are we becoming too reliant on shortcuts

everyone should know about the prestigious 'windows 7', the one fitted with shortcuts at almost every inch of the screen. the question is, are we becoming too reliant on these shortcuts. technology is constantly improving, everything is getting better. things are looking up, and almost never look down. what if there was a day, where all of us had to use the ol'fashioned 'windows 97' again, will those who are overly IT-savvy ever survive?
allow me to relate a LIVE example: i have and old 'windows XP' laptop, and a new-and-improved 'windows 7' desktop. i frequently used the 'windows 7', until the E-learning day. my brother had woken up early to use the 'windows 7', so i had to use the old 'windows XP'. many a time, i forgot the 'hey! i'm not using the 7 anymore, no shortcuts everywhere!' i had a real hard time at the XP!
just think about it, all those people who know all the possible shortcuts. well, too bad for them i guess. they will have have to cope if this "computer downturn" ever turns its ugly face, then how will they cope?

the troubles of a third child

being a third child in the family, with two brothers awaiting the dreaded PSLE, it is not easy. take my brother for example. he waited for a year for my PSLE, and now he is waiting for another. so, what does he do to waste time while our mother is attending to us, who she spents the most time with during PSLE.
play our computer of course. he is almost addicted to it, trying to play it at every opportunity. we all feel it is detrimental to his health, but what can we do but give a sigh when we watch him play. he used to ask for 5 minutes and play for 5 minutes, but now, he asks for 5 minutes, but plays for 30 minutes. he is oblivious to how much time he has spent. now, we are all wondering, was it even wise to let him start in the first place.
so, my brother and i have tried countless times to stop him. but when he let out his mighty wail, we both had no choice but to interverne, and let him continue. he is somewhat abusing his 'power', just because he is young, he can throw his weights around without getting caned or punished.
well, even parents have failed. even after confiscation for half a month, he will go bak to normal afterwards. we are even planning to take away the whole PC, but morden Singapore, who can keep up without one.
so, this addiction

increasing vulgarities

now, there are more and more people who know the 'F-word', the 'B-word', and so on. what was considered rude and offensive to parents is the norm now, in morden day society. so, what is causing this, the internet, seniors from upper secondary, or is it by peers.
the internet is the most likely. if you click here, not that you want to, you can find avid contributers contributing the latest lingos, and also, some vulgarities along with it. since children are very IT-savvy nowadays, these words will circulate very quickly, and the result, a ruder and more vulgar society.
next will be the presence of vulgar seniors. people have a sort of misconception now. which is 'vulgarities are cool'. in a desperate bid to draw attention, they pick up words from the seniors, so that they can show other, 'hey, i know this word and you don't, so i am cooler and better than you. thus, those who are picked on will also try to learn more hokkien swear words, to prove that they are cooler. this cycle keeps repeating itself, till they all learn how to learn the worst of words, such as 'F***'.
lastly, the point on peers, it is very closely related to the above two points. peers will specially search for rude words. they want to make themselves seen, by making others laugh. they will try many means to do so, such as talking back to teachers, cracking racist jokes, and of couse back to our main topic, the use of vulgarities.
in conclusion, the main thing to me is attention. it is the need of attention, that draws out the worst in most.

the cons of fame

most want to be famous, who doesn't? is it not grand to have your name known far and wide, in a good way of course. take Cameron Diaz for a perfect example, who played Knight and day. i am sure she loves the fame and glory.
Yet, with all this fame and glory, Diaz is the figurehead for many online criminals. having been rated 'the most dangerous online celebrity', one in ten websites holding Cameron Diaz's name leads to risky websites designed to trick visitors into unwittingly downloading viruses that can seize control or computers or mine them for data, according to McAfee. and, Nineteen per cent of the websites in results for searches on the term "Cameron Diaz screen savers" were rigged with malicious code.

so, fame is good in a certain way, but when someone is too famous, that is when there will be trouble. unscrupulous people will use you as a figurehead, just to make a few 'idiots' suffer from the virus that they spread.

indirectly, you are the cause for their suffering and despair, because they saw YOU, that's why they were so tempted to click on the menacing link that introduced virus into their mainframe...

pampered?

Three people were missing and more than 50,000 evacuated from a city on Saturday after flooding along the Yalu river, which forms the border with North Korea, officials and state media said. this is what is happening in the Yalu River, China. About 230 homes have collapsed in the city of Dandong and some transport, power and communication links have been cut off but no casualties have been reported.
this is what is happening in Singapore: loss of valuables, no loss of homes, and the flood cleared in no time flat. but, 'kiasu' Singaporeans, whether living in the affected areas or not, are pressing over-demanding solutions from the government. maybe Singapore has become complacent, just because we have not had flash floods in decades, people make the biggest fuss out of the matter that China is facing, with at least 10 times the devastating effects compared to that of Singapore.
Singapore is just acting like a baby. and China is a mature man. China has matured through experiences like hurricanes and floods. yet Singapore is like a perfectly pampered child, making the biggest hoo-Ha over the smallest scratch.
maybe a natural disaster is what Singapore needs most at his point of time. people do not seem to treasure our lucky geographical on the globe. they have so much, yet they want so much more, China has always been able to stand back up after disasters, after being shaken emotionally and economically, why can't we?

