For you

I've written poetry for loves in the wilderness of youth
I've rhapsodised my feelings in platitudes of truth
I've yearn for unrequited love it's true
So why haven't I yearn as much for you?

I've promised the world, and the sky above
I've made pledges and pacts in pursuit of love
And everything I said was fresh and new
So why haven't I said as much to you?

In my tow-headed youth I thought I was smart
I rhymed and reasoned, and fancied it art
I measured by feelings in shades of blue
But I never measured it by the truth that is you

True love I have learned, whispers and smiles
It's a homecoming

In the Beginning (The Word According to a Foodie Singaporean)

The Word according to a Singaporean (Foodie)

In the beginning, God was a little peckish, and he said, "Let there be an egg"; and there was an egg. 

It was small and packed with nutrients and he said, "needs salt"; and there was salt. 

And God saw that it was good. 

But it could be better. So he said, "Let there be another egg," and he added, "poached!"; and it was poached. 

And God thought, "this has possibilities", so he said, "let there be many eggs, poached, and boiled, hard and soft, and scrambled and omelette-ed, and souffle-ed and steamed and fried over easy, and over hard and sunny side up, and firm and runny"; and there were eggs that were poached, soft-boiled, hard-boiled, and scrambled, and omelette-ed and souffle-ed, and steamed, and fried over easy, over hard, and sunny-side up and firm and runny and salted and preserved (century eggs). 

And God ate it all and said, "this is the best thing since before sliced bread (which he was going to create the next day). And so ended the first day.

Matrix's Truths

2014

The Matrix, Matrix Reloaded, and Matrix Revolutions were a series of movies that was mind-boggling at first, and then just boggling. It had such a profound effect that the Wah-Chow-Si brothers who made the movies, later became the Wah-Chow-Si siblings (one of them used the money he made from the movies to have a sex-change). But what does it all mean?

It took me more than 12 years of thinking about it, re-watching the movies, reading other people's critiques and over-analyses of the three movies, and I think I got it. And to save you 12 years of cognitive overload, here are the short answers.

Yes. Answers. Plural. Because Truth is never singular. At its purest form, Truth is at best a duality, yin-yang, positive-negative, matter-anti-matter, good-evil, light-dark.

Time-Aware Matter

We are Linear Time Creatures. At the moment of creation, the Big Bang, we are like time bullets blasting ahead of the Big Bang. Matter begetting matter. Coalescing, forming, reforming, evolving, mutating, growing until Matter encapsulated Time and thus was Life created.

Life is nothing more than Matter with Time, or Time-infused Matter, or Matter that is aware of the passage of Time. Matter without Time are dead things. Time flows over them but do not affect them.

But Time without Matter can exists. If Time had infused Matter even though Matter may deteriorate with the passage of Time, Time can persists like a stubborn memory. We sometimes call these things, Ghosts...

About the writing life

Excerpts from:

Who Will Buy Your Book?

Before I ever published anything, I’d assumed that if I ever finished a book, there would be so much demand from family and friends alone that we’d have to go into a second printing before the release date. But I am here to tell you: most people in your family will never buy your book. Most of your friends won’t either.  

The point of this piece is not to shame those people or to complain about not getting enough support. It’s just to say: whatever you think it’s like after you publish a book, it’s actually harder than that.  

Most of the writing life is disappointment. Publishing a book, which should be your most triumphant moment, is an anticlimax. There are no fireworks and no awards, no parades down Main Street. Many people close to you will disappoint you. But there are people who will come through, and they will keep coming through, and sometimes you’ll be surprised who falls into which category. I’ve learned to cherish those friends and family members who are always there, or even sometimes there. It takes real sacrifice on their part to support this weird thing I do.   

As a writer, you need to approach every project with the understanding that you’re doing this work for yourself, and everything that happens once it’s in the world is out of your control. Whatever project you’re working on now doesn’t derive value from your friends’ approval, but rather from the love and energy you pour into it. You can do the work, and you can keep showing up, and that’s all you’ve got. Most of the time, it’s all you need.  

Cinderella and the Beanstalk (3rd Edition)

[April 1st Edition - 3rd]
[I am saving the various editions as a way of seeing how the story develops.
April 2020 revisions: death of father]

Cinderella lost her mother some years ago. Her father re-married - a woman with two daughters. The he passed away recently. And now Cinderella lives with her stepmother, and her two step-sisters. 

Her step-sisters had the best clothes, the best food, and did not need to do any housework at all because they were wealthy and could afford lots of servants. Except, since her father died, the money he had was steadily being spent.

They had a housekeeper who kept everything clean. But when they could no longer afford to keep her, Cinderella took over the cleaning. They had a washerwoman who did the laundry. But when they had to let her go, Cinderella had to do the laundry. Then they had to let the cook go, and Cinderella took over the cooking. Part of the work of cooking was to make sure the cooking fire was at the right temperature, and tending the fire left Cinderella covered with soot and marked with cinders. And that was how she got the "Cinder Ella". Her real name was Ella. Ellie, her mother used to call her. 

They also had to let the gardener go, but Cinderella had no time to do the gardening in addition to the housekeeping, the laundry, and the cooking. So the garden was left unattended, and was soon overgrown with weeds and untended plants.

All the while her step-sisters lived the life of pampered rich girls.

Coconuts!

There is a website http://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/ that has historical records, maps, photographs, etc. You can search for historical documents, photos, newsreels, etc.

And sometimes you find the most unexpected things.

I recall seeing a photograph, some time back, that had a scene under a coconut tree on one of the islands of Singapore, and I wanted to reference that photo. I thought, "coconut" might be a good search term, 'cos how many people will include the coconut tree in the name of the photo right?

How wrong I was!