I was having dinner with Lone a couple of days ago, and this hypothetical question just popped into my head. I wondered what Lone's take on it was, so I asked him,

"If a genie appeared right now, and said you'd have to choose either one of these two choices, which would you pick? One, you'd be filthy rich and gorgeous but stupid, and you'd drop dead in ten years. Two, you'd live to be a hundred years old, healthy and knowledgable, but you'd be poor and ugly."

Hypothetically speaking, if you picked the first choice, you would never have to worry about working or losing weight or being healthy or anything, you'd just be naturally rich and gorgeous, and you'll never suffer a sick day until the day, ten years later, you drop dead. But you'd also be stupid til the day you die, no matter how many books you try to read and no matter what you try to learn.

If you picked the second choice, you'd never have a sick day too, you'll have a long healthy life, and you'd be the wisest, most knowledgable person, but you'll never be able to make yourself rich, despite all your knowledge. You'd be poor and humble, and really ugly, but you don't have to worry about food or shelter because you will always have the bare necessities.

So what would your choice be?

I asked Lone.

He took a very very long time to think... but finally he answered, "I'll take the second choice."

"Why?" I asked.

Well, he said, I don't mind being ugly, and as long as all my bare necessities are provided, I don't mind being poor. I'm just thinking about what I would be able to do with each choice, and I feel that I'd be able to do more with the second choice, because I'd be wise and knowledgable. I would be able to help people.

Aww...what a swell guy. He wants to help people and make the world a better place. =)

Then he asked me which would I choose.

Initially, when I asked him the question, I didn't know what my answer would be too. But while he was taking such a long time to think, I thought about what my choice would be.

And I told him,

At first, I thought of taking the first choice, because I couldn't stand being hideous, and I don't mind dropping dead in ten years as long as I didn't suffer. It's not about how long you live, after all, it's about the quality of your life. And then I realized, no way... if I took the first choice, I'd be stupid no matter how I try. What kind of quality would my life have then?

So I decided, I'd rather have knowledge than beauty and wealth.

For purely selfish reasons.

I wasn't thinking like Lone, about how he could help others if he was wise and knowledgable.

I simply value the pursuit of knowledge above all else. It's of secondary importance to me whether my knowledge help others or not, or even if I did anything with it. What I wanted, was just to learn as much as I could absorb.

So...

What would your choice be?

I love Blake Lewis!! =D

Just wanted to say that.

He is so talented!! I love his creativity, his musical sense, his moves, his style...

I think I'm in love.... *dreamy sigh*

Seriously... what an awesomely talented musician...

If anyone knows his number, please let me know k. I'll make sure you get invited to our Christmas dinners after we're married. ;)

................

On a serious note though, I think Melinda is the best singer of them all, and she deserves to win. She's got the best control, which I really respect. A powerful voice, which is definitely good in AI. She really makes you *feel* the song, she's never given a single boring performance, and you're constantly amazed at what she can do with her voice.

Yeah sure, she's a little challenged on the looks department, but this isn't a beauty contest after all. And when it comes to singing, she is the best out of everyone that has ever been in AI in the last six seasons.

She probably won't sell the most records, I think Blake will sell a lot more than her, but giving credit where credit is due... Melinda is *the* best.

My other favourites are Jordin Sparks and Chris Sligh. I think Jordin has huge potential, I love her voice. And Chris is a musical performer and just really likable.

Most of the others are boring... and I think it's time for Sanjaya to go home.

It's a year for marriages.

I've got four couples I know getting married, and who knows? I'll probably hear about more as the year goes by.

Signs that we're growing up.

I'm already an aunt (from cousins, not my brother), I'm looking forward to more nieces and nephews.

I'm a quarter of a century old.

Eventually it'll be my turn to get married, and then I'll have kids of my own.

Eventually my kids will have kids of their own, and I'll be a grandmother.

Enjoy your youth. Live your life to the fullest. Don't waste a single wonderful moment.

