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You gotta watch this mann. Sorry, am a sucker for instrumental renditions
Imba flute-off (like those guitar face-offs, no idea how those work though.)
no idea how people could have that much lung to blow for so long.
sundays are a very good time to get closer to god. it is the sabbath, a day intended for rest and to put a short pause between normally hectic weeks.
by getting closer to god, i don’t mean going to church — far from it! how the heck is anyone to feel god in a crowd of bored people in the middle of an either moralistic or monetarist sermon? religion after all is a personal thing. oh there’s everyone raising their hands, looks like a good time to raise hands. everyone’s bowing their heads, again follow. and half a day at that! i actually think that sermons can be delivered and settled in less than 15 minutes — but who would pay to travel all the way down for fifteen minutes?
by getting closer to god, i mean a spiritual experience. ….actually, i’m not too sure what that means — but today i lazed in bed all day and had this awesome cheese with fruit and nut thing for breakfast/lunch. then went back to sleep.
in my semi-meditative state from under my covers, i think i feel love peace joy, more than if i were to be under a sermon now — having to put up with tokenistic socialising in a Sunday Behaviour Mode. it is in my comfortable bed that i can appreciate all that i have and be thankful for my concerns being taken care of.
what better way to spend a sunday morning?
maybe if i actually got out of bed to go for a walk in botanic gardens, followed by a good (or at least proper) lunch. i wish i had a good lunch (which i sacrificed) but dinner time is soon. It occurs to me that if i skip an expensive lunch to laze at home, its as if a) i paid $20+ to sleep at home b) i skipped a day of work which would have paid me $20+. in the most technical sense, thats called opportunity cost i guess.
but the outside is hazy and my insides are lazy.
****
what?! tmr is monday?! nevermind, i must see that some closure happens tmr.
class tmr night and about ten days to Level Up. my energy is coming back.
normally i have something to look forward to over the weekends, heh.
let my mind go far a way
with you finding
something i can’t hear
beneath this curtain of impossibility,
awaits a tapestry of possibilities.
****
dozed off reading in bed. now up at midnight, partly due to mosquito bites on my back and stomach (how did those get there!). the thought that i have only five hours of sleep left till i must wake up is slightly depressing.
probably been too tired to do much lately. or plain uninspired. whats a bit of fatigue in the face of inspiration?
the week just passed by like that?
i lie
dissatisfied
under my covers
nothing inspires me
more than coincidence
****
almost exactly a year ago today, i reached this stage of not wanting to do anymore work, read any more, study anymore and prepare for my ib exams. in fact, i didn’t want to do anything. i merely loafed about for quite a number of days.
Does the world work in annual cycles?
A coincidence
that is impossible
is imagination
but by myself
there are some questions
i rather leave
unwrapped
*****
now to climb back into bed and prepare to wake early ><
What a crime. What kind of guy friends don’t share inappropriate remarks with each other? When it comes to making inappropriate remarks at other guy friends, i’d be very liable. some would say that it’d apply to not just guy friends…..but whatever, i mean, i never make indecent chest comments or send emails with TITLES THAT SOUND LIKE ADVERTISEMENT SPAM (heheheh ><). Nor do i ever abuse beulah.
After all, what sort of guy friends take offence at these things? In actuality, who realllyyyy takes offense at these things? even the sanctimonious ones ACT ONLY. even the offended ones normally wont seek that drastic an action with such obvious implications. I have mocked others in every possible way before, ranging from people’s sexuality to queer habits to appearance (among other things, the list goes on…like stupidity also.) I cannot think of what could be so offensive that it warrants this…apart from playing mother maybe. Especially if its to a guy…
But you see, its okay for me to make inappropriate remarks in jest — as long as i’m not a prominent figure and someone doesn’t Mc-******* me. And i do pray that i never become so prominent that such a thing happens to me.
The question is — what is the intention behind exposing these private comments? Justice for a grievance? What harm is done? Bollocks.
It is only Saboh.
The newspapers have focused on the wrong guy. If you think about it carefully, there is only one guy hurt here – he would have never expected such a thing from someone he trusted. (….and the hurt seems quite physical even -_-)
****
I’m a historian… the newspaper from my boss’ table only reaches mine about a week late.
