Ben’s Blog

Straits Times Thurs, Nov 1 2007

A malaysian man, apparently fearing he had too much to drink, tried to play it safe by bribing a policeman to avoid a breathalyser test. It turned out he passed the test which showed Aw Cheng Fatt’s blood level was, in fact, within permissible limits, but he was fined for bribery.

…idiot…

I said I’d blog about some of my insights from the book, very good book I must say, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Here is my first installment.

Disclaimer. This entry is about what I have learnt through the book. It is not everything that is written in the book. But what I have extracted and absorbed intellectually, expressing them in my own words.

This part is not about the actual 7 habits, but it does encompass some of the theories on which the 7 habits are based on, and I think it is imperative that it is understood before actually going on to the habits.

First of all, the 7 habits are not the usual quick fix solutions popular in the market to day, like “get rich quick” or “be a millionarre in 10 days” or stuff like that. The author labels these popular theories as “Personality Ethics”. Get that in your head cos we’re gonna be seeing that term alot today.

Instead, his 7 habits are based on another theories called “Character Ethics” (remember this too). The difference? personality ethics make you take on a personality either already present in you, dormant in you, or entirely alien to you, in a sense forcing you to take an identity which puts you in a position to gain the goals you want or need either manipulatively or “unscrupulously”. It works to a certain extent. Let’s look at this with an illustration of you being the leader of a project group. You use personality ethics to gain more productivity, and you get certain superficial results like higher work quality, punctuality and higher marks for the project. But look at the long term, and you see team mates looking at you with distrust and disloyalty, maybe even lose a friend. Why? Because your personality, did not come from your character. Thus, they see you as ungenuine, manipulative and deceptive.

Character, is the root of your Personality, planted in the soil, or foundation, based on Principles of the universally accepted framework of how things such as influence, leadership and trust works. How can we build a building upon a weak or non existent foundation? The arguement is that to make a true, lasting difference in our lives, to solve problems once and for all, we must first adopt proper principles into our lives (I would like to highlight the principle of human dignity and integrity), which will then forge our inward attitudes, and our outward behaviour. This takes time. But it is firstly, I find, the right way to do things, and it is the best way to do things.

How often do we give up our dream (to have a house, a car, a career). and we don’t live the dream because we want things here and now, our way, instead of going the proper way about things, having patience, endurance, diligence to persue what we want. How often do we apply short-term solutions to long-term goals? We must take steps one at a time – the way it was always meant to be - this is a Principle. It does not change.

Same for effective spirituality. We must sow to reap. How often do we want more of God and His blessings, when we do not sow His seeds? How often are we more concerned about our outward spirituality than we are about inward spirituality?

To sum up. To be effective at all, we must first work on our character, through the first three habits, before anything else. We don’t have to have perfect character, but we must at least be aware of its importance and begin working on it.

I haven’t been bloggin for, what, a month or so? I apologize to all my readers out there because there are so few of you, I can’t afford to lose any! I think you all deserve an explanation. The truth of the matter is…I’ve been a lazy, procrastinating bugger. Asides from that, there’s also been nothing to write about lately, contributing to my lack of inspiration.

A quick update on my life (I know. Time is money. So I’ll make it quick):

My cell grp member, Sandy, is transferring to her finance’s CG. So I’m helping to make a farewell gift for her. I won’t tell you what it is just in case she discovers this blog.
My driving is over and done with but my test is in January. Believe me, God has been good to give me that date. It could have been much, much worse.
NS is coming in another half a year, just booked a medical exam date in Dec.

I have just received inspiration! (abruptly random exclamation)

It’s true! I know what to write for my next blog entry!

I’ll let you all in on the scoop. 1st Oct was my sis’ birthday. I got her this book - 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. And it suddenly occurred to me like, a second ago, that I could read the book since I have so much free time and my job doesn’t require much of me, and I could share what I have read right here on this blog! I can make it into a series of 7 blog entries, each focusing on one of the 7 habits! Then people will read my blog, and become more effective people in the society! I can actually change the world!

I’m off to start on research for my next entry. So don’t give up on me or my fermenting blog yet.
 

God made man to have dominion over all the earth. Then He said it was not good for the man to be alone so He created woman.

So what did woman have dominion over since “man” ruled over everything?

There was nothing left.

Except…

man.

Check out this interesting (albeint long) MSN conversation I had with Peiluan: (her words are in pink n mine in blue)
To the uninitiated, NS = National Service
Disclaimer: Permission was granted b4 publication of this conversation.

