Friday, July 31, 2009

Confession of a getting-fatter girl

I am gaining a lot of weight recently, if you know me from 5 years ago, you will know that i am the least health conscious person in the entire world.

When i was in UK 3 years ago, thanks to the junk food culture there, i've picked up the habit of eating a big bar of chocolate, packs of chips everyday while sitting in front of pc skype-ing with my love ones. To an extent, Peter had to bar me from eating chips while webcaming with him, cuz he just couldnt stand the sickening sight of the food gobbling me.

However, amazingly, despite of all the extra calories that i've consumed, i was as slim as ever (48 kg maybe?). The left picture below stand as the proof for my statement. And if you look at the recent me in the right picture (was trying out a dress in Zara), it is crystal obvious that i've gained lots of weights in the past 3 years after i came back to Malaysia.


So i have concluded 3 main reasons which contributes to the increments of my weight for the past 3 years:

1. Age

Woman's metabolism rate slows down tremendously after age of 25 (thats my hypothesis). In simple term, metabolism rate is the amount of energy (measured in calories) that makes our bosy function. The way i am seeing it is that i used to burn my fat effortlessly by just walking around. Now even if i do aerobic exerciese for an hour, the amount of calories which was burnt maybe equal to a pack of nasi lemak.

2. Malaysia

Basically food and weather.

Nasi lemak again. Sincerely, Malaysian food is sinful, because its oily, fatty and TASTY! Good access to nice food is also a major contributing factor. you can get good food such as burgers, nasi goreng etc. from mamak stall 24 hours just in front of your door step.

And the thing about the weather is that: Hot weather makes me sweat, and being sweaty makes me go to shopping mall, going to shopping mall means going to fastfood restaurant to eat.



3. My job

Basically being in business team entitles me to have breakfast, tea, lunch and dinner meeting with clients. Its Malaysian undefiable culture that we do business (not the one in the toilet) and eat at the same time.

4. Peter

Peter loves Itallian food and he pick up cooking as his interest after the first Jamie Oliver show he watched. I think he cooks far better than me as he got this fussy taste bud which can tells the difference between different type of herbs such as rosemary, basil, pasley, sage, thyme etc.

Anyway, this is my dinner cooked by him a few days ago, his version of scale down Spanish Tapas meal. Tapas is a wide variety of appetizers in Spanish cuisine. Being appetizers, its supposed to be small in portion but in great varieties and diversities. It was so good that we finished the very last bit of everything.


Actual Spanish Tapas vs Peter's Tapas



Button mushroom with olive oil, garlic, dry chilli, cheese. Hotdogs with self made bolognese sauce and basil leaves


Luncheon meat omelet, toasted bread with olive oil and honey

Even the doggie was salivating and waiting in anticipation for us to feed her the food. Cute Miko!

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

The dream home project

Am working on a personal project at the moment. well, in this case personal means 'Peter and i' and this is our second joint project together. The first one was our food blog "Alimento Para Todos", which we started eons years ago when i'm still in UK. The whole purpose of the blog is to share our culinary experience in this cyberspace with each other and our friends. In fact, it was an alternative channel of communication for us since we were thousands of kilometers apart. Looking at what each other had for lunch, dinner, hangouts was interesting and torturing at the same time. I remembered myself constantly shouting with disbelief through skype:"NO, How can you go to eat .... without me!!"Anyway, its really fun to see this virgin project that we'd started and nurtured together growing step by step everyday, testifying our love for food along our coupling days.

The second joint project that we had is "dream home" project (run out of ideas on fancy project title). A few months ago, we've bought a sketch book and started to pour all of our interior design ideas for our future home into the sketch book. Its no more secret that Peter and I are in the process of buying our own house. Just to kill your curiosity, we have no plan for marriage as yet, we just think that its good if we can look into properties much earlier so when the time come, there wont be any last minute rushing. When i heard the frustration and troubles Dorcas underwent to sell and buy a new house, i knew exactly how she felt! The process of endless house viewing, dealing with the housing agent, price negotiation, bank loans and purchase agreement can be extremely exhaustive.

