Karma?

Do you believe in karma? I was watching this movie last night called 'Da Zhi Lao' starring Andy Lau.



I am confused by the ending of the movie, the content is basically about the karma theory whereby a being's life and death is dependent on it's actions in the previous life. There's the rule of 'yin' and 'guo'. Because you did this in your previous life, therefore, you must pay for it in the next life. So it's not a sin to eat chicken, because the chicken's fate is to be eaten because of what it did in the previous life.

I remember when my mum was in the hospital with terminal cancer, she dreamt of many many hands reaching out to her from the floor, totally freaking her out. We had consulted the Teacher about this and were told that all this was fated, it's all because of her sins in her previous life. I was thinking it's not fair, because that's her previous life. Buddhism believe in this theory. So we engaged in chants, release birds, printing mantra using Mum's money hoping that she will be spared from the nightmare. I'm guess this works some how one way or the other even though she did passed away in the end, but she hardly suffered (suffering is unavoided when it comes to terminal cancer), which was good and she did passed away peacefully with everyone around her. I was a pretty bad shape then. I was thinking, maybe we didn't do enough? But I really dunno more could have been done. Everyone said this was all fated and can't be help.

I wonder what my karma will be, but I'm interested and yet afraid to know. Because knowing give great pressure. We consulted a pretty good fortune teller when my mum was in the hospital. He used the 'Zi Wei Tou Shu' to predict me, my sis and my dad's fortune. We all have the same predictions that mum will not make it. It was really pressurising then. I had my fortune told for the next 10 years told, and it's really hard to believe although I hope some of it will be true. But the part regarding my mum was really true. I think it's very eerie to think about it. Would you wanna know what lies ahead of you? And what if you know. Would you move towards that direction or away. Can fate really be re-shaped?

Anyway, regarding my weekend, I had weird dream on Saturday morning. I thought I heard my mum talking very loudly over the phone with my aunt as she usually do. The conversation was fluent, but I dun quite remember the content. Something about the government, I dunno. Anyway, on Saturday night, I had another dream, this time, I dream my whole family was on a China trip. This includes my mum of course. In the dream, my mum and sis were are the hotel, I me and dad was mysteriously moving away from the hotel exploring. And I only have Singapore notes of 50s in my wallet. I meant to have them changed to Ren Ming Bi because I don't want to be cheated in China. We made the effort to head back to the hotel, and after that was a blur.. coz I dun remember.

Anyway, I had a facial treatment with my sister at Hougang. I seldom went for facial because I think it's expensive and boring. Just lying there doing nothing makes me feel bored. Anyway, as usual the lady was removing all my black heads and my sister urge her to remember my small black tumour growing on the left side of my throat. It had been there for years. I was wary of the skill because this was afterall, just a small facial salon. Can they really 'operate' to remove that? But my sister was persisent and the lady was confident. Anyway, it wasn't very painful, just the feel of being cut and there's lot of blood on the cotton. It cost about $50 i think to remove that thing. I was still worry. When I reached home and went to bathe I got a shock when a stream of blood flow down my body.. the wound was not closed yet.. I think it's because the wound was so near my vein and there's not way to stop my throat from moving. Well it just kept flowing and I had to hold it with tissue. My sis stick a plaster over it. It was still flowing on Sunday morning but stopped by afternoon.

On Sunday, I bought a pair of Elle Active red sandals slippers. Like it. My sister also got a pair.. it think it's sexy looking and looks so pretty compared to the normal sandals which look so manly.

Irritating dreams

There are books which help to explain dreams. But they are not helping at all to tell me why my dreams are recurring. I kept dreaming that my mum was alive. It's the same kind of dream but different scenes all the time. Last night, I dream that my mum recovered from her illness but was very weak. We try to enjoy ourselves doing things unless she suddenly just fell down and died. It's really irritating that these dreams kept coming, like giving fake hopes to me that when I wake up, it took me a few seconds to return to reality... I wonder why.. it's not like I'm thinking of my mum every min and second. I'm already cured, but how come I keep having these dreams?? Dreams are what our subconscious mind is trying to show us our memory i think.. or are they trying to warn us something? I really don't know.. can anyone tell me???

