Surreal In This Lying World

If you are one of those people who say: I’ve known it in my blood that I wanted to be a doctor; I’ve known since I was in secondary school that I wanted to be an investment banker, then, more power to you. Because honestly, I believe that most people, don’t know. Calling in life? I think that’s a foreign term to most people. Most ordinary people just fall into their jobs and stick with it for life. My mum did, my father did, a lot of my friends profess to do - at least till now. Or am I too old school for thinking that? Do people in this age change their careers as easily as water slides off a duck’s back?

I have a friend who’s finishing up her phd in studying the virus that affects a specific type of caterpillars. Most people would scratch their heads and wonder: how and why would someone spend their lives in that level of detail?

But it’s not that difficult to fall into such a level of detail either. I look at my medical school friends, and they all want to get into a particular field of medicine. I ask why, and of course the answer that comes back is, I’m interested in it. But when you press further, you realise that the answer is not so much interest, but experience. They know what the field is like. They’ve done research in it before - and probably, not much else (which is understandable, considering their age and amount of time availabe outside of school). Nikki wants to do surgery because she’s been working in a surgical lab since college, and she’s had extensive experience in it. Dave wants to do pyschiatry cos he took a class in it. So with this experience under their belt, they head for the medical school interviews where they get asked: why do you want to be a doctor? What field are you interested in? And of course, because all they have on their resume is their surgery/psyhciatry experience, they have to sell that. And if the more often they tell that story, they become more convinced of their interest. Surgery/psych is no longer their marketing tool, but their calling.

How did I end up choosing to write about intellectual property rights for my masters? Well, it certainly wasn’t an interest of mine going into the program. Like most everything else in my life, I fell into it. I took a class on Economics of Law and a class on Health Economics and Public Policy and wrote papers on drugs patents for both classes. Then I decided I could probably expand on that into a Masters thesis. And that’s how I fell into that level of detail - it certainly wasn’t my calling for that degree.

Oh well….

Last night, just as I was about to lull myself to sleep with thoughts of rock, I suddenly jerked awake, my arms flailing desperately for a handhold of some kind as I had a momentary vision of myself falling off the face of the wall and plummeting helplessly to the ground.

But it was an awesome weekend though. We couldn’t have asked for better weather. The sun was out and it only went down to the fifties at night so we were all snug in our sleeping bags. Here are some pics:

A large group of us turned up for the climbing trip - at last count, around 20.

We got in late on Friday - well actually, it was almost 2am when we finally straggled into the campsite, having gotten lost at the very last bit. Things were getting a little hairy with our gas situation as well, since my gas light had come on about 15 miles ago and all the gas stations nearby were close. Nonetheless, we gave it no further thought once we finally hit upon the campground. After quickly setting up our tents, we tumbled into our sleeping bags.

Though Chris and I awoke at the really early time of 8am, the others were already up and moving towards the climbs. Dave and Marky, our two car-mates, waited patiently for us before we set off. There were two ways to get to the bottom of the valley - one was to climb our way down a steep rock face, using a knotted roped tied to a tree trunk. Another was to hike an extra 15 minutes and scamper down some rocks. Being still a little skeptical about the state of my foot, and muscles still tight, I was a little wary of the former option and so we walked that extra bit.

We came upon the others soon enough. They’d already set up a 5.9 route and were starting to climb that, so M brought us to a neighboring bit of rock and set up a 5.8 route for us to start with. Ahh, it felt good to be on the rock again. My foot took to the strain relatively well, but whether it’s because it’s really much better or because the pain of my rock shoes cutting into my heels overwhelmed the discomfort of my left foot, I don’t know. Regardless, I had a good first run and was psyched up for more.

Time passed by really quickly. Before we knew it, it was already 2pm and we had completely forgotten about lunch. I climbed a total of just 4 climbs that first day, but the faces were all pretty varied and demanded different techniques. One climb in particular, was a narrow gully, and I had to wedge myself against both walls and slowly edge my way up - not unlike Santa trying to squeeze his way back up the chimney. However, I was sore all over by the end and looked forward to a relaxing evening sprawled out in front of a campfire.

Heh, dinner came before the campfire. We spread out into smaller groups for that. While some others started preparing really fancy gourmet dinners that required lots of dicing and stirring, C had bought us instant chili which we simply needed to heat up, and viola. Coupled with M’s pita bread, we had a delicious meal, washed down with canned peaches and whiskey laced coffee. (Hmm, or should it be coffee laced with whiskey?)

