The Other End of the Galaxy

One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century was Isaac Asimov. He was a scientist turned science fiction writer. Asimov came up with the three Laws of Robotics, which are heavily featured in the movie I, Robot, and all his other works involving robots. Asimov also wrote the Foundation Trilogy. He wrote three more books regarding this universe, but the original three are the most intriguing.

However, I only want to write in detail regarding the ending of the third book of the first trilogy here. Before I start, some background information: The trilogy starts with the Galactic Empire slowly crumbling under its own weight. So, a guy named Hari Seldon, a mathematician with the ability to calculate and predict possible futures, sets up two entities; one called Foundation, on a desolate planet called Terminus at the periphery of the galaxy, and another, called the Second Foundation, at another location which I will reveal later.

Although the Foundation was formed to restore civilisation, the Second Foundation was formed to ensure that the goal of the Foundation was achieved, in case something went wrong somewhere along the way. The Foundation was following a Plan written by Hari Seldon. Hari Seldon predicted the events which would occur in the millennium in which the Foundation would have to slowly restore civilisation to the galaxy. However, he couldn’t predict everything, lest the creation of a mutant. So the Second Foundation had to step in, to restore the course of the Foundation to the original Plan, by eliminating the mutant and by doing some interfearance of their own.

However, in exposing themselves, the Second Foundation had turned themselves into targets for extermination for the Foundation. To perpetuate their own survival and that of the Plan, they had to fool the Foundation into thinking that they had indeed been destroyed by the Foundation. This they succeeded in doing, for the Foundation did not know where the true location of the Second Foundation was. The Foundation, and any reader of the book, is only told by Hari Seldon himself that the location of the “other” Foundation is at the “other end of the galaxy”.

As the Foundation was based on a peripheral planet at the edge of the galaxy, many assumed that the planet at the “other end of the galaxy” would be at the periphery, just on the opposite side of the circle. When those planets were checked out, it was found that the Second Foundation was not found there.

After using this ruse, the Second Foundationers managed to fool the Foundationers by using another physical, geometrical truth against them. A circle has no end. So the Foundationers were fooled into thinking that the Second Foundationers’ home planet was the same as their own one for all this time. However, their home planet was at the “other end of the galaxy”.

The reason the Foundationers never found out where the location of the home planet of the Second Foundationers was simple; the galaxy is not flat. It is three-dimensional. In fact, it is in the shape of a double helix, and as a double helix has no end on either side, the “other end” would be its centre. But the major reason why the Foundationers could not figure out the location was much simpler. The Foundationers were physical scientists, experts in biology, chemistry and physics. To them, the “other end” of anything must have a geometrical connotation to it.

However, the person who gave them the hint, Hari Seldon, and established the Second Foundation, was not a physical scientist. He was a social scientist, and while his knowledge of geometry was probably undisputed (he used mathematics to calculate the possible futures), the only “other end” he cared about would be from a social view. As the home planet of the Foundationers was poor in resources, the other end socially would have been the capital of the Galactic Republic, which before the fall of civilisation, was the capital of the galaxy, and thus had a lot of trade flowing throguh it. It also just so happened to be in the centre of the galaxy.

To the Foundationers, they had a sort of mental block; they could not get past the physical side of things and they also failed to understand Hari Seldon, so they failed to find the correct location of the home planet of the Second Foundation.

When we hear someone saying something sometimes, we forget from what point of view he or she is saying it from. We think he or she is saying it from a physical point of view, but we might be mistaken, as it might be from a social point of view. We take people so literally that we forget to read between the lines, or rather, read the response from the perspective of the person saying it.

It’s a mental block for us. We only see things from one perspective, but not another. To different people, different words convey different messages. Some words are used as a way of identifying oneself from others, others to exclude other people from a conversation, by purposely withholding information from them. Not everyone has heard of every word, and certainly not every connotation of the word.

But sometimes it is the context we lose track of. Words, phrases, clauses and comments taken out of context, whether situations, conversation, or, as in this case, the people who said it, can cause the meaning of the phrase to be lost. While it may be a bit too hard for us to read between the lines whenever someone speaks, it would be prudent to bear in mind the original speaker of a quote so that the quote may be put in the correct context.

In this day and age, where science and technology, especially physical sciences and technologies take capture the minds of most of us, it is prudent to still consider that maybe it is not the only frontier worth taking on, or more than that, that the physical realm is not the only way a person may look at things.

Glass Ceiling

When we do something in life, we normally have a certain expectation of it. When it exceeds our expectations, we are often surprised at the results. When it is below our expectations, however, we normally get angry. This holds true for our academic test results as well. As we do a test, we are aware of how well or poorly we did it. When the results come out, we have a certain expectation of them, whether we expect to have done well, or whether we expect to have fared poorly.

Even for the best of us, this hold true. Sometimes, we screw up during a paper, and we expect to fare poorly for it. Other times, we feel that we have answered all the questions well and truly, and are not surprised when we do well for it. When reality meets up to our expectations, we get less emotional about it; even people who normally do well, when they feel that they won’t in a particular test, and when the results come out, they find that they did as poorly as they felt they did, don’t get too depressed. This is because they knew what was coming their way. The same goes for when they expect to do well and actually do so.

However, what really gets people emotionally unstable is when they find that reality and their expectations aren’t aligned in the same direction. This happens when they expect to do well, but instead do badly, or expect to do badly, but instead do well.
I have been in both situations before, but only once have I been in a situation where I expected to fare well but instead ended up faring badly, and twice when I expected to fare badly, but ended up faring well. Nevertheless, these things do happen and I’ll describe one incident in detail here.

The Australian Mathematics Competition is, in my humble opinion, one of the better mathematics competitions on the planet. It gives everyone due credit, and lets us know how well we fared. As not only the top 3 people in the year and region get recognition, the quiz gives everyone an idea of where they stand in their year and region, at least with regards to their mathematical capability.

While the top 0.5% do get prizes (the percentile varies according to year and region), the next 4.5% get high distinction certificates, while the next 25% get distinction certificates, with the next 30% getting credit certificates. Participants who achieve a certain amount of marks are awarded a proficiency certificate.

When the results came out, I was hoping to get a distinction. The last time I participated, I just scrapped in on a credit, while one of my classmates managed to outdo me and get a distinction himself. Hoping not to be outdone this time, I wanted a distinction.

So when I approached the notice board with all the results pasted up on it, I looked for all the results with “D”s at the end, marking those with distinctions. After figuring out where the Sixth Formers were on the list (we were right at the bottom of every category) I found, to my dismay, that my name was not there. To make matters worse, there were four other from the class next door who had made the grade.

So I looked further down the list to where the “C”s were. And I found many people with credits. To my utter horror, my name was not on the list again.

Ouch.

So I rechecked the list of people who had distinctions, then proceeded to check the list of people who had credits, then finally, to those who had proficiency certificates. Needless to say, my name was not on either three of the lists.

I was left wondering how on earth I was going to face my classmates without even a proficiency certificate to show for a competition which I had so badly wanted to join. Then, just out of curiosity, I looked further up the list to find out who had had prizes and high distinctions this year. Just one person managed to get a prize this year, while three had high distinctions.

It was up there that I found my name. I had pulled off what I had thought I would not be able to do. I had gotten myself a high distinction.