Time doesn't wait for you to be ready to live. Soon time will have passed you by if you're not careful. And once you have lost time, you can never get it back.

Enjoy this moment while it last. Enjoy every moment that will eventually come.

Life is meant to be enjoyed. Enjoy it.

I've been reading a lot about the SPM results in the newspaper the last couple of days, ever since the results came out.

So we have students taking 17, 18, 19 subjects and getting all A's, or getting mostly A's, or getting really great results out of the many subjects they signed up for. Good for them!

My first question, out of annoyance at what a big deal they're making out of this, is, who the hell cares?!

My second question, out of concern of how this would affect our future children, is, what kind of message are we sending out to our future generations?

Ok, so it's good to celebrate the 'intelligence' of all these over-achievers, but if it was me, I'd only feature it in a small article, like a by-the-way kind of thing, as in, 'By the way, so-and-so got a hundred A's for their SPM. Wow! Let's applaud them for an achievement of a 'life-time'.'

Oops, sorry. Was my sarcasm a little too thick for you to wade through?

Seriously, what are their reasons for taking up so many subjects in the first place? Do they need to do it? Will it really help them in their future? Other than the fact that they prove themselves to be show-offs and over-achievers for taking a lot of unnecessary subjects(keyword here being 'unnecessary'), what else do they prove?

Will they get better jobs in the future? Maybe, but not necessarily. If I was an employer hiring them, it would tell me that they were good at taking orders and could juggle many tasks at a time, but it wouldn't prove that they would be good leaders, or creative and resourceful when it came to solving a problem. And in fact, seeing all the unnecessary subjects they've taken, I would think, is this the kind of person that will take the long way around to achieve something, when they could've achieved the same thing with less effort and manpower, and in less time? In other words, efficiency.

Good results at school can only take you so far, but it won't take you the rest of the way. And we know all too well, there is so much further for you to go after you've finished studying.

The amount of publicity given to this SPM results thing is ridiculous. Getting great results for SPM is *not* an achievement of a lifetime, it is *nothing* in the whole scheme of things. It might get you a good job, and that's it. Nothing you studied for at school will apply to living in the real world. And no one will even care that you were top student in the whole of Malaysia in a couple of years when you come out into the working world. Do you think your employer will actually introduce you to everyone he knows proudly as the person who got the most A's in 20**? He doesn't care! He only cares if you do your job well.

Look, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying it's a bad thing to do well in school. As someone who enjoys learning, I could never put education down. So it's definitely not a bad thing to do well in school, but it's not a life-and-death thing either. And my problem is that, this is the message we're sending out.

Get a 17-19 A's in school, and everyone will coo and praise you. Get 10-17 A's, and you get a pat on your back. Get 5A's, and you'll get 'oh, well'. Get less than 5 A's, you get sympathetic noises. What is that?!

Do you know the amount of pressure this kind of publicity causes the rest of the world who don't do as well? Doesn't anyone remember a couple of years ago when a student *committed suicide* because she didn't get all A's?! Fuck it! She got better results than me and she committed suicide! And I was perfectly happy with my results. In fact, I was indifferent about it because to me, numbers on a paper doesn't define who I am, or my intelligence and ability.

It's stupid!

That girl was a perfectly intelligent and capable person, who could've had a bright future in front of her. She committed suicide because of all the pressure put on her to get meaningless A's on an exam that wouldn't have mattered nuts when she's in the working world.

Imagine the pressure within a family, when the parents expect a younger child to do as well as an older child did. Imagine how a child would feel when he couldn't achieve what his sibling did. Imagine the insecurity, the low self-confidence and self-worth he feels because 'my parents love (sibling) more because he's smarter than me', or because 'I'm stupid, I'm not smart enough, I couldn't get enough A's', or 'my parents will be so disappointed in me'. Imagine what kind of person he's going to grow up to be because in his mind, he wasn't good enough.

I've had it with all this hype about the SPM over-achievers. We need to start focusing more on the emotional intelligence of our children rather than just their education.

Guess what I've been reading?

