You are currently browsing the monthly archive for September 2011.
1. walked around with $1000 in my pocket — one thick bundle. I was hoping they gave it to me in a single note. then i could feel like an aristocrat.
2. have 1000 dollars disappear from my pocket, in exchange for…..no product?
3. had toberone and benjerrys for dinner — I could buy a proper meal with that money!
4. finished reading 6 volumes (entire series) of Scott Pilgrim about guy vs 7 evil exes — more about that some other time. I really should be working on other more important things 
5. gave some middle aged woman the idea that i’m going to MIT to study applied math. (siaow, suicidal) Misunderstanding though. I didn’t mean to.
6. signed my signature multiple times in an attempt to create matching signatures. created a new signature altogether on the spot. It’ll probably stay.
7. Copied a huge chunk of a book word-for-word
8. ate a student meal (actually, nothing unusual for me)
9. had a nightmare that was bad enough to wake me up from my sleep. Bad headache after that.
10. Called my mum in the middle of the afternoon to ask for my account number — told her it was to buy a car. Spent several smses trying to convince her that i was joking, while detracting frm the real reason.
Betcha can’t beat that — on a weekday.
Always charge your mp3 player before leaving home. The annoying thing about my zen x-fi 2 is that it isnt specific enough about the battery level. It is roughly divided into four stages — the last stage is the red bar with the warning, the second last stage can actually last fairly long and would be a waste to charge then sometimes.
But as a result of low battery, I decided to not listen to an mp3 player on the train. How very secondary school (I didn’t buy one till the summer of 2008) and I realised that it wasn’t listening to music that I needed. I needed the blocking out of the fucking noise. The rush hour train is filled with people talking to each other, people talking among themselves, people talking among themselves in various languages, and crying babies, all above the noise of the train.
And then I observed an amazing feat by a man on the train today — he was talking on the phone without stopping at all. Normally, the typical phone conversation requires one person to stop, pause, and listen to the other person respond. No, not this man.
I couldn’t quite hear him at all, but maybe he’s not having a phone conversation. There are three possibilities:
1. maybe he was practicing a public speech without a script and trying to record it repeatedly — thats taking public speaking to a new level: public speaking on public transport.
2. Or maybe the iphone has this new game/app that is like the vocal part of Rock Band. Fancy playing that on a train though.
3. He’s one of those strange people who like to talk to himself. Pretending to talk on the phone at least reduces the stigma. (Funny that people wouldn’t mind talking outloud to themselves, but would mind what on-lookers think. But people are funny creatures.)
Actually, I lied. It wasn’t a man. It was a woman. Ah, now maybe that’s not quite a feat anymore. (reminds me of the time in Boston/NYC when I talked about fearing that I will get robbed by “a scary-looking big bad white guy” – for some reason, it elicits laughter.)
Here’s a highly probable inference/speculation, in a chain of assumptions:
1. She’s talking to her boyfriend — who must be going like “mm. mmm. mmmm. mhmm? mhmm.”
2. If he’s her boyfriend, he’s probably busy either gaming or watching some movie like ipman on his com.
3. If he’s watching ipman, he’ll probably find some quick reason to hang up when it reaches the exciting fight scene between ipman and the japanese dude.
Alternatively, it is somewhat possible that she so happens to be talking to another woman, that by chance, is for some reason really reticent and really with not much to reply.
Ask yourself which one is more probable -_-
Topic of the day is Blogging. It is self-reflection about self-reflection. It is all about self. Because that old philosopher dude said know thyself, and the rest of the world can go screw themselves.
I won’t be saying much yet. Instead, I will be reading through my few years of blogposts to find out what my most “interesting” and “impactful” posts that are worth mentioning. At the same time, I might as well look at how much I’ve changed, growned and remained constant over the span of three plus years. Furthermore, my posts are generally littered with subtle metaphorical references throughout in an oblique fashion — almost like a religious text. A lot of it only becomes glaringly obvious on hindsight.
What better an exercise in narcissism than this 
At least, my blog isn’t exhibitionistic in revealing every blinking thing in my daily life — the story of my life is actually being chronicled elsewhere. In fact, the general complaint is that it is too cerebral and impersonal.