My mental block was that I thought I could not get a high distinction in my life, at least not in the AMC. I was hoping pretty badly for a distinction, but while I had dreamed that I would get a high distinction, reality kept telling me that the most I would get would be a distinction. So I had the equivalent of a glass ceiling, except that this glass ceiling was internal, made up inside my head. One can dream as much as one wants to, but when reality sets in and we realise that we are not capable of doing something, we lower our expectations and set our sights lower.

So low did I set my sights that when it came to looking at my results, I spent more time finding my name than the average person would. This is both literally and figuratively speaking. I didn’t bother looking at the “HD” results first, as I felt that I had had no chance at getting them, while I averted my eyes from them from the moment I saw the results on the notice board. To me, high distinctions were only for those who were very lucky, very good or for the very young. And I was neither three.

At least my judgement said so back then.

We always have an expectation of how well we will perform in any task. For me, this time round, I was pleasantly surprised. I didn’t expect to do this well, but I was happy I did. I practically had a spring in my step as I walked back home. Now, then came how to fool the class into thinking I didn’t do that well. But that’s another story....

Third block

Second block's over.

Third block: Mental blocks

In God's eyes

When I first thought about this topic, it was more out of following the theme than as a real post. That was about two months ago.

Now, however, I really want to write about this topic; I am not doing this out of duty, as I originally would have, but out of a sense of sharing, for I realised something I was not originally aware until only recently. This is not to say that I had no knowledge of it at all, but what goes on in the mind and what goes on in the heart are two completely different things.

Here goes.

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People say that first impressions are always the biggest. So when we go for interviews, we dress up to look our best. We make sure that we don’t have a body odour, and that if we do, we “take care” of it. Even when we go out with a group of friends, we dress up, wanting to look our best. The reason for all of this is because we want to make sure we make the right impressions, and give out the correct messages when we go out.

Part of our survival as a species is being able to tell that which is safe from that which is not. Our instincts have not only expanded to our food and where we set foot, but to other people as well. We judge people as they come our way. As we aren’t in mortal danger from being butchered by someone all the time, it is less our physical health we are concerned about, but more our social health.

The first thing we do when we see a person is judge him or her. Sometimes, when we hear that he or she does something less “desirable” or doesn’t do something “desirable”, we stereotype the said person. He or she is either not “cool” enough or too “dangerous”. We keep our distance from them and we see them as inferior to us. Being with them, or even just being associated with them, is thought of as detrimental to our social standing; being associated with someone not “cool” enough makes us look bad among friends, while being associated with someone too “dangerous” often gets us in trouble with our elders and our family.

We try to tell those who are “safe” from those who are “unsafe”, but without talking to them first, we are only able to judge people by the way they look. So comes what is known as prejudice, which is taken from “pre-judge”. We develop prejudices towards other people as we grow up, a result of our experiences and what we have been taught by our elders. We judge people by the colour of their skin, the clothes that they wear, the accessories they have, the people they hang out with and the things they do. Sometimes, we judge correctly; certain people do or wear certain things to make a statement. They want to be heard or seen doing it. Other times, things are not so simple. Nevertheless, we choose to look only on the surface before passing judgement.

However, when Christ came down to earth, he did not choose who He interacted with or who He loved based on their physical appearance or association. He talked to “sinners”, those who did not follow the Jewish law, and he talked to the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the teachers of the Torah, well versed in it. He interacted with those considered too bad to be considered to be on par with everyone else, but He also interacted with those who considered themselves above everyone else. He did not choose to stay away from people because they were not good company, or did not support his cause; instead, He reached out to them.

Christ interacted with both Jews and Gentiles. It was not possible back then for a Jew to marry a Gentile under certain situations, but the greatest difference was that the Jews were God’s people, set aside by God, while the Gentiles weren’t. As Christ came down to die for all people, He did not differentiate Jew from Gentile. He even drank from the utensils of a Gentile woman once.

Christ, too, told us to love our neighbours as we love ourselves, and said that this even extended to our enemies. Indeed, everyone who is loved would reciprocate, but the ability to love someone without any response is what really brings the best out of everyone concerned. The person who has to initiate contact has to find the strength to do so, while in the end, the person who receives it is able to grow, as he or she knows that he or she is not alone in this world.

When we see a person for the first time, what do we see most about him or her? And what do we do about our “knowledge”? Do we pass judgement on a person immediately? Do we look at a person’s piercings and get turned off immediately? Do we look at how a person dresses and bring out the fashion police inside of us? Do we watch a person’s actions, and from there, decide whether he or she is worth interacting with or whether he or she is not worth our time?

We normally do.

But not everyone does what they do out of choice. There is always a choice, but sometimes, this is the lesser of the two evils. The other alternative might be much less desirable for everyone involved. So people get involved with things which we cringe our noses at and speak in ways which even the least conservative of us would disapprove. But without getting to know them, we have no idea as to why they are in such a situation.

When we stretch out our hand to them, and show that we care, regardless of whether they are the downtrodden, or the oppressed, or the poor, regardless of whether they are poor materialistically, in the spirit or in other ways, we show that we care, and we give them a chance to change. By not stretching our hand out to them, we drive into them the desire to not to change. Sometimes people will just stay the way they are to spite us, and force us to accept them.

Sometimes we do the same.

But in spite of all this, everyone is good on the inside. In spite of what we wear, say, do or who we choose to interact with, people are good on the inside. When we allow our prejudices towards people to get in our way of truly knowing them, we deny ourselves a chance to get to know them better, and a chance for them to change. We deny ourselves a chance to change someone for the better.

When people sleep, everyone looks the same. Even the biggest gangster on the block looks like an innocent kid all over again. People have different styles and positions while sleeping, but that doesn’t mean that we are all that different – we are all very much the same, as when we sleep, we dream, and we become the small kid we once were.

In God’s eyes, everyone was and is equal. No one is more deserving than the rest, and no one is less deserving than the rest. Sure, even Christ left when things got too hot for Him (except at the garden of Gethsemane, but that’s another story) , only an insane person would hang around when there are people threatening one’s life, but He did what He did, without prejudice towards other people.

Closing Two Eyes

Rules are made to be broken. Well, records are, especially those set by athletes, but as for rules, I'm not too sure. Being in the discipline business for too long has certainly rubbed off on me: I'm probably more legalistic than most, with little sense of practicality. And then there's the factor known as my upbringing - I grew (and still grow) in an environment where discipline is highly emphasized. Therefore, closing two eyes when it comes to any rule breaking business is foreign to me.

My penchant for rules is so well known, that when I have to break them, even my classmates can't believe their ears. I have this very anti-liquid paper stance in school - no liquid paper in school, no matter what the reason. So when one day I had to borrow liquid paper to "liquid out" a portion of my bio report, on my teacher's orders, my neighbour was so shocked, instead of empathizing with me and quietly lending her liquid paper to me, she said, "What? Can you say that again?"

It's hard enough doing something completely unnatural, or maybe even counter-intuitive, which breaks my own moral fibre. The determination I needed to ask once was already ripping my conscience apart. To ask another time, however, was a bit too much for me. Besides, her apparent refusal to lend it to me sort of reminded me of my stance on liquid paper in schools. So instead of repeating myself, I just mumbled,"I'd rather die than ask for it again." As for as I could tell, she didn't hear the last comment, but I also knew that I wasn't going to be asking her for liquid paper again, at least in school.

So I have closed two eyes when it comes to certain occasions, and gotten myself into trouble. But we often find it easier when we justify it, or when we say that after ignoring the rules,"I feel better", or when we aren't the ones who are enforcing the rules. Rule breaking is often easy, especially when we don't understand the reason why rules are there in the first place. Rule enforcing, however, seems like a perpetual uphill task for the enforcers.

