dream on

Trim and Fit aka TAF Club

2007-11-20T19:01:00.000+08:00

[How Singapore battled obesity]
[transcript]

Remember TAF club? I was never a member, thankfully, because I was pathetically skinny even till now. But I remember laughing at the TAF club people as they jump up and down in the hall. "Elephants", that's what I used to called them. Hey, common I was 14. It was a really difficult period.

I have always think that the getting all the heavy people together in a group is a bad idea. It doesn't take a genius to imagine that the kids are going to be made fun of. And I sincerely, believes that there's more harm than good. Apparently, some of these kids grew up and needed psychological help.

...David Kan, counsels several past members of Trim and Fit clubs. He says some of these children are deeply scarred by the experience.
Kan: They do feel the stigma that I’m being short-listed for this program means I’m labelled a person that is obese and as a result I may be a potential outcast in the school. And to them, if I am fat perhaps I’m a failure, I am a loser.

And here we have the official respond:

Education officials insist that no-one set out to stigmatize overweight children. It’s just turned out to be a by-product of the program a by-product nonetheless tolerated by officials for 15 years.

And according to statistics earlier:

...Singapore has achieved remarkable success in its fight against childhood obesity. The proportion of school-age children classified by the government as obese has fallen from 14% to 9% in the past 15 years. During that same period, just about everywhere else in Asia has seen childhood obesity rise.

Once again, the Singapore government is reminding us that these children are not just sons, daughters, brothers and sisters. They are also numbers.

Another mass production of students

2007-11-20T12:10:00.000+08:00

An article appeared in Today newspaper on the 17th of November, titled: School experiment that failed. It's about a parent dilemma on sending her children to a Singapore public school, or an international school. She decides to give the public school a go but the venture proof to be short lived, and she finally send her kids to an international school.

Of course this not the first time our educational system has been criticised, and the its many short coming discussed in the media. And our educational board will again, metaphorically, smiles and nods, and reassure us how about how innovative our schools are, and how improvements are constantly made to an already world class formula, and exciting new classes on creativity thinking are around the corner.

But stupid is as stupid does. The fact that students nowadays are still facing the same kettle of fish like I did, shows the problem are not going to away with a few new 'creative classes'.

Passing exams has becomes the aim and goals of schools. The true purpose of teaching and learning has been forgotten in the pressure of higher school ranking. Exams results has been the sole determination to a person's worth. It has become an end in itself. Can anyone honestly deny this culture of fear of exams in our students?

We boost of high maths and science scores. But our unnaturally high scores in this area are nothing to be proud of. Simply because these are subjects that one can prepare for by doing the holy 10 years series. In other words, you can do well in these subjects by doing roughly the same thing over and over again. You simply have to follow.

Ever wonder why we don't seems to do so well in literature? Maybe because to do well, you'll need to come up with your own ideas and original content. Something that is perhaps sadly foreign in our students. Seriously, how many Singapore students ask questions in your university class?

The problem with our system is that it systematic destroys ones creativity, uniqueness and self-esteem. Round pegs are made to fix into square holes and polygons are filed to form squares. There is simply no room in the system to be yourself. It's a system that rewards conformity and punishes uniqueness. The best way to pass exams is to do what is tried and tested and avoid risk.

I have never felt that I actually learned anything in the 10 years I spend in government school. In fact I'm glad that I'm still able to do a little bit of thinking once in a while despite the fact that I have been authoritative educated (But then I have stop reading the straits times, so I guess that helped).

Our schools may be good in imparting factual knowledge, but at a cost of a person innate sense of creativity and discovery. While factual knowledge are useful, I can't help but wonders if I can't achieve the same result by keeping a small library. Creativity can't and doesn't need to be taught, it only need to be allowed. Sometimes I feel we give up the forest for a tree.

You could say that the high teacher-student ratio are to blame and that the teachers and schools mean well, but I'm incline to be unforgiving to a system that robs me of my childhood, destroys my self esteem, and teaches me to be afraid of the world.

School experiment that failed

How will their kids fare in a local school? One expat mum finds out Noelle de Jesus

Weekend • November 17, 2007

THOSE who had watched the international schools defeat some of the best local schools in televised debates earlier this year found much to discuss across their dinner tables and at cocktail parties.

The key question: What kind of educational system best prepares children for today's challenges?

For my husband and I, these discussions took place much earlier. When we moved here eight years ago, our major concern was how best to educate our daughter and son — Filipinos carrying United States passports, now permanent residents of Singapore.

We wanted strong academics, of course, but we also wanted them to be life-long learners with confidence, creativity, responsibility, self-respect and awareness of the world. Neither did we want them to be set apart from the youth of the country which we had chosen to make our home.

Seeing groups of expat teenagers skateboarding in the youth park off Orchard Road, I sensed alienation and a lack of belonging. Somehow they seemed cut off from society. We did not want this for our children.

So we sent them to local schools. We were aware of the strengths of the school system — the solid foundation in science and mathematics and the remarkable self-discipline that would be so efficiently instilled.

We had read of a few foreign students who had emerged triumphant from local academic rigours, securing admission into fine universities abroad.

But we also understood potential pitfalls — the largely authoritarian system, the single-minded rote approach to learning and the high student-teacher ratios.

Many raised eyebrows at our choice. A colleague at work said: "You have a choice, why put them through that?" She spoke of the way the system can kill the joy of learning, the ability to think "out of the box".

But we had taken to heart the news that the Ministry of Education (MOE) was slowly but surely changing the system. It was allowing the teaching of simplified Chinese, establishing support for more creative as well as more critical thinking, and promoting the arts and sports. Anything else our children needed, we figured we would be able to provide at home. We were hopeful.

After sending them to a local Montessori pre-school, we found ourselves living 1km away from two of the best primary schools, one for girls and one for boys. That single kilometre was critical. Our son went through the ballot, but they both made it.

Our first frustration was foreign language learning. Anxious that they learn Mandarin, we (and they) quickly found it was next to impossible in the local system, due to the pace and depth of the classes — classes that proved too difficult even for Singaporean students.

I soon discovered that all the students in my daughter's class were taking extra Chinese lessons. As one tutor said: "Children don't learn mother tongue at school; they learn it from their tuition."

With no Mandarin background, my children tuned the classes out; the rote system of learning did not work.

"Why can't they take Mandarin as a foreign language?" I asked an MOE administrator. There was no ready answer. Instead, my children were invited to take French, German or Japanese.

When my daughter told me she had to prepare for her science exam, I told her to study her textbook. She replied: "There's nothing in the book."

The girls were told to "read on their own"; what to read was not specified. Later, I found out parents bought old science exam papers for their daughters to study from.

I also found the rather quantitative methods used in my kids' English classes highly suspect. If my daughter tried her hand at a complex sentence with modifying phrases and she made a mistake, the entire sentence was marked incorrect and points were taken off. This made her decide to stick with easy noun-verb sentences.

As for my son's compositions, they were edited subjectively. His quirky, still grammatical sentences were red-penned and in many cases, falsely labelled incorrect.

But the high teacher-student ratio — 1 teacher to 40 students — proved to be our utmost concern. It rendered the simplest dynamics of question-and- answer explanation difficult to say the least. In the boys' school especially, teachers struggled to maintain order, let alone teach.

My son, a square peg in a round hole, was labelled a trouble-maker for inquisitiveness. The reputation followed him from Primary 1 to Primary 2.

One day, his teacher called me to report him as "the mastermind" of some class bullying, saying his own friends had fingered him as the culprit.

When I spoke to my son, he denied he was solely responsible, saying: "What's the point of saying I'm not; they'll all say it's me, anyway. So I just took the punishment."

When we heard this, all our doubts crystallised in one decision. Despite all our hopes, this wasn't working for him. Creativity, language, even writing — we could teach ourselves. But we felt unequal to the task of constantly undoing daily institutional damage to his self-esteem. And we had no desire to fight the system.

We withdrew both children from their schools and placed them in an international school.

There, they could at least learn Mandarin as a foreign language. They would be able to have a real relationship with their teachers, enjoy inquiry-based learning and be encouraged to express themselves. They would each be in a class with no more than 25 students and that ratio would only make things better all around.

It is by no means perfect. No education system is. And we were disappointed that our experiment failed.

Cost, of course, is one issue. To pay the price equivalent to that of a small diamond, when once we paid the price of an apple for a year's schooling, will not be easy.

We also continue to seek opportunities for our children to interact with other Singaporean children, grateful they have maintained some of the friendships they forged at their old schools.

But on his first day at the new school, my son told me he had the best day of his life. My daughter came to me and thanked me for moving her. "Here," she confided, "I feel like I am learning something every day." How can you argue with that?

At the end of the day, the root problem of the local school system is the high teacher-student ratio which demands more control from the teacher and gives the students less opportunities for variation.

Many foreign families make it by dint of playing the game we did not play: Filling the children's time with extra classes, buying old exam papers and willingly allowing their children's uniqueness to be efficiently rubbed off so that they could fit themselves neatly into the system's uniformly round holes. We did the only thing we could do.

At least, you can't say we didn't try. And it was a learning experience.

Ultimately that's what education should be about.

Noelle de Jesus is a freelance editor and writer who believes parents should be responsible co-educators of their children.

Repeal 377A and Thio Li-Ann, on why the 2 sides can't agree and freedom

2007-11-19T23:21:00.001+08:00

*Dr Thio Li-Ann speech can be read here together with commentaries.

A lot can be, and indeed has been said on the debate. To find out more, and you should, goggle is your friend (Try 377A, or Thio Li-Ann). I have wanted to comment on this issue, but was too busy, and frankly, not smart enough to add anything new. But now that the sound and fiery has died down a little, and with the advantage of hindsight, I'll attempt to share what I picked up on this

1."You cannot make a human wrong a human right."
The prime minister was right. What he was right about that prompted this unique occurrence (me agreeing with him that is) was this: "Neither side is going to convince the other."

Why?

Because both sides (over generalising from this point on, I admit), holds a different fundamental assumption.

One side don't think that homosexuality is wrong.
One side believes fundamentally that homosexuality is wrong.

There is no way, literally, to convince either side to the other position. How can both side even relate to the other side, or see where they are coming from, when their core assumption is so different? On one side, a group of people don't really see why a act is harmful enough to have a law against it, while another side sees the act as wrong and if I may, 'evil'.

There is no way to prove that homosexuality is wrong, nor is there to prove that it's not wrong. Because you can't prove a right or wrong! You judge a right or wrong! And both side are using a different system! Both side can bring out tons of arguments and counter-arguments and still fail to come to any agreeable conclusion, because all their conclusion are based on this core unchangeable assumption.

2."Repealing section 377A is the first step of a radical, political agenda which will subvert social morality, the common good and undermine our liberties."

Extending logically the assumption that homosexuality is wrong and the notion "that which is evil has no rights", we can have a sense of where the anti-repeal people are coming from. The idea is that, an idea or action that is 'evil', 'wrong', or 'harmful' deserves no rights, no freedom, no protection. An example is terrorism, I suppose the terrorist has some reasons for doing what they do, but their message would never be aired, because their action are considered to be evil, and wrong. (And no, homosexuality is not like terrorism)

So the way I see it, the aim of the anti-repeal movement is to maintain the right to call homosexuality wrong. After all they understand that the law will not be actively, not to mention almost impossible to, enforce.(Although Dr Thio, does (chillingly) said that the current pro-active policy does not mean 377A will never be enforced. In my view, enforcement of it will be too much like a witch hunt.)

3."While difficult, change is possible and a compassionate society would help those wanting to fulfills their heterosexual potential. There is hope."

And they do not see their stand as limiting the freedom of homosexuals. No, seriously. Dr Thio said that the gays are allowed "to live quiet lives". She is understanding freedom negatively, as freedom from constrains, gays can carry on with their life (admittedly as criminals) under our current system. But she is ignoring the positive side of freedom, which is the extent to which individuals have access to the means to fulfilled their needs and wishes. And surely, one has the rights not to be labeled a criminal to love, or the rights to be proud of who we are, or to speak in ones own defense?

4."some countries have criminalised not sodomy, but opposition to sodomy, making it a "hate crime" to criticise homosexuality. This violates freedom of speech and religion; will sacred texts that declare homosexuality morally deviant, like the Bible and Quran, be criminalised? Social unrest beckons. Such assaults on constitutional liberties cannot be tolerated."

In fact Dr Thio seems particularly concerned that the rights of certain religions be compromise if 377A is repealed. This makes me very uneasy. First of all, there is this notion that if someone does something for 'religious' reason, it's right. But then, we all know the problem with that don't we? And second, we respect religious belief, anyhow people are going to think what they are going to think. But we still holds religious people responsible for their actions, even if God is on their side.

Richard Taylor's glow worm

2007-11-08T20:12:00.000+08:00

Each dot of light identifies an ugly worm, whose luminous tail is meant to attract insects from the surrounding darkness. As from time to time one of these insects draws near it becomes entangled in a sticky thread lowered by the worm, and is eaten. These goes on month after month, the blind worm lying there in the barren stillness waiting to entrap an occasional bit of nourishment that will only sustain it to another bit of nourishment until... Until what? What great thing awaits all this long repetitious effort and makes it worthwhile? Really nothing. The larva just transforms itself finally into a tiny winged adult that lacks even mouth parts to feed and lives only a day or two. These adults, as soon as they have mated and laid eggs, are themselves caught in the threads and are devoured by the cannibalistic worms, often without having ventured into the day, the only point of their existence having now been fulfilled. This has been going on for millions of years, and to no other end other than that the same meaningless cycle may continue for another millions of years.

All the living things present essentially the same spectacle...One is led to wonder what the point of it all is, with what great triumph this ceaseless effort, repeating itself through millions of years, might finally culminate, and why it should go on and on and on for so long, accomplishing nothing, getting nowhere. But then one realizes that there is no point to it all, that it really culminates in nothing, that each of these cycles, so filled with toil, is to be followed only by more of the same. The point of any living thing's life is, evidently, nothing but life itself.

Repeal 377A

2007-10-10T11:17:00.000+08:00

It's really none of anyone's business. The state has no rights nor reasons to interfere between the relationship of 2 consenting adults.

Big Question 2

2007-09-25T00:49:00.000+08:00

Who would you want to be?

MSN?

2007-08-26T18:51:00.000+08:00

After 10 years, I have finally got MSN. I don't really know how it works. My MSN pass is mingde7@hotmail.com. So just add me, yah.

Singapore is more than the Story of one Man

2007-08-09T10:08:00.001+08:00

National Day is here again. This year, I want to share a couple of pictures I took that reflect my thoughts.

Here we have the picture of the statues of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, proudly standing in front of the skyline of Raffles Place. And just under it set in stone are the following words :

"On this historic site Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles first landed in Singapore on 28th January 1819 and with Genius and Perception changed the destiny of Singapore from an obscure fishing village to a great seaport and modern metropolis"

Well, should be no surprise to anyone who've been through the horror of what I call education in Singapore. But directly facing Raffles, someone has set up another statues, this one in concrete, rough, poorly made, holding a trenching spade.

And just under this statues, in cupboard, are these words:

"On this obscure site and many others we landed on Singapore soil since time immemorial with our labour and toil changed your genius and perception from a mere idea to a concrete reality"

This, to me, is the real Singapore story. It's never about one man.

p/s: I don't want to live in a "City of Possibilities", I want to stay in a "Nation of Opportunities".

The Big Question 1

2007-08-09T10:01:00.000+08:00

WHO ARE YOU?

Going on a trip!

2007-07-12T23:41:00.000+08:00

I'm off to Thailand and Cambodia for a 10 days fieldtrip. Part of summer school. The programe has been somewhat packed. I averages 4 hours of sleep a day. Keep u posted. Seeya.

