As I go through the challenge of trying to complete a book in a month, I had a taste of how I underestimated the difficulty of the challenge. I also experienced some of the bad practices I had when it comes to reading.
Lesson 1: Being successful in something is not influenced by strength, intelligence or wealth, but by how often this something is prioritised above other things.
Towards the second half of September, when I was supposed to be half-complete with the challenge, my progress fell behind because I gave up my time for other commitments. I was hooked on to anime, and got immersed in what was supposed to be the next challenge - #4: Gamification.
Watching anime was such an easy task while it allowed me to feel good with the excellent graphics, gripping storylines and brilliant music. On the other hand, setting up the game that my productivity system would be based on was very difficult, with me needing to learn up on a lot of formulas to get the game's spreadsheet to function well and trying to integrate real-life tasks with online rewards. The process of growing and seeing my game becoming closer to reality gave me a huge sense of satisfaction every day. These observations meant that my putting in of consistent effort is not dependent on the difficulty level of a task. Instead, the decisive factor is about how much gains I can perceive from having done such a task. The expectation and realisation of rewards (be it a good stimulation of my senses or expanding my knowledge base to increase my capabilities) made the doing of these tasks look attractive to me.
Lesson 2: Great progress comes from small actions, hence habits are not formed through big undertakings.
There were many days that I dropped the reading because I simply did not feel up to it. Such a feeling might be because of how much I demanded myself to read regularly. Setting expectations that will be difficult for me to fulfill will only lead to disappointment and cause me to miss out on many of the things that were taught by the trainers. I should fight back the guilt of not reaching the daily reading quota, and do the longer and safer way of only requiring myself to read very little daily (like one page per day).
The most effective change comes from within and from being regularly enforced. Limiting my reading quota could have made it less likely to put off the reading. This is so that the act of reading a book (no matter how few pages the book has) is easier to start.
Lesson 3: Time-bound tasks are more likely to mobilise effort
Creating a daily habit is not as easy as setting a deadline to form the habit by and just pray that I will be doing it everyday. Chances are, all the distractions and obligations in life will most likely prevent me from doing so. To increase my chances of success at forming a daily habit, I must set a timer for the minimum amount of reading time I must hit so that I focus on reading instead of worrying about other things.
Knowing how much time I have left aids in focus, since I do not have to split my attention to attend to the other things I need to do.
Resolution: Extension of the challenge
For the daily reading part of the habit, I will extend it till the end of September 2020. This will help me to spread out my reading more over time to avoid making reading seem like a chore.
As for the news readings, I will set more reminders for me to do it and record what I have learnt from the reading.
Finally, for the reading notes, I will only expect myself to complete one, and it will be ready by the end of September 2020.
For now, my goal is to conclude the challenge and get ready the challenge completion post by 4 October 2020, Sunday. To help me get there, I will break the challenge down into time-bound tasks that I can jump into so that I am less able to put them off for later.
This issue of Kaleidoscope is going to get more personal. There will be more talk of my personal experiences online, but I will still touch on some current affairs.
As the post may be long. Here is a content page to help you find your way through all the good stuff:
The coronavirus pandemic has made it harder to be out and about for people worldwide. Increasingly, virtual travels, which simulate the travel experience on a virtual space, is becoming a popular option on the Internet. According to an article by the August issue of Straits Times Asia Insider, many tour operators are developing virtual travel tours, with engaging tour guides bringing visitors on the Internet to explore different places around the world (usually through live streams), and using images and videos to replace the experience of actually being there.
Using digital tools as part of the tourism is not entirely novel. It has been a mainstay in popular tourist attractions in countries such as China to enhance the experience. When I visited Xi'an during an immersion trip a few years ago, I was surprised to see a large number of QR codes prominently displayed at museum exhibits and park signboards. These QR codes offer access to multimedia content, from audio guides and pictures to additional information and insights on the place. By adding a digital element to the traditional tourism experience, travel becomes more enriching. Moreover, the digital functions also made it easier for tourists to share their experiences on social media, potentially attracting their friends to visit the places featured on their social media posts.
QR codes seen in Chinese museum exhibits. Image from Google Images.
However, with physical travel being out of the question, going completely virtual for travelling is now the way to go. I have jumped on the bandwagon too, and used a somewhat less conventional way of travelling - Google Earth. It has a "Voyager" feature that takes you to popular tourist spots worldwide. I picked Tokyo as my destination as I heard much about it from watching anime and I really wanted to know some of the scenic places as well as the history of the places there. I also searched up the featured attractions on YouTube to enhance my travelling experience, so that it feels like there are tourist guides bringing me through the various locations.
Here is what the Voyager function looks like in Google Earth. I chose the 48 Hours in Tokyo tour.
This is what it looks like inside. The unique thing about Voyager is that it offers a 3D map of the place to give you a bird's eye view. Then it has a picture and a succinct description of the place. Most of the things in the map are computer generated imagery, so it does not look like the real thing, but it is close enough to give you a feel of what the place looks like.
For a more immersive experience, I tried out the street views and photo spheres in the map. They are not too bad - you can do some quick cherry blossom viewing even when it is not the right season for it. I only regret that the images are of a low resolution.
It is easy to grow bored of hopping around static images of places, so I had some videos to keep me entertained and educated. One of the videos I watched looked like this:
So, unless you know the good street view spots, it is not easy to feel good from a virtual experience. But at the very least, virtual tours can still be useful if you just want a quick escape from wherever you are right now and gain some satisfaction from feeling smarter after learning more about new places and cultures.
If these sounds like too much work, there are always free, ready-made guided tours online, such as this one which uses Google Street View:
Virtual travel experiences have challenged the way we interact with the world, and encouraged us to reflect upon why we travel. Is it for the novelty? To satisfy one's curiosity about a foreign place and culture? Or to search for one's own answers to the meaning of life and the human experience? Everyone has different reasons to travel, but I am sure what makes travelling so appealing is the innate curiosity humans have to find out more about the unknown, and using all their senses to experience what it is being like in a foreign land to satisfy whatever they are searching for.
