Hunger Strike By Temple Of The Dog

I travelled to Thailand on the 19th to 23rd of September with 23 other Republic Polytechnic Students and this post is about the differences between Thailand and Singapore. In the next post, I will I talk about memorable moments I had in Thailand.

People in Thailand are much friendlier than Singaporeans as their smiles are much sincere than Singaporeans and their greeting is also much friendlier than the universal hello or a simple handshake. The food there are much spicier and the tom yum is much tastier. The highways are much more magnificent compared to Singapore's because they are they are three to four storeys high. The sun sets at 6pm compared to Singapore's 7pm because of the 1 hour difference between these two countries. Their historical buildings are much more beautiful than Singapore's and they take Buddhism more seriously than Buddhists in Singapore. There's also villages where farms produce rice and Thailand is the produces the most rice. You are also bound to see street vendors on any road in Bangkok. Thai culture is also much richer and diverse than Singapore although there are many races in Singapore.

They serve samurai pork burger at MacDonald juxtaposed to Singapore's. Bangkok's traffic jam is atrocious compared to Singapore and this is mainly because many people buy cars over there. Have some food when you're in heavy traffic in Bangkok or else, you'll experience a HUNGER STRIKE. The roads are also badly-planned because you have to drive around the roads to your destination because you can't drive directly to it. Singapore is much safer as compared to Bangkok in terms of road accidents. You can only see a few transvestites in Bangkok and there are also a handful of shop that sell luxurious cars.

Prostitute By Guns N Roses

For every country, region, city, there's a clean image of it and of course the bad. For Singapore, a clean and green city, it has to dump it's rubbish somewhere and that happens to be Joo Chiat and the Lorongs of Geylang. For Johor Bahru, I recently discovered that it's Jalan Wang Ah Fok and Merlin Tower.

From my Malaysian friends, they enlightened me that Jalan Wang Ah Fok is a prostitution district and also where merchants sell viagra openly and illegally. Jalan Wang Ah Fok is Behind City Square and is alive when darkness dominates skies. I tried scouting that place alone and there were no prostitutes but there were the merchants in broad daylight and there were the rooms on top of the street shops where I saw couples together but I can judge if they're doing it.

From City Square, I entered a bridge that connected it to Merlin Tower. There were coffeshops in the building with little customers. The second floor was Chinese dominated and the third and fourth were Malay dominated. The common things between them is that they served alcohol. As I walked passed through a Malay coffeshop, a woman tried to tug me in into the shop while asking me to have a drink but I kept on walking and then she raised her voice and said why do you come to Merlin Tower not to drink? Only then did I found out that Merlin Tower is a drinking place where men gather and mingle with the waitresses who serve the alcohol. Luckily I explored that place while it was broad daylight or else I would be receiving glaring stares from chubby, old, greasy, hairy men.

I plan to explore the lorongs of Geylang and Joo Chiat but I'm scared if I'm being suspected of doing it with prostitutes by undercover agents and so, I shall not until maybe when I'm 21. There's this adrenaline rush when you explore this dangerous places because you never if your going to be approached by a PROSTITUTE, get beaten up by gangs, or get caught by the police because you're just at the wrong place at the wrong time.

School's Out By Alice Cooper

The last drop of ink smothered the exams paper and minutes later the invigilator announces we are free to go. It was the best orgasm I've had. It was the end of the dreadful O levels. Everything of positive rushed into my nervous system all racing against each other to reach my thoughts. Freedom is now mine. Now I can spend holidays without the guilt of not doing any homework. Now I can watch those late night movies. Now I can molest my bass. Now I can read the whole series of Richard Sharpe. Now I can hang out with my friends. Now I can organize myself. The thought of "SCHOOL'S OUT!" was still hard to get into my head because it was very unbelievable.

