Über mich

(Last updated on 28 October 2010.)

I am a 22-year-old philosophy major currently studying at the National University of Singapore. (Click here if you are interested in knowing the list of modules that I've taken in the past or that I'm presently taking.) If you have no idea where Singapore is, well, it is a puny cosmopolitan city-state located near the equator, and it is such a boring place that it is not even one-tenth as interesting as the nameless, mysterious island we see in Lost.

I am a staunch atheist, an incurable cynic, a romantic realist, a pragmatic idealist, a politically incorrect democratic socialist and a self-indulgent bon vivant who enjoys epicurean pleasures immensely. For a pessimist, I am actually pretty optimistic. I am completely liberal when it comes to moral and political issues. I am mentally unstable, cerebrally handicapped, physically unattractive, vertically challenged, socially inept and uncompromisingly heterosexual.

I am a member of Mensa, an international organisation for gifted individuals. However, my lacklustre academic performances do not commensurate with my incredibly high IQ.

I never hesitate to torment people I dislike with a huge and scorching dose of sarcasm, thus accumulating loads of bad karma. So do not worry about me, for I know I will receive retribution some day. While I am alive, though, remember not to get into my bad books because I always bear grudges.

If the world is a tragedy to those who feel and a comedy to those who think, then it is a tragicomedy to me. Despite my displayed misanthropic tendencies, I actually have great love for my fellow men, unbelievable as it may sound.

I almost always subordinate emotion to rationality. I don't know if this is desirable.

I have an extremely wide range of interests, from mathematics to music, from astrophysics to literature, from psychology to cognitive science; but sadly my knowledge of all fields is depressingly limited. I am a master of no trade. I aspire to master German in the hope that I can one day understand writers and luminaries like Rilke, Einstein, Marx, Nietzsche and etc. in their mother tongue. I hope to be effectively multilingual, though I know it requires diligence and innate aptitude, which I am not entirely sure if I possess.

I love to read; and I have a fairly large collection of books. If you are interested in viewing the titles I own, please click here. The list will be updated whenever there are at least 20 new additions to and/or removals from my personal library.

I also enjoy admiring everything that is beautiful, and I like to think that I have exquisite taste. My ambition in life is to be peacefully carefree, emotionally tranquil, physically fit, intellectually fulfilled and obscenely rich - and I am not ashamed of it.

As much as I wish to look like this,

I am unfortunately not physically appealing (as I have said previously), so you may want to think twice before asking for my number (but if you are ugly and stupid, then please do not bother). For my own safety (you never know what perverts are lurking out there) as well as yours (lest you die from severe shock), I will not publish a single photo of myself on this blog. If you feel a violent need to contact me and provide feedback after reading any of my entries, please send all gushing fan mail, inane hate mail and lovesick marriage proposals to miao@nus.edu.sg for my perusal and, sometimes, amusement. I may not reply.

If you wish to learn more about me (because I am so compellingly fascinating), I suggest that you read my blog from the earliest entry to the latest because it is the best way to gain an insight into me; but if you lack the patience or think that I am not exactly worth the investment of time and effort, then please just read this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this and this. And if you understand Chinese, this too.

Thank you for visiting my humble little blog; but if you hate me or my entries, please scram because your time will be better spent elsewhere.