There is another form of virtual travel asides from live streams, online researching and street view. Documentaries. I explored the rich culture and history of the Democratic Republic of Congo through a BBC Documentary. It presents a sad story of how the people have suffered under the reign of corrupt, exploitative rulers, whose greed and misgovernance have made the painful history filled with violence, poverty and discrimination repeat itself again and again.
As a person who is passionate about the subject of Geography, I find that this video provides us a refreshing perspective on how we look at cities and societies in general. Elevators have been and evolved with us for a long time. The current coronavirus crisis has forced us to relook at the way we interact with elevators. I have gained a few insights from this video:
First, smart technologies. I have experienced this first hand while I go to the ministry buildings in Singapore for studies, internships and interviews. You indicate the floor you want to go and go to the corresponding lift that will take you there. From what it looks like, it seemed that there was an algorithm that optimises the load between the elevators and distribute people with different destinations in mind as evenly as possible to reduce waiting time and overcrowded lobbies. This will become more important in the midst of the pandemic, where safe distancing has become necessary.
Second, high-rise cities. Without the invention of elevators, building structures that go beyond six, seven storeys high will become more and more unfeasible, since it would be tiring for most people to scale many flights of stairs just to get to the storey they want. Elevators also made it possible for elderly, people with disabilities, and large groups of people (like families) to be able to access their homes if they reside in high-rise buildings. Elevators literally defined how modern cities look today, by making it possible for architecture to go higher. Not to mention how the high-rise buildings they made possible gave rise to a new kinds of sport - vertical marathons.
Third, vulnerable groups such as the disabled and low-income people. These people are more affected by the coronavirus crisis since they do not have access to functioning, safe elevators. It will be harder for them to maintain safe distancing since the elevators they use are more likely to break down, in addition to sharing poorly ventilated places of residence, yet they are the ones who cannot afford the technology to work at home, and will have to go out at work. As such, it is more difficult for them to contribute in stopping the spread of Covid-19.
The plastic problem is one that exists on many different levels. From its production, to its use and then its disposal by Singaporeans and many others worldwide, people are just becoming too wasteful.
First, let us focus on what we can relate to most - plastic use.
According to a study led by six alumni students from the National University of Singapore’s Master of Science (Environmental Management) programme in May 2020, Singapore households generated an additional 1334 tonnes of plastic wasteduring the two-month Circuit Breaker period, where nearly everyone had to stay at home.
This comes with a rise in food takeaways and delivery of goods for online shopping, where plastic packaging is inevitable. The plastic situation had become so out of hand that there are long queues of people outside of plastic distributors, waiting to get their hands on more plastic packaging materials.
Asides from takeaways and groceries, plastics have found themselves in many other applications:
Shields and barriers in taxis and hawker centres
Face masks and face shields
Laboratory equipment
Storage of medication, medical waste, samples, etc.
To sum up what has been said so far, Singaporeans consume a lot, demand a lot of disposables and generate a lot of waste. Retailers have also worsened this problem by unfounded fears.
Now, before anyone reading this starts to crack from the guilt and horror from the shocking statistics, let me step back from consumers for the time being and go on to explain the second part of the problem which we consumers have no control of - oil.
One important fact to bear in mind is that plastic does not only come from crude oil. Plastic is made from natural, organic raw materials such as plants, coal, natural gas and crude oil. However, we see so much of our plastics made from crude oil because it is cheap.
As such, oil prices had plunged more than 50% for the past few months, dramatically lowering the cost of producing plastics from crude oil. It is only natural that plastic distributors will want to buy these low-cost plastics, and not the more expensive alternative - recycled plastics. Otherwise, they would not be able to sustain themselves financially during the pandemic.
We cannot help it that so much plastic is produced and we often find ourselves in need of it, but the third and final issue of our plastic problem is something that we definitely can do something about - where our plastic waste goes.
There is much talk about Singapore going zero-waste, but that goal could be unreachable if we do not buck up in our recycling. Plastic recycling is, well, dismal, at about 4% according to the latest statistics.
Not all plastics can be recycled in Singapore's context. Polyvinyl chlorides (No. 3) and polystyrene (No. 6) cannot be recycled here. Biodegradable bags cannot be recycled too! Although their chemical composition is meant for them to decompose in landfill environments, they go straight to the incinerator in Singapore.
The most unfortunate fact of all - most plastics can only be recycled once or twice. More than that, they get downcycled and cannot be used again anymore. This is unlike aluminium, which can be recycled indefinitely.
Underlying all these problems are the cost of plastic recycling, technical limitations, widespread ignorance of what are considered recyclables by the local population and severe limitations in where our trash could go, now that countries are refusing to take in our waste.
If the statistics and technicalities are too confusing, here is a video that illustrates how plastics get recycled in Singapore:
What can we do for a better future? Here are some of my ideas:
Do away with the ignorance!
Spread awareness of container lending programmes, to maximise the use of reusable containers. Or even better, bring your own reusable container whenever you want to get a takeaway!
Follow social media accounts and personalities who are very knowledgeable about recycling, and level up your recycling skills on the way! This is important because there are actually a lot of products like snack wrappers and masks that are made from composite materials (plastic combined with a lot of other things like rubber, paper, aluminium, etc), and they cannot be recycled locally as we lack the technology for this.
Businesses and government policies can consider imposing on a plastic tax to better reflect the environmental costs of plastic use, while giving rebates / reusable containers and bags to lower income groups for them to still be able to get their daily essentials.
Or, they can invest more in recycling research so that we can overcome all these technical and cost limitations that is stopping us from becoming a zero-waste nation.
Delivery options can change too.
There are already suggestions calling for delivery companies to make no cutlery and no straw as the default option for deliveries. This is important because disposable cutlery like these cannot be recycled.
Since large group of people like families and companies are ordering so much online, maybe online retailers can allow them to order in bulk and group orders of the same kind into a single packaging. We can save on packaging costs and it is more convenient this way, as long as consumers feedback to them about wanting their deliveries to be done this way.
Instead of ordering so many deliveries, we can explore other ways of getting food. I think during the pandemic where it is harder for people to go outside of their homes, vending machines can be a safe and convenient way of getting food and drinks.
