My New iPhone4 + The Pesky Little Kid

 

I know I know I said that I wanted to get a HTC Desire Z because of its physical Qwerty keyboard.  But everyone around me has been brainwashing me into thinking that the iPhone4 would be a much much better choice.

Daddy & Gigi has been hard-selling Sony Ericsson Xperia 10 or the Samsung Galaxy.  Honestly, I was tempted for its good camera functions.

But Buggy & my bf is telling me how fun iPhone is.  And all about its wonderful applications & games.

Then Mummy said, “it is better to get a hp where you can share charger“.  Errmm.  Ok, I’ll take the iPhone4 since both my brother & bf is using iPhone as well.

Of all the logic in the world, why would I take THAT advice from Mummy????????  She has not even mastered the art of SMS.

I think you know by now that I am not only indecisive, but I am impulsive as well when it comes to purchasing things.  These 2 combos cannot be good.

But you know what???????????????????

It’s day 5 today.  Even though it has a stupid Qwerty touchscreen keyboard that my fingers can never seem to hit the alphabets that I want, I am still growing to love this new phone of mine & I’ll tell you why.

1)  Super fun games – currently loving Plants vs Zombies but you got to pay for this one at US$2.99 if I’m not wrong.  This new game called Dinosaur Slayer & it is FREE.  Quick go & download it NAO NAO NAO before they decide to charge you for it.  Another free game download is Flick Fishing & it makes me feel that I could be a successful angler, but of course, be careful with the flicking when you want to cast your line out to sea because I once flicked so hard that the iPhone flew out of my hand.  I can only thank God that I was playing the game in bed & the iPhone hit the pillow instead of the wall.

2)  Books Applications – there is this book application called MangaDL where you can download mangas online & read it offline!  You only pay US$2.99 for this MangaDL application & you can download unlimited mangas online!  It has totally re-ignited my love for mangas.

I was first introduced to the fantastic (and at times, perverted) world of manga by Gigi a few years back.  I usually read mine on MangaFox but I don’t know why I gradually forgot all about it.  Now, I get a chance to re-love manga reading & it is great for keeping me occupied in the mrt… or when I’m waiting for an irresponsible friend who does not turn up on time for our outings… or when I’m queuing at at ridiculously long line of people at the cashier.

OMG I LOVE iPHONE!!!  *heart beaming with love*… but the way, if you want to have a taste of what Gigi has been introducing to me, you can go to MangaFox to search for the titles “Love Celeb” or “Midnight Secretary” or “Desire Climax” (just by its title you KNOW what genre it is under already) for *smut genre.    GOD WHAT IS MY YOUNGER SISTER TEACHING ME?????    Or “Paradise”, “Model”, “Visitor” for more of a psychological thriller genre.

*smut = obscenity and pornography

 

3)  Other Cool Applications – you ever get paranoid when there is a blackout at the office in the middle of the night while you’re rushing your reports???  FEAR NO MORE!!!!  You can download an application called iLights where you can command light out from your camera flash!!!  Sorry this only works with iPhone4 because the older versions do not have a physical camera flash on the hps.  Hmmm… actually I’m not that sure, maybe those with 3G or 3Gs can try out this application.  It’s free!!!

Not to mention other free apps like PhotoPro, Currency Converter & even some kind of mosquito repeller but I didn’t bother to download this as my blood isn’t attractive to mosquitoes.  Really!  If you put me in a room with another person & a hungry mosquito, the bloodsucker will go for that other person 9/10 times.  The 1 time it would suck my blood is if it is superbly desperately hungry & that other person is not in the room.  Maybe it is because I love to eat garlic.  Cooked, of course.

4)  Very User Friendly – I have used Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung & now iPhone.  The most user friendly is iPhone.  I think even a 5 year old kid can get the hang of it very soon.  It is clutter free & uncomplicated to maneuver around the applications.  And I like the fact that it responds really quickly to your finger’s touch.