Now, one of our favourite past times is flipping interior design magazines and bionic scanning the interior of whichever shops/restaurant we stepped in to steal their design ideas. Just a peek at a random page which i've written/cut/paste in the sketch book:


To be frank, we dont really fancy a luxurious home, but we've always crave for a beautiful color, warmth, small place of our own where our loved ones want to hang out. Currently, i'm living in a christian household while Peter is living with his family. With his two terriers around, its impossible to have any sort of gathering at his house as the doggies will bark like mad from the moment the stranger step in til they step out. Hence, this small home that we visualized will be a place where finally we can invite our couple friends to come over to enjoy a simple drink or dinner together.

Below are some of my favourite images from "Mimoco Decorator". They all inspire me and have pieces that I plan to mix into our home.




My taste is quite extreme, i love the cool black color and elegant design, as well as the touch of apple green in a total white background which give a warm feeling

I am looking forward to the day we can see what we've visualized in the sketch book taking its shape into a place i called home.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Confession of a music freak

Was listening to Jordin Sparks new album, am utterly surprised as the songs are pretty good, in fact every songs in the album have the potential to become individual hit singles. Anyway, you can have a listen and judge it by yourself, download one of my favorites-faith or the album from here



To be truth, she is one of the out of the norm American Idol winners whom i really like, a plus size girl with a bubbly personalities and powerful voice. Usually i am very critical when it comes to American idol winners, cuz for some reason i am not too fond of the music that appeal to the mainstream (or American audience). Most of the time i like the runner ups more than the winner, e.g. Clay Aiken over Reuben Studdard (season 2), Bo Bice over Carrie Underwood (Season 4), Chris Daughtry over Taylor Hicks (season 5), Danny Gokey and Adam Lambert over Kris Allen (season 8).

Anyway, as you can see my music taste does not confined to any particular pattern/genre. I listen to music that's deliberately, wilfully "different"and not too studio manicured. I have tons of albums from some unknown singer in my music folder, some of my favorites are Damien Rice, James Morrison, Corrinne May, Angela Aki, Mayday (ok, they are not fall under 'unknown'), but you get my point.

Of course, music is an inherently subjective matter, one man's crap might be another man's treasure. And i have absolutely no way to define what constitutes good music. its simply personal preference, as the saying goes 'beauty in the eye of the beholder', maybe its true that 'great music in the ear of listener'.

The sad thing about the music industry is that its always moved by the mainstream, as such the market is full of manufactured pop music which are produced from the same cookie cutter and literally sounds alike. I remembered a few years ago, the music industry was suddenly dominated by hip hop music, rappers/singers such as JayZ, Outcast, Snoop Dogg, Lil Kim etc went into fame like mushroom after rains. During that period of time, hip hop music was played 24-7 in the radio and it irritated the hell out of me.

In a way, our music industry was not conducive enough for diversified music as the measuring tape is always whether they are appealing to mainstream a.k.a sells or not. I'm not against the mainstream music (well, i listened to Jordin Spark's!) but i sincerely think that there's a greater level of depth, appreciation, treasure to be found in music that have meanings in it than just some ramblings words and repetitive lyrics.

It would be cool if one day there is a petition/campaign over "supporting good music" where people will not be settled by just listening to music that sounds nice or whatever monotonous songs that are playing in the radio. Frankly, its stupid to let the music production company to decide what our ears should hear.

However, this should be a noble effort with a sincere intention of wanting more good music to be heard and not some action trying to feed to our own snobbishness/selfishness. Its funny that i knew a friend who particularly go for some unknown indie music, but loathe at it once the singer become famous. oh well, maybe he just dont like to equate himself to the mainstream.

Anyway, it really doesn't matter if you don't know much about the mainstream music or you might have a more eclectic taste. In fact be proud of it and dont mock others into listening what you think is good, but seek to appreciate the merits of different kind of music.

Friday, July 24, 2009

ELIZA- your virtual companion

I went for a Semantic Technology workshop yesterday.

Well if you are wondering what Artificial Intelligence technology gotta do with a non IT person like me, frankly, that's the same question that i'm wondering myself. Another equally mind boggling question is how on earth i've became the project manager for a semantic based medical informatic project? Anyway, the fact is i am managing a digital human knowledge base project at the moment which requires me to have not just basic, but advanced understanding on A.I. or machine learning or inferences tool (whatever you want to call it) knowledge.

