The unforeseen potential bubble in Malaysia.

1. When I was in college, I was quite fascinated when i first learned about the news of dotcom bubble bust. There were plenty of hoo-haa and the global economic landscape were looking pretty grim during that period. Yet, I do not have the complete idea of how exactly bubble bust work and what caused the bubble. Soon, i heard many other different bubbles too  like … stock bubble, property bubble, gold bubble, etc. etc. What’s obvious to me was that it seems everything which has to do with investment and money are somewhat related to … bubble.  It took me quite a while to kinda figure out the whole concept of this bubble bubble thingy. And when I did, it changed the way of how I look at Supply & Demand forever. Supply & Demand is not just one of those hundreds of not-so-practical theories we learn in economic classes. Supply & Demand is actually the fundamental of everything economics.  And if there’s one big take-away, I learned that economic bubble collapse is actually directly related to Supply & Demand.

2. I am really a simple guy. When I was in school, every meal costs only around RM3 or RM4. That was because i spent most of my time eating in cheap Chinese restaurants. When I was in college, the spending for each meal increased to around RM5 to RM7. Around 50% increase compared to my school days. I was still mostly eating at the same cheap Chinese restaurants, and occasionally at fast food restaurants and some mid-end cafe while hanging out at shopping malls. The few ringgit increase of expenditure is understandable. Inflation, that’s what we call it.

3. It has already been 3-4 years ago since I’ve started working. Now, my meal cost around RM10 on average  …. 100% increase from my college days and around 300% increase from my school days. In a typical week, I spend around 30% of my time eating at mid-end restaurants and the rest of my time eating at same cheap Chinese restaurants. Some of my friends could spend up to around RM20 per meal on average, especially those who frequent mid-end restaurants.

4.  Now the question – why does my spending on food increased so rapidly within the time span of the last 10 years? I am certainly not eating more, but I’m surely paying more and more for food. Here’s why – the increase of disposable income – I can now have the luxury to dine at mid-end restaurants more frequent than ever before. With the increase of disposable income among urban dwellers in Malaysia, suddenly, food is no longer a necessity. Food is a luxury to many. More and more of us are subscribing to the philosophy of  living to eat instead of eating to live. Food which are not tastily cooked is now one of the biggest crime to humanity (Yea. First world problems…..)

5. If we strictly look at this whole picture from a Supply & Demand point of view, it’s quite simple really. People now have more income and disposable income, hence the increase of demand for quality food, and high expectations on quality environment and quality service from restaurants. We think we deserve them because we can afford it. Naturally, more aspiring entrepreneurs will see this opportunity to invest and ‘supply’ in mid-end to high-end restaurants to meet the demand of good restaurants and good food from people. Plus, the profit margin for mid-restaurant is really good too.  When there’s an abundance of demand of mid-class restaurants, rest assured there will be influx of supply to meet them. (Because money is the prime motivation for many people in this free market system)

6. Many years ago, when Starbucks just got started in Malaysia, I thought – who the hell will pay RM7 for a cup of coffee? This sum of money can buy me a meal already! But not only I was wrong, in fact, Starbucks mushroomed like crazy year by year in Malaysia. Now, after all these years, a cup of Mocha Ice Blended cost almost RM13, and it is showing no signs of slowing down. How can this coffee shop can get away with crazy price tag of RM13 for a cup of coffee? Very simple – the power of Demand due to having huge disposable income.

7.  Recently, I was observing more on this new economic trend in eatery business. I was driving around SS2 and Damansara Uptown areas, and took some good time to observe around. What I noticed was many low-end Chinese restaurants have died off one by one and gradually replaced by mid-end restaurants. It’s safe to estimate that now, we have more mid-end restaurants around Petaling Jaya then low-end restaurants (i estimate). So, what does this tell us?

• On one hand, I think this is great because it is signalling the prosperity of our country’s economy ….. sort of like evolution – Low-end restaurants evolved or died off and replaced by mid-end restaurants because the environment allows it to happen (higher income society). From eatery business perspective, we have moved ourselves up to a higher level of status. We all can afford quality food and service now.
• But on the other hand, I’m not sure if this is just some mindless trend or fad. Maybe the income of most Malaysians didn’t really increase at all.  It is more of like .. there are many people eating at mid-end restaurants, so it’s not cool anymore to eat at low-end restaurants … and people just pay for the hefty price tag even if they are broke just for the sake of acting as though they can afford to eat good food (status/peer pressure).

8. I’m no economist. I do not have any data or analyst skills to know what’s the REAL reason low-end restaurants are dying off and rapidly replaced by mid-end restaurants. Nor do I know what will happen to Malaysia’s economy in the next 10 years.  Maybe we will continue to prosper. Or perhaps we will meet with a bad recession and economic downturn in the next few years. I don’t know. But one thing which I will dare to predict is… if Malaysia, touch wood, to get hit by a very bad recession, i foresee the collapse of many mid-end restaurants simply because Malaysian disposable income will drop, hence food will not be treated as luxury anymore during that period. People will start to see the pain of spending RM13-RM14 for a cup of coffee or for a set of meal.

9.  When an economist give a forecast that there are more Supply than Demand in a particular market, that’s how they will declare it to be a bubble. And when this high supply, low demand forecast slowly kick in as reality, then that’s when bubble bust will happen. I think mid-end restaurants are growing quite uncontrollably around Petaling Jaya. Many entrepreneurs have jumped in to this mid-end restaurant boat to ride this high disposable income wave together. It’s great if Malaysians continue to have high disposable income to sustain this demand, but if it ever comes the day when the boat is crushed by underwhelming demand, I think, it will sink pretty bad.

Day 2 : Hatyai

Many young and pretty Thai celebrities / models on TV and billboards are fair skin with chinese/japanese/luk kreung(western mixed) ancestry. That’s why many aspiring dark skin Thai girls will paint their face with Nippon Paint Weatherbond Solareflect to look like one. Ooh, i mean..whitening lotions.

Interesting stats – do you know that robberies crime rate in Malaysia is 2000% higher than Thailand? No wonder Thai girls are walking around the street alone fearlessly at night. *Gasp* culture shock.

Thai people are extremely friendly and humble … way more than Malaysians do. Salesgirls and traders genuinely thank you after purchasing from them and make no fuss when you do not buy. No punchline or sarcasm needed to justify this because Malaysian’s attitude and friendliness is starting to become a joke like Singaporeans.

Chinese influence is strong in Hatyai. Many traders know how to speak Mandarin and Hokkien or at least a word or two. Well still no difference for a typical banana PJ-boy like me who only know Cantonese. Life sucks.

Was deliberately looking for girls in tudung in McDonalds to prove my certain hypothesis. And behold! 3 Thai Muslim girls eating in McDonald’s eventhough they serve pork burger there. I wish i could relate this and further comment about the hypersensitivity of Malaysians but i can’t because the word hypersensitivity has already explained itself.

I honestly think tuk tuk is the greatest Thai invention after agogo bar, ah kua, and Bebe. Words cannot describe my fascination of how cost effective it is to transport locals and tourists around the city so well. The whole system is just perfect if you ignore the air-cond variable from the equation.

It is very common to see three No signs in shopping complexes and hotels in Hatyai. No Smoking, No Animals and No Durians. Who the fuck will ever bring durians to a shopping complex? Must be Malaysians.

Day 1 : Hatyai

I got the feeling Buddhist temples in Thailand are competing to be big and extravagant to compete for donations from tourists. Donation box is in every.bloody. corner. Business, man. Business.

Buddhism – a beautiful philosophy degraded to pure superstitious religion. The monk shouted ‘ Huat ah!’ and gave 4 digit number in the end of blessing ceremony. I swear i saw the Buddha statue /facepalm himself afterwards too.

During the blessing ceremony, i prayed of meeting Bebe aka Tanchanok Rithnaka in my hotel room tonight. Time to prove the power of your blessing, monk.

A mystery i can never solve. Why do one third of the people in Hatyai are driving pickup truck? Is this a friggin trend or because people who could afford to buy cars are mostly traders/business people who need to carry alot of stuffs or one third of thai use it for human trafficking or what? My gut tells me that it is a tasteless trend among the Hatyai-an. Sheeps.

Thai people worship thier King like a …. king. oh .. Duh. His face is in every corner of the street like a king. oh well what the hell im talking about.

Im in the land where all Thai, Chinese and Malay people speak Thai language. 1Thailand! To all racist Malaysian Chinese people, you can now stroke your ego by going to Southern Thailand and mock the Malays here as  ‘pendatang’! . oh wait i don’t think they even speak BM here. damn.

Hatyai girls are girl next door-ish, simple and … these cute girls drive motorbike everywhere. I repeat. So really cute damn  girls many on motorbike everywhere. I don’t care if the sentence don’t make sense. Finally there’s a group of girls who don’t think and treat themselves as princesses just because they are good looking.

If you are below 40 and think of going Hatyai – don’t. Seriously. Unless you have fetish to see girls on motorbikes and tuk tuks or else you will have nothing much to do other than counting how many girls are driving motorbike on the road.

Seriously, if you still dont believe me, explain where do i get all the time in the world to type all these crap insights?