A more direct way to reduce the need for plastic is to pick up cooking as a skill and learn to make our own food. It is a rewarding experience, perfect for curing boredom, and is beneficial for our stomachs and the environment!
Create your very own waste management strategy. Using what you have learnt and research online, see what needs to be reduced, reused and recycled. Make it a habit to find out more about what the things you use are made up of, and plan how to dispose of them accordingly when you are done with it. Personally, I feel that reducing our consumption is the best way to protect our environment, but we also need many more people to start reusing and recycling things in order to reduce the waste we generate and incinerate.
Finally, what I think is the most important in fighting the surge in plastic waste, along with a whole range of environmental problems, is cultivating a respect for our things and the environment in general. This respect can be about valuing our possessions, which go through so many stages of making, processing and transporting to get to our homes, only to serve us. Each possession we have takes a lot of effort, time and ingenuity to be produced. Yet, when we find no use for them, we discard them unthinkingly. And many people (including myself at times) have the cheek to make excuses of ignorance and inconvenience when it comes to sorting waste and recycling them. Ensuring that our waste are treated responsibly instead of letting them endanger natural environments is the least we can do in return for how much our possessions have done to make our lives better before they become waste.
As I enter adulthood, and step out from protected environments such as schools and army camps, I would be thrown into a society that can be incomprehensible and stressful. In order to survive and thrive in life, which to me involves putting myself in an ever-changing environment, having a high emotional quotient is necessary, since it will allow me to better manage my emotions and make decisions that I will not regret later on.
When I was still in schooling, I had a hard time trying to be resilient in stressful situations because I struggled to deal with the uncomfortable emotions that were building up within me. In order to help myself grow and move on from my troubles, I found Youper, a smartphone application which acts as an emotional health assistant incorporating mindfulness, meditation and cognitive behaviour therapy techniques to help me navigate through my emotions and make myself feel better.
Sadly, I began to experience crashes while using this application in recent years, so I had quit using it and tried to find my own way of managing my own emotions. That was when I remembered reading about Ekman's Atlas of Emotions, which was a map commissioned by the Dalai Lama. It details the different types of emotions and how they are categorised based on scientific research, and presents us the whole process of feeling an emotion, from its trigger, to its symptoms, then to our responses to it. It gave me a methodology to start understanding my emotions better.
I decided to incorporate my experiences with the Youper app and Ekman's Atlas into my very own dashboard for tracking and managing my emotions. It looks like this:
Designing this dashboard (still a work in progress) in a spreadsheet allowed me to have more flexibility in analysing my own emotions. The emojis (which only worked on my smartphone) enabled me to visualise my emotions better so I can put whatever I feel into words faster. Also, the definition of each emotions and the management of different types of emotions were included inside too so that I can gain more insights from analysing my own emotions.
So far, reflecting on my emotions has allowed me to be able to stay rational in a range of situations and prevented me from getting sucked into my emotions. It allowed me to be able to find out what to improve and what to stay away with. However, this dashboard can be quite problematic in these areas:
It is difficult for me to address my emotions if a few different emotions were experienced at the same time due to the same trigger.
It can take quite a bit of time to fill out all the fields in this dashboard, discouraging me from updating it consistently.
It is hard to pinpoint what kind of intensity my emotions are, and boxing emotions into a specific set of rules and countermeasures can remove the many nuances of feeling and responding to emotions.
Still, I will still choose to believe in this dashboard because it will allow me to gain a toolbox for managing a wide range of emotions and detach myself from my emotions more so that I would not run wild from uncomfortable emotions. But trying to update this on a consistent basis can be quite difficult. This is why I needed to find my purpose for doing this. By articulating the reason for tracking and managing my emotions clearly, like what I tried to do in the first paragraph for this post, I hope that I can find the strength to continue analysing my emotions and be in control of myself.
This post is going to be a quick one. Basically, I have just concluded Round 2 of the challenge, and I will be sharing the flash fiction I wrote out. The story is based on true events, and is about over one thousand words long.
A Stressful Day at Home
What is home? For many, it is a restful place for people to recharge as they enjoy quality time with their families. But my experience of homecoming on a Thursday was one fraught with worries and frustrations.
After a long day at my army camp, I did some shopping at night to prepare for the next time I return there. Finding out the best deals and products I wanted gave me much satisfaction, but that feeling soon gave way to disappointment when I came home to the news of the Wi-fi being broken. Once I learnt of that, all I could think of was how to get enough data to get by the next day. None of my parents could offer their hotspot since it would be a Thursday and they had to be off at work, so I would be home alone with my sister to rely on mobile data to access the Internet.
Deep down, I felt like a bird who had lost its wings - grounded, helpless and anxious about what would become of itself. I had never realised how important Wi-fi would be until it was no longer there for me anymore. There were times that the connection was slow or disrupted, but that beats having no Wi-fi at all and having to go for the more expensive option of using mobile data. Meanwhile, my parents were relieved that they could count on me to look after the house and help them handle the technician who was scheduled to arrive on Thursday afternoon to exchange the modem.
“What modem?” I asked. Thereafter, I had to sit through a lesson on some Wi-fi related technicalities by my father. By combining his explanations with some research I did online, I learned that a modem converts electrical signals into digital data which is understandable by a computer, while a router beams that data to a computer connected to the network and together with the modem, makes up what I know as the Wi-fi.
I was also filled in the details of what went wrong with the Wi-fi. My father first suspected the software to be the root cause of the issue, and tried resetting the modem to no avail, so he wanted to try out replacing the modem first - that would be where the technician and I came in.
However, when the technician came in the afternoon and tried setting up the modem, the Wi-fi still did not work, leading him to conclude, “Your router is old, you should change it.” I was confused at first because the technician mentioned something about ten years old while the router was bought a few years ago. But, everything made sense when I interpreted his recommendations as my router system becoming out of date.
In spite of all my efforts in helping to fix the problem, I was disappointed to find out that there was no happy outcome and I could only wait for my father to replace the router. Still, the fixing of the Wi-fi was only one out of the many difficulties I had to deal with. More was to come, such as getting the mobile data to work and balancing between running errands for my parents and estate maintenance.