But seriously, if I were to close two eyes, and look the other way, there are serious implications for everyone involved. I'd get the berating of my life from the teachers, lose trust here and there, my classmates who choose to break the rules would get punished, etc.

Closing two eyes, while easy to do, isn't easy on the conscience. When we are entrusted to do something, we know we have to do it to the best of our ability, just as we would expect of someone who we entrusted to do something. Just as we would be furious at someone who betrayed our trust, we too, can expect a good toasting if we betray someone else's.

Not everyone is entrusted to carry out a task by a person. Representatives, regardless of status, are entrusted by the majority of an institution to represent them. The police is entrusted by the people to maintain law and order. The government is entrusted by the people to ensure national, personal and financial security, among other things. When we close two eyes and look the other way, forgetting our duties to those we are responsible to, we will find it exponentially harder to gain back their trust, for people find it easier to remember us by what they find amusing. Unusual. Bizarre. Then, when we require their help, we will find that it would be extremely hard to come by.

Not everyone is in the discipline business, but everyone's life is influenced by rules and discipline. Everyone has their own set of rules, regardless of what they do, who they work for or what they believe in. When we close two eyes and look the other way, we disrupt this fabric known as the peace of mind of other people. First it starts out small, then as it goes on, people get more and more daring. It might only be peace of mind initially, but it might grow to property damage, and might get even worse after that. Nip it in the bud, as some people would say. Once cut out early, the desire to go forth and do even more devious deeds normally goes away. Normally.

Sometimes, disciplining backfires. Instead of discouraging the culprit and others from doing the bad deed in question, it might only strengthen the resolve of the person in question and encourage interest in other people. So while we can't close two eyes and look the other way, we need to also ensure that our methods of disciplining don't backfire. Fighting fire with fire might not be the best idea in this case. A fine balance needs to be struck between retribution and rehabilitation.

Pulling wool over people's eyes

Every so often, we find ourselves having to lie to pull ourselves out of a potentially sticky situation. However, there are times when we find ourselves at the other end of the lie; we find that we have been lied to. Sometimes, it is just a white lie, lies which are used to avoid embarrassing the person lied to. Then of course there are times where the lies are designed to cover up our, or their, devious deeds. Then of course, there are the lies which are just told for the entertainment of those who know the truth. These lies, which border on practical jokes, while rare, have been seen in action twice during my brief tenure in Form 6. There have probably been more occasions, but I will only delve into two here.

First up was the big, long one. Two of my classmates, Chun Hwa and Shiau Sing, who share the same surnames, said they were cousins. I was sceptical, but as it seemed genuine, I just played along. I got really sceptical when one of their grandparents passed away this year, and only one of my two classmates disappeared, while the other one just kept coming to school. I swear I could smell something fishy was in the air, but like I said, as it seemed genuine, I did nothing to allay my doubts.

Unlike me, however, some of my classmates were utterly convinced that it was the truth. It probably had something to do with the fact that they had the same surname, for starters. Then, of course was the fact that Chun Hwa looked like the responsible type who seemed like he could never tell a lie (I nearly died typing this). I mean, would you consider a person who is the chairman of one of the more active associations in school untrustworthy? Considering his co-curricular activities and ability to persuade teachers, I thought he might be more trustworthy than he has shown himself to be.

On this particular situation, however, it took two to tango. Shiau Sing and Chun Hwa, both of them being jump students (read: skipped one year of primary education), looked (and still look) rather innocent (I almost died typing this as well) so it looked like they wouldn't lie about the truth. Of course, this was before I saw Chun Hwa in a different light. I can't talk about the details, as it "never happened", but ever since then, I knew that Chun Hwa was not as innocent as he was originally cut out to be. As for Shiau Sing, well, after sitting beside her for an entire year, I have found out that she is not as innocent as her face looks. As the saying goes, one should not judge a book by its cover.

Nevertheless, one fine day, when the two of them had had enough fun fooling around with the heads of 6A, they decided to let the cat out of the bag. So when the class finally reassembled, cries of Sonia going, "Chun Hwa, how could you?" were rampant. When I asked Chun Hwa himself as to the reason for the commotion, for I had not found out yet, he told me that he and Shiau Sing were not cousins. I smiled very broadly. I had been fooled to a certain extant, but I wasn't surprised at this outcome. Best to say that we should question everything we hear.

Now for the second round of wool pulling. The main characters this time round are Sonia and Wai Ling. But first, for some background information. Wai Ling, who is more diligent than most (myself included) was going for MPT 5&6 (read: prom night), a surprising decision for me, but then again, I am no great judge of people. Then there was talk as to who should be her escort, how she would look that night and the kind of things which girls talk about when they get together. In a Form 6 Bio class, where the boy-girl disparity is 1:3.5, hearing these kinds of things, even for guys, are normal.

So when talk of Wai Ling's escort started, Sonia decided to mess up the heads of everyone in 6A. She spun a tale that Wai Ling was going out with someone from next the door, the Physics class. The best part: Wai Ling played along. So she went and "tarik harga", saying she would refuse to tell us, and at the same time, Sonia would say that she did have a date. To make it look real, Sonia finally said that Wai Ling was going to go out with Yee Seng.

And, of course, Wai Ling played along. Rather than flatly denying it, as some people would, she just very gently pushed it aside. Then Jamie, who thought that Sonia was telling the truth all along, said that if Wai Ling wanted to keep it quiet, then Sonia shouldn't have blabed on her. I was surprised to say the least, and on this occasion, I left my guard down, assuming I had heard the truth. However, when one of my classmates went over to the Physics class to congratulate Yee Seng on his "catch", he just looked completely blurr. That was when it the truth started to come out, and when those who believed that Wai Ling was indeed going out with Yee Seng ended up in awkward positions.

Wai Ling did have an escort that night, or rather she escorted someone onto the stage that night; someone lucky from the Physics class, who ended up with two girls despite being in a predominantly male class (She and one of my other classmates did so, the other with someone from the History class. But that's another story). But the reason why Wai Ling's story seemed so credible was something similar to the first situation : Wai Ling's a jump student, and Sonia was Secretary to the Exco of the Prefect Board. Again we see a similar pattern: one "innocent", and one "trustworthy".

Sometimes, we tell lies because it is in our culture to do so: offending the host of any event is not the best thing to do on any occasion, and is generally frowned upon. However, trust and faith, gained through time, should not be misused to lie: practical jokes, no matter how funny they may seem then, often have very long and far reaching consequences. In the end, the boy who cried wolf ended up losing all his sheep.

But then again, some people have very good poker faces. Just goes to show one should question everything, and not judge a book by its cover.

Wandering eyes

The Internet is a big place. Every computer linked to the Internet has an IP, but what we see most of the time on our computers are not IPs, but are websites. Some websites are easier to design than others, especially, if there is already a generic template for them. This is especially true for forums and blogs. However, most of the information on the Internet is rubbish, and it takes a while for us to sift through the rubbish and find the real gems. Not if you do know where they are...

The Prefect Board of USJ 12 for the term 2005/2006 was well known for one thing - digitilisation. So much so that most of the Cabinet members (now called exco) had started their own blogs after they left school. They had their own blogs until recently, when they combined all their blogs and contacts, forming one big blog with many contributors entitled "Ourcoffeestops". (URL: http://ourcoffeestops.com/)

You may go there yourself, but it used to be (and still is) one of my more informative stops when I surf the Net. It helped me keep abreast with what I was missing out by doing Form 6, as well as figure out what the more prominent members of my Form 5 batch are doing. Reading posts is one thing, but until recently, I had yet to read the writers' profiles. I have to say, some of the information I read was totally unexpected.