Afterwards, a couple of the guys gathered the dry branches and soon got a roaring fire going. Like moths drawn to heat and light, we slowly but surely inched our way around the fire, forming a large and loose circle. Everyone was silent for a while, quietly enjoying the end of a tiring but happy day. But when the silence got a little pronounced, a couple of us attempted to liven things up by playing some campfire games. Hehe, that kinda fizzled though. Most people were too shy to want to go crazy. And being the U 0f Cers that we were, some people lasped into serious discussions about their current research. Haha. But there were two Australian brothers among us, and they’d brought their didgeridoo with them. Curiously, the other group of campers nearby had bongo drums in their midst too, so we were treated to some odd but fun musical fanfare.

It was great to unwind before the merrily crackling fire though, especially when D brought out his 1.5 litre box of wine. Before I knew it, 3 hours had passed and I could barely keep my eyes open.

Though I’d originally intended to start heading back to Chicago by early afternoon, my plans were shot to wind the next day. I was sore from a full day’s climbing yesterday and didn’t have much strength for many more climbs, nonetheless, the day was too beautiful to waste. I did a couple more fun climbs - one was a corner climb, and I had to jam my hands hard into the cracks running up the wall face to try walk up. It wasn’t particularly difficult in terms of technical skill, but it required lots of strength and stamina - of which I have neither. Hehe, so I had to take lots of breaks in between to catch my breath before expending my next burst of strength to haul myself up another foot.

Yah, it was a really fun trip. I can’t wait till I go out again - fingers crossed for Halloween weekend? In the meantime, I’ve already made plans to go gym climbing twice this week.

Yo peeps, this is Grace checking in at 1am. Just got in a half hour ago, after 6.5 hours of hard driving. Well, ok, I didn’t really drive that much today. Hehe, handed the keys over to D and he drove us all back while I dozed in the backseat.

Weekend was a helluva fun. So much so that even when I slept last night, and napped just now, I just kept seeing myself on the rock. I’m sore all over now, but I simply can’t wait to go back on again!

Got some great pictures too. But all in good time. Going to ZZZ now, and hopefully wake up in a few hours for work tomorrow. Isn’t it funny how I can wake up automatically and cheerily really early in the morning when I’m camping and have to literally drag myself out of bed when I’m at home?

Juggling between part-time work and part-time studies, a short term project for a dear friend occupied most of my time the last couple of weeks. At last, I finally finished it yesterday. Hurrah! Big thanks to "a-go-to-my pc-like-program" and "daily-dose-of-fresh-proxies" for playing vital roles in this research. Bigger thanks goes out to those who’ve allowed me to access their terminals from all over the world.

Earlier this morning, I tried reading Jared Diamond’s Collapse, but fell asleep instead. It’s a thick book - about the length of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, but obviously much more tedious to get through. I’d enjoyed his Guns, Germs and Steel, so I thought I’d give this book a try. Plus I’d asked D for book recs, and he mentioned about wanting to read this book. But now I remember that Guns wasn’t all that easy to get through either.

Looked through my phone book, and found the list depressingly outdated. So many entries I have to delete now - people whom I’ve long lost contact with, but mostly friends who have gone back to their places of origin. Haha, it shows just how many American friends I’ve made in the past years when you see that nearly a quarter of the entries now are numbers for restaurants…

Regrets - there should be no time for regrets. If I could go back and change my life, I would. But this is reality, no time for fantasies of a magical world, of time machines. So we’ll simply have to forge on. And anyway, who’s to say we can’t correct for the past in the future? This is me admonishing myself to take action.

And these are my random thoughts on bits of virtual post-its. *Wry grin*

I just finished chatting with my favorite uncle who has made Singapore his home for the past 20+ years. News from that side of the world surely gets crazier through the years. Here goes:

Two men in Singapore were jailed for posting racist slurs in their online blogs. Meanwhile, three college girls were suspended from school from writing supposedly defamatory remarks about their teachers (no names were mentioned) in their blogs as well. - That’s not fair. How about that PSC scholar who got off with a just a warning? And wow, it’s a little scary, that you could get into a ton of trouble if you ever wanted to bitch online about people who cheese you off. I sometimes walk on a very thin line on that one I must say. While I can see how the Sedition Act makes sense for such a multi-cultural society like Singapore that’s trying to hold off a repeat of that horrible racial riots of the not so recent past, I think calling on the Sedition Act for remarks made on personal blogs might be a tad over dramatic. If I might so propose (ever so meekly) that the Singapore government revise its laws a little to keep up with the changing technology… Punish them yes, but jail?? There’s a distinction between trying to correct people of their misguided notions, and pushing them underground. Imposing such harsh terms might not quell possibilities of riots, but hell, might even fan it. But what do I know? The government is so much wiser and more learned.

