Light Bulbs And Intelligence

I think I've discovered the real reason why my uncle took the modem last week.

Earlier on, I was using my laptop in the living room as normal and my auntie came out and told me to go sleep because it was past midnight. I replied and said that I didn't have work tomorrow. There was a short silence and then she said, "Our electricity bills for last month were very high." I replied with a "Yeah sure, okay" before she went back into her room.

I know I didn't mention it in the entry regarding the modem incident, but I had a feeling it was it might have been over this electricity bill thing. But you see, it's not entirely my fault. It's more, how do I put it, due to my uncle's stupidity lack of intelligence.

In the living room, our lights aren't the normal kind of circular light bulbs on ceiling. Instead, there are these chandelier looking kind of things (I have no idea what they're called) with 8 eight light bulb slots. There are 2 of them.

Now, when my family was still living here (my uncle and aunt took over the place after my parents left), my father did something that a smart, sensible person would do. He bought 4 white energy saving light bulbs and slotted them 2 each into the 2 chandeliers. On top of that he got 2 lamps, fitted them with the same type of light bulbs each and put them at the sides of the living room. Those were really convenient for me as I only needed to switch on 1 lamp when I was up late at night.

When my uncle took over however, guess what he did. On the 2 chandeliers, he fitted all the 8 slots with new orange light bulbs. Even a cute, lovable dog such as Rainbow could tell you that that's a total of 16 light bulbs. So now whenever the lights are switched on, the energy output is 4 times higher than before. On top of that, I don't think the bulbs were even energy saving ones.

And you tell me the electricity bill has gone up?



"2 times 8 equals 16. Okay, can I get some of that chicken now?"


See now why I say it's due to my uncle's lack of intelligence? As a matter of fact, 2 of the white light bulbs in the past were brighter than the all orange bulbs put together.

Oh yeah, I forgot to add, the 2 lamps were removed too.

Now, whenever anyone uses the living room, the only light source available becomes those 16 light bulbs which have become nothing but a waste of energy.

So who's really the cause of the high electricity bills?


Wikipedia Topic Of The Day: A priori

Merry Christmas!

The People I Live With

(Note: This post was written on the date stated above, but I've been only been able to post it up today, the 24th of December.)


I'm feeling slightly pissed off right now.

Usually my uncle leaves me alone to do my stuff at night, but earlier tonight he told me to go and sleep at 12am. I was quite unwillingly to do so, but since it was only once in a blue moon that he told me to sleep (and I was pretty tired as well), I decided to go ahead and listen to him.

At around 12am however, I was still online because I wanted to finish a file transfer before going to bed. So as it was going on, I went to the toilet to brush my teeth and get ready for bed. While I was brushing my teeth though, I heard someone walk to the living room followed by sounds of wires and plugs being pulled out. When I came back to the living room, I saw my uncle taking the modem and walking back to the room.

Of course I got pissed because my transfer didn't get completed! I shouldn't have bothered about him in the first place.

The thing about my uncle is this. He's afraid of conflict. He's afraid of confrontation. If you meet him, he's the typical nice guy, all kind and friendly. But if there's one thing, or in this case 2 things, he can't handle, it's confronting someone and handling a conflict. He's one of those who doesn't believe in letting his anger out. Therefore he finds it hard to get angry at someone and tell them off or scold them. The only person he does that to is his own son. But even then, the kind of anger he displays is mild.

So when it comes to a conflict like today, he takes the easy way out by simply taking the modem. I mean, he didn't even say anything, and took it just like that. Fair enough, it's his modem and his internet connection, but even your own parent tells you before he or she takes action. Heck, even before they take action in secondary school they let you know.

What pissed me off was that he showed total disregard to me, or anything I was doing by just taking the modem without even saying a word. Or perhaps it was his cowardice. He knew I wasn't in the living room so he quickly took the modem. And even as he was walking back to his room with the modem I passed him by but he didn't even look me in the eye.

Bah. Deep inside, I know my uncle doesn't like me. But wait, this isn't another of those emotional "(insert name) hates me" statements after a conflict. We don't really talk to each other at home, and even in church, while he looks out for other people and warmly shakes their hands or greets them, that just doesn't happen between the both of us. Sometimes I try to make eye contact and acknowledge his presence, but his eyes always don't seem to meet mine. I can read people quite well and I'm quite certain that I'm right on this one.

