To my non-existent son.

Let there be fireworks.

                

Hey Thales, it’s almost 2012, just a few hours away and that’s it, 2011 has came to the end of the line and has got to go.

Well, 2011 has been an interesting year for me, I’ve gain and lost so much that I cannot remember any instant clearly. All I know is, we must wake up everyday smiling, facing the day or the rest of the year with everything you’ve got.

I’ve decided to do something I’ve never done before. Pen (or type) down my 2012 Resolutions. I’ve always said that I want to do things, or I want things done, but never had I wrote it down, thus the lack of commitment.

Dimir Pot’s 2012 Resolutions.

1) Cut down the swearing, dammit!

• I am not an extreme potty mouth, whereby ever sentence consists of a swear word, but it is something I do way too often. Sometimes, swearing is necessary, but I know that I am kinda over doing it. (I don’t swear here because it isn’t good influence.)

2) View everyone equally, give everyone a chance to perform.

• I tend to have a slight superiority complex when it comes to meeting certain people. I would predict what they would do before they even have the chance to react. This is something I do not voice out in the open, but it’s something that goes on actively in my head. This has to stop completely.

3) Do my best for whatever I am given.

• Within 2~3weeks, my career path would be decided. There is only one factor affecting it now, and it’s not something I have control of. I’ll leave it to the me that went through the ordeal in the past and embrace the result as it comes. I always believe that, as long as I’ve done my best. I can live my live with no regrets. More on my career later, as it unfolds.

4) Give credit where credit is due.

• I’ve only realise the importance of this recently. And by doing so, things tend to go better. People tend to treat you nicer, they appreciate you more as you appreciate them more. A simple thank you, a gentle nod or a few pats on the back would mean more to them then you can imagine.

5) Continue to be awesome.

• Everyone is unique in their own way, and no one can be more awesome than you, yourself. Be yourself and that’s all you ever have to do.

This are a few things I can think of now, I believe that we can always add to our resolutions as we go along.

So, what is your resolutions?

My defining moment in the Army.

    

Well Thales, in the end, I wrote a back up essay. 500 words, no more, no less; In case the half picture wasn’t accepted. So here it goes, the actual essay.

“Master this gun, and you will master life.”
This phrase has been etched into my mind since the very day 1WO Naga handed me my rifle.
“Tomorrow I’ll come to you and you must tell me about one of the seven core values in the booklet.” And he whacks me on my shoulder; He never really remembered to ask any of us for any of the core values though. But it seemed that the whack he gave me, gave me a pulse, a pulse that is fulled with experience, one that is gained over years and years of training. He knew what he was saying. His first phrase anyway.

Since then, I’ve always taken my SAR-21 seriously. I’ve even went to the point and named it Ravyn. Well, of course I didn’t do that. But I certainly did talk to it as if “she” would understand what I said. I talked to “her” the night before our live range.
“I know we’ll be a great team, never miss, make me proud.”
My buddy looked at me and I could tell from the look on his face that he thought that I was crazy; Who knows, maybe I really am. But “she” kept her promise, she didn’t miss. At the end of the day shoot, we were doing great, 16/16. Sure, I’d miss 2 shots during the night shoot, but that wasn’t her fault. Because of the need to get company best shot, pride got the best of me. I had an I.A on my very last shot. It’s almost as if she was telling me that I need to cool my head, and that winning isn’t everything. It’s only then I realised that even with that last I.A I got myself my marksmenship. All the disappointment were washed away in an instant.

Time after time, my rifle reminded me about life. If you do not guard your rifle properly, punishments would be given. The same goes to life, if we do not guard what is dear to us, we would lose them, and the sense of losing someone or something dear is the worst punishment anyone can receive, I believe it would almost be torturous to our souls. I could go on and on about how getting this rifle would relate to things that may or may not happen in life.

But one thing I know for sure would be that I’ve changed a lot since I first got that gun. It may have been passed down from person to person, from batch to batch. But somehow I can feel the greater meaning behind holding “her” in my hands. I am sure that to each person before me, they would have a story to tell about this gun. But in the end, everyone, whether they realise it or not, would gain the discipline needed, the patients it teaches and most importantly, the principles of what it means to be a soldier, a real man.

