There's No End To Being Slim

I came across an article with the header "Australian Model Posts Untouched Bikini Photo" a few days ago. Just from reading the header, I was awed by the model's courage. We all know that most photos of models are tempered with, so this header caught my attention and I went in to read the article.

The Australian model is Robyn Lawley, and according to the article, she switched from straight-size to plus-size modeling. In other words, she now has a fat body, or in this case, supposed to have a fat body. Why do I say so? You will understand what I meant after you see her modeling photo.

So, this is what the modeling industry regard as plus-size. Mind blown. From a man's point of view, her body looks perfectly fine, and is nothing near fat. In fact, she may even be thinner than majority of the females I know. That's the thing - the modeling industry had set the acceptance level for fatness so low that even the model in this picture is considered fat. The worse part is that majority of the females are buying into this standard. For the purpose of comparison, here are some photos of some other models:

I recognise that this special range of models are what the industry call as too-skinny models, and these are some extreme examples. However, it is the standards and values that the industry is introducing to the world that is acidic. 

Many females look up to models and yearn to have bodies like them. And in order to achieve such bodies, they find all ways to shed off the fats in their body, either by cutting down on food consumption, doing intensive exercises, consuming slimming pills, or doing surgeries. These methods are harmful to their bodies, but they feel that the trade-offs are worthy.

To quote a Chinese comedian Dayo Wong, he once said “ 瘦的官方标准就是 - 瘦，减十磅，为之瘦。” In English, it means "The official standard of slim - when you are slim, reduce 10 pounds, then you are slim." In other words, there's no end to being slim, at least to the females. 

A lot of females are constantly trying to cut down their weight, even when they are already slim and light. They just feel that they can be slimmer and lighter, and that to them, equates to more attractiveness. Truth be told - the ultimate goal of females constantly making themselves look attractive is to attract males. This is the instinct of living things; to attract opposite sex. There's no denying that.

For the female readers out there, I am now going to spill it to you what kind of body attracts male. I believe that I am representing majority of the males when I say this - we do not find skinny girls attractive. Robyn Lawley as shown in the first picture, or even slightly chubbier than her, attracts us instinctively. The 4 subsequent models will turn off most males.

Ladies, be natural, and not be too bothered by your weight. The battle against fats will never end. As long as you are alive and kicking, fats will come back to you. No one can permanently put an end to weight-gain. Don't get me wrong, I am not promoting obesity. I am just encouraging you to not be too extreme when it comes to weight loss. Just do enough to keep your body healthy; that's all that matters. 

-The god has spoken

A Little About Myself #2

Since I talked about education in my previous post, I feel like sharing with you some of my thoughts on our education system and my education history.

I always felt that while education is important, our education system is putting the focus on the wrong aspects. The emphasis seems to be more on memorising theories and facts, than to really teach and learn something practical that value-adds our lives. Thus, I had a nonchalant attitude when it comes to studying (of course, my laziness played a part too). As a result, my academic results were average at best, and always fall a little short in getting to my desired school.

I started in Yishun Primary School. I was consistently in the first class since they started to band us according to our results. I received the honour of First-in-Class in primary three and Best-in-Mathematics in primary four. However, there was a sudden slump in my results when I was primary five. Luckily, I managed to improve on my results during primary six, and got an aggregate of 241 for my PSLE.

My desired school of choice then was Anderson Secondary School, which required an aggregate of 250 then. I was eligible for St. Joseph Institute, where 2 of my best friends had picked as their school of choice, but my family did not allow me to choose a school located too far from home. I was pressured into choosing Yishun Town Secondary School, a mediocre school which I heard was filled with bad kids back then.

I realised I was wrong on my misconception about Yishun Town Secondary School after I went there. It indeed use to have a reputation of having a lot of rowdy students, but that was in the past. A new principal and discipline master was appointed, and the school's culture changed drastically from what I heard.

I maintained my nonchalant attitude towards studying  during secondary school, and expectedly, I went from first class in secondary one to second class in secondary two, and subsequently third class in secondary three & four. Although I was consistently among the top two in the cohort for Mathematics, I was poor in my other subjects, especially English. Throughout my entire secondary school life, 16 examinations, I managed to only pass my English paper thrice. I passed my English paper during secondary one's CA1 and SA1, and failed all the way before I finally passed my Prelims in secondary four. Luckily for me, I managed to pass my English paper for 'O' Levels too. Eventually, I got a L1R5 of 18 and L1B4 of 12.

