Engineering-trained aspiring Marketeer

2009-11-06T02:38:00.002+08:00

Why do I always screw up when I want something too badly. I presented myself wrongly a couple of times during the interview and couldn't help it even though I was aware of my wayward approach.

DAMN!!!

And whenever I go to interviews with a more carefree mood, it always goes better.

SUCKS MAN. Brooding over it the whole evening. I think the last time I had this feeling was when I walked out of the exam hall knowing I screwed up big time and that it counted greatly to my GPA.

Posting this in a whim and probably deleting it soon. Been doing this for the last few posts. Got nothing interesting to blog about nowadays man.

Oh, The fibonacci sequence has an interesting aspect to it.

Before I get into it, there is a golden ratio 1.618, which is naturally occuring in many aspects life. In a nutshell, we tend to find things made in this ratio are pleasing to the eyes.

Now the fibonacci sequence is very simple; take the numbers beside each other and add them up, then place them in the proceeding number position. So it goes like this - 0,1,1,2,3,5,6,13,21,34,55,89,144,..

So what is the interesting thing about this sequence? If you take any of the numbers and divide it by the preceding number, you'll find that the ratio tends towards 1.618 as the sequence advances.

This magic number is known as PHI.

I'm just about going to bed now, but you should google about this amazing ratio. Even the early Egyptians used this to construct their architecture. I would deduce that we can apply this ratio to our daily lives too. Say you want to segment a unit of anything (line, etc), take the length of it as a unit '1'. Afterwhich, segment the unit into 2 parts, where one segment is '0.681' of '1' and the other segment is '1-0.681'.

2009-10-11T19:37:00.003+08:00

This morning, whilst in the cab on the way to soccer, the driver yakked away.

He was telling me about his 4d exploits (or rather aspiring exploits) and how he bought a number '7889' and the 2nd price came in as '7888', or something along that line. He said he felt like jumping when he saw the results. I told him that maybe it was a sign that he should stop playing. On his side, he intepretes it as having a close shave with victory and therefore, he should buy more. On my side, I was trying to tell him that maybe God was telling him, "look, you ain't gonna stike the prize, so I'm telling you that even if you come extremely close to winning, you'll still not"

I hope he remembers today whenever he feels the itchy-backside-near-miss-and-want-to-bet-again impulse.

Carrying on, he was telling me how driving a taxi is good and he can earn $2.4k to $2.6k a month. He even urged me to consider driving one next time once I hit 30 (or was it 35?).

I suppose from the way I talked to him, he really felt like I was sussing out the taxi driving market for a potential career. I told him eventually that I had just graduated and was working in a white-collar job. My intention wasn't to gloat(if it even was anything to gloat about in the first place anyway), but rather to see what kinda reaction I would draw from him.

From that instant of reaction from him, I could suss out what his impressions of me were before my telling him.

Interesting. I discovered the stereotypical views of another taxi-driver in his 50's (possibly).

Tip to bargain hunters: chat with the taxi driver more and he'll probably round down your fare to the nearest dollar if it's a few cents above.

2009-10-06T01:22:00.004+08:00

I need to start doing entreprenurial stuff and not just task specific jobs.

I've learnt a couple of things about myself during these 2 months. I'm good at sieving out the appropriate answers to cut to the chase such as to alleviate the concerns of the clients. I'm NOT good at presenting an amiable & charming persona. Gotta work on it.

2009-10-03T15:27:00.003+08:00

2009-10-02T02:23:00.001+08:00

shucks.. hahaha.. OH WELL~ what to do.. shucks..

2009-09-03T02:01:00.003+08:00

My company has a good environment. The people are nice, there's a good work/personal stuff balance, and there's even a bible studies session for an hour every week(if time permits that is).

Now here comes the cognitive dissonance I'm facing now.

See, I would call myself a Deist. A Deist is not an Atheist. He believes in a God, albeit an impersonal one. What does that mean? - It means (according to my own beliefs) that God created everything as it is now. The laws of science applies to our humanly lives. What we know now is as real as it is, in this world of ours. I do not believe that if I pray to God, he will help me on a personal level. What I do believe is that He has given us the gift of life as humans and the ability to make the best of it, to carry out his intentions for us (which I hope is for the longer survival of humankind).

I do believe that when a christian prays, it does bring positive help to his/her life. My rationale is that God has given him/her the ability to have faith in him through that religion and thereby helping himself. Rationale. We all rationalise what we want our lives to be. Rationale is not Logic. It can be, but it is not absolutely always. Most importantly, it always seems logical to us on a personal level.

