Terrorism has finally hit home for me, when Hwei Yen was killed on Friday. I didn’t know her well, having met her only twice – once at Mike’s place, and the second at their wedding dinner. But I’d worked with Mike in church for a couple of years, and I knew that she had to be someone special because he was someone special himself. I remember being extremely envious at how much in love they were, how well they were doing in life, and how much they represented the kind of dream life I often wished I could have.

Which is why her death, and all the violence that surrounded it is so absolutely shocking to me.

I remember how I laughed it off when my friend told me about it on Thursday night, not fully appreciating the magnitude of the situation. The headlines on Friday made me change my mind, and even though the papers reported that she was fine, it prompted me to quickly send word out to mutual friends, encouraging them to pray. That was at noon.

Her body was found three hours later. She was 28.

I find myself asking the questions ‘Where is God? Why did He allow this?’ even though I know the answers. But knowing the answers doesn’t make me feel any less confused and stunned. What I do know is this – if I have ever been ignorant of the kind of evil that people are capable of, if I have ever downplayed the power the devil has over the lives of human beings, that ended with Hwei Yen’s death.

For if someone so innocent, so full of love and life could die so suddenly at the hands of others, then we, as Christians and as Catholics need to be all the more ready to fight this new face of evil, with more prayers, more hope and more love.

I believe Singapore has been truly blessed to have had many great men serving as our Republic’s President. For as long as I can remember, there has not been one President who has abused his position or his opportunity to be a role model for the people.

Mr Wee Kim Wee, Mr Ong Teng Cheong and Mr S R Nathan have all been a true inspiration to Singapore’s population over the past two decades and more.

Unfortunately, Mr Nathan’s two terms as President has been marred by the fact that there were supposedly no suitable candidates to run against him on both the 1999 and 2005 Presidential nominations. All the other candidates failed to maintain their credibility in the face of keen scrutiny and having their personal and professional histories investigated with a fine-toothed comb.

Well, here’s hoping that by 2011, there will be no more of that. Today, most of Singapore has been made aware of a potential candidate who is unlikely to be one endorsed by the ruling party. He has even gone so far as to leave it to the people to decide if he should even consider the heavy ‘crown’ that is the Singapore Presidency. Mr Tan Kin Lian claims that he will need a petition to have a 100,000 signatories if he is to throw his name into the hat.

Well, he has mine. Does he have yours? Sign the online petition, and support Mr Tan Kin Lian for President in 2011. The links are as follows:

Online Petition: Mr Tan Kin Lian for Public Office – Elected President and/or Member of Parliament
Mr Tan Kin Lian’s blog

My PC’s motherboard died last night. It was an unexpected passing, even though she had shown certain signs of problems in the past week. Those problems never recurred, however, so I didn’t pay too much attention. But last night, she decided it was time to go, and without further warning, died. She was barely over a year old.

The irony, of course, is that that the reason why we got this new PC was because her predecessor had motherboard problems as well. In fact, the previous PC had her motherboard replaced not once but twice in its life, only for the harddisk to be the final nail in its coffin a year later.

The bigger irony? They were both Acer PCs. Now, I don’t know what the general consensus is on Acer, but judging from the experiences my family has had with the past two, I wouldn’t bet on their motherboards lasting after one year in general.

And the biggest irony, the mother of all ironies, is that I had insisted that buying Courts’ exorbitantly priced extended warranty was a waste of money. Now that this has happened barely months after the Acer warranty has expired, I’ve been made the fool.

Can anyone come to my place and see if the RAM and other components are salvageble, and then help me put together a new one? I’d hate to have to buy a whole new machine when this one still worked just a day ago.

When I first saw the ACJC uniform plastered on the front page of MyPaper (not the cover, thank goodness) I thought to myself, this can’t be good. Surprise, surprise, it wasn’t good.

One thing that must be said to each new generation of young people: wake up your bloody idea! The golden rule in surviving your youth is: “Do what you want, just don’t get caught!” I blame Kids Central for focusing on the first half of the phrase and ignoring the latter, but that’s another story.

Birthday raggings in ACJC are commonplace. They’ve been done for years. But they have never, ever been done in public, at least, not while I was there. Furthermore, it was always the guys that resorted to the childish acts, the ladies had their own subtler method. I remember the raggings fondly: the tau-poks that the Basses were famous for, even the time when we sent the girls out of class and liberally combined raffia, powder and the support pole in the middle of our container classroom for one special birthday celebration.

But this, this is ridiculous.

Firstly, this proliferation of cameraphones is turning our youth into a generation that has no concept of personal space or the right to privacy. They fashion themselves as amateur directors and happily upload their ill-gotten videos to show the world. The world, mind you.

Secondly, the total lack of respect for the dignity and pride of another human being is unnerving. It’s one thing to tie a thick-skinned guy to a pole INSIDE a container classroom AWAY from the public eye. It’s another to tie a petite girl to both supports of a pull-up bar in the MIDDLE of the school, in FULL VIEW of everyone who bothers to look outside. The fact that they were caught and questioned by a staff member (while the video was still recording, no less) just goes to show how public it became.

The irony, of course, is that the way the media has leapt all over this story has probably caused more damage to the girl in question (and, to a lesser extent, everyone else involved) than the actual act. She has since taken down her blog and is obviously going to feel a little self-concious if she goes out this weekend.

What I am grateful for, amidst all this, is how Principal Kelvyna Chan, herself an Old Girl of the school, has diffused the situation with much grace. The students should be glad this incident didn’t happen when the former principal was around – she might have embarrassed ACJC further.

Afterthought: Then again, this would never have happened while Mr Lenn was around…