Just follow lah, not my problem.

2007-07-11T21:31:00.000+08:00

The government regrets an error which led to a 20-year-old vandal being caned three strokes more than ordered in his sentence, but has rejected his family's request for 3 million Singapore dollars ((1.94 million US dollars) in compensation, a statement said on Sunday.

[Tomorrow Link]
[News Link]
[Oikono]

World-class system can also makes mistakes. You really think we'll never hang a innocent person? When that happens( it could well have had happened), it will make murders of us all. Everyone. No the system didn't do it. We did.

Hospitals just follow law?

2007-07-11T21:15:00.000+08:00

There's a news report that suggests that a woman died because the hospital could not/would not give her enough blood. The family even got 200 people to show up to donate blood because they were informed that blood would only be released if they could get enough people to donate blood. [Tomorrow link]

Compare this with another report not too long ago where a recently (declared) deceased man was wheeled away to have his organs removed, against the wishes of his family. The police force acted, in my opinion, in a most unjustified manager. [Tomorrow Link] [The Matrix Island Link]

Our health care, like all our government branches, seems a tad impersonal and uncaring. No?

What's so good about in-camp training?

2007-07-08T23:20:00.000+08:00

Nothing much, that's what. Ok, seriously. What me and a lot of people thought is that we should be way past doing all this night walk and digging stuff. We are really not so fit any more and the heavy load really is straining us. Lots of people took status, meaning they get to avoid training. This makes our fighting strength very small indeed.

On the other hand, I really enjoy taking time out to catch up with the gangs. Boy, how have we all growth. Relationship problems are common. Good news is that one of the boy got married shortly after and most of the platoon attended.

Work is hard. Everyone agrees on that. Not everyone has as much opportunity. I can still remember how everyone wanted to get away from the army, all those years before, where the future is still uncertain and beckoning. Now that the unforgiving outside life has taken its toil, there is the unspoken sentiment that army life between brothers is not that tough after all. There is certainly not much smiles on our faces when livelihood is mentioned.

Everyone seems to have growth kinder. I'm not sure if we have mellow and mature or if we simply glad to see each other faces again. People who have been tough throughout army life have suddenly become gentle, for lack of a better word. More polite. It could be because we have grown apart, but I suspect it's something else.

Maybe we are (secretly) glad to have a excuse to get away from it all. To shed away all our responsibility and burden, even for a while, and return to a simpler time. Perhaps it's a chance for us all to be with people who see us as just us. Without all our labels that we wear so tirelessly in day-to-day life. The actors that we are, we long for a chance to remove our mask, or at least put on a lighter one.

Maybe.

In-Camp Training

2007-06-17T18:15:00.000+08:00

Be back on the 29th.

Recommendations

2007-06-16T20:50:00.000+08:00

Tis to share my love of Kevin Smith's movie. I was hocked after Alex showed me "clerks" which he find, and I agree, to be a deeply existential movie. I was moved, because in a very depressing way, that's my life. Hey, I see all sorts in my line of work as a customer service officer.

Another reason I like his movie is because of all the recurring themes I like, homosexuality, religion, vulgarity...

Kevin Smith is an incredibly funny man and his story is the source of many a young artist inspiration. Check them out:

Clerks (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109445/ )
Mallrats (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113749/)
Chasing Amy (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118842/)
Dogma ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120655/)
Jay and silent bob strike back (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0261392/)
Clerks 2 ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424345/)

Also on my list of recommendations is the online comic strip: Sinfest
It's just the best. Calvin and Hobbes is well regarded by many as the best published comic strip ever. Well, Sinfest is too naughty to be published but I like them both equally. Calvin and Hobbes makes me feel and slow down, Sinfest makes me ponder and want to kick some ass.

Where to buy balloons and pumps in Singapore?

2007-06-16T02:42:00.000+08:00

Well I have this thing with balloon arts, not very good at it, but think it's fun.
So anyway, recently someone emailed me and ask me where to get the balloons and I typed out a reply that might just be useful for someone who is also searching for balloons. So I thought I'll just post a short part of the reply here, a sort of a faq if you will:

...Ok, the balloons. What we are using is called the "260", there is a thinner version called "160" and a thicker version call "350". The numbers, I guess you figure out, stands for the dimension. Stick with the "260" unless you have need for the other sizes.

There are a few brands, and some without brands. I usually go for the branded ones, but you have to learn to "judge" the quality of the balloons. Qualatex is the market leader and you really can't go wrong with it. Of course, they cost more. Recently I think there was a price hike. I used to buy a packet of 100 balloons at between $14 and $15.

You call get balloon and pumps at most party stores. There are several at the top floor of "The Concourse" shopping mall.

If you are looking for a wholesale supplier, try: http://www.bezballoons.com/
they are located at 62 Tannery Lane and can meet ALL your needs. I remembered buying a packet of balloons at $10 each, but you have to buy more than 10 packets.

Of course, if you like me nowdays, just want to buy a few packets once in a while, a very good place is Party City. They have 2 branch, one at Holland Village(shophouse 277A, level 2 Holland Avenue) and one at Raffles City #03-28. Raffles city is easy to get to, their balloons are cheaper(?) and sits in air-con which is good for balloons and more importantly, the sales girls are cute.

As for pumps, you should know that they are 2-way pumps and 1-way pumps. Up to you. Get a good Qualatex one at Party City for $9.90. I can sell you my brand new one for the same price if you want.

The cheapest pump I found so far that actually work quite well is at "Chia Nephews Toys Pte Ltd" at 4 & 5 Tan Quee Lan Street. It's 2 way and cost $4. A great bargain. Check it out, it's a very interesting shop run by a pair of funny brothers.

So there you go, you ask for one place and I gave you a whole parade...

These are just my option of course.

Bed Bugs!

2007-06-16T01:35:00.000+08:00

OH MY GOD! I just found bed bugs in my sleeping mats! Thrown them out immediately. And clean and vacuum the place. Hopeful this is enough to get rid of all of them. I'll keep my eyes peep in the next few months to see if they come back.
And before you say I'm a pig, bear in mind that I'm a guy, it's natural that I pay less attention to things like laundry and showers, in view of more important things like computer games(I recently started re-playing Diablo 2, doing a ice-sorceress).
And seriously, it could happen to anyone. Anywhere. See it says so right here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedbug
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/bedbugs/

Mr Alfian Saat unexplained termination

2007-06-11T13:29:00.000+08:00

http://www.blurty.com/talkread.bml?journal=sleepless77&itemid=161258
http://tomorrow.sg/archives/2007/06/09/alfian_saats_unexplained_termina.html
http://www.yawningbread.org/arch_2007/yax-754.htm
http://mrwangsaysso.blogspot.com/2007/06/alfian-saat-is-very-talented-person.html

A delicate teacher(not to mention a talented poet and writer) whom the head of dept had no problem: "professionally and pedagogically" was unexpectedly terminate by MOE without any explanation.

Mallsick

2007-06-05T19:18:00.000+08:00

What's the deal with all those malls all over the place? Singapore seems to be overrun with air-conditioned malls. You can't get down from a Mrt without walking through one. There's a new one near my place, Ang Mo Kio Hub they call it. I can't stand the place and I have never been able to place my hand on why until now.
There must be like several hundreds of shops there and not one, none whatsoever, is a book store. Not one. And the thought disgust me. The endless shops selling shoes, bags, video games, jewelleries. And the food, OMG, the food stalls.
To me this just shows how shallow we as a people are(we as a people? Don't make me laugh). All we sick bastards do are eat and shop. That's our life. Buying bags after bags and shoes after shoes.
And we eat. Oh yah, we live to eat. My first reaction at seeing the foodstalls is: How can anyone eat this much? My next question is: How can anyone eat in THIS asylum of a place? The noise is enough to give anyone a headache. And when I have had a close look: How can anyone eat this shit?
The thought is depressing. If an alien lifeform is to document our existence, the report would be about a branch of short lived assholes who spend their life grabing money to buy stuff they don't use and eat and eat and eat.
I mean, common, where's the culture? Unless you count malls as a form of culture.
I blame this phenomenon on the observation that we, as a people, are not well educated. In fact, most people in Singapore does not recieve an education, but rather an instruction or a training. Schools teaches life skills, and since our life is all about making money, life skills = money making skills. If something doesn't earn you money, it isn't worth knowing.

Auditor General’s Report - Millions Missing

2007-06-05T10:05:00.000+08:00

TOC

The original Auditor General Office’s (AGO) audit of 12 Ministries and associated statutory boards has revealed irregularities to an extent not fully revealed by the recent Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

According to the AGO, losses of public monies added up to $6.2 million, a substantial amount of which is still unaccounted for.

The Auditor General’s preface to the report states that ‘This audit approach is not intended to reveal all errors and irregularities.’

In the report, the Ministry of Law lost a potential $77,666.64 safety deposit because its computer system could only register sums to the nearest dollar. It appears under the header ‘No $77,666.64 security deposit because of 36 cents’.

The report details how these millions were lost in a detailed account of mistakes and dubious practices.

The Ministry of Home Affairs, for example, charged rental far below the market rate, forgoing $2.38 million that should have gone into state coffers. The Ministry of Law, in addition to the 36 cent mistake, left our public funds $386,829 poorer by failing to implement rental increase. This was described as an ‘oversight’.

The list goes on.

The Ministry of Manpower delayed collecting a $501,998 debt for a grand total of 15 years. When it decided to finally recover the sum of money, the company disputed the debt owed but the Ministry did not have the necessary paperwork to ‘substantiate the debt’. National Development lost us $228,000 in foregone rental, and Trade and Industry overpaid $1.87m in grants to a statutory board (since recovered).

The largest outstanding sum identified was the Ministry of Health: $136.2 million for Phase III of the National University Hospital development project has still not been recovered despite having been completed in 1996.

More questions than answers

The report raises more questions than it answers. Procurement irregularities are unexplained: a National Development contract was awarded for an eighth ranking bid (in terms of price) out of 11 without any justification. Further, the officers signing the contracts were not authorized to do so. Under the column ‘subsequent action’, all that is said is that the Ministry ‘streamlined procurement procedures…which would prevent such lapses from recurring’. Not even an ex post facto explanation about the dubious procurement.

The ‘subsequent action’ detailed for other irregularities and mistakes do not offer much elaboration. In the case of the Ministry of Manpower’s half a million dollar mistake that spanned 15 years, it gave assurances that ‘levy debts will be resolved within a much shorter time frame in future’ and that ‘future relevant documents’ would be retained.

TOC Opinion

Theonlinecitizen (TOC) recently reproduced in full the report by the Public Accounts Committee (here), convened by Parliament to scrutinize irregularities highlighted by the Auditor General’s report for financial year 05-06. It gave few concrete figures to highlight the irregularities it was pointing out.

TOC has obtained a copy of the original AGO report, which gives a far more comprehensive overview of the scope of the irregularities. This is reproduced in full (see below). We hope that members of the public will step forward to scrutinize the report and ask the necessary questions of our public servants.

In light of the limited scope of the Auditor-General’s report, we believe that the public deserves a more thorough audit of its public offices. Further, action needs to be taken to examine why these mistakes occurred in the first place: What are the fundamental causes of these lapses? Is it systemic or is it just incompetence on the part of the departments involved?

What were the consequences of these multi-million dollar mistakes?

This report can either be swept under the carpet to the further detriment of the credibility of the media and our government, or it can serve as a reference point for a new era in government transparency and accountability.

We hope the latter will prevail.

I'm just too tire to make comments.

Bra-stripping fine for Singapore radio broadcaster

2007-06-05T09:45:00.000+08:00

SINGAPORE (AP) - A Singapore radio show is being taken to task for holding a contest in which female studio guests were asked to remove their bras from under their clothes and pose for a video webcast.

Singapore media regulators say the competition was exploitative and inappropriate. They are fining MediaCorp Radio the equivalent of about $10,000 for contravening Singapore's broadcast code.

Regulators say the March talk-show segment challenged a group of women to take their bras off in the shortest possible time.

Singapore, known for its tight restrictions on media and political speech, has relaxed censorship regulations for some films and plays in recent years.

Women on the talk show were asked to hold their bras up and pose for a video camera recording the event to be posted on the broadcaster's website and video-sharing site YouTube.

Regulators said the radio show hosts made sexually suggestive remarks about "how fast the bras were removed, as well as the colour, design and cup size of the bras, and the size of the girls' breasts."

A government statement said such contests have a negative influence on young, impressionable listeners and suggested that DJs show more restraint.

"As celebrity figures and role models, DJs wield influence over young listeners, and hence, should conduct themselves in a socially responsible manner," the statement said.

This story has me googling "Singapore Bra Stripping". Cool.

Seriously, what's wrong with taking off your bra and talking about sex? What "negative influence"? What "young, impressionable listeners"?

Everyone thinks about sex, what's wrong with talking about it? This country is way too up-tight. Everyone should masturbate more and loosen up.

Big things

2007-06-02T08:54:00.000+08:00

You know, everyone is like: "I want to do this shit, I want to do that shit." And all the shit are important shit. You know, shit like saving the world shit, making money shit, famous shit, hero shit, educate the world shit, invention shit, you know, big shit. What about the small shit? Huh?
What if all the big shit in the fucking world is make up of small shit? Who's gona do all the small shit?
Have you heard anyone saying: "I wan be a taxi driver." No, dude. You only hear people say they want to be a chief Justice or a minister or shit like that. What's the fuck with all that?
Maybe that's what wrong with the world, everyone wanting to do big things and people doing the small things are so fucking piss with what they are doing that they do a fuck up job.
Hey, fuck. What if all the big things are make of small things and all the big important things are like fuck because all the small things are like fuck.
Maybe there are no big things. People just like to live with the delusion that they could do something important. Well, either all things are important or none of them are.
Fuck. Look at your life. Look at your fucking life. What makes you think you are all that important or better than anyone else?

New Tag

2007-06-02T08:46:00.000+08:00

Decide to add a "General Nosense" tag, because, let's face it most of it IS.

Results for 2nd semester

2007-05-26T09:41:00.000+08:00

English For Academic Purposes (Arts) B
Introduction to Economic Analysis B
Founders of Modern Philosophy B+
Metaphysics C
Philosophy and Film B+
Singapore Society B-

Cap: 3.4

Sucks! Meta-my-ass!

Friedrich Nietzsche - quotes

2007-05-23T23:49:00.000+08:00

The greatest weight.—

What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you in your loneliest loneliness and say to you:

"This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence—even this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned upside down again and again—and you with it, speck of dust!"

Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: "You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine!" If this thought gained possession of you, it would change you as you are or perhaps crush you; the question in each and every thing, "Do you desire this once more, and innumerable times more?" would lie upon your actions as the greatest weight! Or how well disposed would you have to become to yourself and to life to crave nothing more fervently than this ultimate eternal confirmation and seal?
--

A traveler, who had visited many lands and peoples and seen several of the earth's continents, was asked what quality in men he had found everywhere. He said: they tend to be lazy.
To others, it seems that he should have said, more rightly and significantly: they are all fearful. They hide themselves behind customs and opinions. At bottom every man knows quite well that, being unique, he will be in the world only once and that no outlandish coincidence will shake together, a second time, such a marvelously variegated multiplicity into unity as he is: he knows it but hides it like a bad conscience—why?
For fear of his neighbor, who demands conformity and cloaks himself with it. But what is it that forces the individual to fear his neighbor, to think and act like a member of a herd, and to have no joy in himself? Shamefacedness, perhaps, in a few rare cases. For most it is idleness, inertia, in short that tendency to laziness of which the traveler spoke. He is right: men are even lazier than fearful, and fear most of all the burdensome nuisance of absolute honesty and nakedness.
Artists alone hate this lazy procession in borrowed manners and left-over opinions and they reveal everyone's secret bad conscience, the law that every man is a unique miracle; they dare to show us man as he is, unique even unto each move of his muscles; even more, that by strictly in consequence of this uniqueness, he is beautiful and worth regarding, new and incredible, as every work of nature, and never boring. When the great thinker despises human beings, he despises their laziness: for it is on account of their laziness that men seem like factory goods, indifferent, unworthy to be associated with or instructed.
Human beings who do not want to belong to the mass need only to stop being comfortable; follow their conscience, which cries out: "Be yourself! All that you are now doing, thinking, and desiring, that isn't you at all."
Every youthful soul hears this call day and night and trembles at it; for it has a premonition of its eternally fated lot of happiness, when it contemplates its true liberation: a happiness it can never attain to, so long as it lies in chains of fear and convention. And how desolate and senseless life can be without this liberation! There is no more unpleasant and adverse a creature in this world than the man who has evaded his genius and who now looks peers left and right, squinting behind him and all about. In the end, one cannot come to grips with such a man, since he is all exterior without a core; befallen, bedaubed, baggy robes, a trimmed ghost that cannot provoke even fear and certainly not pity.
--

The madman.

Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the market place and cried incessantly: "I seek God! I seek God!"
As many of those who did not believe in God were standing around just then, he provoked much laughter. Has he got lost? asked one. Did he lose his way like a child? asked another. Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? emigrated? Thus they yelled and laughed.
The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his eyes. "Whither is God?" he cried. "I will tell you. We have killed him—you and I! All of us are his murderers! But how did we do this? How could we drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? And backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us? Do we not need to light lanterns in the morning? Do we not hear nothing as yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we smell nothing as yet of the divine decomposition?—Gods, too, decompose! God is dead! God remains dead! And we have killed him! How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives,—who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it? There has never been a greater deed,—and whoever is born after us, for the sake of this deed he will belong to a higher history than all history hitherto!"
Here the madman fell silent and looked again at his listeners: they, too, were silent and stared at him in astonishment. At last he threw his lantern to the ground, and it broke into pieces and went out. "I have come too early," he said then; "my time is not yet. This tremendous event is still on its way, still wandering—it has not yet reached the ears of men. Lightning and thunder require time; the light of the stars requires time; deeds, though done, still require time to be seen and heard. This deed is still more distant from them than the most distant stars—and yet they have done it themselves!"— It has been related further that on the same day the madman forced his way into several churches and there struck up his requiem aeternam deo . Led out and called to account, he is said always to have replied nothing but: "What after all are these churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchers of God?"

Why we have tummies.

2007-05-23T21:12:00.000+08:00

Taken at NUS YIH canteen.
Honey and Cinnamon sugar and butter? What is this? Sugar bomb? Honey not sweet enough for you? You need sugar with that?

Butter with pork floss and condensed milk? This is either so right, or so wrong.

A sign!

2007-05-14T20:19:00.000+08:00

I finished my exams, and I went on a walk-about. All sort of adventures and interesting things including trespassing onto Malaysian land(come to think of it, it's kind of suspicious). Anyway, this sign which I saw. 2 sentences which by themselves are meaningful and usual. It's just kindof strange when they are put together.

If it's monitored by cameras, why do you need us to call the police if there is anything suspicious?
And we should call the police in cases of suspicious activities because the place is important enought to be monitored by security cameras which are nevertheless prone to failure during periods of suspicious activities and must rely on civil minded citizens who happens to walk past to call the police.

Groundhog Day

2007-04-16T01:02:00.000+08:00

I just did a paper on Groundhog Day. If you haven't seen it, you really should. It's a 1993 comedy film starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. It's deeply philosophical (but then all good movies are), and religious people love it( one reason is that it contains speck of wisdom from Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and Christianity). It's a great feel-good comedy and quite a decent romantic film. It's deep and meditative without getting preachy.

Phil, played by actor Bill Murray is trapped inside a
time loop in the small town of Punxsutawney while covering the annual Groundhog Day festival. Every morning he wakes up in the same bed and it’s always February the second. He has to relive the entire day, again and again, apparently without end.

Here's my paper for those of you who are interested:[pdf]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog_Day_(film)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107048/

14th May 2007: Hey I got an A for this paper. Althought prof. commented that the language is "somewhat rough". I really got to work on my english this vacation.

Happy Birthday Professor Dawkins

2007-03-27T21:14:00.000+08:00

Richard Dawkins celebrated his birthday on the 26th of March. Friends and well-wishers from all over the globe send him pictures, videos and audio messages. Here's mine.
Check out other's here.

Happy Happy Joy Joy Parliament

2007-03-25T12:54:00.000+08:00

I read this article on Little Speck: Too much self-praise, What Singaporeans want is some frank, value-added debate. By Seah Chiang Nee, The Star on Mar 24, 2007. [Link]
It reflected on a topic that I have been thinking about so I thought I'll post it here.

NEEDED in 21st Century Singapore: A new breed of articulate Members of Parliament who can match the likes of Lee Kuan Yew, S. Rajaratnam and David Marshall.

With few exceptions, today’s lot – whether in government or opposition – lacks that sharp tongue and fire in the belly that marked the previous generation of politicians.

As the Old Guards left one after another, they were replaced by young, co-opted technocrat-MPs, who were good problem solvers, but who lacked the passion and ability to motivate Singaporeans.

Neither are they good at debates or explaining policies in the pull-no-punches way that Minister Mentor Lee and his peers could do with ease.
The lack is fine as long as the PAP continues to enjoy the complete trust of voters the way that Lee had.

But his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, is dealing with – and has to win over – better educated, more cynical citizens with very high expectations.

That requires the party to govern with more than top scholars and good policies; it also needs people with the power of persuasion.

After demolishing all strong opposition one way or another, Minister Mentor Lee has admitted that many young MPs lack the opportunities to learn the thrusts of political debate.

For its own survival, the PAP has to allow its MPs to speak frankly and openly on issues of the day, even if it is galling to the party.

It has another reason to do this. It has rejected the opposition playing a checks-and-balance role in the government, saying it can do it by itself. For this to be credible, observers say, it has to be seen doing it.

Most Parliament sessions here – unlike in Kuala Lumpur – have been tame, polite affairs involving prepared questions and answers, after which the MP would sit down to make way for another.

This was evident during the recent Parliament budget session that was to give important tax changes (GST up 2%) and rising poverty a proper airing.

Most government MPs spoke in favour of a rise in the unpopular Goods and Services Tax – no GST can be popular anywhere in the world – from 5% to 7%. Yet they made it sound like it’s the long-awaited salvation.

(The budget also provided offsetting payments, with the poor and older people getting a larger share, which will help to mitigate – for five years – the impact on the lower class).

Singaporeans are generally opposed to the GST increase, which is the centrepiece of the budget, and several government MPs pitched for more aid to the poor.

But the majority of backbenchers praised the budget, some in exuberant terms that are opposed to public sentiment.

Despite the leaders’ exhortations to MPs to speak their minds, not many had done so.

A sample of backbenchers’ exuberant praises included – “generous and forward looking”, “good intentioned” and “made in heaven”, “a landmark budget”, “wonderful”, “innovative” and “pragmatic.”

The generosity of the budget is possible under the stewardship of the ruling People’s Action Party, said one MP, sounding like a Pyongyang news headline.

Another remarked: “Nowhere else in the world can you get a budget which includes love and compassion in abundance as this one.”

Some young Singaporeans say they were turned off by these flowery but useless descriptions.

Even a commentator of the pro-government Straits Times, Chua Mui Hoong, was moved to call on the PAP MPs to go beyond “cheerleading”.

“Too much self-praise by the PAP is off-putting,” she wrote.

“An MP's role should include critiquing policies, voicing independent points of view and scrutinising the executive's decisions,” she said, adding that some did so, but they were a minority.

Former PAP MP Hwang Soo Jin, 71, related how a doctor had surprised him by asking why Parliament had bothered to debate the budget when the government had already decided to implement it.

Hwang wrote in the Chinese Lianhe Zaobao that there was a 'chasm' between Parliament and the people.

After Lee Kuan Yew stepped down as Prime Minister in 1990, his successor, Goh Chok Tong had steadily eased up on control of people’s’ lives.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who took over from Goh, has pledged to continue the process.

Some feel Parliament could do with the return of several strong-minded ex-PAP backbenchers, who had the moral courage and skills to take on ministers.

They included former Speaker Tan Soo Khoon, Dr Tan Cheng Bock and Dr Wang Kai Yuen, who have left behind an outspokenly biting legacy.

Soo Khoon once hit out at government wastage, targeting seven gr-and ministerial building projects, labelling them sarcastically as the “Seven Wonders of Singapore.”

He likened some of these gleaming new buildings to five-star hotels, which led him to wonder if the ministries were competing to see which of them could “be better than the Four Seasons Hotel.”

“(People) complain because they realise that if you spend so much money, then we will be taxed more. That's why people are unhappy,” he added.

Parliament is a stepping-stone for tomorrow’s leaders, which explains why MPs should be encouraged to use their flair.

Some analysts, however, believe that sustained periods of affluence and stability are not ideal to producing brilliant leaders; only chaos or wars can.

It was chaotic Singapore in the 50s and 60s that threw up leaders like Lee and his contemporaries – and that just can’t be re-created.

Enough said. Well I have to say that the Singapore Parliament does seems to be very boring, to me anyway. It looks, to me anyway, staged. Kind of like WWF. I use to believe that WWF were for real when I was young. I mean they look real, the people appears to be really fighting one another, they seems really passionate about what they are doing and stuff. But in the end, it's all a show. The outcome of the fights are always decided forehand. Kind of like the reality TVs we have nowdays. The results are not exactly surprising.

Maybe I am not been fair, but maybe been on the same political party does make it hard(er?) for you to disagree on policies. It seems that the MPs will come up all hot and enthusiastic on some issues like: "are you sure Singapore can support a the growing population?(6.5 millions)?", "are the welfare payment really enough?", "is there enough done to off-set the GST impact?", "our transport system, is it good enough?", blah... You know.

Then some ministers will come on and in a nut shell says: "yah, don't worry about it, we're good."

And then the MPs will be like: "Oh, really? ... Ok."

That's what it looks like to me anyway.

And our few oppositions are not really very impressive, frankly.

That's why its so hard for Singapore government to answer a question straight and not treat us like idiots.

There's no one to hold their feet to the fire and asks difficult questions and demand a straight answer.

Do you agree?

See! I told you people are weird!

2007-03-24T22:01:00.000+08:00

Or at least horny.
A guy was charged with having sex with a dead deer that he found in a ditch.

http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/03/oh_deer.html#comments

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/1122061deer1.html

Enough said.

Humans are weird 2

2007-03-19T07:31:00.000+08:00

(I have to break up the post into 2, blogspot won't let me post one long entry.)

We also do self-mutilation, or self-inflicted violence as some would call it. What's the deal? Who the hell will want to slash their own arm? [Link]
No animals would do that. The concept would be too strange for them to understand.

We not only like to hurt yourself, we also like to hurt other people( not to mention animals). We call it torture. And we are very good at it. [Link] It take thinking to come up with so many different sorts of tortures. The Chinese were surprisingly very good at it. The Roman were petty creative. I hear a good torturer can keep you alive for months, even years.

It's not all in the past though. WWII would see some outstanding examples in the use of tortures. Cambodian recent past can gives you a few pointers. All these happens not too long ago, less than 50 years.

And for the toture-inclined but in a hurry kind of guy, you can consider human sacrifice. Popular in almost all major religions in the past and still happens more often than you think till very recently. South East Asia was filled with human sacrifices. And then that's the problems of deciding if witch-burning is a form of human sacrifice. Oh well.[Link]

You know what's really really weird? Necrophilia. Fucking a corpse. Again it happens more often than you think. It's happening right now. Only a human, with all our intelligence, can look at a dead body and think of fucking it. No animals would do that. The thought would not even occurs to them.

Only humans, who is superior to all other animals, could have done any of the above things. Can anyone explain to me why?

Humans are weird

2007-03-19T03:27:00.000+08:00

No doubt about it, we humans do some strange things. Things no other animals do.
You know what's interesting? Suicide. There are over 1 millions suicide a year and many more attempts. That's about one every 30 seconds. But the time you read till here, another guy have bite the big one. I said guys because more guys die in suicide than woman, although the woman attempt more. We are better at it. If girls want to talk about equal abilities, more woman have to die in suicide. The rates are rising, it's a fact, check it out yourself: [Link]

And we are the only creature to do than. Have you seen any animals jumping off down a building? Or lying down in front of a train? Or hanging itself from a roof? No. Only human.

And if it's not enough than we kill yourself, we kill other animals too. Not for food. But for fun. That's what hunters do nowadays. The thought of hunting for fun would never occurs to a tiger or a lion. Hunting is hard work.

And if's not enough than we kill other animals, we kill other people too. Murder. Now that's a human concept. As society progresses, murder is considered bad manners, so we change it to assassination. A new name.

And when we do it in huge numbers, we call it genocide. Happens more often than you think.

And when both side kill each others in huge numbers, we call it war. Oh yeah.

Now if you combine killing yourself with killing other people, why you are a probably a suicide bomber.

Suicide bombers. Now that's a strange concept. I mean what's your excuse? "Because God tells me to"?

Religion. The big one. We can convince ourselves that there is a man (clearly a man because only a man can be so egoistic) in the sky who sees all and hears all, and spend his time listening to all our problems and from time to time fixes them.

Now, the man has a list of ten things we cannot do and if we did any of them, we will go to a place of flames and fire and torture and pain and suffering and damnation for ever and ever and ever.

And you know what, the man loves us. Oh yeah.

Continue on next post...

You can speak in Tongues!

2007-03-12T01:23:00.000+08:00

It's easy. Anyone can do it. Lots of people are doing it.

If you want to speak like that (and why won't you want to), but don't know how to, this is your lucky day! Why I have a YouTube video here to teach you how.

And if that easy to follow guide could not help you, have no worries! Because I have found you a Speak in Tongues in 5-Days or Your Money Back deal! It's guaranteed!

Just do it!!! ahunnnn moooarrr juuteeee nanoooo verrrrr bbbabbbababa oororor hhaahah!

Seriously, people actually do this stuff. Normal, intelligent and rational people.

Link to malaysian athesit article.

Let's make babies

2007-03-08T22:28:00.000+08:00

What to do? The country needs more babies.

Show your patriotism, your country needs you now.
Ladies keen to do your part, please send a recent photo to email below.
Only those above the age of 16 need apply.

What's wrong with Singapore.

2007-03-07T10:24:00.000+08:00

Our great leaders
The news for the last week has been mostly on the parliament debate, or the lack of it. Mr Brown made a list of the top 10 things our ministers and members of parliament said about the new budget. It was “soooo good”. The excellences of the budget aside.I have begun, sometime back, to take everything the government said with a pinch of salt. The reason is simple. I realise that everything that is been said, has an agenda. I mean, seriously, these are politicians. It’s doubtful even how much of their own opinions they can express, after all most of them are from the same party. What we have here is a system where a single party find its own member and through various means get the people they chose elected. It’s kind of a weird system in the sense that I don’t know how much of the people’s wishes are represented and how much the people actually wants the “chosen ones” to be their voices in parliament. Although I must also admit, it kindof work (I prefer it to the mess in US for a start). But there are drawbacks to everything.