I wouldn’t ask for anything more.

S4210

Blame it on the goose!

                                                     

Hey Thales! It’s Christmas Time! Jingle balls, jingle balls. Oh wait, is it suppose to be balls or bells? Meh, doesn’t matter.

Santa may be out this time of the year, giving out presents and granting wishes. But wait! You didn’t get the .44 Magnum you wished for! Clearly you’ve written the address to the North Pole correctly; You’ve checked it like 4times! So what happened?!

Wishes, everyone has them. The poor wishes for more money to spend their time with, and the rich wishes for more time to spend their money with. Everyone wishes for different things, but why is it that wishes come through for some, but not for others?

Well, here’s a simple answer. Because those who get their wishes granted, deserves them. They’ve actually worked hard for it, put in extra hours and taking every minor step needed to make their wish come through. Wishes do not simply take a shape or form and simply presents itself in front of you. It takes more than praying or writing it down on a piece of paper and sending it to the North Pole.

You’ve have to spend hour after hour working at it, with no promise that your wish would come through, but step by step you’ll get more confident, and with no regrets you would finally get the result you have poured your heart into; Whatever the result may be, you’ll feel contented, because you know you’ve done your best. And that my son, would be a wish coming through, at it’s best.

Work hard, push on, one day you’ll get there; One day, you’ll be great.

Happy Birthday Dad!

                    

Happy 48th Birthday Dad!

By the time you are reading this, you would’ve seen the note I asked mom to pass you. And I am serving my country, fighting off thieving wild boars.

It is a shame that I wouldn’t get to be there when you blow out the candles for your cake or to see your face when you read this. I am sorry that I didn’t buy you anything for your present.

But today, my gift to you would be My Growth. Yeah, it sounds stupid but I think it’s an important thing every parent would want from their children, and that would be their Growth.

You may not be around much, because you are always working hard overseas, doing the best you can. You may have missed out many moments of me and Derek’s growth.

This is what I can offer you, my thoughts, my imaginations and, I guess whatever maturity this blog brings (Wait, does it even have that? Hahaha). Just give this site a quick read whenever you are bored or need to take a break of work. I’ll have to say that it isnt perfect, and that’s what makes it great. I hope I am the man you raised me to be.

Also that, with age, comes even more wisdom. You can never get too wise can you? And that everything goes well, regarding your work. You can never be too careful too!

With lots of Love,

Your son, Dimir Pot.

P.S. Hope you enjoy this blog, and the random stuff I write to my “non-existent son”. Start from the last page, last post to make sense of things.

What would happen if pinocchio said “my nose will grow”?

                                  

Hey Thales, how do you like another bed time story? What? You want to hear the one about the Unicorn that cried “Dragon!”?

Do you believe in fairy tales? Well, I don’t. I believe that in reality, “happily ever after” is just something we chase, something we yearn for, but not something everyone can attain. And no, it’s not because your dad is an emo. It’s because, I do not believe that there will ever be a definite conclusion to life. Well yeah, we would all die one day, but that aside, life wouldn’t just stop at a certain point; The emotion that you are carrying at that time wouldn’t last forever. There would always be love lost and found, happiness shared and sadness creeping around.

For younger kids, fairy tales are there to feed and build up the imagination, which is important, but it kinda, also, restricts how we think, how we want things to end up. In most fairy tales, the protagonist would always have to go through some hardship, and if they manage to overcome that, everything in life just falls into place and they get to live happily ever after. It teaches them how the good will always trump evil, and that love will always prevail.

But as you grow up, you would slowly realize that life isn’t as easy as it seems. The good will not always outshine the bad, usually the nice guys finish last. Most of the time, love wouldn’t simply just prevail, somehow or rather, it tends to fall through. You learn that hardships cannot be overcome by mere tolerance. But it doesn’t mean that good things don’t come true; They do! They still do, just not as magical as how you might imagine it.

The illusive “happily ever after” is sort by many, but attained by, I don’t know, maybe a small handful of people?

We all seek a good life, happiness, fame, money, things that we want but may never need. These are what keeps us going, moving on, striving hard. Fairy tales compels to us, because it keeps us believing; Believing that good will one day come, believing that somewhere out there, there is someone met for us. This actually helps us get a good mindset that there will always be a better day when the sun rises again the next day.

