The real mask

Just in case anyone is having the thought of getting a mask to protect yourself from the haze, here is my personal view about getting a facial mask.

First of all, you should only be wearing a mask outdoors in order to protect yourself from the haze. It should not be brought inside an air-conditioner room because it might be damaged by the air-conditioning. Pretty much similar to a pair of spectacle. If you have brought a mask from a cold to a warm environment, water can gather around it and eventually spoilt it and defeats the purpose of buying and wearing it. Similarly, if you are thinking of wearing it throughout the whole day, that will work if you are staying in the outdoors for a very long period of time. However, if you are going to step in and out of an air conditioner room, you will eventually spoil it. Therefore logically speaking, in order to protect yourself from the haze, you should be using & changing 2 or more masks per day. And in case you have been speaking behind the mask for a very long period of time, you could also moist the mask and eventually spoil it. That goes for sneezing too. Since you are breathing behind the mask, you are going to inhale all the harmful bacteria. In other words, the moment when you have moist the mask, you should throw it again, as it might deteriorate your health even much more further.

Basically, I'm not against the idea of wearing a mask to protect yourself from the haze. But, if you are going to protect yourself from the haze, I would rather you go all out to protect yourself completely.

I don't believe in shoemaker elves...

Probably most of you out there have heard or read the story of 'The elves and the shoemaker' before. However...

By the way, this article might be a bit too 'dark', therefore are you sure you want to continue reading?

That is merely a fairy tale written by the Grimm Brothers. I don't believe that the shoemaker elves exist in this world and I believe that tasks that was assigned to an individual, he should try to complete the task himself. And at the same time, do not believe that help will be given. Back then, probably I was too native, therefore I will still trust the words of others, but eventually things doesn't really work out that way. After putting too much trust in others hoping that they will help me out, I finally fully understands how meaningful the following 2 liners are.

It might take a long period of time to build a tower of trust, but at the same time, it might take a short instance to ruin it. Words are cheap and actions are everything.

Eventually, at the end of the day, your best source for help will be yourself. Always believe in yourself and at the end of the day, you will be pretty amaze with the amount of things that you can achieve. :D

Anyway, speaking of trust, always ask yourself this question. If a task was given to you and a friend has offer his help, how much help are you going to get at the end of the day? Similarly if a task was given to him, how much help are you willing to offer him? At the end of the day, will the amount of help that you are getting and you are willing to offer going to be the same? If it's different, why would it be different? This would be something interesting for one to really think about. :D

* Click here for the fairy tale 'The elves and the shoemaker' by the 'Grimm Brothers'.

Zhī Yīn(知音)

We might be spending over entire life looking for a '知音'. So what's a '知音'? And why is he/she important to us?

In our entire life, we might get to know/meet a lot of people. Regardless how long or short your friendship might be, what are the chances that he/she will be the special one that might ended up to be your '知音'?

So what's a '知音'?

Basically, '知音' is that special someone who understand you pretty well. He/she might might not be blood-related to you but he's the one that can provide you emotional support. For example: if you are stuck in a difficult situation, he's the one that can provide you all the help that you need and he will also be the one that will give you a helping hand when you need it the most. In other words, he's the one that can help you to fill up the missing piece of puzzle inside you. On the other end, he's the same individual that you can share all you laughter, all your worries and all your troubles. Therefore, although life is short, but with the help of a '知音' or two, it will definitely make it much more comfortable and better. :P However, a '知音' is pretty hard to come by but if you have managed to meet such a person, do cherish him.

Story of the 3 farmers

In the countryside, there's a guy with a very big piece of land. He wanted to grow watermelon in this piece of land. Therefore, he has decided to employ 3 farmers to take care of the land. Farmer no. 1 will be watering the plantation. Farmer no.2 will be getting rid of all the pests. Farmer no.3 will be fertilizing the plantation. At the end of the first year, 100 watermelons were produced. And a big fat bonus was shared among the 3 farmers. However on the second year, as one of the farmers has become a little bit lazy, therefore the number of watermelons produced have halved. And a small bonus was shared among the 3 farmers. Therefore, for the third year, what should the farmers be doing?

1. do nothing.
2. cover all the workload of the lazy farmer.
3. should become lazy too.
4. talk to the lazy farmer.
5. tell the owner to find another farmer to replace the lazy farmer.
6. others?

As for the owner, what should he do?

1. do nothing.
2. find another farmer to replace the lazy farmer, but which 1?
3. others?