5)  Speed – I tried out Gigi’s SE Xperia 10 & iPhone4 side by side using the Angry Birds game.  The Xperia 10 lagged noticeably but the iPhone 4 swirled the game screen around with no problems at all.  I totally pwn’ed Gigi & made her feel lousy for thinking that the Xperia 10 was da bomb.  Now she is tempted to get the iPhone as well.

The only thing I hate is the touchscreen Qwerty.  Other than that, so far so good.

Now the only problem is keeping my iPhone safe from that pesky little kid.  I know for a fact that she WILL demand to play with my iPhone.  And she WILL hang on to it for as long as she can.  Her grubby dirty little fingers WILL stain my iPhone with her snot, oiliness from food, sweat, (add in all kinds of dirty icky stuff).  The worst part is once she lays her hands on the iPhone, you will NEVER get a chance to take it back.

There was once when my bf’s cousin’s gf made the mistake of letting that kid play with her iPhone 3Gs.  And when she wanted to take the hp back, that kid went CRAZY.  As in REALLY crazy.  She screamed at the top of her lungs, reaching the highest note that a human voice can ever make & hurting everybody’s eardrums in the process.  I got an instant headache just between my eyebrows.  How can that even happen?!  I think she has some sort of superpower where she can kill a person with that scream.  Bleed from the ears to immobilize you then your brain explodes, killing you.  And her mother would sit there & watch the entire scene in silence.

If she was a villian in X-Men, I envision her to look like this.

The Screamer

 

 

Then she went into depression.  The kid sulked the rest of the night.

She sat in a dining chair.  Hunched & with her head bowed down so low that from her back view, you probably will freak out because you cannot see her head & will mistaken her for a headless little child.  And there she sat for 3 hours, not moving.

My bf’s cousin’s gf was heartless enough not to care about that sulky kid.  I totally dig heartless, especially those who has an infinity dislike for that 4-year old kid.

With everything said about that kid, I do not hate her.  As long as she does not disturb me, I am still ok with her.  But the second she starts her nonsense, I just have this compulsive urge to kidnap her & hide her in a deserted house.  Then let her learn how to be a proper human being.

On the other hand, kids will be kids.  But I sure hope my future kid will not turn out like her & even if she does behave inappropriately, I will go hard on her.

Now I just got to find a perfect hiding spot for my new iPhone.

How Trusting These Parents Are!

Remember my previous post on Halloween & how I feel that it is dangerous for young children to be knocking on strangers’ doors asking for treats?  Read it HERE.

I also mentioned that our children have to be old enough to differentiate the bad guys from the good & have to be fast enough to run away from danger if need be. 

I dunno about the rest of you, but I was brought up by paranoid parents who:

1)  do not let me go out alone with my friends until I was 15

2)  set a curfew for me to come home at 4pm when I can go out alone with my friends

3)  constantly tell me not to be in the lift with a stranger alone

4)  be aware of my surroundings at all times

5)  always stay in brightly lit / crowded places

Paranoia saves lives & offers protection, okay.

…

Then today on Freshly Pressed at WordPress, I see THIS blog post from Free Range Kids.  It promotes some kind of  “oh let them grow up & explore on their own, learn things by themselves without overprotective parents“.

In a nutshell:  A mother (Kimberlee Morrison) lets her 8 year old son go to the park alone.  Then when her son leaves the park to go to some place & ask for water.  A stranger approached the boy & asked if he was hungry, then bought him some food.  The stranger later called the police as he was concerned for the boy’s safety.  The mother is now unhappy & wrote to Free Range Kids for some pep talk or guidance.

Firstly, what is the mother so unhappy about?  Her son DID accept food from a stranger.

“A stranger asked him if he was hungry, the Boy, thinking the guy was being nice, said sure.”

See?  The boy THINKING that the guy was being nice.  If the son was a teenager, he would have refused.  Her 8 year old son was lucky that the stranger IS nice & not some child molester who planned on drugging her son’s food.

