Friday, December 22, 2006
Sunday, November 12, 2006
E20 @ YX farewell 2006
E20 @ Marina Square (YX farewell 2006)
YHow telling Yx not to miss him too much over there, look how she almost vomitted her dinner out!
Yx can't get enough of Yhow's jokes at the dinner table...
YHow telling Yx not to miss him too much over there, look how she almost vomitted her dinner out!
Yx can't get enough of Yhow's jokes at the dinner table...
the two guys discussing rocket science =P
Saturday, November 11, 2006
E20 @ ECE Alumni gathering 2006
E20 @ ECE Alumni gathering (14 Oct 2006)
The morale of this story: Do not change change the fish if it is free. Makes the frens around you very pai seh of the situation... I wonder who got the small piece in the end =P
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Friday, October 13, 2006
Why Fri the 13th
During the Middle Ages, the superstition against Friday the 13th grew. On Friday, October 13, 1307, King Philip IV of France ordered the arrests of Jaques de Molay, Grand Master of the Knights Templars and sixty of his senior knights in Paris. Thousands of others were arrested elsewhere in the country. After employing torture techniques to compel the Templars to "confess" to wrongdoing, most were eventually executed and sympathizers of the Templars condemned Friday the 13th as an evil day. Over time a large body of literature and folk wisdom have reinforced the belief. In the 18th century, the HMS Friday was launched on Friday the 13th. It was never heard from again. Since then, ships are not usually launched on that date.
Sunday, July 09, 2006
Sunday, June 25, 2006
A RITE TYPE OF LOVE
Weekend June 24, 2006
Frances Ong Hock Lin
MY husband and I have been married for 18 years as of last Saturday.
I remember that when we were preparing for the wedding, there were many
rites and rituals we chose not to follow. Of course, there were a few that
we did, to please our parents, such as the wedding dinner and the church
ceremony.
But we did not go to the studio to have our wedding portraits taken;
neither did I have make-up done a by professional. My wedding gown was
hand-sewn by my students and I arranged a simple bunch of yellow lilies
tied with a pink ribbon.
For our honeymoon, we backpacked all the way to Bangkok on a shoe-string
budget.
Over the years, I have observed that many of my friends have followed many
rites and rituals with regard to weddings, the birth of a child, or
funerals.
As a family begins to form, family routines usually form, such as going to
church on Sunday or going overseas for holidays during June or December.
Sometimes these rituals cost an arm and a leg. But have we ever stopped to
think why we spend so much money on them?
While it is important to follow them in order to establish and reaffirm
our cultural roots, these rites do not guarantee that the relationships
between the participants are functioning or even healthy.
A great wedding does not automatically imply or even assure a great
marriage. Yet each year, more brides focus on being a great bride for that
one day, instead of being a faithful wife for life.
One of my friends does not have a functional marriage with his wife
anymore, yet he dutifully follows the rites and rituals for celebrating
the birth of his two daughters.
In the 1940s, Abraham Maslow the psychologist postulated that the most
basic of human needs are those of safety and physiological well-being. The
next level is the social need. People need to form relationships, to give
and receive love, to feel a link with others and to feel a sense of
belonging.
If these social needs are met, people can thrive at their optimal level
and live life to their full potential.
So what happens when you no longer have a functional relationship between
husband and wife, parent and child, or brother and sister?
Many will choose to hide behind these rituals and rites to avoid
confronting the truth that they need to work on the relationship.
Observing these gives one a false sense of achievement.
It is so much easier to give hongbaos and presents to someone you do not
like, than to ask for forgiveness from each other.
Similarly, it is easier to take the wedding photograph than to iron out
the nascent problems with your future spouse.
Routines, rites and rituals can never replace the relationships we have
with each other. It takes a lot of hard work, to work on a relationship.
It requires us to listen to each other and suspend judgment and bias. It
demands that we forget ourselves and focus on the other.
Instead of just wanting to have and to hold, we have to learn to give and
to serve.
The writer is an educator and mother of six.
Weekend June 24, 2006
Frances Ong Hock Lin
MY husband and I have been married for 18 years as of last Saturday.
I remember that when we were preparing for the wedding, there were many
rites and rituals we chose not to follow. Of course, there were a few that
we did, to please our parents, such as the wedding dinner and the church
ceremony.
But we did not go to the studio to have our wedding portraits taken;
neither did I have make-up done a by professional. My wedding gown was
hand-sewn by my students and I arranged a simple bunch of yellow lilies
tied with a pink ribbon.
For our honeymoon, we backpacked all the way to Bangkok on a shoe-string
budget.
Over the years, I have observed that many of my friends have followed many
rites and rituals with regard to weddings, the birth of a child, or
funerals.
As a family begins to form, family routines usually form, such as going to
church on Sunday or going overseas for holidays during June or December.
Sometimes these rituals cost an arm and a leg. But have we ever stopped to
think why we spend so much money on them?
While it is important to follow them in order to establish and reaffirm
our cultural roots, these rites do not guarantee that the relationships
between the participants are functioning or even healthy.
A great wedding does not automatically imply or even assure a great
marriage. Yet each year, more brides focus on being a great bride for that
one day, instead of being a faithful wife for life.
One of my friends does not have a functional marriage with his wife
anymore, yet he dutifully follows the rites and rituals for celebrating
the birth of his two daughters.
In the 1940s, Abraham Maslow the psychologist postulated that the most
basic of human needs are those of safety and physiological well-being. The
next level is the social need. People need to form relationships, to give
and receive love, to feel a link with others and to feel a sense of
belonging.
If these social needs are met, people can thrive at their optimal level
and live life to their full potential.
So what happens when you no longer have a functional relationship between
husband and wife, parent and child, or brother and sister?
Many will choose to hide behind these rituals and rites to avoid
confronting the truth that they need to work on the relationship.
Observing these gives one a false sense of achievement.
It is so much easier to give hongbaos and presents to someone you do not
like, than to ask for forgiveness from each other.
Similarly, it is easier to take the wedding photograph than to iron out
the nascent problems with your future spouse.
Routines, rites and rituals can never replace the relationships we have
with each other. It takes a lot of hard work, to work on a relationship.
It requires us to listen to each other and suspend judgment and bias. It
demands that we forget ourselves and focus on the other.
Instead of just wanting to have and to hold, we have to learn to give and
to serve.
The writer is an educator and mother of six.
Friday, April 28, 2006
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Friday, March 17, 2006
Sunday, February 05, 2006
Sunday, January 29, 2006
MeMe of Four
I read from Yixuan's blog that the 4 pp she tagged has to perpetuate this post in their respective blogs and spread to another 4 others... Sounds familiar? Somewat like the Japanese movie: The Ring?!?!?! haha...
Well, instead of following suit, I thot I'll jus do something different over here. Take this opportunity to intro you guys to the new Superhero on the block. Here's a sneak peek of him in action. The E20 Spiderman
Today is the first day of Chinese New Year 2006. Here's wishing everybody happy holidays. =)
I read from Yixuan's blog that the 4 pp she tagged has to perpetuate this post in their respective blogs and spread to another 4 others... Sounds familiar? Somewat like the Japanese movie: The Ring?!?!?! haha...
Well, instead of following suit, I thot I'll jus do something different over here. Take this opportunity to intro you guys to the new Superhero on the block. Here's a sneak peek of him in action. The E20 Spiderman
Today is the first day of Chinese New Year 2006. Here's wishing everybody happy holidays. =)
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