Even though I do not believe in a “Happily ever after”; Because I believe that happiness is a mindset, happiness is a choice. You will not know how you will feel, or how things you do now would affect or lead you to your desired future.  But know this, you can always choose to be happy now.

So Thales, let me ask you this. Are you happy now? If not, why not? Because it’s all in your head.

                

 

Why am I doing this?

                                 

Hey Thales!

Have you ever found yourself deeply engrossed in something, and that you suddenly question yourself “Why am I even doing this?”
Like a moment ago, you were scooping Red’s, our husky, poop off the front yard; You looked up after cleaning for about 10 mins, with a shovel in one hand and a blue bucket in the other, and gave me a look I have never seen you make before. It’s almost like you mixed your rage and confusion into one hell of a cocktail of emotions. Priceless.

Back to the point, I am sure you questioned yourself regarding the whole point of you doing this. Well, at this very moment in time, you may not understand that I am training your little body to be ripped and tanned to just the correct colour. (The time need to finish your job is proportional to the amount of poop in the yard. And I have carefully planned Red’s diet with a required cleaning interval of 3days.) But if I were to have told you that, you wouldn’t have went and done it would you? To you, and your constant hints about how you want a set of Space Encyclopedia on your birthday, plus my consistent “We shall see” face has clearly led you to believe that, by doing what you were told to do, you would please me to the point where you would get your wish granted. But I must say, you might just be right and I gave it a thought for about 3seconds before I fell asleep last night.

You see, sometimes you do not really know why you are investing time and effort into doing something, when you can actually be doing something else entirely.
But you do it anyway, is it the need to see where it might eventually lead you? Is it for personal gains? Is it to please someone that may or may not even bother to care? Or are you doing it because you simply love to and want to? It’s entirely for you to know and decipher.
Self-motivation is a very important tool to excelling in something, anything. Find the deeper reason behind what you are doing. And if you think that it is worth it, do your best. But if in anyway you think that the whole thing is total bull$@!#, move on, have no hard feelings.

By the way, thales, you missed a spot over there.

World Arm Wrestling title belt.

               

Look Thales, who am I kidding here?

The world is perfect, it really is, but we, as human, are not even close to perfection.

There is this selfish need to win, everyone has it, losing isn’t something that we, as humans, strive for. Unless you are trying to lose that extra pound, or the alien robot stalker 9000 that is always right around the corner wherever you go.

But for the same fact that we are not perfect, we tend to disappoint ourselves more than we want to. Sure, we have a good understanding on how we can deal with a loss, but it doesn’t mean that we are ready to lose. Nope, we plan to win, and we have a backup plan in case we lose, that’s is to prepare yourself for the worst, if you don’t win; But you want to win, we all do. The thought of the perfect ending never fails to entice us to make winning the only important thing at any point in time.

It is said that “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the process that matters.”. Yeah, the process matters, because you plan to win, your process matters because it’s the process of getting to the finish line first, to paint the most beautiful picture, the last ounce of strength channeled into your arm to win the World Arm Wrestling title belt that has a spinning “WAW” in the center. If that’s the case, it’s the winning that matters; If not, why would there be a process to begin with?

Winning matters, but as much as it does, we must learn how to lose, and know when to give up. Knowing how to lose is easy, you just don’t win, and there, instant achievement of your goal. But it ain’t that simple, it’s what happens and how you handle a lost. But, more about that the next time.

What I want to talk to you about today, is knowing when to give up. To realize a losing battle, the courage to turn and walk away.

“Chicken!”

Might be the word you hear while you gallantly turn and walk away. But there is no shame in that, it’s better to know when to back out, then fight a losing better, and end up hurting your even more than you have to.

Know your limits, know where you stand, know what you want. Having confidence isn’t all about doing the extreme, it’s also how confident you are with doing the things you do. Yeah sure, I’ve told you before that everyone should take that leap of faith, but know when to stop, know when you need to pull the cord to release your parachute! An aimless dive would lead to obvious pain and disappointment.

