Showing posts with label understanding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label understanding. Show all posts

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Meaning the meaning

Meaning the meaning
intention in the mundane life

What is the meaning of meaning?

We are usually not aware of the mechanics of our daily mundane life.
Meaning is the beginning and the end of communication, thus as it is, of life.
there is no meaning, without a mind.

The mind is like the workings of time.
Time moves without us seeing it.
You can see the clock moving, representing time. Still, it is not time you are looking at.
Meaning come forth from the mind.

One would grab hold of a meaning, package it with words or images, for another to understand.
Meaning holds its own weight, Without the intervention of a being.
Meaning is weighed, by others who receive it. It matters not what is said, so much as what is heard, saw and understood.

We are not looking at how we can apply meaning, just the meaning of meaning itself.

what does meaning means for you?

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Social Tolerance or Social Ignorance

Social tolerance or social ignorance?

I just came back from a trip in Krabi, Thailand
During the trip, i had this conversation on religious topics with a friend, which in turn sparked a thought in my mind;

Tolerance demands understanding,
Ignorance is the direct inverse of that

Singaporean, do we have tolerance to the different practice of other religions?
Ignorance Perhaps.
No doubt there are multitudes of cultures and religions in Singapore, we grew up in an environment where a major festive from all religion is made a national holiday.
But people seldom or never bothered to truly understand what other people's culture and religion are about.

The pointing finger? Lies in education and parenting.
"Don’t ask, walk away, don’t be rude"
Instead of a proper explanation of what is going on, we were taught and programmed to either not rise questions or simply to mind our own business.

What is Buddhism? Taoism? Christianity? Islam? Hinduism? Jewism?…etc

We see different people celebrating different festivals.
We see different religion performing difference rituals.
Do we care? Do we seek to understand? Do we question? Or do we undermine?

We simply do not care.

Saturday, August 19, 2006

Old style of Life

Years ago, when i was still in primary school, a hair cut costed S$4. (roughly 2 euros)

The barber is usually an Indian man with silver hair and a pair glasses for see me better with.
The seats in the barber shop had those vintage looking state of the art barber chair with flexible height adjustment and inclination adjustment. (always wanted to buy one, refurish it and place it right in the middle of an empty room - which, i do not have anyway)

He would use his scissors for snipping off my fringe and top, then proceed to use the electric razor to shave off my back and sides, ending with the usual question, "side burn, want?"

Come 1990s, a new trend of barbers came onto the scene in Singapore. They were not longer called barbers, they were hair dressers, in a hair dressing boutique.
Those used to be places where my mum would go, but not my dad. Man would go to barber shops with the friendly Indian man that speaks in 3 words sentences.

Then we move on to late 1990s, express hair cutting booth becomes popularized. All it cost is S$10 (around 5 euros), and you would have a hair cut done in 10 mins.
Typically, you would walk into the booth, whip out a ten dollar note, slot it into a queue dispensing machine and, wait for your turn.
There would be an indicator light that looks like a traffic light with Red, Yellow and Green.
Red means that you'll be served in 20mins or more.
Yellow means that you'll be served in 10mins or more.
Green means that you'll be served within 5mins.
This is a high tech self programming hair cutting system, wala, welcome to the new world of automation.
Automation in Hair Cutting industry, people would have laughed at the idea back in the old days.

Imagine the weird sense of deja vu when i come across this barber shop. (in picture)

the photo of the JBK barber shop sits on Dunlop St, Singapore

Friday, August 18, 2006

Doing its job - Minimalism in Consumerism

Look at the products you have in hand right now.
You have a cell phone that might be capable of logging on via a 3G network, wi-fi to your very own virtual space, on top of the basic functions of making phone calls and sending SMS.
You most probably would own a Personal Computer in the form of a desktop or a laptop, serving as a bridge to a global village via a broadband connection, via ADSL, Cable modem with well, cable or wi-fi.
You would also, most likely own a digital still camera or video camera.
And of course, a portable media player that house your favorite music or video or games. Matter of fact, your portable media player might even house your entire collection of music, animes, serial, eBook...etc

So the question comes;
Do You, ever faced problems with wanting to understanding how the products work and how You can syncronise all the devices, just so that they work properly?
Do You enjoy this process and like to boast to your friends on how you manage to do it?

Or well, do You simply want to get the darn stuff working so that you can get on with getting what you really want, entertainment on the go, anytime, anywhere?

We probably might not be able to pinpoint to a single manufacturer or product on when we, as consumers, have to start climbing the learning curve, just so to make use of the features on an item that we've paid for.

When was the last time you bought something and all its functions simply work with a touch of the button(s)?

People comes in shapes and sizes.
Some of us, like to play around with configurations and customise a product to be uniquely ours.
Some of us, simply want the product to work without an in-depth understanding on all the new technologies that is behind the fantastic matchbox sized music player.

Somehow, most of us have become geek, the acceptable cool geek that makes things work, or are we really so?

Most of us would not need to understand the definition of 3G, or wi-fi, or AD2P, or bluetooth, or mp3, mp4, atom, ajax, rss, css, xhtml, java...etc

We just simply want to get our hands on an item, switch it on and presto~
I can call, SMS, email our friends and family.
I can surf the net, blog, have a live chat, post a discussion, share photos, share videos, criticise the governemt, praise the new movie, find the nearest toilet, decide on the best food place, hear the sound of the whales at the other side of the globe, smell the fresh air on the Swiss Alps...etc (ermm, not the smell part, yet)

As it goes, you might be agreeing with what i am saying here.
Or you might be disagreeing and maintain the stand that knowing how to configure your stuff is good.

I would say, Minimalism is good. (some might say anything with -ism is bad)

I do not want to know the latest news on silicon performance and how the scientists and researchers broke the latest download speed limit.
I want to share my puny views with the rest of the World, waiting to have someone to challenge my ideas or concur with me.

It's a camera, i want to know i get a decent photo.
I want to be able to share the photo.

Do not make me fish in the net for the latest user guide, step-by-step instructions, call the help line...etc

Now, wouldn't you agree with me on that?

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Status of testiment

What can i do when the screens of life stares back at me?

Lifeblog > Flickr > Blogspot

Thu 17/08/2006 18:24 test with atom2blog

Trying to hit for a seamless upload for a true moblog.
Wish me luck, else i'll need to go study up on widget, atom and html, doh...

Update at 2148hr
Works darn well~