Which was really a pain. As my mind has been molded only to fit for sciences for the past 8 years in my life and its such a pain to take up another alien subject and master in it in like 1-2 weeks time.

So back to my topic- the famous Eliza. i was introduced by the speaker, Dr Wu (whom i've already knew even before this workshop) to this person called Eliza. I think all IT student knew her to some extent. Its like Watson and Crick to science student, anyway you get what i mean. Well, since i'm from science background, so i'm clueless about this person when Dr Wu said that she is the hottest girl in the famous birth place of various technology-MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). In my mind i was relating to someone with the boobs and hips like Megan fox and brain like Einstein.

And it turns out she is not beautiful at all, absolutely no sexy curve (she looks boxy or square-ish actually), but all the tech geeks who attended MIT loves her to the core.

+
Megan Fox plus Albert Einstein



= ELIZA

She is virtual. Eliza is a the most famous and probably the oldest Artifical intelligence programme ever. An intelligence chatbox programme (the first chatterbox) which was started as a concept called simulated online chatting. It was created in the early 1960's by MIT scientists Joseph Weizenbaum as a spoof of conversation between a psychoanalysts and a patient.

When it first launched, the whole MIT was turned upside down as people were curious who was this understanding, intelligent lady called Eliza behind the chatbox. Dr. Weizenbaum was both amazed and embarrassed that it received so much attention. Imagine a computer who can chat like human.

For example
Human: My boyfriend made me come here.
ELIZA: Your boyfriend made you come here.
Human: He says I'm depressed much of the time.
ELIZA: I am sorry to hear you are depressed.
Human: It's true. I am unhappy.
ELIZA: Do you think coming here will help you not to be unhappy?

No wonder the tech geeks went head over 'shoes'.

In fact, people already combine the pattern matching technology (the technology which empowering Eliza) with audio recording, human facial expression for online interviews application.

Anyway, for the past few days i was stuck in awe by this alien technology called computer. Its a world which i'm not familiar with, but is equally exciting as science. Imagine the humanoids in terminator series, seriously, it is really possible.

Ok, now it doesnt sound so exciting anymore, its kinda scary.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Life... Drama


I watched the final episode of Ugly Betty last night. I have to say the drama series finished off its season with style and grace, i was caught off guard by the ending though, nevertheless, there are a lot of truth in it.


Molly died. Daniel was devastated. Matt decided to end his relationship with Betty, as he came to realized that he can never be as good as Betty's first love-Henry. Betty finally landing her dream job as editor, but she fell down from the cloud nine that very same instant when Matt asked her for breakup.... and announced that he will be her new boss.

Drama.

Life in tele is so complex, isn't it? When i watched Ugly Betty, i couldn't agree more. For a second, i was so engrossed in the drama, and was absolutely slammed and excited over the storyline. It was as though i'm on THE right frequency or wavelength with Betty and Daniel, to an extent that i literally felt the need to pour out "i feel you!" to those people whom i dont even know.

And then a thought popped out: "why am i being so emotional over the drama by the way?"

Sometimes we do tend to forget that those people we hold so dear to our hearts were just some created characters.

For ground people like you and me, life is pretty simple and predictable. We start our day with breakfast and jam (i mean traffic jam), sail through the day with the routine in the office, followed by some high calories dinner and ends with occasionally a good movie on tele at night. In a way, life is pretty clear about where we are going and where we are not.

Its funny that sometimes we are not so contented with being ordinary, as ordinary is always perceived as boring. Hence, we create drama to make ourselves more worthy. Consciously or subconsciously. We overdo, over analyze, over magnify the feelings we had under microscope, so that we can somehow hype up the intensity of our emotions, create a scene and make our life sounds more happening or dramatic compare to John or Jane on the street.

The fact is some people do enjoy being a drama queen/king.

We chase things we pretend we don't have - love, friends, and abundance, while worrying about things we pretend we do have - problems, challenges, and issues, until one day we happen to notice that its actually all in our mind and not in the reality.

Putting an analogy: We fret over why the winds sometimes blow as they do. a.k.a. acting 'drama'.