The Singapore government’s most recent public stance against homosexuals:

The Singapore Government is not homophobic, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday, rejecting suggestions that it had an irrational fear of homosexuals. Thus it must remain sensitive to segments of the population which are uncomfortable with gays, he said during a question and answer session with members of the Foreign Correspondents Association.

I mean, how about the gays then, why can’t the government be sensitive to them? WTH. Actually, it’s mildly insulting that they came up with such a transparent excuse. I’d rather they just say: ‘yah, we are homophobic, well, not really, but maybe a little.’ Join the rest of the crowd - there are enough homophobic states in the US and other parts of the world to not make them look ultra conservative…

I remember this poor guy who was jailed 2 years because he had his girlfriend perform a blow job on him. The CJ acknowledged that the law was a little outdated (dating from I forget when, but I daresay the Victorian period), and hence lowered his sentence to a year? According to the government (please the hell don’t quote me on that, I’m just drawing on my memory of the incident), any sex that does not involve vagina intercourse is considered unnatural sex and should be correspondingly curtailed. This law supposedly has religious roots to it - but reading it, two things come to mind: Firstly, if you ever go to the Sistine Chapel in Rome, go look at the famous fresco Michelangelo did of Adam and Eve by the apple tree. Go, go crane your neck and take a long, hard look, cos you will see Eve kneeling conveniently by Adam’s crotch. Coincidence? I checked that with my Art History professor, and he reckons not. ‘Michelangelo is a very organized man, he does not do things by accident.’

Secondly, that law is hilarious, especially considering that the Singapore government has been trying desperately to get us to procreate. Supposedly, any semen that does not go towards making a baby is wasteful and should be a crime. Therefore, conserve your seeds guys, and serve your country! But maybe the government - and the CJ - has never heard of foreplay… - ok ok, hey lawyers-to-be, can you help me vet my entry, and see that I won’t get sued?

Forget about the Singapore news for now - I can only take so much risk at once - but here’s another bit of retarded news a friend sent me: Wyrd Sisters Try to Block New Potter Film. It’s totally retarded; I wonder about the lawyer who did it.

A Winnipeg-based folk group called The Wyrd Sisters is asking an Ontario court to block the distribution of the upcoming Harry Potter movie across Canada.
The group is also suing Warner Brothers and three famous British musicians over a scene in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire that allegedly depicts a band called The Wyrd Sisters playing on a stage.

“The name of the band is threatened by Warner Brothers actions,” Kimberly Townley-Smith, lawyer for The Wyrd Sisters, said Monday.

“If everybody knows Harry Potter’s Wyrd Sisters, we can’t go out and find new fans because people are going to see us and go, well who are you? Some people are going to think we’re ripping them off.”

… I have no other comments other than it’s totally retarded. But speaking of Harry Potter, I have a whole freaking month to endure before the movie comes out!!! MAN!

Speaking of movies, I went to watch 40 Year Old Virgin yesterday. And hahaha, I was the ONLY patron in the entire theatre. The movie was so hilarious though… i didn’t mind laughing out so hard.

I  don’t know if it’s a coincidence, but in a span of less than 24 hours, I’ve had two close friends come up and share their relationship and other life problems with me. Both their grouses are similar in a way because it stems from trying to fit their partners into their utopian molds. And of course, problems arise because people don’t want to be forced into a mold. It’s quite contradictory really. They say that you are supposed to embrace the person you choose for what he/she is, accept him/her in spite of all his/her flaws. When you can’t even carve out your own ideal life, why try taking on the herculean task of trying to fashion one out for others? Yet, aren’t people built to be dissatisfied with what they currently have? Isn’t it in their DNA to strive to improve their situation, their station in life? And if they choose to share their lives with someone, wouldn’t that then include trying to meddle in the life of that ‘unfortunate’ soul? So what then? Standing at the sidelines and looking at this maddening circus, I can only come up with conjectures why people actually put themselves through this. It’s like a been-there-done-that-now-get-me-out-of-here kind of thing I guess. Haha. But I wonder - if it really is possible to go through life with no strings attached. Note the rhetorical finality to that last statement.