Inappropriate Remarks sounds like a blog title. although it sounds a bit too much like Talking Bad -_-
McChee…
Watched Legend of the Fist (Chen Zhen) today – its like this combination of the two ipman movies, the dark knight and james bond combined. though broadly speaking, its just another one of those haphazard hongkong fighting shows with a lot of fighting.
The movie has a very ipman feel because of the usual nationalism and chinese pride displayed. In this movie, ipman fights both the angmoh and the japanese. The start of the movie shows a historical context of Chinese labourers (STOREMEN) at the western front. It is a part of history that is often forgotten in narrations of the WW1, only remembered in some chinese history books. Westerners don’t tend to remember the asian and the military doesn’t tend to recognise the important role of logisticians. It’s quite wtf as it shows ipman dodging freaking german machine gun bullets and taking them on with two knives. Later on, one of the scenes is plain deja vu when ipman fights an entire hoard of Japanese blackbelts before fighting the final general.
The movie also has a very Batman feel, but marginally, as he puts on a mask and assumes a secret identity. Especially how both he and Batman in The Dark Knight are in a rush against time to save the lives of assassination targets. Surprisingly, this doesn’t serve much of a purpose in the movie. it’s almost as if his identity was hardly very secret. This part was largely just skimmed over — there’s not enough fighting to be done here, hence not as important.
The movie assumes a james bond feel once there is the involvement of women, traitorous women and resulting torture. Casino Royale has this vividly memorable scene of Bond getting whipped between the legs as he sat naked on a wooden chair. This movie does something similar, courtesy of the Japanese. I think at times the movie exaggerates the extent of torture and the very medieval torture methods employed by the Japanese (i.e. ELECTRICITY is used on ipman)
I do like the realistic feel much like in Ipman 1 where the Japanese actually speak japanese. But I find it highly unlikely that there were women in the military then, much less a captain. My hunch is that the director just wanted to cast a lead actress in a soldier uniform, much like Red Alert 3 ><
Overall, its simply another chinese nationalist movie — with re-enactments of what seems to be warlordism in a disunited china and the mass movements by students ( a bit like May Fourth). It demonises the imperialist white man who works for the governor, exaggeratedly portraying him as a corrupt and racist (“CHINK!”) figure. It further demonises the Japanese as plain blood thirsty and very chauvinist (“Women are nothing more than toys” or slapping this other woman for commenting before “waiting for her turn to speak”), discounting the fact that such chauvinism was existent in China as well. But I guess this is a consequence of refusing to apologise for the atrocities of WW2 – -the chinese producers just keep playing on this nationalistic sentiment to make a historical fiction (and probably get a lot of state sponsorship for it). It is a good reminder, though at times over-exaggerated.
But it differs from ipman — ipman has too much of a Mr Nice Guy feel to it. This one is plain a lot of gore, blood, violence. No wonder its NC16, its really not meant for kids. The movie might be called “Legend of the Fist” in the english translation, but clearly, far more things are used than Fists alone.
I should stay away from such violent material — i don’t think its very healthy for the mind. ah, such sin.
I recently saw this in my folders while doing some clearing. I’ve no idea how it ended up in there. Some of us might have seen it before, but I’ve no facebook…. Facebook is really for stalkers.
Buy Ink Newspaper — Everybody Is Reading It.
….a more appropriate caption might be “hey, look! we’re in the news again!”
******
Digression:
A political scientist would look at an event and come up with a theory like how an imbalance of power as a starting point of a relationship is detrimental to the bigger power.
A historian would look at the events in hindsight, realise that it all made sense from the start by working backwards to examine the actions and the underlying motivations of the parties involved.
An economist would simply go, “I TOLD YOU SO”…after it happens.
It is seldom expected at first glance — but school is just so unhealthily political. What puzzles me is the reason behind this — educational institutions are more than educational institutions.
I pray that I never have to be involved in such scenarios (inasmuch as i am certain of prevailing, hur) it’s simply not worth it.