Sense of Belonging
One of the drawbacks is that the people’s sense of belonging is eroded. If you can never have a say in a place, the place never really belongs to you. And this is a serious issue. And this issue will get increasingly serious with the influx of immigrants (6.4 million I heard?). The new immigrants, having just arrived have little if no sense of belonging or emotional attachment to Singapore. So the increase amount of new immigrants will reduce the total sense of belonging as a whole. While the current citizens on the island have a certain amount of emotion attachment, it too is reduced by an increase in the amount of “outsiders” in their country. It may not sound nice, but it’s true (and I don’t mean it in a bad way). The newcomers have their own language, habits, bla….and well I would said, Singapore as a general whole are not too happy with this invasion of their space. Anyway, the point is, the more different Singapore becomes, the less sense of belonging we can come to expect from the common man in the street.

The 10 years series.
What’s wrong with the 10 years series? Well recently MOE phased out the pre-1997 ten years series because the syllabuses have changed. Well, that’s pretty reasonable, but the students(and I suspect the parents) panicked. It was reported (thesundaytimes march 4 2007) that students are hunting 2nd hand book store for the old 10 years series. Prices have increased for those old books and I suspect(again) there will be a pirated maket going on soon enough. Kiasu? Yes, but more than that. Singapore students pass exams by doing 10 years series. To a point where if you want higher marks, do more 10 years series. I dare say if we ban 10 years series, Singapore students won’t know what to do. Why do I say that? The only subject without 10 years series is literature, which also happens to be the subject Singapore students score worse in. I suspect (yet again) that the concept of walking into an examination hall and expressing yourself without a prior answers to refer to scare the hell out of our students. “But what if I don’t put down the correct answers!!!” Personally, I hated 10 years series, never actually did any. I feel the over-reliance on 10 years series breed a generation of people who are good at memorising a given answer and sticking to it. Destroys ones confident of expressions. And forms a habit of doing the ‘correct’ thing, which may not be the right thing.

Censorship
So many things to say and examples to give. I’ll just give a recent one: Incredible wife makes disappearing act
What the fuck were they thinking?
Seriously, creative industries are going to have to play a great part in Singapore economy, after all our only resource is our people right? Well I just want to say that for creative individual, either everything goes or nothing goes.

Strange world, no?

2007-02-19T17:14:00.000+08:00

It has been a while, and I must utilise my time-tested excuse of heavy schoolwork, as my reason for not posting. This Chinese new year break is the only time I had for a long time to gather my thoughts and focus my attention onto something other than school.(No idea whatsoever, of course.)

Anyway, Chinese new year is a time where you can observe who is the leader in the beverage industry. You know, with all the people you have to meet everyday, and all of them holding a drink; you can tell roughly what's popular and what's not by what are snatched up and what are left untouched. From my unscientific observation, pokka green tea is leading the pack. I would say well ahead of cola and F&N. That's no question, I like it too.

An interesting and unexpected discovery I made from this study is that most of the major players in the drinks industry, make their orange and lemon drinks totally from syrup. Yes, not a drop of real juice. It's all artificial favors, all of them! Now, I know that you won't find this shocking nor interesting, and neither do I.

But! Consider this. I have right now, siting on my kitchen sink, a bottle of dish washer, that claims that it's made out of REAL lemon juice! Why, oh why, do we use real juice to make dishwashers and uses artificial favours for our drinks?

And to drive the point further, in my showers, there is a shower gel (brand name is a name of a bird) which states that it contains no less that 1/4 hydrating milk! I guess the world is divided between people with not enough food and people who showers with 1/4 hydrating milk.

Scotts has a funny blog on North Korea vs capitalism.

So we figure it’s better to send them money in return for – and this is the genius part – North Korea NOT doing something.
We’re pretty smug about our capitalism, where we exchange actual goods and services for money. But I think you’d have to agree that the North Korean system of agreeing to NOT produce any goods and services, in return for massive amounts of money, is a better way to go.

Remember Alice in wonderland? Where down is up and up is down?

Life is brief. Fall in love, maidens...for those of you who knows no tomorrow.

2007-01-24T22:25:00.000+08:00

Life is brief. Fall in love, maidens,
Before the crimson bloom fades from your lips,
Before the tides of passion cool within you,
For those of you who know no tomorrow.

Life is brief. Fall in love, maidens,
Before his hands take up his boat,
Before the flush of his cheeks fades,
For those of you who will never return here.

Life is brief. Fall in love, maidens,
Before the boat drifts away on the waves,
Before the hand resting on your shoulder becomes frail,
For those who will never be seen here again.

Life is brief. Fall in love, maidens,
Before the raven tresses begin to fade,
Before the flame in your hearts flicker and die,
For those to whom today will never return.

ゴンドラの唄(Gondora no Uta) Song of the Gondola
Composed by Shimpei Nakayama, lyrics by Isamu Yoshii
Link

Ikiru could be my best loved movie. More on this later.

Is metaphysics possible?

2007-01-12T00:25:00.000+08:00

In metaphysics, we did Aristotle's statement:

"There is a science which takes up the theory of being as being and of what "to be" means, taken by itself." -Metaphysics, Book Gamma, section 1

We talked about the presupposition that the structure of our language reflects the structure of our thinking, and that the structure of thinking reflects the structure of reality and we were tasked to post an answer to this question:

What reason do we have to believe that the structure of language and thought reflect a 'structure of reality'? If there is no such correlation, or if we cannot prove that there is, does that mean metaphysics is impossible? If this is the case, there is a further question. If mathematics is a language the structure of which reflects that of a certain category of thought, if physics and the natural sciences depend heavily on mathematics (as they seem to), does the hypothesis that there is no correlation between language and thought on the one hand, and the structure of reality on the other, also render the natural sciences impossible? Or is there a difference between these sciences, and a 'science of being qua being' that makes a difference here?

I have no idea.
Anyway, This is my post:

The relationship of thought and language is, in itself, a sticky chicken and egg dilemma without the added complication of them reflecting the ‘structure of reality’.

I think what we can all agree on is that language has evolved to allow us to communicate with each other and each of our languages is influenced by our different culture. Take for example, the old saying that Eskimos has 100 words for snow. Well, if you live in a place where you have an urgent need to know the different between “snow that is melting”, “snow that is moving”, and “snow that is going to kill us”, it make sense to have a large vocabulary for snow.

Taken in this sense, language is simply a toolbox of labels that we use to share information. It doesn’t really matters what colour the screwdriver is, as long as it gets the job done. Shakespeare seems to agree when he wrote “A rose by any other name, will smell just as sweet.”

But now the chicken and egg game has 2 different players, namely thought and reality. What evidence do we have that our thought structure reflects or is even capable of comprehending reality? Take for example, Einstein’s general theory of relativity, it turns out that space and time are variable and interchangeable. The faster you go, the slower time goes for you, and matter causes a “dent” in space-time? Now these are really weird ideas, and honestly, it’s not a concept you can explain and understand using words.

But the fact that this theory and many others have been discovered shows that our minds can comprehend the working of nature that we don’t even have words or pervious knowledge of. And the fact that this knowledge has proven true over repeated experiments is a clear sign that our understanding of the universe is ever increasing and evolving.

Professor Richard Dawkins sums up my point beautifully with his “middle earth” analogy. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4676751.stm)

Our brains had evolved to help us survive within the scale and orders of magnitude within which we exist, said Professor Dawkins. We think that rocks and crystals are solid when in fact they were made up mostly of spaces in between atoms, he argued.

"Are there things about the Universe that will be forever beyond our grasp, in principle, ungraspable in any mind, however superior?" he asked. “Successive generations have come to terms with the increasing queerness of the Universe."

"Middle world is the narrow range of reality that we judge to be normal as opposed to the queerness that we judge to be very small or very large." He mused that perhaps children should be given computer games to play with that familiarise them with quantum physics concepts.

Human beings need some methods of making sense of this huge world that lies outside the narrow range of reality that we are used to seeing; which brings us to the problem of mathematics and reality. Let me share my view of mathematics and why it does not render knowledge impossible.

Personally, I’m torn between the Platonist views that these objects do exist - just not as part of the physical universe, but as part of a separate universe of abstract objects; and that Mathematics is simply a story with certain constraints, written by human, just like in Sherlock Holmes.

My personal view is that universal ‘laws’ (for a lack of a better word), certainly exist. Like 1+1=2 and so on. So the laws are real and plentiful. We can observe these laws in action in our realm of reality, through experiments and so on.

Now mathematics is simply another toolbox, constructed as a proxy, for us to interact with and comprehend these “laws”. As they as modelled and build from the “laws” that we know of from experiences, they naturally reflect reality. In fact, their sole purpose is to reflect reality in a way we could understand.

If you look at the history of mathematics, we have constantly build upon the know rules and invented new methods of doing things. Mathematics is in essence a toolbox that has been put together by us who need to solve certain problems. If we came across a problem that we cannot solve with our current tools, we upgrade the toolbox, take for example, algebra.

Taken in this context, there seems to be no conflict between the “laws” of nature and the laws of mathematics. Our comprehensions of nature shape our rules of mathematics.

Yah, I was making it up as I go along.

Momofuku Ando (1910-2007)

2007-01-07T16:29:00.000+08:00

News Link

"peace will come to the world when the people have enough to eat"

Yes, I love instant noodles.
--

Feng Shui taught in our tertiary institution

2007-01-06T21:16:00.000+08:00

I was appalled and speechless when I chanced upon this article published in November 2006.

"Using science to learn about Feng Shui" My Paper, 28 Nov 06, (c) 2006 Singapore Press Holdings Limited.

Basically it's singing praises for a "Basic Science of Feng Shui" course offered at Singapore Polytechnic for the past 8 years. I cannot imagine why an educational institute with any credibility will want to be associated with this pseudoscience. I mean how low can you get to teach feng shui?

The feng shui people was of course advertising that their wisdom is good enough to be certified by a national polytechnic.

"first Feng Shui Master to offer training and education in Feng Shui through a nationally accredited tertiary institution."

As if this would give them any credibility.

Please, let us reason. Feng shui is the magical notion that luck, wealth, health and so on can be controlled by moving furniture, wearing a certain colour, carrying an amulet and sleeping in certain direction. It contains astrology, numerology, gemancy. It is by any reasonable definition, a superstitious.

As much as the believers would want you to believe, feng shui is not science. Let's ask a simple question. You claim all these wonderful and mystical knowledge that allows you to manipulate energy and possibly fate, and bring happiness and joy to everyone you meet. So the question is: "What evidences do you have that the world actually works that way?" If you are a reasonable and intelligent person, you would see that feng shui could not be proved. Do be a science, you need to be able to produce consistence and measurable results in controlled experiments. You can't just walk around and say it's true because I say so, and I have a nice suit and a fancy compass. What is happening here is that we are giving the feng shui masters a "magic check". He or she can say anything and give any advices and never be wrong. Who's going to correct them?
It's magic.

And the that's chi. You have to believe in chi if you do feng shui, because you are after all, moving chi around. Some call it energy, some call it vibration, whatever, you got to do chi, or the game's is up. It's the “energy” word that gives the whole thing a flavor of science. "Energy is a scientific thing right? It got to be science if you involve energy." My question is still the same, "so prove it". This mysterious energy that you find in all things (master yoda would make a fine feng shui consultant by the way), could you measure it? Could you detect it in any way? No? Well, then its not science, it's magic. Now many feng shui people would at this point, starts blabbing about how you can't detect this energy but you can see its effect on things...blah blah blah. Ok, next logical question. Can this mysterious energy of yours have any real effect on the physical world? Yes? Well, if it has an effect on the measurable physical world, then why can't we detect it? That's illogical. Oh right, feng shui doesn't need logic, it's magic.

I wanted to list down a couple of logical fallacies on feng shui. Logical fallacies are basically false or incorrect logical principle that makes an augment invalid. (Brorrowed shamlessly from the skeptics' guide to the universe and Practical skepticism)

argument from ignorance, we can't prove that it isn't true. We can't prove that feng shui doesn't happen therefore feng shui is real. It's impossible to disprove a negative. There are so many things that can't be disprove, I could be a alien. You can't disprove that.
argument from authority, there's why the suit and funny clothes are important. It's ture because the master says it's true.
argument from personal incredulity, I can't explain or understand this, therefore it's true.
false Continuum, there is a fuzzy line between science and this, therefore they are really the same thing.
Inconsistency, chi effects the world we live in, but we can't see or measure this effect.
"Special pleading, or ad-hoc reasoning This is a subtle fallacy which is often difficult to recognize. In essence, it is the arbitrary introduction of new elements into an argument in order to fix them so that they appear valid. A good example of this is the ad-hoc dismissal of negative test results. For example, one might point out that ESP has never been demonstrated under adequate test conditions, therefore ESP is not a genuine phenomenon. Defenders of ESP have attempted to counter this argument by introducing the arbitrary premise that ESP does not work in the presence of skeptics. This fallacy is often taken to ridiculous extremes, and more and more bizarre ad hoc elements are added to explain experimental failures or logical inconsistencies."
appeal to popularity, many people believe this, therefore it's true.
argument from age, it's got to be good because it is traditional or has been around for a long time.
Equivocation is the use of more than one definition of a word or phrase so that a faulty conclusion is reached. Think energy, chi, energy fields.
Galileo Gambit where the writer compares herself (or whoever she is supporting) to some famous person, noting some alleged similarity. "They didn't believe Galileo, and now they didn't believe me."
Scare tactics, threatened people with some undesirable consequence, ie bad luck.

Feng Shui is bunk.

The way I see it, there are people that genuinely believe in feng shui and its magical effects and they really wish to use it to help people. These true believers are sad, but forgivable. But then there are some who sees it as nothing more as a scam to get money from people. It's easy when there is no clear guage to what feng shui is. False hope has always been in demand.

To depress me even more about the state of the world, Motorola patented a Feng Shui measuring phone. [Link]

Our evolutionary direction?

2007-01-06T00:20:00.000+08:00

I was walking back home when an idea struck me (got to be careful, those buggers are everywhere) that human evolution may ceased to be influenced by nature selection. With all our break through in medical sciences and our mastery of our environment, we have transcend the limitation of nature. All the conditions and circumstances that have driven our evolution has ceased to be applicable to us. Nature selection for human has reached a new epoch. What will be the driving factors in the next phrase of human evolution?

In other words, what factors will give one human advantages over another in passing on his or her genes to future generations?

Is it looks? Wealth? Social Classes? Intelligence? Or maybe, has human overcome our age-old instinct to reproduces as many copies of our genes as possible? After all, sex is now more for enjoyment than reproduction. If so, how will human change? Will we instead of improving, fall back down a slippery slop, since there are no evolutionary pressures?

I don't really have any answers here, I'm just recording down what I'm thinking about.

Link: Is human evolution finally over?
--

Love's Philosophy

2007-01-05T11:23:00.000+08:00

By Percy Bysshe Shelly:

The fountains mingle with the river
And the rivers with the ocean,
The winds of Heaven mix for ever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single,
All things by a law divine
In one another's being mingle --
Why not I with thine?

See the mountains kiss high heaven
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister-flower would be forgiven
If it disdain'd its brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea --
What are all these kissings worth,
If thou kiss not me?

This poem (beautiful by the way) and the last 2 movies I watched on my TV, Love Actually and You got Mail got me thinking about "Love" as a concept. Penn and Teller's Bullshit! have a show on The Business of Love, watch it here:

We are all familiar with shows with the "they live happily ever after" endings. It's always "they" isn't it? It seems that a single "he" or "she" could not live as happily as a "they". With all this "love at first sight" and "riding off into the sunset", could we have been taken for a ride? Does the real world really works that way?

