Freecycle

Do you like free stuff?

Are you ok with not-so-new stuff?

If you've answered yes to the above, let me go on and introduce you to....Freecycle!

It's basically a web-based program that brings together people who have stuff to give away and those who would like to get stuff from people who have stuff to give away.

And it is all free.

All you have to do is indicate your interest, collect it, and viola! Free stuff!

I've seen DVD players, fridges, bed frames and more on offer on Freecycle now.

And I've gotten some knitting needles, yarn and a yoga mat for free since! And tomorrow evening, I'm going to go pick up a box full of books and magazines. Yes, for free.

It's the most amazing thing on earth! I'm addicted!

Check it out now!

I now believe there is such a thing as timeless architecture.

The Rose Seidler House is one such piece of art. Built in 1949, it still looks amazingly modern from the outside.

The inside looks great too, except because it's a historic house, the furniture are somewhat retro and I'm more than dubious as to whether they actually work.

But all in all, I've been utterly amazed by how such an old construction can still be something that is so charming now.

Ben Harper, musician, Sept. 2007:

“It’s not like you have to or can do everything, but do something. Do anything other than nothing.”

How often have we thought about giving up the fight?

Maybe we have already done so.

At various stages of my professionally and personal life, I have had to fight battles. Maybe it's because of the naive belief that I can somehow change the world, combined with the childlike confidence that with God on my side, I can make this world a better place.

I want to make a difference. I want people to pay more attention to human rights issues, to the environment, to poverty, to...stuff. But more often than not, my cries fall on deaf ears and I just want to give up.

But should I? Should I just put everything aside and not do anything?

Wouldn't that make life just a little meaningless?

Besides, just because I've got a passion doesn't mean I'll actually win the race right?

As a friend once told me during my moments of "I just want to curl up into a ball and rot in a corner", and as veteran muck-raker I F Stone explained it:

The only kinds of fights worth fighting are those you are going to lose, because somebody has to fight them and lose and lose and lose until someday, somebody who believes as you do wins.

In order for somebody to win an important, major fight 100 years hence, a lot of other people have got to be willing - for the sheer fun and joy of it - to go right ahead and fight, knowing you're going to lose.

You mustn't feel like a martyr. You've got to enjoy it.

Ben Harper quote from Relevant Magazine's Ideas that changed the world.

So I'm back home after three weeks of being back home.

That statement did not make sense did it, but neither does my mind at the moment.

I've been in Singapore, the country I spent the first 19 years of my life in for the last three weeks.

I'm now in Sydney, the country I've adopted for almost seven years now.

Where exactly is home? I don't know anymore.

They say home is where the heart is. But my heart lies both in Singapore and Sydney. How do I solve that dilemma?

How can a person be completely happy in two different places for two completely different reasons? But am I actually completely happy?

I love Singapore for the close network of friends I've got there and of course, the fact that my family is there. And on a more superficial level, the food, the shopping and the ease of convenience.

But I love Sydney too. I love my friends here, and I love the lifestyle I've been able to develop for myself here. It's a lifestyle that cannot be duplicated in Singapore.

So I choose Sydney. I choose to live and work in Sydney because of what I love about it.

And yet, I miss being Singapore. But when I'm in Singapore, I miss all that Sydney is that Singapore isn't.

What do I do? What do I choose?

Am I asking for too much? Am I simply wanting to have my cake and eat it? Or am I simply getting a little too emotional?

I yearn for the time when distance no longer matters. And that's what my belief in God promises (that, and much more, of course).

I believe that one day, God will take away all this pain in my heart. Remove all the yearning for being with people I hold dear to my heart. The day when I can be in Singapore and Sydney at the same time, but yet, in a completely different context.

But that day just seems so far away...