Honestly, we need to admit that our life is not much of a drama. Forget about the earth-shattering-mountain-moving serendipity or life and death you-jump-i-jump titanic love, its considered lucky if your girlfriend is having a mood swing or your boyfriend is ignoring you because of some football match or DOTA games. Well, at least you have something to complain about in front of your mates during those guys hangout night or girls shopping session.

Sad to say, at the end of the day, we realized that the beautiful drama is just a virtual non existence stories created by some boring looking scriptwriter who smoke like a chimney and lives underneath mountains of books. Deep down, we understand that we can never be Betty or Daniel, as what we desired is always in the box called tele and never in our reality.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

A God Believer

I was brought up in a hardcore christian family, that doesnt mean that i was oppressed and forced to accept the religion or anything. In fact, I had willingly accepted God into my life after i've personally experienced His presence and greatness.

However about a year ago, i've started to seriously thinking whether to continue to call myself LITERALLY a Christian or not. Don't get me wrong, i'm neither abandoning my religion nor thinking of converting. Its just that i've seen some lights for the past 1 year and it sorta led to a shift in my view and thoughts on religion. Anyway, what i really trying to say is that i wanted to identify myself more as a God believer rather than strictly a 'Christian' who wholly and only follow what the church/congregation/denomination's doctrines or creed says.

Recently i have seen so many examples of how things went wrong if we claim ourselves to be religionists who only serve single church or denomination's interest. Think about Protestants and Catholics conflicts, or conventional and charismatics debates, you'd be surprised at the vibrancy and occasional nastiness over musty theological tomes. Although Islam, Judaism and Christianity serve the same Yahweh God, however they are still blind and incompromise towards each other. Recently, there was a religious conflicts in local scene when Catholics lodge report against Al Islam for trespassing. Frankly, i'm sad and to an extent angry towards all these meaningless fightings and arguments as we all serve the same Kingdom of God.



I grew up in a conventional Methodist church, but attended a very much charismatic church when i first came to KL, it was funny that i went reverse and subsequently attended a conventional independent church in Liverpool when i study abroad. On top of that, occasionally i still go to Peter's Catholic church, and i have a mix of close friends who are Catholics, mainstream protestants and charismatic christians.

Prior to this, i have a very narrow definition of what Christian is, and its very much what the church taught me so. Instead of being a God believer, I was shaped into a church believer. And because of this, Peter and I have some heated discussion due to the differences of our understanding towards certain God teaching and principles. However most of the time, it was me who insisted that my way of being a christian is the right way and unwilling to think outside of the frame.

After that, things happened, which drastically and dramatically changed my believes. However its not the right time to share it here yet.

The point is, doesnt matter you are a protestants christians, charismatic christians, catholics, Jew, or even Islamic, you are a God Believer. I'm not saying our God is a also the God of greeks, Indian mythology or Chinese lagendary stories, but i am suggesting that our God is a universal God.

Maybe you are wondering have i been striked by lightning or what, to come out with such a blasphemous thought. Well the answer is no, but the impact or the aftermath maybe the same. Honestly, i was confused and i have struggled badly when my so called 'church cardinal belief' were challenged, but at the same time i began to open up and i know more now than i ever knew in my life. And still, i'm craving to know so much more.

Parallelly, being a science thinker had also open up my horizon like never before. A lot of scientific discovery fascinates me, and it bring out another perspective for me to understand God's work. In fact, I still think that our God is the greatest scientist of all, He had created the life itself, and human was merely trying to solve all the riddles in the name of science. Probably its really like what my friend Dorcas said, when we meet the creator one day, it will be the biggest science convention of all time, as all the truth of life will be revealed once and for all.

I can imagine myself sitting on the audience seat, raising my hand asking God on the stage, excitedly, "God, why does our genetic makeup is so much similar to the apes?" * chuckles *

Anyway, i better shut my mouth now. I may not be strike by lightning, but i maybe stoned to death if i continue. Sign off!