Anyway, today i have back aches.. from yesterday's aerobic lesson.. yap.. i took up aerobic lessons.. yesterday was the 4th lesson.. i think there's something wrong with my legs.. like for example when I try to jog at the stadium, after only two rounds, my legs just ache like hell.. it's like the muscle nerves are trying to break.. it really pissed me off, because I was unable to complete my targetted 6 rounds.. i tried walking 1 round and it sort of recovered, but when I try to jog again, the pain came back within on lap. The same goes at aerobics.. my legs just ache and even cramp so much I also dunno how to follow the lessons.. I have to do nearly all the movements at low impact.. anyway, back to this aerobic classes, I took them at Bishan Community Centre.. consist of 8 lessons.. doesn't lose to the standard of Amore which I was with years back when I feel richer.. well, the instructor will be conducting kickboxing classes after this 8 sessions.. I've already signed up.. The instructor said kickboxing is fun and help to lost more weight than aerobics.. well, I always wanted to give that a try.. wonder how my stupid legs will feel about that...

Oh yeah, i bought the SE810i yesterday evening.. made me late for my aerobic lesson. I traded my Nokia phone.. I was surprised that the sales girl would take that for $100. Wah say.. maybe because she is the assistant retail manager, that's why have such power to quote more.. if you recall my previous blog, I was told $70 by another girl two days ago. At Singtel, I was quote $80. See, it pays to be patient.. anyway, I paid $508 for the phone and plus another dunno how much for an extra battery and desktop charger. comes with an emergency charger and screen protector. I can't believe there's such a thing as an emergency charger. It's a bloated packet with the charger head and it can;t be re-charged.. so it's some sort of disposable battery. Mmmm.. i wonder when I will need to use that... maybe it's a waste of $$... I was looking at the external speakers.. costing $65 each.. dunno whether it's worth it.. it will give me some entertainment at my workplace which is really quite like dunn what.. the silent really can kill... maybe next mth bah.. see whether the promotion still on.. after all, it is proven by me that wait and see brings benefits... heee..

I walked out for lunch today. Need to returned my library books.. 3 of them.. books about China economy which I borrowed for my project.. actually didn't even read a single page... heee... i borrowed a novel and walked to the market at bugis.. i was sweating.. it's not a well-worthy trip.. so hot and gain nothing... i bought pork chop rice for $2.50.. it was sticked on the stall that it's food was recommendated by artists in some channel U food show.. well, doesn't taste that recommended.. my rice consisted of a small pork chop (not hot, not crispy and the texture taste like rubber), fried egg and luncheon meat in bake beans... okay lah.. i dun get this kinda price at the foodcourt downstairs..

I plan to tidy my room so that my sister can move in her things tomorrow... all my comic books are lying on the table.. mainly Love Hina because this is the comics I just bought second-hand from someone in Keeptouch.. The pages are a bit yellowish, but okay lah.. not bad for the price.. it's more than half price... but i had to make my way to jurong east to get them... but afterwhich I had my haircut there.. her skill is not bad.. so it wasn't so bad.. although the journey back to Bishan was really long and had to stop over at amk...

Crazy Guy

We have been having this promotion for our customer whereby if the customer spends over certain amount, we will give them a bag for free. It's a pretty well-known and expensive bag. Anyway, however the drawback is that the customers have to come to our office to collect. And they need to bring their NRIC, their original invoice and the collection coupon. Anyway, all has been well until this stupid distributor came and wanted to collect on behalf of his customer. Well, that's fine as long as he can produce the invoice and NRIC, but he's gotta be kidding. He said the customer will fax over his driving license and he had a scan photocopied of the receipt in his laptop. I flatly decline. It's not according to the rule, dude.. The distributor called up the customer to explain and he asked to talk to me. I continue to reject saying we have stated very clearly in the coupon that all relevant documents has to been shown before we can pass over the gift. He made a lot of noise saying it's a stupid rule for a stupid bag and it's not worth it. This argument went on for about 5 min and he wanted to complain. I just gave him my name. The truth is the customer's workplace is very far away and he already submitted the receipt to his accounts department. Wah piang, is though it's our fault. Very unreasonable rite? Anyway, I made my manager talk to this brainless distributor he was really afraid to offend the customer. Well, I guess that brainless distributor managed to talk some sense into that brainless customer because both came into the office to collect the bag. Dude.. no principle at all.. and he still have the cheek to say, 'I talk to you yesterday'... wah say.. luckily I have experiences in customer service before and is quite calm and persistance to the rules.. rules are rules afterall, anyway, if I don't follow, it's my head that's falling off. My colleague was present when I was arguing with the brainless guy over the phone.. she said I handled it quite well.. uhem... of course.. haa.. well, my manager didn't comment anything about this though.. whatever.. anyway this is just a 6th month contract..