The Rocking Chair and The Infinite Cycle of Life

Years ago, I read a story of an old Chinese tycoon who wrote a poem of how he enjoyed his old age by just sitting leisurely on his rocking chair everyday –  OK, long story short, basically, the rocking chair IS his happiness. What was the problem with this guy, I thought. He has his whole freaking business empire and all the money in the world, but what he only cared at that moment is sitting on his rocking chair everyday? Really? I don’t understand his point of view, until one day … when I came across some Facebook profiles of 13/14 years old kids and that’s when the realization crept in when I saw the contrast of life.

When I first came across these kids’ Facebook profile, I was mega curious of how teenagers  create and form thoughts and opinions at their age. Probably because I forgot how I did it myself last time around like 10 years ago. And so, I stalked these kids, like a pedophile, spying on their thoughts.

What I found was – the things they cared about and the things which bothered/emo’ed them are actually quite trivial to be considered a problem in my opinion.Things like homework, boys having fun by playing with chalk and duster in the classroom, their keychain broke and they emo because it was a gift from their besties, puppy love, i-don’t-want-to-be-friend-with-you etc. And of course, I was looking from the perspective of a guy who is in my mid-20′s. The maturity in me surely do allow me to see some things in which they can’t.

Hence this brought me the thought – I wonder, when I reach my 40s, will it be my turn to see things  that I cared about during my 20s were actually trivial and meaningless? When I reach my 80s, will I get to see the things that I cared about during my 40s were actually trivial and meaningless? And so on.

All these lead to the ultimate question – Is our life an infinite cycles of caring-about-trivial-things-and-then-realized-it-is-not-important-at-all as we grow older? When I’m 80, will I also reach to a stage where I’m just happy to have a rocking chair with me and everything else is no longer important?

From another angle, it seems all these are life experience which we will have to go through. It is a must, there’s no escape for we have to go through the human process of study-work-career-family-children. Just like the rich tycoon, he has achieved everything, nothing left more to be done, so he retreated to his rocking chair. However, I’m curious, if we will ultimately come to a stage where we are just happy with a rocking chair after going through all these infinite cycles, why not we just jump straight to the end and skip all the cycles? Why not just learn how to be content and love a rocking chair in our 20s and forget about everything else? Because ultimately, as mentioned, you will BE content at the end of the day and all pursuits are just illusions.

I realize the stumbling block for this is the ‘Expectation’. The demand that we live a ‘meaningful’ life, to have wealth, to have a good career, relationships, achievement, etc which explains the inevitable path which we will have to take – study-work-career-family-children which lead to this infinite cycle. We will keep demanding from ourselves, cared about the small little things, and as we grow older with more experience, we will move to a higher cycle and the level of demand will move up accordingly and we cared for slightly more significant little things. This process will just keep repeating over and over again until the day we cease our demand, cease to care for trivial things, and alas, content with the rocking chair. That’s typically when we are about to die, 70/80 years old.

I do not against living life meaningfully. Afterall, each individual have different values on what’s a meaningful life and what’s not. But I think we should ask ourselves this question more frequently with bigger awareness – Do the things we cared about today will still be important when we reach our 80s?

 

Unconditional Love

• Why do people help each other? What is the motivation behind the act of helping?
• For people who understand evolutionary psychology, the answer is apparent – we help each other for selfish purposes. We inherently seek reciprocation with other human beings.
• Reciprocation is an essential behaviour in human and the primates. It is a very sophisticated method of teamwork to ensure our own survival. I help you and you help me. I scratch your back and you scratch my back.
• People often delude themselves into thinking that they are helping other people out of their own own kindness – They believe they are compassionate, sympathetic and well, good people, and that’s why they help the others.
• FALSE! If only human being is such simple creature.
• Every time we help someone, there’s always an underlying motivation lurking behind. When we help someone, there’s always this ‘expectation’ that this person will help us back in the future when we need it.
• Hence, this is the reason why we dislike people taking our help for granted. We love to be appreciated when we offer our help to the others. We expect the other side to give back when we need it.
• What I want to point out here is simple – our intention to help others is not as ‘Pure’ as we thought.
• However, there is a group of people who, most of them, practice unconditional love. They are parents.
• Parents are one of the few groups of people in this world where they could just give, give, give and give without expecting any returns.
• Thinking very objectively, this phenomenon is rather amazing. Why do most parents care more for their own children than the neighbor’s children? Why do parents love their own children more than the neighbor’s children? Aren’t all of them children?
• Hence, in some ways, although parents practice unconditional love to children, it is actually a very ‘selective’ unconditional love. They only love and prioritize their own children. Period.
• Again, this intention of love, is selfish and not 100% pure.
• I have a theory that every single action and intention of ours when interacting with other people, to some extent, are motivated by an underlying selfish desire. Well, I know this is not a new theory since Dawkins have already been talking about it in the book “The Selfish Genes”.
• What are the three amazing lessons I learned from this observation?
  • How amazingly human are hardwired to value reciprocation, a more sophisticated level of cooperation for survival purposes. Some group of animals practice cooperation such as lions, bees, oxen, hyena, etc but none of them are as sophisticated as the behaviour of reciprocation practiced in human being.
  • How amazing human is programmed and hardwired to dislike people who do not value our help/love or people who took our help/love for granted. How we are motivated to help. How we always expect people to return the favour. How all these programmed mind-set work since birth without being thought by anyone.
  • Parents, who have the capacity to provide unconditional love, only limit their love towards their own family but could not extend this boundless love to other children and people.
• A two cent question – Will human mind ever evolve, get enlightened and break this non-purity barrier? What if everyone does not have this love barrier? Wouldn’t it be a better world? Can human develop a pure mind as comparable to Buddha and love everyone without boundary and barrier? 
• I believe we can only call our intention pure when it comes to a day when we help and love other people out of joy, compassion and kindness without expecting any returns of favour. The intention of helping others because we want to be happy. Purity.

 

 

PS: Writing a full blown 1000-2000 words essay is mega tiring and time consuming. With this point form method, blogging will be fun again. From today onwards, I’m going to start using this point form method to write. Till then.

Of Buddhism and The Philosophy of Decision Making

 

It has been 5 years since the day I started studying Buddhism philosophy. Buddha is not a divine being. Like you and me, Buddha is just a human being, a mere mortal.

Buddha became enlightened after many years of searching for the meaning of life. Buddha knew the in and out of how human mind and the environment work. In Buddha’s world, there’s no magic, no miracle, no divine power but all can be explained by using logic, common sense and wisdom.

Even after 2,500 years, his wisdom is still applicable in many area of our life. Buddha’s words always make sense to me. It might sound audacious, but I strongly believe Buddhism philosophy played and will continue to play a huge part to advance and evolve our mind.

For this little meaningless anniversary, I dedicate this essay, on how Buddhism philosophy can be applied to something we do everyday – Making Decisions.

 

 

The Meaning of Choices

“Know well what leads you forward and what hold you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom.” ~Buddha

Have you ever wished that sometimes, you do not want to make a choice? That if only things will fall and fit into places perfectly well without yourself putting much effort? As if an invisible hand helping you along, sort of like a miracle? 

The truth is, this world is not as rosy as we would love to imagine. Buddha made a point that this world is a struggle. The reality is harsh, rough and severe. You have to raise yourself up to a level where you have to take on challenges instead of letting challenges taking on you.

The world we are living in is a world where we constantly have constraint with resources. In other words, the world does not offer and give you what you want all the time.

To get something, you need to put in effort. If you keep hoping for things to happen miraculously then you are doing nothing but dreaming. The world will not give a damn about you, if you do not give a damn about putting effort. This is an eternal rule of cause and effect. If you do not love yourself, the world will not love you. If you do not put in effort on yourself, the world will not reward you.

Therefore, we have to make decisions and choices all the time.

In between choices, there will always be something to gain and there will always be something to lose. This is the law of equilibrium. The common sense is, if there’s all to gain but nothing to lose, then it is no longer called a choice – It will only merely be selection.

“Should I spend XXX amount of money to get a new handphone or a gaming gadget? Should I start my own business or should I not?” If everyone has plenty of resources and has plenty of money, then there’s no longer  a need to make a choices – they could get anything they want and all these are merely up for selection. But the truth is, 99.99% of the people in this world probably do not have this privilege of without needing to make a choice.

Choice is something we have to go through on a daily basis. It is inevitable. Therefore, I will go through each of the important elements when making choices and coming up with a decision.

Effort vs Luck

"The unwise wait for a lucky day but every day is a lucky day for a diligent man." ~Buddha

Some people choose to ignore choices and actions but instead, hoping for LUCK to shine on them. They wish for things to fall right in front of their feet, expecting life would be easy. Essentially, this does very little to help because they are only relying on FATE and LUCK for things to happen. Relying on fate and luck is a bad idea because luck is always beyond our control. Fate and luck may happen right now, or it may never ever happen. You never know. If living in uncertainty makes you happy, by all means, submit yourself to fate and luck.

If uncertainty is not the way of your life, then you will need to create our own luck by putting in Effort. Make things happen with your own hands. Do your best. Never give up.

Remember, the world will not give a damn about you, if you do not give a damn about putting in effort. If you do not give a damn about making choices but only hoping for the best to happen by chances, then that’s also how life will treat you – by giving you random fate and luck to your life and you have no choice but to live in it.

