Reminder to myself

Dear Myself,

this coming year do attempt to finally learn and remember that:

August comes after July and is therefore the 8th and not the 9th month.

National day is on 9th of August and therefore 09/08/xxxx

Do remember that September comes after August and before October, therefore is the 9th month.

Your bro's birthday therefore is in the 10th month - October, which comes before November.

Remember - Sep = 9th month, Oct = 10th month.

Do try not to ask your friends or family next year the following 2 questions,

"Which comes first, Sep or Oct?" and

"Which month is the 10th month?"

And Yes, your passport expires in October, the 10th month. Your bro's birthday is in the 10th month!

Botanic Gardens - National Orchid Garden

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I finally went to the Botanic Gardens. Two hours there is NOT enough. I didn't even manage to make it through the National Orchid Garden. Looking at the flowers just made my day. The happiness level was high enough to last me through the concert. Not that performing in the concert was depressingly, but I was high. Without sugar too. haha

Flowers are idiot-proof photogenic subjects.

Old Photos

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I've got a new three-in-one printer, a scanner/photocopier/printer!
It was so fun, I scanned some of my favourite old photos and digitally renewed the colour! I'm just so AMAZED at the colour difference.

Flowers in Muar

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Just came back from Muar a couple of days ago. Went a bit nuts over the flowers there. I think I'll head down to the Botanic Gardens soon to satisfy my flower cravings. hahaha...

Something I want to remember...

...Our townspeople wanted to "keep things peaceful" at all costs. They said I had "stirred things up." This is laudable and tragic. I, too, say let us be peaceful; but the only way to do this is first to assure justice. By keeping "peaceful" in this instance, we end up consenting to the destruction of all peace - for so long as we condone injustice by a small but powerful group, we condone the destruction of all social stability, all real peace, all trust in man's good intentions toward his fellow man.

John Howard Griffin, 1920-1980.
Quoted from Black Like Me, The Definitive Griffin Estate Edition, Wings Press. pp 170 - 171.

Just to contextualise the above quotation. In 1959, Griffin underwent a transformation with the help of medicine and sun-tanning to turn himself from an American white to an African American. After his journey into the South (New Orleans, Atlanta, etc) he recorded his experiences as well as his emotions as an African American, exposing the impact of segregation which a white man had never before experienced, not only bringing down the lies that people had surrounded themselves with (on the treatment of the blacks) but showing how African American communities, individuals and their families coped with the racist attitudes and living conditions subjected on them.

The book, which I'm still reading, is truly one of the most incredible books that has left a deep impression on me. Being a Singaporean, sitting comfortably and typing on my laptop in the 21st century, racism of this level has never occurred to me. What ever brief instances of racism I experienced or saw in my travels or even in Singapore, cannot be compared to what the people went through in 1959 America. This is truly one of the best lessons a man can leave behind for generations to guard and keep in their hearts.

Somehow I survived

I'm just waving here to let all you dear ones know that I SURVIVED!

I survived one of the most INTENSE semesters in Uni.

Went through torrents of depression, pimple outbreaks, and doused myself with korean chick flicks just to numb my senses... and I'm ALIVE!

Thanks L_.