From a friend’s blog

A man went to a barbershop to have his hair cutand his beard trimmed. As the barber began to work, they began to have a good conversation. They talked about so many things and various subjects.

When they eventually touched on the subject of God, the barber said, “I don’t believe that God exists.”

“Why do you say that?” asked the customer.

“Well, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God doesn’t exist. Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain. I can’t imagine a loving a God who would allow all of these things.”

The customer thought for a moment, but didn’t respond because he didn’t want to start anargument. The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop. Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair and an untrimmed beard. He looked real dirty and unkempt.

The customer turned back and entered the barbershop again and he said to the barber, “You know what? Barbers do not exist.”

“How can you say that?” asked the surprised barber. “I am here, and I am a barber. And I just worked on you!”

“No!” the customer exclaimed. “Barbers don’t exist because if they did, there would be no people with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards, like that man outside.”

“Ah, but barbers DO exist! What happens, is people do not come to me.”

“Exactly!” affirmed the customer. “That’s the point! God, too, DOES exist! What happens, is, people don’t go to Him and do not look for Him. That’s why there’s so much pain and suffering in the world.”

Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah lee,
Little Jackie Paper loved that rascal puff,
And brought him strings and sealing wax and other fancy stuff. oh

Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah lee,
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah lee.

Together they would travel on a boat with billowed sail
Jackie kept a lookout perched on puff’s gigantic tail,
Noble kings and princes would bow whene’er they came,
Pirate ships would lower their flag when puff roared out his name. oh!

Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah lee,
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah lee.

A dragon lives forever but not so little boys
Painted wings and giant rings make way for other toys.
One grey night it happened, Jackie Paper came no more
And Puff that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar.

His head was bent in sorrow, green scales fell like rain,
Puff no longer went to play along the cherry lane.
Without his life-long friend, Puff could not be brave,
So Puff that mighty dragon sadly slipped into his cave. oh!

Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah lee,
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah lee.

A song on the loss of childhood, not about marijuana.

Sophie said “Hello to adulthood” just last week and I think she’s rather glad about it.

But for me, I don’t really want to grow up. Not because of the added responsibilities - I’m fully agreeable to that, but it’s the lost of childhood innoncence and things you “have” to leave behind.

Cute animation of the song here.

Delivered over the pulpit yesterday…

A man sitting in a bar was complaining to his friend that he was still single. His friend asked him how this could happen. He answered, “Well, I’m looking for the perfect woman, I’m not going to settle for the first one that comes along.

“But it’s not that I didn’t try. Some time ago I did meet this woman who had the looks, the brains, the attitude, everything. She was the perfect woman.”

The friend replies, “Then what happened?”

“There was only one problem,” the man sighed. “She was looking for the perfect man.”

‘Jokes’ aside, I’m glad that our future in in safe hands. Now knowing that and feeling that is two different things.

Xiao hei reminded me about Tuesday and the anguish it would cause. Agreed that despite all temptations, it would be better to stay home that night.

Went for my first tutorial last Tuesday and got to meet the other members of my group. Ok well there was only one other member whom I didn’t know as the rest were either absent or they’re my friends.

Anyway the new friend of ours turned out to be a rather interesting girl, only that erm… well… she wasn’t really a she. Not those gay kind but… ah you get what I mean. (Our tutor calls him by his male name, as in his matric card… so weird)

I think it’s quite interesting to be able to get to know someone like that. We’ve all heard about people like that but how often do you actually get to meet one? Not that I’m being a busybody and more than just curiosity but I feel that we should learn to understand others, though it might not mean we condone it.

That’s what this world needs. More understanding. When was the last time we actually tried to understand things from another’s perspective? To really find out their feelings, needs, concerns and what they have been through?

So I hope I’ll be able to understand more from our new friend, and that he she wouldn’t mind sharing with us. He she probably gets that all the time.

—

On a simliar note, I was having dinner at Chinatown market that night and went to order chee kwek for the table. Since there was someone being served, I turned to the adjacent stall to order a cup of sugarcane juice while standing in line.

While paying for my juice, the chee kwek aunty addressed me as “小姐”! Ahh… it took me quite a while to realise she was calling me. Before you think of any weird stuff it’s the hair. Well it should be the hair. Not her fault lah, though she must have been somewhat embrassed.

Happiness isn’t happiness without a violin playing goat.

Problem is, there is no violin playing goat.

Ok I don’t think anybody would be attempting to solve the little quiz I had so I’m just going to post my solution here.

switch ($usertype)
{
case "Administrator" :
if ($priv == "Administrator") return true;
case "Manager" :
if ($priv == "Manager") return true;
case "Registered" :
if ($priv == "Registered") return true;
case "Anonymous" :
if ($priv == "Anonymous") return true;
}
return false;

In case you’re wondering, this technique makes use of the “fall-through” condition of swtich statements, which is common in languages like PHP, Java and C. Note the missing break statement.

On efficency wise, switch statements are syntactic sugar for a couple of if statements and gotos (jumps), thus I would say it’s quite efficient. Readabiliy wise, it’s very clear to me. Easy to modify and understand I hope.

Comments?

Having been updating much. Got nothing much to say besides the mediocre report on the daily happenings.

CNY this year seems pretty mediocre too, with each year feeling more tiring than the last. Visiting relatives is starting to feel like a chore, maybe cos it’s harder to get around these years without a car.

But probably it’s the lack of activities at each other’s place. With all the cousins all grown up now, there’s no more games to play and everyone is all too old for anything so we all just sit around looking at each other. I wonder how we managed to pass time doing nothing at all. My smart cousin left her daughter with the grandparents and scooted off to watch two movies!

Fell sick the second day. Probably a cold caught me due to lack of sleep from having to wake up early. Comsumed a couple of toilet rolls.

Somehow I find visiting friends more enjoyable than visiting relatives. I guess it’s probably cos friends are closer in the sense of interaction and interests. That’s why they’re friends yah? Sometimes relatives are just people we meet once a year, or only for special occasions like granny’s birthday. What more if their age group aren’t the same, then there really isn’t going to be much interaction with them.

All in all, this weekend has been tiring. Maybe it’s just the festivities colliding with the melancholiness. But I guess we should be just thankful for what we have.