World War 3

Was talking about how people behaved nowadays with my family. My mum was telling me what her close friend told her-married women going to pubs to have fun with guys. Her close friend's relative was nearly badly influenced by her married female friends in pubs when she was having marriage problem. Thankfully, my mum's close friends warned her about the bad influence and she was able to salvage her marriage through communication with her husband.

Our conversation went on to talk about Chinese women who do solicilating at People's Park. These women starts their day very early and they can be seen trying sitting besides old people. My sis said there was this incident-she and her boyfriend went to People's Park and when she went to order food, her boyfriend was approached by this Chinese woman. Of course her boyfriend wasn't interested by the lure. My 2uncle is currently under the "spell" of a Chinese woman. I think I won't say too much here because it just gives me the headache!

My brother-in-law has decided to end his marriage. Sad, nearly 2 years of marriage has to come to an end now. I feel even more sad for his wife. This is a bad time for him to ask for divorce because I'm worried about my father-in-law, who has just went through one emotional rollercoaster ride. Why do people fall in love and later their love falls apart? When problem arises, one party should strive to voice out the problem and find a solution. Keeping quiet and allowing the problem to drag on will lead to more decaying of their relationship. Love for each other will dwind and in the end, one may coughed up with the simple excuse that he has no more feelings for her. Nonsense! Feelings can't be lost suddenly. It is usually a case of continuous miscommunication or a sudden appearance of a third party. In my brother-in-law's case, I think it is a cause of two of the above.

The conversation continued with my mother saying-"In our time, we don't really need gun shots, missiles, fighting to start World War 3. The disintegretation of human's relationship with each other, the self-centered characteristics, the damaging morality of human, etc...these are more daming than real fighting between countries! This is already World War 3..."

My hope for today-that people will communicate to solve issues. Being together is easy, maintaining the tie between each other is not easy. Marriage couple should learn to always make their marriage fun and engaging, i.e just like the days when they were dating. People should keep their old-fashioned morals in checked. They maybe old-fashioned and look uncool in todays' concept, but who says new moral, e.g pre-marital sex, flings outside of marriage, etc... is the norm and should be socially accepted? If we continue to think this way, World War 3 is gonna get spread wider...

Marcus XA
YNWA @ 8:05 PM

Modern Wonders of the World

Channel Tunnel


Both train and car can travel on the Channel Tunnel.

Constructed : 1987-1994
The Channel Tunnel, is a 51.5 km (31 mi) long rail tunnel beneath the English Channel at the Straits of Dover, connecting Folkestone, Kent in the United Kingdom to Coquelles near Calais in northern France. It is the second-longest rail tunnel in the world, with the Seikan Tunnel in Japan being longer, but the undersea section of 39 km (24 miles) is the longest undersea tunnel in the world. It is operated by Eurotunnel.

CN Tower


Constructed : 1973-1976
The CN Tower, located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is the world's tallest freestanding structure on land, standing 553.33 meters (1,815 ft 5 in) tall. It is considered the signature icon of the city, attracting more than two million international visitors annually
CN originally referred to Canadian National, the railway company that built the tower. Following the railway's decision to divest non-core freight railway assets, prior to the company's privatization in 1995, the CN Tower was transferred to the Canada Lands Company (CLC), a federal Crown corporation responsible for real estate development. Since local residents wished to retain the name CN Tower, the abbreviation is now said to expand to Canada's National Tower rather than the original Canadian National Tower; however, neither of these is commonly used.


Empire State Building


Constructed : 1930-1931
The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in New York, NY. Its name is derived from the nickname for the state of New York. It stood as the world's tallest building for more than forty years, from its completion in 1931 until the construction of the World Trade Center North Tower in 1972, and is now once again the tallest building in New York after the destruction of the World Trade Center in the September 11, 2001 attacks.


Golden Gate Bridge


Yes! I have conquered one modern wonders!

Constructed : 1933-1937
The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the opening into the San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. It connects the city of San Francisco on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula to Marin County as part of US Highway 101 and California State Highway 1.
The Golden Gate Bridge was the largest suspension bridge in the world when it was completed in 1937 and has become an internationally recognized symbol of San Francisco and the United States. It is currently the second longest suspension bridge in the United States after the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in New York City.


Itaipu Dam



Constructed : 1970-1984
Itaipu is a hydroelectric dam on the Paraná River located on the border between Brazil and Paraguay. The name "Itaipu" was taken from an isle that existed near the construction site. Itaipu, from the Guarani language, means "singing stones". In the year 2000 it achieved its generating record of 93.4 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh), which supplied 93% of the energy consumed by Paraguay and 20% of that consumed by Brazil as of 2005.


Delta Works



Constructed : 1953-1997
The Delta Works are a number of constructions that were built between 1950 and 1997 in the southwest of the Netherlands to protect a large area of land from the sea. The works consist of dams, sluices, locks, dykes and storm surge barriers. The aim of the dams, sluices and storm surge barriers was to shorten the Dutch coastline and limit the amount of dikes that were to be heightened.