For starters, there was Ying Wei and Chirstopher's comment on his comment. For the record, they are "Despite his good photography skills, nice voice, handsome countenance (I nearly died typing this), he’s still wondering why life has been so unfair to him: He’s still single.". Well, not to say that Mr. Siah is not handsome (I don't know, I normally don't look at guys and judge whether they are handsome or not), but I would think it prudent to let the ladies decide for a change. I know, Chris had a lot of fans in school, and as such he could be in a good position to determine whether a guy is good looking or not, but I really feel that they should have let the ladies decide, or let one of the female contributers of Ourcoffeestops write that comment instead.

Then of course, is Chris' comment on his comment. that "I nearly died typing this". As if I did not spray enough spit on the screen when I read Chris' comment on Ying Wei, I sprayed even more spit when I read that. Not that I wouldn't nearly die doing the same thing, I just think I would die writing that any other guy is handsome. I am heterosexual, thank you very much, and very conservative while we are at it, so for me to say that another guy is handsome just feels completely alien to me.

Speaking of female contributors to Ourcoffeestops, it was not so much one of them who caught my eye, but more of where she studied. Irna is, if I am not mistaken, ethnically Malay, so when I read that she was studying at Methodist College Kuala Lumpur (MCKL)...let's just say that my eyeballs nearly rolled onto the floor. I myself am a Methodist, and I don't go to MCKL. One of the other contributors of Ourcoffeestops is a Methodist as well, and he doesn't go to MCKL either. And we both would have gotten discounts if we had decided to enroll there.

What really had me surprised was the fact that MCKL is run by the Methodist Church, a Christian denomination, and there, a Muslim was studying, while a great number of Methodists, who enjoy discounts if they decide to enroll there, decide instead to got to private colleges, or in my case, Form 6. As we all know, evangelising to Muslims in Malaysia is banned, so when you see a Muslim in a Christian college, it really gets one thinking. Maybe we aren't that backward after all. Maybe there is still hope for everyone to get a good education regardless of who is teaching.

But then again, there are a few factors which may allow Irna to pursue her education there without JAWI coming down on her. Firstly, she is a Singaporean, so I guess she is not as racially polarised as Malaysians are. Then, maybe because she is Singaporean, JAWI may not have any say over her education, so maybe she could get away with it. And then she is probably more religiously tolerant the most Malaysians...so much for us Malaysians being the most racially or/and religiously harmonious people on Earth.

Unlike Malaysians, Singaporeans are Singaporeans first, then Chinese/Malay/Indian second. Although there are many things we can learn from Singapore in terms of racial integration, there are certain aspects of Singaporean life we can do without, such as labeling of people, from "super-spreaders", used during the SARS outbreak, to "normal stream students", referring to students who do their secondary education in five years instead of four.

The Internet is wide, with a vast amount of information. Sometimes our wandering eyes find something we laugh at, other times, we find something we didn't already know, or something which really catches us off guard. It is up to us to find the gems, and savor the sight while we are there, before going back to the daily grind of life.

In his eyes'

Homosexuality is now becoming more and more rampant these days. On top of that, it is also becoming more accepted as well. This is not helped by laws allowing same sex marriage or religious leaders who are homosexuals. Celebrities who lend a hand or their name to these causes are also not doing common sense any good either.

One fine day, I had a conversation with one of my classmates. He said that we should accept homosexuals for who they are. I flatly objected to this. He then went on to say that this was the way they were born, that they could be that way because of their genetic disposition and that different people have different dispositions. I then went on to say that God created man and wife, Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. I then appealed to him through science - if everyone was a homosexual, there would be no more humans left on the planet. To this, his only defence was , "No-lah, you can't say that," on top of asking me to open my mind.

For some purpose or other, there are male and female people on this planet. Any biologist would tell you that while sexual reproduction is less productive than asexual reproduction, sexual production generates new genetic recombinations, allowing a species to survive in adverse conditions. So instead of people just splitting into two when we need offspring, our Creator decided instead that two people were needed for any progeny to be formed.

But there's a catch - the two adult individuals have to be of different sex. So from a biologist's point of view, homosexual behaviour is non-beneficial because it inhibits variation, preventing the creation of new traits which may be transferred to the next generation.

Like I mentioned earlier, if everyone was a homosexual, there would be no more people left on Earth. This is due to the fact that we need people of different sex for procreation. Even homosexuals themselves are from parents of differing sexes. Then, where would this leave the human population? If we just fulfill our own personal desires for lust (of people of the same sex) then what about the more important aspect of the survival of our species, Homo sapiens? No male can have children with another male, and the same too applies for females, naturally born males and females, that is.

And what about when we see our Creator, what will He say? After creating male and female people in this world, and showing to us, through the animals and plants that males are supposed to mate with females, not males with males or females with females, we blatantly object to His Will and do whatever we like? Shouldn't we be thankful that we are alive today, that we are of one sex or another, and that all our sexual organs are functioning properly and that we know which sex we belong to? Why then should we go against His Will, and do something blasphemous, unnatural and impure?

And then there is this statement which needs countering : Everything in life is right, its just a matter of perspective that makes it right or wrong. We need to listen and accept other people's perspective, even if we think they are in the wrong. Well, for starters, if everything was matter of perspective, then it would be alright to do anything we wished, even stealing or bribing? Or having as many wifes as we want? Sure, when it comes to certain things in life, such as culture, we learn to listen to and accept other people's culture, but that does not mean that we must do so in everything we do.

Contrary to common belief, there is right and wrong. And homosexuality is wrong. If we were to just write it off as a matter of differences in opinion, then this sort of argument would expand beyond homosexuality. In fact, it has already done so : in Los Angeles, if I am not mistaken, there is now a petition to make prostitution legal. What's next? Legalised drug abuse? People who are allowed to fulfill whatever whims and fancies they have, even though they may be unthinkable now? All because, we have differences in opinion?

Laws are set for people to have certain things in life, certain things which money cannot buy : peace of mind, security and fairness. Take the numerous reasons why prostitution is illegal, for example : who's going to take care of all the babies who are born? Is the state going to pay for all of them? What about the families which are broken up by men or women with wandering eyes? Thus, we have laws prohibiting prostitution, to avert all of these problems.

In my classmates eyes', homosexuality is okay, as the individual might be made that way. However, when we consider the consequences of making homosexuality legal, maybe it is not such a bright idea after all - it could be the start of a new form of moral decay : Legalised Moral Decay.

(Writer's note : It has come to my attention that it is possible for homosexuals to reproduce, albeit only lesbians. The technology exists to fuse two ovums together. However, that would mean no more men, and this is still unnatural.)

In My Cousins' Eyes

"Only stupid people do medicine," I said.

Ok, before, you spay spit all over your computer screen, let me clear a few things up. First, I actually, said that. Secondly, no, I have not lost my marbles, and thirdly, I've got to put that statement into context.

As I said earlier, I did actually say those words. It was during a family dinner. But, like I said, those words were taken out of context. Now let me put the words back into context.

N.B. : The names of the people below are from my perspective.