Then the mother went on to say, “To which I countered that there is no law against letting my son go to the park, and that the only problem right now is that the supposedly nice person HAD involved the authorities, even though my son was fine. My son was not lost, he wasn’t injured, he wasn’t afraid, he was just thirsty. I was told that since others thought something was wrong, I should too.”

This really boggles my mind.  The stranger probably wanted to test if the 8 year old boy was smart enough to refuse food from someone he didn’t recognize, but since the boy accepted his free food offer, the stranger probably decided to call the police because he felt that the boy was still gullible enough to trust strangers.

Look!  I am an innocent cuddly teddy bear!
Come play with me!

 

The mother was actually unhappy that her son was safe & sound when the police called her???  Did she want her son to be lying dead in a ditch before receiving the call then only she feel that the call was justified?????  She was like, “wtf call me when my son is really lost, injured, afraid or dead“.

She was agitated because a stranger was concerned about her son???  It seems to me that she was irritated by the stranger whose kind intentions was for her son’s safety.  Hello, a nice person is concerned about your son & you blame him for calling the cops?

Of course, she went on about how the cops used fear tactics & threatened to put her in jail because she allowed her son to go out alone to the park & play & accept free food from strangers… blah blah blah.  But that is her side of the story.  I wonder how her tone was like when she spoke with the police.  Was it rude?  Condescending?  Even if the police did use fear tactics or threats, but there has got to be a reason why they resorted to those methods, right?  Did she provoke the officer first?

Then the author (Lenore Skenazy) of the blog replies to Kimberlee saying, “The idea of curbing your son’s happy, normal childhood and locking him inside for the next five years is tragic. It’s ironic, too, considering that cops are supposed to MAKE the town safe, not tell people, “We can’t! Just stay inside.”

 I think a happy normal childhood is still available with parents spending QUALITY time with their kids, like cycling at the beach or playing catch TOGETHER.  Instead of letting them out to play alone & exposing them to unforeseen stranger danger.

And YES, cops are supposed to make the town safe, but I do not think they are telling kids to stay home & don’t go out.  They are just telling parents to accompany their kids when they do go out to the park or wherever.  I mean, give the cops a break, man.  How can there be a cop stationed at every corner of the city to make sure that the place is safe for everyone?  There are hundreds of parks with so many acres of land.  How many cops do you want to place at each acre?  And 1 cop only has 1 pair of eyes, how many people do you want that 1 pair of eyes to watch over?  10 people?  20 people?

Help me find my lost puppy, tender little girl?

 

 

In my Halloween blog post (link provided earlier), I mentioned that the Singapore government kept reminding citizens that “Low Crime Doesn’t Mean No Crime“.  Wise words.

“I know, that beyond this site, many folks would say, “The boy CAN go outside! She just has to supervise him.” But since when do adults spend from 3-6 p.m. outside, then come in for dinner, and then head outside again? And spend all day Saturdays outside? And Sundays? A summers? The idea that parents should be in the same place as their 8-year-old children all the time is a new one, born of unreasonable fear.“

Wow, this just takes the whole damn cake.  I do agree with many folks who say that the boy can go outside, but with supervision.

But Lenore, on the other hand, seems to be complaining that she does not have time to spend with her kid from 3-6 pm outside & spend all Saturdays, Sundays & summers.  Nobody is telling you to let the kid out EVERYDAY to go out.  Surely you got to tell the kid to compromise & say that you’ll bring him out on Saturday mornings or something like that.  If cannot go out, then stay home to do other activities like getting the kid to help you prepare dinner or clean the house or watch TV, spend time together with your kid, foster relationship.  That is so much more useful & will lead towards an even happier, more normal childhood.

I don’t even think it is right for your child to go out & play every 3-6 pm, all Saturdays, Sundays & summers.  No need to do homework, is it?  No need to study?  Feels like these Free Rangers just want their kids to go out & don’t bother their own parents, give the adults some peace & quiet.