I guess it's all because because I'm a bit of a rebel. I'll go against something if I don't believe it's right. Like how I didn't follow the 12am curfew they set for me because I thought it was absurd. Can you even believe they set a sleeping curfew for me? Of course I didn't follow that either.

To be honest, I'm wondering what's going to happen when there starts to be some unhappiness with his leadership or conflicts in the church. (In case you don't know, my uncle's a pastor and took over from my parents when they left for the States.) Now I'm not cursing my uncle, the church or anything, but as long as you're a leader, it doesn't matter if you're leading a church, a multi-billion dollar company or a football team. You can't please everyone and these issues are bound to arise. People will even try to kick you out of your leadership position. Sad to say, this happens even in churches and I have seen it happen before.

In fact, the last time my uncle handled a conflict in his church, it didn't turn out too well. I know because on the long drive from San Jose to San Diego, my parents and my uncle and aunt were talking about it. What I remember distinctly was that they were talking about how he should have stood up and defended himself when a board member was saying something about him that wasn't true. I wasn't eavesdropping though, they knew I was awake (my brother and cousin were asleep) and listening all along. Besides we were all in a van, where else could I go? Haha.

So what's my whole point in writing all this? I don't know. I guess I just got pissed off and wrote whatever came to mind.
I have to add a few more things though. Please don't start judging Christians or Christianity based on what I've written here today.

First off all, what I've written isn't complete. I never stated how certain events started or ended and I've left out a lot of details as well. Secondly, at times, I'm not directly involved. However, I heard everything directly from the people involved so what I've written is not mere hearsay. Lastly, everything written here is from my point of view. To start making assumptions based on only 1 perspective would be extremely unwise.

So once again, please don't start judging Christians or Christianity based on what I've written today.

On another note, Christmas is in 4 days! The Christmas spirit here is so dead though.


Wikipedia Topic Of The Day: Pyrokinesis

Puff Puff

I had just gotten on the MRT on the way to work today when I heard a little boy's voice say in Mandarin:


"People who smoke are stupid."


I turned and saw him seated on his mother's lap. He continued:


"People who smoke are bad."


Then his mother smiled and patted his head in approval.

I shook my head when I heard that. Come on. If you want to teach your child not to smoke, don't put such false statements into his head. You're only teaching him to discrimate against smokers. Firstly, are all people who smoke stupid?

I've got friends who smoke (like everybody else) and in no way are they stupid or lacking in intelligence at all. A friend of mine reasoned, "Either way, by the age of 40 you're going to get some disease or some other cancer, so might as well smoke now and enjoy."

Of course I don't diagree with that statement, but my point is that it definitely doesn't show a lack of intelligence.

Secondly smoking doesn't automatically make you a bad person. While smoking is normally associated with people who are bad, not all people who do it are like that. I have to admit though, that when I was younger had I had that mentality. It wasn't that my parents told me that people who smoke are bad, they just told me that smoking is bad. So then I made the association that since smoking is bad, people who smoke must be bad because only bad people do bad things.

But as I grew up and some of my friends picked up smoking, I came to realise that smoking didn't change them or make them bad at all. In fact, cigarette breaks become times of bonding between friends, something my friend in NS told me and I saw for myself while working as a banquet waiter. I even joined in at times. (Not smoking of course, just sitting and chatting around.)



"No one wants to be my friend because I smoke."


So parents, please don't teach your children to discriminate against smokers. If you think of it, such reasoning used in statements like that are the same ones used by racists.


Wikipedia Topic Of The Day: Nicotine

After An Aeon

Yes. You're not seeing things. After an aeon, this blog finally has a new entry.

Actually I've been wanting to blog for the longest time but whenever I sat down in front of the computer, I either became to lazy to blog or got sidetracked doing something else. Perhaps the lazy part was due to work.

I haven't really revealed much about my work and I always try not too, but there's no point talking about work if everyone doesn't even know what I do. So here's a clue as to my occupation. I'm in the retail industry.

It's not really what I want to do, but it'll do for now. I'll just take it and see how it goes. An aspect of it that I like however, is the part that you can meet lots of different people each day and it's more a "people person" kind of job.

Now that I'm back blogging, I wish I could write more but I have to get ready for work now. Dang it.


Wikipedia Topic Of The Day: John Titor