In the study of Sociology, we know that social conditioning can have a tremendous impact on people's behavior. We can predict at what age a person of a certain gender and social upbringing would want to get married, how many kids he or she would like and even what sort of person he or she is likely to marry. "Love" in this sense seems to be a very socially constructed arrangement. For example monogamy, which is not always the norm, has been taken to be a sign or criterion of "true love". Not too long ago, in a different culture setting, this Hollywood's ending would have little to do with one's "love" for a person.

"What is love" has always been a difficult question to answer, and is therefore a perfect philosophical question. Perhaps we could examine it using evolution, where individuals find that having a fixed partner have an added advantage in the division of labour. We can see the same partnership in countless animals such as lions, penguins , various mammals, and so on. Can their partnership be considered "love"? Could our "love" simply be a romanticised concept of choosing an advantageous partner to pass on our genes?

Does "Love" somehow involves the "Soul" or is it simply a chemical change in the brain?

Could we be spending a tremendous amount of time and effort chasing after something that doesn't exist in the first place?
--

Pirates and Emperor

2007-01-03T13:39:00.000+08:00

Well Sadam Hussein kicked the bucket, thanks to his old friend Uncle Sam. Is oil the reason?

History of Oil: WWI, Iraq war...

There are crimes so big, there are no law against them.

What is Philosophy?

2006-12-31T00:25:00.000+08:00

For those who don't know, I have decided to major in philosophy for my undergrad studies in NUS. I have encouraged several reactions whenever I told someone about this; people has it mixed up with Psychology, there is the usual "then I better not talk with you again, I don't want to be confessed" respond, the nice and polite "what is philosophy?" and of course the pragmatic "what are you going to do after gradation?" Philosophy seems to equal "cheeminology" for many people who are not expose to the subject, and who can blame them? The common imagination of philosophy seems to be Hollywood's middle-aged, slightly breaded, absent-minded man pacing around the common room of Cambridge, occasionally staring dreamily into space.

I too have thought that philosophy is lofty ideas and abstract concepts completely out of touch with reality, and lacking any practical value. It was not too long ago, at the beginning of the semester in fact, where I left the philosophical department with the impression, well:"These weird people are clueless about the real world, and possible wasting their life." I signed up for the introductory module, just for fun (like everything I do), and quite evidently, changed my view. I guess I can safely say here that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, or at lease, a misleading thing.

So I attempt here to record down, what (I feel) is philosophy. What is philosophy is actually a much harder question that people expect. it's like my own dilemma of answering: "What is Aikido?" A standard rigid answer like "Aikido is a graceful and gentle martial arts" doesn't seem to cut it, the collection of words doesn't tell the asker anything he or she doesn't know.

I could point to famous philosophers and points to the writing of Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Hume Kant; but that is not very helpful, especially for those who are unfamiliar with philosophy. And I feel this approach is not very honest, after all philosophy is everywhere you care to look.

The root word came from Greek, and means "Love of Wisdom". If I have to use one word to describe philosophy, I would use: "Question" (some people would use "nonsense"). To me, philosophy is the art of questioning. A quest I would say. Using logical argument, an integrated part of philosophy, it is the examination of ideas and beliefs that most people take for granted.

The diversity of philosophy is really mind boggling. From environmental philosophy, to philosophy of justice, moral, politics, life, mind, film, science, arts, government, religion...the list is endless. The recent court case of the teenager who was surfing on his neighbour's wifi connection has gotten Singaporean talking. He could have been sentenced to a maximum of 3 years in jail. Is it thief? What is stolen? Whose's fault is it? The owner for not securing the connection? If your sprinkler waters the garden of your neighbour, could you say your neighbour is stealing water from you? Is the law fair? Should laws be fair? Could laws be fair? These are questions that arise from a simple news article. Many questions like abortion, right of mothers? Simulated organism, alive? Death penalty, should we? These are questions that should, at the very lease, be considered very seriously.

But why? What's the point? It has been argued that there is no point in studying philosophy as all philosophy ever do is sit around quibbling over the meaning of words. Ancients problems since the time of Plato are still unanswered, and philosophers seems to be uncovering more problems everyday. Job security maybe but they never seem to reach any conclusions of any importance and their contribution to society is non-existent.

Meno has the same thing to say about Socrates around 400 B.C.

Meno: Socrates, even before I met you, I heard others talk about how you are always completely perplexed about everything, and how you drag everyone else down into the same pit of perplexity. And now here we are. I think you have been bewitching and enchanting me. You've cast some spell over me, so now I'm completely at a loss. In fact, if you don't mind my making a bit of a joke, I think you're very like a stingray - that strange flat fish that paralyses anyone who approaches and touches it - and not just in that way. You look like one, too.

Nigel Warburnton discuss in his book Basic Philosophy that:

"Start to question the fundamental assumptions of our lives could be dangerous, we might end up feeling unable to do anything, paralysed by questioning too much."

But humans, you and me, are born questioners. By that fact, all kids are great philosophers. Our young questioning mind holds the world in awe. Life was a series of questions, often followed by bad answers. For example, the physicist Richard Feynman liked to tell a story about how when he was a little kid, he asked his father, "Why do things fall. As an adult, he praised his father for answering, "Nobody knows why things fall. It’s a deep mystery, and the smartest people in the world don't know the basic reason for it." Contrast that with the average person’s off-the-cuff answer, "Oh, it’s because of gravity." (http://www.faqs.org/docs/Newtonian/Newtonian_77.htm)

Thinking back, many of the questions that I had as a child has not been answered, and more has emerged as I live my life. If has been said that an unexamined life is not worth living, no? It is my belief that for many people, it takes too much effort or too disturbing to ask ourselves such questions. Philosophy provides a fantastic platform to examine these questions.

I'm going to borrow an example here from BBC News:

One day, you wake up in hospital. In the nearby bed lies a world famous violinist who is connected to you with various tubes and machines.

To your horror, you discover that you have been kidnapped by the Music Appreciation Society. Aware of the maestro's impending death, they hooked you up to the violinist.

If you stay in the hospital bed, connected to the violinist, he will be totally cured in nine months. You are unlikely to suffer harm. No one else can save him. Do you have an obligation to stay connected?

The creator of the experiment, Judith Thomson, thinks the answer is "no". It would be generous if you did, she claims, but there is no obligation to stay, even if that means the violinist will die.

So how is this bizarre scenario related to the real world? Thomson used the experiment to show that a pregnant woman need not go to full term with her baby, as long as she had taken reasonable steps to avoid getting pregnant. It is thus a "pro-choice" argument.

The violinist represents the baby, and you - in the hospital bed - play the role of the mother. If you think unhooking yourself from the violinist is acceptable, but aborting an unwanted foetus is not, what are the moral differences between the two cases? In both situations, you could save a person by bearing a great burden for nine months.

I could not tell you how to think or respond in the above situation but I can show you inconsistencies in your thoughts if the 2 answer differ. There may not be an answer, but the question itself have opened new doors to look at the issue and the world.

Can you really solve real problems by thinking about things? Well, Galileo did. Aristotle believed that things fall at different speed based on their weight, and it was held as truth for centuries. Until Galileo extend the concept logically and come to a totally different conclusion:

SIMPLICIO: There can be no doubt but that a particular body ... has a fixed velocity which is determined by nature...

SALVIATI: If then we take two bodies whose natural speeds are different, it is clear that, [according to Aristotle], on uniting the two, the more rapid one will be partly held back by the slower, and the slower will be somewhat hastened by the swifter. Do you not agree with me
in this opinion.

SIMPLICIO: You are unquestionably right.

SALVIATI: But if this is true, and if a large stone moves with a speed of, say, eight [unspecified units] while a smaller moves with a speed of four, then when they are united, the system will move with a speed less than eight; but the two stones when tied together make a stone larger than that which before moved with a speed of eight. Hence the heavier body moves with less speed than the lighter; an effect which is contrary to your supposition. Thus you see how, from your assumption that the heavier body moves more rapidly than the lighter one, I infer that the heavier body moves more slowly.
[tr. Crew and De Salvio]

Stories have it that Galileo never saw the need to test his conclusion by dropping 2 balls from the tower of Pairs.

Philosophy severs at least another function by detecting bullshit. There are so many inconsistencies and ridiculous nonsense in the world that someone must say, "hang on, that doesn't sound right."

Lastly, I want to end by saying that everyone, whether you realises it or not, is a philosopher. Almost everyday, at so point, everyone engages in philosophical thoughts. Just like what my philosophy professor told us: "philosophy is not a thing that flourishes only in artificial environments ... like philosophy departments. No, it’s a stubborn, hardy weed that springs up just about everywhere you might care to look...".

Come for the answer, stay for the questions.

P/S: "The value of philosophy" by Bertand Russell makes the point better than I ever could. See it here: http://skepdic.com/russell.html

ahem...I passed?

2006-12-27T15:26:00.000+08:00

Hey, the results for my first semester at NUS is out.

How should I say this? It's like you leaving a socking by your bed on Christmas eve, just for the fun of it, and discovering that it has been filled on Christmas morning. On one hand you are sort of happy that you got presents but on the other hand, you are thinking: "How the hell did this happen? This is crazy!"

Exactly what I'm going through. "I didn't failed ANY thing? How the hell did I pull this off?" While I'm glad, in a happily selfish way, I'm also kina of losing faith in Singapore's education system in the sense that if I'm getting Bs, imagine the trash we are passing out the University.

No, I'm serious. If I'm the one marking my papers, I'll fail me. But that's not to say I didn't learn anything this semester, in fact, I had a great time! For the first time in my life, school is fun and actually lets you learn something.

Geography(1101E), Place, Environment and Society:"B-".
Well, I was never quite sure what geography is all about except that it got something to do with rocks and rainfall. The reason I picked this module is because T.C.Chang's mussing about "magical eyes" and "seeing the world in a whole new way" caught my imagination at the beginning of the term. I was not disappointed. Dr Chang's human geography has introduced an important concept that I have never consider before, the idea of "geographical imagination". How people impression of a place can be influenced and the various social and political agendas behind such imaginations. A good example will be Iraq. Think back to how the America media present the country before the war. isn't the images and message specially tailored to justified going to war? America was portrayed as liberators. Not unlike the colonisation of the East by Western powers in the pre-coloniser era. Edward Said has in his book "Orientalism" proport that Colonialism is the direct result of the stereotypes of the East by Western powers as lazy, backward, ignorance and needy of civilization. Such imagination has been used successfully to justified colonialism. Our P.M Lee's national day message and our national songs are flowered with various geographical terms, think "land of opportunity", "home", where I belong", "land of peace".
The physical geography by (the newly) Dr Lim is a whole lot of joy as well. They never fail to make me laugh.

Chemistry(1535), Our Atmosphere: A Chemical Perspective:"B-".
No idea at all, the exam is MCQs, what can I say? I'm lucky.

Philosophy(1101E), Reason and Persuasion: "A".
Ever have a classmate that never seems to do any serious work, yet breeze through exams, and score really well? Don't we just hate people like that?
Well, I think I have found my niche here. I really enjoy philosophical text and the lectures are better that stand-up comedy (to me anyway). I mean, it's really interesting. The realms of ideas, truths and uncertainty suits me who grow wearily of this mundane existent.

Sociology(1101E), Making Sense of Society:"B-".
Sociology is unsurprisingly a very popular choice of major. Not for me though, too much like real work. I prefer to read a book and call it research.

Southeast Asia Studies(1101E), Southeast Asia: A Changing Region:"B".
This is one fun module. We watch movies, listen to songs and discuss about black magic and sex. Way cool. What is puzzling is how I got a B, because I know for a fact that I did very badly in the exam, and my assignments are worth crying over.

War on Christmas

2006-12-20T16:32:00.000+08:00

I though I'll start after a long break with a Christmas theme post seeing how it's just around the corner.

Religion has been making headlines for the past few years, with Islam graping the most attention and Christianity coming a close second. It would seem unfair to pick on these 2 religion, bagging them with difficult questions and criticism. But these are the 2 biggest religion that are actively, and increasingly so, influencing politics and the life of millions of people. The best way to clear the room is to remove the biggest elephants first.

Religion has for too long been a sacred cow. It is THE convention stopper. Anytime people says: "This is my faith". People are suppose to politely look away, resits the urge to roll their eyes, and tactfully change the topic. Rational, open, and intelligent people who can talk at length about politics and sex are stopped by the mere mention of the the word 'faith'.

I do not have any issues about people who finds comfort in their faith and do not wish to question them. After all, there are some, if diagnose with a terminal illness would wish for their doctor to lie to them. But I do have BIG issues with people who let their personal faith interfere with the rights of other people.

I was browsing through Malaysian Atheist site when I came across his post on "Jesus Camp"

Last night I watched a horror movie. This one was scarier than all of Wes Craven's movies, all the Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street or Halloween slasher flicks I've seen before. And the amazing thing is that this movie doesn't have any psychotic killers, ghoulish monsters and no blood and gore. What makes this movie scary is that it is REAL and it's called Jesus Camp.
Somewhere out there in middle America, talibanic Christian fundamentalists are creating an army of children to wage war against secular America...

Unsurprisingly he is also a sympathiser of Richard Dawkins, which I am also a fan of. Richard Dawkins has liken blind faith to a virus to which we infect our children with. Children in their childlike innocence, is being scared shitless and brainwashed by the people they trusted the most. They are taught that Evolution and Global Warming aren't real. And what evident does the adults have that the world actually works that way? 'Faith'.

Jesus Camp has been uploaded into you-tube so, do see and judge for yourself if my statements are too harsh.

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl0MwNFry2c
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXLkJI5E4gM
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ5XxO3jI24
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kwsv3fSGbs
Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BM06UnCcI4
Part 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvvVYXW3gUs
Part 7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2absvyNj71g
Part 8: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2oUOu96a2k

While you are at it do, check out Richard Dawkins new book, The God Delusion and his documentary(free!) Root of all Evil at Google video.

Lastly, I want to make it crystal clear that I'm aware that they are many rational, loving and non-fundamental Christians around. Going to University has allowed me to meet more of you. My question to you is: "Why so silent?" Is it unawareness? Or a sense of helplessness? Religion has a history of causing clever people to do stupid things, so please stand up if you feel that your religion is been hijacked.

Mid-autumn pictures

2006-10-07T18:34:00.000+08:00

Mid-autumn is here again, the best festival of the year. I went to Chinese Garden last week and Bishan park last night. Here's a photo essay.

Chinese garden:

That's the lantern I made for myself.

Bishan Park:

Pictures taken by Adam:

Prime Minister dialogue and my crazy life

2006-10-03T10:54:00.000+08:00

Finally got a chance to update my blog. The last 2 weeks have been C.R.A.Z.Y. I was having my reading week and was trying to catch up on my essays and readings. Didn't do as well in the catching up as I expected. How I wish I do not have to sleep, where's those sleep replacement pill that was featured in those science fiction novels?

Just turned in my philosophy essay, is working on my South East Asia reflection, and that's a dialogue I'm writing for chemistry class (it's a nonsensical convection between a guy name Ted and Mr. Methane), not forgetting my geography project which is a major worry for me, a couple of tests coming up, I'm also kind of worried about my South east Asia project, haven't thought of what to do yet. Whatever lah.

Moving on to R&R. Mid-Autumn is just around the corner, and I went to Chinese garden last friday to take some pictures of the lanterns. I'll also be going to Bishan park this friday for pictures taking and I'm not ashame to admit, lantern carrying. Mid-Autumn is my favourite festival of the year, just about the only festival I enjoy. On another note, I've planned a trip with some friends to Batam some time in November. Not very sensible since exams are held then, but I figured, what the heck.

I went to the Prime Minister dialogue, both the pre-dialogue discussion and the actual dialogue. I enjoyed myself, saw a couple of friends from NEA, met a few new ones and generally had a good time.