Panama Canal



Constructed : 1880-1914
The Panama Canal is a major ship canal that traverses the Isthmus of Panama in Central America, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Construction of the canal was one of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken. It has had an enormous impact on shipping between the two oceans, obviating the long and treacherous route via the Drake Passage and Cape Horn at the southernmost tip of South America. Since opening, the canal has been enormously successful, and continues to be a key conduit for international shipping. Each year more than 14,000 ships pass through the canal, carrying more than 203 million tons of cargo. By 2002 about 800,000 ships had used the canal altogether.

Marcus XA
YNWA @ 9:39 AM

That stressful meh?

Suddenly had a thought yesterday evening as I was having dinner at a coffeeshop. I realised nowadays most coffeeshops and hawker centers have cleaners who help stallholders collect back their used utensils. Stallholders now only need to cook and serve their food. I remember back then, stallholders always need to collect their utensils back so that they have enough utensils to serve their food. So I pressume, hawkers these days should be less burdened by the need to clear their customers' utensils, and hence, should have less stress. This thought provoked me to think of the increasing stress which modern people are always complaining about.

So I thought of a few things which we don't have to do nowadays.

At home-children who have maids at home. Maids do almost everything at home. Children's task at home is just to study. More help at home should have created less stress for the children and yet...they complained about added stress!

At home again-children have tutors for different subjects. Hmm...tutors are supposed to help the kids to do well in their studies. More help at home should have created less stress for the children and yet...they complained about being more stressful!

At work-we have modern machinery like photocopying machine, pcs, etc. These were supposed to help modern beings, to make their work less of a burden and yet...modern beings complained about life becoming more stressful!

So I asked this questions-Are the increase in modern machiney or just human helper supposed to increase or decrease human beings' stress?

I think I got the answer, stress is due to human beings' unlimited desire to own something.
Look at this- Your parents want you to study well so that you can have a good life later. Good life=big houses, more $$$, fancy cars,etc. If only we are contented with a simple life (Simple life=just a simple house enough to provide shelter for us, enough $$$ to eat, etc), we will have less desires, which translates into less stress.

So today as you are reading this, just pause and ponder... do you want a stressfully good life or a stressfree simple life?

Oh before I signed off, yesterday at the book fair, I was approached by a student helper to buy greeting cards made by psychiatric patients. These people suffered from serious depression and has been treated at Instititue of Mental Health(IMH) before. They need lots of focus to make this card by hand as their hand tremble or they had difficulty staying focus. I guess these people suffered alot of stress before. Knowing their plight, I willingly bought 2 cards from the student helper. Ponder...anyone of us maybe making this card in the future if we don't stop stressing about life now.

Marcus XA
YNWA @ 9:12 PM

Before & After


Before marriage, you buy for yourself what you like.

After marriage, you buy for yourself what she likes.

Marcus XA
YNWA @ 9:10 PM

Moving On

I'm finally back at home, sitting in front of my pc and writing this blog. I've been staying at my father-in-law place for the past 1 week. Why? Because my mother-in-law was finally called home to be with Our Lord last Friday.

So many things crossed my mind during the 5 days of wake which was held below her block. I thought I would like to share my thoughts with all my readers here. When my mother-in-law's heart finally stopped beating on Friday's morning, I was sad but at the same time, relieved that all the pain in her has finally ceased. She can finally be reunited with Our Lord. I was relived that my father-in-law can finally have a good rest. He has been going to and fro SGH for the past 2 years and he is really tired and hopeless. He knows the chances of her wife having a full recovery is slim, but still, he is keeping his fingers crossed. Although all of us were sad, I must say all of us (cindy, my father-in-law, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law), were strong and had already prepared themselves for the worst.

During the wake, I was touched to see my mother-in-law's close relatives praying for her. Even though there was the neighbourhood prayer group who came to pray daily for her, nothing beats your own relatives praying for you. The Catholic style of wake was simple, yet meaningful. Someone dies, you pray for her, so that her soul can be redeemed and taken up into the kingdom of God. When you pray for her family and love ones, their grieves can be healed and peace in their mind can be restored.

Cindy didn't cry much during the 5 days and I'm glad she didn't. She only cried much during the funeral and cremation, which is natural. The visitation of friends and relatives during the wake really help the family of the deceased to be able to stay busy and involved in much conversations. For this, I thank all my friends and relatives who are there to give us their support and company. A simple visit is all ones' need. I really hate those who are superstitious and skipped wakes. Christians are not allowed to be superstitious. I am simply against the ideo of those people who think attending wakes bring them bad luck, or don't attend wakes because their family or relatives recently lost a member. These are just nonsense, brought about by our older generations, who probably also don't understand the full rational of their actions.

Alright will share with you all more of my thoughts for the past 1 week some other day.

Marcus XA
YNWA @ 12:27 PM