power, gains and fame. It is sad that the science of leading people has become the tool for controlling people. I'm not sure whether I want to partake in this senseless game anymore. No one seems to be able to put themselves past adam smith's invisible hand - perhaps that is why it is called the invisible hand.

It's funny how life plays out sometimes. When you are so set on being the wind, fleeting and sublime, someone had to come along with a wind chime and make whatever you are doing so wrong into something of beauty., the gentle clattering of metal pipes and the blending of colours of a spinning wheel. Life is just so mocking though, after showing you a preview, it shuts the door on you and say "you don't deserve what I have to offer after all that nonsense you did."

Indeed i don't, but thanks for letting me see the light.

and it was not meant to be

does the chapter end now?

the tmrs that i face now has turned from an exciting prospect into an impending sense of dread and perhaps this is really karma....

defying gravity

wow... i'm actually back here again, thanks to a friend to reminded me of this blog's existence a few days back. i wonder if i'll have the discipline and motivation to revive this but well, let's try..

life is a blur now, four camps have passes and four events are coming. i'm living each day for the next. Pathetic? But isn't this what i wished for at the start of last year? - To have so many things that I can't even stop to think. It wasn't all in vain though. Some of the best times in this hols were consequences of me taking everything that came my way.

Term's starting. I'll need to put an end to all this nonsense. Funny again how I can't keep people who matters most close to me. But i'll try, that's the best i can do, to try defying gravity.

I'm through accepting limits, 'cause someone says they're so
Some things I cannot change , But till I try, I'll never know!
Too long I've been afraid of , Losing love I guess I've lost
Well, if that's love, It comes at much too high a cost