As the morning sunlight streamed into my bedroom, my sister was getting ready to report to her virtual classroom, since it would not be possible to hold classes physically amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. Concurrently, I was watching whether the sunlight would stay for the rest of the morning so that I could dry my clothes out in the sun. Various problems began to arise.
My sister complained that she could not get the mobile data to work on her laptop. After I tried fumbling with the settings for her smartphone and laptop (which uses Windows 10, an operating system I am unfamiliar with since mine runs on Windows 8). I threw my hands up shortly after that and went to try on my own phone and laptop. The tethering method, which I found after some searching on Google, worked for me. Tethering is basically connecting my phone to my laptop using a cable and turning on the hotspot. My sister’s one got to work too after a few tries, albeit not being able to find out the cause of the issue. Initially, I planned to use the data to do some research and watch anime on my laptop, but with it guzzling up data so quickly, I had to ditch that plan and use my smartphone more instead.
Just as the data was working and I thought I could finally focus on writing awesome blog posts, a lady from the National Environmental Agency knocked to notify me of a fogging that will take place at 9 o’clock in the morning. Not only would the fogging take place along my block’s corridors, it would also happen downstairs. Given the rise of dengue cases, this could not be helped, but the fogging happened later than announced. By the time all the fogging stopped, it was nearly 11 o’clock, leaving me with little time to sun the laundry.
I would have liked to leave the laundry be until late in the afternoon, but the sky became overcast and threatened to rain cats and dogs, so I hurriedly kept the laundry a few hours after bringing them out. By then, I would have to get ready to open the door for the technician who would replace the modem to come in. Could my afternoon get any busier?
Yes! In the late afternoon, block washing happened and I had to rush to close the doors and windows before the water would spray everywhere. I was surprised because nobody told me that this was going to happen, unlike the fogging in the morning when I had time to prepare.
As the day drew to a close, I was tired from attending to so many things, including the chores that I would have to do in the evening. But in hindsight, there was something positive in all this trouble, as I learnt how much it took just to maintain our living quarters, from my parents who did the chores and ensured that the electrical appliances were working fine, to the essential workers who did estate maintenance like clockwork. It seems that I have to be grateful to these hardworking people for the comfort and rest I get at home.
Sometimes, we are so busy with our various commitments that we forget to leave some time to check in with ourselves and improve one aspect of our lives.
Doing the same old routines and work every day is just going to nurture the mentality of getting by with life uneventfully, but that is not a life well lived, for we are shelled up in our own comfort zone, and we do not experience any excitement or growth. [1]
This is why I have been trying to fight back the busyness and trying to set up some challenges for my self-improvement. These challenges usually include soft-skills that will improve my character and increase my well-being. However, the nature of the challenges can evolve in future, in line with my changing needs and the changing environment.
The first challenge: Positivity Challenge
The purpose of this challenge is to encourage me to reframe my thoughts in a more positive and constructive way so as to improve my mental well-being and feel more in control.
Many occurrences are neutral by nature. But as we colour these events with our own emotions and our biases, they will fall into the category of either what we like and what we dislike. The negative category of what we dislike can be self-defeating, as they may be necessary for our growth but our mind is resistant to change. This workings of our inner selves, combined with the negative thoughts that spring out from our interpretations of the events, make many things in life harder and more stressful than they should. [2]
I surprised myself by generating many positive ways to look at an otherwise negative event. It seems like most of the time when I feel depressed or stressed by the negative things in life, it is more likely because my mind does not want to acknowledge positive side of things.
I hope to be able to gather these thoughts and find out their commonalities, which can help me set up a toolbox for helping me to cope with negativity and inject more positive feelings into my life.
Hari Raya Aidilfitri, or also known as Hari Raya Puasa, is an occasion that is celebrated by the Muslim community in Singapore.
Well-wishes have been streaming in from Singapore's leaders.
"Strengthen family bonds virtually, stay connected to enjoy festive activities together, yet in the comfort of our own homes. Stay safe, so that we can all look forward to better celebrations ahead,"
~ Mdm Halimah Yacob (President of Singapore)
"...draw strength from one another during this difficult but festive period."
~ Mr Lee Hsien Loong (Prime Minister of Singapore)
"Like you, I am sad too, as we are not able to visit our loved ones, especially parents, grandparents, and elderly relatives,"
~ Mr Masagos Zulkifli (Minister-in-charge for Muslim Affairs, also Minister for the Environment and Water Resources)
Amidst the Circuit Breaker period in Singapore, Singaporean Muslims would be unable to visit their families to offer well-wishes and goodies, or go to mosques for prayers. However, life still goes on, and they are sure to be carrying out the festivities in the virtual space.
For me, I will be celebrating this year's Hari Raya Puasa by joining in the spirit of forgiveness and reflection that is included in this day. I will pause for a moment and consolidate all the reflections I have done over the past few months, and re-organise them into something actionable for me to improve myself.
I have actually wanted to do the consolidation sooner, but I had always forgot about it when I was at home, so this time, let me do it well, and make the consolidation a habit. I believe that much can be learned by understanding my mistakes, my strengths and my goals. All these will help me to become a better person.
Should you be curious about how I do my reflections, each reflection has four components:
Positive aspect - what good things have I done?
Negative aspect - what mistakes did I make?
Gratefulness - what can I be thankful for?
Target - what should I improve on for next time?
I did not come up with these components at random. These are drawn from my experiences with cognitive behavioural therapy when I was using the Youper app to help with my emotional and goals management.
From this post onward, I am going to start posting more about what I am doing in real-life, instead of just exploring and creating new stories! Anyway, back to the subject of this post, I am returning to Habitica for the first time in 2020.
For now, I have included some habits, dailies and to-dos, plus an entire incentive system (with my own customised achievements I designed myself included in my profile details) to make the most out of this gamified productivity application.
This is still a developing story, but I am sharing about this first so that anyone who views my blog will have an idea of what I am up to recently. I will cover more details about how I use Habitica in a new series dedicated to this game.
Rumia is the official mascot for Dear Vincent,. It is modeled after a seedling to symbolise this blog's new beginnings of building up a repertoire of content series to continually engage readers from around Singapore and the world.