Which would be why I have this aversion to organisations/places that are large with a strong prestigious reputation of developing the career minded. You’re inevitably asking for such people through a form of natural selection. Not to say i’ll be completely without them, but at least they won’t be everywhere. It is for this reason that influenced my decision making process. It is for this reason I did not apply for the tsungli yamen overseas money for schooling. It is for this reason I hope i wouldn’t have to go to london (4th choice).
(yeah, one month into school and I been hearing bad things already. Actually been hearing them even before their school started. Ah what to expect, you put a bunch of lawyer wannabes together and that’s what you get.)
this is ridiculous. the one year of law course that i’m pursuing was supposed to complement my history application. What with “filtering and interpreting a mass of sources” as a similar skill set or my interest in the context of English History where common law institutions sprang forth.
The opposite seems to be true — it has become a distraction, even more than a magical right hand that can dispel any supernatural thing. Much of my week has been trying to plow through materials — four to five materials for four subjects that have each covered three to five topics. I’ve been caught up looking at contract law and public law, i haven’t even started much with criminal law (cos i’m quite certain about that one). There is not enough direction for the topic of common law reasoning and institutions.
It is to the extent that i have forgotten what sort of history readings i even need to do. Okay fine, i look at a few historical events like the Magna Carta 1215, the Bill of Rights 1689 after the Glorious Revolution and the Act of Settlement 1700 (correct me if my dates are wrong from memory) and maybe a bit on government abuse of power — but its all surface level.
This is contrary to an almost Schlieffen grand plan of playing catch up with law later. The fact of the matter is that i’m too caught up with the legal stuff at present — and (surprisingly) its partly cos i’m actually interested and enjoying it. After all, who studies law if they can’t use it to become a lawyer and make big munneh? Heh, I’m so judgmental. Which leaves me to wonder — how are some people who are unexpectedly doing law in london now doing…especially the science-ish kind of student? Again, I’m so judgmental.
with about less than three weeks left, i ought to come up with a reading list soon.
****
also lately, i’ve been in support of the american system of having law as a grad school. the various combinations of a foundational learning of history, economics, politics or philosophy first would probably mould a very different law grad student. There is some overlap between areas of law with those subjects.
the other idea i’ve been fiddling with is how a triple course of History, Politics and Economics might be a strong but unexplored alternative than the very renowned PPE course (which my little one has applied. another one of my friend thinks that the course is like telling people you have large privates). I would think that my suggested combination actually has even more overlaps and linkages. More importantly, it becomes more fact-based than theory-based.
went to watch some debates yesterday to check whether my brain was still functioning after some recent talk about debates elsewhere.
been left in a contemplative state for quite a while as these coincidental inspirations that accompanied me for a long while come back to me.
I’ve gained much and learnt much. Had a huge step-up for all my applications. i made a lot of acquaintances, some friends that have faded, and most important to me — other friends that i have grown along with and still happily friends now….even if i tend to go away often.
More some other time. too much on mind. but im left lying in bed with no mood to do much else.
ah, what strange sources of inspiration i had — spending so much of my starting years hoping to get into that elitist club which didnt teach anything useful (heh, why did i bother) and the later part being fascinated by some outside thing, which ended up forming my foundation.
inspirational coincidences.
****
then i peaked, and my main sources of inspiration became distant and then i got distracted.
distant fiction i peeled
my mind away from
holding on to this piece of reality
i could feel.
in my head i persisted
it was nothing
more than coincidence
Reviewing the viewpoint put across in last Friday’s ST about Minimum Wage as an ‘easy solution’, I think that some credit has to be given to the Labour Chief. His argument put forth does show some level of intelligence. In this post, I will show the good and the bad, the underlying assumption and the bigger picture of his argument.
His argument in brief is that a minimum wage will cause unemployment as companies leave to go somewhere with lower costs. Beyond this idea of unemployment, he talks about the ‘mismatch of skills’. Based on what the article had compacted, its vague whether this mismatch is a bad thing in itself or leads to companies leaving.
First, there is a cunning in his choice of naming the main human capital challenges which Asia faces: a widening income gap, keener competition for top talent and a growing mismatch between jobs and skills. In selecting the three problems, he already plants what is important and needs to be dealt with.
