balance

they say that everything in life should be done in moderation. ive also heard that everything tries to find its own equilibrium; that is, in nature, things seem to regress towards to the mean. yin and yang, light and dark, this and that - there are just so many opposing pairs out there which manifest themselves in the average, the in between, the neutral. well the point is that in many things, we are also encouraged to practice such balance in our lives. the question is, is the middle truly harmony? how much should we be tending to this model?

well for things like health, moderation is supposedly good. take a bit of everything and you cant really go wrong. i suppose the same can be said of almost every endeavour. they say too much of a good thing is... well a bad thing. but ultimately, is such restraint actually constraint? perhaps instead of trying to find the centre, the focal point, we should be indulging in both extremes? doesnt this also create a neutrality due to the mutual negation of polar opposites?

heh, personally i think its an interesting idea - to dab excessively in both light and dark - to get the best of both worlds perhaps?and a more thorough understanding of either? of course i guess this could be harmful in more ways than one. firstly from a moral standpoint, one should focus on doing jus the good, and ignoring the bad altogether. perhaps psychologists or whatnot wld say that such behaviour leads to the polarization of self as well - a split personality perhaps.

i guess at the end of the day, the question is moot, but life wld be so boring then, wldnt it. heh. after all, what is life but a search for new sensations?and how much of this can be achieved by 
constricting oneself? i say, why go for the mean, when you can go for the extremes and still reach the same product.

understanding

'It is usually only when we are faced with a foreign language or verse form that we have to rely on the mechanical use of explicit formulations; and we then find ourselves envying those who have never expereienced the need to learn them as rules. Renaissance scholars who were able to scan Latin verse only by dint of long labour marvelled at Cicero's description of the uneducated Roman populace jeering at an actor who committed a metrical blunder.' Derek Attridge, The Rhythms of English Poetry.

QQ. i do it for english too

i read the newspapers!

ok in the review section 2 days ago on the 25th, theres this 2007 Oxbridge Letter- Writing Competition winning letter by a Teng Ya Wen from HCI. but its a she. so im guessing its hcjc. but oh wait.. they're hcinstitution now.. anw. i quote:
"singapore cannot afford to have students who feel they have been rejected by the education system to become disillusioned with the country. people seek affirmation in their citizenship. if one were to hazard a guess, the "stayers" of the next generation would be those who have been convinced enough by the country's commitment towards developing her 
most valuable asset - her people - to reciprocate in kind." ok i know im quoting out 
of context here, but jus this short passage itself is... illuminating. 

writing

Anais Nin: we write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospection.

arguably >3 times. well this is jus picky cos i guess the 2 r encompassed under retrospection. so anw its in the moment, in retrospection (during writing) and in retrospection (reading ur writing). so that makes it in retrospection and hindsight? lol.

blogging

hm. i always find tt a good way to start smth is to lay down an agenda. well tt and to question the whole purpose of doing said act. so obviously, this begs the question of why i am blogging. well heres some background first. i first made a blog in sec1. it died. i made another one in sec4. and here it is. revived after a 9 mth coma o.0. heh ok.

so... blogging.. well sum1 once told me that blogging is a stupid thing, cos u'r putting ur life up on the web for ppl to um. read abt. as wilde puts it "something sensational", tho he was referring to a diary, and not this frankenstein of the 21st century that we know as a weBLOG. well i tink if u take it tt way, blogging is jus blurring the line between the individual and the community, where the walls between private and public life are somewhat broken down. well ok ima bit tired so im not gonna write too much. well anw, there is a need for disclosure in this type of enterprise. and this goes hand in hand wif the fact that there is alr a target audience. i mean, u make a blog and keep it updated cos u noe/want a readership. its kinda vain relli. mebbe blogging is actually sum act of self deception as to ur whole self worth. gasp. and i guess another reason for blogging is simply tt u need a medium to air ur views. and u feel somewhat justified in sharing em wif the whole wide world that is the world wide web. wow.

well on my part, i guess there r many reasons for me wanting to blog again. firstly is tt i've always wanted to write stuff, like essays, jus for fun. and typing is a whole lot easier than writing. and i figure putting it on a blog is useful as i'll prob get some criticism. secondly, putting ur thots online is useful to some extent, i guess, so all the kaypoh individuals who google ur name can find what they're looking for: information on/of/abt u. me. but it'd be hubris if i said tt i knew i was gonna hv a viewership anw, so i might as well write. lol. and lastly i guess, there is smth cathartic in the whole experience abt writing yet another chapter in ur
ife story online for ppl to read (note wilde). and its also a gd way to organize/ synthesize ur thots.

well ok so tt done, heres the agenda. ima use this blog to write as alr mentioned, essays. i figure ima use it as some funny pages 2 at times (yea bet u didnt think tt was possible). and lastly i guess i'll share the especially interesting bits of my life. but obviously not evrything, cos tts wat a diary's for and this is a blog. i guess i might as well tell myself and the whole world now tt it dun matter if theres an audience anot cos i suppose the raison d'etre of this whole enterprise is constituted arnd the axiom that im wholely and solely interested in intellectual pursuit and not a frivolous cross examination of my life. tt said, beware the emo post(s). and ho hum. heres looking forward to, if anyth, an online legacy. lol. and oh how cheesy this feels.

resurrection

hey look! its Good Friday! wat a great time to bring my blog back frm the dead. well at least temporarily. i dunno y im bothering tho, but i guess i might jus hv stuff to put up. cos i generally prefer typing to writing. heh. so anw. gg softball 1 night camp tmr. iz relli stupid, but wth. ^^ bb.