Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Aggression.

What constitutes aggression? According to dictionary.com, it refers to "any offensive action, attack, or procedure". Basically, I could say your top was freaking ugly, and that would probably be aggressive.

Why do people turn to aggression when they can't resolve conflicts? Is it an innate thing in us humans, or do we simply like to compare and see who has larger fists?

Personally, I feel that people enjoy showing off, especially using brute strength and when their opponent is smaller than them. As mean as it might sound, you probably wouldn't see many small-sized individuals willing to settle an issue using fists. Unless of course, they have a black belt in taekwando or karate or any similar form of martial art. =P

When I was much younger, you could say I was guilty of that too. Whenever there were arguments with other kids, challenging them to a fight always seemed the answer. Maybe I was too young to fully grasp the concept of aggression and violence, but it never seemed an issue to push and shove each other around when we were arguing. Moreover, as I was pretty monstrous in size compared to the girls and some boys when I was in primary school, I didn't get pushed around too much. Now, I believe that we words would be better in resolving conflicts unless absolutely necessary. Why bother getting your hands dirty over some worthless chap? :) What do you guys think?

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Procrastination.

Procrastination, according to dictionary.com, refers to the postphonement of doing something, usually out of habitual carelessness or laziness.

Why do we seem to procrastinate so much? Be it completing and submitting an important assignment, paying bills on the last day of the deadline or filing one's taxes on the last day itself, most of us seem to have a habit of leaving things until the last minute before rushing to complete our tasks.

Is this behaviour something we were born with, or did we look at those around us and decide it was ok to do it since everyone was doing it? I know of friends who have weeks ahead of them to complete assignments at their own leisure, yet they continuously put off doing anything until the day before the deadline and it suddenly sinks in that they have less than 12 hours to complete a 3000 word essay. Not that I've never been guilty of similar behaviour as well.

It's not only students who have this habit of procrastinating. Given ample time to file their taxes before the deadline and the Internet as an alternative platform to filling out forms, Singaporeans were still seen in long lines outside the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) on the last day to file one's taxes, with many citing the lack of time to do so earlier.

Are we really so short of time that we must leave everything to the last minute, or are we merely pushing everything back with the excuse that we'll have time for it some other day?

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

The Little Things in Life

A few weeks ago, I went to a prawn-cum-fish farm for prawning with a bunch of friends in Pasir Ris. It was pretty rustic and charming, and was pretty isolated from civilisation. However, I didn't expect much of the trip and was all prepared to be bored senseless while waiting for the prawns to attack the bait. I was kinda forced to go for this trip, so I had no choice but to show my face that day or face the wrath of many people.

You see, I always wondered who would actually go fishing, be it prawn or any other seafood, in this day and age, especially for leisure? In the past, yes, I wouldn't be surprised since there was little entertainment for our parents and grandparents and this was one of them. But in today's society, with the television, PSPs, XBoxes, arcades and the all-powerful and encompassing Internet, why do we need to do something like that?

As we waited for what seemed like forever for something to bite, we ended up chatting with each other and fellow prawn-hunters, which was something I would never have done had I been doing something else such as queuing or waiting for something. It dawned upon me that perhaps this was one of the many little things that I, like many people, have missed in our daily pursuit of everything that we deem important to us, like earning as much as possible, securing that place in that prestigious school for our kids, and generally rushing from place to place.

Why don't we slow down a little, catch our breath, and listen to the birds chirping in nature, the quiet stillness of the trees in the forest and cut ourselves some slack? I guess I never fully appreciated the little things in life until I saw a little girl go slack-jawed at the fish her grandpa had caught at a fish pond near us. The fish was slightly larger than average, but to her, maybe due to her smaller frame, it probably seemed enormous. We might have scoffed at the catch, but to the little girl, her grandpa was probably her hero for wrestling with the big and slimy aquatic creature.

For the record, we caught 4 big prawns in 2.5 hours using 3 rods. Extremely pathetic in terms of quantity - this I must wholeheartedly agree - but in terms of quality of the atmosphere, it was pretty worth it.