The first challenge is glaringly obvious and impossible not to mention. The second contributes later to how “top talent needs top dollars” and the third gives the ‘mismatch of skills’ a significance on the level of the widening income gap. HOWEVER, there is a flaw: objectives one and two contradict. His idea of “top dollars for top talent” clashes with bridging the income gap.
Second, merit must be seen in how he attempts to balance his view. At the end of the article, it is mentioned that the labour movement does not object to a higher pay and that workers must receive a “fair wage for the work they put in.” There is a cunning in this. In addition to not looking unsympathetic, it brings to mind the enshrined idea of meritocracy. Furthermore, what is implicit in the term “fair wage” is that if you work less, you likewise deserve less, instead of getting a minimum. HOWEVER, there is a flaw: how true is it that the labour movement does not object to a higher pay, when his principal fear is that companies will leave to places with lower wages? Seemingly, a tokenistic remark.
Third, he knows how to utilise soundbytes to simplify things for ”the lay audience. “Low wage or no wage”, “Minimum skills instead of minimum wage”, “top dollars for top talent” (i think i’m starting to see the speech pattern) and ”easy solution”. However, the flaw is that it oversimplifies things at times, leading some of the more intelligent to question like, what’s wrong with an ‘easy solution’ if it solves things or for those who are informed about fallacies, that low wage or no wage sounds like a false dilemma. The worst part is probably the ‘top dollar for top talent’, i think more than enough people will criticise it already.
Fourth, it is intelligent to appeal to the economist. The idea of a ‘mismatch in skills’ can be considered to be economic jargon that goes down well with the instinct of the economics-trained with a “yes, that’s true” sentiment. The idea of a mismatch sounds more sophisticated and deep than simply asserting that companies will leave. To appeal to the masses, you could a) simplify things for them to understand and/or b) use technical jargon to speak a level higher. HOWEVER, the idea of a mismatch is left quite unexplained. Does this theoretical economic concept really apply in the real world? Do employers really have a price in their mind they place on workers, or is it simply — the cheaper, the better?
But at the core of things, two key assumptions remain.
First, do higher skills equate to higher pay in the labour market? It is this premise that the “minimum skills” suggestion is based on. Since the labour chief likes to talk about “in the real world”, i would base my argument in the real world as well.
1. In the real world — we’ve been talking about skills upgrading since my primary school social studies textbook! …and we’re still talking about it.
2. In the real world, there will always be a demand for low skills workers, which is currently the case, except that it goes to the cheaper foreigners.
3. And in the real world, we will sadly always have a portion of local society that is less skilled. That is the real world. what are we going to do about them?
Second, will there be increased unemployment as companies leave just because of minimum wage? I think companies would not leave that easily and even if they did, there wouldn’t be increased unemployment.
1. Companies have many reason to stay on. In addition to having established a base already, they have a good location in south-east asia and many of our perks like a stable financial and legal system. It’s not cheap to shift base — and a simple sweeping assertion cannot be made. I think that the rural-urban migration equation can be applied to this scenario (can’t remember the equation already though)
2. Currently, its not as if there aren’t low skilled jobs. There are. Just that they go to foreign workers. A minimum wage not only increases wage for workers, it moves these jobs from foreigner to the unemployed locals. As previously argued, higher wages also incentivise more locals to work as the returns from working outweigh costs such as transport and the opportunity cost of time
From the bigger picture of public policy, something puzzles me — the contradiction between the Labour Chief and the earlier proposals of the ESC, which sought to decrease foreign labour involvement. He seems to speak of the need to go with the flow of market forces and globalisation to let cheap foreign labour be, whereas the ESC seeks to reduce dependence.
Perhaps there is room to assume that some companies will leave, but on the bigger picture — does this really matter when we weigh the loss of some competitive edge to looking after the poorest within society? My speculation is that the government’s agenda is more concerned with the loss of companies and their profits rather than the jobs they provide — I deduce this from how they are perfectly fine with jobs going to foreign labour as long as the companies stay. The concern of unemployment caused seems to be merely a media tool to put it across to the public. This agenda might need to change.
