If Not, Then Why Not?

If you cannot find it, remind yourself of the reason for the search.

If you miss it, then make new plans.

The best way is often not what the crowd is urged upon.

Adding a new ingredient can often lift your game.

Things can somehow organise themselves.

I do not realise that I get away at times to better appreciate not getting away.

The best plans get chucked away by unexpectedly meeting the right person.

You encounter the new by not only taking a different route, but also at a different time.

We will not pass by again the same banks of the river of a life's journey.

It is more fruitful to heighten our own expectations of one's self, than to bother with our expectations of others.

If we are no longer useful to some, then we do not hear from them again.

Conserve our energy and joy away from those who just seek attention to and for themselves.

Silence is the most relaxing position to assume when we try to listen.

Walking away in silence is the most effective way to handle negativity.

To accept inspiration and joy ftom others is divine.  To protect ourselves from the opposite calls for our mindfulness.

Enjoying love from a pet reminds me of no need to verbalise what is pure and fortunate.

What is most precious are not things.

Realise what can be not obvious.

The mind can take us to a higher and more meaningful plane of existence.

We do not have to like and dislike things from twenty years ago, for each of us have moved on.

When we do not use it, we lose it.

We are lucky to remember, retain and cherish moments and words that nourish us from the past.

Embracing the new is as important as relishing the past.

What seems routine and ordinary can turn out to be more meaningful than so called big moments.

Indulge with individuals we have as loved in the present, for the future relegates each of us to the past.

We are what we think.

#yongkevthoughts

The Thin Lines Between

 In this age of information overload, all competing for your loyalty, belief, funding, behaviour and more, what is propaganda, selective data, truth, marketing, fact, opinion, misinformation and falsity?

At a click, there are parties out there in cyberspace who spawn messages out in such huge numbers at a speed only their wifi can channel them.  We do not know, or have met, such entities or persons who send them - and they need out be human.

On any matter these days, we are bombarded with a spectrum of views.   The first check we consciously must be aware is who is the deliverer of the message.   Does it come from the horse's mouth, a middle broker, an agent of the source, a paid distributor or a more neutral person?

How is the message worded? Does it come with a balance of articulated various views, or does it come hammering our senses with only one view?  Are shouting words or phrases used to push each of us accept the message, instead of allowing the recipient an opportunity to think independently?

Is the message condescending, or utilise oppressive humour to knock down other parties?

Is the information only focusing on selective matters and show strong indications of cherry picking?

Can the recipient validate what is driven down the throat with other sources of information?

Does the information raise sentiment, emotion and provocation?

Does each of us consciously remind ourselves of our own biases, preferences and beliefs when processing information given to us?  I know of individuals who are so rigid in their thinking - they quickly dismiss information received from the other side, or deeply have suspicions of any such information.

Do we remain mindful of the context in which a message, video clip or weblink is sent to us?  Are messengers really wanting something from us, or consistently trying to influence our mindset?

I am taught in school that fact requires solid evidence to support its validity.  Opinions are so easy to spot - millions of opinions are sprouting like plankton in high season on social media.  Propaganda is also obvious - or it can be subtle, especially if they are expressed by authority in society.

Misinformation can involve so called experts, academics and regulatory authorities.  Selective data and evidence can be cleverly structured to convince individuals and the masses.  Many an occasion we are told what is good or bad, when reality is not so clearcut and can vary.

What is truth depends on perception, cultural upbringing and past experience.  So I learnt that truth need not be factual, but facts are true.  When facts are not accepted, the recipient has had other versions of what is truth in the mind, conviction and context.  I may be sold to a falsity which I have been taught to be true.

The blurring of things can become so significant when we confront matters of personal health, belief and politics.  We can be overtly or covertly pressured to conform when we are active members of a specific community in every sense.

How do I handle it when what  I have always held to be truth turns out to be against the facts?  How do I feel when selected facts given to me are discovered to be cherry picked to support an otherwise non factual menu?

