As It Is

Control, determination, courage, lack of will. Selflessness, sacrifice, selfishness.

Life's full of contradictions and opposites. Reel life and real life; romantic concepts of novels and shows which are thought by men but not shown in real life; youth and old; energetic health and illness; life and death.

So often, when we have the time, we don't look out for details around us. We take them for granted, as if it should be there. The disappearance of an inanimate object maybe met with perhaps a momentarily reaction of "Oh, since when?" and then the normal nonchalent and selfish attitude takes over. Blame it on the fast paced society? So often we've come to take family ties for granted too. Returning back home without so much a greeting and heading straight back to the room. Just an empty shell, this place called home.

Laments and complaints about life and the way it is. "No time", "Why is life so tough" are nothing but excuses which I am guilty of myself. It's funny how people are actually wasting their time and idling away, not making full use of precious time to do meaningful things. Faced with challenges, they always seek the easy solution out of it, which at times isn't the best and most responsible solution. Where has the courage gone to?

Have science become so advanced that Humans are placing a misjudged faith in it? It seems Man has thought of himself as omnipotent, with the ability to manipulate Mother Nature and what she bears on Earth. Man will never be able to manipulate time for what that matters. It is always ticking away. The clock of life. The thought of being in control of time is so ironic when you compare healthy walking individuals with invalids lying on their bed.

The lack of will, courage and determination to live life to its fullest is so prevalent in the mindset of people nowadays. We crumble under burden and stress. We complain and complain and complain when a certain group don't even have that ability to do so. They hang on so dearly with support from machines and medication, with their dreams unfulfilled, unsaid words and not being to enjoy the little things that the able people can do. Dedicating their lives selflessly, what they get in return is selfishness.

What goes around comes around. Be warned.

money money money

   increase, increase and increase. increase in expenses, increase in prices but where's the increase in our wages? blur! lately, the taxi fares have been adjusted for the first time in 12 years! check this out:

For Comfort, CityCab and Yellow-Top taxis from Monday

FLAG-DOWN FARE

OLD
Normal taxi $2.40
Mercedes taxi $2.60

NEW
Normal taxi $2.50
Mercedes taxi $2.80

DISTANCE

OLD
1-10km
10 cents per 225m
Above 10km
10 cents per 200m

NEW
1-10km
10 cents per 210m
Above 10km
10 cents per 175m

PEAK-PERIOD SURCHARGE

OLD
Mon-Sat,
7.30am-9.30am $1

NEW
Mon-Fri,
7am-9.30am $2
No change to evening peak period: Mon-Sat, 5pm-8pm

BOOKING PRIME TIME
(when $4 surcharge applies)
OLD
Mon-Fri, 7.30am-9.30am

NEW
Mon-Fri, 7am-9.30am
No change to evening prime time: Mon-Fri, 5pm-11pm

the flag down fare increase of 10 or 20 cents seems to be insignificant but the increase in charges of the booking fees and distance rates are real killers. taxi rides promises never to be the same ever. even before one steps into a cab, he or she will be shocked by the surcharge on the meter!

   the general consensus is that the fare hike isn't helping the cabbies a great deal. the cabbies would rather have their rental fee adjusted. a huge chunk of their daily earnings is siphoned away by the service providers! usually, their earnings are so meagre after deducting away the daily rental fee.

   what are the main reasons provided by the service providers for the increase in fares? one is that they are trying to enhance the cabbies' earnings and the next is that there is the increase in the prices of the petrol which they have to combat. reasonable enough, combatting the petroleum problem by increasing the fares. however trying to enhance the cabbies earnings isn't strong enough a point. by increasing the fares, the taxi companies might have just dealt the cabbies a minor blow. the commuters will be turned off by the increase and this will in turn affect the earnings of the cabbies and in turn hurt the companies themselves! furthermore, the hike has managed to make the lives of the average cabbies that little bit more difficult as singaporeans tend to link the expenses they incur with the level of satisfaction they get. and it isn't linearly proportional this relationship. taxi drivers have a tough job as it is and now they have to face even more picky complaints from commuters. kudos to the drivers!

   if we compare ourselves to the other great cities around the world, our fares are quite affordable actually. take the 15km journey from Sembawang to Ang Mo Kio. Our local taxi drivers collect about $8.50 (not including waiting time at traffic lights and delays) for this fare.
for a similar distance, a cabby in hong kong collects $24.37; in taipei, $14.18; sydney, $30.78; new york, $32.77; tokyo, $60.17; and in london, $100.92. so considering the meagre fees that our cabbies earn, shouldn't the taxi companies revise their rental fees too?