The name Rumia came from the Polynesian legend of creation. In the legend, Rumia was the shell that held space for the light of the universe to be born. It can be interpreted as a cosmic egg that nurtured the origins of the universe. This name is chosen to represent this seedling as it reflects the role of the seedling as the origin of something much bigger, such as a tall tree. Here, the seedling represents the hope for growth and transformation for this blog.
The shape of the seed resembles a heart shape (tilt your head towards the left to see the shape clearly), which is a testament to how much this blog's author has poured his heart into to create quality content. Asides from the face, the young tender stem and leaves helps Rumia to provide a greater range of expressions.
Rumia enjoys listening to uplifting stories, which are its source of nutrients. It also requires a lot of sunshine (= viewership) and water (= Vincent's blog posts) to help it grow. It is a hyperactive seedling that overcame its biological limits to be able to move from place to place via bouncing on the bottom of the seed or using its stem to grab onto objects like a monkey's tail.
Rumia will make its occasional appearance in future blog posts to share some of his feelings on the subject matter of the post. It looks forward to seeing you again soon.
After a year of experimenting with ideas for what kind of content I can create on this blog, I have finally found my answer in the year 2020. Basically, I decided to take a leaf out of my playbook for Instagram stories, which took off unexpectedly well and got me famous in my secondary school for a brief period.
That is why I tried out creating my very own graphics on this blog, specifically the banners for the various series of stories I am going to share on this blog. The aim of this is to enable me to produce a greater diversity of content while making sure it is not too messy and to give readers the feeling of continuation between different types of stories. And if they want the full series, I have always included labels in my posts so that stories under the same series/topics can be threaded together in a coherent narrative. At the home page, it is going to look more like a magazine, though.
My Instagram stories are also well known for the personal tone in the language I use, it means that my stories will feel like someone having a friendly chat with you. As this is just a casual, personal blog (for now), I may switch to another style of writing in hopes of making my posts more engaging to readers. One of the most important purposes of this blog is for it to act as a sandbox where I can play around with different ideas to make things more interesting.
With this new and improved blog, I hope that everyone can enjoy their time reading my posts here. Moving on, I am trying to establish a site identity. I am currently thinking of creating a mascot and sharing more about myself. In due course, I hope I will be able to find my niche and make my contribution to make the Internet a more enriching and fun place for all netizens. For now, happy reading! Hopefully, this place could be your next source of entertainment and knowledge.
With this, I am going to spread the link for my blog through my social media websites so that more people can know about its existence and find out the stories that have sparked joy in them.
Welcome to yet another new series I am pushing out on this blog! In this series, I will be penning down some of the thoughts I am thinking about during my birthday, and find new strength within me to make myself even better for the next year of my life. This series will obviously be updated annually, since birthdays only come once a year.
In search of something meaningful to do for a birthday, I did a bit of research. At the personal level, people exchange well-wishes and do something enjoyable such as having a sumptuous meal. At the corporate level, company anniversaries usually include a company-wide dinner celebration, which includes banquets, entertainment and speeches. For the celebration of a nation's birthday, Singapore has a National Day Parade and a National Day Rally. For the rally, it is basically the Prime Minister showing his appreciation for our nation's accomplishments, explain government (and sometimes ground-up) initiatives to the masses and highlighting what we can do for the upcoming year.
No matter the scale, birthdays and anniversaries are clearly a time for appreciation and self-introspection. As such, I am inspired to use this blog and write out a post as a means of commemorating my birthday.
The to-do list for my 19th birthday:
- Recount the story of my birth
- Like-dislike survey
- Launching of this blog
How I appeared on this world
On this day, 19 years ago, in the wee hours of morning, I was born. How I know the time was because I vaguely recall the time of birth, 3 AM, being written on my Health Booklet, which was assigned to me when my parents registered a birth certificate for me.
Interestingly, my birth was not via the normal way. Somehow, I just did not want to leave the comfort of my mother's womb, even though I was due to come out about a month earlier. Through some procedure which I could not remember its name, I was forcefully pulled out of my mother's body.
There was an adage about everything being difficult at the start. It was quite true for my case, growing up, I suffered from a variety of ailments. To seek treatment, my parents had to fork out tens of thousands of dollars, which could be a considerable strain on their finances considering their salary then. I was quite sickly, but fortunately I made it out in one piece. By the time I was in school, the illnesses bothered me less and less.
Like-dislike survey
In order to improve myself, I posted two questions on my Instagram story to my followers - what they like about me, and what they dislike about me. Unfortunately, I am not making any headway because there was only one reply. That reply referred to me as smart and quirky. I think this opinion of me came about because I liked to use my brain for almost everything, and I tried to do things differently, questioning my assumptions until I know I have truly understood my doubts and the answer to them.
As I was serving National Service, I started a reflection activity for every training day I had ever since entering camp in March. The reflection has four components - positive experience, negative experience, gratitude and target. Recording what is positive and negative about my training day not only act as a simplified kind of diary for me, but it helped add more nuance in the way I see a training day. Gratitude helps me to remain happy as I count my blessings, and targets help me to keep looking forward, so that I can use my training time productively to improve myself.
Currently, I do not have enough data to build a profile of myself. However, I should be able to start doing up monthly summaries of my reflections to make the organising process easier. This will help me take stock of my progress and know what I need to do to sustain any improvement I see in myself.
Launching of the blog
I will be making the link to this blog easily accessible in all my social media platforms by the end of next week. This will hopefully help me clock up on pageviews and attract people who are interested to find out more about myself. I am confident that I will have a lot of interesting things to write about but I will need to have a keener eye for interesting things and be better that noting down my inspirations.
Pageviews are important for Blogger users because they allow them to qualify for AdSense, a program that puts advertisements for website and gain revenue from it. Competing with social media, an industry that is created to dominate our attention, will be very difficult. However, I believe that once I put some thought into my writing, no matter the length and what platform, I should still be able to capture people's hearts. I will get better at writing so that people will look forward to seeing my next blog post.
Mother's Day is the time of the year when mothers still carry on with being mothers. They take no breaks from the most important role in their life, and we can only cheer them on along the way.