In bible studies, I go in with an open mind. But there lies a problem in that because the pastor preaches to the majority of whom are christians inside, he is teaching, well, christianity. I do not believe in the religion, yet.

I give you an example. In last week's session, the pastor mentioned that Jesus was the only way to heaven. To put things in perspective, if I truly went into bible studies with an open mind, I would not like it if I am told to have absolute faith in a belief because the pastor tells me so. I really want to find out more about christianity, but because I want to believe, I have to be fair to other religions and ask myself, "why not other religions?". An objective mind will always look at both sides of the coin. A subjective mind will have an inner inclination subconsiously and it will be easier to convince(depending on it's biaseness).

As such, I practise selective hearing when I'm in bible studies. When I hear something that deals with absolute faith, I just tell myself, "ok, this is for the christians." But if it is an open discussion, I'll perk up. For example, someone asked today how do christians hear God. Nobody could give a convincing answer. Thank god for that. I felt that their spiritual credibility had gone up because, yes, they are just humans and to fully understand God might be out of our grasp in our lives.

On to the issue of going to Heaven. Which is more important if there were 2 choices. Making more people's lives better with an objective mind, or, evangalising so that those who believe go to Heaven.

Therein lies the dilemna. Should one be shrewd but law abiding so that he can earn more money to help the less fortunate in the future, or should he be all nice and satisfied with an average income but volunteering at a charity to help a few.

2009-08-19T03:19:00.002+08:00

Cold Call Lesson number 1 : When sensing a rejection, don't stop talking and try to squeeze in some more good stuff. Just keep talking. It's a matter of probability that you hit a sweet spot.

2009-08-10T08:43:00.000+08:00

TOO BUSY TO BLOG. THANK YOU FOR COMING IN. WILL BE BACK SOON.

Stimulating enough?

2009-07-19T11:00:00.005+08:00

Poor Obama and his team. 5 months after the first stimulus bill and his people are complaining that things are getting worse; asking for a second stimulus.

5 months. When the stimulus was supposed to produce a result at the end of next year.

See, this is the issue with American culture. The common consensus in their attitudes is this - "We can do it."

Which leads to - "We will do it."

Which means that because America is usually successful in its workings, this attitude will spill over into most of the arenas within the people. The problem is when results don't come fast enough, and this might seem like the plan has failed (it might not have because it could just be a long term goal).

It's not like Obama could say things differently whilst garnering support for a green light on the stimulus. Had he sounded less impactful about it, the bill might not have been passed.

And then again, this 'can do, will do' spirit could be what makes America what it is today. So the question is, should things be said and done differently? I don't think so. It's tried and tested.

The same goes for Singapore. As tempting as the thought of having a more competitive political scene locally might be, we are indeed GOOD now. Should things be done differently? Maybe yes, maybe no. But baby steps. Baby steps so that we know what works and what doesn't, without too damaging consequences.

I think deep down inside us, we know what is good for us. See, a person might think that it would be better to have more opposition members in parliament. When he's entertaining that thought, he's kinda detaching his own personal life from the bigger picture to evaluate what might be good for the general population, theoretically as in competition benefits textbooks.

But I think that when voting times comes, many of us realise that the current political scene has indeed made life good for ourselves, and well, vote for the status quo.

Brand Loyalty

2009-07-16T06:58:00.002+08:00

Amazing.

A study has shown that consumers’ brand loyalties are tied to their insecurities. The products at hand in the study were mp3 players.

To cut to the chase, the more afraid a person is of dying, the more attached he/she is to their mp3 players. It’s like seeking comfort in the brand’s social status.

There is a correlation but it is not outright obvious in an average person’s rationalisation. Of course, when consumers play with their ipods, death is probably not on their minds. It’s like asking someone why he loves his partner. He can state the more obvious reasons but he would probably take much longer to dig into the roots to find out the humanly basic reasons.

Anyway, the important part is how to make use of this study result - Emphasize your brands feel good qualities.

2009-07-15T04:26:00.002+08:00

Signed the contract.

It is my goal to reach a senior managerial role in sales/marketing eventually.

Even bigger goal is to eventually be my own boss. But mistakes are bound to be made in the course of business and I don’t think I can afford to kaput my finances when I’m in my 30’s. There are many awesome opportunities by SPRING to finance a business startup now but the only problem is – I don’t have a brilliant business idea.