This is all part of the Karma system – The cause and effect.

Fantasy vs Logic

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment ~Buddha

 

One inherent habit in every man is to perpetually dream about the future. Not a bad thing considering dreams move the world forward and push human mind to evolve. However, it is equally important to understand the danger of ‘over-dreaming’.

Human often love to think ahead. This indirectly create a bad habit – we love to fantasize of the possible outcome  while making choices. And the bad part ? We often struck down by fear when fantasizing the outcome of the choices.

As have been studied in Pyschology field, the mind has a strong self-defense mechanism for self-preservation purposes. The mind persistently give out negative thoughts so that we will not do anything risky which will potentially harm ourselves mentally and physically. The mind often tell you – “What if I do this and fail? What if this does not turn out to be as expected? What if I lose money doing this? What if people laugh at me? I will be embarrassed!

Recognize that these thoughts are nothing but just pure fantasy. Why do I say fantasy?

You are in the present, and the future is yet to come. Your mind creates some fantasy about the future, and you believe in your fantasy without any hesitant. You religiously believe in your “prediction”, thus, conveniently stop yourself from taking actions with all these negative thoughts. Nonsense! You don’t predict the future … you create the future!

Hence, Buddha’s advice ‘Focus on the Present moment’.

But does it really mean you should not think ahead about the future? It is true Buddha did say ‘do not dream of the future’, but in a deeper implication, what Buddha meant was – Do not get obsessed with your fantasy but think what is remain do be done RIGHT NOW to bring yourself forward.

As Buddha said, “Your thoughts today creates your tomorrow.” Why should you be over-concern about tomorrow? What really matter is doing something meaningful today, RIGHT NOW, so that you will have a better tomorrow.

To Do vs Not To Do and Happiness

“"You will always be getting praise and blame, but do not let either affect the poise of the mind." ~Buddha

 

When one uses Logic to make a decision on whether to do something or not, then the choices are pretty clear – it is either Yes or No – Do It or Don’t Do It. Period. There’s no need to over-think.

How do you know whether should you say Yes or No? To do or not to do? Simple. Go back to the Buddha’s basic rule of life – to be happy. You got to make a decision which you will not have any regrets at all in the future. If deep down inside, you know you will be saying, “Damn, if only I did/didn’t do it”, then that’s a bad decision. It is a form of suffering because you leave yourself hanging in uncertainty and regrets.

“Should I take on entrepreneur path and make million of dollars?” If you are perfectly content not living a luxurious life, think money is just an illusion, that money can’t buy you some things you want in life, then by all means the answer NO is your good answer.

However, when there are doubts and something inside is bugging you when you say NO, that you think you are deceiving and lying to yourself, then NO is not a good answer. It is an answer which will make you suffer from remorse for the rest of your life. Hence, in this way, the only answer which will potentially bring you more happiness is the answer YES.

This is how reasonably simple to use logic to make a GOOD decision.

You might think, “What if I do/didn’t do, and it proves that I’m wrong? What if my decision is a failure? Should this a enough reason not to do it?”

1. Read Fantasy vs Logic again

2. Read Attainment vs Failure below

Attainment vs Failure

“What Comes To You, Comes From You” ~Buddha~

Remember when you craved for something so badly but once you got it, you don’t feel the same craving anymore? Because in the mind, the feeling of Craving is always stronger than Attaining.

Every time we crave for something and try to reach our hand to grab it to our side, whether it is wealth, achievement, love, or gadgets, there is always a universal law governing this act of attainment. What this universal law says is simple – if you try to get anything which is not yours to your side, there’s a chance you will fail and not getting it.

If you do not have wealth, and you try to move wealth to your side, you might succeed in gaining but there’s a chance you may not make it in the first few attempts or ever. If you try to grab a girl’s heart to your side, you might succeed but you may also fail.

Failure is inevitable in life simply because we have to make so many choices all the time. Remember the universal law – the universe does not give you everything you want. And more, the universe does not give a damn if we are not happy about it because the world does not have emotions. The world is neutral.

This fear of failure itself is what hinders people from taking actions. And fear is wrong. You can only get this much of the things that you want by not taking actions, hoping for things to fall perfectly well. However if you take actions, the chances of you getting what you want will naturally double, triple or perhaps quintuple.

The emotion of fear should not exist in human mind. It’s destructive. Instead, the right way to think – To embrace reality and embrace failure. Accept the reality that if you are trying to get something which is not yours to your side, you may gain … but you may also fail. This is just the way how reality works – Yin and Yang. To have success, is to have failure. 

If you try, at least you have a tiny chance to succeed. If you do not try, then failure is absolutely 101%

Conclusion

One quote to sum it all ……

"Cast off pretense and self-deception and see yourself as you really are." ~Buddha

Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.

Efficiency Is King

One evening in my college library, around 5 years ago, I was reading Harvard Business Review and came across a very interesting case study of how Dell’s management information system work. Although it is now a conventional wisdom in the business world, back then the whole concept was pretty revolutionary.

This case study was about the process of what happen from the start – when the customer place an order, to the finish line, when Dell deliver the items, step by step. The case study kept emphasizing on one very important factor. Just one – and that’s Efficiency. There are many advantages to an organization which put emphasis on efficiency. Among the list :

• Reduce operating cost
• Prevent excessive spending
• Fast speed product/service delivery
• Customer satisfaction
• Lean management of resources

Once I was done reading the case study, I spent 30 minutes to chew on this ‘revelation’ of the impeding new business world.  Every organization would want to utilize computer system to create efficiency in every part of their business department from productions to administration.

Efficiency is simply the new God of business. If you do not embrace efficiency, inefficiency will curse and condemn your business. Like a devoted worshipper, every business must give praise to Efficiency.

So, I started to think of how I could apply Efficiency to other areas of life. I forgot how I came about this, but I wickedly started to imagine how I could apply efficiency to robbery.

I imagined, if I want to rob someone, what will be the most efficient way to rob my victim? What is the surefire method of 101% success?

And I figured out the answer – It’s slash-n-rob. Use a knife or machete and slash the victim first, making him or her bleed and injured and then take the time to grab the belongings away. And then run away – 101% success.

The more I thought of it, the more I realized how dumb most robbers in Malaysia was for sticking to conventional methods of threatening victims.

OK, let’s imagine that you are a robber and you found a victim. When you take the knife, and approach the victim, point the knife to the victim’s neck and ask the infamous question – “Money or Life?”, you are actually taking a chance. Perhaps a better word would be risk.

The universal law says that if you are taking a chance, you are actually leaving things to fate. And that’s dumb. What if the guy knows Kung Fu? What if the girl is hiding a pepper spray somewhere? You are actually giving yourself room to be completely doomed by the victim. A highly motivated and successful robber will never rely on fate and chance to succeed. You have to take charge of your own fate! (Oh yeah, I sound like a personal development guru for robbers).

Hence, I concluded that any robber who understand the value of innovation will eventually embrace efficiency – Slash-n-Rob. Slash first, and slowly rob the victim. What’s the advantage of this method? Plenty.

1. Immobilize the victim. A slash on victim’s arm will make him/her to unable to fight back. A slash on the leg will make him/her unable to run.

2. Let the fear sink in to their head. Their life is now at the robber’s hands. They will listen to him. They will surrender everything to him without needing any form threatening. Because human being instinctively let fear rule over their head.

3. Disallow the possibility of shit happening. An injured and frightened victim can’t do shit.

How about the disadvantages of slash-n-rob? Well, there are no disadvantages. Robbing is already a sin, so what difference does it make to commit another sin? The robber will just spend slightly more time imprisoned in jail if caught. No big deal.

Now, let’s switch roles and step on different shoes. Close your eyes and imagine you are an ordinary person taking a stroll in a park. Suddenly, a robber slashes you from behind without saying a single word. Terrifying isn’t it? You would have surrendered everything you have to the robber, no? That’s why I called this a surefire method to success because uncertainly and helplessness amplify Fear.

5 years later, today, this method has became a reality in Malaysia. Slash-n-rob method is getting popular and is slowly adopted as the modus operandi for modern robbers. Many slash-n-rob cases were not covered by the media for one simple reason – to avoid public panic and bringing fear to public people.

So, the robbers in Malaysia have evolved. Just like in the law of Evolution, when the predator is getting stronger, the prey must also evolved along or die. And for this reason, I took the first step by getting myself an Air-soft gun. I do not know how useful this is for self-defense against slash-n-rob, but I figured having an Air gun is better than no air gun. True or true?

Don’t believe me in this, but I would want to believe in 20-30 years small robbers in Malaysia will evolve and will be using guns because many ‘prey and victims’ will follow my method of protecting themselves by using air gun. So, the robbers will have to evolve and become even more aggressive. I predict shot-n-rob will be something common in this country in the future.

 

PS: I’m stuck writing my part 2 swimming pool story. GARHHH

The End of the World

 

Everything is changeable, everything appears and disappears; there is no blissful peace until one passes beyond the agony of life and death.

— Buddha.

I wouldn’t call myself a movie junkie, but if there’s one movie I really look forward to watch, it would be 2012. Watch the movie trailer below.