I never considered junior college as an option due to my poor English standard back then. I was looking at polytechnic, and a diploma in accountancy sounded full of potential to me. I was marginally eligible to take up accountancy course, but was beat by the strong competition for the limited intake of the course. Eventually, I was enrolled into my fourth choice: Diploma in Integrated Event & Project Management at Singapore Polytechnic.

The common belief about Polytechnic is that it is technical, hands-on, and not about memory work. These beliefs are rubbish, at least for the course I took. Sure, there are some technical and hands-on work about once a year, but that's it. The rest are all memory work. In fact, the amount of things that I'm required to memorise made me drop my nonchalant attitude and started to revise for examinations for the first time in my entire schooling life. I remember I failed one of my papers not because I gave the wrong answers, but because I did not answer the question using the textbook answer word-for-word, despite my answers having essentially the same meaning, just worded differently. Overall, I got a pretty poor GPA of 2.6+.

I feel that the current education system is focusing more on expanding the memory capacity than to impart actual knowledge or skills that one can put into use in life. There are plenty of people who can memorise real well and score well in their examinations, but knows little and cannot do much after that. These people are what the society call "paper scholar". Is this what our education system is hoping to nurture? I hope not.

Every individual has different strengths, and our current education system just doesn't allow for some of these strengths to be expanded or showcased. Everyone is being tested on the same thing; some may thrive as it is their strength, while others may falter.

With that, I would like to share a picture which I feel wraps up the flaws of our current education system.

-The god has spoken

Which Is The Path To Success?

My brother and I had a conversation with our 16-year-old sister lately regarding where should she go after O levels. At the tender age of 16, she, like most other teens, has no idea what she wants to do in the future. And frankly speaking, as her brother for 16 years, We're a little ashamed that we don't know what's best for her either. Nonetheless, we broke down and analysed the possibilities for her based on our experience (my brother went to junior college, while I attended Polytechnic).

1. Junior College

Knowing that she is the memorise-and-vomit type of student, junior college's system seems like something that she can thrive in. However, she isn't the smart type (no, having good academic results by memorising your textbook doesn't mean you are smart) and she knows that herself, so she tends to get very tensed up whenever she's mugging for her examinations. The pressure that she gives herself is so great that at times she looked like she's on the verge of breaking down. If she's already unable to cope with the pressure at secondary school level, I worry for her health if she goes into junior college.

The advantage of junior college is that it is the fastest and easiest route to go into one of the 3 government universities (NUS, NTU, SMU). If my sister can cope with the pressure, she should have no problem going into one of the universities through junior college.

2. Polytechnic

Polytechnic, unlike junior college, do not run on a show-hand-in-one-examination system. The students are required to consistently perform well in their assignments and examinations. It is not so much of a do-or-die for the students. However, the students need to constantly be on their toes and maintain a high level throughout the 3 years. Polytechnic's syllabus, generally, are more application-base and pure memorising will not secure an excellent result. This is something that my sister is weak in.

Going to Polytechnic also requires the students to decide on a field to take on. At the tender age of 16, my sister still has no idea what she likes or she is good at. Asking her to choose a field that may likely be her future career right now seems to be a tough choice for her.

The advantage of taking a diploma is that if she do get her degree thereafter, she is more "valuable" than her peers who went to junior college and then university.

After weighing the pros and cons, we still weren't able to decide what's best for our sister. After the conversation, I continued to reflect on the conversation, and I realised that it was only right that we couldn't decide what's best for her. She is the only one who knows herself best and able to decide what's best for her. And this is where an individual  is being defined.

It takes a certain maturity level for one to know what they want, what's best for them, and strike a balance between these two aspects. Truth be told, what you want may not be what's best for you in this practical world. Most of the teens do not have that maturity to make that decision yet, but they are forced to regardless. Those who are able to make that decision, they are the one who can and will succeed in life.

Many people complained about our education system for forcing our youngsters to decide on their future when they are not matured enough to do so. However, if you look at it in another way, it pushes the youngsters to make a mature decision for themselves early instead of continuing to guide them through their life, and delay their maturity.

Whichever path the students decide to take on, as long as they make their decision base on sound and logical reasoning, they will likely to achieve a certain level of success and self-satisfaction. For those who choose where to go for childish reasons, such as following where their best friend goes, will have a mountain to climb.

