I drive my little taxi in...

I guess one of the strangely fascinating things about living in Singapore is that you meet very interesting taxi drivers. There are lots of them on the road, and they drive for sometimes very different reasons.

Some are less chatty than others. The chatty ones though, can be really chatty. To the point that not talking back to them would be absolutely rude because they have such interesting stories to tell, and tidbits to share.

Sometimes they just talk about their families. There was one who talked about his daughter's first week at work and how he was trying to meet up with her for lunch on that day. Very sweet as I recall.

Another talked about the ghostly spirits that inhabit various parts of Singapore. Stories of which I hear about rather frequently here in Singapore. Never knew the place was so 'alive' with the paranormal.

Then there was one who talked about how his customers were 'getting it on' in the back seat and what a pain it was to get the seats cleaned. I'm glad I always choose to sit in the front when I take taxis alone.

A few times I met taxi drivers either on their first day or first week on the job. You can generally tell that they're still a bit nervous and not quite used to driving strangers around in a car with a lit-up sign on top.

I was the very first customer of one of them. I could sense the pride and satisfaction he felt in getting me to where I wanted to go on the first try.

Often such drivers will also talk about what they were doing before they became taxi drivers.

A lot of just-retired guys. Fewer women in general. I've met only one. I wonder why?

One was taking it up because he wanted to provide for his family after being unemployed for a while. He had three kids to feed. He became a taxi driver just after getting his driver's license. He didn't know how the hell to get to my destination and I had to get there urgently. But that was okay. I still salute him. Good guy. Brave in many ways to be doing what he's doing.

Not all of those stories are happy though. Sometimes it's a guy who's lost everything in a previous life. Previous life, meaning the life before they became taxi drivers. Some of them seem better able to cope with such realities than others. For these guys, telling you their stories is just a way for them to reminisce the good ol' days, often with a hint of poignancy, and nothing more. Others, not so fortunate.

I met one such guy today. I wonder what happened to him, though I daren't ask him all the details at the time. He looked disheveled, and from talking to him it seemed like something really bad happened to him and the wounds had not yet healed. I noticed he still wore his wedding ring, but from talking to him I doubt his wife is with him anymore. Sad.

Someone asked me what is love. I guess to me, love is never ever allowing the person you love to feel the way the taxi man felt.

To love them for who they are, regardless of where they may have come from in life. To show kindness and compassion when needed, which is always. Above all, when they feel the world around them is starting to collapse, always be there for them. Always. Even if it may hurt to do so sometimes. It doesn't matter what you have to give up because in the end all that matters is that they're alright. As cliched as it may sound, as long as you have each other, everything else really isn't so important.

I digress.

Anyway, do talk to you taxi drivers once in a while. Most of the time, if you listen carefully enough, they really do know what they're talking about.

Thank them for bringing you home safe.

Tip them even, especially if they're nice and don't take you for a ride to bump the meter fee up. There will always be asshole drivers. But they're usually not very interesting.

Beats taking the MRT any day.

I count too many sheep...

Sometimes it does feel like I'm trying too hard, and I also have a tendency to want to have my cake and eat it too. I'm hoping not to have a repeat of China-gate. I blew it the last time, this time there's a clear opportunity but I have to be really on the ball.

Then again, do I really want to try to pursue a career with the 'bad guys' if the possibility does really arise? The money's a lot more attractive, but would I feel comfortable working for them? I am in a way already doing so in an indirect way, but for now at least I can manage to strike a balance with my work. At least to the extent that my superiors will allow me to do so.

I guess I'm thinking too far ahead when I can't even see where the next step is. I gotta learn to not put the cart before the horse. I gotta learn how to take things one step at a time.

Then again, I've always been a dreamer.

Suffocating because I'm being pulled in too many directions...

TOO MANY STAKEHOLDERS IN MY LIFE!

I CANNOT, AND WILL NOT TRY TO PLEASE EVERYONE!

IT'S MY BLOODY LIFE, GOD DAMNIT!

I SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO WHAT I WANT!

SO FUCKING HELL!!!

Opinions are like assholes...and so are the people who write them...

While it's definitely nice that alternative media sites like the Malaysian Insider provide a platform for citizen journalists to voice their views and opinions on the current state of affairs, one just has to question whether having so many people talking at the same time essentially drowns each other out and dilutes any meaningful discussion.

I don't think the average reader has the necessary attention span to sift through all these 'opinions' to 'help' them think about any particular issue more deeply. Most of these 'opinions' are poorly researched, and lack any real purpose other than to serve as a means of public intellectual masturbation for the authors. I especially dislike it that the majority of these authors like to apply 'a sense of humour' to just about anything they write, just to show off their superior intellectual capacity to laugh at even the most serious of topics. Frankly, it makes you want to bludgeon these motherfuckers and ask them to stop abusing alternative media.

Ranting about the same issue ten thousand times by an ever-growing group of attention-seeking media whores won't really serve to 'educate' the public. Only serves to show that we are in seriously deep shit on every level of society because it seems like we only care about own petty little individual egos, and not much else.