Cousin 1 : You stay in an apartment?
Brother : Yes.
Cousin 2 : Who else stays with you?
Brother : Three other girls.
Aunt : What are they doing?
Brother : Medicine
Cousin 1 : Are they smart?
Me : No, only stupid people do medicine

Now you get the whole picture. Of course, it is at this point where things really get amusing, and where I get a chance to display my cousins stupidity.

Before, I do so, however, let me relate to you what subsequently happened. Firstly, my cousins "wisely" misconstrued it as me saying that people who take up medicine as a profession are stupid. They then attempted to share their "wisdom" with their father, who was seated at another table, along with all the other adults. Unable to get their father's attention, they just proceeded to make noise about it round the table we were on. The commotion they caused gained my mother's attention.

So my mother, requesting an explanation for all the commotion, asked me. And I repeated the phrase,"Only stupid people do medicine", but along with the question preceding it. Then, my cousins said, "He said it again!" gleefully, in an attempt to gain attention. They also tried to say that I was implying that my father was stupid as my father is a doctor. Finally, all the commotion ended with my uncle, my cousins' father, saying that it was all a bunch of "kid talk".
Here's where my fun begins.

Sarcasm sort of runs in the family. Except during certain situations where a hard and fast answer is required, a normally sarcastic response would do the trick better. More caustic responses are also generally the norm when the family is just chit chatting. When the chit chat turns to nonsense, the sarcasm level fly through the roof, and the whole family gets really creative. Sure, there are some people who are non-adherents to this sort of this discussion (my brother, for instance) but the ability to be sarcastic is generally thought to be the norm in my family. As such, the ability to interpret sarcasm is also thought to be the norm.

At least it used to be. After that day, I don't know whether they were unable to interpret sarcasm, which makes them idiots, or were just too thick to notice that it was sarcasm, which makes them plain stupid. However, further interactions with them have shown me that they do understand sarcasm, so their behaviour in that situation, to ignore the sarcasm, was plain stupidity. I'll explain why.

Firstly, most normal people would be able to notice the sarcasm. I myself want to be a doctor, and it is common knowledge that top grades are needed for one to enter any medical program. Failure to do so would mean that either one was naive, or that one just refused to interpret the statement in the situation, which as I said earlier, makes the person stupid.

Secondly, even if I did not mean any sarcasm, only a more foolish person than me would listen to what I said and take my statement as the truth, or as a reflection of my opinion. As some people would say, "Who is stupider; the fool who says something foolish or the fool who follows him?" Of course my cousins would say that the fool is more foolish, but for a person to get fooled by a fool, means that the person in question is more gullible, or more foolish, than the fool.

Finally, they tried to turn the joke on me. Sarcasm often makes people who appreciate it laugh, but some people would attempt to turn the joke on the person who cracked it in the first place. It is one thing to not notice sarcasm; another to attempt to use it in a counterattack. In this case, it backfired. Sure, my cousins had a good time laughing, and I had a horrid time thinking about what my father would say (in the end, he said nothing of it), but one wonders whether they knew the joke was on their inability to not notice sarcasm, or just their plain stupidity.

In my cousins' eyes, my statement was something of a warcry : a chance to defame me, there and then and possibly, in the future, especially if I eventually take up medicine. However, their attempt backfired, and I am sure that I will use their next attempt to do me in to do them in instead.

In My Sister's Eyes.

"So lucky you," my sister said when she found out I had three days off for Deepavali. This was not the first time I had heard the phrase, as she had said those same words when she found out that I was off for PMR week. On this side, however, I was thinking exactly the opposite thing, as I wanted to go back to school.

For my sister, holidays meant no school. One could get up whenever one liked, do work whenever one liked, and sleep whenever one liked. There would be no homework to do from school, no rush to make sure that one is on time for school and there would be access to the television, ASTRO and potentially the computer.

For her, there was nothing more fun than no school. It meant freedom from the system, to do anything one wanted. Sure, it meant no seeing friends and the like, but what can be more fun than just relaxing the whole day for an eight year old?

On top of all this, she hadn't had the entire UPSR week off, unlike me, who had the entire PMR week, plus an extra day. Chinese medium school typically take the ninth day of Chinese New Year or the fifteenth day of Chinese New Year and the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month off (Ninth day of Chinese New Year : Bai Tien Gong, or Birthday of the Jade Emperor. Fifteenth day of Chinese New Year : Chap Goh Mei. Fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month : Mooncake Festival). Thus, she had already had had her days off, but three days at once is nothing like three days by themselves. A stretch meant that the argument for more privileges is stronger, as one may say that the day when one has to return to school is much later, and thus, the number of days one may get distracted may be increased.

For me, however, I just wanted to go back to school. Form 6, as it already is, is hard enough. I can study at home, but in school, there are teachers who can (and normally do) teach something new. Then, there are my classmates, who remind me of the need to study. Going to school meant that I would gain knowledge about something I didn't already have knowledge about, improve my technique when it comes to answering questions and also allow me to practise what I already knew. Unlike what I should be doing, I don't practise much at home, so when there are "small tests" at school, STPM conditions are stimulated : the type of questions, the environment, the time pressure. Everything. Well, almost everything.

Then, of course, is the fact that I had already taken too many days off. There was the PMR week (as I mentioned earlier) and a week before that, there was the mid-term break. Then there was my Deepavali holiday. If you ask me, there were just too many holidays, too close to the exam. I wanted to go back to school to practise, to learn, maybe pick up some tips along the way. Unlike most people, I don't go for tuition at all. As such, the school is the only place I get my formal education, and my only source of STPM compliant questions.

Even amongst my friends who do go for tuition, the common consensus was that they wanted to go back to school instead of just studying at home. We could practice doing biology questions in school, discuss past year chemistry papers in school and practice doing maths in school. My batch is on the small side, so the dynamics might be different, but so far, the attendance has been good, due partly to the fact that something is done in school and that there is a computer in the class which is more often than not, misused.

Now, however, attendance is no longer taken (we are considered on study leave), so I expect that the number of Upper Sixers going to school will drop accordingly. I still hope that some people turn up, but from my experience of group study, more often that not, the studying will be everything but that in the STPM syllabus. Probably with fewer people, I will finally find the nerve to ask my teachers some questions and get some answers , without having to fight with my classmates for time.

But I digress. Going back to the original topic, I think it is really up to one's view when one thinks about holidays. In my sister's eyes, it is a chance to rest and relax, with academic pursuits put away temporarily. In most of the average student's eyes, it is a chance to study, unhindered by the wants of their teachers. In my eyes and those of a select few, however, holidays are a hindrance for further learning.

Second block

First block, done (finally)

Now is to make time to do half a dozen...

By the way the second block is : Eyes

Enjoy

Part of Their World

All my life, I have been attempting to break into cliques. Maybe not so much in primary school, where I had a regular group of friends. But once I stepped into secondary school, I found myself breaking into one clique, and then another. Eventually, I found my own clique, but as it was not in all the activities I was involved in, I still had to break into cliques. That was for starters, for cliques are everywhere, even in church.

For once, my church decided to have its end of year camp concurrent with the YLDP, a camp held at the national level (not including East Malaysia). This resulted in me being the only person who went to YLDP from my church, so I found myself breaking into cliques. Eventually I found one, but I have to say, everyone sticks with their own cliques at the start of camp and dissociates to their own cliques at the end of camp. So I resorted to doing a Hari Seldon : watch people, observe group dynamics and figure out how to derive an equation from there. I have been doing that every time I find myself with nothing to do nowadays.

