Le Book de Love

love resides in thoughts
love manifests itself in deeds
love expresses itself in words
and in those thoughts, deeds and words
i find joy and comfort (in the 14 things that bind us) ;p

Enya

You know when you gave your love away
It opens your heart, everything is new
And you know time will always find a way
To let your heart believe it's true

You know love is everything you say
A whisper, a word, promises you give
You feel it in the heartbeat of the day
You know this is the way love is

Amarantine
Amarantine
Amarantine
Love is, love is, love

You know love may sometimes make you cry
So let the tears go they will flow away
For you know love will always let you fly
How far a heart can fly away

Amarantine
Amarantine
Amarantine
Love is, love is, love

You know when love's shining in your eyes
It may be the stars falling from above
And you know love is with you when you rise
For night and day belong to love

P.S. i blogged the entirety of the lyrics - the song was too beautiful to merely warrant a single stanza

Twenty-Four (24)

last 4 days have been remarkably relaxed. as some of you know i am now hooked on '24' (its all your fault weeyang! and you too sam!). sam and i greet each other in the hallway with our fingers pointed at each other in a 'pseudo-gun' shape with the words, "freeze ... federal agent jack bauer!".

24's really gripping stuff, it takes hold of you and thats not let go for one moment .. each episode hangs with a veritable cliff-hanger making you come back for more of agent bauer. i like jack bauer because like jason bourne in the bourne identity series, his persona is very realistic. bauer is NOT the rifle-totting madman that arnold swazernagger plays in most films, neither is he the suave and all-talk agent, james bond. instead he comes through with his wits, love for his family, the loyalty of his friends and sheer tenacity. additionally, there's so many twists to the story it just leaves you spinning! oh and the name 24 stems from the fact that each episode last one hour and one season of twenty-four episodes covers one full-day in real-time - pretty innovative!

finally, from the mouth of an addict: be warned, if you're gonna catch 24 ... you're gonna have to watch all five seasons ... one hour or even twenty-four hours just doesn't satisfy!

Reality Dysfunction

the reality dysfunction by peter f. hamilton

i finally completed my first reading of the book over a 5 week period (20 min readings before bed everyday). being sucker for sci-fi and alternate realities, parallel universes and all ... the blurb really enticed me into buying the book. apart from the fact that the title is a wonderful summary and description of my life, the ideas in the book, not to mention the masterful story-telling and beautiful writing style made the book worth every single penny i paid.

what really surprised me about this story was how hamilton manages to create a sci-fi story that's actually supportive of the existence of God. well it sounds cheesy but the reality dysfunction, the first in a three part series details how the human race is faced with an invasion it can scarcely even begin to comprehend: the possession of large swathes of planetary populations by lost souls returned from the dead. hamilton details hell less as a spiritual dimension but more as an alternate quantum dimension where the sinners of sinners (e.g. hitler, murderers etc) are placed to suffer for all eternity in sensory-deprevation. for millenia after their death, these souls spend their existence without hope, without sensory perceptions but tormented and driven by the hate they have for the living. these lost souls rape and pillage the scraps of thoughts and emotions from the newly-dead but are left forever in a state of psychological-hunger that can never be satiated. its hard to think of a fate that is worse, even the conventional biblical notion of hell. anyhow, an energy flux created by an alien entity opens the doorway for the return of these souls through possession of living bodies. their ultimate aim is to escape God's judgment by escaping into an alternate reality.

along the way hamilton raies moral and religious issues such as cloning, the existence of the soul, correlation of thought and the soul. the last one's particularly intriguing. if people are able to transfer their thoughts after death into a collective conciousness or perhaps some other human body or machine ... will the new 'container' of their existence by imbued with their 'soul' or will it merely by an empty shell filled with a shadow of the former self? its quite a relevant issue. science is becoming so advanced that in a century or two i see neuro-surgeons being able to complete accurate map-outs of our neural nets and brain-waves - essentially our thoughts and 'sense of self'. indeed will people be able to cheat death? what does this mean for religion and christianity in particular?

gonna drop down to forbidden planet tmr (or today actually) to purchase the next installment in the series. for those of you who like sci-fi or enjoy thinking about some of the issues i've raised go read the book but be warned its a massively thick, 1500 page novel!

i'm a little foto mad today ... but yes this was one of the highlights of my day ... it sounds very sad but i actually spent 1.5 hrs cleaning our shower ... i'm rather proud of the results though ... it actually sparkles now!

