Happiest things in life

Friday is a happy day. There is another happy thing, on top of spending time with someone you love. That's to have frozen durian, in an air-conditioned bedroom, with icy cold glass of water, classical music in the background, and with nothing else to think about. Talking about pure land, to me, this is one.

Free trials beware.

There are many 'Free Trials' today. Typically, they asked you to sign up for a 'free' service for two weeks to a month, asked you for your credit card number, which 'will not be charged.' But why would they want it if they are not using it?

Without knowing, you tried and dissatisfied, stopped using the service anymore. Time passes and you have forgotten about the application. Months later, a strange item appear in your credit card bill. You do not know what is it. Vendors sometimes have a different company names from their brand, and others use another vendor to handle internet payment. How would you know? You decided to pursue and make a search on the Internet, and there you go, found that 'free' service company charging you for something you do not want! Furthermore, they have everything on their website, except something on 'How to cancel.' No links, no number to call, no FAQ.

I just had this experience from Bluemountain.com. One month trial and a $10 bill. A while ago from Surveymonkey.com for a hefty $300 bill. Surveymonkey refunded my charges but I am not sure about Bluemountain. Not to mention my past experience with credit card companies, retail memberships, and online music and videos. My web host and virtual office always remind me before deduction, why can't others do the same?

How calm is calm?

In many movies, there is a scene where a female witness a fatal accident and a kin died. Someone inevitably come by her and says, "Calm down..."

Is that really the only instance we need to calm down? How calm is calm? A karaoke singer? An office worker? A pedestrian? A cook? An artist? Or tai chi practitioner? Or a meditator?

Intensity (or lightness) of calm is meaningless without evaluating its reasons. I have a Chinese calligraphy at home. The four words are 宁静致远. It means "A calm man sees far." I believed its a missing piece within the western philosophy, that calmness is an important value for a matured and useful man. A man running around not knowing what he's doing, has little value to the society, and can even bring harm. However, I cannot discuss about calmness anymore from western standpoint due to lack of references.

In Buddhist meditation, calmness is developed in order to see things with clarity. There is a description for the level of calm one ought to attain, but not beyond. For any calmer, one looses the ability to contemplate, but rather indulge in a long period of mindless bliss. Buddhists called it the 4th dyana (or concentration). At 4th dyana, the state of mind is known as equanimity. Meaning one is able to see things as equal without biases. Thus one see things as they are.

Seeing things as they are is one of the most valuable principle in our life. Seeing yourself terminated at your job, and seeing it as it is, you see that you are incompatible with that job or the colleagues, and you may even see it coming. You would take it easy and go off gracefully. Everyone will be happy. In fact, seeing things as it is, you may not even take up the job in the first place, and may have found your ideal job.

Developing calm should be a lifelong preoccupation. 4th dyana is for meditators only. Without the help of meditation, there would be no limit of calmness in our daily activity. You should be as calm as you can be.

Here comes another problem. Is calmness = inactivity? If so, we cannot exercise or work furiously in the midst of calm, yet we need to do these in different situation. So what shall we do? I do not intent to answer these questions here at this point. So this is for you to contemplate, calmly.

More on Minister's pay hike

The prime minister’s press secretary said Lee’s decision to freeze his salary was not a response to opposition to the salary hike.

“The fact is it was a decision taken up front even before the announcements of pay revision,” Chen Hwai Liang told AFP.

http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2007/apr/13/yehey/opinion/20070413opi6.html

'Decision taken up front even before the announcements of pay revision (was made)' sounds familiar. Didn't they say that when PAP increase the GST by 2% point after the election? Don't think 'wayward,' that is to cover our 'R&D expenses,' not for the salary increase.

both Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong and Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew who earned $2.7 million each last year, will now get paid $3.04 million each.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/269330/1/.html

I don't understand why Goh and Lee are still getting paid. Aren't they have stepped down? Freelancing from home?

A nation is judge by its Prowess versus Conduct, rather than just its Conduct.

The US is perceived by many as an international bully, a modern day imperial power. At this critical moment in history, Washington correspondent Justin Webb challenges that idea ... ...

"A pattern was emerging and has never seriously been altered. A pattern of willingness to condemn America for the tiniest indiscretion - or to magnify those indiscretions - while leaving the murderers, dictators, and thieves who run other nations oddly untouched." -- Washington correspondent Justin Webb comments citing the example of what his mom thought of Americahttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6547881.stm

I do not think I would agree with Justin. This argument stands at face value, but not when considering the effects of American prowess. I do not think his mom cites American as an outlaw has anything to do with whether America stood out as the worst of all 'murderers, dictators, and thieves.' Rather, it has to do with the proportion of Prowess versus Conduct. While there are worse 'murderers, dictators, and thieves,' they also have less prowess to influence the world. Many large countries can easily crash these rouges if they in fact act indiscriminately. An example is Afghanistan. However, America prowess if beyond any single nation to control. Its bad conduct in the recent years is certainly unsettling.