I was braindead last night.. had to control my yawn in class... kept biting my lips to keep my mouth close.. yesterday was a busy day at work.. maybe that's why so tired.. today last tired and going to get the SE 810i today.. brought along my old phone and accessories.. dunno still got stock or not...

Ciao!

7th Month

Yesterday was the first day of lunar 7th month, which is the Hungry Ghost Festival. I had a mission that day and that's to burn offerings under my HDB block. I hurried home in the evening and along the way was surprised to see so many people buring their offerings. I was kinda surprised because I thought people are getting less supersitious. Anyway, my dad bought 3 packs of offering sets consisting of hell notes of different value, gold/silver bars, paper clothes and hats, sweet biscuits, tea leaves, 2 candles, joss-sticks and matches. I made my brother to go with me. The procedure is actually to plant the two candles on the ground a few cm apart. Light the candles and place the biscuits and tea leaves on the ground as offerings. Light the joss-sticks and pray to the brothers to invite them to come and take the offerings and also to tell them to not harm our family. The stick three joss-sticks a time on the ground. We had a hard time because the ground is so hard and there's so many big fat black ants.. Yucksss..... after that we have to burn the hell notes into the bin provided. Each HDB block is assigned a bin for such purposes. Took us some times because have to burn the papers pieces by pieces to ensure that the brothers will get them properly because if you burn stack by stack, it is said that the money will not be burn and received properly. Anyway, took us a long time to complete.

I have been reading a novel called 'The Traveller' by John Twelve Hawks. Took me a long while since I only read this while travelling. The book cover introduced this as a new Da Vinci Code, but I dun find this book very Da Vinci style. Will enclosed a book review after I've finished this novel. It's quite interesting actually, about a group of people call Travellers who can travel to different realms. I rent this book from a rental bookstore as I like to do so.. I think I will be returning this book because it's not quite worthy to keep. I like to keep books I like very much. Will share all my collections slowly over time...

Watch some more episodes of One Piece last night. I had a laugh over Zoro for being stuck in the chimney upside turn and at Chopper for announcing his embarrassed moment. It was so comical.

I received a call from my ex-colleague, Nelly. She told me she got a job. As I expect. Before this she was saying that she wanted to start her online business selling clothes. Anyway, she invited me for lunch since she's working at Bugis. I told her I have an appointment as I'm meeting my friend for lunch.

I was discussing about mobile phones with my friend, TJ over lunch and we both actually wanted to buy the same phone: Sony E w810i. We went to the counter at carrefour where the counter is selling without contract and allow trade-in. I've checked on the value of my mobile phone - S$70. I've take a look at the phone and actually find it very uncle-ly... Mmm.. not sure also.. the counter say there's 4 more phones left and it's while stock last.. I will gather my phone accessories tomorrow and see fate.. haaa.. well.. if it's yours, it's yours.. dude..

Going Merry

That's the name of the ship in One Piece. Yesterday I watched the part where the ship was destroyed. It was so sad I was crying. The part where Usopp saw a mysterious figure repairing the ship at Skypiea. That figure is actually the fairy of the ship, who actually come out, eager to repair the already run-down ship so that the ship can send the crew of on a last journey. it was so touching.

I've also reached the part where Nico Robin exposed that she was helping the government because she wanted to save her nakama. Well, glad that she's still on the good side.

I managed like 5 episodes on a laptop. I plucked my speakers on because the laptop sound doesn't have the kick effect.. I was lying on my bed watching. Well, the battery managed to last for that long, that's was good.

I was at the National Library after work yesterday, trying to revise some school work. Recalling what is mean, median and mode.. yeah yeah.. the distribution graph. I learnt something like that in school last time but it was so long ago... I think i was hard to recall now because there's no hands-on practise. Not like last time where we have to do hundreds over questions to practise. Now is like lectures and that's it.. I'm not very confident. Hope things turn out well.