 

Now, I’m not a big advocate of 2012 doomsday although I have been reading about those Mayan stuffs 4-5 years ago. Even this website – http://www.instituteforhumancontinuity.org has presented some really compelling arguments and video graphics of the inevitable disasters, quote “with 94% certainty” that something really huge will happen to Earth 3 years from now.

Again, I’m not a strong believer of 2012 nor the Planet X (aka Niburu) conspiracy theory. However, I do believe it’s a pretty solid fact that humanity will not live forever. It will come to a day where all human being will perish. And I will tell you why.

Over the past 500 million years of life history, the Earth has witnessed five big mass extinction events, better known as the Big Five. Each of this event wiped out almost all life form and then gradually replaced by a new generation of life form. For instance – the reptilian dinosaurs replaced the vast marine life lost in The Great Dying 250 million years ago and the extinct dinosaurs replaced by mammals and birds since 65 million years ago.

Hence, based on this little observed Earth’s life cycle, it is safe to say that another major extinction is pretty much inevitable in the coming future.

But why do I think the movie 2012 is so interesting? The first reason would be the tag line – How Would The Governments Of Our Planet Prepare Six Billion People For The End Of The World? – They Wouldn’t.

Really, they wouldn’t. Why would the government induce public panic unnecessarily for an unstoppable disaster? We would die anyway, so it doesn’t make much differences. The government also wouldn’t tell if we barely escape a close call disaster.

Case in point, almost three months ago in March, a huge comet came within approximately 64,000KM of Earth’s atmosphere which was powerful enough to destroy a whole major city should it hit the earth. 64,000KM may seem to be reasonably far, but considering the moon is 384,000KM away from Earth, it means the distance between Earth and the comet was 1/6 of the distance between earth and moon. From astronomical standpoint, 64,000 KM is actually crazily close.

The government perhaps knew the Earth would be safe from any collision. However, there will always be some quarter of skeptics who will never cease to be a paranoid… just like ignorant people who criticized the Large Hadrons Collider without any depth of knowledge. These people fear uncertainty, thus creating more ruckus to mislead the uninformed people which eventually lead to more panic.

So, whether it is a near miss or sure-hit disaster, rest assured, the government will never inform the citizens of any incoming potential disasters. And I’m deadly curious how will people react when the end of the world is right in front of their eyes, without expecting it.

The second reason why I think the movie 2012 is interesting – the image of the end of the world.

Our Earth is actually much much more fragile than we can ever imagine.

• One huge solar flare which shoot the Earth directly will mess up Earth’s magnetic field and all technology which uses electricity will shut down. When the Earth’s magnetic field is instable, catastrophe will take place. Fortunately, Earth was rarely shot directly by solar flare. (Solar flare happens once in every 11 years)
• One magnetic pole reversal to turn our Earth upside down, thus creating instability in Earth resulting in massive earthquakes, tsunami, worldwide flood and resulting Ice Age. (Magnetic pole reversal happens once every 11,500 years and the last Ice age apparently took place 11,000+ years ago. Hence, some  scientists believed the cycle is almost due.)
• One supernova, an explosion of nearby giant star will result a surge of cosmic radiation transmission. Huge amount of radiation would destroy all life form nearby the star.
• One huge asteroid or meteor escaped from The Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter could destroy the whole earth if it is big enough.

I always have this little habit of imagining a meteor hitting the earth. And it’s quite terrifying, perhaps for the fact that there’s nothing we can do to handle such huge force. Again, I’m not a strong believer of 2012, but sometimes, I just can’t help to think, what if Earth has really only 3 years left?

Every Little Thing About Our Joy

This is my desktop table. I have no shame to self-proclaim this engineering masterpiece of mine as the 8th Wonder of the World. You know, the greatest construction since Hanging Garden of Babylon. And who knows, Hanging Garden of Babylon might just be another man-made myth for the sake of glorifying the Babylonian civilization. But my months of painstaking engineering effort is 100% provable REAL and proudly made in Malaysia. Period. So, am I not significantly more credible than .. um .. Nebuczaza… Nebunezar? Damn, who was the joker who gave him such mocking name. Hold on, let me Google up his name. *Tap tap tap tap tap tap. Click. Click. Copy paste.* That’s right, Nebuchadnezzar. So, am I not significantly more credible than Nebuchadnezzar II who may have built nothing? Am I not a more credible engineer compared to him??

Black-chrome-with-glowing-blue-light gadgets is my biggest turn-ons, beaten only by my Japanese XXX videos. But there are times I just can’t help to wonder – where did the joy came from? What’s the rationale behind my obsession towards black chrome objects and designs? Why do I think the glowing blue light is beautiful?

Do you notice there are certain little things in life which often creates a little joy in you? Like when you see some creamy donuts or when you’re attracted to the sleek Nike shoe design or when the gentle wind blow on your face? It would be understandable if we ask why do we feel joy and salivate when looking at tasty-fresh-from-the-oven chicken meat and hot sexy girls. The reasons for these are simple – For the former, obviously it is our inner motivation urging us to devour the food or else we will starve, literally and the latter, it is also our inner motivation urging us to ‘devour’ the ‘food’ or else we will ‘starve’, metaphorically.

But why chrome design? I don’t intend to bring up the graphics, but I’m not going to make love and copulate with my Razer keyboard, right? So, what’s the reason I like my gadget designs so much? Moreover, why do I like it when it is drizzling? Why do I enjoy listening to House music? Why do I get a sense of satisfaction after completing the jigsaw puzzle?

I have asked plenty of whys and even stopped myself from asking more whys, but the answer remained elusive. Now, I have two choices here. One, I say ‘God did it’ and never bother about finding the answer anymore. Or two, I accept the fact I don’t know, yet.

Like all wise men do, I resigned to the fact that I don’t know. (I have to choose this or else Socrates would be mad at me if I chose the first option instead).

There are some things which I still do not understand well but there are some which I think make logical sense – like why we think beach and forest are beautiful. You see, beach and forest are our natural habitat, just like polar bear will be happy to see ice and camel will be happy to be in the sand. As an omnivorous creature, forest represents a place for food where we can find plenty of fruit, plants and animal meat. Plus as a primate, our ancestors were living and swinging from tree to the tree. Hence, theoretically, we are emotionally triggered to like forest in a way to motivate us to reside and breed in the forest for survival purposes.

(Another interesting thing is – do you all notice that the all the biggest cities in the world are usually situated near the sea? I know the fact that ancient cities is situated near the sea for trading purposes, but I just couldn’t stop wonder if there is a correlation between this and our fondness towards beach?)

I do not have evidence for this, but I have a theory that people would be truly happier if we live in the forest instead of in a city. Or at least in suburb areas where trees are abundant.

I believe anyone who could crack the code of the origin of joy will have a massive upper hand advantage in the marketing industry. One good example is the joy of seeing shiny and glowing objects. For some weird reasons, human have some kind of obsessions towards glowing and shiny objects. And this is the same reason why some metal materials (such as Gold and Silver) and gemstone (Diamond, Sapphire, Jade) are very well sought after. People are willing to pay high price for these objects. But hey, logically thinking, they are just … stones and metal. Why nobody is willing to pay high price for the stones in my goldfish aquarium? That’s right, that’s because my stones did not mutate to glow in dark, hence no value.

Sucks to be you, stone in my aquarium.

A Story of Female Emotions.

One of my ‘filters’ when looking for a female partner is to avoid girls who are super-emotional. I think they are rather nuisance to my intelligence and is absolutely nerve racking.

To be fair, I know the female species are generally more emotional than guys. Heck, even my mum’s hot temper could occasionally shatter my rationality into pieces. But I’m perfectly fine with it because her emotions is only slightly above normal level, unlike some small group of extreme emotional females who can never cease being emotional.

I will call these scary species as the “super-emo ladies”.

There are no other creatures in this planet who could mindfuck me to kingdom come – Only them, the super-emo ladies have this ‘mind blowing’ mutant ability. Listening to a super-emo lady rants is pure torture. Beyond hell. They are Satan’s favourite pets. My intelligence will never fail to break down and cry every time they open their mouth and transmit the never-ending-emo-acoustic-vibrations to my ears.

When I’m with a super-emo lady, I will be so psyched up to the point I will become a God-believer – Just for the sheer moment. I will look up at the sky and ask the heavens philosophically – “I can shut my eyes, i can shut my mouth, I can stop breathing, but why can’t I shut my ears? What’s the rationale of God designing human to not able to shut our ears? Why do we HAVE NO CHOICE but to listen to emo rants?”

If God tries to be funny, I could imagine this is how He will reply me – “When a super-emo lady make an emo-rant, and no man is listening to her, is she still ranting?”

……… *confused* ………

Stop Shakespear-ing with me, God!!!

Throughout my experience talking with super-emo ladies, I noticed they have a pattern in their mind. This is one of the scenarios where I can apply my Flake Theory in. They are trapped with their emotions at one part of the brain and couldn’t escape. Hence, they will keep repeating the super-emo process cycle. I will explain what super-emo process cycle shortly.

But to be honest, as time went on, I started to develop a little compassion towards super-emo ladies. And then my friend introduced me to David Deida’s book The Way Of The Superior Man. My compassion towards the female species doubled. I started to see where did super-emo ladies came from. I started to sympathize them as no females would want to become super-emo lady if they ever have a choice.

