meaning believing in at least 6 impossible things everyday before breakfast
1. i will get into graduate school
2. i will get the internship/job i want
3. i do not need to diet
4. i do not need to prove myself to anyone
5. my dreams will be achieved
6. there is good in humanity
(more…)
thank you to the people who remembered, the people who didnt know, even the people who forgot. because all of you are a part of my life, and My Life, as disappointing as it might appear sometimes, is the last thing i would want to change at this moment.
somewhere between the time i arrived in japan and now,
i developed the habit of making flippant remarks when foreigners comment about the size of Singapore, such as
“it’s smaller than (insert whichever city convo is currently taking place in)”
“you probably dont even need a day, you can tour the entire place on a stopover”
“it only takes a half hour to travel from one end of the island to the other”
being underestimated works to your advantage, most strategists will tell you
but ive realised now that it is only responsible to get the facts straight before making any statement, even when it’s just some sarcastic answer offhand.
so ive been a good girl (do you hear me, santa!), and done some much overdue homework.
singapore is approximately…
9 times smaller than shanghai
3.5 times smaller than taipei
3 times smaller than tokyo
2.5 times smaller than london
2 times smaller than los angeles
2 times smaller than new york city
2 times smaller than bangkok
1.5 times smaller than hong kong
(and holy moly! 1.2 times larger than seoul!)
complimentary reading for today
Why We Needn’t Feel Insulted by That Insult
i think it is a rare joy to be able to laugh at someone’s expense when they’re supposedly making fun of you
Can we know the truth?
last weeks linguistics class was cancelled and made me feel like shit for the whole week but todays made up for everything! :)
to update you on our progress today
(actually its just for my own revision)
we’ve moved from semantics to pragmatics (finally!)
effective communication, in general,
is when you learn something about how the world really is
apparently it seems as if the process of learning consists of us frantically stuffing ourselves with information, be it rubbish or facts
and hoping our knowledge will grow as a result
but in reality,
when someone gives you a new piece of information,
(granted that you believe what you have been told)
your brain narrows down your knowledge to the set of possibilities with which that piece of new information is compatible with,
and rule out the other parts of your “knowledge” which is now irrelevant because it doesnt correspond to what you have recently learnt!
isnt it amusing how this gives a whole new meaning to the terms narrow-minded and broad-minded!
are you still following?
and that question above in fact, not only implies that you are paying close attention to me now, but also assumes you have been doing so right from the beginning
in pragmatics, this is called a presupposition
when we speak, we tend to include in our sentences presuppositions – stuff we take for granted the other party is aware of as well
and these presuppositions will in turn determine whether the sentence spoken is semantically true, false, or undefined.
what do you mean by undefined, you ask.
it simply mean its impossible to prove exactly which side it should belong to because there are infinite possibilities for a context to allow this particular sentence to be true
naturally, we can say its not the truth because it does not really mean anything
but can you say its entirely false?
the sentence might refer to a person called John who owns more than one dog. John can only afford to feed one dog, and hence if he has the one dog with him now, another dog which he cant feed is probably hungry.
sounds absurd??
but who knows?! anything is possible,
it all depends on your imagination….
all quotes from The Oxford Murders :)
new layout version 8
inspired by the recently acquired knowledge that there are more than two sides to every person
thank you everyone for loving me.
as the start to a new year
chong plans to answer/find a stand to these controversies running in her head
too often, we mistake complacency for contentment.
when we’ve gotten comfortable and settled down where we are,
we stop questioning the surroundings
we think we are good enough and we seek no further improvement
are we far too easily satisfied?
or are we never satisfied?
“the grass is always greener on the other side” – envy, jealousy, never able to appreciate what you already have
but if the inherent need to desire something better than what we already possess, is part of human nature,
can we be blamed for acting according to this “nature”?
yet if our thoughts and behaviour are always subject to human nature,
how can we say that we have free will?
do we have free will?
if we dont, then noone ever has a choice but to act the way they do.
then what is the significance behind the system of crime and punishment?
if we dont have free will, who/what controls our thoughts and actions?
how do we think?
with words? do we need language to think?
or with symbols and images and ideas?
who/what puts those ideas into our head? and then impels us to experience the process of decision making.
how do we construct those ideas of what the reality of the world around us is like?
is the reality in our mind influenced by what we see and hear everyday – the media?
does the media reflect society’s reality?
or do they construct it in order to fit to the reality in us, the audience?
please, do feel free to philosophise with me.
