De one with OHP of transparency

Life philosophies

Puzzled over what "OHP" means? I doubt they still use these in school. Or perhaps in some they still. OHP is the abbreviation for Overhead Projectors. During secondary school days, apart from upgrading from black to white boards, teachers used transparencies (A4 plastic sheets) placed onto a lighted screen and transpose whatever that's written on the source onto a projection drop, using the techniques of periscopes.

Say what you mean and mean what you say.  (Someone changed it to "Say what you wanna say, Mean what you meant to say" Lol! Aiyah, pretty sama sama ("same" in Malay) la). One of the bedrock of my life philosophies. It's heart-gripping and troubling to conceal anything form anyone. It takes years to master the art of deception. Why waste our youths on learning something that would only come haunting us with "ballot lots" of regrets in later years.

I think such philosophies enable the development of self-confidence. It ain't just plain clinche conscience on the discussion table here since it's not entirely based on integrity, rights and wrongs. It involves a balanced share of pragmatism and exposing our inner selves.

Revolutionising social values have degraded our thoughts and thus, our behavior inaugural  to conform to socially deemed benchmarks. Some conspire. Others refused. It's a superficially subjective and double-edged sword.

As extreme as I could be, I try to be easy-going without compromising my principles. This is when the rational reasonable man theory comes in. No. Not "the". Lemme rephrase it to "my" personal opinion of the rational reasonable man (hereafter known as "RRM"). Technical terms? The best fit definitions of the RRM would be someone who is able to withstand 64% emotional and 36% logic.

Why the above proportion? Take double laws for example. In court, equitable laws precedes common laws. My analogy based the scales as a representative of human emotions (which inherent moral values, ethics and other stuff which have no definite rights from wrongs), the sword as an instrument symbolising human logic (which governs our knowledge, speech, decisions).

It is okay to have firm in decision and instinct the triumphany of thoughts over feelings. Tip alittle towards the latter yields flexibility. Vice versa, relied backwards on the former conjures rigidity. And the amazing reign of separation between both is transparency.

Widen your wavelength for self transparency.. I think this was something I studied during organisational behavior.. arh! Johari Windows!

With reference to the color abstract (in courtesy of aborsarwat.blogspot) above, transparency grows when we widen the yellow "open" window. Known to others and known to self reduces cognitive discomfort to others (in trying to know and get along better) and self (concern with what others think or feel about us). Yes, the course of "open" expansion is transparency.

To aid faster expansion, we call upon the "brothers and sisters": understanding, communication, honestly... Most of the time, it works. If it doesn't, like Patty Smyth and Don Henley had propagated, sometimes love just ain't enough.

Can't believe I'm saying this but there's an impressionable chinese phrase "xin1 ai4 rong2 yi4, xiang1 chu3 nan2". But I think bonding requires mutual transparencies. Let's not be an a** defending privacy. Honestly, privacy is an entitlement which has been pretty infringed or intruded with advanced development of technology. Some retains. Others doesn't. The best living examples are celebrities.

For the general population of us who does possess minimal privacy, why not take it as a gift which can be shared with the ones we love and care for. It's free-of-charge if that's the way to put across the thifty, or meant it as a comfort to those who are less fortunate.

Nobody loves opaque all the time, we rather prefer it clear.. if we ain't comfortable, there's always a chance to purchase curtains for refurbishment. Haha.. can't believe I'm behaving creating ideas like Dan Brown. Purely fiction!

De one with NUS

Tuesday with the Open book, Three Rings and Raise-paw Lion

It seemed like yesterday since I've clashed lectures at local universities. Haha. The last time was at NTU, with my ex or Clara, I hardly remember. But it's fun nevertheless. Doubled the fun with thrills of infiltrating into the crowds. Imagine doing that say 3 years later. I wonder if my looks are passable for me to do so.

Appointed with Eric and Gabriel (army campmates) to have lunch. Turns out I was delayed at the lawyer's office administrating the completion of Jimson's case. Although my helpful Crayon was informative in the directional texts, when I was on ground, I kinda lost my way and called Gabriel for help.

It was nice to see my fellow specs again. The first greeting I got from Gabriel was "It's good you've got my as a live-GPS".. which I felt was warm. If that's not warm enough, Eric "chop" this seats at the Art's faculty canteen which was under the sun la.. eventually, both my "hosts" decided to fetch me to the upper level where it was air-conditioned with "Lerk Thai" and "Burger King". According to them, these are more expensive. We had Thai cuisine though which was average. Only alittle over-priced. Must be the charges for the cool environment.

We chatted merrily about army times, updates of each other, what are their future career paths. Apparently, I realised none of us changed much. Perhaps our hair grew longer. But personality wise, we remained the same. So were our memories. It didn't take long before Crayon arrived that I decided to toned down the conversation. Kinda felt bad he came and wasn't into the conversation. And I pre-empt he might feel intimidated because my company were seniors.. seniors who succeeded in their studies. We parted hastily as we were running late. Aww... so wonderful seeing them.

BUT! This is when the next segment of the day begins. The lecture hall. The appearance of the LT bears resemblance of those in NTU. You have an elevated corridor and declined platform which leads to the doorways to LT. They have this "Lecture in progress" signal on the top of right entrances. Reminds me of those operation rooms exteriors.. spare the difference in color.

It pretty filled. The lecture. Oh, the lecture or should I comment on the lecturers. There were accounting and law. Both were very interesting people, employing different lecturing techniques to delivery their teaching objectives. The accounting had song effects and bitchy conversations. Law lecturer was hilariously long-winded like a primary school teacher and shown us videos with her in it. Not bad, there were cat-calls when she made her appearance. Ha.

Here's the juicy part. Crayon told of even amazing facts concerning these lectures. The accounting guy, Winston is in his 40s and man.. you should have looked at his personal grooming. The hair's so slick.. he's like a grown-up toy-lookalike Astroboy la.. The law lecturer, Catherine holds double qualifications in medicine and law. Omg. *gurp* 

After 4 hours of mental-exhausting lectures, we made our long journey to Yusof Ishak House for dinner, study and snack. The wanton noodles... not so bad la.. wonder what would be Huimin's comments, considering she always eats these in school.

Well, I was led on an expedition to one of the top.. erm.. *clears throat* scandalous place in the campus. Oh well.. nothing much la. It's pretty adventurous but the dark alleys gave me the creeps. It suppressed my interest to explore. Haha.

Ya, a wonderful break from my routined and hectic work-life. As much as I had enjoyed and let down my hair, I kinda regretted not heeding my Mummy's advice on securing a place in the local unis. Kinda miss the taste of hall-days. But pragmatism casts away these clouding yearnings of the past. Moving forward... treasure the remaining days of my student status. Haha.