-The god has spoken

The Simplest Thing May Not Come That Simple

There are many things around us that seem simple, and is already part of our daily life. We are so used to seeing such things that we don't think how did these things come about. No, I am not talking intangible things like friendship, love, care, concern etc like many other articles out there had already talked about. I am talking about tangible things, or rather products. Many products that we use in our daily life may seem simple, but I can assure you that they all take immense creativity to make it happen.

Let's look at some examples:

1. Hot Dog Bun

Hot dog bun is something I'm sure everyone has eaten before, and most people like it. The hot dog adds a salty flavour and chewy bite to an otherwise bland and dry bun, and at the same time make it more filling for our tummy due to the meat content. It seems very simple; just slice up the bun and stuff a hot dog in, and indeed it is very simple. However, do anyone have any idea how much creativity it takes for the first person who came up with the idea of a hot dog bun? At least I know that I'm not creative enough to come up with this idea hundreds of years ago before it appeared.

2. Shelf

A shelf is a must-have furniture in every household because it allows us to organise our things neatly. However, the most brilliant part about a shelf is that it creates additional area that you don't already have using floor area that you already have. Confused? Before the first shelf was being invented, we could only leave our things lying around on the floor. When there are too many things, the things will occupy too much of our floor area, leaving us with little walkway. Surely, smarter people will stack up their things so that there will be more walkway. However, when they want to take a certain item and it is right at the bottom of a stack, it will be very troublesome and time-wasting. By using a shelf, we are creating additional areas to put our things, and they are not stacked right on top of each other, making it easy for us to take any one item.

3. Bag

Having a bag is very convenient as it allows us to bring along with us many items that we could not have managed with our bare hands. It is just a simple container where we can put anything we need on the go. Simple as it may seem, again, will you be able to come up with such an idea before the idea of a bag first surface? Not many people may be able to do so.

Above are just some examples of simple things that we see, use, consume everyday, but the changes that they bring to our life is drastic. Living in this generation, we are all blessed with such simple yet brilliant inventions. Simple as they may seem, these are the outcome of our ancestor's creative brain juice. 

The downside of living in this generation, however, is that we lack such problem-solving creativity. How many of us can create something all-new now? We can only at best modify and improvise on past creations, but not create something never seen before. Our brains are mostly clouded with complex stuff like computer and machine, and the simplest thing somehow become not as simple anymore.

-The god has spoken

It Had Never Been The Same Ever Since...

-This will be my first moody post in this blog. Feel free to skip to my older posts if you don't feel like reading a moody article.-

I had been feeling a little down since earlier this week because I re-watched the film You Are The Apple Of My Eye (那些年，我们一起追的女孩). 

 

It is a really good film. It doesn't have good editing or effects, it doesn't have awesome actors, but the story is so good that it touches almost everyone. It talks about puppy love, something everyone of a certain age had experienced. And it was portrayed in a way so familiar with the audience. To the audience, it is almost similar to their own story.

Anyways, enough of praises for the film. There was one particular scene that affected me the most. The male lead organised a fighting tournament, thinking that it is a chance for him to show the female lead how strong he is. The female lead, however, scolded him for promoting something dangerous. She added "有时候，我真的很不了解你" (translation: sometimes, I don't understand you). This sentence struck me the hardest.

Back during my days in polytechnic, I had a crush whom I was very close with. However, I did not let her know about my fondness towards her due to various reasons. I conceded that we could only be friends, and was contented that we were the best of friends. 

However, as time goes by, I started to have difficulties hiding my feelings, and I started to behave differently. Although I didn't do anything offensive, I kept getting on her nerves. One day, we had a slight argument, and she told me something that made me very upset. 

"I used to think that I was able to read you like a book, but now, I don't seem to be able to understand you."

This may not be the exact sentence, but it was something along this line. And this sentence has an uncanny resemblance to what the female lead in film said to the male lead. I can't help but get reminded of what she told me when I heard that line. I can't help but to recall how the sadness grew in me when she told me that. It was not the devastating kind of sadness. It was a subtle, gradually growing kind of sadness that stays forever. It pinches me every time I think of it.

Ever since then, I always felt awkward when I faced her. Eventually, we had a big quarrel, and the bond between us was never the same again. As much as I would like to, during our graduation ceremony, I didn't have the courage to go to her, to talk to her, to apologise to her, to take a shot with her. I regretted that even till now.