As for you, if you are the farmer/ the owner, what are you going to do? (Throughout our life, you will come across with situations like this once in a while. However, how do you handle it and what are the actions that you end up doing?)

A bit about life

This is an interesting passage about life and I find it pretty interesting.

============================== どんなに白い白も、ほんとうの白であったためしはない。一点の翳もない白の中に、目に見えぬ微小な黒がかくれていて、それは常に白の構造そのものである。白は黒を敵視せぬどころか、むしろ白は白ゆえに黒を生み、黒をはぐくむと理解される。存在のその瞬間から白はすでに黒へと生き始めているのだ。 だが黒への長い過程に、どれだけの灰の階調を経過するとしても、白は全い黒に化するその瞬間まで白であることをやめはしない。たとえ白の属性とは考えられていないもの、たとえば影、たとえば鈍さ、たとえば光の吸収等によって冒されているとしても、白は灰の影で輝いている。 白の死ぬ時は一瞬だ。その一瞬に白は跡形もなく霧消し、全い黒が立ち現れる。だが---- どんなに黒い黒も、ほんとうの黒であったためしはない。一点の輝きもない黒の中に目に見えぬ微小な白は遺伝子のようにかくれていて、それは常に黒の構造そのものである。存在のその瞬間から黒はすでに白へと生き始めている…… 谷川俊太郎「灰についての私見」（詩集『定義』）

(My bad translation) Things started off to be white in colour. However, no matter how pure that colour would be, it will still contain small particles of impure(black). Gradually, these particles will grow bigger and bigger and sooner or later, patches of black will ought to appear. Throughout this process, grey colour will be formed and from this moment onwards the colour will gradually darken and it will be impossible to revert back to the same old white colour again. As time goes by, when all the white colour disappear, you will be end up with a pure black colour. However, pure black doesn't exist too. It will also contain small particles of white, and white colour will be formed eventually. And the cycle will go on and on forever... ==============================

After giving the passage up there some thought, the same theory can be applied into our daily life. The environment, trust, love, etc... Everything in this world works the exact same way as the content of the poem. For example, we started off with a clean and healthy environment. After a few years time, the air gets more and more polluted and there's no solution to the problem. Gradually, the air will get too polluted that... Looking from a different perspective, in order to prevent the 'impure' from accumulating, I think that sometimes we should really put ourself in other's shoes. Actions speak better than words. Sometimes by doing/by not doing something, you have unintentionally have made one unhappy/disappointed. In other words, stop making empty promises. However, if you have break your promise, try to find ways to amend it before the 'impure' take over the 'pure' colour. To some extent, it might be a small minor issue to you but it's always those small minor stuff that gets accumulated and burst at one go. :D

The Flavour of Life

If life can be interpreted into different flavours, how would it taste like?

As for myself, that would be the same question that I would probably be spending my entire life searching for a perfect answer to it, but till today, I think that life would be similar to a cup of tea. It can be either sweet or bitter or even tasteless. On top of the taste, the smell coming out of a cup of tea can either be a strong aroma or a strong refreshing fragrance or even odourless. With the number of types of Tea Leaves in this world, tea tasting can be a never ending journey that one can take.

Today I am going to introduce a Chinese Tea House that I am a regular. Introducing ...

Tea Chapter I was working at this place a few years back. When I was working at Tea Chapter, everyday was a completely different experience. You get to meet different groups of people everyday. On top of that, the atmosphere of the place was both quiet and relaxing. It wasn't an easy task looking for places like this in the busy part of Singapore.

	Have a break, Let's have some Tea... :P
Besides for the huge variety of Chinese Tea that you can try, you can also go for the snacks like fragrance cookies, Tea Eggs, simple Dim Sum... etc.

The following would be the type of seats that you can get in Tea Chapter.

Japanese Style You will be crossing your legs for a very period of time. But no extra charges if you decided to choose this kind of seats.

Korean Style
Very limited seats, but you can put your legs into the hole underneath
the table. There are additional charges for these seats, but this isn't
something that you can experience everyday.

	Chinese Style Something that you can get in at traditional Chinese restaurant. Oh by the way, Queen Elizabeth II had paid a visit to Tea Chapter in 1989. The picture on the left was taken during her visit to Tea Chapter.

	Some photos taken in Tea Chapter

	Besides for the Chinese Tea House that was located on the 2nd and 3rd floor, they also have a retail shop selling all sorts of Chinese Tea Accessories and Chinese Tea Leaves.

Do pop by Tea Chapter if you want to get away from the busy Singaporean lifestyle.

* Click here for the website of Tea Chapter.