We remain vulnerable when we are given pieces of information that stir our emotions, pushing us further to accept falsity as truth.   Fragments of truth can be found with sharpnels of falsity in a misleading brew.  The roar of mass approval can cascade us into this situation when we had hardly a chance to independently think for ourselves.

In shaking the chaff from the grain, I realise most of us take comfort in what we consciously or subconciously want to hear. That is critical to advisors and speech writers working for powerful politicians.

I get most gullible when I receive information from those I have trusted all my life.  Beware of those who then transform beyond their original perceived selves as they get caught up in commercial greed, huge funding and access to power.

On relatively small matters, it can be a fun game to discern from information that looks kosher but is really dodgy.

On more significant matters, increasingly there is no point to argue or challenge each other on who is "right" or"wrong".

The reality can be that we have all been fooled, manipulated like puppets on a string.

#yongkevthoughts

In the Course of Routine in a City Suburb

The air definitely feels more than a tad nippy.

The clouds overhead suggest of arriving snow fall, not within the immediate neighbourhood, but more likely kilometres away to the south, where this year's skiing season is due to begin.

Passerbys adorn that extra layer of cosiness, but more because there is a bite of chill from the single digit temperature overnight.

I head straight to the little bakery inside an arcade.  I know precisely what I want.  Not for eating on the spot but like a squirrel in a forest, I am saving the baked delights for another day, the culinary delights with flakiness, bite and fillings.

Yes, there they are behind the glass display.  However, there are several eager people already queqing when I arrive. Indoors, I feel warm enough to wait.

There are three compact shopping centres next to each other.   I easily navigate to another building.  Having not been back there for several months, I am eager to explore, to see if familiarity is still there, but also ready to realise if change has come about.

My subtle expectations of change are right on my path and in my eyes.  The once bustling cafe at a corner is gone.   An ethnic food eatery has its doors closed, an obviously not a good sign.  The bigger restaurant across the aisle has changed names.  Centre tenants come and go.  So it is a delight to see people still take the escalator to a long standing brunch and lunch place on the second floor.

I explore the spaces between rhe shelves in a still existing supermart on the ground floor.

The meet up for lunch with friends is at a recently renovated venue along the main road, but it is still two hours away for that catch up.

So I continue wandering into another building.   I check the custard apples at a fresh produce hall but today they are highly priced.  I relax looking at Japanese made packaging and kitchen items at a low price Daiso joint.  I bought the smallest kitchen filter sink that I needee to replace for years, a break to a lingering procastination.

Then I stumble into a cooked fresh food stall offering takeaways at a good deal of a price.  I cannot resist an exotic dish that I do not know how to make.  So I fall for the choice of pan fried cumin lamb, perhaps so appropriate to partake in this cool season.  There is also a queue lining up for the lamb and chicken.

I proceed to the main street.  It is now chock a block with vehicular traffic, underlying the hustle and bustle of the trading and economic activity there.  I look for a huge and well stocked kitchen ware outlet, but its doors remain well shut today.  I wonder why.  I quietly pray it is not closed, for I got a well made wok there a few years ago.

I pop into a place selling porcelain and furniture from the Orient.  I check out another family run bakery, spot their versions of small chicken pies and pork rolls. I wonder if their version makes the mark.  I get takeaway, no harm trying them once for a start.

The sun comes up, the breeze outside tones down.

I park myself at a contemporary bakery, yes another one, as the restaurant I am heading to for lunch with friends is just across the busy road.  All the walking around so far has energised my body more - and now I need a drink.

Enough hot coffee is my thought.  So I get a bit adventurous and try a new fangled concoction.  It is a cold brew but laced with a fruity flavour.  What am I thinking of, it is still a cold day.

My trying that contemporary brew turns out all right.  It has hydrated me at the right spot and moment.

I cross the road and line up in front of the door to the lunch time venue. The place is full, buzzing with hungry appetites, eager faces and endless chatter.

A middle edged lady rudely speaks to the elderly gentleman waiting at the door, telling him in an over the top voice that he is blocking the way.  The day had been pleasant for me since dawn - and even if such uncalled behaviour was not addressed to me, it broke the magical idyll when a day has been perfect.

#yongkevthoughts