Alternative? Franchise. To be honest, running a franchise doesn’t really cut it for being my own boss. Legal wise, being a franchisee has more disadvantages when shit happens. The one big advantage of a franchise is the sturdy platform to hone business management skills. Along the way, a business plan might come along.

Branding, branding, branding. That’s what competitiveness in today’s business world is all about. No brand, no $$$. Creative has good mp3 players in many more colours than ipods. I’m pretty sure they are equally as competitive in features. Ipod wins.

It is a good thing if I can study an MBA specializing in marketing to the branding side. DN is a dream, albeit an extremely hard to reach one. Sometimes, dreams should remain as dreams to keep our feet planted on the ground.

Looking forward to my job. I know, I know. Once I start working, I’ll realize how tiring it is. Monday blues will hit. I’m lucky though. I get to work in a field I like (which is not civil engineering). Of course, some people have asked me, “how do you know you really like marketing if you did not major in business?” That’s right, I don’t know until I’ve tried it. So far so good though. I find my business electives very interesting. And I know electives are just – electives. I’ll find out.

To be objective though, my official title is ‘management trainee’. Fortunately, the training program heads into the sales part quite rigorously. I might just like sales more than marketing. After all, marketing in Asia Pacific is seldom a pure marketing role. It usually encompasses sales as well.

One day, I hope to look back at this post and tick each of the items as ‘done’.

2009-07-11T04:32:00.003+08:00

I'm currently hooked onto this pinball game on my ipod touch. Best of all, it's free.

In it, I get 4 balls to get as high a score as possible. The world top players' scores are insane.

When playing, I have a tendency to restart the game if my first ball goes into the gutter very early in its play time. My rationale was that if I didn't have a good headstart, it didn't matter how well the other balls performed later - the overall score would still be dragged down. But after some thought, I figured that of the 4 balls, only 1 or 2 figured significantly in contributing to the scores; as long as I had 1 or 2 of such performance balls, it didn't matter whether they came in first or last in sequence - my score could still be a record breaker.

In my opinion, this is highly relevant to decision making in more important decisions too. Being a perfectionist and insisting that a particular outcome must be as desired will not allow us to move on and strike gold in one of the decisions in the sequence.

The belief of Freedom

2009-07-04T05:23:00.002+08:00

North Korea and Iran; both want to own nuclear weapons. The important question is – WHY?

The more obvious underlying reason is that having WMDs gives a sovereign state more bargaining power. Why do these 2 countries want more bargaining power? Could it be because they feel threatened if they did not own WMDs? What are they threatened by? - Capitalism? Pure Democracy?

Let’s face it. People in power do not want change. Change means their power and influence are at risk. It’s applicable in every power house. Say Bush was made President again; would Guantanamo Bay stay indefinitely? Everyone truly believes what he believes in is correct.

So how do we manifest these ideals of ours? We try to find roles of power and authority. What do these 2 aspects give us? - FREEDOM TO BE IN CONTROL OF ACTIONS (e.g. Political).

The feeling of freedom of our actions is a very important factor in our way of living. Say you have a choice of marrying either of 2 girls. The first girl is hot like hell but she tells you that if you have sex with her more than once a month, she’ll divorce you and take away your entire fortune. The second girl is an average Jane but she imposes no such rule on you. Who would you choose? Even if you knew Jane had a medical condition which might prevent her from having sex with you at all in certain months, you would still choose her because you feel a sense of freedom to have a romp when she’s up for it, albeit probably getting less sex than the former girl.

Back to the 2 nuclear-proliferating hungry nations; do sanctions really work? The purpose of sanctions is to tell them, “Hey look, if you don’t be a good boy, I’m gonna take these away from you.” Sense of freedom gone. See, this is very evident in N.Korea’s reluctance to be a cooperative member of the global community. Sometimes, its actions are quite like a ‘angsty’ teenager who receives allowance from his parents but will jump at every opportunity to get out of their oppressive clutches should they decide to ground him for his mischievous deeds.

An alternative method which might yield better results for international cooperation is to give such countries a sense of freedom in their affairs. Treat them like a brother. Shower them with love. Then implicitly hint indirectly that such brotherhood and love are only possible because they are already doing a good job in being a positive member of the international community. Maybe they are not yet doing a good job. Sometimes we must pay compliments forward so that people will know it’s a good feeling to be part of the team and do better next time.