Le KILLER Files ... Imagine those four fat, paper-filled to the brim files ... falling ... tumbling ... and LANDING ... on yours truly's SKULL ... OUCH x 10

finally satisfied my craving for home-made mashed potatoes ... ironic how much chinese food we eat in london that i actually manage to develop a craving for potatoes of all things!

Brick Lane

Blasted computer hanged not once but TWICE just now. I had to retype 3 paragraphs of my essay twice!
Went to Brick Lane - the London equivalent of Little India - today. Not really interesting save the sheer number of Indians on the street (just a statement I'm not rascist!) and the number of Indian restaurants - Pakistani Muslim cuisne, Bangladeshi specialties and the various Indian spreads. You've got half the restaurants proclaiming that they are the "Best in Brick Lane" or the "Award-Winning Indian Restarateur 2001" or even the "Spiciest Curry in Lonon". Hah ... the English must really be as generous with their culinary awards as they are with their knighthoods.
Funny how these ethnic enclaves are always so close to buisiness districts - Chinatown in London is near Leicester, Brick Lane's near Liverpool Street and in Singapore, both Little India and Chinatown are within a few stops of the CBD. When I was younger I'd figured that such places, which are traditionally run-down should be relegated to some obscure corner of the city. Haha but I've since come to appreciate the fact that I'm not a city-planner. Chinatown here is a mere half an hour's walk or a FREE 10 min bus ride from home.
Just so happens that the essay I'm cracking my head over has to do with ethnic diversity and divisions. It seems that no matter how integrated a country may appear, the various ethnic groups will always find the need to cluster with their own kind. Indeed from my experiences in London, many people spend most if not all their time with members of their own ethnicity. I'm no exception really.

IKUZO!

Me Johari Window

This it the link to my Johari Window. Its basically a matrix containing key personality traits that a person may possess. You guys can check out the page and indicate which traits you think best describes me. ;p
http://kevan.org/johari?name=justinyewjinnhtan

meetin new friends, testin new delicacies (",)

duffel-head alien loves bee ;p

Vienna

gulasch museum and schnitzelwirt schmidt, cafe einstein and salmon sandwiches, choir boys and the nascht market, hotel gerbeglasse and the bag down the beds, postcard man with no change and the queue-cutting old lady, alien and bee. that was vienna.

You've got your passion, you've got your pride
but don't you know that only fools are satisfied?
Dream on, but don't imagine they'll all come true
When will you realize, Vienna waits for you?

billy joel

my dad and i ... i've never been able to get a decent picture of him ;p

My Dad

you know how people often celebrate the selflessness of moms and how they sacrifice their lives and more for their children and family? well i think dad's are underappreciated most of the time too! i take me dad's 57th birthday to pen a tribute to my dad.

since my mom passed away shortly after i turned 11, he has been the decisive influence in my life. in contrast to my other siblings, i shared the burden of keeping the family together and this brought us closer together. we don't speak about our private lives to each other. i don't tell him about my love live, nor some of my other problems. but between us there remains a strong bond, the knowledge that we are similar in many ways and that we are always there for each other. for 12 years our little conversations over supper, in the car on the way to dinner and rugby/ tennis match chats have shaped my thinking, philosophy of life and attitude towards society. more subtlety my ethic of hard work, and the believe that hard work trumps most adversities in life stems from my father's incredible focus and commitment to excellence and improvement in his career, family and all that he commits himself to - he started life in the poorest of conditions and his risen far. he couples all this with great commitment to the family. at 57 he has not thought of retirement, only to ensure that all 4 of us have an overseas education.

i inherited his temper (somewhat improved now;p), his obsession for fitness, love for sports, passion for reading. i'm told that i follow too closely in his shadow. perhaps. but at this point i also celebrate my dad. the person who for me, commands the greatest respect.

13th February 2006. happy 57th birthday dad.

Till Further Notice

Frozen ... till further notice