Tag: Life
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The Art of Turning Gangsters Into Friends
I’d never known my grandfather. He passed away after shortly after I was born. Nonetheless, he lives on in my father’s stories. One of them was about how he befriended a group of gangsters. In the early 1980s, the Cheah family operated two shophouses in Singapore, specialising in curtains and interior design. My grandfather ran…
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The Leper and the Knockoff Knife
“Five hundred baht,” the leper announced. Gun stores lined the street across the road from the Old Siam Plaza. Revolvers, pistols, rifles and shotguns peeked out behind reflective sun-bleached glass. Glock, Kel-Tec, Smith & Wesson, Colt, CZ, Remington, Beretta, a smorgasbord of firearms old and new tempted the discerning (and licensed) customer. But not everyone…
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Training for Life
When starting out in the martial arts, it’s easy to get caught up in the intricacies of technique. How to bend and break someone a dozen ways, a hundred ways to throw and submit an opponent, a thousand methods of defending and countering any and all attacks. In the training hall, a student narrowing his…
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Memoirs of A Casual Gamer
When I was younger, video games were a significant part of my life. But when I became a man, I put away childish things. As a gamer, I consider myself fortunate to have been born in the late 80s. Having skipped the growing pains of the video game industry, I entered the world of gaming…
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Cham: The Dance of Masks
Yesterday, I witnessed a pair of traditional Cham dances at the Esplanade. Performed by oracular monks from Mangtro Monastery in Ladakh, India, the ritual dances were blessings and meditations, bringing peace to and removing obstacles from the audience and the island of Singapore. The ritual began with the preparation of the stupa. Representing the Buddha…
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Directions for 2018
I don’t like writing New Year resolutions. At least, I won’t speak of them. Announcing your goals, resolutions, or plans tricks your brain into feeling that you’ve already accomplished your aims, thus reducing your drive to accomplish your goals. Instead, I’m going to discuss my directions for 2018. Both in my personal capacity as an…