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

想唱歌的心情

星期三。早。无聊。

不经意读了阿信的一篇日志-“人们说的荒唐,却是我的天堂” ,心情莫名其妙的亢奋起来。已经好久好久肺腑没有这么激动了(除了跳有氧操之外)。是所谓为了追求梦想,坚持所爱而热血沸腾的感觉。

也许真的如文章里所说的:

“就像牛頓發現地心引力,讓我們都瞭解人類不能飛翔的原因,
只好一輩子乖乖在地上走了。” ~阿信

随着年岁渐增,日复一日,当初的年少轻狂,所谓的荒唐,不知何时已被柴米油盐所取代。记得第一次弹唱五月天的《我们》时的那一份感动,第一次站在千人的舞台上高歌,那种悸动,我简直彻彻底底的忘了。原来长大了,拥有事业,车子,生活安稳了;相对地,也失去年少的洒脱,放肆的理由和不顾一切的那份勇气。原来钢之炼金术师里所说的的要得到某种东西,就必须付出与之同等的代价的‘等价交换’法则就是这么一回事。

"哥倫布只要有一顆星光 就膽敢橫越大西洋
達爾文假設生命是戰場 就讓我基因不投降
我還有一把吉他 我還有一群死黨 為什麼還不大聲唱" ~放肆

我亲爱的吉它躺在墙脚织网,我和死党分道扬镳,不再拥有共同的理想。

我还能放肆的大声唱吗?

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Man needs woman and woman needs man

Am reading a blog of my ex-school mate. I was never close to her, the kind of hi and bye friends, but during my time, she was one of those girl who really stand out in the crowd. When my world was still revolved around piles of reference books 24-7, she already knew how to dress herself well and look attractive in front of others.

In one of the posts in her blog, she described that man and woman relationship was established based on one absolute truth: Man needs woman and woman needs man. Although world changed, people changed, political constitution changed, ideology changed... after 10,000 years since family constitution were first introduced, man and woman are still together.

The fact that man needs woman and woman needs man (for whatever reason) was never change.

However, if one day woman suddenly realized that she can be pretty much live on her own, self sufficient, and was sick and tired of the 'you-dont-understand-me' constant arguments with her man... in summary, she thinks that she don't need him anymore (and vice versa). Now, here come the question: will man and woman still be together after the foundation of their relationship, which is 'the need factor' is not there anymore?

I dont know if you agree with me or not, the fact is i can see its all coming, soon. The world are slowly shifted from its cardinal foundation which based on communion/community manifesto into something very individualistic. In fact, its the evolution of human being itself which usher the age of individualism. This new age cherishes individual interest, rights, achievements rather than couple, family and even society combined benefits.

One of the most evident proof is that the rate of marriage has slumped to its lowest level. In fact i was reading one of the statistic reports and it was commented that the people are not surprised by the figure as its a change of 'lifestyle thing'. Its mind boggling to know that one of the most unblemished and perfect institution created by God Himself-reunion of man and wife will soon be seen as outdated and the dinasour of the future age. Female and male identity had reached such a state of confusion and fuzziness, as women arised with societal authority, power and earning capabilities. Whereas man appears to be more metrosexual inclined, of which sweating and laboring for family is no longer appealing and perceived as honouroble.

Instead of having a relationship of intense commitment and love, with marriage being the ultimate goal of courtship, people will opt for relationship of easy come easy go, with no string attached. Once the good feeling subsides, they will parted like friends, with no hard feelings. When this new sexual codes and patterns of social life being adopted, it will lead to total liberation of the individualist.

Don't get me wrong, this post is not about fretting over the evolution of the man-woman relationship pattern which we have no control over it, but sadly said, we are all taking a part in it. The motivation of writing this post is simply because i am curious about my ex college friend who is asking why on earth man and woman are still together when the needs are no longer there. Is it true the fact that those capable/beautiful women (well, in this case she is) are those of the first to realize that they are better off without man?


If thats the case, i can never be qualified to be part of such transition as i dont have the pre-requisites assets ;) . And moreover, i think i still have alot of unmeet needs which can only be satisfied through a life long and committed love relationship. Which includes wearing an apron cooking my hubby's favourite food or kissing him goodbye when he leaves for work in the morning. Ok, i admit that i'm a very much family woman in heart (surprise?).