I believe the idea of Free Range Kids is to teach the young ones to be independent & gain survival skills.

But in this 8 year old boy case, it is obvious that his parents did not teach him any proper knowledge & skills before they let him go out alone.  Accepting free food from strangers?  It must be either the boy has not been taught to protect himself & is damn gullible… or his parents are forgetting to feed him.

Whatever said, I still support the notion that we should be paranoid when it comes to our kids’ safety.  They are our responsibility for life.  And if you really want your 8 year old kid to go out on their own, then for god’s sake, teach them properly & make sure they understand the possible dangers first.

Letting your kids run out alone without any supervision was probably the reason that Adrian Lim was able to kidnap 2 young kids & murder them.  I wrote about him in that same Halloween post (link provided earlier) & an article on his infamous history if you’re interested to read.

If kids can go unsupervised, then are you saying that teachers do not need to be chaperons when the school arranges some kind of field trip or summer camp or any excursions?  Why not just bring your kids to the woods at summer camp & leave them there alone?  Let them run around in the woods, play in the sand, step into the river, do whatever they want, accept free food from passerbys, etc.  Let them go out alone & play!  Born free, run wild!  You parents have nothing to worry about anyway, right?

Since you believe that the young ones are so matured to take care of themselves, then why not let them watch R(A) movies?  Why does the government set movie ratings for different age groups?  Just release all the movies for little kids to watch lah!  The parents won’t mind, right?

Why bother to set an age limit for kids to get piercings & tattoos?

…

No matter which angle I try to see this case, it just makes no sense to me.  Buay beng (Don’t understand) at all.

Stupid 4-year old Kid

I hate it when that kid comes over to the house.  I hate it when she sticks her face anywhere that I can see it.  I want to slap her so bad.  Or kick her in the back until she flies & hits the wall with a loud satisfying bang.  So what if she is just 4?  All the more I can use my larger body frame to bully little irritating kids (and with my twiggy frame, little 4 year olds are all that I can manage to intimidate.  When they reach 5, they’ll be my size already).

She is the reason why I am disregarding all my New Year’s Resolutions of 2010 – to refrain from vulgarities & murderous intentions.  I am not even going to keep this post civil & mature.  The irritation in me is just too much for me to contain already.  So today, I am going to be myself.  Psychotic, obnoxious & vulgar (and sprinkled with *singlish).  I don’t even care how my future kids will think of me when they read this post.  I’m sure they will understand one day when they meet a horrible kid themselves.

singlish = a language only Singaporeans can speak which
is derived from Singapore+English. We can speak proper
English if we want to, but what's the fun in it when
we can have Singlish.

 

Don’t get me wrong, I love kids.  I love kids a lot especially when they are asleep or quietly playing in a corner or giggling to themselves in a gentle amusing way.  As long as they do not irritate the shit out of me, I am absolutely great with kids.

But this little monster (let’s call her Banshee) is one of a kind.  She doesn’t leave me alone when I tell her to fark off (ok i didn’t exactly say fark off) while I am enjoying my expensive restaurant dinner & what does she do?  She continues to hit me with the wet tissue which she had already wiped her filthy little mouth with & you know how much I HATE FILTH.  And that went on for another good 10 mins with her mother sitting there not doing anything, enjoying her own dinner.

*blood vessel pops in my brain as I grab her tiny little arm & make her hit herself back with the wet tissue*… TAKE THAT, YOU STUPID KID.

Then imagine that Banshee comes up to you & asks if she can slap your face with her shoe.  (-_-)  wtf, kid?  That is the ultimate shocking insult to anyone who receives this kind of question from a FOUR year old kid.  A little kiddy voice going “Can I slap your face with my shoe?”  SLAP YOUR HEAD AH SLAP.  SLAP YOURSELF LAH!  Stupid 4-year old little sucker.  I believe the ability to degrade others has to be deeply rooted in her sick little mind in order for her to actually say it out.  And I thought kids were born innocent.  That has gotta be an inborn thing.  Either that or I wonder what the hell her parents have been feeding her.