why cant we learn fron China?

hypocrite

it has many flaws being hypocritical, as one of my seniors in squash, is definitely a hypocrite.

let me raise an example: currently, there is an internal quarrel between the captian and the rest of the team, and our coach tried to step in to solve our mini vendeta. when asked,'what about captain pisess you off most, so much that you ostracise him'. he replied that he was displeased that our captain took up a lot of space on the benches, and he was egoistic over fluke wins.

after our coach left, he started swearing that all those claims were false, and gave a whole new sets of complains and expressed how he really felt. but if the coach gets false information, his effectiveness in solving the problem is lower, as he does not have true blue statements of the team.

if you are hypocritical, the only person you are demoting and sabotaging is yourself. others may look up to you at first, but will satart to despise you after they find out your scheme. if you give comments which are hypocritical, people will not be able to help you effectively and completely, thus the only person you sabotage is yourself.

in conclusion, we should be blunt and truthful. if asked a question, answer promptly and truthfuly, only then, will others look up and respect us.

false phase

ever heard of the phase "there are no strangers in this world, but only friends we have yet to meet". a very nice phase indeed, but not very true. even task like asking a question to a stranger on the MRT can be an embarrasing task to some more 'thin-skinned' people.
allow me to relate an incident that happened today(18/8/10). i was playing pokemon on my phone. it seemed to interest two people beside me. although i did not turn around to look, i could here them discussing whether to ask me about the details of the game. until one of them finaly commented jokingly, 'ai yah! for the sake of our happiness.' and they finally asked about the pokemon game.
if that phase suggest everyone in this world is a friend, then why are singaporeans that scared to lose face. perhaps there were many people on the train, or perhaps it was just a cruel joke, whereby they already knew the answers.
contrary to the scene in the case of the caucasians, or the 'ang-mor's. they are open and are never afraid to ask a question, or give answers to questions asked. once, during the incident where an old woman was crashed by a car. it was not a local that was directing the scattered traffic, it was a tourist, a caucasian.
so, we can really learn a thing or two from these people.

throughout the years, there are inclinations towards certain race, certain people, and certain religion. even now, there is much insensitivity, the whites against the blacks, or the British's 'inability' to deceipher a Chinese from a philipino and others.
but why actually? is it because they are just plain insensitive and naive, or is it because that the internet is now feeding younger children with these 'facts'. though i do not know who is more famous in the US, i do know that most of us students know who is 'peter chao'. the youtube sensation says many insensitive comments, and a few more famous episodes depics him fighting with a Jewish, and there are lots of racist and insensitive comments in their quarrels.
but how can we curb these people like peter chao. he is persistent. although he has been banned 3-4 times, each time he has created a new account to share his insensitive videos.
he does not earn anything, right, but the small amount that buys his merchandise. for that small profit, he is making these videos.
he does it for the publicity, but he does not think of the consequence of his 'publicity', he is not thinking of the tong term consequence. they are copying his racist jokes, and spreading his name far and wide.
should youtube, a site that all videos are accepted, draw a line whereby what kind of videos they are broadcasting to others, and the consequence. if youtube stop being that lax, i am sure that racism will see a curb.

greed

they say greed is the root of all problems, and this statement is true. why is the earth dying, because humans dig up all the available resources, andd when it is all used up, they seek more, and so on.

the phase save our planet is untrue, in a certain sense. the planet will heal over time, it is the human reace that will disappear forever, yet many know this cruel truth, that the planet is dying, and we will be the ones to suffer, but for the sake of profit, many continue the rampant destruction of the earth.

Stephen Hawking, the physicist, recently told the website Big Think that “we are entering an increasingly dangerous period in our history.”

hawking also noted that future of the human race would be in space, and they would have to constantly find new living spaces if they do not learn to cherish the environment there, the human race will just do the same, and if they dont find other spaces to live in, their greed will be the cause for their extinction.

even now, we do not realise the severity of our wastage, our resources are disapperaing faster than we can replace them, if we do not do something, our future generations are the ones to pay for it. we are actually loaning the Earth from future generations, our wastage, over-usage, irresponsible acts, we are not the ones paying for these so-called petty crimes, it is our future genaeraations that will pay the hefty fine.

uni grad is a sampan man

there has been recent news on 'The Straits Times', as one stomper found out that a sampan rower at Marina Bay Sands, was actually a university graduate. this has shocked many, because to them, these graduates with a high paper qualification deserve better than rowing people on sampans. yet others solute this guy, because at least, he is not sitting at home, shaking legs. he is earning money, no matter how low the sum.
while some salute him on his commitment, others are jeering and booing. they say that his degree was a fake, and one stomper gave the comment 'congrats, u just got scammed by a sampan man'. but although it is insulting, it night be true. no concrete evidence was given of his degree, and maybe the STOMPer was just too naive into beleiving his claim.
for those who believe him, they attribute his so-called lowly job to the difficulty to find a good job. they say that degrees are the norm, so finding a good job is difficult.
i am not taking sides with neither party, but this incident, so small. why has it sparkes 8 pages long of comments?