Hannibal Barca

General Hannibal Barca,

You have been on my mind for the past few days. You will be surprised by how inspired I was when I had a visual reenactment of your greatness through a modern recreation of your acts. You did not just stand up to the Roman Empire. You surprised them. You almost brought about the end of the Roman Empire. You struck fear into the heart of the mighty Romans. The Romans even granted you the highest form of flattery by imitating your war tactics. In particular, that long, trecherous and unforgiving journey past the Alps to attack Rome itself was unexpected to say the least. Yet, you accomplished this amazing feat and almost brought the mighty Roman empire to their knees. History has attributed this famous quote to you,

"We will either find a way, or make one."- General Hannibal

You were so sure you were going to find your way or rather make your way. Your determination and your sense of belief must have been infectious and did wonders to your troops. I have to thank you. To thank you for your belief and your determination and pure brillance. Thanks for providing this timeless gem and timely reminder to me.

You failed in the end. Taking your own life to deprive the Romans of the satisfaction of killing you. I will never comprehend why you refused to storm Rome and land that final stab into the heart of the Roman Empire. You were so close. Why? You could have changed the course of history. You could have been more than a flawed genius. You could have been the man who brought the Roman Empire to an emphatic end. That strong empire which possesses overwhelming strength in your time. Why did you have to insist on having the Romans surrender to you? Was it arrogance? That you believe you had done enough and wanted the mighty Romans to eat the ultimate humble pie and surrender to you, the so-called babarian? Or was it compassion? That you believe you will be able to save the lives of your remaining troops and see no need to burn Rome and kill all those in Rome itself?

Yet, even in your failures, there are lessons to be learnt. You are a testament to the old saying that to be kind to your enemy is to be cruel to yourself. You showed that you are after all human. And perhaps the most inspiring thing about you lies in the fact that you are a flawed genius. Your legacy will not be forgotten. And, you will always earn the admiration and adoration from future generations.

With love,
Yanwei

(im)perfection

When something really matters, your expectations get heightened ten-fold and the pressures become insurmountable. Or so it seems, I seemed to be stuck in the mindset that dreams are so sweet because they can't come true. I seem to be quietly confident of my assets and my strengths yet painfully aware of my limitations. My limitations seems to ensure that I will not get the coveted goals that I so desperately want and dream of. Yet, without bragging, I always manages to get the next best choice avaliable. To another person, what I possesses now, what I have experienced, what I have gotten in life so far may already provide them with much satisfaction and perhaps even joy. Yet, to me, this just seems to be inadequate. No, I am not aiming for the sky, I am painfully reminded by my own perfectionist tendencies that I am not reaching my potential. To not reach my own potential is indeed a very sucky feeling.

Potential, what a scary thing. It creates unrealistic expectations and daunting challenges. Yet, it may lull some into complacency. Some even used 'potential' as a means to pacify themselves for their inept results so far. If potential becomes an excuse for one not meeting their goals, then I must say quit telling me about your potential and start showing me your results. Or at least, your best efforts, as long as you try your best, you can't go too wrong in life. Whether you are contented with the end result is an another matter altogether.

Today, I was struck down by a flu, a headache and a very serious insomnia that made me decide to back down from taking a step nearer to that coveted dream of mine. The possibility of failing and flopping today was just too high. And, I know, if I backed down this time round, after I recover from my sickness,try to have a good night's sleep and pep myself up mentally for this challenge, I will be able to meet my potential. Or at least, be in the optimum position to grab this challenge, give it my best shot and have no regrets. But, how many second chances appears in life? Especially when its with regards with something that you really want? Sometimes opportunities only arrive once in your lifetime and timing is the most essential thing. So I can only hope that this time round, I will get this second chance. If not, I'm not really freting over it as well, for ironically, I have expanded my options widely enough and feel assuredly confident that I will carve out my niche in another area(which arguably, I am actually more suitable for) than this dream that I have always coveted.

* Life is a journey with lots of twists and turns. Its ok to fail, just make sure you stand up again. :)

social scientist

As a social scientist, I should have been more sensitive to the possible repercussions of differing perceptions.

As a social scientist, I took it for granted that people understood the medium theory and the straightforward effects of framing.

As a social scientist, I should have analyzed the results of my actions and words.

As a social scientist, I feel silly to not have made calculated moves and 'rational' decisions.

But a social scientist is nothing more than just one side of me. To be judged is perhaps unavoidable. Yet to judge on rather circumstantial evidences is perhaps really just laughable. And yah, I had a good laugh after the slight irritation at the begining.

You think you know me, but you don't.

ubin cycling trip

Spending Roy's birthday(and New Year's eve) in ubin was both a retreat back to nature and a walk down the memory lane. Goofing around and photo-whoring, I must say it brought back lots of memories from our jc days.....



When I was small and christmas trees were tall....or so the song goes...haha, when we are sweet sweet 18...



Still 18, abeit, our aggressive tendencies were brought to the forefront...haha..and so goofing around seems to be a thing of the past? Not really...



Nature has its way of bringing out the childlike innocence of men....



Or maybe nature reduced men to boys again.....

Posing or acting cool on the other hand seems to be natural.....



Or maybe we are really cool.......



We are still cool rite abeit with the help of some lighting...........



No...? Maybe this 'boyband like' pose will convince you otherwise...



Haha, ok maybe we are delusional...but hey, its fun to think these thoughts sometimes.