I find the actually dialogue more open that I've imagined, beside the few questioners that were 'appointed' during the pre-dialogue discussion, the prime minister opened the floor for questions. The answers were somewhat 'old hat', meaning that it's nothing we have not heard before but we were actively encouraged to speak up. My impression from the dialogue and talking to a MP at the reception is that there is a big question mark from the government as to why there is a lack of involvement and voices from the young people. Doesn't help that all the voices in the web seems to be against the ruling party. Dr Vivian mentioned that we have one of the most accessible government in the world, that all the MPs' and Ministers' emails are available to the public, and there are weekly meet-the-people session.

A teacher reflected there is a lot of fear of speaking out about race, religion and so on at the ground level. She wanted to set up a prayer area for Muslim students and the school respond is: "shhh!!!" No one dare to discuss it. I feel this has a lot to do with the government tough stand against anything that have to do with race and religion. The goal post shift so often and so sliently that most people just don't discuss it at all these days. I wonder if this is good for the long term healthy of our nation.

I didn't really take in much at the actual dialogue, reading the news have given me somewhat of a spider sense of what the respond will be like. There are a few interesting point I picked up at the pre-dialogue discussion. One guy raised the issue of what's the purpose of oversea volunteering programmes organised by schools and youth organisation? Is it to help the people there, or to educate Singapore students? The cost of sending a team of students oversea to repair fences and paint a school could probably build 2 new schools in the area. That is something for us to think about. possibly if the aim is for the benefit of the student in exposing them to different culture, the parents would be more supportive.

The question of race came up, very strongly. A girl with brown hair said she was booked by a prefect in JC for having dyed her hair brown. Problem is, she is born with brown hair. Her mother, being french I think, has brown hair. The JC prefect gave a master augment against her claim: "No, your surname is Lim, so you cannot have brown hair." Beautiful.

Another lady questioned the compulsory education of mother tongue based on your 'race' . What happened was that a boy who speaks Latin and English was shuffled into our education system and forced at the age of 10 to take Chinese classes. After a many appeals and letters to the MPs was he finally allowed to drop the subject.

Many such responds followed. Inter-race marriage is the norm, globalisation...The common 'CMIO' Chinese, Malay, Indian, others division is been questioned by many as irrelevant in today's culture. The respond to that is the many older folks find a lot of pride in their race and would react negatively to it taken off, not forgetting about preserving the cultures, and roots... blah. Indeed I can understand the difficulty in doing away with the 'race' in our IC. So much of our system is based on 'race', from who can stay in which HDB flat, to what subjects you study in school...

But as Singapore open up, wouldn't there be more and more 'others'? Another funny tale that was shared by this lady with (i'm guessing here, can't really remember) brown hair, tan skin, brown eyes, in short, nothing like chinese, on how she can always start a conversion by saying: 'Hi, I'm a chinese." Turns out that when she was 12, her chinese mother brought her to SIR to declare her Singapore citizenship, and the civil servant sitting behind the desk asked her what's her race. She didn't want to be 'others' but she also don't want to be laugh at by being 'chinese' when she looks nothing like it. Anyway the choice is between chinese and others. That's when the civil servant offered her this million dollar advice: "Why do you want to be one of them, when you could be one of us?" And that's how she was made a chinese.

Janadas Devan wrote:

In my optimistic moments, I sometimes think race is merely a collective delusion that people share about their origins. Just substitute a better delusion for a worse one - call "the race of Abraham", for example, "White", instead of Arab and Jew - and there will be world peace. Regrettably, it is not as simple as that.

P/S: I heard the good news that Singapore Dreaming won the Montblanc screenwriters award. Congrats! They really did a great job. Hope to see more work from Colin and Yen Yen soon.

Joo Chiat walkabout

2006-09-25T21:38:00.000+08:00

Hey the prime minister forum post is coming up and so is a short update of what I'm up to lately. School work is really keeping me busy. For example, I'm trying my hand at writing a philosophical paper, among many other things. So far, all of them doesn't look too good.

Anyway, I went to Joo Chiat today on a self-motivated field trip, so I thought I'll share my day.

I was in camp early in the day, there was a briefing. I dug out my uniform, late as usual, but it turned out that, so was everyone else. My camp mate and me spend about an hour talking cock and we're done.

I took a bus to the SingPost building and was geared to start my stroll to Joo Chiat. Before that, I figured I needed some cash, so to my trusted POSB I went. And saw this:
"due to lease expired" surely that can't be right?
And "with passbook update feature" seems to be straining the English language.
Now, I'll be first to admit that my language skill sucks. So I could be wrong and that 2 lines make perfect sense. I don't know.

Hari Raya is around the corner, fasting month has began, the lights are up, and where better to experience it than Geylang Serai?

There is a giant pasa malam going on at the Malay village. Everything from food, clothing, textile, more food, mic staff that you find at pasa malam. It's huge. I finished 2 can of drinks just to walk through part of it.

These voodoo dolls seems to be getting hot.

Tangjong katong complex is also making an effect. Come to think of it, I used to freelance for a training company in this building. Wonder if it is still around. That experience installed in me a fear of public speaking and children ever since.

And my steps take me to Darul Arqam Singapore. I remembered going to a inter-faith dialog here a few years ago. They fed me well. And the people are nice.

I went on to Joo Chiat Complex where I spoke to a nice malay grandma whom I don't understand.

The chinese community are also setting up stores. Selling plastics flowers that will bloom for the years to come and handphones and what's not.

The wild preparation for Hari Raya can be felt even on a sunny weekday afternoon. People rolling carpets, frying food, washing...stuff, sorting out miles of fabric, basically just been busy.

Going down Joo Chiat road, let's play a game and count the numbers of different budget hotel we can find.

The Masjid Khalid, Khalid mosuqe.

I saw this really, really old fashion tailor shop. 'Yik Seng'. All the ah gong and ah ma there (3) are using those immemorial manual sawing machines covered with a layer of rust. They toil away with a sort of determine grit, that is strangely unsettling. The yellowed showcase contains relics of ancient fashion. It felt as if time is been looped in the shop.

Walking past those beautiful architecure that sparks of peranakan culture, I stopped for lunch.

There seems to be a number of acupuncture and TCM shops around. And you can't miss the South East Asian/Asia influence in the food establishments.
Joo Chait is filled with good food. From Indonianes to Vieminates cuisine, to Indian curry puffs to Haka dishes, and of course Malay Chendol and nonya dumpling. Not forgetting our beloved durian puffs. The pictures of all this food is too much to post so you'll just have to go down and experience them yourself.

Nice huh.

There's the Guan Im Tng. Or Kuan Yin, Godness of Mercy. Very popular bodhisattva.

Game number 2: Figure this out.

I passed by this ahmm..adult novelty & accessories shop call Black Rose. Not a name I would chose but hey, i'm just a guy.
The first thing I saw when I went in are 2 life size blow-up dolls, not for the faint-hearted, and the next things I saw are some very kinky costumes. Nice.
The shop's small and the very nice sale girl told me they just opened not long ago. The target are probably the budget hotels and she told me the ladies are the one buying, guess men are shy.
Well, and then it's time for the introduction to the merchandises. I wouldn't go into details here but at one point she told me to : "here try it... i mean, poke your finger in and feel it",... right. That I did.
Anyway, I am a poor student and any contribution towards the purchase of above merchandise is strongly welcomed. I promised her I'll be back.

Joo Chiat Road, the iconic picture.

I stop by to find out how this come about, turns out it's a branch, main restaurant in KL. Look japanese huh.

Sri Senpaga Vinayagar Temple.

And how can I go without trying the famous Kim Choo damplings. By the way, I'm too full to try the katong laksa, and who can blame me, die die must try next time.

Lastly, tell you people a cool place to hang out. Settlers cafe is where young and smart people go to talk and play board games. All sort of board games are available.

P/S: This just in, a friend told me the 'Red House' at katong is going to be tear down. It's already boarded up when I was there. So much for been "a valuable part of katong heritage".

technorati tag:Joo Chiat singapore singaporean

Singapore Dreaming

2006-09-11T20:39:00.000+08:00

Just caught the movie with Adam, a really good show. What's stunning is that we watched it on a Monday afternoon, usually a quite time for cinemas, and the hall was packed to the first row. Wow.
Posted this message in my sociology class forum:

Hi, everyone. I just watched "Singapore Dreaming" today, and I would like to recommend it to you.
To quote from the website(http://www.singaporedreaming.com):
"Singapore Dreaming is a story about a family with big dreams, living on a small island."
...
"Singapore Dreaming is a poignant, yet darkly humorous story about a typical Singaporean family coming to grips with their aspirations. It weaves a layered and moving tale about a family dealing with loss, ambition and the search for what really matters in life."

Socially (and I guess you could say academically), the movie explores many themes that is worth looking into. The economic straggle of the working class, gender inequality, social mobility, class stratification, family structure...ect, all in a Singapore context.

But more importantly, you should see it because you are in Singapore. If you are a heartlander, you will see some of yourself, your family, and your friends in the movie. If you are not, well you would see Singaporean, as we are. To quote President Nathan: "It's life in its reality."

I urge you to examine the issues and questions raised in the movie closely. Too many of us, for too long, have been following the "Singapore Plan" too closely. In our chase for a better future, we have miss something? Perhaps?
Maybe you have friends who declares righteously that they will only take modules that they are confident of scoring in? Maybe some are switching to faculty that seems to offer more chances of scoring well?

Don't win the battle, and lose the war.
...than again, that's just me.

We seem to be feed a winning formula from young. Study hard, "good" school, "good" result, "good" job, "good" house, "good" marriage, 2 kids. Not forgetting the 5Cs. Once we have them, We're THERE. The movie points out ironicly that the 6th C, is coffin.

In the movie that's a girl from China who said: "you give up your dreams to do something you are unwilling to, for money. To get money, I am doing something I'm unwilling to, for my dreams."

I'm almost afraid to ask people around me, "do you have dreams beyond the 5Cs?"

The movie blog.
The essay that started it all: PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS

technorati tag:Singapore Dreaming singapore singaporean

Party of the year!

2006-08-29T23:39:00.000+08:00

I was at the National Day Parade of course. Can't miss the show of the year. Actually this is my first time viewing it as a spectator.(Grandstand seats too, thanks Adam!) I took part in 2 National Day Parades a few years before, but I was, naturally, too tire to feel anything but relief when the Day finally arrives and we put on our last performance.

There was a sea of red and white at Kallang MRT station. Everyone was very corporative, wearing red and/or white. I did spotted a few in jeans and non-singapore-flag-colored shirt, wah lau, make some effect can? McDonald was also showing an enterprising spirit by placing wooden tables outside its shop to make space for the thousands strong crowd.

The traffic marshal was, as per tradition, a NS man. Hey, kind of remind me of myself 2 years ago. They play a great role. Seriously.

We met a couple of young people on stilt, and I got a sticker off one of them. Wonderful people.

There are place cards of cow like this everywhere. What's with the cow?

There was time for a little history lesson. I was counting the number of times MM Lee appeared.

As we neared the stadium,

I felt a strong sense of patriotism, and I saluted. Wow. You can't see it from here, but I was almost in tears.

We spotted this near the stadium. It seems friendly enough...

...so we posed for a picture. Check out my teeth!

Turns out there are a lot of stuff going on around the stadium.

Different groups were performing and I like the skipping best. I think they are from my old primary school, so there might be something there, but it's the pure spirit they display that attracted me. And also the ear-splitting screams of their supporters.

Also a young man blowing his trumpet.

And a little girl getting her face painted.

More wonderful people,

I may not be able to walk on stilt, but I can definely do the balloons. Yah, it's a hobby of mine. I can be creative too you know.

And we are finally in! We got tire of walking around and made our way onto our seats. This will be the last year the NDP will be held inside the national stadium, so there is a certain amount of sadness there.

The balloon lady got real close.

And our Ministers and MPs arrived! Mostly in white. You won't know this if you wasn't there. They were playing the song "(I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be) Free" just before the VIPs arrives.

Now the real show begins.

The fly pass.

The march pass.

The drive pass.

Oh yah, not forgetting the poor soldiers.

What a extraordinary day.

And I sit and contemplate it all.

The show went on...
and on...
and on...
some more...
not bad...
and on...

We love the fireworks.

And it ends with a bang.

Now that the official show ended.

Let's party!

I went around hugging people,

performers,

and random school children.

And it would seem, I'm not the only one.

People in costume are still partying,

eating fire,

and just fooling around.

Now I understand why they call it the party of the year. This is the part you don't get to see on TV. From the performance outside the stadium, to the children, till the end where our youth dance and party the night away on our nation birthday. Now that's worth going for. So if you went and left with the crowd, you miss half the show.

All photographs are courtesy of SHOTBYADAM.COM
technorati tag:national day parade 2006 singapore singaporean

Our nation, our home, our dreams, our hope.

2006-08-08T16:22:00.000+08:00

National day is tomorrow and this will be my first time at the National Day Parade as a spectator. Adam has been luck enough to get tickets for the grandstand (damn, how did he do this? It's like $300 in ebay I heard) and is kind enough to invite me along to the show. Well I was there for 2 years as part of the marching contingent, but then I was in the middle for 2 years and didn't get much of a view.

You know, I like to hear national songs on the air and tv. It gives me this warm fuzzy feeling inside and brings back memories of my childhood. I could just close my eyes and imagine I'm in primary school again. I found this official sing Singapore version of "Count on me Singapore" on YouTube.

And then been the devil I'm, I've found a link to a unofficial lyrics here:

The first few lines goes:
We have a revision of pay tomorrow
Just release, just release
We have a poorer Singapore
We won't receive, we won't receive...[here]

Make no mistake, I love Singapore. I love her for her stability, for her security, for her accessible education, for her lovable people, for her economy, for her rich culture, for her teh tarik.

And because I love the land I grow up in, I feel that some things can be improved.
For example, censorship. Take a look at this (really, you must, its sidesplitting):

We cannot use local dialects on tv, cross dressing is banned. Our movies and shows are heavily censored. Ideas, concepts and themes are restricted. We sometime have to go oversea to watch Singapore made movies. Which is silly. And just a bit sad.

I just got news that the police had issued a warning to Martyn See who made "Singapore Rebel" about Chee Soon Juan, but decided not to prosecute him, ending the saga.[news] Having seen the show on google video I honestly do not know what all the fuss is all about. I'm bewildered.

After Singapore banned protests and outdoor gatherings for the coming IMF meeting, the world watches as IMF and World Bank request Singapore to allow people more opportunity to express their views in the coming meeting. The World Bank expressed that: "effective inclusion of the voices of civil society is key to ensuring that the annual meetings are a success." An official organisation asking for people to criticise and complain against it? An idea that is somewhat shocking in Singapore.

Recently, after I was disappointed and sadden by the lack of opposition coverage in our media, and the Mr Brown affair, have turned to oversea news site and papers to find out about things that are happening in Singapore. I wish I do not have to.

I believe that we ourself is the best censor. I will decide what to watch, when to watch, what is right and what is wrong. If I feel something distorted the truth, I won't believe it. And I certainly won't be distressed by all the information.

I look forward to a time where we can freely publicly debate issues in a health, mature fashion.

For example this news report:
"MCYS has formed a nine-member parents' workgroup to look into the financial security of children with special needs. President of Autism Resource Centre and MP for Jalan Besar Denise Phua has been appointed to lead it... it will recommend initiatives on how such parents may enhance the financial security of their children."
Is there something more we can do? Is there enough voices speaking up for those who cannot speak for themself? This should at least be discussed.

