User Profile

Finding my niche in the world...

I value peace and wisdom. I seek happiness and balance, but not at the expense of others'. I enjoy learning. I like challenges. I find bliss in the ordinary.

I care about issues such as peace, sustainable living, heritage. I like diversity and am usually able to accept views with which I may not agree. I think it’s important to treat the people you love well and I try.

I lived in Berkeley for a happy year and two years in Canberra during my university studies. I’ve also travelled through China, France, the United States, Mexico, bits of Australia, Malaysia and Thailand. Even in Singapore, I like to wander about. I hope to travel more in Asia, Cuba, South America, Europe and Africa. For greater access to my heritage and other cultures, I’d like someday to be fluent in at least Mandarin and conversant in Hakka and Indonesian/Malay.

Apart from work, I spend time on activism, friends, family and the arts. I practise kungfu and occasionally cycle, swim or hike. I take pictures for fun and write in this online journal about my experiences and reflections. They help me organize my thoughts, share them and remember.

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
from 'Auguries of Innocence' by William Blake

Recommmended ...

Books

• the Art of Happiness


• moving, human A Prayer for Owen Meany


• A Natural History of the Senses shows the richness of world and appeals to the sensual


• Catcher in the Rye was formative to my bluntness


• Crossing to safety because Wallace Stegner's grace is one for the ages


• darkly funny and sociological Diary (Douglas Coupland's Generation X and Microserfs also come to mind)


• How to be Good is deeper and more personal than Hornby's usual entertainment


• beautifully-illustrated adult fables are the Sandman and the Dreaming series by Neil Gaiman


• Blink

for the Singaporean experience:

• Mammon Inc by Tan Hwee Hwee


• the Mouse Marathon by Ovidia Yu


• A Pain in the Neck by Grace Chow

and short story collections by Claire Tham

Film
indie, international, old movies, scandinavian, mexican new wave

• A bout de souffle (Breathless)


• Babe


• Before Sunset


• Being John Malkovich


• 重庆森林 Chungking Express


• 独立时代 A Confucian Confusion


• Dogville


• Fight Club


• 英雄 Hero


• Le dîner de cons (the Dinner Game)


• Megacities


• Tasogare Seibei (the Twilight Samurai)

and the few Dogme95 films that I've seen.

Music
folk-pop, cuban, jazz (not smooth), world, acoustic, 新谣, oldies
e.g. Koop, Vienna Teng, Trio Töykeät, Chopin, Rachmaninov, Mana, La Ley, 陈奕迅 Eason Chan, the Stoned Revivals

Things
access, amber, archaic words, being on a swing, boutique hotels, bubbles, candour, clever names, curves, english accents especially carribean, fireflies, personal letters, hearing people hum, humour, inflatable castles, insight, layers, long walks in good company, lucidity, mischief, oxymorons, oxytocin, pearls, postcards, powder snow, 祺袍, quilts, rooftops, ryokan, silhouettes, silk, smell of fresh laundry, smell of rain, snuggling on a cold day, sunrise, sunset, train journeys, wisdom





Please leave a comment if you spot any broken links on this journal, thanks.