Old fashioned ways of celebrations include handwritten letters, a feast, a bouquet of flowers, a combination of warm hugs, kisses and "thank you"...No! Please save the hugs and kisses for after the COVID-19 pandemic ends, thank you. These means of showing appreciation are very much in trend today.
However, with the coronavirus hitting hard, many people could not be with their mothers. They can only talk to their mothers via video call and cannot be physically there for them due to movement restrictions.
It is the perfect time to unleash your creativity! E-cards can be sent to your mother's email or social media app as long as she is tech-savvy enough to open it. Colourful graphics, sleek animation, enjoyable music, and your own personal voice message... It is as good as a card you can get for your mother. Another means of celebrating Mother's Day on the cloud is more popular in Singapore, and that is singing songs. Many people dedicated songs to their mothers over live streams and radio stations. There are also those who choose to sing with their mothers and have fun together.
My Mother's Day present is my rendition of a song, "Mother". My voice does not only speak about the gratitude I feel about my mother, but also about what I can do for Mother Earth and all mothers around the world. Something tangible coming out from this idea can be to waste less electricity (save money on bills and have a lower carbon footprint) or to comply with COVID-19 mitigation measures such as staying at home and wearing my mask outside (to help make the day when this nightmarish pandemic will end and the start of our mothers' unrestricted movement to every place come faster).
I first recorded and released this video on Instagram with a thought-provoking description. Enjoy!
"Mother" for Mother's Day
You stare into nothing but a voice. It tells you what to be grateful for, our mothers, and Mother Earth. Let's be strong and overcome COVID-19 so that they can enjoy the freedom they deserved.
We can all be traced back to a single mitochondria, so we are a big family spanning across many generations. To that end, let's unite, and not divide, to do our part to save lives through our actions (stay home, waste less, spread joy). Together, we can hope for a brighter future and see the light at the end of the tunnel.
My first post in this year! There is so much to say, but l shall begin by giving an overview of what this year means to me.
Two acts, two ages
2020 is the most defining year in my life up till now. My lives in the year 2019 and 2020 were worlds apart, being in completely different environments, and living with a very different purpose. 2020 marked the end of my years of schooling and the beginning of National Service, an obligation that all healthy young Singaporean males have in order to defend the vulnerable lion city from hostile forces.
At this point, there are a few terms that await clarification - compulsory education and National Service. These are the things that every male Singaporean like me will have to go through in his life because the law of the land requires them to be. Their respective statutes are the Compulsory Education Act (Singapore Statutes, Chapter 51) and the Enlistment Act (Singapore Statutes, Chapter 93). Note that not adhering to these acts can have really scary punishments - these are one of the highlights of Singapore Law.
Compulsory Education Act
Enlistment Act
Section 3: Compulsory Primary Education
3.—(1) A child of compulsory school age who is —
(a) born after 1st January 1996;
(b) a citizen of Singapore; and
(c) residing in Singapore,
shall attend regularly as a pupil at a national primary school.
(2) Where a child of compulsory school age fails to attend regularly as a pupil at a national primary school as required under subsection (1), each parent of the child shall be guilty of an offence. Section 7: Penalties
7.—(1) Any person who is guilty of an offence under section 3(2) shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $5,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or to both.
Part III: National Service Enlistment Act Section 10: Duty to report for enlistment10.—(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, the proper authority may by notice require a person subject to this Act not below the age of 18 years to report for enlistment for national service.
(2) A person required to report for enlistment for national service shall report to the proper authority on such date and at such time and place as may be specified in the notice and shall attend from day to day until duly enlisted.
(3) Enlistment for national service shall be in the manner approved by the proper authority.
(4) No duty of any kind shall be imposed on a person required to report for enlistment or service unless he is found fit for service.
Part VII: Miscellaneous Provisions Enlistment Act Section 33: Offences
33. Except as provided in section 32(3) and (4), any person within or outside Singapore who —
(a) fails to comply with any order or notice issued under this Act;
(b) fails to fulfil any liability imposed on him under this Act;
(c) fraudulently obtains or attempts to obtain postponement, release, discharge or exemption from any duty under this Act;
(d) does any act with the intention of unlawfully evading service;
(e) gives the proper authority or any person acting on his behalf false or misleading information; or
(f) aids, abets or counsels any other person to act in the manner laid down in paragraph (a), (b), (c), (d) or (e),
shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years or to both.
Now, having your life defined by all of these acts may seem absurd at first glance, but they are necessary for society to function well as a whole. Education is one. Singapore used education to improve the literacy rates and skills of her citizens, allowing them to be able to work in industries and pick up new skills quickly, which will eventually pave the way for a vibrant, resilient economy good enough to be the financial hub of Southeast Asia. Defence is another important part of our society and nation-building, since it protects the very sovereignty of the place. This is important as we need to constantly put up a good fight for the right to make our own decisions and do what we want (as long as we stick to international regulations).
Singapore's dollar notes (the current Portrait Series that are in circulation now) are a good reminder of this, since the themes for the pictures on the back of the $2 and $100 notes are "Education" and "Youth" (which includes an image of a young soldier raising the flag with the SAFTI tower in the background) respectively.
Therefore, splitting our lives into different Acts makes sense in terms of personal development and nation-building. These Acts help us to rehearse our lives and equip us with the necessary abilities in our formative years, so that we can achieve success in the later years of our lives.
From Singapore's laws to Shakespeare
If all of this felt heavy, let us take a refuge in the literature of the great William Shakespeare. His famous line, "All the world's a stage", attests to this weirdly theatrical feeling I am experiencing in life right now.
"All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages." ~ As You Like It, Act-II, Scene-VII, Lines 139-143
Two of the seven ages are "the whining schoolboy" and "the devoted soldier". Both seem to be different characters in a story, but in our lives, they are one. I see myself reflected in the first few ages in the Seven Ages of man.