Going back to school, my own clique was broken up after SPM. One went to Matrikulasi, one to A-levels, one to UTAR and of course one to Form 6. Speaking of Form 6, I find myself having to break into cliques, again. Only this time, I failed to do so early enough, or rather mixed with the group which left. Thus, I went back to my old practice of observing people. However, when you are a Sixth Former who volunteers to be on the Editorial Board, you don't have much time. Needless to say, I don't miss having clique.

Except when it comes to class discussions.

Finding myself on the outside again is disheartening, to say the least. It gets even more annoying when people say you are eavesdropping conversations conducted in "plain sight". If one converses about something potentially sensitive in an open space with people who have clearance to be there, they have the privilege of hearing everything said, whether one consents to it or not. Only conversations held behind closed doors are private, and anyone who eavesdrops is violating your privacy. To have people say "Nothing!" or "Ta tou ting" (he's eavesdropping) makes me cringe. Worse than that, to find people changing their dialect of choice to ensure I don't find out what they are saying makes my blood boil. What bothers me is not how much I don't know, its when I find out.

To find you are right at the end of the grapevine since you don't associate with the right people at the right time or because you are not "cool" enough might not be a familiar concept to many people. I mean, how many ends of a grapevine can there be? Being kept out of conversations intentionally, finding out when the entire class already knows and finding one's head trodden over is not something one expects to getting used to. I have found it annoying, to say the least. One might suggest breaking into the cliques, again, but with Form 6 ending it really does not matter that much. Besides, these are cliques we are talking about, and the one common denominator of cliques is that they don't let anyone in, no matter how hard he or he tries.

I only ever wanted to be in the know, or maybe form part of their world. School isn't only about academic excellence and co-curricular activities - its where we network, learn about people and learn social skills. One might say STPM is "Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia" not "Sijil Tinggi Persembangan Malaysia", but the fact is, all humans, regardless of academic capability, need some form of social life.

Obviously, people keep knowledge to themselves - and their friends - and for good reason too. Some things are just too sensitive out in the open, and one wants to have a hand in when letting people in on these things. Besides, knowledge is power. But it hurts when the people you treat as friends, don't return the favour. I found out the hard way about friends and acquaintances. Don't ask how, the other party was thoughtful enough to keep it discreet, but from that day on, I kept a running list of friends, acquaintances and those who I think consider friends but who I hope consider me a friend. I have to say it is more wishful thinking than anything else. Friendship is a two way thing. Maybe I should rephrase that : Relationships are two way things. As such, I have a small group of friends, as few reciprocate, but many, many acquaintances. Trouble is figuring out who considers me their friend, and who their acquaintance.

I always considered my classmates my friends. This was even when my class was big, 40-odd. Even when I join any institution which is starting up, with no previous associations, I still do so. Call it an old habit. Now imagine that after bonding for a year, considering them friends not because you are in the same class, but because you have gotten to know these people and then, find yourself being shut out from a conversation.

Again and again.

And when you do try to listen in, they point fingers and yell "Eavesdropper!".

Or change the topic.

Or use a different dialect.

All on purpose, obviously.

To keep you out of the know.

Because you aren't part of their clique.

Even though you consider them friends.

I get this feeling I'm betrayed every time this happens. When the people you trust to entrust you with information refuse to do so, and instead entrust others with the information you seek it, it hurts. As trust is reciprocal, how then do I know who to trust my secrets with? I know no one who will keep their mouths shut, but I know many who will blab whatever secrets I tell them the second they find out.

Well, I guess "You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find, you get what you need."

What I need, I already have. As to what my traitorous, trust-destroying, cliquish, ungrateful "friends" need....well let's just say that they should have seen it coming.

*The writer would like to inform that this applies to all people who either intentionally or unintentionally keep him out of the know. Rest be assured, when your time comes to get...err..cooked, you will be as I like my steak - well done.

Out of This World.

There is a fictional series based on the book of Revelations in the Bible. The series is called Left Behind. Apparently there are seven books, and there have been three movies. The writer of the series is currently having a dispute with the producers of the movies, so the forth one has not come out yet, but that's not the purpose of this post.

As I said before, the movies are based on the book of Revelations, which chronicles the Armageddon and the second coming of Christ. Here's the best part : The third movie, Left Behind : World At War was shown on AXN. Uncensored. I'm serious.

When I first saw the advertisements for the movie on AXN, I thought it would be an action packed show, with lots of action. When I finally got around to seeing it, I wasn't disappointed, until I got to the point where a number of protagonists were having a Christian marriage in a run-down church, reciting verses from the Bible more times than I have seen on national television in my entire life.

I thought they were using it just as a front, or as a storytelling tool, but as every time religion is used as a storytelling tool, the results are not pretty, I begun to be unimpressed. I just kept watching to find out what the movie producers' intentions were, but then it turned out they were trying to evangelise after all. Who uses verses of the Bible so generously and tries to convert the President of the United Sates if the use of religion is only as a storytelling tool?

But the most impressive part was that the Censorship Board missed the whole load of it. Why? This movie was designed to evangelise, and evangelising to Muslims in the country is banned. Needless to say, everyone with ASTRO has AXN and at least half those people are Muslims. Looks like the once mighty Censorship Board is either getting sloppy or the message was just so out of this world they could not get a hold of it.

Going back to the movie, (Warning : Spoilers ahead) it chronicles the arrival of the antichrist, who tried ( with respect to the movie) to overtake the world. The US president, UK Prime Minister and Egypt President, realising what he was up to, decided to overthrow him. However, their plan failed as the antichrist managed to get hold of their plans and attack them first. Thus, chaos erupts and World War 3 starts.

At the same time it also chronicles the lives of two newly wed couples, one elderly and one not so elderly, the groom of the elderly one being the father of the bride of the younger one. Then, the members of the underground churches start falling ill. The bride of the younger couple goes to help the sick, but ends up ill as well. The preacher who wedded them is ill as well.

Meanwhile, the President of the US manages to track down the groom of the younger couple, and starts to confer with him. The President then finds out that the people are getting sick due to Bibles poisoned with a toxin before being shipped out. The groom has a hard time deciding whether to stay or help his wife, and decides to pray to figure out which decision to make. He then decides to stay. The older couple then go to see their dying daughter.

The groom of the younger bride then goes to see the President, evangelise to him, and convert him. The President then decides to blow apart the antichrist's base of operations, and at the same time, the rest of the family find out that red wine was the cure to the toxin in the Bibles, but not before the preacher succumbed to the disease.

Obviously, certain events and characters were not included in this synopsis of the movie, but you get the general picture. Few movies show the evangelising of people, or of praying in groups or of the usage of Holy Communion more vividly, or more accurately than this movie.

Speaking of Holy Communion, on the surface, in the movie it is used to heal people who are infected with the toxin. In real life, it represents the blood of Chirist, which washes away all the sins of the world. So there is probably more to this movie than just what's on the surface.

Watching the movie was an out of this world experience. Why? How many movies do you see that portray Christianity in a good light? Or which take excerpts form the Bible and use them accurately? Or slip under the Censorship Board's noses when it clearly breaks all the rules they have set? Few, but I know that if I am requested to suggest a movie for evangelistic purposes, I know one which will go down well with the audience.

Things of This World

Everyday, we work. It does not make any difference whether we are studying or are working for a boss, we are working towards a goal. And our goal is : to make money. Of course, we need money - that cannot be denied. Money is a medium of exchange to every person : even though it is only just a piece of paper, made such that it is hard to duplicate. However, sometimes, even the best of us get our priorities wrong. We store up on things of this world, as if there is no tomorrow.