Well, it wasnt that hard to admit that we, women do need our opposite, as much as the men need us right? Check out what others says here. Anyway, here is a song for all those who dare to admit, Anna Gilbert's "Nobody told you"

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

My favourite sites pt 1

I love to read online stuff, whether its a personal lifelog/blogs or websites/commentaries on specific interests, such as music, religion, technologies, genetics, manga, anime and etc. In fact, its my daily routine to browse through these websites before i start off my hectic work. Anyway, just to list out a few of favorites here:

1.Alex music Blog


This is a one of the most comprehensive download site for contemporary music which appeal to the mainstream, as well as those are not too contemporary such as acoustic, lounge music, jazz, celtic and other genre. For those MJ's hardcore fan out there, the download links for most of his albums can be found at the site.

2. TechXav


With the tagline "A tech blog managed by three 15 years olds", TechXav is full with Web 2.0 apps, online tips and most updated tech news. In fact Xaviers was awarded as Singapore Best Youth Blog this year, however the main author- Xavier was labeled as cocky and arrogant youth for making an outrageous statements during interview- "The Blog Awards need me more than I need them." Well, take away the controversy part, the blog is interesting and informative. For heaven sake, he is just a 15 years old teenager with hormone ranging wild in his veins and dreaming to become the next Warren Buffet. Give him a break.

3. Manga Traders


Mangatraders was a glorified dumping ground for manga lovers. It is dedicated to making English translated manga available to the world, FOC. Yes you heard me well. Anyway, I think its very much self explanatory.

4.Modern Mechanix-Yesterday's Today Tomorrow



This is the best and weirdest tech/mechanics/science site ever! Its actually a compilation of the issues of an old magazines which explained modern technology to the lay people in startling and excited ways, named Modern Mechanix. You can read all sorts of wacky creation such as Dog in sack on running board (1936), all the way to some wild crazy science theory/experiments - The earth formation theory (1923), and even the most discussed religion- Tom Cruise's Scientology (1968- The so called religion-ahem-cult is that old, can you believe it!).

To be continue...

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

My Transboundary driving experience

Yesterday, i had achieved another feat which marked an important milestone in my life-I drove back and forth across the country from KL to Singapore, for a total of 767 km, all in one day!


The night before yesterday i was having this pre-event stress which caused me a terrible sleepless night. I was reading the final episode of '20th century boys' manga (the manga is fabulous! will definitely write about it next time) before i went to the bed. And the instance i hit the pillow and closed my eyes, my mind started to roll like a movie film, replaying all the scene in the manga which i have read.

Like any of the insomniac will do, (not popping sleeping pill, you goons!) I started to psychoing myself with anything i can think off to empty my mind, which including counting the sheeps, alphebets, in ascending and descending, getting up and clear my bladder etc. but it was all useless! By the time the alarm went off showing its 530am, i was so tired yet still perfectly awake, and i have no choice but to go for an icy cold bath to stimulate my neuros.

By 630am, i am waiting for my colleague at my office's empty carpark under the dark open sky, and that started off my transboundary experience.

Frankly, it wasnt really an interesting trip, its nothing close to the so called cross country drive cum soul searching trip, with mustang or RV, accompanied by the blasting of Steppenwolf's "Born to be wild". In contrast, It was a hectic one day business trip to Singapore, cruising the Northsouth Highways with petty scenery of endless palm oil plantation fields at both side, while the one who suffered the most is my poor Myvi.

We stopped for a car-check at Yong Peng town, Johor, as the steering wheel was vibrating like an old man with parkinson whenever it hits 100km/hour. It turned out that the balancing was off and the front tyres had worn off and you can literally see the wires sticking out. The workshop owners told me that the tyre will surely busted if we continue our long distance journey. I have no choice but to pay for RM320 to change the front tyres.

While waiting for the car to be fixed, we went for a bowl of the famous Yong Peng's HockChew FishBall, which was claimed to be one of the bounciest fishballs. While slurping the noodle soup and biting the fishballs, i cant helped but noticing that the town was so old and under developed, there was no sign of economic vibrancy except a few old man sitting in the chinese restaurant watching the tele. My colleague told me that the town used to be blooming with tourist as those days the express busses used to stop at Yong peng for a break, however when the North South Highway was built, the town lost its crowd and was soon forgotten in time .



Well, at least the meatball soup was still quite good.

We reached Singapore, Orchard at around 1230. the shopping streets was full with crowds as it was noon time. We have our usual business lunch with the counterparts and time flies, by the time we finished our discussion, it was the time to hit the road again.

