Wisdom and Folly are Meaningless

Note: For an orderly and contextual reading, please refer to the first post in the series.

Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom,
and also madness and folly.
What more can the king's successor do
than what has already been done?
I saw that wisdom is better than folly,
just as light is better than darkness.
The wise man has eyes in his head,
while the fool walks in darkness;
but I came to realize
that the same fate overtakes them both.

Then I thought in my heart,

"The fate of the fool will overtake me also.
What then do I gain by being wise?"
I said in my heart,
"This too is meaningless."
For the wise man, like the fool, will not be long remembered;
In days to come both will be forgotten.
Like the fool, the wise man too must die!

Pleasures Are Meaningless

Note: For an orderly and contextual reading, please begin from the first post.

I thought in my heart, "Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good." But that also proved to be meaningless. "Laughter," I said, "is foolish. And what does pleasure accomplish?" I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly - my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was worthwhile for me to do under heaven during the few days of their lives.

I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. I amassed silver and gold for myself, I acquired men and women singers, and a harem as well - the delights of the heart of man. I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me.

I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;
I refused my heart no pleasure.
My heart took delight in all my work,
and this was the reward for all my labour.
Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
nothing was gained under the sun.

Wisdom is Meaningless

Note: For an orderly and contextual reading, refer to the first post in the series.

I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. I devoted myself to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid on men! I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

What is twisted cannot be straightened, what is lacking cannot be counted.

I thought to myself, "Look, I have grown and increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge." Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, but also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.

For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.

Everything is Meaningless

The words of the Teacher, son of David, King in Jerusalem:

"Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."

What does a man gain from all his labour at which he toils under the sun?
Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.
The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.
The wind blows to the south and turns to the north;
Round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.
All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from, there they return again.
All things are worrisome, more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again, there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there anything of which one can say "Look! This is something new"?
It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.
There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.

She's so happy

Staring at the sun

A song i started a while back when i was in my one month quarantine and completed recently after having one too many glasses of wine. Anyways here it goes.

Verse 1:
She's so happy
See the smile on her face
She's so happy
There's a spring in her step
She's so happy
Dancing in the rain
She's so happy

Chorus:
And I wanna be exactly just like her
Without a care or any worry in the world
Baby I don't know exactly what it takes
But all I want is to be happy

Verse 2:
Now I've been thinking about the meaning of life
Is happiness just a fleeting state of mind (mine?)
And what it means to really be alive
Is there an answer to which I can find?


Chorus:
Cause I wanna be exactly just like her
Without a care or any worry in the world
Baby I don't know exactly what it takes
But all I want is to be happy

Moral of the story. Don't think too much.

Die lah Die-episode 4

Translation: uHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Episode 4

Hard Gay (above pic, and yes he's really called that. Go watch the links on the right if u haven't. Die laughing i tell you)

*cough*

Anyways, DIE LAH DIE tmr got life!

Life insurance that is.

But anyways GI yesterday was alright. I think. Or at least I came out of the exam hall feeling quite good about it. You know what they say, ignorance is bliss.

A strange thing happened yesterday while i was in the middle of the exam. I was writing furiously on my question, the sun was shining, and it was hot. Then i suddenly realized something wasn't right. The sun was on my left, but why is the heat coming from the right? I looked up wondering what it was... "HOLY MARANGONI...THANK YOU GOD FOR CREATION!!!"

The Ultimate Hotness™

My concentration diverted for a moment, hot babe radar went off the charts, but the GI paper gave me sock in the eye and I had to continue with the question.

Anyways because of that I made a mistake in the reinsurance question calculation. And will lose some marks for that -_-'' Talk about low blows. I'll get you back GI. You watch out.

Came home yesterday and instead of studying, went into a FM2007 six hour marathon. I tell you that game will be the death of me.

Anyways, back to studying life insurance.

neeedd tooo deee..leeete gammeeee

*clicks publish and double clicks FM2007 icon*

Note: I stole a line from long lost brother in the above post. So sue me. =p

Die lah Die-episode 3

Episode 3

Tomorrow. Tomorrow begins THE week.

A week where, will decide the outcome of quite a number of things. A week that has been prepared for by a 1 month quarantine (well sort of, ignoring the numerous time i went out, and the time when i was at home but not studying, and the times.. well u get the idea)

But anyways. I've got a date with General Insurance tomorrow at 10am.

and oh btw, in case you haven't noticed, i broke my new yr resolution (its was bound to happen anyway) to not play computer games. Oh well.

GI HERE I COME!!! RAARRRRRRRR

*charges off into the sunset*
*charges back because the weather was cold*
*decides to stop crapping do some last minute cramming*

Die lah Die-episode 2

Episode 2

Cue Scene: Just before trying a past year paper

"Legendary powers of memorization, I summon thee!!!"

*silence*

Eh no one answer.

*stares blankly at paper trying to recall facts*


Die lah die! How to remember all these things like that!!!

Die lah Die-episode 1

Welcome to the "Die lah die" series!

Episode 1
Die lah die. I've just started playing Football Manager 2007 when my exams are on next monday. Err and i'm blogging some more when i would be better off studying. And not to mention that there is so much to remember.

Die lah die.

*arms extended in the air, body arched back, hips outward, at the top of the voice*

GI on monday!! HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

HOLY COW!

Damn lah damn. Die lah die. I've been trying some past year papers and its a complete wipeout. Some of the answers are so implicitly implied that there's no way of knowing what they are. And best part is, THE ANSWERS TO THE PAST YEAR PAPERS ARE NOT RELEASED!!!

Why daniel why. Why you torture yourself by taking life & health insurance, general insurance and pensions at the same time. There are better ways to die.

On other matters (relatively), I somehow had my general insurance notes incorporated into my dream last night. Was errr... something about reinsurance i think.

I think my month of isolation is taking its toll on my sanity.

Quater life review

Well it's been a good 22 years, and as they say, chart your future through the past -they referring to my imagination or something i picked up from a ben stiller movie-

Now, having spent the last 2 1/2 years of my life learning about mortality rates, taking into account the current life expectancy of the average malaysian male (72.5 years) lifespan, advances in modern medicine, standard of living, health status, and barring any unforseen accidents which might cause sudden death-eg buying a gisbon les paul and starving to death after that- , i predict that i will live till the ripe old age of 88, hence the title for the post.

So here's some of the things that i always wanted to do/dreamt of:

1. Do something weird : Well i study actuarial science. Can't get weirder than that.
2. Keep long hair: *note picture above* done
3. Study overseas: London baby yeah!
4. Become a rock guitarist: Failed. Miserably.
5. Go back to sabah: Done. Went up kinabalu. And nearly died of food poisoning at the same time.
6. Buy myself an expensive guitar: Got 2. Hehe. And pedals too!!
7. Buy my dad a ferrari: Sorry pa, i was 4 years old when i made that promise =p
8. Watch an arsenal match at the stadium: Arsenal-Porto!!
9. Become Dictator...er i mean prime minister of Malaysia: errr thinking about it.

Apart from the above, I got to do a few other things as well that i didnt expect:
1. Tour Europe
2. Found a long lost brother.
3. Be a long lost brother.
4. Watch Tommy Emmanuel live in concert (And Steve Vai this april!!! YEAHH!)
5. Make a guitar recording of Eric Clapton's Layla unplugged that rival's William Hung's rendition of Ricky Martin's "She Bangs". (note to long lost brother: again, waiiii??)
6. Live in a ghetto - both in london and in Malaysia.
7. Scout Oxford Street for hot chicks..i mean shopping bargains.

So having achieved 6 out of the 9 items intended above, and a whole host of other random stuff, its time to move and, and of course set new 22 year plan. So here are some of the things that I hope to achieve when I'm 44.

1. Become dicta.. prime minister of malaysia: See now i'm making it no1 on the list.
2. Be able to play guitar good enough so that i don't cringe and die when i hear my own playing.
3. Play Tender Surrender. (and also layla, of course. heh :P)
4. Get married to lovely wife, have 3/4 kids, quit my actuarial science job and move back to melaka.
5. Become a teacher (if i fail to be pm of malaysia that is)
6. Become a rock star (if 1, 4 and 5 fails)
7. Not play anymore computer games/watch japanese anime (why do i even bother).
8. Buy a gibson les paul.

That's about it. I'll get back here when i'm 44 and see how things went. Till then.

*jiggle jiggle wobble*