Don't get me wrong. There is a need to make sure we have enough food, water, clothes and other creature comforts, but more than that, we should not only focus on things of this world. Let me give you three reasons.

Firstly, we can take nothing out of this world. As we came into this world, so, too, shall we leave it : taking nothing with us. No matter what we do, everything of this world will stay here. People have tried to take things out of this world when they die. However, no one has succeeded so far. The artifacts in tombs of ancient civilisations is a testament to this.

Secondly, things of this world are temporary. Metals oxidise and lose their glitter. Diamonds, the metastable (unstable) form of carbon, slowly change to graphite over millions of years. Cloths and other good looking organic based materials do not last forever, as they can be damaged by the weather, pests and other insidious agents. Thieves may come in the night and steal our belongings.

Another reason why we should not worry too much about the things of this world is that we won't be judged by our wealth, but by our riches in heaven. No amount of wealth is going to buy us a place in heaven, especially if we have not been faithful to God in life. Wealth is a legal human desire, but it should not be a goal. We need to look beyond this life for a goal. If our goal were to make as much money as we could, we would never be happy as we would be forever poorer than someone else.

Instead, we should focus on the things of the next world, and store up our treasures in heaven. There, moths, rust and other free radical reactions do not destroy and the thief cannot steal. Our treasure there is always there, and is one of the things which we may take with us out of this world.

In our rat race, whatever and wherever we may be, we should not forget to keep our eyes on the bigger picture : God.

A World of Our Own

The USJ area has a number of secondary schools. The schools are, in no particular order, Seafield, USJ 4, 8, 12, 13 and 22. Assuming there are 200 students in every graduating class of Form 5, that would be 1200 students. Of course, there are a lot more than that, but then again, I don't have the student breakdown of all the schools. Nevertheless, out of this 1200 odd-students only 79 are currently finishing their Form 6. Assuming half of the people have about as much chance as getting into Matrikulasi as they do of striking Berjaya Toto's 4D first prize once in their lifetime (I know I am making a lot of assumptions, but please bear with me), that would mean that 2 out of 15 people went to Form 6. Needless to say, we are an extremely small proportion of the number of students who did SPM in our year.

While most of our peers are busy wondering what to wear each day, we have no choice : uniforms, just that we get to pull off our old tricks, again. But being in Form 6 does not only mean that your wardrobe is not shown to your fellow classmates daily, it also means that we miss out on a lot of other things which people who go to college pick up. For starters, cocurricular activities. In Form 6, just like in school, even if we hold positions, we have a teacher or two watching our backs all the time to ensure we don't mess up, or that if we do, we don't mess up too badly. In college, however, as I understand it, we are on our own whenever we plan or execute any activity.

Another thing we miss out on : the freedom to go wherever we like and to leave whenever we want to. Sixth Formers might be above the age of 17, but that does not mean that we are not bound by certain school rules, such as the restriction against handphones (depending on which school you get sent to) and the freedom to leave and arrive whenever we like (especially when we know the teacher is not around).

Just as we miss out on independence, we also miss out on a lot of responsibility. As I mentioned earlier, our cocurricular activities are still overseen by teachers, and rather stringently, while I am at it. Other things such as the responsibility to use facilities such as the Internet provided by a college responsibly or to make sure we pay our rent on time are also taken out from our hands, mainly because most people who do Form 6 are either in normal schools, or are boarders, while there is no Internet in school.

But the one thing we miss out most on is social interaction with our peers who go to college. Most of the "happening" and/or "cool" people go to college. Conversely, the opposite is also true : Most "happening" and/or "cool" people do not go to Form 6. To ensure I do not infuriate anyone more than I already have, I shall just say that these people are highly connected socially. As I mentioned earlier, only a small minority of the people who do SPM do do Form 6. As such, it is hard to keep track of your contacts, especially if you don't have any reason to interact with them on a regular basis. You might even say that we live in a world of our own.

As the number of people who go into college is more than those who go into Form 6, the probability a college student ends up in the proximity of someone who is highly connected socially and who considers the person in question worthy of receiving information is relatively high compared to a Sixth Former. This probability is also directly proportional to the size of your last major clique in Form 5 - the larger your clique, the higher the probability of you ending up in the know. So if you have a small clique, are not close to the people who are in the know and end up in Form 6, with none of your clique members with you (like yours truly) you truly end up living in a world of your own. Contrast this to if you were in college : if there was a reunion, and someone in the college found out, there is a higher probability you would find out too as there are more people in college and the probability that someone finds out and considers you worthy of receiving such information would also be higher.

This is not to say that Sixth Formers do not interact with our contemporaries who are not doing Form 6 at all. In fact, some people do Form 6 and are still able to end up in the know. However, like I said earlier, this all depends on the size of your last clique.

Form 6 is like living in a small world of your own - most of your contemporaries won't go there, you won't be exposed to the big, wide world and are still protected by your teachers. However, this does not mean one will lose touch with one's peers if one does Form 6 - with the advancement of modern technologies, your friend is just a click/call/SMS/MMS away.

Now if someone would keep me in the know....

Our World

We live on an planet which we cannot leave. Sure, astronauts have left the gravitational pull of the plant Earth, but for the general public, we will never get to leave this planet. Even if we could, we would be unable to go to another planet which would be able to sustain life - at least not in this lifetime. Interstellar travel is a very slow business and would take hundreds of years before we reach the next star, and maybe even longer before we reach the next habitable planet. Therefore we should take care of this Earth which we already have.

We can start by reducing our consumption of unnecessary items. This not only means that we buy less, but it also means that we should also prevent wastage. For example, food taken at a buffet should not be thrown away, unless of course, it is unedible. On top of that, simple things such as turning off electrical appliances when not in use, instead of leaving them on standby should also be practised. Contrary to common belief, an electrical appliance still uses energy even when it is not turned on. Another way to reduce our consumption of electricity would thus be to unplug items which are not in use.

Another way to reduce consumption would be to repair old items. Rather than junking them as soon as they wear out, when replacing certain pats of these items would enable the item in question to function well again, we should instead endeavor to repair these items. These items can be anything from shoes, bags, vehicles, and you guessed it, electrical appliances. Reducing consumption can also be done by not buying new items when the current ones still work fine, and by buying more energy efficient items.

Reusing is another way we can cut down on the amount of waste we produce. An industry's output is dependent on consumer demand. The more we buy, the more they make. This causes consumption of energy. Thus, by reusing, we will cut down our demand, and they in turn will reduce their output, reducing the consumption of resources and energy. Plastic bags can be used to pack rubbish, water bottles, refilled and reused, and clothes which have seen better days can be used as rags. On top of all this, the usage of reusable products such as tiffin carriers, tupperware, thermos flasks and melamine boxes (yes, melamine. It doesn't leach into food or drink) should be increased.

Last but not least, is recycling. It used to be my favourite, but recycling is less energy saving than the others. It reduces the amount of energy used to make new items, but if there is no need to get any new items, than there would be a greater reduction in consumption of energy. Either way, recycling is better than just throwing our rubbish into the landfill. While sending our recyclables to a centre might be troublesome to most of us, most of our sanitary engineers (read : pengutip sampah) are more than willing to go through our rubbish to get some extra income. Separating our rubbish will enable them to get all the recycleables possible, and reduce the amount of rubbish we send to the landfills.

