CNY COS.
I didn't sleep the whole night because I had to book in for duty and thought that I might as well sleep while doing this COS duty. So if what I say doesn't make sense, it probably doesn't.You know how some people like to wear their jackets without really wearing them? You pull the jacket over your shoulders but you don't bother putting your hands into the sleeves?
I'm kinda stuck in the office for COS duty on the first day of Chinese New Year, so this translates to a bored young man emulating things he doesn't normally emulate.
In case you don't really know what I'm talking about, here's a picture that exemplifies the very sense of fashion I tried to describe:
 | |
| I like his mouth shape. |
So yea, that's what I meant.
It doesn't keep me warm =.=
I heard this story last Friday over the radio. It was about an experiment done on children. A teacher was feeling sadistic and decided to give every child a piece of candy. She (for it must be a female to come up with something of such diabolical intentions) told all the students that if they didn't eat the candy bestowed by the end of that period, she'd give them all another piece of candy to reward them for not yielding to temptation.
At this point, I was quite confused. I mean, I think it's quite obvious that she's trying to make a point that kids who resist temptation have a higher potential of growing up to become better people, but I couldn't fathom
1) Why the deadline?
2) Why the reward?
Let's face it, candy isn't like potato chips. OK, maybe it is to you, but I don't eat sweets like free. Let's look at lollipops. If a woman gave me a lollipop and gave me conditions similar to the aforementioned, I would definitely eat the lollipop immediately because
1) Women renege on their promises
2) I don't want diabetes.
I think that as a child, I'd definitely take into consideration at least point 2, which is for health reasons. I mean, when I was young I probably thought females weren't very different from us. They didn't have boobs back then, and I didn't watch porn.
If the reward was something really great, or something that can be discussed monetarily, then I might consider not eating that lollipop immediately...
..but since it's a woman, I'll still take whatever I can first (namely, the lollipop).
I was suspicious of the world even as a child. Me, eating the candy immediately after the teacher set the conditions is my way of saying "Fuck the second piece of candy, it's not here it's not going to happen and you're lying". It's not my way of saying "I have no control over my penis".
They then went on to state how the children who didn't eat their candy survived. Were they tempted to eat? Of course they were, it's recess time and they're held back by a bitch with nothing better to do. OK I made that up. But yea they were supposedly tempted, and they distracted themselves by doing work, playing with their pencils, or sleeping. Yes, they specifically mentioned sleeping. I want to be a teacher. I will host this experiment every lesson I have, just to legitimize sleeping in class.
The bottom line here is that the children who resisted suffered lots, like an itch they can't reach. For that amount of torture, how is a second piece of candy going to help?
I'd rather eat the first candy that comes my way and be done with it. I don't care much about candy what =.=
They then charted the progress of this class of kids, and differentiated between those who "resisted temptation", and those who "succumbed to temptation". They found out that -surprise surprise-
1) The "stronger" children grew up to be more successful
2) The "weaker" children remained weak.
What nonsense. If naivety is a talent, the stronger children are damn gifted. Just because a teacher said she's going to give you a candy doesn't mean she would. How does this even relate to future successes? I'm beginning to doubt the verity of this experiment. The presenter (the DJ) might've composed this story on the spot just to finish her homework.
Do you guys get what I'm saying? I'm only half-getting what I'm saying. Sometimes you have to articulate your thoughts before you can understand them. I'm doing just that, but I'm still not making sense of my thoughts and as Fi always says, if you can't convince, confuse and I'm trying to confuse you.
I want to sleep.
And happy Chinese New Year to everyone (:
I really love Chinese New Year. It's amazing how much effort every Chinese puts into taking time off for reunion dinner, family gatherings, stuff like that. It's also commendable that we always pray to our ancestors before celebrating. I like how humility/gratitude is always within our culture. It makes me feel proud to be Chinese.
I've decided that I enjoy going to the temple. There's this...sense of peace. When you close your eyes to pray you feel like someone's really listening to you. I try my best not to articulate what I wish for in words, because if the gods do exist, they should know me better than myself. I'll give them the raw emotions to work with.
The only problem is that I'm too self-conscious. I'm worried that I'll be caught in that kneeling position for too long. My mum and sis prays for some time, and I spend a lot of my time kneeling down squinting and hoping that they'd stand up so that I can take the cue to stand up too. It's a bit weird to stand around waiting for others to be done, and it's very weird to make 2 people stand around you waiting for you to be done.
I think this speaks volumes of a need I have:
I need a lot of time alone.
-- 1/23/2012 09:16:00 PM