*blood vessel pops in my brain as I calmly takes off my high heel shoe & stab her eye with the pointy end*… shut the fark up, you stupid kid.

When you tell her to hold on to the chocolate bar carefully & do not drop it on your sofa as she bounces everywhere on it & destroys every fiber in that expensive material, she looks at you with her innocent eyes & what does she do?  She lets go of the chocolate bar & continues to stare at you, like she’s daring you to scold her in front of her mother.  The mother who thinks she is just so adorable when her little Banshee does irritating things like this.

Oh god, so many other incidents to rage about, but so little time.

I want to strangle her so bad.  Or kick her in the head when her mother is not looking.

Which mother will let her kid continue to feel that being rude & irritating is the way to lead her life?

I am not a mother.  But I would think that if your kid says something rude, you correct her.  If she doesn’t listen to you, you continue to teach her until she gets it.

You teach her manners & respect & you do not allow her to cling on to other people’s boyfriends.  Oh god.  There was this one time, the Banshee kept clinging on to this guy (W).  And when his gf (N) came over to hold W’s hand, the Banshee repeatedly taunted N,  “i dun like you! see! i am also holding his hand.  i like him but i dun like you!”  Then she twirls around W’s arm & kept leaning on his groin & kept grabbing the pocket at W’s ass (which made him twitch away).  That went on & on until they reach home.  I could see the irritation & burning fury in N’s eyes.  Oh I feel you, girl.  I want to kill her too.  Again, the mother did nothing to stop that stupid kid from being horrible.  (-_-)   Even if she is a 4-year old, it is so so messed up.  I’m not saying that she has some kind of perverted mind.  I believe the groin & ass grabbing thing was innocent, but… with everything combined, it just looks disgusting & repulsive.  She is going to get herself raped one day & I will not even care.  Gosh.  I might even gloat.

I do not have any children of my own, but I am so sure from the bottom of my heart that a mother must never allow her kid to feel that she can do or say anything she wants.

I think the stupid Banshee is going to grow up to be the meanest, most rebellious person ever made in history.

Honestly, I think her mother is just oh-so-relieved to get rid of Banshee for just that 10 mins or longer.  It’s like she sees Banshee terrorizing others & she is thinking to herself, “oh thank god, now somebody else can deal with her while I go do something that I enjoy“.

Or when Banshee is doing something naughty like flicking food on people’s faces or talking back to adults for lecturing her, her mother thinks she is so cute & smart & intelligent.

I seriously do not ever want to see the Banshee’s face around me.  I do not want to hear her voice.  I definitely do not want to have anything to do with her.  How I wish that her whole family can just move out of the country.

I have never ever dislike a kid so much in my life.  Usually I feel indifferent towards them, no hatred no liking.  I still talk to them, play with them & take care of them with no other emotions.  But the Banshee manages to bring out the Kid Hater in me every single time she is around.  She makes me want to taser her in the face & watch CSI while she convulse & drool all over herself on the floor.

God I hate that kid.

Those Kind of Parents

Do your parents tell you in the face that your mother dotes on your brother the most & your father does on your sister the most, which makes you wonder “then who dotes on me???”

Does your father shout vulgarities when he is angry?  Vent his anger on you by picking a fight & when you defend yourself, he thinks that you are talking back to him, so he hits you?

Does your mother feed you insecurities by telling you things like “you don’t be so overconfident & expect your boyfriend/girlfriend to marry you” or “fengshui said that your boyfriend/girlfriend is very cunning” or “your boyfriend/girlfriend will cheat on you“?

Are your parents sarcastic in their words with you?  Do they talk behind your back & gossip about you?

Do they call you stupid or fat?

Do they deliberately ignore you because you did not do what they ask?