The fact of the matter is that in most developed countries wages aren’t low anyway regardless of whether there is a minimum. Singapore needs to shift its development strategy away from the low-cost labour methods of China and India to an even more technology intensive one. (although i also think that it is not necesssarily true that higher cost of labour definitely means a shift to technology. In some sectors, there will always be a need for labour)
On the bigger picture, the question perhaps is – do we want a society more akin to Switzerland and the United States, or do we want one like China and India? The third-world style of development is an arena we cannot win, we need to move forward.
****
Personally, I don’t like touching upon the topic of salaries — there’s no good argument against this dogma. But the same article points out a damn brilliant idea. Don’t peg ministerial salaries to GDP, peg them to the lowest of society. What society would this create? For sure, a kinder one where we at least give a damn about the poor.
Recently the extremely effeminate Singapore weather of oscillating between hot and wet has caused this outbreak of damned mosquitoes in my area. When I say my area, I mean my room. Damned mosquitoes, damn them to hell! It is the reason I have been having horrible sleep and am up now 3 am in the morning.
Earlier in the week, i’ve been awoken by these little buggers. To my horror, it was only 2.30 when I looked at my clock.
“Ahahah…my clock must be spoilt. Oh well, better check my phone instead.”
…..
“arh fapcruck, it’s not spoilt -_-”
how often do people actually hope for their clock to be spoilt. That left me going out on Sunday with little energy and quite a headache.
Between the thighs, behind the ear, under this limb and on the side of the toes/fingers — these things have violated me in places I wouldn’t even normally be bitten by…nevermind.
So I’m up at 3.30am, afternoon in US time, early nighttime in UK….and fucking unearthly hour in local time. Insomnia by itself is not a problem really. There’s no such thing as insomnia, we all can fall asleep eventually. Insomnia is only a problem when you have to be up at 6 the next day (about two hours time) for work (which will waste about ten hours of your time) and class till close to midnight. My hope is for a normal working day of mine where i actually get three hour naps.
What then is to be done? I wouldn’t spray insecticide in my room — i think its poison especially when your bed and clothes are still in the open. Especially when you have a freaking tea pot with cups and tea lying around. Not exactly a bright idea even though my family has been doing it. It’ll be a desperate last resort.
I have the killer military repellent, but its so strong I’m not sure where to put it. Normally I wouldn’t put it on my skin. I put it on my long sleeves…which I don’t wear at home. I also used to smear it on my camping bed, but that damages the bed and fabrics and I can only do that if it isn’t my property. Heck, let’s not bother about where to put it, I can’t even remember where I put the bottle.
Mosquito coils? too troublesome to light.
Normal insect repellent sprays? Maybe, but i’ll need to buy.
It’s so troublesome, i’m not sure how to deal with the mosquitoes because i’m normally invulnerable, with barely any in my room and simply having the blood that does not attract them. I mean I survivedthat sec four camp without any bites and I seem to have less on the island than here. It’s almost as if I sleep better in camp than here cos of these small annoyances.
My method of trying take a hot shower to numb the skin then go back to sleep doesnt seem to work since the water doesnt want to turn warm. one thing to do now — freeze out the mosquitose by xleeping in aircon.
Ever seen mosquitoes in a cold environment?
Damn these elite native-speakers. The following is an extract from a telephone recording from a hotel in Asia between a Guest and Room Service. It was published in the Far East Economic Review for the entertainment of white men with some slighting of Asians and their ability (or lack thereof) in English phonology.
“Morny. Ruin sorbees”
“Sorry, I thought I dialed Room Service”
“Rye, Ruin sorbees. Morny! Jewish to odor sunteen?”
“Uh, yes, I’d like some bacon and eggs”
“Ow July den?”
“What??”
“Ow July den — fry, boy, pooch?”
“Oh the eggs! How do I like them? Sorry, scrambled, please.”
“Ow july dee baychem-crease?”
“Crisp will be fine.”
“Hokay, An San Toes?”
“What?”
“San toes. July San toes?”
“What?”
“San toes. July San toes?”
“I don’t think so”
” No? Judo one toes?”
“I feel really bad about this, but I don’t know what judo one toes means?”
“Toes! Toes! Why je Don Juan toes? Ow bow singlish mopping we bother?”
