砂漠のJeffire

Jeffirean Stories

Thursday, November 03, 2005

Lastest Update after blogsurfing....

You Are 10% Boyish and 90% Girlish

Even if you're not a girl, you're very feminine.
You're in touch with your feelings, and your heart rules you.
A bit of a emotional roller coaster, one moment you're up and the next you're down.
But no matter what, you try to be as cute and perky as possible.

How Boyish or Girlish Are You?

-_-" so that's me!?

Firstly, if any of you are already stressed and pressed for time, I suggest you stop reading and perhaps come back at the end of the month.

Usually you can see that I'm a very positive person. Nothing can really put me down, but in reality, I'm just as frustrated as you. The catalyst that escalates my problem though, is that positiveness itself. While I'm confident that things can be done and are within control, sometimes, things just override that confidence. Mostly it's the fear of making people angry , especially when i have so many bloody things to do, and at times i need them to give some extra time for me to clear other stuff before doing theirs. And how should I repay them for giving me that extra time? I really have no idea. 神啊! 救救我吧! I guess even God, whoever he is, won't be able to help me.

However, the lesson that can be learned is how to plan a miracle timetable (read: miracle)that is able to accomodate many things at one go. This term's timetable absolutely sucks to the core (although on paper it looks very nice) but I am sure next term will be better as my boss has been very understanding and allows me to enjoy some flexibility in the working hours. Moreover next term I will be dropping my post in Music Interactive Club because their meeting times never coincides with my free time, and there isn't much I can do for them in terms of my post until the holiday arrives.

I'm so hard pressed for time these 2 weeks...so many things to clear...

Just now I happened to catch a glimpse of the 7pm channel 8 show (同心圆) and Pierre Png's role as a well-intentioned but slow-witted guy struck me again as one of the famous lesson taught in a Dragonquest comic:

"Justice without strength is useless, just as strength without justice is pointless. "

It's the same in this sense:

"Well intentions without capability is useless, just as capability without good intentions is pointless"

Many people are very kind-hearted, or are very helpful, but sometimes there are things that they cannot do eventually despite promising to help out of sheer kindness. I have a very clear understanding of this cold cruel fact, which is why I am trying to maximise my capability so as to be of help to as many people as possible. That intention to increase capability comes with a price of losing some of the kindness in the heart because the pursuit of perfection comes with an imperfection. We cannot be good in something unless we do it wrong for at least once. We may have to be less helpful, because we may not have enough time to help others while trying to make ourselves better. One good example will be having to study for an important exam rather than to offer help to a desperate friend who needs help to get his project done. Some people may have good intentions, like offering well-wishes, like giving suggestions, but what's the point? He needs someone to help him draw that diagram, to help him formulate that solution, not someone to give him a 'keep it going, you are there!' kind of encouragement. Of course encouragement does help in some way if this friend is receptive and positive; Encouragement does show that you care, but like i said, can your good intentions give him a pass in that project? This intention vs ability to provide help is a delicate balance we have to try to maintain throughout our lives.

Yet let me remind you again, some issues are long-term in nature. Without a sustained good intention, no matter how capable you are, you won't be able to help to solve those issue. Of course you won't be able to help your friend to get the pass for that project, but by offering wishes and then doing a post-project follow up (like meeting up or asking how did it go) will go a long way in making the friendship better. If this example is not comprehensible, think about saving the environment. If today I think that I should use less plastic bags, so I decline the offer of a plastic carrier from the supermarket stuff. But next week when I am buying loads of frozen food and going on a long way to perhaps the chalet, I will have to get extra plastic bags to ensure the dripping water doesn't dirty the taxi or perhaps even your own boot, then what's the point of declining the offer of a plastic carrier the week before?

Hence, let's just put the issue at the point where good intentions are far more valuable than capability. I hope that this perception is of use to you. But seriously, to me, I would rather be better in order to be more useful than to be more kind but still unable to be of help.

This is one source of my power in my pursuit of improvement. Hee, then what's the other? Let me talk about it next time since I'm feeling much better now.

Jeremy, if you are reading this until here, you are booked to go watch Harry Potter with me! =p

Stay strong, guys!

Prince of the Desert
Sabaku no Jeffire

The truth is that he believes that most of his peers are wasting time trying to nick that A+ for their course instead of trying to understand what is the course about. The culture in Singapore is absolutely screwed. We expect students to understand 500 years of research in 3months. No wonder when it comes to solving real problems, everyone is easily stunned. Nobody dares to try for fear of getting it wrong, nobody dares to risk a sure B for a possible A++. He will like to reiterate this - learning is a life-long process. Grades are temporary discrete values but experience is like an cumulative continuous variable in a time-series graph. Good luck.

-- the other Jeffire

Acknowledged my existence at
8:05 PM