The rest of the 5 hours drive was dreadful, both of us had reached the limit of our sanity and we were cracking stupid jokes and talking non stop all the way back to make sure that we are both physically alert.

By 10pm, i have officially broke my personal records for driving 767 km in a day, and thank God my dear Myvi is still in one piece.

And the rest is just me and my pillow.

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Sense and sensibility

Many philosopher believe that constitution is not an identity, that very same matter can made up 2 or more concrete object of different kinds at the same time, i'm not referring to Christianity's Trinity or political constitution here (if that's what in your mind), i'm talking about the most complex and sophisticated creature on earth-women.

Many said that there is a beast in every man, but we tend to forget that sometimes women are equally scary. Man can be fearless, but when it comes to their Kryptonite-woman, they are literally armless. Basically, i would like to think that woman is constitutes of two personalities -Ms. Elinor (Sense) and Ms. Marianne (Sensibility), trapped inside the same body. You can imagine something like Dr Jekyll and Mrs. Hyde, except that both are of the same sex. Anyway you get my point.



Many perceived that woman are emotional creatures, full with ranging hormones, has a soft spot for man who sweet talks, always think with her heart and not her brain. In fact, when Adam saw Eve for the first time, he said "She shall be called "Ishsha" (a Hebrew word for Women) as she was taken out of "Ish" (man)." Translation from Hebrew for Ishsha is softness/receptivity, while Ish means Strength/initiation.

This means, 'relationality' is the role of women, whereby connecting and being receptive to senses (sensibility) was coded in women's genetic. In nature, women are more attuned to what happen in their heart (than their brain); in another words, women are born to be Ms. Marianne.

Personally, i think its a stereotype, i resent it.

History of microevolution shows that human is capable of adapting to the fast rate of environmental change for greater survivorship, which means genotype is not the sole factor that give rise to the phenotypic manifestation of women.

Easy formula from Genetic chapter 1:


Phenotype= Genotype+Environment

One of the most profound emerging phenomenon of this developing world (environnment) is that women is attainning societal power, authority, earning capabilities which previously seem as being preserve of men. The consequence is that this give rise to women of a different breed, Ms. Elinor. Men see them as bossy, autocratics who had opted out of their domestic goddess role.

Again, i think its a stereotype, i resent it.

I believe every woman has both sense and sensibility in them. It will be a total fiasco if the women of this age have their Elinor seperated from Marrianne. And frankly speaking, i dont see a problem in that, i have female friends who are successful managing directors and business women, but happily settled with their love ones who bring back less cash compare to themselves.

The question is how did they strike the balance of the two?

You can argue the fact that because in term of materials and cents wise, these ladies are self sufficient therefore they dont really bother too much whether the other half's earnings are on par or exceeding theirs. However, does the woman of this age has totally lost the feminine side of them and prioritize externals/qualification of man more than what their heart feels?

Lets put on a scenario to illustrate my point, women, if there are two guys came and approached you at the same time, one with a highly paid executive job, not heart-achingly handsome but is stable and able to fill up the deep insecurity ravine in your heart, someone like John Cusack maybe. While the other one is a pretty laidback chap with less cash in the pocket, but he can make you go all mushy inside by writing and singing a love song to you like Kris Allen, or John Mayer, or Jason Mraz, or all in one.

John Cusack, and the Kris-John-Jason combi (i know my photoshop skill is bad)

Who would you choose?

The fact is the answer may be vary pretty drastically from person to person. Given a choice, doesnt matter is Mr. A or B, I'll go for the guy who, one day or forty years from now, can say, "You remember that time, it wasnt funny back then."

and then we both laugh together.

Neither a love song nor money can buy moments like that. Women needs a man whom they can laugh together and sharing this life together, let it be full of thorns or bed of roses.

I probably don't have a definite answer on how to balance the two, but my point is, there is a very little difference between the women and men in terms of feelings we are going through. We have virtually the same needs and pains (although the way of dealing is different). Man, if you were given the same question on whether you will choose Ms. Elinor or Ms. Marianne, probably the answer that came out will be the same as what the women would give.

So figure it out your own.

Ok, thats sound very philosophical, you heard my answer yet you dont.