If all goes well, he’ll be leaving in a few months’ time. Had no idea what possessed me to do this: pick up the mic and record this Elvis Presley’s song, Love Me Tender. I thought it was the perfect song. Never mind the echo-ey feel in it…or how the tune repeats itself over and over again. It means SOMETHING.

Warning: I’m an amateur and hence, I sing like one. Don’t expect anything close to what you see in a certain reality TV show.

Another one of those things that irk me constantly - the “brain drain” issue.

All this talk about bringing back M’sian doctors and scientists from abroad pisses me off. What about the ones here back at home? What about non-science people like myself? Don’t we make up this country as well?

*ugh*

With reference to Choi Tuck Wo’s article, “Why they don’t want to come home” in your most recent issue of the Sunday Star, I would concur with the conclusions drawn except that I would like to stress that the government should take notice of “local smarts” – equally intelligent people who are already at home “serving their country”.

I look at newspapers reports, headlines and I ask myself, “What about those of us who are already back at home helping in our own little way? The TV director. The reporter. The PR manager. The writer. The musician. What about these people?”

All this talk about bringing back scientific people saddens me because we can also learn so much from the social sciences and the arts. We talk about instilling creativity and innovation into our young people yet we ignore the very champions of creativity – the writers, the artists, the thespians. We talk about lifelong knowledge and learning yet we ignore the historians and the educators. We talk about making a change in the way we think but we still subscribe to the thinking that “sciences are always better”.

What about coming up with provisions to better care for our people back at home? Those of us who have returned and are “serving their country”. Why not work also to prevent these talents from leaving instead of just concentrating on those who have left already?

Doctors, scientists and businesspeople aren’t the only ones who make up a nation. Do not forget the nuts that hold the wheel together.

I decided to drop a lovenote to the editors of The Star, NST and The Sun about the attitude and behaviour of our MPs in Parliament. I think these “leaders” owe it to the people to behave like civilised individuals and not a couple of uneducated, uncoathed and ignorant beings. After all, they represent us and I doubt we are all those negatives.

Referring to the matter of MPs’ use of expletives and sweeping remarks about “gatal divorcees” in Parliament recently, I would like to draw the attention of our leaders to one thing: they are the representatives of the people and as such, are bound by rules of good conduct and manner. This includes manners of speech and decorum in public places. Why? Because their “bad” behaviour reflects on us in the global arena. The last thing any M’sian here wants, I’m sure, is to have a foreigner read about “gatal divorces” online and assume the worst of us - narrow-minded and all.

The use of expletives hardly proves a point; it merely highlights the emotions of the individual who could be under duress or simply annoyed at a group of people. While MPs are merely human, such emotions displayed during a debate or parliamentary proceeding is hardly respectful to all MPs and especially to the public represented. Instead it shows a lack of maturity and decency. I’m sure our proceedings in Parliament are very different from the Taiwanese MPs.

In this day and age of globalisation where a single cartoon done in “bad taste and bad faith” can launch riots and boycotts half a world away, leaders ought to learn from the mistakes of their overseas peers - the excuse “it was taken out of context” is old. One can never be too careful with one’s words, and sweeping statements are hardly appropriate anymore. You may never know who you end up insulting and thinking before speaking always helps.

I like to believe that Malaysians are generally matured, eloquent and rational, not giving in too easily to the heat of the moment even our leaders. Let us be shining examples for our youths and children - after all, aren’t we in the middle of a “Malaysians are a courteous lot” campaign?

Lets see if they publish this.

“As the water shapes itself to the vessel that contains it, so a wise man adapts himself to circumstances.” - Confucious

We all complain - for a number of reasons ranging from fear of the unknown to just for the sake of complaining. Complain about toilets, toilet paper, country, people, race, religion, sports, work (just went through huge amounts of it yesterday), partners, and family. We talk about how uncomfortable we feel. How weird the situation is. How inconsiderate the others have been towards them. How wronged they were.

We bitch. We whine. We moan…without realizing that at the end of the day, without change, we would never be where we are today - good or otherwise.

Lets face it.

When we complain, we spend copious amounts of time complaining about something that has changed, something that was different than what was expected. Our comfort zones are no longer defined by old rules, borders and ideals. We are, instead, bombarded by new things. We wonder what will happen to our futures? We wonder what path we should take in order to cope with such changes…

Some of us take a different path and accept these changes as a challenge. They embrace change and complaints take a back seat.

Some of us take the less-different path and fight these changes as first before realizing that behind every change, there is a whole mound of opportunities. So we quit the whining/complaining and we adapt even though the process is painful and long.

Others look at these changes and see nothing but misery, evil and above all, misfortune. They walk the “smooth” path, crying, wondering and then grumbling through the entire journey. Grumbling non-stop, churning out all sorts of reasons for them being so uncomfortable with the whole idea of change until finally, when they realize that there is nothing they can do, they settle down and begrudgingly take on the task.

Sometimes I wonder why we just complain instead of taking a more proactive stand towards change. Sometimes I wonder why people find it so hard to accept change. Isn’t life constantly changing and evolving, just as how people are?

I really don’t blame them, those who picked the third “smooth” path. Complaining is way easier than making the effort to pick up oneself and move on. After all, growing flowers from shit takes more effort and time than complaining about the stink of the shit itself.