————————-

but now i just wanna get my dip n further my study

get a fresh start

yeah

me too

if i cant squeeze my way into smu, i’d happily go to sim

haha, then i think we will be sch mates again

maybe for one yr

haha

ns rmbr ns

haha

maybe i will wait till end of nxt yr then enrol

hiatus?

roam the world?

i want to make sure i get my black belt b4 i go overseas

i’ve calculated if i enrol nxt jul/aug, i won’t be able to get my black belt

meanwhile i think i just get a job, save for my sch fees n all

sounds like a good idea. man they should haf more black belts like you in the army. we need people like you all

hahhaha

y?

ok look. basic miltary training? is jus to get us in bare minimal physical condition. look at us. we slog day and night just to pass our ippt. after that, we work as cheap labour for civil defence

we haf no actual combat experience

tt’s where u guys come in

hahahah

well, to mould u guys

yeah

temporarily

we come out after our ORD, den we immerse ourselves in all e luxuries deprived to us during ns

and you get pot bellied reservists

seriously, i (don’t) mind working in e army

but e prospect for female isn’t very gd

now it isnt

wad we need is a pioneer

someone to put her foot down and say “i can do what ever u men can do and do it better”

hahhaha

well….i (don’t) think i wanna be e pioneer

gather all ur women friends! u women need to put us men in our place

errr, is not going to work

they wouldn’t want to go ns

they rather die i think

girls are obviously much better at it…hai…

too bad

it’s just 2 yrs

haha i know

im just whining cos i realize i dun do enuff of it

=x

so how’s ur napfa training coming along?

working on pullups and jump now. pull up almost there…jump still underway

looong way tt is

u still hav time

no frets

yup. gotta work hard for 2 yrs of fitness

hahah, i’m sure it is worth it

yeah its like the singaporean ritual for initiating boys to manhood

that’s our culture

meanwhile u still hav abt a yr to enjoy ur freedom

haha

true true

i shall savour it

sigh o well i guess its fair…we get ns and reservist, u get child birth and maternity

yeahh

but the pain women hav to go thru i think is more than men

e things we need to sacrifice

i rather be a man

well, u get to live longer if it counts for anything…

and times haf changed. not every woman has children nowadays

haahah, but i think i would want to hav my own kids

then u better set e score straight with ur husband

u go through child birth, so u get to win the fights

and all e tender loving care he can give

and the occassional diamonds and flowers and shoes

hhahaha

yeahhh, that’s a gd one

no matter what, i win e fight cos i hav to go thru child birth

i like that

tt’s right

tts we men always sleep on e couch

its nv e woman

even if the woman is in e wrong, its e men who auto sleep on e couch

so much so tt we love our couches. tts e only thing we really own in e hse

hahaha

yeahh

so nxt time invest abit more in ur couch

it’s gonna be ur best friend in e future

———-end———-

Thanks to Peiluan for her time and thoughts

Okay. Let’s not deny it. We’ve all watched the Power Rangers. We loved them. We fell out with friends over which color ranger we wanted to be. I, for one, stood my ground when told to be pink – proud of what I did till this day. For those who didn’t…well, hurray for you.

So what happened to our childhood heroes? They may have been immortalized in our minds, but where are they now? What are they doing with their lives? What do they look like?

Red Ranger Jason, starring Austin St. John - Before:                       

               

After: I was truly sad when i saw this pic taken at a Power Rangers convention.

Blue Ranger Billy, starring David Yost - Before:

After: Hey, a receding hairline can be sexy. He’s still in showbiz, mainly as a producer, doing pretty well.

Black Ranger Zack, starring Walter - Before:

After: Quit the Power Rangers due to arguements related to pay. He’s a professional dancer and a minor actor. Good real life friends with red ranger Austin John.

Pink Ranger Kimberly, starring Amy Jo Johnson – Before:

After: Probably the most prolific of all. Professional songwriter/singer, released two albums, starred in award winning drama Felicity.

Green/White Ranger Tommy, starring Jason Frank – Before:

After: Went on to film many other Power Rangers series. Created his own mixed martial arts style. Made it into the World Karate Union Hall of Fame in 2003.

Yellow Ranger Trini, starring Thuy Trang – Before:

After: Tragedy struck her at age 27. Thuy Trang passed away in a car accident.

Tribute…I miss seeing you guys every saturday morning…