People with passion and ideas are not out to make trouble. Very often, its precisely because they love this country that they feel that they should speak up. People get involve in all these issues and discussion because they feel we have a stake in the country. Compare that with those scholars who migrate after serving their bond, who's the true patriot?

We're all on the same boat. From time to time, we fight over who should be the captain, who should be in charge. We may argue constantly over which direction the boat should go. But no one, no one will deny that this is an important voyage. We may rock the boat from time to time, but no one will want the boat to sink.

I look forward to a culturally and ethnically diverse society. Where everyone, regardless of race, language, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, education and income can come together proudly with our heads held high as Singaporean.

And with that I salute our nation on her 41st birthday, and wish her a smooth journey on the seas ahead.

technorati tag:
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Photos from Aur

2006-08-04T12:41:00.000+08:00

What's up Superhero?

2006-07-28T21:42:00.000+08:00

Just seen the photos Adam took of me at the Green Volunteer booth. Cool huh.

Which make me think of my all time favourite cartoon show: Captain Planet!

I really miss shows like this. It's so much better and educational than the 30 minutes toy commericals kids have to endure nowdays.

I also attended the launch of eco 4 the world: passage of hope programe. There will be programs by NEA, SEC, Climate Change...ect at several libraries. I strongly encourage everyone to attend. The schedule is here.

You can find out more about environment awareness in Singapore from: Wild Singapore, Nature Society, and Singapore Environmental Council.

Better yet, sign up as a volunteer here!

Remember.
The Power is yours!

Get married, have a load of kids, don’t protest.

2006-07-26T16:06:00.000+08:00

I just received a SDS membership welcome package in the mail. Turns out that any single is a member by default. Unless you happen to have a university degree, in which case you will be promoted to a SDU membership. Frankly, in this days and age, is there a need to pre-classify people by our education level? How ironic that SdS's motto is “redefine boundaries”.
I found this poem at talkingcock:

An
Ode to the SDU and SDS
In a different world,
You would have been lovers
From the start
But the heart is complicated
For despite your similarities
You play up your differences
And refuse to merge.
"How can I marry down?"
Wails the SDU.
"Won't she look down on me?"
Cries the SDS.
And so, with duplicity in your hearts
You duplicate your functions.
With matchmakers like you,
It's no wonder
People in Singapore
Aren't
Getting
Married.

I appreciate the concern from the government of Singapore and I understand that it is of utmost important that young people get married and have kids fast to replace the aging, shrinking, and migrating population. However, I believe that we should not be having kids because of economic, social or moral pressure, but out of a sense of love and commitment.

I find the programs cute and sweet, but I can’t help noticing that my life is too regulated by the government. From what movies I can watch, the language I should speak, the news I receive, how I should behave, when I should smile, right down to how many kids I should have and when. It is any wonder that Singapore finest are leaving?
(Singapore has a high migration rate est at 9.12 in year 2006, compare to Switzerland’s 3.12, Canada’s 5.85, Australia’s 3.85, Malaysia’s 0, and Brunei’s 3.31)

On another note.
Come September, the IMF and World Bank meeting will bring with them the usual, and I would say traditional, protesters. This year, they will be coming to the Republic of Singapore.[news here]
Protests in Singapore are almost unheard of. There’s one last year outside CPF , one against the death penalty, one cute bear with an anti-fur message , and the Mr Brown protest .

Nevertheless, the activist have written an open letter to PM Lee, and

“The World Bank, however, has stepped in to assure activists that space for
civil society is being negotiated to avoid what some critics of the
international financial institutions says will undermine the credibility of the
Bank's claims to promote good governance, accountability, transparency and
democracy.”

I’m guessing that it’s going to be a NO-NO, or permits must be applied before protests can be staged, and the permits will be hard to get.

It’ll be interesting to see how this will turn out. Will Singapore allow foreigners to stage protests in its home soil while her citizens are often denied the privilege?

Balloon Sculpting at Sri RuthraKaliamman temple

2006-07-24T16:43:00.000+08:00

I was teaching balloon sculpting at Sri RuthraKaliamman temple last Sunday.
There's me in my Everyday SuperHero t-shirt. Brandon has been kind enough to help out in the class.

Birthday in Aur!

2006-07-20T12:05:00.000+08:00

Hey, I just got back from a diving holiday in Aur, a lay back island in Malaysia. I earned my PADI open diver certification there, it's a sort of a birthday present I gave myself. I'll try to post some pictures up if I can. My other birthday present from friends is a pair of rainbow coloured underwears, will actually the underwears outdo the the rainbow. I'm uing them as hats for the moment.
I have recieved a lot of Birthday greetings and ashame to say, I've not replied to anyone of them. But, I'll get to it soon. Been busy with studying for my upcoming QET this friday, and lots of stuff to sort out. Another balloon event coming up, some other volunteering opportunities, school admin(a killer), work at OSSC...ect.

4 million smiles outside, crying inside

2006-07-14T00:30:00.000+08:00

In case you still do not know. Singapore wants you to welcome the world with smiles when the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group come to town in September.[see news report]
We are going to welcome the world with 4 millions smiles, literally. Singapore 2006, whatever that is, has set up a web site and is encouraging singaporean to send in pictures of them smiling.

We seems to have borrowed the idea from Thailand, traditionally known as the land of a thousand smiles, and not wanting to be outdone, have upgraded it to a staggering 4 millions smiles. I thought my primary school days of impelling courtesy champion like movements are over. Apparently not. Well, by jolly! If we need to smile at those ang mohs, we better learn to do it properly. Since we are going to hire native english speakers to teach us how to speak english, why not have native smilers teach us how to smile? Our more experience friends in Bangkok have been kind enough to share their experience with us.

--
Updated 14 July

I just found out that Singapore is the most unhappy nation among Asean and Asian nations.[see news report]
The Happy Planet Index ranked Singapore 131th base on our "relative success or failure of countries in supporting good life for their citizens, whilst repecting the environmental resource limits upon which our lives depend."
Well, we certainly need more reasons to smile.

technorati tag:
4 million smiles singapore singaporean

Silent protest at City Hall MRT for Mr Brown

2006-07-10T12:55:00.000+08:00

At least 30 supporters turned up at City Hall station at 2:00 pm dressed in brown attire in support of the blogger, who goes by the moniker Mr Brown.

If even I know about it, I wonder why straits times and channel news asia doesn't.

technorati tag: mrbrown singapore singaporean Mr Brown

Project Street

2006-07-09T13:35:00.000+08:00

Hey, Adam has started a new project call: Project Street.

It's a project to take 50000 photographs of people on Singapore street. How cool is that!

technorati tag:photography singapore singaporean project street projectstreet adamL

I am Singaporean!

2006-07-07T19:15:00.000+08:00

My mother tongue was Mandarin, I didn't speak a word of English till I was in primary one.
Now, I read only English stuffs and can't write a decent sentence in Mandarin.
I try to speak good English, but I hate ang mo accent.
I never did understand why I can't buy chewing gum.
I take the MRT, when I can squeeze in.
I'm told to study hard all my life for a better future, now I feel I should have played more.
Everyone says study Poly good to find job, but after Poly still the same.
Every month 20% of my pay goes to CPF, for my own good.
I whined a lot during NS; but I never "gian" ok.
I hate reservist, but I never defer.
I'm a solider, but I have never fought in a war.
I do not smoke, but even if I do, there are not many places where I can.
I don't have to worry about no water coming out of my tap, but I must be careful about the water breeding mosquitos.
My parents voted for the first time in their life at the last election, so I guess I petty lucky I waited for only 24 years.
I love my flag, although I seldom see it around.
I am a Chinese, but my best friend is a Malay, and I think Indian girls are cute.

I am Yuen Ming De.

I am a Singaporean.

So say we all.

Technorati Tags: iamsingaporean i am singaporean singaporean singapore

A Sad Day

2006-07-06T12:57:00.000+08:00

Mr Brown's friday colume has been suspened. For those who don't know what happened,[click here]

Technorati Tags: Mrbrown

My farewell and D & D

2006-07-05T23:04:00.000+08:00

There. It's official. I have resign from my work and my last day was on Friday.
The people has been great, treating me to lunch, encouraging me, wishing me luck.

OSSC thrown a great farewell + July birthdays bash. That's cake, pizza, and for me an hongbo. Not taht I'll be totally gone of course. I've applied to work on a part time basics, and this arragement seems likely.

The D&D was much better than last year and I had a great time, taking pictures with everyone, and basically having a blast. Not bad.

Btw, Adam has just got himself a new site at AdamL. Photography. Definitely someone to watch for.
Happily, I too have started a new blog: I Doubt So, check it out.

Treetop walk

2006-06-15T14:26:00.000+08:00

Hey, I finally got a chance to do the tree-top walk with Joe and gang. It took like 5 hours and was definitely something I want to do again. Its just special to let go of the mundane tasks of our daily dibert existence to have a little peace and quite with nature.
There are a few beach clean up coming up, so I look forward to helping out there.
On a high note, I'll be going diving in Malaysia in July! Yuppie!

Arguments

2006-06-06T21:15:00.000+08:00

I'm sorry that I have had a few heated discussion with some friends, on a few occasions a couple of weeks before. As usual , I had held firmly onto my beliefs.

In my mind, I'm like:

My views are so clear, they make so much sense, why can't everyone see it? This is so obvious. Can't anyone else see it? You must be stupid not to see it!

I'm sure you can all relate to this.

Well, I'm a skeptic. A skeptic, and a really big one. I like to joke that if you see a ghost, what is the first thing you should do?
Ans: Drink water. You are hallucinating due to dehydration.(Then try to interview the ghost.)

It really took me a long time to understand that people are different. A hundred people will have a hundred views. You have no idea how relieve I'm, when I finally realise this. I own all that I could have offenced, an apology.

We all have our own views, our own tendencies, our own ways of viewing and relating to our world. It's like standing in different parts of a room and looking, the room looks different from different angles.

So where does all the views come from?
We are shaped by our thoughts, experiences, our likes and dislikes. We see what we want to see, and block what we don't want to see. We prejudge the world.

More importantly, how do we know which view is right?
How do you know, what is true? What is right? Human are notoriety good at bending reality.
I prefer a skeptic outlook base on facts, proof, Science, razor sharp logic and iron hard common sense.

I cannot guarantee that I will not disagree with people in the future, in fact given the bullshit I've been reading about, that is inevitable. I can only say I'll be doing it more gracefully.

Lastly a beautiful story:

The Chicken and the Duck
A newly married couple went for a walk together in Bishan Park one fine day after dinner. They were having such an enjoyable time together until they heard a sound in the distance: "Quack!
Quack!"

"Listen," said the wife, "That must be a chicken."
"No, no. That was a duck," said the husband.
"No, I'm sure that was a chicken," she said.
"Impossible. Chickens go `Cock-a-doodle-do', ducks go
`Quack! Quack!' That's a duck, darling," he said, with the first signs of irritation. "Quack! Quack!" it went again.
"See! It's a duck," he said.
"No dear. That's a chicken. I'm positive," she
asserted, digging in her heels.
"Listen wife! That is a duck. D-U-C-K, duck! Got it?" he said angrily.
"But it's a chicken," she protested.
"It's a blooming duck, you, you..."

And it went "Quack! Quack!" again before he said something he oughtn't. The wife was almost in tears. "But it's a chicken."
The husband saw the tears welling up in his wife's eyes and, at last, remembered why he had married her. His face softened and he said gently, "Sorry, darling. I think you must be right. That is a chicken."

"Thank you, darling," she said and squeezed his hand.
"Quack! Quack!" came the sound through the woods, as they
continued their walk together in love.

The point of the story that the husband finally awakened to was, who cares whether it is a chicken or a duck? What was much more important was their harmony together, that they could enjoy their walk on such a fine summer's evening. How many marriages and relationships are broken over unimportant matters? How many divorces cite "chicken or duck" stuff in the petition papers?

When we understand this story, we will remember our priorities. The marriage is more important than being right about whether it is a chicken or a duck. Anyway, how many times have we been absolutely, certainly and positively convinced we are right, only to find out we were wrong later? Who knows? That could have been a genetically
modified chicken made to sound like a duck!

* Adapted from <Opening the Door of Your Heart> by Ajahn Brahm, Abbott of Bodhinyana Monastery in Australia.

My first ICT

2006-06-04T12:58:00.000+08:00

One word: Siong!
What can I say? I'm going to kick the next person who tells me that in camps are "relaz!" Seriously, its is worst that my ATEC in Thailand(in which we got Best Infantry Unit of the year, btw). Been the super unprepared reservist that we are, we are SO taken back by the training schedule.
Met a SUPER ON staff-sergeant Neo, and was trying to convince us that Singapore Armed Forces is really a world-class one. I'll check out some of his claims and get back on this.
Well, as least no one is shouting at us now, and I take the chance to pass my IPPT for the year. I found a funny clip of MG gunners here, check it out.

On a side note, I attended an event by the girls brigade at Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Sec School on the 3rd of June, just hours after my in camp. I was helping out with some deco and the balloon booth. How should I put this? I was surrounded by a school of girls and ladies. Almost make all the suffering at ICT worth it. Must be karma. ^_~

Controversial Issues

2006-05-26T23:21:00.000+08:00

I have been occupied with life in general lately, with NUS application, ballooning activities, keeping up with the news and elections issues.

I have been visiting quite a few political blog and sites lately, will post them up soon and also update my links. They offer refreshing point of views which offer my mind more food for thoughts. I visited a few rally sites during the election period, and was "surprised" by the crowd. I guess this just show I don't REALLY understand the society I live in. More room for improvement here.

I have also developed a craving or habit of discussing highly controversial issues, i.e: evolution, is killing ever justifiable, is war ever justifiable, homosexuality, politics, stem cell research, abortion, nuclear development, global warming...ect

Guess I'm so use to bounding ideas and auguring with a few people that I've come to expect eveyone to discuss things the same way. I may be lossing friends this way, but I just can't seem to resist the chance to hone my thinking/auguring skills.

Oh well, what can I say? Just like what I keep telling everyone, young people should have a little fire inside them. A desire to change the world, an anger to right injustice.

And for heaven sake, No dogma! One of my favorite zen riddle goes like this:

If you see the Buddha coming down the road, what should you do?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Kill the Buddha.

Quite a surprising respond for such a peaceful religion. Can you catch it?

p/s: On a side note, I'll be going on In-Camp Training the whole of next week and will be back for a balloon event for the girl guides' carvinal on Sat.

Whoa

2006-04-27T15:23:00.000+08:00

Caught "Burn the floor" last Sat, went to aikido on Monday(and was down with fever for the next 2 days), went with Adam to scout for good photo location on Tuesday(possibly breaking a few law here and there), went for an Israeli Film Festival show yesterday, going for dinner with a gang today, going down to support a sportsman breaking a Guinness World Record this fri-sat. Didn't get any studying done though.

Strange News

2006-04-07T12:54:00.000+08:00

Have a day off today and was browing through the newspaper while having a leisurely (late) breakfast. Came across an article on Li Ao's comment that Singapore are "stupid". Just as I was pondering over this, I came across this article.

Three Singaporeans were found safe Thursday after getting lost on what they said was a mission to find a legendary karate expert on a snowy mountainside in Japan.

All three were dressed in light clothing, and get this, were instructed by one of the guy's dying father (a Singapore karate teacher by the name "Shui Jen Shui"), to seek out a legendary karate master in Soma Village, a district of Hirosaki, who would then give him a secret book on the martial art.
The quote of the day have to be this:

"Japan looked so small on the world map that we thought we would be able to find him straight away."

We could make a movie with this.

On another note, Scientists have discovered fossils of a 375-million-year-old fish, a large scaly creature not seen before, that they say is a long-sought missing link in the evolution of some fishes from water to a life walking on four limbs on land. Fossil Called Missing Link From Sea to Land Animals.