   but sometimes i feel that the taxi uncles aren't helping themselves too. it's common to see long queues at taxi stands and cabs refusing passengers due to various reasons. i say, if you have a business to do, take it! the service industry cannot afford to be choosy or they will lose their customer base pretty soon. if one is hardworking enough, i'm sure things will even themselves out well, despite the circumstances. so stop hiding uncles! come out and earn your share instead of competing with the large crowd for a small share!

   solutions for the fees? here's one website which offered an interesting explanation of linking the rental fees with the revenue raked in daily by the cabbies. sort of a earn-more-pay-less scheme. cool. http://brownskindude.blogspot.com/2006/07/comfort-youre-aint-comforting.html

   also, they claim that this is the first increase in 12 years for comfortdelgro, but they have been making subtle changes to the surcharges in the meantime! here's some food for thought for everyone =P
some links from ComfortDelgro's web site...

15 October 1999: CBD surcharge increased from $1.50 to $2.(http://www.comfort-transportation.com.sg/PressReleases/pressrlse_corp_15101999.htm)

15 March 2000: Airport surcharge increased from $3 to $5.(http://www.comfort-transportation.com.sg/PressReleases/pressrlse_15032000.htm)

9 May 2000: 10 cents for every 240m thereafter or less up to 10 km to 10 cents every 225m thereafter or less up to 10km. 10 cents every 225m thereafter or less after 10km to 10 cents every 200m thereafter or less after 10km. CBD surcharge hours increased.(http://www.comfort-transportation.com.sg/PressReleases/pressrlse_corp_09052000.htm)

7 July 2005: Comfort, CityCab and Yellow-Top Cab will charge staggered late-night surchage rates from 11.30pm. Prime time booking charges will be increased to $4. Advance booking fees for CityCab will be "realigned" to $5.20. Mercedes taxis' street-hail fare raised to $2.60.(http://www.comfort-transportation.com.sg/PressReleases/pressrlse_07072005.htm)

   so see how the companies try to pull a wool over our eyes? lol...

music

pop, jazz, R&B, rock. different genres of music. what's your type?

leehom's music playing on my lappie now. soothing and calming. carefully listening to the lyrics, lots of images start to form in my mind. cheesy thoughts. haha. of love scenes and tragic endings. what actually goes through the minds of lyricists when they penned their works? where do they get their inspiration from? lyricists are an illusive bunch of people. do they travel around the world and draw from their experiences like what leehom did for his latest album or do they just coop themselves at home and think think think until their hair line recedes? hehe. and what's with their literary skills? are they inherent with the amazing vocabulary that allows them to pen such wonderful lyrics or did they mug until they got it right? by virtue of try and error with different words?

music has this ability to influence one's mood. look at the ways music is being used around us and we will notice it. it unites through the meaning of words like the national anthem; it transcends boundaries through the wordless tune or melody of the song; it is truly ageless too, just like classics from mozart and bach just to name a few. it adds a different feeling in whatever one does; its usage wide-ranged and multi-faceted.

i was thinking, can music be used to brainwash a person? kind of interesting i guess. use music to innundate the person's thinking and interfere with the brainwaves then alter the thoughts. scary if that is possible. who knows? with the advances of technology, anything is possible.

i would not want that to happen to me though! haha..

wao..

Aliens or Humans?

Stumbled across an article on the papers today. The headlines interested me..something about aliens’ droppings found in Thailand.

I’m more of a right-sided brain user so naturally logic rules over me. I have a puny brain that’s the size of a needle hole, so there are many many things that I cannot explain. The origins of life being one.

Big bang theory, the universe started from a big big explosion. How true is that? Seriously I have no idea. Life starting from a speck of dust..what a powerful notion. Till now I cannot comprehend how various chemical and biological reactions can react to create humans. Mix some floating cells in the air, undergo some rigorous and dynamic reactions to form organisms, then become apes and evolve evolve and further evolve into humans. Amazing. Do you buy that? I think it’s incredible. On the other hand, there’s a simpler school of thought. God, the almighty. I’m not a religious person but I guess I cannot reject this notion too. If cells merging to become humans can be so soundly explained and proposed to be true by scientists, why not god? However the skeptical me still cannot entirely accept there being a divine being. If there is, where is he? So many space shuttles have been launched and there’s nothing up there except darkness. Gosh, might they be hiding in the darkness? Scary at times to think about someone up there dictating your every move!

Since the earth and its inhabitants can be created via the big bang explosion, why not other so called “aliens”? if there are really other creations, how is life for them? Are they as advanced if not even advanced than us humans in terms of technology? Are they collecting human stuffs too? Like..broken parts of Apollo 13? What are we in their eyes? Are they researching earth just like we are researching other planets? So interesting..so intriguing..life’s so complicated..its beginnings and even its end..which no one knows =)