Let me give an example of how this is evident in many of our families. Say you are a wife who is deciding if you should do a bigger portion of the housework. Typically, I would infer a woman would like to see herself as a good wife who does not need to do more housework, but would do it willingly because she likes the wholesome image of her role in making the family happy and normal (as accepted within a societal norm). In response, the husband will tell her how much he loves her and give her a massage later. However, if the husband yells at her to do the wife thing and cook the dinner, will she do it willingly?

The international community could try pampering the leaders of these 2 nations and treat them like one of their own big boys. It’ll be surprising if they still make aggressive motions afterwards.

Disclaimer: I am not a sexist pig. The wife willingly doing more housework is a proven fact of studies. Even when husbands claim they do equal amounts of housework, wives still acknowledge that they do more than the men. But the women are happy with the status quo because they have compromised by make-believing that it is actually a fair arrangement.

2009-06-23T04:06:00.006+08:00

I haven't been using my brains much recently. Taking in recent news from here and there but not really feeling very strongly about anything in particular. I think the reason for this disinterest is probably cuz of the same ol' thing happening over and over again.

My admiration for Obama has risen recently. On a sidenote, I would think he'll make a very good soccer manager. And I support him fully for the fly swatting. For the love of animals, we need more intelligent people to support the championing of commonly neglected rights. The person from PETA who issued the Obama chiding is not one of them. He has potentially turned away many potential supporters who were sitting on the fence. And for what? A lousy fly. A fly which spreads disease. He should marry a fly since he cares more for it than fellow humans. He better not campaign for mosquitoes next. I will buy a ticket to wherever he is, don a mosquito suit, and slap him real hard.

2009-06-02T01:34:00.002+08:00

Starbucks Campaign Starbucks Campaign karyn.lewis9382

Publish at Scribd or explore others: marketing campaign

A very good report by a group (of students?). It has certainly enlightened me and the fact that it kept me reading proved it really stood out from the boring stuff students tend to write.

2009-05-29T23:41:00.002+08:00

melia and her waiter..

2009-05-27T06:20:00.002+08:00

Happy Birthday Nic. 25 years old. Aspiring to get a car within 3 months.

Thanks to my hiadihood and their gfs for the fun filled chalet and 2 visits to wild wild wet. HAHA! 2 times. Shiok.

Well anyway, I had a major presentation yesterday and after 4 hours of lessons, didn't have any plans. Abit sucky but nvm, had a good presentation anyway. Since it was a major one, there was an appraisal and had the same comments as for the prof comm presentation in the youtube video below - "relaxed and confident."

I'm damn good at sprouting reasonably good stuff impromptu for such presentations now. In actual fact, halfway through my part, I realised I was running out of time and plan A had to be ditched. Sprouted some stuff on the go and when it ended, I really had no idea what was the main point I intended to bring to the audience. Overall my group presented well. But erm, the prof ranked us and I came up tops. okay thank you. HEE HEE. (",)

2009-05-23T07:24:00.001+08:00

Wow! the godfather is a damn good show! It's amazing!

2009-05-22T03:08:00.002+08:00

I was over the moon when I saw this. I REALLY REALLY THOUGHT I WOULD FAIL 1 OR 2 SUBJECTS. But I passed all! Actually I think I'm quite good. HAHA! Considering that I'm quite slack in my course cuz I really hate the subjects and find no motivation at all, I still pass 8 subjects and get B- for FYP. Nic, you are really something. HAHAHA!

Marketing's next and I'm done with studies!

So very elated. I can finally go out and earn my own money. Not part-time jobs. A PERM JOB. It's really pretty exciting cuz I've got so much more control over my decisions now and what makes it even more thrilling is that the salary I earn is indeed a very important priority now and if I'm jobless, I'll starve!

That's what drives me. Adversity. Pressure. Yah sure, I'm 'happy-go-lucky' as viewed by some friends. But I always believe true capability shows only in stressful times, otherwise we should be happy on other days.

HAHAHA! I might come across as extremely cocky. But you know what, I've come to acknowledge that it is better to be a little cocky than to be humble. I'm gunning for a sales/marketing/biz development job and I believe a damn thick skin is needed. Being nice and humble won't feed me. Portraying a cock-sure image to garner confident trust in my skills will feed me.

So what are you waiting for? Hire me! I'll give you awesomeness.

2009-05-17T03:27:00.003+08:00

Finally, first interviews!

If I get my choice job, I swear it'll be the turning point of my lesser than average achievements.

