We are who we are!

After hectically finsihing two assignments, this means my first mid-semester for 2003 is nearly over. Relaxing for a bit, I was flicking through the magazine that is included in the weekend Chinese newspaper. Normally, I don't go further than the endless phone advertisements that makes up nearly the whole magazine, but this time, going a bit further, I have come across to the weekly horoscopes page. After reading what is relevant to me on that page, I finally understood the phrase "Seeing is believing". It says that for this week, I have come across a number of challenges and that I have strived to complete and tackle down these challenges. Ponders. True. I have just finished two assignments, and they were a huge challenge for me. I strived to complete it! Quite true. But then the rest becomes irrelevant. Stuff like I will be having financial problems etc. Well, I'm not in debt, and I guess I won't be using future money in this next week anyway (ie using my credit card), so how on earth would I have the chance of having financial constraints? Well most of the time, it becomes irrelevant the moment I start reading the thing. Half the time, they start saying that I will develop some kind of sickness like a cold or the flu touch wood, but thank goodness, that never happens and I've remained quite healthy.

Chatting to a friend a few days ago, I found out that being a person with the "cancer" starsign, they have a home-loving nature, someone who puts their family first preference above anything else and my friend claims to be a typical "cancer" person. After going away, I began to think whether a person is really shaped by what starsign he or she belonged to? So does that mean, if I am not cancer, I cannot be a family oriented person, and I will have to be a mischevous person as my starsign has set me to be?

In search for an answer, I was considering the following situations. If two babies were born on the same day within the "cancer" period, hence having the same starsign, this horoscope theory would suggest to us that they would both be a family oriented person. Now let me expand my hypothetical. Jack, baby number one, is raised under a family full of family warmth, no financial burden to worry, goes through a "perfect" life. Of course, we can see that when Jack grows up, he will become a wonderful father, have a pretty stable career. Jack becomes a typical "cancer" person.

Jill, baby number two on the other hand, is not as lucky. :( Raised in a not so good family having a huge financial burden, she was forced by her parents to leave high school at year 10 to come out to work. She keeps finding out that no matter what she does, she could never find enough money for mum and dad, resulting in constant abuse (lets set aside the legal consequences at the moment of abusing your own child at the moment). She finally decides to leave home. 2 years later, she finds that with the money she finds, she cannot even support herself (I haven't even complicated the situation by introducing drugs into the story!). So how would a "cancer" family-oriented person develop from here?

It's quite obvious that if you would lead a completely differently life to the few million people that has the same star sign as you! Despite of this fact, many people still read the horoscope to obtain a feeling of security within their lives.

A similar Chinese version of horoscopes is Feng shui. It is 3 months after Chinese New Year has passed, but I remember that every year, towards new year, people would start purchasing feng shui books for the coming year so they could re-organise their whole house so it would bring them good luck. Aparently, every year, there are places in the house that are especially good for certain aspects in your life. For example, if you want to get good results for studying, your table has to be placed in a certain area of your room and you have to sit facing a certain direction. Darn! So I've been studying for so many years and the reason I didn't get 100 UAI 4 years ago was that I was sitting facing the wrong side! I should have used my study time to find the best direction to sit at so I can get a UAI of 100! Don't study everyone! Use the study time to find the best "study position" to sit in, and you're guaranteed to get good results!

I knew a friend who said Feng shui really worked! Apparently, all the fish in the fishpot that was placed in the southern end of her room, which was supposed to help boost her love life, has died. She claims this meant the fish had helped her block some curses. By this stage, everyone must be asking what happened to her love life? For the 6 months when her fish hasn't died yet, she remained single. She only got a date 5 months after the fish didn't exist anymore. The other thing you probably wanted to know was the curse that the fish suffered? I later found out that she was feeling cold one day, so she decided to sunbake with her fish. The tragedy happened after the water got heated up to an undesirable temperature by the sun ...

We are all unique people, we lead our individual lives. The way we think and the way we do things are influenced by the things we do around us. We are not what these books say we are, We are who we are!

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