That is, I'd let my hair grow for the last six months or so.

Had I remain in Scotland (was there with my wife and son, some fifteen years earlier -- that is, back in the early Nineties), then I would have continued to let my hair grow even longer still, right down to my shoulders ... the weather was that nice to wear long hair. But it is simply too uncomfortable to keep long hair in hot and humid Singapore -- although long hair works well at the workplace where the aircon can get real cold!

Of course, being able to keep long hair is a sort of testament to FREEDOM -- no longer do I find myself being told to cut my hair short, either by my parents, school teachers, work colleagues, relatives, the stupid government, etc., etc.

You may be too young to remember -- or you may not have been born yet -- about the Sixties and Seventies, when long hair was OFFICIALLY frowned upon in Singapore ... Hey, even the National Library put up posters that said that those with long hair will be "served last".

I mean, how stupid can things get?

After decades of stringent controls and enforcement over the citizenry -- right even into something as personal as hair length ... and today, in the early years of the 21st Century, we have woken up to the fact that we are not that creative and innovative ...

Hey, even CREATIVE TECHNOLOGY was turned down from listing in the second board in Singapore (SESDAQ) -- so our intrepid CEO from CREATIVE, MR SIM WONG HOO, went over to the USA to list CREATIVE LABS in their second board, NASDAQ.

And, after the NASDAQ listing by CREATIVE LABS ... the rest, as they say, is (multimedia) history! That is, without the development of PC sound systems such as CREATIVE TECHNOLOGY's Sound Blaster Cards to replace the tepid PC speaker, it is doubtful that subsequent PC developments into CD-ROM/CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, gaming, mp3, mpeg, Shockwave, Java, etc., would have got anywhere as fast as they did.

What a tragi-comedy!

After the CREATIVE TECHNOLOGY's being-turned-down-from-listing-in-Singapore's-SESDAQ debacle, the SESDAQ was successful in convincing another local Singapore "multimedia/computer" company, AZTECH MULTIMEDIA, to list in SESDAQ first, when that company wanted to follow CREATIVE TECHNOLOGY's brave footsteps in listing in NASDAQ instead of in SESDAQ. Perhaps, AZTECH didn't want to be turned down by SESDAQ, the way CREATIVE TECHNOLOGY was. (AZTECH was the company that brought out the GALAXY Sound Cards to compete with CREATIVE TECHNOLOGY's Sound Blaster Cards, back in the Days of Computer Antiquity!)

Anyway ... for a while back then, it looked like the "authorities" had learnt the lessons from CREATIVITY leaving our shores and enriching other countries first!

Or did they?

Hmmm ... the lament seems to continue about Singapore not having a large enough pool of talented Singaporeans, so that we need yet another OFFICIAL POLICY -- this time, it's to bring in "foreign talent" ...

Perhaps, we do have a lack of local talent, or perhaps we don't ... are these local talent no longer "local", having gone overseas to what they perceived to be freer (and not just greener) pastures? Or, are these local talent playing the "siam" (take cover) game? If yes, what the heck for? If not hiding, where are they -- have they "quitted" Singapore ... to become some other country's (e.g., USA's) "foreign talent" (another aspect of divine justice)?

So, don't interfere with something as personal (and as apparently trivial) as length of hair ... it is a very overt declaration of INDEPENDENCE, being willing to "stand out from the crowd" and "think outside the box", to be FREE to "express oneself" and to "do your thing" without sanction or interference from the powers that be!

Ignore hair length at your peril!
(I am NOT kidding!)

This is my first entry into this blog, so I am just going to write something about the last three days ... well, actually nothing much has happened to my life (which is as simple as I know how to make it -- give credit to my Zen teachers, haha!) ...

Well, here goes nothing ...

1. Bought a brand new "MTV/MP4/REC/FM" player that has 1G flash memory and is about the size of a credit card or matchbox ...
       It's lighter than a matchbox that's full of matches but slightly heavier than a credit card. Brand is something called SOYU, but these players are now so commoditised (like the PC) that I don't want to pay "top dollars" just to buy a so-called branded item ...
       This way, I get to test several makes of players with the money that would have gone into just one "branded" player. Price of the SOYU player: S$210.
       Still testing it to see how well it really plays audio and video files, as well as graphic stills (images) and text files, and how long the built-in lithium battery can hold charge. Not really that interested in the FM radio feature.
   
   
   

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2. Bought another three CD's of praise/worship songs, for a special price of S$10 ... Titles: Praise 'n' Worship Volume 2; Trust in You; Contemporary Christian Hits.
       Two or three weeks ago, I had already bought Praise 'n' Worship Volume 1, for S$4; also, a Living Faith Church friend (LILIAN) had helped me to secure an excellent CD entitled "Top 25 Praise Songs", for just under S$25.
       Converting/ripping these CDs into MP3 for my new MP3 players ... that's purposely plural because a week or so before buying that SOYU MP4 player, I bought a 256MB MP3 player, brand LE -- for which I have converted some praise/worship songs into MP3; I have passed the LE player to my wife for her to enjoy the songs.
       Later, I will pass the SOYU player to my wife for her to watch MATTHEW in four parts (not in mpg format, which is too large; but will convert mpg's into wmv's). That's the plan, anyway.

All in, it has been a good 3 days.

'Nuff said!