"...Other scientists said that in addition to confirming elements of a major transition in evolution, the fossils were a powerful rebuttal to religious creationists, who have long argued that the absence of such transitional creatures are a serious weakness in Darwin's theory."

In an interview, Dr. Shubin, an evolutionary biologist, let himself go. "It's a really amazing, remarkable intermediate fossil," he said. "It's like, holy cow."

I think it will be cool to create a series of balloon sculptors showing the different stages of evolution of a species. Maybe starts with the fish, reptiles, dinosaurs, birds, mammal, and then human.

***********************************************************************************
Update 14 April 2006: This just in, "Singaporeans believed to have found Japanese martial arts master". Just when I thought the world couldn't be more weird.

Chilling out

2006-04-05T12:50:00.000+08:00

As I write this post during lunch hour on a really "dibert" day. I couldn't help but delicate it to the glorious ghost of weekend past. Had a great time with friends and movies.

sight, my time is up. Reloading back to the dibert universe.

Discussion on marriage.

2006-03-28T23:45:00.000+08:00

A few of us from work went to dinner the other day and ended up with a heated discussion on

Marriage: before/after, are rules important?

...or something like that.

Not surprisingly, the view of the 2 married ladies differ from the view of a single lady. This interesting debate went on for some time between them with occasional input and summary from me and Brandon.

My crazy photos.

2006-03-25T21:31:00.000+08:00

“A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?”

-Albert Einstein

A well deserved break

2006-03-24T22:54:00.000+08:00

Felt a little guilty about leaving office. But I thought, what the hack, I deserved a break. Goodness, I don't even take MC.
Went to minnie's shop yesterday with adam. He wanted to take some shots for minnie. We went around scouting for good locations. I as usual, was there to have fun and be the idiot I love to be.

Of course there was also some time for some quite reflexion.

We finally droped off at minnie's,

before catching "V for Vendetta". Great movie, really. Make me want to stand up and cheer for him.
"Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. There is an idea, and ideas are bulletproof."

Thud! Apprentice! And a worrying message

2006-03-19T23:46:00.000+08:00

Must thank Lin for lending me Thud! Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Where is Mister Vimes when the world need him?

Watched the Apprentice. No matter how much people and evidence points against a single person, the person will always very strongly believe that he/she is right. So much for human huh. The scary thing is that these are the "cream of the corp" from all walks of life; if these people are incompetent and such jerks, what are the chances that the people at the top are actually any good, or that they even care?

Anyway, just tried to apply for financial aid for my course in NUS and that this message that says that the application period is over. Great. Now what?

William Blake, balloons(again), and the forever to do list

2006-03-14T21:47:00.000+08:00

Stumbled across the works of William Blake, a 17th century poet, painter and printmaker. Very interesting and thoughtful verse. Example:

'The hand of Vengeance found the bed
To which the purple tyrant fled;
The iron hand crush'd the tyrant's head
And became a tyrant in his stead.'

How often we do the very things we disapprove of, and become the very persons we dislike.

In my personal life, lots of chores and tasks to finish and in work, even more so. Friends have commented that I carry an ugly frown where ever I go. Gave up trying to finish work, instead adopt a guerrilla attitude.

Jul asked me about doing balloon sculpting for this year charity walk. Finally something to spark up my life. I was getting bored.

Have a few dinner appointment coming up.

Piss off at work by an injustice (again), there is really something very wrong and unfair about the way we do things, sigh, if only the voters know. Seems like I'm making enemies left, right, center; our unofficial motto stilly stands: Untill we are good, at least try to look good.

Got my permanent offer today, considering.

Too tire to string sentences together.

No news from the U yet. W'll see how it goes.

Rhinoceros!

2006-02-12T19:32:00.000+08:00

A tree is either growing, or it's dying. Just like us really.
The past one month I have taken on more work scoop and responsibility. Mainly due to the high turn over rate at my department. Very sad to see so many good friends leaving. It's beginning to seem like that the only proof of your ability is to resign. I have to say that the stress is getting to me, plainly, I can't breath there.

frankly, I don't agree with some of the things my org is doing and the ways we are doing it; And the people, oh the people, it only I can fire all of them. My inability to bring do anything about it, added by addition work load is killing me.

Looking back, I use to attack life with such energy. I enjoyed work, had dreams and wild ideas(being a masseur?), excised, aikido, sculpted balloons, took courses.
Now, I can barely get out of bed, hasn't being to aikido for like forever, can't sculpt a dog to save my life, and worst, have this really nasty temper and carries a frown wherever I go.

I need an exit, fast.

Being taking some personality test online(ask me how to get free reports from tickle.com!) and considering applying for U.

p/s: A friend who resigned, told me about a French play call: "rhinoceros", about a town where everyone is slowing turning into a rhinoceros, except for one person. I feel like that sometime.

Yibei's birthday party

2005-12-11T18:01:00.000+08:00

ohhh... What are friends for?

Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2005

2005-12-04T13:19:00.000+08:00

It took me 2 hours 39 minutes and 35 seconds, but I did it.

Oh-oh, I forgot about the marathon

2005-11-27T22:47:00.000+08:00

I just realise that i will be running 21km in 6 days time. Wonder where i can get some steroid online?

A beautiful finish for the CGW

2005-11-15T20:21:00.000+08:00

The schools carvinal finally came to a close, goodness, i was in office with Vaan till 2.30am for a few nights. Not to mention that i reported for work at 8.30am as usual. Didn't really remember how i got involve in all this...
I think it started with a email from Joe at the Environmental Council asking for volunteers for quite a few events. I'was interested in volunteering for a few, and seeing NEA name on it, naturally wanted to offer my help to NEA first(browniee points, yes?). I started asking around and got my name listed down in 2 of them. So thats how it happened, i guess.

I must say i work my ass off these events on top of my work and during my week-ends and ALs, and i love it!

School Carnival'05

2005-11-12T01:05:00.000+08:00

Wow, I just got back home. Was in office till 0:14am. Is that a record or what. Helping Vaanthy with the school carnival for CGW. Wondering what i have got myself into. Oh what the heck, let's just dive down.

Clean and Green Week Balloon sculpting photo

2005-11-08T13:06:00.000+08:00

We had a blast!

Balloons sculpting

2005-11-05T20:58:00.000+08:00

Wow, what a day. Saw Clara, and sis all in one day at the Clean and Green week opening. Those balloons had me aching at my fingers and the screming kids gave me a throbbing headache. Well in fact my whole body aches, most noticablely my legs because I stood for like 9 straight hours.
Gained my first balloon line work experience. Going for some more 2morrow.

i just wan to eat meals and sleep!

2005-10-29T23:11:00.000+08:00

Busy lately. The days are filled with activities. Trying to cheat by cutting down on sleep. A real torture. Been practicing my balloon sculpting skill, going to take part in the Clean Green Week this week-end. Went on a trip with SPI last night to all the supposedly hunted places in Singapore. Old changi hospital is really creepy. Must find time to review my insurance. Really should get back to aikido. Better start training for my marathon in dec. Let's just starts with eating meals and sleeping.

Sons of Singapore

2005-10-09T20:31:00.000+08:00

My brother just enlisted. First time I went back to tekon in 2 years, the island does look a little like a holiday resort. Now that I'm out.
Celebrated Hui Wei's birthday on sat. Hui wei remains the super blur buddy i remembered him to be. Can't imagine having to go ICT with him.
There seems to be a lot going on at work, and in volunteering activities. Taking part in 3 events in November. Hope to use some of my ballooning skills.

Juggling

2005-09-28T11:33:00.000+08:00

Being juggling with life, work, friends, sleep and literally, juggling.
I attended a short juggling workshop, can't say I can really juggle now, but I can manage a few passes.

Work is bending me double, work load is rocketing thought the roof. Somehow I have to help walk-in customers and phone enquiries.
The call centers for dengue is new, so they pull useless staffs from other dept to man the hotline. The call center staffs are not train to answer calls, guess who they transfer the calls to? Which makes me wonder about the need for call center since i can do all their job.
So, in putting on a front, we have under-staffed our depts, using untrained and unwilling staff to man hotlines, and basically, confuses everyone. When are we going to get our act together? We sucks. Everyone is blaming everyone elses for everything, and no one wants to help anyone else. I, myself has lost my temper and shouted at colleagues and customers alike for the last 2 days.

Update

2005-09-03T21:22:00.000+08:00

Went to my first workshop in nonviolent communication. Went for the Yellow-Ribbon walk. Went for the corporate massage workshop. Pain in right feet, so stopped training for my run. Must try harder. Got a cool looking running outfit. I'll be beating the girls off with a stick any day now.

Let's do it!

2005-08-28T20:39:00.000+08:00

What a month! The resigning rate broke a new record, no prize for guessing where all the work got dumped. It's not just our section but a departmental thing. Everyone is encouraging everyone alse to tender. Heck. This sucks. Morale is so low, it's in the mud. Tears every few days. Happily, I still going strong. After all thats that bonus I'm looking forward to in December. And, I love my job. No seriously.

Lots of things happening in my life too. I've been skipping waaay too many aikido class for my own good, that's because I training for a half-marathon. Yah, that's right. In fact, I'm ruuning in 3 events this year. 10km, 12km and finally in December, 21km. Hope the goodie bags are worth the affect.
Beside all the running, I have signed up for English speaking class, Non-violent communication(NVC, what-ever tat is), and corporate massage workshop. All this coming up in the month of september. Hopefully I'll find time to attend them (bearing in mind the resign-rate and the amount of work that's been pushed around).

I'll be taking part in a "Tie-a-yellow-ribbon walk" on 3rd Sep. It's part of the Yellow Ribbon Project. Why? Because some of the best people I know, are ex-offenders. Don't be too fast to judge a movie by its book, or a person by his past. Some of the worst people that we know, are not legally criminals(and i right, people?).

On a happier note, mid-autumn festival is coming up. It is my FAVature festival of the year. To me it's the most romantic. I'm buying lanterns and moon cakes for my friends, urging them to join in this celebration.

Who borrowed my Harry Potter 5 Order of the Phoenix?

2005-07-24T22:02:00.000+08:00

Ok, I have finished reading Half Blood Prince (HBP) once and is rereading it a second time. If i have time i might even post an editorial.
I'm looking for HP and the Order of the Phoenix, which i think i lent to someone, just can't remember who.
Is it you? Tell the truth!

Fund raised down by 30%

2005-07-24T21:56:00.000+08:00

I have noticed many student volunteers raising funds for voluntary
welfare organisations(VWOs) do not know enough of the organisation to
answer simple questions posed to them during flag days.
I have encountered many that knows only the name of the organisation,
and practically nothing else.

The public are now more wary of charities and will naturally want to
find out where their money are being channelled and to what causes.
Most will be asking what percentage of the donation goes to the
people.

If the volunteers cannot answer these questions satisfactory, the
public will be reluctant to contribute and may even lose confident in
the organisation.

So I think it is important for VWOs to educate their fund raising
volunteers to answer the questions that the public may pose. It is
also the responsibility of the volunteers to familiars themselves with
the working of the organisation, in order to present the proper image
of the organisation to the public.

The Best Birthday ever!

2005-07-17T02:06:00.000+08:00

Started the day going to work and waiting for my harry potter book to arrive. I was pacing up and down and very nearly freak out the whole office. But, it was just not mean to be and I guess I had to wait till monday. Hey, the wait is half the fun. I actually wanted to stay in the office to wait for it, but was talked out of it.

I cannot believe the amount of people who remember my birthday this year. I have like sms, phone calls, cards, e-messages, people wanting to have meals with me and stuff, my mum even suggested a family dinner. What a change from my last 2 birthdays in camp. sob...sob...You people are too much.

Adam is like calling me what, everyday, to have dinner together. I finally have to agree when he said he'll be bringing girls along. I had a great time.

Thanks guys, you are the best.

...now, to wait patiently for my belated potter book...the best present ever.

Of Dinner and Dance, resigning, and swimming

2005-07-03T16:58:00.000+08:00

Went to NEA annual dinner and dance, and I had a great time! So what if my dancing sucks? Is not like people can see me in the dark....or can they? And i get a free ride home! A lot of people are giving me rides home lately, another motivation for me to go aikido training more often. Remind myself to get a girlfriend who can drive me around.
Work is OK for me, but it seems like the "2 resigning per month" rate is still prevailing. A few tears here and there, the usual mumbleing, all's in a day work. It feels really sad to have all my friends leave. (Why is eveyone whom i like going somewhere else? Does nea sucks that much? The general point of view is that the people are nice, but the job sucks BIG time.)
On a brighter note, i have started learning swimming again. Every since i stopped after learning the breaststroke at like 9, this is my first formal training. The first lesson was fun, and I really want to learn the freestyle by the end of the lessons. Another motivation factor is that in the whole class, there are only 2 guys.

And so life goes on...

We live, work and dream,
each his own little scheme.
Sometimes we laugh,
sometimes we cry;
And thus the days goes by.

Siemens sucks

2005-06-29T20:43:00.000+08:00

I washed my 3 months old Siemens phone with running tap water today. It die. Boy, was I surprised. Life is full of something new. So I guess its time to get a new phone. Sadly I lose a few phone numbers too. Oh well.

aikido, again?

2005-06-26T21:14:00.000+08:00

Being to 2 aikido gathering, one is for euguen farewell, the other is to celebrate nyp new year. Heck. Looks like its time to carry-on training. Signed up for tanglin classes. Hopefully I can make it down more often.

A trip to Sungei Buloh

2005-06-19T22:03:00.000+08:00

Went to sungei buloh on a volunteer trip with VSA today. Reminds me of the jungle in my NS days. Saw a pair of otter! They are very uncommon, so i feel sooo...lucky.

Positive thoughts

2005-06-12T23:15:00.000+08:00

Ok, so my blog have been sounding really negative lately. But hey, i'm a whimer. It's sort of a way to relieve the pent-up pressure. And boy, do we all have a lot stress these days.

So lets talk about things that make me glad.

I have tons of friends who don't mind me been the idiot I'm. A healthy body. A (fairly) nice family. A stable(because we are already short of manpower) if busy, and enriching job. My insurance paid up. I enjoy dhamma talks, funny movies, swimming, aikido(whenever i can make it), animation on kids and arts centra, yoga(i have been like what, twice?).
I'm going to attend our annual dinner & dance, going to take part in another VSA volunteer activity, going to meet those wonderful kids and teens (who, sometime, test the very limit of my patient), taking part in a swimming clinic, harry potter coming soon(on my birthday!), learing to make more ballon sculpting, going to thailand in nov, and no doubt many other activities to come.

Well, so let's not let 2 bad bricks spoilt our view of the entire wall.

p/s
Heard this quote from a friend, how these it goes?..."Do not feel sad because the sun is setting, it means the stars will be out soon."

This is BullShit!!!

2005-06-11T09:18:00.000+08:00

Work sucks! Everyone is feeling so stress out that we are ALL falling sick. Worse, people are feeling guilty taking MC, so we work even though we are sick. More work and task are added to us everyday, not enough manpower, lack of support from management.
Suppose to be on a really interesting course, but because of work, i had to skip all the fun part. I'm not feeling happy about this. Feel like failing the course to go for it again.

Hey! Who wana catch Flipside at Esplanade?

2005-05-19T21:50:00.000+08:00

I wana watch Ristorante Immortale and The Return at Esplanade in the next few weeks.
Who wanna to catch them with me?

Vesak 2549

2005-05-15T20:42:00.000+08:00

Took part in the celebration at Orchard this weekend. Tiring and fun, good to see all those people again. Ehi Passiko.