I've just been introduced to Holly's Inbox by a fellow bookcrosser, and now I'm hooked!

If you like chic lit, and if you're a fan of Bridget Jones' Diary and other such books, you'll love this too.

This is a book told in the form of emails, which might have already been done, but not the way they're doing it. Go take a look for yourself and see. It's available online at Holly's Inbox and it looks just like an actual outlook inbox!

I started late last week, so I had time to go through the previous four weeks' emails during the weekend. I finished it on Saturday, and waited so impatiently for this week's emails that I kept refreshing the page every few hours! Blek...=P

What can I say? I'm a geek?

As you can see, I was in a survey/quiz mood yesterday.

Actually, I was in the posting pix mood, but the pix took so long to load that I got really tired of waiting and decided to do some surveys instead.

I wouldn't even have done the surveys except that I thought my blog was getting a little bit too serious with all the deep thinking and stuff. I don't know what's up with me...maybe my brain's making up for lost time. LOL! During the last couple of months when I didn't think too much?

But not really either. I think I have been thinking a lot. All the while. It's just that I wasn't so tired and I had a lot of free time, that's why I had time to about other mundane stuff too.

Uploading pictures usually take me about two hours, coz I upload a lot of them at a go, so I haven't been posting pix because I haven't had two hours to upload them.

And I have been getting back on my feet and trying to work hard *and* smart.

I've been neglecting a lot of my passions lately because of work. Late last year it was the other way around, I neglected a lot of my work for my passions, but I realized that my work was deteriorating. So when I decided to get back on track and work harder and my passions got neglected, I realized that it's my time management problem.

That's the problem with being your own boss. No one to tell you what to do and when to do it. Only you can decide what you want, and how to get what you want, what to do to get it, when to do it...etc. And guess what? There's no guide book.

So I go by trial and error. It's kinda exciting, actually. I love writing my own life, I love being in charge, I even 'love' making mistakes! Because then I can analyze where I went wrong and how I can improve on them!

It's mentally stimulating and I'm excited everyday, wondering how my 'experiments' are going to turn out.

I'm not the best or the smartest or the most experienced, and if I compare myself to so many of my peers, I know I'll probably come out lacking. But what I love about living life, is that everyday is a new day, everyday is a fresh start, everyday I have an opportunity to be better than I was yesterday. And that makes me excited.

I'm sure you know, sometimes I have my down times too. And I'm not proud of those weak moments, but I try to cut them down, and like I said, everyday I'm improving. I can be petty, jealous, impatient, lazy, greedy... And sometimes I hate the world and the people in it.

But never for long.

I love life. I love this world, with all its wonders *and* horrors. I love creating my future. And I think most people are generally good and nice, and whatever faults they have... well, it's not as if I'm perfect either. The only thing we can do is try to be better than we were before.

It helps a lot when you have someone to support you. I have had such a hard and confusing time recently, but my bf was always there for me. He was the one who helped me get back my happiness, my love for life, my reason and ambition and motivation.

When you hang around a lot with someone whose positive energy is strong, and who's always on the go, who's always improving himself, you get motivated too. And you feed off his energy, and he feeds off yours. You feel alive! You're always ready for anything!

I remember how it felt like to be with someone whose 'battery' was always low. I always had to work extra hard to charge him up, while he resisted all my efforts to help him. It really took a lot out of me, and I always felt tired, irritable and drained.

It was the most tiring relationship I ever had.

I'm glad I'm now with someone who always makes me feel alive. It's such a great feeling, knowing that you can always count on him and he will never ever let you down. And I feel blessed and lucky to have him.

Life is a really funny thing. It's amazing how some small change can have such a big effect.

I loving it. =)

Your Quirk Factor: 53%

You're a pretty quirky person, but you're just normal enough to hide it. Congratulations - you've fooled other people into thinking you're just like them!

How Quirky Are You?