If anything, yesterday’s events showed me a few things about myself and about life in general: sometimes there is only so much you can complain about before it starts reflecting badly on yourself, before you start looking like the unadaptable, inflexible one.

Time to move on and adapt.

Even though the thought kills you.

Seriously.

Whoever said it is easy obviously has no idea what he/she is talking about. Let me show you what I’ve been learning since Day One until today, from Level One to now (Level Five).

Note: If there are mistakes, please don’t mind me. I’ve had a very tiring day. T.T

Level 1 (present tenses, possesive nouns, imperative verbs, indefinite articles)

Lundi, je vais à Paris avec mon ami Frédéric. Nous prenons le train. Mardi, à Paris, nous allons à l’aéroport. Frédéric va à New York et il prend l’avion du matin. Moi, je prends l’avion à midi. Je vais à Londres.

Level 2 (indetermined quantities, pronouns, expressions of quantity, past tense)

Au petit déjeuner, il boit du chocolate, du lait ou du café sucré. Il mange des oeufs, du pain avec du beurre et dela confiture. À midi, il va au restaurant : il prend de la viande avec des frites, du fromage et des fruits, de l’ananas avec de la crème. Il boit du vin.

Le soir, il dîne chez lui : il mange de la charcuterie, du fromage et des gâteaux. Il boit de la bière.

Level 3 (demostrative adjectives, adjectives, past tenses involving movement)

Le jeune femme est arrivée à la gare de Toulouse à 18 h. Elle est descendue du train, elle est allée dans un café et elle a téléphoné. À 18 h 18, un homme est arrivé dans une voiture rouge. L’homme est descendu de la voiture. La femme est sortie du café. Et ils partis.

Level 4 (comparisions, prepositions for countries [yes, they are different], pronouns - Complément Direct (COD) and Complément Indirect (COI), future tenses)

Sample 1 : Madame, vous pouvez regarder. Est-ce que quelque chose vous plaît ? Cette robe ? Vous pouvez l’essayer, les cabines sont derrière vous.

Sample 2 : Rien, n’est facile ! Je suis amoureux de Corinne. Je lui écris tous les jours, je lui téléphone, mas je l’intéresse pas. Qu’est-ce que je dois faire ?

NOW… (so far, simple future tenses, complex negative, and imperfect tenses)

Quand j’etais enfant, je détestais l’école. Je préférais faire du vélo dans la campagne. Je devais avoir 10 ans quand j’ai recontré Jacques. Il etait grand, il avait les yeux bleus et il portait toujours un blouson noir. Jacques aimait l’école. It répétait toujours : « Pour comprendre la vie, il faut étudier.» Un jour, il me a donné un livre : c’etait un roman de Jules Verne.

…

Today’s lesson was mind-boggling: when to use past tense and imperfect tenses. Unlike English where there are a bit of “simple” clues as to the use of imperfect tenses, in French, it involves a bit more thinking. Gah.

I think I need Nil to re-explain a few things about these two tenses before I go crazy.

Wait. I *am* already nuts. Heh.

8-}

I have been doing some thinking and mulling of lately. I toyed briefly with the idea of passwording this entire site (actually, I still haven’t given up on that thought yet). Why, one person asked. It is simply because this site has grown into what seems like a electronic personal diary.

You see, my blog has never has a noble purpose like Jeff Ooi’s, neither has it ever been anything public and wacky (in a fun, nice way) like Minishorts’. It had always been more of a diary, filled with ramblings - right or wrong, crazy or serious, mundane or important. Except that unlike most diaries, it has an audience.

I think this has changed. My readers, if there are still any left, are silent, which is an awful thing if your purpose is to engage people and illicite thoughts from them. When I bemoaned the quiet state of my blog to him, Nil said that my blog seemed more like a storage centre for my thoughts and that itself is something personal, hence people may not seem to know what to say.

“Besides, I don’t think you write to get comments or get more people to read. Your blog is just about you to dump all that excess stuff somewhere else. Otherwise, you’ll explode and I’ll get it.”

True.

Of lately, I’m beginning to tire from keeping two separate blogs. Yes, it may shock some to know that I have two blogs - this very public one and another more quiet, less open one with its comments page permenantly closed. It all started when my ex casually discovered this blog way before I even considered using WP technology. I tolerate his presence until he exploded about something I wrote. It was then that I discovered that this blog was TOO public.

Now I discovered that…

…I shouldn’t have given a damn and just password protect all entries that I didn’t want people to read about.

…I shouldn’t give a damn about what people think about the number of password protected entries I have.

…I shouldn’t give a damn about what people think of the number of times I rant and rave about things I HATE, especially a few people.

I just shouldn’t care…because at the end of the day, this blog is supposed to be something personal and close to my heart.

So really…if you come across a post whereby the comments page is closed or it’s password protected, it just means that it’s not meant for anyone else but me to read.

So I didn’t hear from them in Singapore. Never mind. I’ll just look again.

Thanks to a couple of friends, I am now slated for an interview with a mag publishing place next week. I’m hoping to get the position. At least I won’t have to drive 72km a day just to go to work and come home.

(I like my current place but the distance is just killing me ever so slowly.)

Will definitely see how it goes.