-ben: In memoria

A friend was struck down by a drunk driver and he was put on life support in ICU. When i found out, thoughts raced through my head of the times when we met up to watch movies, eat and chat the night away.

Always ready with a smile, he was as passionate about life as he was about cycling. I had always felt the warmth of his friendship, even we only met online through a friend as I was overseas. The long profound chats via online message services made me want to laugh, think, hug someone, at the same time. He touched lives with love in his own special way and when i finally met up with him, he blessed those around him with his presence and infectious laughter.

His online presence was equally large as he maintained several blogs that left me wanting more updates. His own sandbox recorded deep thoughts on religion, alternating with an unmatched sense of humour that left me in stiches at times. His biasedness against mobile phones made me yearn of a time when dates were fixed well in advance, which made people look forward to them and be punctual. The epic online diary of his cycling exploits left me breathless in amazement, both of his skills with the camera and his persistence in recording his trip. It felt as if i was seeing his journey through his eyes.

It feels unreal as i type this, willing it to be untrue, but i just found out he has passed away.

I would rant about the unfairness of it all, or how drunk drivers should be castigated, or even how life is short and should be treasured. But i am left wordless.

In his own words, Requiéscat in pāce.

Update: A website has been set up at http://benmokpedalon.com/

parenting

The thought that we are going to be parents scare us sometimes, especially when we meet/see ill-behaved kids. I have noticed that my own outlook on kids has gone through an about-face. Behavior which used to irritate me, I now find amusing, or even cute. There are limits to this, and i regularly reach this line every week with children of my relatives. Yes, i know that that would make them my relatives as well, but wish to dissociate myself from the little pint-sized Machiavellian packages from hell. It's not that their parents don't try, but they are just so hyper and full of evil ideas that it would take an army of people watching their every move in order to prevent the mischief they get up to. Worse still, they egg each other on.

Which brings us to....er....us. I wonder what sort of parents we will be, and refuse to be the parent of an ill-behaved kid. I like to think that every parent started off like this, but somehow some of them lose their way and suddenly they have offspring that are more akin to spitting hissing cats rather than cute adorable kittens. So what do we do?