Years have passed, and the unhappiness and awkwardness got diluted with time. We are able to talk again, make fun of each other again, but I don't think it will ever be the same as how it was back then. I lost my best friend due to my childishness. This is the story that the film reminded me of, and this will stay as a prick in my heart forever.

-The god has spoken

Sincere Appreciation, Or Just Part Of Marketing?

1 July is Singapore Armed Force (SAF) Day, a day for the nation to show appreciation to all the current and former servicemen or servicewomen who contributed their efforts to ensure the safety of the country. In the past years, not many citizens know about SAF Day. For those that knew about it, most of them did not bother or don't know how to show their appreciation to these people.


In recent years, SAF took an extra step to let more citizens know about SAF Day, and make sure things are done to let our servicemen and servicewomen feel appreciated. SAF arranged with over a hundred of retailers to provide these servicemen and servicewomen with perks, such as discounts and freebies. All the servicemen or servicewomen need to do is just to show their 11B (SAF's identity card) to enjoy these perks.

Sounds pretty nice, isn't it? The people are finally doing something concrete to show their appreciation instead of simply saying it. However, I came across a Facebook status by my superior during my Army days which gave me a second thought about this whole issue. Here's the status:

It may seem like just a simple complain on surface, but if you think deeper, he do makes some sense. Retailers signed up to be part of the campaign to show their appreciate towards the servicemen and servicewomen, but how many of them did that out of sincere appreciation? Is this just another marketing opportunity for these retailers?

From a marketing point of view, there are at least 3 benefits for being part of this campaign. First of all, the retailers will have their brand being seen across all of SAF's official media platforms. This is advertisement for these retailers. Secondly, the retailers can create a positive image for the brand. "Hey look! We are patriotic, and we appreciate what these servicemen and servicewomen had done for us. We will support them." This is good public relations (PR) for these retailers. Last but not least, they get to increase their revenue through this campaign, albeit having a lower profit margin. They will be able to expose their products to more customers. This is a good sales for these retailers.

If these retailers are keen on expressing their sincere appreciation to the servicemen and servicewomen, they could have put in more effort at point-of-sales, to create a better experience for these people. Like the status suggested, these retailers could have just put up a simple sign to let people know that they are part of the campaign. This way, the servicemen and servicewomen need not constantly go online and check whether if a certain store is having any promotion for them. The staff serving the customer could also have taken the initiative to ask the customer if they have 11B, like how they ask for PASSION card, SAFRA card or certain credit cards, instead of having the customer to flash their 11B and needing to double-confirm about their eligibility for the promotion. Simple acts like these count and will add up to improve the shopping/dining experience for these servicemen and servicewomen.

All that being said, these servicemen and servicewomen still got repaid and can enjoy privileges that others can't. I just feel that things could have been done better on the retailers' side to show that they are sincere in showing their appreciation to these servicemen and servicewomen, and not treat this like just another marketing strategy. They deserve something better.

-The god has spoken

Time Is Money

"Time is money" is a saying that is use to tell us that time is valuable, that time is precious. Of course, we do not take it literally. It is just a perceived value that we give time, using a unit that we all understand and agree is valuable. In this article, however, I will share why we can take the saying "Time is money" literally.

Have you ever been in a situation where you need certain things urgently, and you have to pay money to expedite it? Think express delivery service vs normal delivery service. Think hiring a cab vs taking a bus. Think taking a domestic flight vs taking a long journey train. Think buying a car to cut down travelling time. There are many more other examples. These are acts of buying time, literally.

Some of the jobs out there pay you on an hourly rate. You are being paid according to the amount of time you committed. The employers are buying your time, not so much on your effort. Just to prove the point, we also have jobs that pay you according to the amount of effort put in. Those are what we call commissions, and the employers are buying your effort. This, again, is an act of buying time, literally.

As mankind evolves and improves, we are trying to do and achieve more within a fixed period of time known as our lifespan. When we realise that our time is saturated with our many ambitions and desires, we start to buy time. And when we have buyers, we have sellers. Some people buy time from others to fulfill their ambitions. Some people sell their time to others as part of their ambitions.

Human has never-ending desires, and desires take time to be satisfied. As long as there are desires, there will be people buying and selling time. You just need to make sure you get the most value out of your time, because "Time is money".

-The god has spoken