But still, it didn’t change the fact that I wish my ears could shut down whenever they speak. Too bad.

It has been some time since I’ve encountered a super-emo lady. Until last week. Let’s call her Miss E, my college-mate back in my college days. She has just broken up a one month relationship with a guy recently – Her first love. Clearly, she was unhappy. She needed people to talk to. She wanted to share her problems. Out of sympathy, 5 guys including myself  invited her to a chat room in MSN Messenger to listen to her feelings. But to be honest, we were more interested in listening to gossip more than caring for her. All the guys were listening to her problems intently. But I take little interest in her problems because all I heard was purely emo rants.

She kept ranting and ranting telling how sad she was, how she hated the guy, why starting relationship with him was a mistake, how the guy betrayed her. Kept calling the guy ‘sucker’. Yada yada bla bla bla. Never ending rants and kept repeating the points over and over again.

This is when my friend Mr. J, the ever down to earth Mr. Nice Guy tried to keep consoling and advice her. For 30 minutes, he with his good patience tried to console her with his polite relationship wisdom.

But my guts told me what Mr. J doing was utterly bullshit. His advice will only fall to deaf ears. I would have spent the 30 minutes watching plants grow instead. It would have been more interesting. 

You see, super-emo girls are selfish.  They just wanna spill their emotions. And spill more. And more. What you have to say is irrelevant and pointless. They are treating our ears as slaves. (But since we chatted in MSN, in this case, our eyes became slaves instead.) It is a one way communication. And they are particularly sensitive when you tell them that they are in the wrong side. They are trapped in one side of the brain and couldn’t see the other sides. The process repeats by itself and this is what the super-emo process cycle I mentioned is all about.

After few hours of ranting, now she rant about the SMSes she received.

Miss E : You should have read the SMSes from the guy. Even you would be angry after reading the SMSes.

Mr. J : Really? What did the messages say?

Miss E : But if I open up the messages, it will hurt me again. I don’t want to think about this guy anymore.

Mr . J : Delete all the messages then. Don’t keep them. I want you to move forward, not stuck in the past. You should forget about that guy. Life is … <bla-bla-bla-bla-typical-boring-nice-guy’s-advice-yawwnnnwn-bla-bla>. Don’t think about him anymore. If you have problems talk to us.

I, who was quiet throughout the conversation, suddenly recalled David Deida’s message. Then I decided to rock the boat instead.

Ronn : Show me the messages. I want to read.

Miss E: Really?

Ronn: Yes, I want to read.

Miss E: Um, Ok … Wait, I will connect my mobile phone to my PC.

BAM BAM. My two liner has owned Mr. J’s essay of advice. TOTAL OWNAGE. PWNED. 30 MINUTES DOWN THE DRAIN. I could feel Mr. J wanted to demand her to give him back his 30 minutes of time. And it has proven David Deida’s theory right! What A Gem! The wisest man ever lived on planet Earth after Sun Tzu!

More importantly, I started to understand a little why Nice Guys always lose.

OK, let’s leave out the super-emo lady for a little while. Let’s understand about girls in general. You see, when a typical girl is influx with emotions, no matter happy or sad, she will go beyond human-like. She becomes an Oracle. An oracle do not tell you directly what will happen or what she wants. Instead, she speaks in ‘codes’ and it is up to us, the men, the mere mortal, to decipher her words.

The science behind an Oracle’s mind is not as straight forward as mortal’s thoughts. When an Oracle speaks, she is not using words to describe her thoughts like what most men always do. Rather, she is using words to express her emotions. And for men who have less compassion and wisdom, deciphering Oracle’s words is a mess. And that’s why many men complained they have problems understanding females. And it is also the same reason why the book Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus is such a big hit although the content of the book is total waste of crap. It all boils down to the methodology of communication.

Remember she is an Oracle. She is no ordinary human being. When having an audience with the Oracle and when she has a message for us, we shou…

Alter Ego : Whoa, I’m sorry to interrupt you but I have a question. By that, do you mean there are 3 billion Oracles on this planet?

Ronn : Urm. Figuratively speaking, yes.

Alter Ego : What is so special about it if half of the population are Oracles?

Ronn : Well, it is just a metaphor anyway. Plus, I’m tapping on the power of ‘communicating to emotions’, you know. It is powerful and will make the ladies feel flattered.  =)

Alter Ego : Another words for apple-polishing?

Ronn : Dude, you need some sense of compassion.

Alter Ego : Well, it just didn’t fit in to my logic right to use the word Oracle. The word is too big of a label for them.

Ronn : I suspect you are a male chauvinist donkey.

Alter Ego : I am you and you are me. Yes, I suspect that as well.

Ronn : I think you’re nice and gentleman.

OK, I guess I will stop using the world Oracle since my alter ego bitched about it. Instead I believe practical examples will work best :

• Boy : What do you want to eat for dinner?
  Girl : Up to you. I’m OK with anything.

Interpretation : When a guy says ‘up to you’, we REALLY meant ‘up to you’. But for a girl, it means that she can’t decide and it up to the guy to decide. However, she expects the guy to make the best decision for her. Hence, if she expects dining in a good restaurant and the guy brings her to a fast food restaurant instead, she will frown in disgust… because it is not really ‘up to you’ after all.

• Girl : I want to eat the ice-cream, but I’m worried it will make me fat =(

Interpretation : She WANTS to eat the ice-cream. Plus, she needs a ‘delusional reassurance’ from the guy that it will not make her fat. Feed her more ice-cream to gain more love points.

• Girl : I hate it when you keep watching the TV the whole day.

Interpretation: There’s nothing wrong with watching TV actually. She just doesn’t like the guy to waste so much time with the TV instead of doing something productive… Or perhaps spending time with her.

• Girl : You should read the messages. But I do not want to read the messages again. It hurts me.

Interpretation : She WANTS to show it to you. The words ‘it hurts me’ means she wants the guy to ‘share her pain’. She expects the guy to insist of showing him.

• Girl : Don’t buy any gifts for me, OK. Don’t waste your money.

Interpretation : If she says this, especially when the date is near some special occasion, she is actually ‘reminding’ you about it.

Hence, to deal with girl’s words, sometimes you gotta think the big picture a little. Just a little. Decode her emotions, not words. And this is a little problem with most typical Nice Guys – Nice Guys take girls words literally.

A Story Never Told

An Encounter With Three Black Devils

It was 12.05 AM. I was walking home alone on the street after a long day. The night was cool and breezy, a perfect time for myself to do some mental masturbation. “What should I write on my blog this week?”Evolution? Psychology? Rationalism? Or male supremacy to stroke my own ego again?”

Out of sudden, I sensed some strange energy force behind my back. I didn’t feel good. I felt threatened. I tilted my head slightly and from the corner of my eyes, I saw three tall dark figures shrouded with dark aura, tailing closely behind me.  I can’t see their face properly. Their face was black dark almost faceless. I will call them the Three Black Devils.

Sensing the possibility of danger, I paced myself trying to distance away from them. But these are no ordinary Devils. Before I realized, they were right behind my back in a flash … like a super Ninja with crazy dashing skills. Damn, they took me by surprise. Their dark aura was so intense, I shivered right away. Suddenly, I recalled plenty of urban legend of how innocent people was mugged and stripped to naked by devils. The devils spare nothing of the victim’s possession including their underwear. So the legend was true. These mugging devils do exist. What am I gonna do?

Immediately, I thought of the precious item I was carrying in my bag – My laptop. These devils will want to take my laptop away! Unthinkable!

Make no mistake, I was more than willing to surrender my laptop to these Devils. What’s so big deal about laptops when we can find laptop everywhere? And it only costs RM2,500+ … cheap machines. But there were something I just can’t give away … – My 200GB of XXX VIDEOS in my laptop. MY PRECIOUS.

I mean …after all the years of companionship and joy with my XXX videos, how could I let them go just like that? Some of these XXX videos were downloaded when I was 15.. and that’s … that’s like .. almost 10 years ago?? So much sweet memories and money can never buy it. Plus, if Time = Gold, then the Time I took to download all the XXX movies = crazy amount of Gold. As a guy with Chinese ancestry, my genes always punish me with agonizing emotions if I ever waste Gold. So, no, I will not allow years of my hard work and effort to go in vain.

I’ve made up my mind – no way I’m surrendering my XXX videos to these rascals. I will protect my precious XXX videos at all cost even if it means breaking my bones. What am I gonna do for the rest of my life without my XXX videos? What will be the meaning of life void of XXX video? How can I practice compassion if I can’t spread the joy of my XXX videos with the world via Bittorrent? Buddha would be pissed if I fail in my journey to spread happiness to the world. No, I do not want to let Buddha down.

The Three Black Devils surrounded me in circle, giving me no room to run. Grinning and gazing me with an intimidating look, one of Devils finally broke the tense silence. He said in broken Malay …

Black Devil : Mari, ikut saya, kalau tak, saya hentam lu punya ah. (Come and follow me, or else I will smash you)

The Black Devils have spoken of their true intention. Not like I was surprised. It is a lie if I say I wasn’t afraid. But I resolved, instead of dwelling in negative emotions worrying and panicking, it was better off to channel my mind to scheme of an escape plan. For the sake of future happiness with my XXX videos, I resolved to pull off a Houdini and I was pretty confident I would prevail. You know why? Because I read Sun Tzu Art of War, and I know those suckers don’t. Ronn 1 – 0 Devils, even before the battle began.