The True You

You want your girlfriend or boyfriend to be more relaxed, calm, and composed. With respect to money, you spend as little as possible. You think good luck depends on maintaining good relationships with others. The hidden side of your personality tends to be methodical in your ways - with trouble adapting to the rules of society. You have a tendency to overdo things, but basically you value your friendships highly. When it comes to finding a romantic partner, you base your search on information from your friends.

Who's The True You?

Your Taste in Music:

90's Alternative: Highest Influence Adult Alternative: Highest Influence 90's Pop: High Influence 90's Rock: High Influence 80's Pop: Medium Influence

How's Your Taste in Music?

You Are a Chick Rocker!

You're living proof that chicks can rock You're inspired by Joan Jett and the Donnas And when you rock, you rock hard (Plus, you get all the cute guy groupies you want!)

What Kind of Rocker Are You?

You Are a Auditory Learner

You tend to remember what you hear, and you have a knack for speaking well. You excel at debating, foreign languages, and music. You would be an excellent diplomat - or rock star!

What's Your Learning Style?

Your Seduction Style: Fantasy Lover

You know that ideal love that each of us dreams of from childhood? That's you! Not because you posess all of the ideal characteristics, but because you are a savvy shape shifter. You have the uncanny ability to detect someone's particular fantasy... and make it you. You inspire each person to be an idealist and passionate, and you make each moment memorable Even a simple coffee date with you can be the most romantic moment of someone's life By giving your date exactly what he or she desires, you quickly become the ideal lover. Your abilities to make dreams come true is so strong, that you are often the love of many people's lives. Your ex's (and even people you have simply met or been friends with) long to be yours. No doubt you are the one others have dreamed of... your biggest challenge is finding *your* dream lover.

What Kind of Seducer Are You?

You Should Paint Your Room Blue

Peaceful and soothing, blue rooms have been known to reduce blood pressure. Your blue room will encourage deep rest and great sleep. A blue room is the perfect oasis for a stressful life.

What Color Should You Paint Your Room?

Libra - Your Love Profile

Your positive traits: You are open minded enough to date outside your typical "type" ... successfully! You are diplomatic - and likely to end a fight instead of dragging things out. You are easily loyal and faithful, but only for the right person. Your negative traits: You're a bit gullible, and partners take advantage of you. You still may not know it. You find it difficult to decide where to go to dinner, what movie to watch, who to date... You have to be in a relationship, or else you just don't feel like yourself. Your ideal partner: A smooth talker who enjoys socializing as much as you to. Someone classy and cultured who knows which wine to order with dinner. Is beautiful to you - although not necessarily attractive in the traditional sense. Your dating style: Romantic. If your date comes bearing flowers, wine, and poetry... well, your heart soars. Your seduction style: Giving. Your lover's pleasure is as important as your own. Soft and sensual - you don't like anything to be rough. Extravagant ... your fantasy involves staying at a five star hotel with your love. Tips for the future: Don't be so quick to compromise in relationships - and you'll get taken advantage of yes. Try being single for a while. Seems impossible, but you'll learn so much about yourself from doing so. Make some decisions about your romantic life, right now. You'll be happy that you did. Best color to attract mate: Green Best day for a date: Wednesday

What's Your Love Profile?

Your Dominant Thinking Style: Visioning

You are very insightful and tend to make decisions based on your insights. You focus on how things should be - even if you haven't worked out the details. An idealist, thinking of the future helps you guide your path. You tend to give others long-term direction and momentum.

What's Your Thinking Style?

Your Chances of Being a Multimillionaire: 68%

You have a good chance of being a multimillionaire. Better than most people. You simply have a natural knack for money and the personality for success.

Will You Be a Multimillionaire?

Your 2005 Song Is

Since You've Been Gone by Kelly Clarkson "But since you've been gone I can breathe for the first time I'm so moving on" In 2005, you moved on.

What Hit Song of 2005 Are You?

What Your Hands Say About You

You are logical, analytical, and rational. You have good verbal skills. Flexible and broad minded, you can fit in to any situation. There's no telling where your life will take you. Consistent and reliable, you like to count on structure and routine in your life. Your emotions tend to be relaxed and uncomplicated. You don't read too much into things.