My sister's moving back

My sister decides to move back. I think that's good because currently, she's renting a room near my area. I think she's having conflicts with the owner over common things like using the washing machines etc. I think it's hard to live under the roof of others. Have to pay to see people's face. Well, she will be moving back into my room. There's a few things to think about. Like how to arrange the furniture etc. My room is a mess because I'm not a neat person to begin with.. and sad to say, my sis is as messy as me.. haa.. messy + messy = nightmare. Well, we used to share the room when we were kids.. she got married and moved out of the house like 3 years ago.. should be alright except that she has more clothes and she's crazy over accessories, skin products and comestics. Well, will somehow think of storage space. She called today to ask whether she can inform her landlord that she will be moving out.. Need 1 mth notice. I just tell her to go ahead and move back, and then we will slowly figure out about the storage.. haaa.. Hmmm.. yeah.. slowly loh...

Talking about my phone, I not very pleased about it. It's the stupid speaker. It just disappeared. It happened in april this year and I have to bring it down the Nokia service centre at causeway point. They replace the speaker or they claim to do so.. and now, it's the stupid speaker again!! Today I bring it down again this time to Suntec, they say the warranty's over and say that to replace the speaker will cost money, which will exclude the evaluation fee of abt $22. I argued that their speaker replacement only last for 3 mths. And the answer is that I might have drop it or something over the 3 mths. Win already loh.. I say forget it.. coz it's really not worth it. Dunno whether it's their way of sneaking out of trouble. I've work in a communication company before as customer service. We were taught how to answer to siam refunding. Maybe it's a marketing policy of these companies to siam giving refund or replacement? Well, now my phone can't ring.. thinking of getting a new one, have to buy one without contract, because I'm bonded under a contract that doesn't allow me to replace a phone at a good price and I hope to change service provider after this contract terminate.

Tomorrow is the first day of 7th month. Time sure fly fast. Now I'm the one joining the auntie buring hell notes under the flat.. I still feel weird doing that.. okay, you can call me supersitious, but it's better to be safe than sorry. .. anyway, if you think it in a different way, these brothers are really pityful because they don't have descendents to pay respect to them, so we mortal are actually doing charity - good deed by giving them food and money... and at the same time protecting my family. Will be visiting Guang Ming Shan soon.. to pay respect to both sides of my grandparents and my mother.. it's really tough job.. to me.. just buying all the things - food, joysticks, candles, paper money and paper clothes give headaches... I've never never ever thought that I will be doing things like this... I used to tell myself that I would not do this, because it's air polluting and waste of money.. but when things happen to you, you just have to do it.. i mean think about it.. if your parents died, what kinda funerals would you choose? There has to be a funeral right? You won;t think about cremating and throwing into the ocean? Then also the follow-up cemeronies, like anniversaries, Qing Ming, 7th month etc... They are your parents, I'm sure you would wanna to give them the best or as best as you can afford even though they are no longer around.. Anyway, I'm the person who feel responsible for such things.. In the beginning, I often consult the 'specialists' but I give up because that's draining our fortune away.. they just say this and that and that has to be done and these 'this and that' can cost as much as $1k-2K altogether.. I think my mom would jump if she actually knew about the bills, yep, she sure will, coz she's so thrifty...so now, I keep it simple... we commoners prefer simplicity after all.. as long as the sincerity is there...

I watched some episodes of One Piece yesterday.. I've reached the part where Usopp left the crew.. I don't think I like this part.. hope this part will finish soon.. I actually love One Piece because I love seeing the crew having a good time... the nakama bonding just makes me smile because they can be so funny.. I know, a lot of people love their fighting part.. I'm the odd one.. dude... Anyway, I hope Usopp will make himself powerful soon... I feel like slapping him everytime I watch him trembling and making a fool of himself being a coward.. i read somewhere that he will be.. anyway, haven't reach that part yet.. until the next time when I have access to my home computer.. my bro's like hogging that computer all the time.. he's really a pain in the ass... hogging computers, television and even my books.. then have to ask permission eveytime I wanna use the things... where's my rights?? ~sighz....

I had a project discussion on Saturday. One of the group member was so proud of his blog that he actually showed it to us and tell us the history. Well, comparing his blog and mine.. really shameful... Anyway, it's not really that important rite? I now left one more group project to finish..