The Black Devil then grabbed my arm, and pulled me to a dark lane. My imagination ran wild. This is not an ordinary dark lane – It is Hell, a realm of no return where Satan awaits. I could imagine all my innocent XXX videos, kilobytes by kilobytes get sucked in to the bottomless pit, never to return to the face of the earth again. How cruel. My XXX videos do not deserve such eternal condemnation.

I feigned weakness and complied while quietly searching for solutions in my head. I took the first step. My brain was empty. I took the second step. Still empty. Third step. Still empty. After walking eight steps, my head was still empty, without solutions. Suddenly, there was an urgency in me. I knew I need to get out of here before it is too late. For the sake of world peace, I cannot afford to lose any of my 200GB of XXX video. Not even 1KB.

What do you do if you can’t solve problems with brain? Common sense, you use brawn instead. Aha!

So, it looked like I have no choice but to fight them 1 v 3 , Ip Man style. I felt pumped up, ready to rumble with the Devils. After years of reading Sun Tzu and mimicking Bruce Lee, finally the day has arrived to unleash my power. My arm’s muscles were as elated as myself as they could now fulfill their true purpose of existence. I told myself this will be the day I will bring justice to humanity. Once and for all, I will banish these infamous Devils to dust and bringing light to common people. Nothing will stop me in my quest to bring more happiness to the world. I vowed to be a saviour greater than Jesus Christ. I can’t wait any longer to unleash my Buddha Palm, Shadowless Kick, and Iron Fist I learned from watching Wong Fei Hung movies when I was a kid. These bad guys will be punished!

Just when I was about to unleash my Buddha Palm laden with Qigong, suddenly I saw light, literally – A car oblivious of what was going on headed our way. In sheer moment, something unexpected happened. My alter ego made a decision without informing me. Using fascism like Hitler, under the command of the alter ego, my arm shrugged off the grasp of the Black Devil, and then … my legs started running away!

This is ridiculous. I witnessed my body in disbelief. My dreams of becoming a hero was dashed by the alter ego. I could hear Jesus Christ mocking me from the heavens and Sun Tzu sighed in disappointment. Unacceptable! What’s the use of my testosterone if I’m not gonna fight the baddies? Produce more redundant sperms only to be flushed down to drain hole? I got super pissed and I summoned an audience with Alter Ego to demand for an explanation.

Ronn : Hey, why the hell are we running away? Stop running. I order you to turn back and fight them like a man. Real man solve problems with fist, not legs!

Alter Ego: Refused. There is a 3.43% chances we will get trashed into pieces despite our superior Sun Tzu and Kung Fu knowledge. More importantly, there’s a 52.94% chance our delicate skin will get bruised if we engage in fist battle. I’m sorry bro, but I can’t allow that to happen since we still need to look for a girlfriend, you know.

Ronn: How shameful! How are we supposed to explain this to our cavemen ancestors who fought tigers with bare arms? Now our ancestors will mock us for the shrinking size of our balls. Worse, what if there are girls around watching this whole ordeal? Our male ego, pride and manliness will all be flushed down the drain … Girls will think I’m a wuss and either way no girls will want to be my girlfriend!

Alter Ego: No worries bro, I’ve scanned around, no girls. No girls will know we are running away like a pussy *wink wink*. After calculating all the probabilities and chances, I conclude that running away is the best way to minimize risks. If we run, we will escape without getting our skin AND ego bruised. It is like farting once to choke two Devils. Getting a girlfriend in future still looks bright.

Ronn : Oh really?? Dammit, you’re a genius alter ego! I will write a proper thank you note to you on my blog once I reach home, Ok? Thank You Alter Ego 2!

Alter Ego: Yes, Captain Obvious, I know I’m a genius. Please tell me something I don’t know.

Sun Tzu once said “Attack their weaknesses. Emerge to their surprise”. Just as within my Alter Ego’s calculation, my sudden escape totally caught the Devils off guard. The devils were stranded and shocked as they were distracted by the incoming car. They couldn’t believe I escaped under their nose. Ha, that’s the price to pay for overconfidence! The method of escaping was so simple, yet effective. Don’t mess with Sun Tzu’s philosophy, yo! Now that I have done a Houdini, what are you gonna do now brown cows? Chase me in the middle of the road with other people around?

Oops, speaking of the devil, the angry Three Black Devils really gave me a chasing! I almost forgot they were called Devils for a reason! Damn you Sun Tzu, you never told me anything about brainless angry devils. Oh my mother father granduncle, these dudes got the balls as big as Jupiter. Making loud roars, the angry Devils were chasing me with long chain in their hand like a hungry barbarian with a club eager to smash the rabbit’s head into pieces. Does my head really smell like rabbit? More annoyingly, the driver in the car was amused of what was going on. He thought I’m having some running competition with the Devils and cheered for me. NO! HELP ME DAMMIT!!! Typical dumb Malaysian!

With the rate of how things was going, my future looked bleak. I have little choice but to summon Alter Ego again.

Ronn: Hey, those crazy Devils are behind our ass! What should we do now, genius?

Alter Ego : Shit, I didn’t expect them to dare to give chase in the middle of the road. These Devils are fearless! I didn’t factor that to my calculation, damn!

Ronn: I need a solution now, not ranting!!

Alter Ego : I blame Sun Tzu for what has happened. Not my fault.

Ronn:  You suck.

Alter Ego: Ah Ah! I got a super idea here! Hear me, this is what we need to do- Why don’t we … just keep running forward? And run as fast as we can!

Ronn: ……………………………………………………………………………………. YES! You’re right! Why reinvent the wheel when the current method is already working so well? Good thinking, mate!

After all, alter ego was right. Running is actually my forte, a secret weapon of mine. I turn on my turbo and accelerated. It was a pity I wasn’t holding a stopwatch to record down the time to challenge Usain Bolt’s world record.  Carrying a 5KG bag with my laptop inside did not even slow me down by a bit. In fact I ran further and further away from the Devils. You know why? Because  I was wearing Nike shoes. Nike gave me mutant powers to run faster than the slippers the Devils were wearing.  It shows that Nike is powerful. Nike is great. Nike is unbelievable. (Nike, if you are reading this and need more advertising from me, please don’t hesitate to E-mail me, OK?) .

Suddenly, things seemed peaceful. I looked back and saw the defeated Devils gave up, panting. Realizing that I’ve beaten the Black Devils, I went down on my knees, chins up, stuck both of my middle finger up in the air declaring to the world and heavens – VICTORY! A celebration of justice. A sign of triumph over evil. A gesture condemning the Devils to eternal embarrassment. The victory was so epic, Jesus Christ can’t help but to smirk. I could see angry Buddha smiling again. And a very proud Sun Tzu clapping cheerfully.

I’ve done everyone proud.

Feminism Is Chauvinism

Note: I pondered for some time before publishing this post because I think it is a little biased towards feminism in general. But I think it is worth reading at the same time. So, a little disclaimer here, when I mention feminist, I’m actually referring to radical or extreme feminist.

There was an essay I’ve written over a year ago – The Perceived Value – my little discovery on why comparing and critiquing intelligence between races and genders is such a sensitive issue. If only my English writing was better back then, the essay would have been perfect – it was one of my all time favourite observations I’d made. (I write better these days and I’m still trying to improve on my writing). And I’ve never hide the fact that I dislike radical feminists. A year ago, I mildly dismissed the ideology of feminism. But today, I will take one step harsher and explain in length on why modern radical feminists are bunch of confused people.

I think feminist are exactly the opposite of male chauvinist pig … that’s right … female chauvinist pig. Feminism over the years have evolved away from its noble purpose of creating awareness and defending women rights to creating new ridiculous ‘belief systems’. I feel today feminism has become more like a medium for angry women to vent their hatred and frustration towards man. Few typical examples of feminist irrationality:

• Feminists complain when a TV show make fun/joke about women
• Feminists are upset when a movie portray the actress as weak
• Feminists complain when a research put “He” instead of “She” as example
• Feminists always deny any research which shows men are better in certain things than women

My personal ‘favourite” irrational belief from the feminist is -“Men and Women are innately equal. It is the culture which created different roles in gender.”  Every time I hear this statement, I feel like crying out loud to the lady – “Bullshit”! Well, actually I’ve never done it before and never intended to but you get the picture of how silly the statement is to me. Here’s my take on this issue.

We have to look back at the history to investigate the origin of humanity – The evolutionary root. Many thousands years ago, humanity were living in a hunter-gatherer society – The Men were the Hunters while the Women were the Gatherers. These roles were shaped by natural selection to ensure the survival of human species. You see, human’s survival actually wasn’t really easy back then. Due to the complexity of human being, it takes plenty of effort from a human to develop a child properly (typically need to spend 15-20 years to grow up a child). At the same time, due to our higher intelligence, our brain consumes massive amount of energy, hence our ancestors needed plenty of food. This is how through natural selection, the nature has discover a perfect method for human species to survive properly – distributing roles between male and female. The men will hunt for meat while women will take care of the young and gather food which is easier to get such as fruits. This method worked well, and it is also the same reason why we still exist today. Even our species’ cousin chimpanzees are living in a similar societal structure.