“English Muffin! I’ve got it! You were saying “Toast”. Fine. Yes, an English muffin will be fine.”
“We bother?”
“No, just put the bother on the side?”
“Wad?”
“I mean butter- just put it on the side”
“Copy?”
“Sorry?”
“Copy…tea…mill?”
“Yes. Coffee please, and that’s all.”
“One minnie. Ass ruin torino fee, strangle ache, crease baychem, tossy singlish moppingwe bother honey sigh and copy…rye?”
“Whatever you say”
“Tendjewberryjud”
“You’re welcome.”
****
I would think that there was some degree of exaggeration, for instance in the choice of picking words to represent the sounds. And I’ve no idea why anyone would record their call for Room Service.
It’s been hell of a week. Actually, not that bad, except that I haven’t been getting enough sleep and there’sbeen some thing to do everyday. (read: not been getting enough AFTERNOON NAPS).
My main intention behind going for night class was to accelerate my time. The moment deadlines, study schedules and examination preparations kick in, time cannot help but to speed up — you just feel like there’s not enough time. I gather this from how quickly an academic term/year/two years pass.
While it does speed up my week so far, the paradox is that it makes each day longer. The day doesn’t end at 5 plusplusplus. It ends at 10 plus, by the time I reach home closer to eleven. With barely much leisure time outside, it feels like Monday extends into Tuesday, Wednesday extends into Thursday. Especially when I stay in on Thursday, like this week, Wednesday extends into Thursday, which extends into Friday. The liberating ecstasy I get just from being on the bus home on Friday is overwhelming — the weekends await me, and for some strange reason, actually seem longer. What weird experiments I play on my sense perception, what bizarre games I play on my mind.
I barely see home over the weekday. I mean, my eyes are closed when I’m asleep and when you’re asleep, your surroundings do not matter.
It is probably at this point where my hell of a week extends into a hell of a night with a WTF double-layered dream in the manner of inception levels.
In fragments, I recall:
- an open ended economics essay on the future of Singapore’s economy based on global interactions, which I feel very pleased at myself for being able to do, subconsciously at least.
- women
- landscape involving a lot of interconnected rooms and hidden doors (my dreams seem to have a lot of these)
- packs of police dogs, the k9 unit kind except that these are wild as wolves. You must admit that they’re fucking scary when running around en masse.
- i think its at this point in time where i ‘woke up’, except that I don’t normally wake up from dreams. it was a false awakening -_-
- can’t rmb anything mentionable which happened after
ah what the hell, what the hell.
My prayer is a simple one, more than money, more than prestige and recognition which many men desire: to have short weekdays and long weekends. Its a perpetual dream which I have — a 4 day week, no 3 day week. But highly idealistic, highly unlikely — the least I could ask for is a change in time perception.
Simply, to have a good week and a good night
I think many people have seen this already — but i’ve heard about it earlier this year, but this my first time actually seeing this poem that won second place.
Lost Generation by Jonathan Reed
“I am part of a lost generation
and I refuse to believe that
I can change the world
I realize this may be a shock but
“Happiness comes from within.”
is a lie, and
“Money will make me happy.”
So in 30 years I will tell my children
they are not the most important thing in my life
My employer will know that
I have my priorities straight because
work
is more important than
family
I tell you this
Once upon a time
Families stayed together
but this will not be true in my era
This is a quick fix society
Experts tell me
30 years from now, I will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of my divorce
I do not concede that
I will live in a country of my own making
In the future
Environmental destruction will be the norm
No longer can it be said that
My peers and I care about this earth
It will be evident that
My generation is apathetic and lethargic
It is foolish to presume that
There is hope.
And all of this will come true unless we choose to reverse it .”
One wonders what the hell’s the poem that won first place.
Many would say that the content is very inspiring (bweh, seriously) but i’m just amazed by the sheer brilliant idea of producing a different meaning by reading it backwards. Honestly, the content doesn’t quite matter. Apart from the literal ‘reversing your view’ …. he probably got his inspiration from backward masking in music though -_-
It’s probably the main reason that more people know of this piece than the winning piece.
****
…..Maybe I should make one about my two years of time wasting.It will be safe..
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