The schoolboy
"And then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel*
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school"
*Note: a satchel is a bag with a long strap that is carried over the shoulder
These lines really bring me memories. I remember when I first entered school, I was tearing up at the thought of being separated from my family and having to fend for myself in an alien environment full of strangers. School life was far from comfortable.. The difficult homework, lengthy commitments and stressful examinations gave me a lot of trouble. Unless one has a very positive mindset about learning and sees a strong purpose in the knowledge he gains, I can really empathise with the unwillingness felt by the schoolboy, but more importantly, I learnt to appreciate the quote "Growth happens outside of your comfort zone." as I continued my schooling.
The soldier
"Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard**,
Jealous*** in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation****
Even in the cannon’s mouth*****."
Some definitions:
** bearded like the pard: Pard was the Old English word for a leopard. The beard of a young man is so patchy that it looks spotted like a leopard. The comparison also works on the level of personality. A leopard is the perfect animal to describe the lines that follow, for with all its might and hunting prowess, a leopard can get quite egotistical and temperamental. A beard could also represent the honor that both the soldier and the leopard strive to protect. After all, a beard is a proud possession of men, and it takes time to grow one to perfection. Here again, bearded could mean spotted, for like a man’s beard, a leopard’s spots are its pride.
Well, in the Singapore Armed Forces, we are required to shave and cannot keep beards. Maybe it is because beards are so hard to maintain and it may also get stuck in the chin strap of the helmets. In the meantime, we have our uniforms, bunks and weapons to maintain.
*** jealous: implies a person who takes precious care of something
**** bubble reputation: a bubble is empty, so by 'seeking the bubble reputation', Shakespeare means that the man does things that make him look good even if they are pointless.
^ Looks like the concept of having "face" existed a long time ago. But such things have disappeared from the Army, which is prized for its practicality and safety.
***** cannon's mouth: a 'cannon' was a large gun, and it's 'mouth' was at the front - so the man seeks his reputation even if it means standing in front of guns, i.e. going to war or getting in fights
^ This honestly reminds me of the "Tank Man" picture from the Tiananmen Square protests. I can understand the visual impact of this picture better now because it is the literal representation of such a strongly-worded metaphor.
In this case, the soldier does not just apply to the military. It can also mean a man that takes his job seriously. Currently, I am striving to apply for a scholarship and a university to further my education. Higher education will be the phase where I get specialised knowledge and invaluable life experiences before I dive into the working world. This is a long, hard fight in its own right!
Goals for 2020
After all this poetry appreciation, it is time to return to reality. For this year, I will try my best to stay healthy too, but more importantly, I want to find out what I can, and want to do in my life. The two-year disruption for National Service is a blessing in disguise for me, because I have more time to think over what kind of aspirations and career I want to pursue in my life. These are very important life decisions, so there can never be too much prudence in choosing what to do. However, it is also essential not to hesitate too much in making up my mind, or I may miss out on a lot of experience that
In addition, I want to have a clear idea of what to believe in. There will not be anyone that will always tell me what to do, and I have to be more independent when making decisions in life. That is why I have recently started to read up on religious texts to stock up on some wisdom, and make revisions to my moral compass so that I know what kind of values I want to be guided by.
Our human brain is the best reflection of the ourselves. How we see it reflects our attitude towards life.
There was once upon a time when human brains were thought of as machines, where there were cogs running, the machinery humming and even mechanical minions working inside the brain. It has been portrayed as a work of art, an industrial wonder authored by Nature.
If you have seen the movie "Inside Out", you can understand what I feel about how people see the brain, where there are inner voices that can get into conflicts at the worst of times and work together to achieve something inconceivable at the best of times. Otherwise, do not fret, here is a video that illustrates my point here.
Our brains are wondrous wonder. No being really understands how it works. According to the article this post has been inspired from, there are people trying to create SIMULATIONS of an entire human brain (while some people have questioned whether our existence is a simulation). Honestly, I am quite doubtful because we already have problems trying to understand a complex system like weather and climate and have difficulties predicting it accurately. With regards to the human brain, we have a long way to go.
But research in the human brain is no less fascinating. When I was in Secondary School, I once did a project in collaboration with Science Centre Singapore to bring our own content and speak to the public about the wonders of the human brain. How a brain works is really mind-blowing, and whatever we know of it today is the product of many years of tireless research and many eye-opening events leading us to a greater insight into the human brain.
The Aeon article which link I put right at the start got me thinking: what will our understanding of our human brain be like within a decade? Or even a century later, what will we think of it? No doubt, increasingly advanced technology will be able to study it with far greater depth and breath than there ever is today.
I find it interesting that this article proposes that our brain is empty, with no evidence of information getting codified inside. The processes look more abstruse and random than we have ever imagined. Nothing is physically stored, only bound together by ephemeral electrical signals that our brain is wired to produce. These signals are highly flexible and can change quickly. They are not bound by boundaries. Recent findings really challenged all our assumptions we have about the mind. It may even have a universe itself! It's own systems, laws, eccentricities... A mind of its own.
All of these is so mind-bending. The only thing that we all can be sure about the brain? The brain is not a computer.
I have thought hard about how to utilise this blog to its fullest potential so that it can help me develop my personality and improve my studies. Now, I think I have found ways to use this blog to my benefit.
One: Studies
As I am a Singaporean student who is currently in an Art stream, many of my subjects will require me to be well read and have extensive knowledge on the variety of examples that I can use to support my points that are write in my essays. Therefore, I will already have read quite a bit of content that is helpful to me learning online.
Where I go to read up on anything online
I read a lot of things online to supplement what I am already given at school or what has been taught during classes.
Some people, upon looking at the words "online reading", will immediately associate it with ebooks. However, I personally think that physical books are more pleasurable to read and are more easily accessible to me. This is because the last time I tried reading ebooks on my phone, I have to worry about the battery level while I am outside of home as well as any potential distractions that can come out in terms of the notifications. To clarify, I have a portable charger at my disposal, but taking it out and fumbling with the USB wires are too cumbersome for me.
The sources of online articles I get myself to read generally comes from two sources: Instagram and Gmail.
Gmail
In order to make my inbox less boring and for me to learn more new things, I have subscribed to many news and media websites to receive their updates on a regular basis. There are all sorts of things there, from current affairs to personal stories, there will always be something that will be to my liking. I am in the midst of coming up with a system to ensure that I check my emails regularly and read whatever I want there.