Thales, just promise me this; Be sure that you have tried your best, gave it your all, before you turn your back and slam the door, okay, maybe, do not slam the door, leave with some grace, close the door.

You are not alone.

                                      

Hey Thales,

I suddenly feel that I’ve been missing out a lot. To you, this may just be a scroll away from the previous post, but it’s been quite awhile since I last “talked” to you.

Weirdly, with the lack of things to do with my free time, small and simple things seems to manifest itself. With the extra memory space that freed up, I realize that I tend to stress myself out. I seriously hope that doesn’t happen to you.

We’ll I am sure that by now, you have made lots of great friends, cried a little, smiled a whole lot, good times nonetheless. But there will always be a time along the line that makes you feel left out somehow. Thoughts like “Why wasn’t I asked?”, “Why am I trapped her at home, while Hanks and the gang are out looking for trolls?”, “Am I adopted?”.

I cannot answer the first 2 for you, but I am pretty sure the answer is “No” to your last question.

It’s never easy, life never is. There will always be times where you will feel alone, the feeling of being left out would sometimes succumb you. But there will always be a reason to that, from being simply forgotten at that point in time, or you’ve done something explicitly wrong that pissed everyone around you off.

Son, that’s when you have to realize that you are only looking at what is directly in-front of you, your immediate problem. Take a step back and get an overview on what’s happening and what’s to come. Plus, it’s not like you only have a handful friends that you can rely on. I am sure there are plenty out there that you can talk to, hang out with and build mega-awesome sandcastles together. You just have to look for them, find the right set of people at the right time.

If all else fails, you can come talk to me. I am sure I can set aside some time for you.

Remember, it isn’t the end of the world if you ever have to go out alone or end up alone. You are just exploring, being independent or best of all, both.

Yahnoosh!

                     

It’s been awhile Thales.

I felt the urgency to come back for a short post. 

Remember the time you fought with Yahnoosh the Indian kid at the playground? I bet you do. The scars you’ve gotten from that single most epic moment the slides of the playground has ever seen, got you 4 stitches. At least you got him good, I heard he needed like 73.92 stitches. 

Okay, back to the important stuff. You two have been playground buddies for over a year now. His parents and I even had an agreement that we would let you two out of the house and down at the playground at the same time every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, at 5pm sharp. 

But ever since the day he threw the spongebob bucket off the top of the playground, you’ve held a grudge against him. I knew it nearly landed in your face. But why the need to rage and punch and kick and smack and tombstone and slap each other? As a matter of fact, I actually heard you screaming at the top of your lungs “FRIENDSHIP OVER!” from the comfort of my obnoxiously spacious home office. 

Have you forgotten the time you two actually had fun? The time you smile at the smallest of things? The moment you two held hands and skipped across a field of dandelions (no homo)? 

See, 8 out of 10 times, fights between people can be settled in a rather simple manner. All it takes is one word, “Sorry”. You don’t really have to mean it, in fact, say it for the sake of saying it. Say it because you have nothing to do. Say it because you know that you will not let your pride get the better of you. Say it for all dandelions the both of you plucked and blew in the wind. Say it because you cherish everyone around you and because you know that a single word would change the tension you get when you go and play at the playground. 

Be the bigger person, apologize in the simplest way possible. You don’t even have to state the reason for that apology. Human tend to want to connect to each other, and cave in at the slightest chance if a connection can be made. What is there to lose?

Do you have the guts and are you brave enough to say it? One word is all it takes. 

Thales, I believe in you. I know that you would understand what I’m trying to tell you, this applies to all the fights you’ll ever have in your life. You might not be the person at fault, but weigh the importance of the two; The reason you had the fight in the first place and the things you will miss out after the fight.

One word is all it takes, and a smile. :)

What is Red and Green, and has the ability to stop cars?

          

Thales, take a guess at that riddle! What? What did you say? A traffic light? Deeeh! Wrong!

It’s a watermelon! Yes, just one.

Watermelons are like the best fruit ever! Containing about 6% sugar and 92% water by weight and 14% of it being vitamin C. Imagine take bite into it’s sweet red flesh in a hot summer day (which is like everyday here in Singapore). 

What are you waiting for? Go get yourself a slice of watermelon-y goodness now!