... it's mid-February and it's only now I realised that I've missed one humongous Eff and that is Far-flung Places, bringing my total number of Effs to 9.
January/February was a Chinese New Year excursion with the Ma, Jo and Sean to Bangkok, my first. February will also see me in Singapore again, to fulfil another Eff; the OCBC Cycle Singapore, my first bike challenge. March is time for Sportel Miami; a shorter trip than usual for me and will spend some extra couple of days in Miami. New York will have to wait.
April/May is another huge, huge first - Melbourne. I've always wanted to go and was planning for later in the year to coincide with the Fringe Festival in September. Now, I have an opportunity to do Melbourne with new-found friends who live and breathe the city, a different experience and, I know it in my bones, it will be one hellava trip.
Sometime after Melbourne will be a continuation of my diving adventure, which will see me completing my Advanced certification and then, the world will truly be mine to share with oysters. :-)
And THAT is my half-year of Far-Flung Places in the bag... stay tuned for Q3 & Q4...
Monday, February 16, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
Hubristic...
1. [adj.] Of, or relating to hubris.
2. [v.] Displaying hubris (as a personality characteristic)
Root word - Hubris:
1. [n.] Overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance: "There is no safety in unlimited technological hubris" (McGeorge Bundy)...
2. [n.] Excessive pride or self-confidence; arrogance.
Synonym - Hubris:
airs, audacity, brass*, cheek*, chutzpah*, cockiness, conceitedness, contemptuousness, disdain, insolence, loftiness, nerve, ostentation, overbearance, pomposity, pompousness, presumption, pretension, pretentiousness, self-importance, vanity
All in all, it doesn't sound like a good trait to be toting through life, does it? But what if that arrogance was borne out of a valid reason? Or is there ever a reason valid enough to warrant such arrogance and unbridled pride?
2. [v.] Displaying hubris (as a personality characteristic)
Root word - Hubris:
1. [n.] Overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance: "There is no safety in unlimited technological hubris" (McGeorge Bundy)...
2. [n.] Excessive pride or self-confidence; arrogance.
Synonym - Hubris:
airs, audacity, brass*, cheek*, chutzpah*, cockiness, conceitedness, contemptuousness, disdain, insolence, loftiness, nerve, ostentation, overbearance, pomposity, pompousness, presumption, pretension, pretentiousness, self-importance, vanity
All in all, it doesn't sound like a good trait to be toting through life, does it? But what if that arrogance was borne out of a valid reason? Or is there ever a reason valid enough to warrant such arrogance and unbridled pride?
Saturday, January 10, 2009
One last Eff...
... Fear.
Not fear in itself but but the acknowledgement of its existence, acceptance of its influence and effect on the things that we do and finally the application of remedial measures to ensure that we don't screw up (again) because of it.
Not fear in itself but but the acknowledgement of its existence, acceptance of its influence and effect on the things that we do and finally the application of remedial measures to ensure that we don't screw up (again) because of it.
Friday, January 02, 2009
Doing Eff-all in 2009...
I generally don't do New Year resolutions.
"What's your New Year resolution?" - standard question in the first week of every new year. In the last few years, my standard answer to that question is "I don't make any that I can't keep and frankly, neither should anyone else". HAHAHA... too grumpy an old coot to be encountering on New Year's morning, don't you think? The kind you'd like to kick in the ass, I'm sure... :-)
In any case, I don't believe that there is anything extra that one can do on New Year's day that can't be done on any other day in a year. But if making resolutions are still a must, then I think making ones that are achievable should be the way forward. And there should be no shame in making a list of 100 small do-able things than making one big one that is insanely improbable.
I choose to look at things with a view for continuous improvement and the onset of a New Year is when I remind myself of what it is that I am focusing on. These are things that I already do and/or practice daily and this is merely my way of 'taking stock'. Hence the Doing Eff-all in 2009 is an open-ended work-in-progress which does not end come 31st December. And here are WHAT THE EFFs mean:
1. Family: Filial piety is something that should never be mistaken, misplaced nor disregarded and I think I have been guilty of that for too long; making the conscious efforts to repay those who unquestioningly give me no shite about my life and the way I choose to lead it, especially to my mother.
2. Friends: Cultivating new relationships and rekindling old ones; recognizing those who are ‘worth my time’ and keeping them close. Making time for meaningful conversation in smaller groups, preferably one-on-one.
3. Fitness: In the loosest sense, to avail myself to any type of activity (especially to try new ones) that requires some form of perspiration. Kicking off 2009 with a 78km bike ride was a good start! Cycle Singapore, here I come!!