Instagram
It can sound surprising but I actually use social media content to help me in my studies. Their design enables prominent news media to supply bite-sized and easily digestible information. For Instagram, its Stories function have also been quite attractive to have a quick glance at summaries or special reports made by news media and I can swipe up to read more if I am interested in the content. Instagram is very accessible as it is a mobile application, so it is easy for me to learn something new while browsing through its feeds.
Future source: other blogs
Around the blogosphere, people are producing great content with a lot of things that I can learn from. It is thanks to these more successful examples of blogging, such as the blog of Bill Gates (called Gatesnotes), that inspired me to continue writing on this blog.
Blogging + Reading = ?
So, where does this blog come in? Well, for articles that I am really interested in finding out more, I can include them as a blog post. Such a blog post will be a good excuse for me to engage in further research and readings on this topic and to pen down my critical analysis of certain articles. I can even add my personal voice inside to make it more relevant to myself. That personal voice is important before I bore myself to death on this blog...
2. Personal Reflection
This is the most common type of posts I write here on this blog by far. These posts revolve around me, since I look back at whatever I do, comment on them and generate ways to move on from there and become better.
But, just writing my reflections online will be too much of a bother. I usually do it on Instagram Stories, which look better and simpler. Therefore, I have decided to include another aspect of personal reflection on this post: putting in the content I post about myself on Instagram into this blog so that I can write more about my experiences (because Instagram is really heavy on the use of multimedia).
Here is a sample of the personal reflection I do on Instagram Stories. I hope to bring these into this blog so that I can delve into more in-depth analysis and contemplation on the various happenings in my life.
3. Reviews
That has been the niche of many blogs I see and I enjoy looking at the various posts on reviews of all sorts from things, from road names to food. This is outside of any studying and done for personal enjoyment and to become a more cultured man.
Movies, documentaries, videos, food, places to visit, websites, music... The possibilities are endless, and I can already imagine that this blog will have a lot of posts, containing an assortment of content, including nice little reviews that make life worth looking forward too.
It will be really nice if I can have a blog like this. It would be an extension of myself and be a place chock full of interesting tales to share!
High hopes for this blog
I believe that good things will come to happen when I produce more content on this blog. I can be closer to who I am, and express myself without much reservations. I have even seen certain blogs peppered with vulgarities here and there, but I think using standard, respectable language can also be a form of freedom in my speech. My writing can look more formal, but this is just who I am.
My greatest fear while trying to restart an online presence on Blogger will be Blogger closing down. :( This fear arose when Google+ is going to be taken down (thankfully I don't use it much). I do not want my hard work to go down to the drain because of Blogger closing down, it will be really sad for myself and the huge number of blogs operating of Blogger that have inspired me in my formative years.
Whether this blog can continue to go on, will be a matter of carpe diem - I am more willing and able than ever to sustain a hobby about blog writing. Hereon, it is up to me to decide how this blog is going to flourish. I wish myself the very best on coming up with future blog entries!
The next blog entry will be about how I have strived to understand the human brain better. Look forward to it!
It has been three months since my last blog post. I did not know time passes by really fast! I got too hung up on a job attachment and competition in November, then December was on St John Brigade commitments and anime. When school started in January, I got overwhelmed by the amount of work to do that it took me at least three weeks to get myself out of this self-denial and to start treating work seriously.
Looking back at the year end holidays, I found out that much of my time that got lost was my unhealthy behaviour with my devices. I usually get distracted by social media too easily, then I was exploring adult-rated videos (I shall not bother to go into details as this is a bit too sensitive of an issue for me that I am trying to work around it) and got hooked on an anime series known as "Detective Conan".
As I was wondering why I am so attached to this anime, I think it is because I find the boy detective in the anime cute, so I wanted to continue watching his stories and adventures as I anticipate how he will react to it.
I don't know why but he looks very huggable... ^w^
Anyway, yes I tend to get carried away especially when I start on an anime or drama series. Most of them are designed encourage me to watch all the way till the end and I should have known that very well. But, without a more satisfying way to spend my time, I end up watching these shows anyway.
I am also alarmed by the fact that so much of my activities take place online and I cannot do without using any of my devices for even one day at home. This caused me to feel more insecure about the fact that whether I am consuming too much of digital media and getting lost in all the files and web pages that I start to lose control of my life.
Asides from all these unhealthy levels and uses of screen time, I have lost the inspiration from maintaining this blog too.
When I really start to reflect about this, I find that the first time I started blogging was because my father wanted me to improve my writing and use the blog as a space where I can experiment with different styles and expressions. I have pretty much gave up on that when I succumbed to the joy of watching more and more episodes of anime or watch more and more people's Instagram stories.
Many years later, I wanted to reconnect with the sense of satisfaction I get from finishing a blog post, and playing around with different ideas on how to make my blog posts more interesting, just like how I played around with the different functions to create my Instagram stories. Maybe it was because of all the dopamine that I experience when I engage in entertainment activities on my devices, I could no longer feel inspired to write another entry.
Well... I finally realised all about this when I tried to keep pace with my productivity habits (such as writing a diary entry everyday and updating my calendars) and when I start to set revision goals for myself.
Moving on from my devices, I should actively seek out activities that are less reliant on my usage of devices. One way I tried out was to keep a notebook for each of the subjects I study so that I would not need to open up a new Word document or Google Doc to take down some notes.
I should also focus on activities that would do my some good, such as putting in more effort to maintain this blog. I can experiment with the use of multimedia, or fuse it with some of my revision activities to make mugging more fun.
The journey of a better blog, starts with a single step of deciding to do something for this blog. Yes, I am going to start today!
In the meantime, I can escape from the ranting and the endless feed of news from social media, and explore the various blogs out there. I am sure it will help me open my eyes to many more things than being stuck with my friends and just chatting with one another.
I know all the grammar, vocabulary and expression would not make sense in the first few posts, but I am determined that my language will start to improve if I take the trouble to write more things.
In the future, if I ever start to lose steam while blogging, I will re-energize myself with this article on the benefits of blogging:
