TV Shows and the lessons learnt.

I happen to enjoy watching a whole lot of television. While that can be a waste of time for many, I try to take away valuable lessons from the many hours I spend in front of my TV. I realized after a while that  Sit-Coms (situation comedy) don't really have any real meaning behind them, thus watching them won't do you any good. But I still watch them because some of them are hilarious. Hour-long shows, on the other hand, make me wonder and reflect upon some of the character's choices.

 In this post I will point out some of the lessons I have taken away from shows such as Breaking Bad, Prison Break, Lost, Glee, Dexter, Monk and even some Sit-Coms such as Friends, How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory.

Breaking Bad- Does the end justify the means?
Breaking Bad is one of the best TV shows to date, and after the season finale aired a month ago, I truly felt as if a part of me just died. The show is essentially about a super-smart-but-deceived-by-his-partner-and-thus-became-a-high school chemistry teacher, who finds out he has lung cancer and that he does not have very long to live. He knows that the money he earns is not going to support his 2 children, one of which still unborn, and thus uses his extensive knowledge in chemistry to cook crystal meth with one of his ex-students. It is portrayed that he is pushed to do horrible things because of the situation and thus he truly believes that what he is doing is justified. Walter should never have gone down that path,  I think that he could have used his knowledge for something positive rather than selling dope, (spoilers alert) causing him to be shot and killed eventually. We can learn a lot from the mistakes he made, and apply them to our lives. More lessons learnt can be found on this link-http://www.zenspill.com/7-life-lessons-breaking-bad-taught-me/

Prison Break- Don't be pushed around by others.
The story revolves around two brothers, one (Lincoln Burrows) who ends up in jail because of a crime he had not committed and the other (Micheal Scofield) a civil engineer who tries and successfully breaks him out of prison. Whilst the whole country was convinced that Lincoln had shot the prime minister's brother, due to the overwhelming amount of evidence, Micheal believed the word of his brother. Upon finding out that he was framed, he broke him out of prison. The story shows what is possible if you fight for the truth, even if you end up fighting the government. It also shows what can be achieved if you put your mind to something, as the story depicts Micheal burning the midnight oil planning for the break. He even had to fake rob a bank to get into prison with his brother, then break him out for there. This story contradicts my evaluation of Breaking Bad, but you must understand that these are two completely different scenarios. You would understand what I mean if you watch the two shows. More on this link- http://www.thelisticles.net/entertainment/top-7-life-lessons-taught-by-prison-break/ 

How I Met Your Mother- Good things come to patient people.
I have never missed an episode of this show, and for good reasons. This is an extremely hilarious sit-com, and is about a guy called Ted who is searching for true love. Although Ted is the perfect husband, he has trouble finding the "Mother of his children." This leads to many failed relationships, and many life lessons learnt along the way. His patience ultimately pays off though, and thats why patience is a virtue. Check out this link for more- http://www.buzzfeed.com/caraf5/12-important-life-lessons-from-how-i-met-your-moth-eygo

The Big Bang Theory- Smart people aren't perfect.
This show is about Sheldon, a super smart guy with an equally super high ego, and his friends, perhaps equally smart but more down to earth. While Sheldon graduated from college at a mere age of 14, he struggles to understand the ways of "normal people" and constantly fails, similar to that of his Indian friend Raj who tries to blend into the American culture. For instance, he finds it impossible to grip the concept for sarcasm, while for most it comes naturally. Sheldon also cannot drive and has uncountable phobias to the point that without the care taking of his peers, would become an even crazier person (he always claims his mother had him tested) This show is a good example that even if you are super smart, you could still become unsuccessful in life, as in today's world being just smart will get you nowhere. One must learn how to play the game of life also. More here -    http://www.buzzfeed.com/thebigbangtheory/21-life-lessons-you-can-learn-from-the-big-bang-theory

I hope you likes my thoughts on some of these popular tv shows. If you would like me ti give my opinions on other shows as well, comment below!

Signing off,
Just another Singaporean  

Monkey climbing tree

The title given for this post literally suggests of a tree that climbs monkeys. (Because of the letter a missing between climbing and tree, funny how a letter is so important in making sense) 

To the point now-  Look and the picture below and think  if you can relate to it. There is a similar story I have heard about an eagle that grows up with a family of chickens all its live thus it believes that it cannot fly. It opened my eyes and gave me perspective as to how the education system may be unfair to different people in society. Especially today when we see someone not reaching his or her full potential, we should ask ourselves- is it because the person is really stupid or because he is different, where the person is not as capable as we are in different areas. I believe that when a person is bad in, for instance, academics, then he must be extraordinary in other areas such as the arts. Its just about finding your talent and having people to believe in you, with the resources needed to peruse talents.  

So we should not think poorly of others when they are not capable to do things that are easy for us. This may cause believe to end up living all their lives that they are stupid and incapable which I think is not the case at all. Believe in everyone, as who knows, someday this person that we think of as a lump of stone will polish into a shining diamond. 

These is one of the many thoughts that comes into my mind when I think about some issues in our society. Does it make any sense to you? Comment below :)

Degree of pain

Hello once again,

Its been such a long time since I've last posted, and honestly I'm regretting not writing for a prolonged period of time because every now and then I get great ideas to blog about, but when I don't pen them down I forget about them. So when I was standing in my balcony a minute ago and had another one of these moments, I swore I wouldn't forget about it this time.

Everyone has a different capacity for pain. Like for instance, when you go to the dentist and the he says "this won't hurt a bit" and in your mind you go "yeah, right". Instances like these remind me when I once read this book by Anthony Horowitz. In one of his books there was a part where Alex, the main character in Alex Rider the series, is used as a lab dummy for a research study on pain. What essentially the scientist wanted to do was create a new unit for pain. So your dentist, rather than saying "a bit", something very subjective, would say "5 units of pain". I found that to be a brilliant idea, a noble prize winning idea.

Just imagine. No longer would you have to tremble in fear in anticipation for pain, because you know how much the pain is going to affect you. Sure, everyone has a different capacity for pain as I have already said, but if there would be some sort of general guide I think it will make things much simpler. Therefore I formally introduce the unit YOLO (first thing that came to my mind, a work in progress) I think that the phrase You Only Live Once has been used wrongly all this time, and this would be a much better use for this term.

What do you think about Pain? Should we measure it? And if do, how? Comment below.

Signing off,
Just another Singaporean