1^st march

A new month. Time really flies. To think I’ve been working for 1 year 6 months (quite exactly since I started work on the 5^th). And it’s a surprise I haven’t quitted, considering I had that idea since the 1^st day I started work. It’s high time that I start sending out my resume and go for interviews, because in 6 months time if I get promoted, I’ll be pulling my hair out being a senior. Yes, all those high pay and time flexibility and the chance to ‘bully’ those working for you. But I seriously don’t think I can survive as a senior as I feel I’m not that good technically.

It’s so cold in this office that I can’t think properly, nor write properly, nor type properly. Basically, I can’t work well. Ah. Can’t finish liao I think.

 

3^rd March

I came to understand what it means by luxury with some simple stuff in our daily life. For instance, when you have been taking cold showers every day, despite rain or shine, and one day you have a slightly warm shower, it actually feels very good. A luxury you feel, and you may well want to stay on in the shower for a long time. Or if you have been sleeping on wooden boards (ie no mattress) every night, and one day you sleep on king-koil mattress, you may well want to stay in bed, refusing to get up. I realized the many small comforts in our everyday life that we have taken for granted may actually mean luxuries to other people. Should I say that we are over-indulged in comfortable living that we forget how life for our forefathers were? With all these comforts in life, we’ve lost touch of being in natural surroundings and we lose ourselves. It’s the debate of how modernization has changed our lives. In the past, people were laid-back and had minimal comforts, but such produced strong minds and high moral values. Now, we have the latest technologies and much luxurious stuff, but where have our moral values gone to? In the past, people knew life-survival skills such as search and cook food. Now, we get off-the-shelf packages or packet food from food courts. We turn on the taps for our water. We switch on the aircon when we feel warm. If all these were to be gone, do we have any chance of living on?

Our earth is dying but are we doing sufficiently to ‘save’ it? Crude oil will be used up soon. What will our energy sources be then? The ozone layer is having more and more holes. Why are not doing our part of recycling? The poles are melting. What have we done for lowering global temperatures?

I’m rather into the ‘reuse, reduce, recycle’ idea these days. I can remember from childhood days the green frog that was sort of the ambassador for the 3Rs. I wonder if such ideas are being inculcated into the kids still. Taking New Zealand as an example, it is the education that the kids go through during schooling which brings the whole country to be environmental friendly. Everyone takes it as their responsibility to keep the country clean. If a big country can do that, surely our small dot country can do so as well? Being in an industry that wastes a lot of papers, I have colleagues who tell me it’s futile to try save paper. Firstly the bosses will not be happy cuz the work documents look messy with all the writing. That’s why most people re-print their work even if there are minor changes or additions. Secondly, it takes extra effort from the individual to amend their work documents when they can simply click ‘print’. Thirdly, the most stupid yet frequent excuse I hear is ‘how much can you help in recycling anyway’. If everyone goes by this excuse, of course it’ll be redundant. But if everyone goes by the theory of ‘every little bit counts’, I’m sure the efforts will pay off. It’s not about yourself, or your family, or your country. It’s about the whole humankind.

All right. I can sense some cynicism coming. Off to doing a night stock take.