And here, we have feminists who believe that men and women are born blank slate with nothing attached, just like a piece of pure blank white paper. Bam! There goes evolutionary psychology and genetics down the drain. These deluded feminists believe they could overwrite the millions of years of evolutionary history by imposing a fantasy-ideology to people, totally in disregard with our biological history.

There’s a reason why men could develop muscle easier compared to women. You see, our genes do not understand what is a fast food restaurant. Our genes today is still similar with our cavemen ancestor who have to wrestle and carry animal meat back home. That’s why muscular men still exist today. But thinking logically, we do not need so much muscle today as compared to thousand years ago. Why didn’t the culture make big muscle extinct? See, by just substituting intelligence with muscle, we could already clearly see how ridiculous the statement by the feminist! Is there really a difference between brain power and muscle power when both are the subject of Evolution? If brain power between gender are equal, why is muscle power not equal? Again, it all boils down to my early observation of The Perceived Value. Of course, I’m sure we will gradually evolve away from our ancestor, but the majority of our basic instinct is still pretty primitive as of today…just like most ladies still enjoy chivalry from the gentlemen, no?

Let’s look at another example of irrationality from feminism. Look at prostitutions, one of feminist’s favourite topic. Feminism consistently urge to abolish prostitution as they like to call it a sex ‘exploitation’ by men on women. But think about it, on the flip side, men actually paid women for sex and this is a fact often conveniently ignored and disregarded by the feminist – So, the million dollar question here – Who is Exploiting Who? Just as men and exploited women for sex, could it also mean that women are exploiting men for money? Is this not a fair trade in accordance to the law of Supply and Demand?

Perhaps, I sound like a MCP who is desperate to put women down. But I totally respect women. Having grown up living in a single parent family, I do not need anyone to tell me how capable a woman is. And I totally believe in equal rights and equal opportunities should be given to all genders. But the truth is still truth. Men and Women are biologically not the same. Men play a bigger role in leading and shaping the world while women supported and complemented men. In any case, just check the history if you have doubts. That’s why I call feminist confused – they are confused between the differences of equality and sameness.

I do not believe in extremes not matter what the circumstances are. I believe extremism distort our view in perceiving the reality. I believe when feminism first started out, their intention was noble and right. But slowly, feminists got obsessed with it and turn it into a political power. And they got even more obsessed with it and start creating delusional reality to fit it into their belief systems. Feminism has now generally become the blame-the-men movement, taking a holier than thou stance as if all women are victims and there are no evil and malicious females out there.

I’m pretty glad that feminism is not a big thing in Asian countries. To see women as ‘same’ with men is a big mistake because I believe it will only condition genders to compete with each and to see each other as a ‘threat’- Just like US and China aggressively competing with each other because they believe they are the ‘same’ when it comes to power. Men and women are not supposed to compete with each other – We should work together. To work together harmoniously, there need to be an acceptance in our innate abilities and nature and to know who we are and what we can do.

His Holiness Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso … The wisest man in the world?

The only book I have read from Dalai Lama so far was “The Universe In A Single Atom”. To be honest, I didn’t finish reading the book because I thought the book is kinda boring. It is basically about Dalai Lama meeting up with prominent scientists, learning science from them and then apply scientific lessons to Buddhism. Not really interesting I would say. Perhaps it is too ‘laymen’. Or perhaps the writing style/translation .. I don’t know.

Three hours ago, I came across his script during the 1989 Nobel Peace Award from a book. After spending 15-20 minutes reading it, I was totally impressed by his thoughts and wisdom… especially his metaphors, they are just beautiful … and contagious. I was really inspired by the way how he perceive the world.

As with most insightful Buddhism philosophy, it doesn’t talk much about religion dogma but only philosophy of being a human. And that’s what I enjoy reading … and practicing. So, i typed this out word by word because I think his speech is really worth reading – something which really concern humanity.

His speech may seem not coherent and all over the places, but if you understand his words, the insight he gave is actually really, really deep. Every single sentence of words he said bring meaning, though it doesn’t seem important if glanced quickly. Typically just like Zen Buddhism’s koans…

[……] = means certain passage are skipped

The Nobel Evening Address, Oslo, Norway.

Dalai Lama,The Nobel Peace Prize 1989.

Brothers and sisters,

It is a great honour to come to this place and to share some of my thoughts with you. Although I have written a speech, it has already been circulated. You know, some of my friends told me it is better to speak in Tibetan and have it translated into English. Some say it is better to read my English statement, and some say it is better to speak directly with my broken English. I don’t know. Yesterday I tried my best to be formal but today, I feel more free, so I will speak informally.

[……]

What is the purpose of life for a human being? I believe that happiness is the purpose of life. Whether or not there is a purpose to the existence of universe or galaxies, I don’t know. In any case, the fact is that we are here on this planet with other human beings. Then, since every human being wants happiness and does not want suffering, it is clear that this desire does not come from training or some ideology. It is something natural. Therefore, I consider the attainment of happiness, peace, and joy, is the purpose of life. Therefore, it is very important to investigate what are happiness and satisfactions and what are their causes.

[……]

What is compassion? The basic meaning of compassion is not just a feeling of closeness, or just a feeling of pity. Rather, I think that with genuine compassion we not only feel the pain and suffering of others but we also have a determination to overcome suffering. One aspect of compassion is some kind of determination and responsibility. Therefore, compassion brings us tranquility and also inner strength. Inner strength is the ultimate source of success. 

When we face problem. a lot depends on the personal attitude towards that problem or tragedy. In some cases, when once faces the difficulty, one loses one’s hope and becomes discouraged and the ends up depressed. On the other hand, if one has a certain mental attitude, then tragedy and suffering bring one more energy, more determination.

Usually, I tell our generation we are born during the darkest period in our long history. There is a big challenge. it is very unfortunate. But if there is a challenge then there is an opportunity to face it, an opportunity to demonstrate our will and our determination. So from that viewpoint I think that our generation is fortunate. These things depend on inner qualities, inner strength. Compassion is gentle, very peaceful, and soft in nature, not harsh. You cannot destroy it easily as it is very powerful. Therefore, compassion is very important and useful.

Then again, if we look at human being, love and compassion are the foundation of human existence. According to some scientists, the fetus has feeling in the mother’s womb and is affected by the mother’s mental state. Then the few weeks after birth are crucial for the enlarging of the brain of the child. During that period, the mother’s physical touch is the greatest factor for the healthy development of the brain. This shows that the physical needs some affection to develop properly.

When we are born, our first action is sucking milk from mother. Of course, the child may not know about compassion and love, but the natural feeling is one of the closeness toward the object that gives milk. If the mother is angry or has ill feelings, the milk may not come fully. This shows that from our first day as human beings the effect of compassion is crucial.

If unpleasant things happen in our daily life, we immediately pay attention to them but do not notice other pleasant things. We experience these as normal or usual. This shows that compassion and affection are part of human nature.

[……]

Compassion and love are not man-made. Ideology is man-made but these things are produced by nature. It is important to recognize natural qualities, especially when we face a problem and fail to find a solution. For example, I feel that the Chinese leaders face a problem which is in part due to their own ideology, their own system. But when they try to solve that problem through their own ideology then they fail to tackle that problem. In religious business, sometimes even due to religion, we create problem. If we try to solve that problem using religious method, it is quite certain that we will not succeed. So I feel that when we face those kind of problems, it is important to return to our basic human quality. Then I think we will find that solution come easier. Therefore, I usually say that the best way to solve human problems is with human understanding.

[……]

Next, let us talk about the human being as social animal. Even if we do not like other people, we have to live together. Natural law is such that even bees and other animals have to live together in cooperation. I am attracted to bees because I like honey – it is really delicious! Their product is something that we cannot produce, very beautiful isn’t it? I exploit them too much, I think. Even these insects have certain responsibilities, they work together very nicely. They have no constitutions, no law, no police, nothing. But they work together effectively. This is because of nature. Similarly, each part of a flower is not arranged by human but by nature.The force of nature is something remarkable. We human beings, we have constitutions, we have law, we have police, we have religion, we have many things. But in actual practice, I think we are behind those small insects.

Sometimes civilization brings good progress, but we become too involved with this progress and neglect or forget about our basic nature. Every development in human society should take place on the basis of the foundation of the human nature. If we lost that basic foundation, there is no point in such development taking place.

The modern economy has no national boundaries. When we talk about ecology, the environment, when we are concerned about the ozone layer, one individual, one society, one country cannot solve these problems. We must work together. Humanity needs more genuine cooperation. The foundation for the development of good relations with another is altruism, compassion, and forgiveness. For small arguments to remain limited, in the human circle the best method is forgiveness. Altruism and forgiveness are the basis for bringing humanity together. Then no conflict, no matter how serious, will go beyond the bounds of what is truly human.

[……]

Now, on the question of violence and non-violence. There are many different levels of violence and non-violence. On the basis of external action, it is difficult to distinguish whether an action is violent or non-violent. Basically, it depends on the motivation behind the action. If the motivation is negative, even though the external appearance may be smooth and gentle, in a deeper sense the action is very violent. On the contrary, harsh actions and words done with a sincere, positive motivation are essentially non-violent. In other words, violence is a destructive power. Non-violence is constructive.