What Do Your Hands Say About You?

Your Personality is Somewhat Rare (ISFP)

Your personality type is caring, peaceful, artistic, and calm. Only about 7% of all people have your personality, including 8% of all women and 6% of all men You are Introverted, Sensing, Feeling, and Perceiving.

How Rare Is Your Personality?

It seems like I've been having a lot of thoughts and opinions lately. Maybe I think too much. And that's not always a good thing.

See, sometimes I think I've 'settled down' somewhat with an opinion or a decision on a particular topic, and then I'm stable for a while. But then I'd just have to re-think and re-evaluate my judgements, and then I'm lost again while trying to figure out where exactly I stand with all my ideas and values.

Would it be better if I was just a simpleton, with simple thoughts and simple needs? Live, eat, sleep, work, procreate, and that's it? It would be a really simple life. An easy one. An uncomplicated one. Which is kinda what I'm going for.

I used to think that I'd never want to be a simpleton. I'm a curious person; I want to know how things work, I want to know why things happen, I want to know about things. I just want to *know* more. I couldn't possibly live my life blindfolded. I want my eyes to be wide open. I want to see everything, the good, the bad, *and* the ugly. I believe I'm strong enough to take everything I see objectively and understandingly.

And I still believe that.

I don't like to follow where the herd goes. I like to take the road less travelled. I don't want the easy way out. I'm strong enough to follow my own path.

But you know, sometimes I wish I wasn't so... strong. =P

It would be so easy to just go with the flow...but me, I like to make waves.

*smirk*

Oh well, you can't have your cake and eat it too.

It's early in the morning, and I'm still awake.

I've just stayed up reading a book(chick-lit just for entertainment, mind you), and I thought I was sleepy but I just couldn't get to sleep. So here I am, blogging...about nothing in particular.

Why do people get insomnia?

So anyway, I came online for a while, to browse some sites and try to bore myself to sleep, but I came across an article about incest between a brother and a sister. The brother was adopted into another family, and only met his sister after he went looking for his birth family. So yeah, they knew they were related when they started the relationship.

Go here to read the full story.

It got me thinking, you know. I mean, I would never ever *EVER* wanna be with my brother. Ick. Yuck. Puke.

And I don't really approve of the above story, since they had four kids, two of which are disabled.

But we've seen too many movies and read too many stories about brothers and sisters who were adopted, meeting each other, falling in love, and later finding out they're related. (I've written a story based on this plot myself.) And you really wonder, what if? What if the person you're in love with was your parent's lovechild from long ago? What if you found out you were adopted and it turned out the person you love is related to you? What would you do?

Could you really give up the love of your life? Just because he or she happened to be related to you?

Let's remember why there are laws against incest in the first place; firstly, inbreeding causes deterioration of genes, and there will be a higher chance of inbred children being disabled; secondly, prevention of rape between brother-sister/father-daughter/etc... the caregivers being the one to hurt you.

With the second point: in any case, rape is a crime, whether it's between strangers or between relatives. So that's kind of a weak point. If a person is going to be a rapist, they wouldn't care whether they raped a relative or a stranger, they'd still be committing the same crime.

I believe that everyone has a right to happiness, as long as they don't hurt anyone else. So if siblings loved each other romantically, if they wanted a relationship and they are both consenting adults, I think they should be able to love each other.

Some people might think that it's an unnatural union, that siblings aren't meant to be together, but honestly why not? I mean, it wasn't that long ago that we thought gays and lesbians were unnatural unions(maybe some of us still think that way), but we've accepted them, and some places have even legalized marriage between gays and lesbians. So why not siblings, if they love each other?

But like I said, everyone should have a right to be happy, but not if they hurt others, so while I think incest might be ok, I don't think that they should have children. It's unfair and irresponsible to have children when you know there's a very high chance that they could be disabled.

