It is true that the Eng Aun ten years ago is not the same as the Eng Aun today. Perhaps it is for the better, but there is plenty of evidence that it is for the worse. Or perhaps not in terms of better or worse, but in degree of conforming with the norms.
Here are some evidence. After completed their major exams or received university admission results, what will most bloggers do? They will blog about it. I guess this is almost without exception. What did I do? Here’s a sample of my blog titles:
November 2005 [during/after STPM]
April 2006 [NUS admission results announced]
July 2006 ['moving' to Singapore - or 'coming' or 'going' depending on your point of reference]
August 2006 [classes start]
In fact if you go on and inspect all the blog posts, almost none concerns things people would consider ‘personal’, such as career, study, stresses, etc. Having read a number of my friends’ blogs, I am indeed the (only?) one not conforming to the norm.
What could explain such abnormality? Naturally, it is a hard question for me; I would presumably not be in my current state if I can answer that. But I do have a somewhat simple model to explain this. There are three important things in this model: My world view, my prejudices and my personal history. I know it’s going to get unreadable again but do give me a chance…
My world view is radical. I tend to divide events or activities into two categories, namely ‘mortal human affairs‘ and ‘matters of great importance’. Mortal human affairs are those things that (appear to) have no lasting value, or do not contribute to lasting value; eating, having fun and gossiping are such examples. In contrast, ‘matters of great importance’ are those things that prove to be of lasting value. Principles or understanding of Nature, for example.
After some reflection, it appears to me that, although I tend to deny this fact, my upbringing and my exposure to a certain categories of books (and perhaps people) are instrumental in the shaping of my such world view. Maybe due to the fact that our family is not that materially resourceful (a.k.a. poor 
), they tend to degrade the material side of life, while at the same time trying to let me have a sound knowledge foundation. Somehow, I managed to acquire a literati’s view that one should not be concerned with wealth and possessions, but knowledge and understanding of Nature. Being a kid, so it seems.
The implication of such a view is that I behave very differently from ‘the rest of the world’… Well, in this case, my peers. I never knew what is the best selling album of the time, or who is the Olympic medallist for such and such sports - in the latter case, my primary teacher obviously had a very hard time trying to make me memorize some of the names in preparation for the general knowledge competition – I managed to get something without memorizing names anyway… I did know the performance of AIM-54 Phoenix or the sayings of the Sixth Patriarch, though. Obviously one who dreams to be a benevolent despot of the world had to have an olive branch on one hand, and a bunch of arrows on the other
But such a vision came to a ‘tragic end’ around 2001. I’ll let you find out more. Suffice to say that I had finally been awakened from the sleep, although until now I had never left the bed -.-” But I did rationalize and share Ben Franklin’s view that economic success is a reflection and a by-product of spiritual success, and that I could comfortably accommodate both objectives.
So far things still had not gone on track. Even after the havoc wrought by the 2003 incident had not been cleared, and its effects linger on strongly. [Click 'find out more' above and scroll to the bottom; alternatively, contact me for details~]
Hmm, when will things go on track then? Or it is just a steady state that could not be reached?