When the day become longer and there is more sunshine, the grass becomes fresh and consequently, we feel very happy. On the other hand, in autumn, one leaf falls down and another leaf falls down. These beautiful plants become as if dead and we do not feel happy. Why? I think it is because deep down our human nature like construction  and does not like destruction. Naturally, every action which is destructive is against human nature. Constructiveness is the human way. Therefore, I think that in terms of basic human feeling, violence is not good. Non-violence is the only way.

Practically speaking, through violence we may achieve something, but at the expense of someone’s else welfare. That way although we may solve one problem, we simultaneously seed a new problem. The best way to solve problems is through human and understanding, mutual respect. On one side make some concessions, on the other side take serious consideration about the problem. There may not be complete satisfaction, but something happens. Non violence is very safe.

Again, if there are sound reasons or bases for the points you demand, then there is no need to use violence. On the other hand, when there is no sound reason that concessions should be made to you but mainly your own desire, then reason cannot work and you have to rely on force. Thus, using force is not a sign of strength but rather a sign of weakness. Even in daily human contact, if we talk seriously, using reasons, there is no need to feel anger. We can argue the points. When we fail to prove with reason, then anger comes. When reason ends, then anger begins. Therefore, anger is a sign of weakness.

[……]

Buddhism does not accept a theory of God, or a creator. According to Buddhism, one’s own actions are the creator, ultimately.  Some people say that from a certain angle, Buddhism is not religion but rather a science of mind. Religion has too much involvement in faith. Buddhism can be a bridge between these two sides. Therefore, with this conviction I try to have closer ties with scientists, mainly in the fields of cosmology, psychology, neurobiology, physics. In these fields there are insights to share, and to a certain extent we can work together.

[……]

We are passing through a most difficult period. I am very encouraged by your warm expression and by the Nobel Peace Prize. I thank you from the depth of my heart.

Evolution’s Four Noble of Truths

This is a tribute essay to Charles Darwin, who was born exactly 200 years ago… minus 3 weeks … (yes, I left this essay in my draft for 3 weeks)

The Role of Evolution

What is the role of Evolution? Putting it simply, Evolution is a natural system organized by the nature to keep life going and survive in this ever changing environment. In other words, we will not exist without Evolution’s presence.

For instance, billion years ago, there was an ice age where the earth was literally freezing cold. Hence, every animal lived during that period must have resistant against cold or else they will die of freezing and frostbite. However, over time , the earth became warmer and species have to adapt to survive the warmer environment or else they will die of heat.

Hence, a simple formula – (The ever-changing environment on Earth) * X = (Continuity in Life)

And X is Evolution.

What will happen if Evolution do not exist? Simple, continuity in life will not happen. The Earth’s environment is dynamic – it keeps on changing and fluctuates up and down. So, for a species to survive, they need to cope with this ups and downs over generations. And this is exactly the role of Evolution and genetics – a game of trial and error to ensure the survival of life – A system where it makes life automatically adapt to the environment.  A system which bring the existence of new species and the extinction of weak species (in terms of adaptability).

If we bother to look around the nature, we will see Evolution is everywhere. Why do we find camels in the desert but not horse when they are both mammals? Because only animals which can withstand a long period without water can survive in the desert. Why is there no crocodiles in the urban area but plenty of house lizards around? Because only domestic animals which can cope with human activities can survive in the urban area.

Or perhaps we could ask something more detailed – why is our teeth not 100% symmetrical but rather few of them are shorter or longer than the rest of the teeth? If indeed human were designed by a perfect divine power, shouldn’t our teeth also be perfectly even? How about our hand and legs? As a person who play football and wear tight boots often, I notice that my left foot is slightly bigger than my right. Why such variation exist?

When it comes to variations, some of them do not matter. Like the imbalance length between my teeth. Or the difference of length between my left index finger and my right index finger. Or the difference of my brain size with the smartest guy in the world. All these variations, caused by Evolution, make little difference to our survival because in our environment, we do not depend on this variations to survive. But there are some animals which need these variations to survive.

One good example was the discovery by Charles Darwin when he came across finches with different shape of beak when he was on voyage around the world to study plants and animals.

 

Darwin discovered that the same species of finches actually had different shape of beak, depending on the environment where they live in. Finches which live in an environment with the primary source of food consist of nuts, will have a broad beak function to crack the nut. Finches which live in an environment with plenty of fruits will have a sharp beak to pierce the fruit.

Finches which have the wrong beak in the wrong environment will simply die because of difficulty in getting food. Hence, finches with the right beak in the right environment will keep multiply as the resources are abundant.

Hence, allow me to present the four truths of Evolution -

Evolution’s Four Noble of Truths

1. Evolution is natural.  We treat gravity as something natural through our everyday experience. Same goes for melting ice. And water droplets falling from the sky.  And the ‘small box’ invented by human being to communicate with each other wirelessly across the world. These are no miracles. They are just some natural law.

If all these phenomena which obey the law of nature and science are natural, why not Evolution? Just like the law of physics and the law of chemistry, biology also has a natural law and every life spawned in the face of earth will have to obey it. That’s the same reason why there’s no human being with 10 pairs of eyes – it is impossible to evolve to such extent because Evolution works by having small amount of incremental steps.

2. Evolution is not intelligent. Perhaps it sounds outrageous to even mildly suggest Evolution is stupid. But really, Evolution is not something ‘Intelligent’ at all. Evolution can’t ‘design’ organisms out. Evolution is just a game of probability. A game of trial and error. Like a dumb version of Thomas Edison who have to use billion of years to come out with a mildly intelligent being called human. Yes, it is ‘billion’ of years. Isn’t it great that human being took only like ten thousand of years and became civilized from living in the cave to having Internet? Human mind is much more capable in designing things than Evolution, apparently.

At the end, the environment will be the benchmark. Evolve well and the species survive. Evolve wrongly and it will extinct.

3. Evolution is unfair. There’s a form of unfairness in Evolution due to the element of randomness … just like babies who were born to a poverty-stricken family or a soul born to a cockroach which will have a high chance to be exterminated by human.

Evolution is also cruel in the sense only the fittest will survive. As I have said many times, Evolution is a game of trial and error – A game of genetics calculation and probability.

If let’s say for some weird reason, bamboo mysteriously vanish from the face of the earth tomorrow, then it also means the end for the pandas.

Too bad, that’s life, Panda. Evolve or vanish.

4. Evolution works. Yes, it works. That’s what allows me to type these out.

The Wisdom

All things appear and disappear because of the concurrence of causes and conditions. Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relation to everything else. – Buddha

When you throw something up, it will eventually come down – this is the law of gravity, the law of physics. The law of sciences are neutral – it simply lay down the rules to turn cause into effect. I pour water to the fire – that’s the cause. The fire is put down and that’s the effect – The law of chemistry has made this event possible.

Just like other law of science, Evolution is also neutral. No love, no hate, no mercy, no sympathy, no reward, no punishment. What it does is just to lay down the rules and laws and let the cause and effect to take place.

Hence, once we grasp this idea in our head, we will start to see the link and realize human being is kinda selfish when it comes to things like which is apparently noble … like saving endangered species.

Just observe the type of endangered animals which human are spending heavily on saving … they are all mammals! What about the endangered insects? What about some endangered frogs? The bees? Will human being splash million of dollars just to save some endangered insects? No, we only  save ‘cute’ mammals, or animals which could interact with us. That’s how, unconsciously, selfish human being is. We are playing ‘God’ here.

So, why not just let the endangered species go since they are having hard time adapting?

I won’t elaborate much on this but will just let a video to do the talking. I have, literally, watched this video hundreds of times.  This is one of the few videos out there with really deep insight and wisdom about the nature  I would say George Carlin is more evolved than most people out there because he see things from universal point of view instead from Earth’s point of view. He is ‘conscious’.

I have said this quite frequently – human being’s existence is insignificant. Only the emotion of self-importance make us think we are. Life will continue even without human’s existence.

Emptiness is impermanence, it is change.
We should not complain about impermanence,
because without impermanence, nothing is possible.

Zen Buddhism Master, Thich Nhat Hanh

The Creed of Buddha

Some interesting thoughts from Buddha regarding religion and humanity … derived from Tripitaka

1. Religion is necessary for a free society.

2. Religion should relate to facts of life and not about God, Soul, Earth or Heaven.

3. Man and mortality should be the centre of religion.

4.  Real religion lives in the heart and mind of man, not in Shastra (scriptures).

5. The function of religion is to reconstruct the world and to make it a happy place.

6. Everyone has the right to learn. Learning is as essential to human as food.

7. Learning without character is dangerous.

8. Nothing is infallible. Nothing is binding forever. Everything is subject to examination and inquiry.

9. Nothing is final. Nothing is permanent. Everything is subject to change. Being is always Becoming.

10. Everything is subject to the law of causation (cause & effect).

We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts we make the world.

Preceded by perception are mental states.
For them is perception supreme.
From perception have they sprung.

All mental phenomena are preceded by mind,
Mind is their master,
they are produced by mind

- Buddha