I feel an immense sense of guilt every time I kill a cockroach. That’s because I don’t like the idea of killing another living being.
But with cockroaches, I decided a long time ago that:
- even though these buggers have been around a long, long year,
- and will continue to be around for many a long year to come,
between me and them, I’ll be damned if I let them win while I’m still alive.
Damn you, cockroaches. Damn you, he thought to himself as he imagined himself shaking his fist in a display of defiance at arthropods that were lurking around, somewhere.
Or: Why I have stopped adding people I know as friends on Facebook.
- Hey, many updates in my ‘Live Feed’!
- Hey, that’s a funny comment on someone’s status message/picture/video/etc!
- Hey, that name/face sounds/looks familiar!
- Hey, it’s a person I know/used to know!
- Hey, let’s add that person as a friend!
- Hey, perhaps I should ‘Add a personal message’ to let the person know who I am in case she/he has forgotten me!
- Hey, perhaps I should let said person know how I found her/his profile in case she/he thinks I actively went to search for her/him!
- Hey… The message looks over-explained, over-apologetic and hence, extremely creepy.
- Hey, er… Delete.
I don’t add students either, though I approve friend requests from students. But that’s another story for another time.
Sometimes, there are letters to The Straits Times’ Forum Page which leave me really riled up. Other times, there are letters like these which leave me wondering whose side the letter writer is really on:
…Dr Wong seems to suggest the PAP may have a better chance of winning SMCs when this may not be the case as younger and less experienced PAP candidates may be pitted against opposition heavyweights who have worked the ground over the years. If the number of SMCs is expanded, these less experienced PAP candidates may no longer have the ’shield’ of contesting a GRC led by a PAP heavyweight.
– Robin Chee, More single seats may disadvantage PAP
I spend more time deleting what it is I don’t want to say, as opposed to writing what it is I actually want to say.
Perhaps it’s symptomatic of age. More likely it is because I am too afraid to name the beast.
This is a painting entitled “The Nightmare” (1781) by Henry Fuseli and it depicts the condition of sleep paralysis/night terrors.
I used to suffer from this condition. I probably still have it but its occurrences have diminished somewhat since I started:
- Having (somewhat) regular sleep patterns,
- Getting (somewhat) more rest, and
- Moderating my caffeine intake.
Anyway, I just found out that someone close to me suffers from this condition, so I decided to read up about it again. This condition supposedly affects Asians and teens* more than it does other people, so I thought I’d post up some info here so that you can find out how to deal with this condition if you suffer from it too**:
Have a good rest tonight.
* Coincidentally (or not), I used to get the worst attacks during my JC years.
** I realise I suffered from it for so long because:
- Of ignorance: I thought it was ’spirits’, and the people around me weren’t inclined to discourage me from adopting that point of view, and
- It never occurred to me to do research on the conditions I was afflicted with until I was slightly older. Then again, Googling for information has become a norm, so it could also be techno-cultural evolution, I guess.
*** Oh! I think Charlotte Bronte and Roald Dahl may have made references to sleep paralysis in their stories (Wuthering Heights and a short story about a snake in a bed, respectively) too, although it seemed they might not have known about this condition at those times. I’ll need to dig up the stories again to be sure.
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