The many things I did enlightened me how life after school was so much more fun. It taught me how school interrupted my education. It also, most importantly taught me how I regretted my time back when I was in school. Sleeping in classes, being a slave to my own addiction, copying my friend's homework, all these hindered my ability to learn. I know my own potential and I could have done very well if not for those negativities. On of the most important things O level thought me was that it showed me how much I could pushed myself. Burning all those midnight oil till there was no oil left, staying awake in class although hearing a lullaby could put me to sleep instantly and also doing those revision papers with a sense of urgency.

I really hated O levels and so I just wanted to get over it and done with. About months before the commencement of O levels, we were playing badminton outside class, playing carom, playing street soccer and basically, making a fool of ourselves in our classroom. In the head of Fuchun students were formulas and definition but mine was a blueprint of the things I needed to do after O levels and all of those things were done and it was very meaningful doing those things.

Welcome to the Jungle By Gun N Roses

WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE Nur Shah, welcome to the bloody messy jungle. Money is a labyrinthine by which it is filled with a lot of jargon, theoretical ideas and such. The most important thing one should do is not getting lost in it in an effort to understand those jargon and such but rather to find your out in order to be rich, stinking rich having the hands of King Midas. Nope, we're not talking about Bill Gates here, who is he by the way? We're talking about riches that matches the richest man in history who is John D. Rockfeller who is at an estimated 663.4 billion dollars in 2007 dollars.

It is by the inborn gene for man to desire to be rich to support a family, to do charity work or of course to spoil himself. Money makes the world go round and it is one of the most things in my life. The simplest idea of money is getting it and spending it. However, as time pass by, man have very much over this idea. Soon came, interests, investment, insurance and the list goes on, so much so that it can cover the diameter of this globe. Those driven by greed made money an injustice to society. This post has no structure and such as it is a bloody messy jungle.

Up ahead is a list of theoretical ideas that does not need answering but rather much thought to keep you busy and maybe in the midst of the process, you'll have an idea that'll make you wealthy. In the rapid urbanization of today's society, does the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. My reason for this is because it is that of the poor's ignorance that makes poor and the rich's desire for knowledge and the average income do not know why the poor get poorer and the rich get richer. By knowledge I do not mean degrees and diplomas but rather anything that is important for you to succeed. The poor begs for money and this becomes a daily routine so much so, that he does not find vacant jobs at the newspaper because of this illusion of mandatory begging. While it is not wrong to donate to the poor, I ask for the rich to instead educate them or else the poor will continue being poor and the next generation of poor people will be even poorer.

Democracy, Communism and such other political systems establishes a direct impact on money. They are very confusing and I feel that no system is perfect for every country. Even though Communism is not loved by many however when you look at it, Russia managed to defend itself from threats in World War 2 because the economy was experience quite an exponential growth. If there were no countries, would the humans then have rather balanced income? This is because different countries have different resources while a few have none. So, if these countries were to trade to other countries freely, wouldn't countries in Africa be much richer as they have a lot of natural resources? Something good is always balanced with something bad. The dictatorships in Middle East, the slave's resources in Africa, the poverty in India, the weather in Asia, the corruption in Russia, the gangs in South America, the changes in China, the economic instability in Europe and lastly, the social decline in America. If only each country would be not prioritize it's citizen but rather humans on planet earth, wouldn't it be a more visually appealing image?

Now on the topic of investments. You can basically invest in anything that has monetary value. Be it a simple school bag or a rather much more expensive gold bar. There are many different type of investments all of which have risks of varying levels, so the question here is, is investing a sin in Islam considering that it's something like gambling? The banks here in Singapore complicate me. What's the difference between them? Why are their interest rates so low?

For me, the world is revolving too fast. Everywhere there's developments. What happens if globalization was to take a step back? Wouldn't we then have more free time however we our income would remain the same as everybody else is taking a breather? More time to spend with our families, friend and religion.

Stock markets, I never comprehended them. How does a stock market? Why are people sacked from their jobs when it crashes? What are stock markets in the first place? Why are many countries dependent on America's stock market? Why is the American currency the universal currency. What does inflation mean and how does it affect the man on the street? What determines the constant uncertainty in a stock?