Singapore PM's salary stuns White House official

A senior White House official on Tuesday admitted he was floored by the news that Singapore's prime minister earned five times more than US President George W. Bush.

"I'm going to emigrate and run for office in Singapore," the official said on condition he be identified only as "a senior administration official who sits in disbelief after reading that story."

On Monday, the Singapore government had announced a fresh 25.5 percent pay hike for Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, boosting his salary to 2.05 million dollars per year.

Bush gets paid 400,000 dollars per year for doing his job, according to the White House.

Combined with personal investment income, he and his wife Laura reported 618,694 dollars in taxable income in the 2005 fiscal year. They had to pay 187,768 dollars in federal taxes.

But maybe Bush shouldn't feel so bad. The Singaporean's paycheck is eight times fatter than Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's.

http://www.france24.com/france24Public/en/administration/afp-news.html?id=070410224859.y9p7eriw&cat=null

Playing too much WOW?

Here's what posted on http://wow.allakhazam.com/ today.

How do you know you have been playing too much World of Warcraft?
You drive past a police car and wonder if you aggroed it.

"Aggro" is a term used in MMORPG’s to denote that a monster has or will become hostile towards a PC. Each creature has a specified Aggro Range/Radius. If you enter within that range, the creature will attack you. "Aggro" can also mean you are the focus of a monster’s attention/attacks, ie: "I have aggro!" http://www.blizzard.com/support/wowgm/?id=agm01076p

The Wisest of Wise Acts Like a Fool

How does one reacts, when he sees the world as it truly is, beyond control, complex as it is, and where things are presented to one often not by choice but by luck. How does one face the future and what does one strive for, when one sees his own actions as futile, and has little influence on the state of the world?

In ancient China, during the warring era, there was a very famous strategist, Gui Guzi (Sage of the Ghost Valley). He had cultivated two disciples, Su Qin and Zhang Yi, both equally capable. In those days, there are seven great nations. Qin was the strongest and the other six were becoming weaken due to weak leadership. Su Qin and Zhang Yi were about to make their mark within these seven nations. Su Qin, being rejected at Qin, worked for the other six nations, laying out a brillant plan and convinced the six nation to unite against the Qin. Qin was terrified. Using this opportunity, Zhang Yi presents himself to them and presented the strategy of disintegrating the alliance. Zhang Yi was welcomed into Qin and became the Premiere. Under Zhang Yi's diplomatic brilliance taking advantage of the Six Nations' weaknesses, the alliance was broken. Qin united China years after.

Is Zhang Yi better than Su Qin? Without Su Qin's success, Qin will not use Zhang Yi. Without Su Qin's brillance, Zhang Yi has no place to show his brilliance. In fact, once Su Qin failed, Zhang Yi did not keep his place for very long. If Qin had accepted Su Qin in the first place, Su Qin would be the one becoming the Premiere, and Zhang Yi would have to work for the other six nations. What is brilliance and what is luck?

Knowing this, the wise may live out his days knowing that chaos and dependency is the rule of the world, knowing that they also being beautiful surprises, and be weary of the not so pleasant things.

Caring but not too much

We often care about the work we do, and whether it will be successful. A lesson I learnt is:

How we usually thinks:
Work hard --> Issues --> Work harder --> Success --> Happiness

What usually happens:
Work hard --> Issues --> Work harder --> More issues --> Resolution --> Politics --> Hopelessness --> Complains --> What a mess --> Report out --> Close an eye --> Phew... what a year --> Can we write a nice paper on this?

Often the more we care, issues and political issues may turn stronger on us. Time, patience, and indifference may work better in many cases.

1. Care, but be mindful that each individual can only do so much.
2. Care, but be mindful that you need to convince many, which will delay the process by years.
3. Care, but be mindful that others may have hidden intentions.
4. Care, but be mindful that you may not be right.
5. Care, but take one step at a time. Be weary you may step on other people's toes.
6. Care, but act as if you can let go anytime.
7. Care, but care about people as well. We are human after all.

Why work?

Work can drive one crazy. The more you work, the more you inculcate the values of efficiency, effectiveness, and competitiveness. These values subconsciously get used in other parts of your life - your holidays, weekends, and evenings. Either we keep two alternate values in life, one for work, one for off-work, or we need to find something more encompassing.

The value of life, according to Chinese, is harmony with everything, and in that we need to be selfless. Selflessness is a way we conduct, not referencing just to the self, but to everything within the ecology - the people, the plant, the environment.

Its easy to say, hard to accomplish. What's one's dream, when one do not reference that only to him? Where can you go to pursue it when everyone is hoping you could stay? How does the self function when it cannot be found?

However, selflessness does not mean no self. The self is part of the ecology. And every decision made has to also consider this self. When a decision has to be made, which result is good for the self, and does no harm to the ecology, it does not defy the principles of selflessness.

At work, act selflessly. At home, act selflessly. Then we become in harmony with the environment.

(Have I achieved it? No! This is my encouragement to myself.)