Image Credit: Unknown

 

I have come across parents who are just plain mean.  Others are overbearing by keeping a tight control over their kids.  Most of them will make it seem like it is their children’s fault.

I think it is because they know they hold a certain amount of control / power over their kids & they plan on using it.  This is especially true if the kids are still dependant on their parents & living under their roof, with no money to leave or still taking pocket allowance for school.

And as these kids grow older & have their own lives, their parents cannot break out of this need for power & they continue to pick on their own children.  But little do they know, the young ones have grown up & can feed themselves by holding jobs, working & earning a living for themselves.  Their children start to feel resentful towards their parents & ignore them.  Worst case scenario?  These parents age with no children beside them.

Image Credit: Unknown

 

Who wants to be with such a mean parent who emotionally / physically abuses their own children, right?

One part of me thinks that the parent deserves the ill treatment.  The other part of me was brought up to believe that no matter what happens, they are our parents & we cannot choose our own parents.  If we can choose, we will probably all pick Lee Kuan Yew or Bill Gates or Obama to be our parents.

But what if the children were really super naughty or badly behaved when they were younger?  Then does this give the parents the right to scold/insult/abuse their children?  The answer is a big NO.  That does not give you the right to torture your kids.  Nobody forced you to give birth to them.  If you never wanted kids, then you should just use protection or abort them.  Why bring them into this world just to suffer under your hands?

If you bring children to this world, it is an automatic default parent rule that you must love & care & nuture them to the best that you possibly can.  If they become an ah lian/ah beng (gangsta-behaving girls/boys), then it is YOUR DUTY to bring them back to the correct path.  If they sniff glue or do drugs or any other illegal activities, then you should reflect on yourself & ask yourself if you have been spending enough happy quality time with your own children.

Children will be your one biggest responsibility.

FOREVER.  AND EVER.  NO MATTER WHAT.

 

I don’t care if they become a prostitute or a child rapist or terrorist.  The automatic default parent rule still applies.  And you should be reflecting on yourself & asking yourself if you have done anything wrong or if you have done enough for them.

For the children, if you have mean parents, I am sorry but you also have an automatic default kid rule.  You do not abandon your parents.  You can try to avoid conflicts with them, but when they need help or on their dying beds, you should still fulfil your duty as their child.  If you cannot stand living with them because they are making your life a living hell, then at least pay for their stay at the nursing home or the old folk’s home.  But you should still visit them regularly.  And if they say any mean things during your visit, just leave.  No need to talk back.

I know.  Easier said than done.  Even for myself.  I cannot not talk back to my parents when I am wrongly accused or when they are being unreasonable.  But I try to tolerate for as long as I can.  If I cannot stand it anymore, I will try & reason with them calmly, if this fails then I will proceed to either (1) lash back at them or (2) call a friend to see if they can meet up, it they can’t then (3) leave the house for a trip down to 7-11 until I cool down.  As I grow older, I have learnt not to use too much of Option (1) because sometimes, there is no point trying to make any sense with parents.

This post spurred me to Google “what if I have mean parents” & what do you know?!?!  wikihow.com gives great advices on this topic!!!  Read it HERE.  And somewhere at the bottom under Related wikiHows, there are a few interesting topics as well like How to Deal with Divorced Parents, How to Deal with Emotionally Abusive Parents, etc.

For parents, they have articles like How to Deal with Children who Lie, How to Deal with Your Teenager, etc.  Just search for anything you need.

Lastly, I like how that article in the link provided states “Do not get into a situation where you are trying to earn their love, that is not something you should have to earn, you do not have to impress them for them to treat you in a respectable way. Always listen and take what they say as a tip for the future“.

That totally reinforces my automatic default parent rule.  You bring them to this world.  You love them unconditionally.  You do not love one child more than the other because he is smarter.  And you do not love one child lesser because they got a stronger character than the more obedient one.

Adrupt end to post for dramatic effect.