Enough of the engineering, physics, chemistry and yada yada. BORING. General knowledge in science is interesting. In-depth knowledge is not.

Time and time again, I've followed pressure from wherever it came from. Pure Science in secondary, science subjects in jc, and of course if I don't do well from there, dumped to the course where I was lucky enough to get in with my crappy A level grades.

And the lesson I've learnt from all these is that, never ever make an important decision based on other factors other than what truly excites you.

At least that's for me.

Some people say, "it's the same with any job, it's boring. that's why it's called a job."

That's utter nonsense and I infer they are stuck in the rut of this mentality and thereafter, 'birds of the same feather flock together'.

See, the test of whether a job is suitable for you is the morning rising up. If you readily get up, well done; if not you are in the wrong job. Seriously, I always tell people this - If you get banged down by a car tomorrow, do you really want to die with this lacklustre attitude.

The other matter in contention is when seniors tell us, "you know, you should do this job, the money is better. You'll need it for the family."

Well, the most probable reason for them being in this situation of working-just-for-money is that they were stuck in a vicious cycle simply because they chose the wrong career paths initially and it went on and on.

The other common mentality is this - I don't want to waste what I've learnt, so I should first try out this field. Makes sense right? NO. Analogy - You've spent everyday fighting with your partner. Would you marry him/her because it would be a waste of the time spent together?

Money wise. I would like to stress this point to my friends. It doesn't matter which industry has the most potential opportunity to earn big bucks. If you like what you're doing, you're going to get good at it. And when you're good at it, people will pay you to do it.

Well of course, things aren't that clear sometimes. You might like doing something but just ain't good at it. Or you might not like something or you're just damn good at it. Well then, maybe other factors might help in weighing the pros and cons.

Oh, and a parting comment. This is based on my experiences thus far. You know how we all have cliques of friends and how these influence our decisions to a great extent. I'm not saying we should choose our friends based on this, but seriously, it is better to surround yourself with high energy and positive people during crucial stages of your life.

I give myself as an example. On days when I'm feeling lazy and tired from the non-responses to my resume sending, talking to like-minded friends just keeps me in the lull longer.

But the very next day, when I chat with more motivated people, I feel the stress to get a good job before they are all taken up.

DISCLAIMER. I still 'love', for lack of a not so gay word, my close friends no matter what they are. But energy levels are indeed infectious and it is important to have selective hearing sometimes. LUCKILY, my closest hiadihood consists of high-calibre and capable pple.

Felix - The all-rounder
Rongxin - The hardworking and intelligent dude
Yongjie - The somewhat slack at times but actually is very smart guy
Myself - The worst of the lot. Chui in studies. Terminated from university(got back in fortunately). But all those hiccups have taught me invaluable lessons. And now, I know what I want.

2009-05-16T01:46:00.003+08:00

Oh very nice. Watching "Marley and Me" makes me wanna start a family. Nothing better than going home to a wife, baby and a dog.

The last part is damn sad though.

2009-05-13T06:37:00.002+08:00

Few nights back, I took my GT bike for a ride down one of the lesser known roads somewhere in sembawang (along the coast). It's been like 4 or 5 years since I cycled there? Forgot that there were 2 prisons there. And where there were construction mud roads before, there lay proper roads now, albeit completely empty at night.

Okay, now I shall reveal my latest fantasy. To find a girl who cycles. More specifically cycling a mountain bike but using it for exploring more than bashing. Not those thin-wheeled road touring bikes kind. Personally, if I want to travel really fast on a road with 2 wheels, I'll get a motorbike. Then again, a car would be nicer.

Sadly, I have never come across any girl who fits the bill.

Speaking of which, I was jogging early morning not too long back and this girl zoomed past me. The male ego in me wanted to chase after her. But I think I'd puke if I had done so. Well anyway, I had some childish thoughts after that. She was waiting to cross a traffic light further up and I jogged past her while thinking inside "tsk.. run so fast for what.. now have to wait also.." HAHAHA!

Bobian lah. Now I'm damn unfit. Yet I still see myself as back in those canoeing days. Cognitive dissonance causes me to rationalise irrationally my current fitness inadequacy. Huff Puff Pant.

2009-05-09T12:52:00.003+08:00

I was munching on my watermelon and looking at the seeds; swallowed some and spat out some. The image of a monkey eating a watermelon and shitting out the seeds ensued in my head.