4. Free time: To do things for myself that are outside of the first three Effs and work; me-time, quiet time, time to think, time to be solitary.
5. Faith: Constantly reminding self that there is a higher power at work that moves and shapes things in ways that are not always immediately clear to us but trust that things happen for a reason, often a good one. And when all else fails or in doubt, SURRENDER (thank you for perspective, scsf).
6. Filosophy: Everyone has something to say no matter how young or old, how (seemingly) sane or not; listen, learn, reflect and analyse. To be more open to what others have to say and being less judgmental is the key.
7. Food: The ultimate savour of life, as experienced through my taste buds.
All said, this will evolve as the year progresses because LIFE in itself, is a work in progress.
"What's your New Year resolution?" - standard question in the first week of every new year. In the last few years, my standard answer to that question is "I don't make any that I can't keep and frankly, neither should anyone else". HAHAHA... too grumpy an old coot to be encountering on New Year's morning, don't you think? The kind you'd like to kick in the ass, I'm sure... :-)
In any case, I don't believe that there is anything extra that one can do on New Year's day that can't be done on any other day in a year. But if making resolutions are still a must, then I think making ones that are achievable should be the way forward. And there should be no shame in making a list of 100 small do-able things than making one big one that is insanely improbable.
I choose to look at things with a view for continuous improvement and the onset of a New Year is when I remind myself of what it is that I am focusing on. These are things that I already do and/or practice daily and this is merely my way of 'taking stock'. Hence the Doing Eff-all in 2009 is an open-ended work-in-progress which does not end come 31st December. And here are WHAT THE EFFs mean:
1. Family: Filial piety is something that should never be mistaken, misplaced nor disregarded and I think I have been guilty of that for too long; making the conscious efforts to repay those who unquestioningly give me no shite about my life and the way I choose to lead it, especially to my mother.
2. Friends: Cultivating new relationships and rekindling old ones; recognizing those who are ‘worth my time’ and keeping them close. Making time for meaningful conversation in smaller groups, preferably one-on-one.
3. Fitness: In the loosest sense, to avail myself to any type of activity (especially to try new ones) that requires some form of perspiration. Kicking off 2009 with a 78km bike ride was a good start! Cycle Singapore, here I come!!
4. Free time: To do things for myself that are outside of the first three Effs and work; me-time, quiet time, time to think, time to be solitary.
5. Faith: Constantly reminding self that there is a higher power at work that moves and shapes things in ways that are not always immediately clear to us but trust that things happen for a reason, often a good one. And when all else fails or in doubt, SURRENDER (thank you for perspective, scsf).
6. Filosophy: Everyone has something to say no matter how young or old, how (seemingly) sane or not; listen, learn, reflect and analyse. To be more open to what others have to say and being less judgmental is the key.
7. Food: The ultimate savour of life, as experienced through my taste buds.
All said, this will evolve as the year progresses because LIFE in itself, is a work in progress.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Heuristic...
Meteorology Glossary: Heuristic - In artificial intelligence, a rule of thumb, generally based on expert experience or common sense rather than an underlying theory or mathematical model, that can be incorporated in a knowledge base and used to guide a problem-solving process. Most procedures used by human weather forecasters are heuristic, as are many pattern-recognition techniques in radar and satellite meteorology.
Wikipedia: Heuristic (hyu-ˈris-tik) is a method to help solve a problem, commonly an informal method. It is particularly used to rapidly come to a solution that is reasonably close to the best possible answer, or 'optimal solution'. Heuristics are "rules of thumb", educated guesses, intuitive judgments or simply common sense. In more precise terms, heuristics stand for strategies using readily accessible, though loosely applicable, information to control problem-solving in human beings and machines.
Hence, I think we should strive to approach life heuristically but we should also always recognise that heuristicism is a practice of common sense which is sometimes not as commonly possessed as we would like it to be... so, how heuristic are you?
Wikipedia: Heuristic (hyu-ˈris-tik) is a method to help solve a problem, commonly an informal method. It is particularly used to rapidly come to a solution that is reasonably close to the best possible answer, or 'optimal solution'. Heuristics are "rules of thumb", educated guesses, intuitive judgments or simply common sense. In more precise terms, heuristics stand for strategies using readily accessible, though loosely applicable, information to control problem-solving in human beings and machines.
Hence, I think we should strive to approach life heuristically but we should also always recognise that heuristicism is a practice of common sense which is sometimes not as commonly possessed as we would like it to be... so, how heuristic are you?
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