About a year ago, I read a book about being rich by Napoleon Hill. So, basically the main ideas of being rich is having a burning desire to be rich, reading a piece of paper everyday to make yourself determined, transforming love into its physical equivalent and dreaming many dreams. Dreams that generate ideas that sell and also dreams that is the fuel to your burning desire. However there are 16 things in all that makes you successful which I've already mentioned some. I need to read the book again someday because it's a very knowledgeable book, I never got the "secret message" and also because I never practiced what he told me to. Just for your information, that book sold more than 30 millions copies and it is the best selling self-help book in history.

I'm really hating blogger now because they're putting K-Pop advertisements at my chat bar. Nice sharing with you my thoughts and remember, do ask yourself questions about money.

Love, Hate, Love By Alice In Chains

The worst fortnight in any year for me is the last week of the fasting month and the first week of Hari Raya.

Starting off, my mother bakes chocolate chips during the last week of Ramadhan (fasting month). Total in all, we've baked around 2000-3000 cookies. Baking those cookies is not like finding a needle in a haystack, it's like finding that hay which is 1cm longer than the rest. This is because she's very fussy, she gets angry easily and the whole process is inefficient. Even after baking it for more than 15 years, she admits that the process and those cookies are not perfect. Her anger is the biggest reason for the depressing week. You get scolded for the smallest mistake most of which is not my fault. During that whole week, I've experimented something. I try not to argue with her even though she's wrong. The results are as such, she realizes that I've stopped my so call rebuttal and appreciates it, however she barely appreciates it because by then, I would have caused another mistake. I feel very submissive not arguing and awkward as I have been arguing with her for a long time. Regardless of which, I feel better arguing because I feel empowered and so then she realises her mistake. The verdict is as such, for small mistakes I will not argue, but for big mistakes, I'll argue and this is all beyond reasonable doubt.

Besides cookies, there also a lot of chores that needs attention. Most of which is buying products. I do not hate doing them and neither am I in smitten with it. Who loves doing work? Unless you choose to then it's understandable. Even though I do not hate doing it, it's the bloody fact that my mother does not appreciate but continues flooding with more chores. Just to let you know, I've had all my Poly tests during the last week of Ramadhan and yet, I still helped my mother. My other two siblings occasionally helped because they were having their Preliminary Examinations. My younger brother and is having his O Levels this year and my lovely sister is having her PSLE.

The first day of Hari Raya is always a surprise. It can turn out to be very good,bad or average. This is because my mother is unstable. For this year it was average because we shared happy moments however my profit was only 14 dollars and we only went to 3 houses. Last year, was bad because my mother wanted me and my brother to go home because we could not find one of her relatives house. However as we were walking towards the MRT station, she changed her mind. Read this, the first day of Hari Raya is not fun to me because my mother never visits her parents house because she hates them and her siblings and also my father's parent house because they're divorced. Lookin at my relatives makes me even jealous, an example would be http://www.facebook.com/finabieber. Adding on, I can't remember the last time I bought new Hari Raya clothes.

The jealousy, loneliness and sadness that resides in my body when I see people happily celebrating Hari Raya on the streets of Singapore and also those cheerful pictures at Facebook reminds me how unlucky I am to be in this family. Everything is in tatters and bits. The reason why I do not let anybody to come to my house is because of the stress provided by my mother when she asks me to prepare the food and so on. And then of course, there's that sudden burst of anger from her. Last year, I gave chocolate chips to my friends who visited my house. I gave them the wrong cookies as they were meant for my brother's friend even after asking my mother if I had given the right cookies for 3 times in clear verbal communication. Then she replied, "if I asked you to eat shit, make sure you eat it". Of course I got very angry and shouted at her and so on. To LOVE, HATE, LOVE my mother. That represent my indecisiveness towards my mother, should I love her or not? Concluding, please take your time to listen to this as it represent the hatred that plagues my thoughts and my heart, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9jX1KAKp78.