Friday, October 15, 2004

mistake after mistake... that's what i do. one wrong step after another, always. what must i do to make it right? =( * yesterday was leap carnival day one. and today day two and openhouse. started off with an eye-care talk, more like a talk on promoting paragon crt. then after that had two activities lined up... gunbound and obstacle course... the waiting time for gunbound was extremely long, and so... wait wait, sign up account, and finally our turn came. wee kiat didn't come so our team was left with 3 people... we didn't make it to the next round... but kaiwei, alvin and 'fruitips' did... woohoohoo. they even made it to the final round! but lost to pegasus... by the time we reached the track for the obstacle course, csc was cleaning up alr. =( saw marianne and marilyn today at the openhouse. karaoke competition: ij peeps were wondering why it was a CHINESE SINGING competition and not an english one... oh and yiting came down too! =) hug hug hug! received sim wan's msg during the karaoke competition... how were your papers girl? all As right? hee. =D * A Problem And A Solution Many hundreds of years ago in a small Italian town, a merchant had the misfortune of owing a large sum of money to the moneylender. The moneylender, who was old and ugly, fancied the merchant's beautiful daughter so he proposed a bargain. He said he would forgo the merchant' debt if he could marry the merchant's daughter. Both the merchant and his daughter were horrified by the proposal. The cunning money lender suggested that they let providence decide the matter. The moneylender told them that he would put a black pebble and a white pebble into an empty bag. The girl would then have to pick one pebble from the bag. If she picked the black pebble, she would become the moneylender's wife and her father's debt would be forgiven. If she picked the white pebble she need not marry him and her father's debt would still be forgiven. But if she refused to pick a pebble, her father would be thrown into jail. They were standing on a pebble strewn path in the merchant's garden. As they talked, the moneylender bent over to pick up two pebbles. As he picked them up, the sharp-eyed girl noticed that he had picked up two black pebbles and put them into the bag. He then asked the girl to pick her pebble from the bag. Now, imagine you were standing in the merchant's garden. What would you have done if you were the girl? If you had to advise her, what would you have told her? Careful analysis would produce three possibilities: 1. The girl should refuse to take a pebble. 2. The girl should show that there were two black pebbles in the bag and expose the moneylender as a cheat. 3. The girl should pick a black pebble and sacrifice herself in order to save her father from his debt and imprisonment. Take a moment to ponder over the story. The above story is used with the hope that it will make us appreciate the difference between lateral and logical thinking. The girl's dilemma cannot be solved with traditional logical thinking. Think of the consequences if she chooses the logical answers. What would you recommend the girl do? The girl put her hand into the moneybag and drew out a pebble. Without looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall onto the pebble-strewn path where it immediately became lost among all the other pebbles. "Oh, how clumsy of me," she said. "But never mind, if you look into the bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked." Since the remaining pebble is black, it must be assumed that she had picked the white one. And since the moneylender dared not admit his dishonesty, the girl changed what seemed an impossible situation into an extremely advantageous one. MORAL OF THE STORY: Most complex problems do have a solution, sometimes we have to think about them in a different way. ...but what is my solution? * take a listen to: crumbs by disagree *sounds very very very good, must check it out* ++ Big world says he wants to see the light for once, Well maybe if you try It's so sad babe don't look so sad I've got it wrong today And if she doesn't go your way look up to blue skies and say hey It's ok ++

|soph`x|
10/15/2004 05:02:00 PM