What a wonderful system trees have huh? They provide us with essential living materials and most of them don't prey on anything! In fact, they gladly take in the decomposed matter in the form of nutrients when we use up our time on this Earth.

And then I thought, our world is indeed a very awesome place! Albeit the irrationality of humans, we otherwise possess an amazing system of equilibrium.

I now think that our way of living things as we know, is actually an evolution of another system of living. Not in the sense that humans evolved from some alien species, but rather the basic building blocks like how carbon and water are one of the most important factors which allow us to survive. Maybe, the universe before us consisted of entirely different matter. Maybe not even elements as we know it but some other form of foundations. Perhaps the equilibrium aspect wasn't like the one we know it now. Evolution then produced the universe we live in now. Well of course it won't make any scientific sense because we are essentially bounded by what we are made of. It's up to God that the wheels of evolution were set the way they are, and we, the products of it.

I'm merely babbling, so don't get offended by what I say if you're a religious person. I might get punished by God for saying such stuff when the time to meet him comes. But at least, I provided a purpose in reinforcing your faith if you are smirking at me now and all-knowingly rationalising with conviction why what I said was utterly nonsense and crap.

Professional Communication (Module) Presentation on Workplace Discrimination

2009-04-18T03:46:00.001+08:00

Feel free to tell me what I can improve on (presentation skills wise)! (",)

Flogging in Afterlife

2009-04-05T06:38:00.005+08:00

Look at this - http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Asia/Story/A1Story20090404-133335.html

Terrorising women so as to enforce sharia law. In my opinion, it's just a excuse for some to exercise repressed feelings of sadomasochism over women. Don't get me wrong. I think it is every right of those under the religious legal system to live the way their law deems fit. But what I find extremely irking is how some men there tend to take the law into their own hands. Who are you as a single man to bypass the legal courts and inflict punishment on your own terms.

It's like an adult caning a kid over a 'mistake'. Caning to teach a lesson is different from caning to vent anger. I'm pretty sure in both cases, the adult will just use the cheap excuse of "I'm just teaching him/her a lesson." Anywhere, to side-track, I strongly condemn physical violence on children. I think there is a strong likelihood for the caner to overlap his anger/frustration/irritation with the 'teaching' of the canee. I'll be those parents who'll go to school and cane the teacher back if he/she ever lifts a finger on my kid. I seriously don't understand the Asian values which make it so normal for a parent to inflict pain on his child. Please don't make the kid pay for your inadequacy as a parent to teach without violence. It's like a gangster beating the villagers up just because he can and feels like it. Had the gangster been smarter, he would have struck up a collaboration with the villagers to implement a win-win situation such that they all make a decent living.

This 'I-can-therefore-I-will-and-you-can't-do-shit-about-it' mentality is probably part of the reason why our courtesy ranks so lowly. Every time you see someone nonchalently commiting a public behaviour faux pas, he is thinking, "so what if you don't like it. go report to the police then." Well, you can't. And what happens to you after many years of being pissed off? Why, you join the crowd of course. The next younger generation, fresh from the oven, will be posting your social boo-boos on 'Stomp' while you shrug and mumble : "kid, grow up, this is Singapore."

I term this "Micro-social Monarchy in the family". We are a family-based society. Therefore, no matter how embarrassed we are in the public's eye, we are not judged by our family. Compare this with the Western individual-based society. If you screw up your social manners in public, you're on your own dude.

It's like dissolving substances in water. An Asian family is like a non-polar molecule. Everything is in harmony within the molecule with no polarity such that it refuses to be dissolved in water(larger society). A Western family is like a polar molecule. The molecule(family) still exists but the electron distribution(social values) cause the polarity to arise and integrate easily within the polar solvent, water.

Back to the caning in Pakistan. Do you see why I am so against conservative mentalities now? The men are using their conservative values as a cheap reason to inflict self-satisfying pain on the women. And where does this sadist streak appear from? Why, from their repressed upbringing of course. If I was a Taliban member, I might be thinking to myself, "Fuck this shit, since I have to live with all these stifling rules, now that I'm a grown man and have some status in my community, I might as well work the rules to my advantage and release my pent up frustration. After all, everybody will think that I'm just being a loyal servant to the code of conduct."

These men, I hope they get flogged endlessly in their after-life. "so you think you very cool last time huh?" - *kapah!* "so you think you very man huh?" - *kapah!* "you want to be sent back as a woman in your village now?" - *kapah!*

Okay, I'm just really pissed.