Gays and lesbians obviously can't have kids together, but they can adopt. And many 'normal' couples who have a history of hereditory diseases have chosen not to have kids too, and adopt instead. So why not allow siblings to love each other and be together, if they are both happy, consenting adults, and they have chosen to adopt instead of having their own kids? Why not, honestly?

I think I may be the equivalent of a dumb blonde by Asian standards.

Well, obviously since I'm Asian, I can't really *be* blonde, but you know what I mean when I say dumb blonde, don't you? Unless you're dumber than a blonde...

Ok, I'm not really dumb, but I think many people see me as one. Because I tend to give a first impression of a kinda silly, naive, cheerful, pretty, dumb, girl. And more often than not, it's the male chauvinists that put me in that category.

Yes, I smile a lot, I giggle a lot, I nod my head, widen my eyes, flutter my lashes, and seem impressed at everything you say(in the beginning), but I'm not a dumb blonde, and I do have a quite intelligent brain and an very opinionated mind, actually.

Which gets me in trouble sometimes.

You see, when I meet people, male or female, for the first time, I like to talk less and listen more, and get to know them better before I start talking too much about my knowledge or opinions or whatever. So these male chauvinists get it in their heads that they *really* like me, because I hang on to every word they say, and I smile at them, and flutter my lashes at them, and basically, make them feel really macho. So they tell me all they know about cars, and computers, and businesses, and all sorts of things, which I am not so well-versed in, and I'd be so fascinated, I'll listen to every word they say. Because I truly want to know and learn more.

And then as it usually happens when you spend more time with people, you start talking about other topics too. Maybe about music, or nutrition, or books, or whatever... topics which, while I'm definitely no expert, I consider myself quite familiar with. And then while they're talking about it and being all macho and know-it-all, I suddenly contradict them with my own knowledge and opinions on the topic, and bang! They don't know what hit them.

No, seriously! They're shocked! They thought I was this dumb, soft-spoken, feminine, sweet, simple girl that worshipped everything they said, and all of a sudden, I actually 'talked-back' to them! I actually told them they got their facts wrong, I actually *dared* to tell them I had my own opinion! Can you believe it?! God forbid! How could this sweet, simple, dumb girl have an opinion?!

They're flabbergasted.

Sighz...

I didn't realize this until quite recently actually. I'm not the argumentative kind, and I don't intentionally look for topics to debate on, and I'm not nodding my head to everything people say in the beginning because I want them to think I'm interested even though I'm not. I really am interested in the things they tell me, and I listen because I think it's fascinating. And one day it just happens that they talk about a topic which I know something about, and I just naturally tell them, 'hey, that's not how it is.'

I'm not trying to fight with them, I'm not trying to put them down, I'm not trying to show off that I know more than them or whatever. I'm just trying to get the facts straight.

But these male chauvinists...well, I guess they just couldn't take it.

Here was a girl who made them feel like gods, or so they thought, and one day, she just turned around and actually dared to tell god that he was wrong. Blasphemy!!

Then they start feeling some kind of resentment toward me, thinking I was trying to make them look bad, or put them down, or make fun of them, or whatever their low self-esteemed, insecure selves think. And then they start putting me down, or arguing with me that they're right with their facts, even when they're clearly wrong. And they stop treating me nice.

You know the good thing about male chauvinists? They tend to be over-protective of girls. They beat their chest and roar, 'I am man, I'll take care of you!' And they do! And I like that they do. They don't let anyone bully you, they walk you to your car, they pay for your meals, they open doors for you. But show them suddenly that you have a brain, and they'll stop all that in an instant.

Sometimes I feel sad, that these guys misunderstand me, and I lose a 'protector', but sometimes I feel, hey, I don't really like male chauvinists! You think I'm a simple, dumb, female? Well, I'm not! I have a brain, and I use it a lot! If you don't like that, then kiss my a**!

I wish people wouldn't take out their insecurities on other people. It's not our fault you have a bad self-image, dammit! Fix it yourself, and leave the rest of us out of it. =P