We need to rethink the way we do things in life. Practising sustainable development and keeping our carbon footprint small needs to take priority in our lives. Otherwise, living in a landfilll may be the next big thing in housing development in the future.

Worlds Apart

The STPM trial results are out. Well, at least for SMK Seafield. Do you hear the moaning and sighing? You probably can't but to give you an idea of how bad we fared this time round, only one "A" was awarded between the subjects Mathemathics T, chemistry, biology and, as far as my sources can tell, physics.

One "A" for four subjects. Not one "A" per subject, one "A" for four. And, no, yours truly is not the lucky person with that "A". I am on course for 4 "A-". Now how sad is that? (Editor's note : At the time of writing, my complete results were not known. However, at the time of posting, my results were out, and I did get 4"A-". Hooray?)

The results are making every Upper Sixer worth his or her salt to sweat, panic and really start studying. Needless to say, the results we will get for STPM or even for pra-STPM will be better than this. The only thing I found amusing about this entire affair were not the results I was getting, but the way these results were obtained. Confused? Let me paint you a picture.

A person's results in an exam are almost always proportional to the amount of revising, practising and study one does before an exam. As I failed to do a lot of all three, my results were, to me at least, depressing but not surprising. However, the manner in which I found out the results of the other Upper Sixers was, as I said earlier, pretty amusing.

After receiving my bio results on Friday, I proceeded to dig up what the class knew about the general results of the Upper Sixers. The following conversation ensued.

Me : How many people got "A" for Maths?

Jamie : Three people, I thought. You, Ya-Pei, Rong Gen.

Me : No, I thought Miss Goh said that no one got an "A"?

Jamie : But you three still got "A-".

Me : I mean an "A", not an "A-".

We repeated the same process for biology, chemistry and physics. Every time I asked, I was talking about "A"s, while Jamie was talking about "A"s and "A-"s. Jen Chong, who was also listening in, also understood my "A"s as, well, "A"s. Towards the end, he gave a suggestion to end the ambiguity : 4.00. Nevertheless, the confusion between whether "A"s mean "A"s only or "A"s and "A-"s continued. This is not the first time. And all things considered, this will not be the last.

When I did my SPM, I would debate with my parents for hours on whether a "2A" was considered an "A" or not. From that experience, I always considered "A"s to be the plain vanilla "A" - no minus, whether single, double or triple. As for "A+", that's another story. However, when we consider "A"s as "A-"s and "A"s differs with the situation we are in. In my case in Form 5, others were getting "1A"s while I was only getting "2A"s. So to console myself and my parents over my failure to match others in their number of 1As, and in an effort to salvage my pride, I would say that a "2A" is an "A" nonetheless. In my current situation now, barely anyone has an "A", while I have a lot of "A-"s, so an "A" to me is the plain vanilla one, as I feel no shame in admitting so. As for Jamie's case, she is within striking distance of an "A", so to her, any "A" would do, regardless of the mathematical sign behind it.

The fact is an "A" is a plain vanilla "A". When people talk about "A"s, they want top grades, not some half-decent , semi-proficient grade. We change the goalposts when it comes to what is considered an "A" because of our pride. We don't want to be seen as inferior, or as unable to be able to score an "A", or as a waste of our teachers' time. We want to salvage our pride, show that we have done something, even if it is not the result we want, at least we are within striking distance.

But the fact remains that "A"s and "A-"s are worlds apart. An "A", as anyone who is familiar with the GPA system would tell you, would say it is worth 4.00, while an "A-" is only worth 3.66. In the quest for a place in the public universities of Malaysia, not only do Sixth Formers have to contend with the most idiotic placement system in the world, we also have to face competition from Matrikulasi students and other Sixth Formers. 4"A"s are worth 4.00. 3"A"s and an "A-" are worth 3.92. In the competition for places in public universities, that is a gap few can afford, especially if one is going for "critical programs".

The goalposts for what is considered an "A" and what is not will continue to change. Different people will continue to have different ideas on what "A"s are and how important they are. The quest for "A"s, in all their forms, will continue. However, one thing will remain the same. "A"s are worlds apart from "A-"s. One is a sign of excellence. The other is only a cheap imitation.

Worlds Collide

Most people in the Subang Jaya area pursue tertiary education after finishing Form Five. The main question, however, is where we go. Most people go to private colleges for their pre-U education, but some, like yours truly, went (and at the time of writing, still go to) to Form 6.

My batch is a relatively small batch. The competition between the biology class (6A) and the physics class (6B) for top marks is fierce, but I can't say the same for the social science classes, for we do not share the same subjects. Ok, maybe it is just two people (you know who we are) but both classes are always curious as to how well the other class fared. Nevertheless, as there are only 39 people in both classes put together, news spreads fast, and even social misfits like yours truly are able to get hold of the news. Maybe not everything circulating around, but that's another story.

So was the case when Ya-Pei's father passed away. I believe the information I received was third or fourth hand, but it does come around. So, as always, the two classes bonded together as they normally do when something like this happens. Plans are drafted up, collections are carried out (with a tin labelled "Derma untuk Kematian Pelajar 6B. If the situation was not so serious, everyone would have been laughing) and those on either side who needed comfort found it from one another. Like any decent person, I turned up at Ya-Pei's house. Not that I knew the father but my main purpose being there was to comfort the living.

Of course, I was not the only person with the same idea. So I found out when a classmate of mine was turning up (who wants to gatecrash alone?) and showed up at the same time. After the wake and subsequently after paying my respects, I proceeded to chit chat with a couple of my old schoolmates, after they were updated by Ya-Pei herself. I hung behind to watch and bid my time.

When Ya-Pei was done, she called my current schoolmates over. To me the group looked completely recognisable, minus one who I had not seen before. However, to my current and past schoolmates, this was the first time they were seeing each other as they were complete strangers.

For me, personally, it was as though my worlds had collided. One being the world I had come to know of as USJ 12, where I spent 5 years and made quite a number of friendships there. The other was of course, Seafield, where I am due to spend two plus more months there before leaving secondary school for good. I had always wondered how my two worlds would collide, but I had never considered it would have been during a funeral.

As in all planetary collisions, sparks fly. New planetary fragments form, asteroids leave and there is a big release of energy. For those of us who were meeting the first time, we formed new connections, found common ground and talked. For those of us who were old friends, we caught up on what we had lost out while "in the wilderness", found out how green the grass is on the other side, and reconnected. However, like all planetary collisions, it was brief. Nevertheless, I wonder what would happen the next time two of my worlds collide - it might not be USJ 12 and Seafield.

First Block

Posts here are by the week (hopefully) and are themed.

First Block : Worlds

Enjoy

First Up

To whoever it may concern :

By some accident or other, you have stumbled upon this blog. Maybe you don't know how you got here, or what you are doing here, but if you want to come here, then I guess you are in the right place.

If you intend to keep reading, regardless of whether this is the place you were looking for or not, there are a few things you should know:

1. This blog will get updated once a week at most. Well, at least until further notice. I might have to disappear for certain periods of time, but you will know when.

2. The entries are long, so take them one a day. Here, tl;dr stands for "Too long?;Do read".

3. Most of the posts here will be my thoughts, so I will not be chronicling my entire life here. Sorry, but there won't be many photos either. However, depending on what happens in life, I may use real life events as illustrations.

4. Hopefully I won't thread on any toes. If I do, let me know.

Here's to a long and prosperous blog.