systems thinking

suddenly caught up with a lot of ppl over the last 2 days. It's really
been a while since I talked to 'old' (ie. jc era and before) friends.
My bad.



one thing begets another: conversations lead to me digging out 'old'
photos and remembering 'old' times - occasionally cringing at how weird
I looked then (my infallible ego tells me I'm infinitely better-looking
now; all who disagree shall be invited to a tea session to discuss my
impending defamation lawsuit against you) - which leads to me blogging
about conversations that lead to me digging out old photos...



anyway, in those years after jc, I have seen the world, yea even unto
the great sandy desert of Nevada, and its crowning glory, the city of
glitz and world-class IRs, Las Vegas. I have changed, as the world has
changed, and not necessarily for the better; we have both moved, as
Kishore Mahbubani puts it in the title of his new book, 'beyond the age
of innocence': we are more wary, more weary, and definitely more
war-weary.



plus, I've discovered irascibility.



looking back, I kinda miss those innocent days, when all I had to worry
about was finishing homework, mugging for exams and how weird I looked.
It was a whole lot easier to have fun then: just go along with some ppl
from the class, before/during /after lectures, to orchard or sixth
avenue to watch movie/shop/eat and talk cock. Very little advance
planning required. Nowadays, the same event requires months of
exhaustive coordination, like a NASA space shuttle launch. And like a
shuttle launch, it's probable that things'll screw up at the last
minute (although I bet NASA shuttle launches don't usually suffer from
participants not turning up).



but time moves on. In a way I suppose I should be glad that I'm not the
same person I was 4+ years ago, even though I still think that guy was
way more likable than the current version. But c'est la vie, or in
army-speak, suck thumb. We all change with time (for one thing, we get
older), and how we turn out is only partly under our control; the rest
depends on factors like environment, luck and how weird we look.



through all these years, I've been grateful for all the friends who've
stayed in touch, across time zones and continents. Thanks for all the
memories, fun and otherwise, stored away in dusty recesses of my mind,
and which, in all probability, will be returned to those crannies once
I've finished with this post, to stay there until the next time
conversations lead me to digging out old photos...