If I can make it sound interesting and impactful in less than a hundred words, I win.
“Singapore will seriously consider abolishing the Internal Security Act if Malaysia were to do so”
Actually lol, that’s no lie. Maybe we did seriously consider — just that we have governance that is so effective and efficient that the consideration process was complete in a few days
As a typical Singaporean -with the typical ‘compete with your neighbour’ mindset-, the thought of Malaysia being more of a “modern, mature and functioning democracy” disturbs me slightly. It’s okay for the rest of the world to do so, but….you get the point. After all, nowadays there are only two reasons to feel uniquely Singaporean: one of them is fireworks, the other is whenever we outdo our neighbour.
I don’t really have an opinion on the issue (lest I get locked up). Most people are pushing for its repeal, while the government insists that there are reasons for it to stay. I haven’t given it enough thought/reading to make a rash judgment, but both sides probably have valid reasons. After all, if you look at the uses of ISA after 2001, it looks quite valid. Too many people tend to jump onto the non-conformist/anti-establishment bandwagon too quickly — almost for the sake of it. It’s almost conforming to non-conformism -_-Maybe they speak too soon.
Regardless of whether the act is right or wrong, I just don’t think it is politically strategic to issue a statement rebutting Malaysia’s decision so instantaneously, especially if it contradicts an earlier statement.
It would be more prudent to use The Way of the Yin:
1. tokenistically mention that we are “considering” its repeal also.
2. drag out the consideration process and take down all the reasons for repeal in the process of “considering”
3. replace the act with an act that is almost identical in effect, but only different in name, to tokenistically signify progress.
It beats sounding overly dismissive, especially when there is a such a large momentum right now, and people are drawing comparisons with the neighbour.
Plus, I wonder what the international community is thinking now – when they put the two countries side by side to compare. They probably think that we’re safer I suppose
***
Again, I can’t tell if the Straits Times is trying to be funny/ironic or just making a slip – when on the same front page which announces Singapore still wishing to keep the ISA, the bottom of the page has an article about Myanmar opening up.
If we really loved mooncakes that much, we’d want to eat them more regularly (demand) and people would be more than willing to sell them more regularly to make a profit (supply). But we don’t.
We do eat it just for the festival. Not good enough a reason. That’s like eating mooncakes for mooncakes sake. I’ve spent each year trying to convince myself how awesome mooncakes are. Actually, some are not bad, my family might just be having a lousy luck of the draw.
And I’ve decided that mangoes are better than mooncakes. They are sweet, soft and juicy – without being sticky. Oh, and they’re cheaper too. Like mooncakes, mangoes are also seasonal (the season is just a lot longer).Since I’m thinking of mango ice cream also – If mooncakes were that awesome, there would be mooncake flavoured ice cream, instead of ice cream flavoured mooncake!
I challenge you to find a mooncake photo that looks tastier than this!
There might be some inherent cultural and traditional value to eating mooncakes. But when it comes at such a high price, without being as awesome as bakua, I’m not going to be part of this system. I’m not going to fall for this business ploy that tries to make money in the name of ‘cultural heritage’. Something is up when even Swensens and Starbucks (Cultural Imperialists!) start selling mooncakes too.
Now I’m not against capitalist pleasures: in fact, I love them. Just that I would rather spend on a box of Royce chocolates for around $15. That’s half the price of a cheaper box of 4 mooncakes. If the mooncake derives its name from some goddess, then Royce chocolates ought to be called heavengravel – or heck, angeldung would suffice.
OPPORTUNITY COST: For every box of mooncake you buy, you can buy TWO of these.
Call me disrespectful of tradition and “roots”, call me culturally insensitive, I’m spending this year’s denglongjie (the acs way of saying lantern festival) eating mangoes and expensive chocolate instead. It is money well spent. People ought only to eat what they like.
****
You might be thinking that this post was sparked by having to eat mooncake instead of a proper dinner (especially since my sister finished the mango!!). Not really. It hit me when I smelt the scent of mango soap off someone, which made the train smell a bit like Body Shop, if not for the body odour of the working crowd. (“working crowd” is a more general and politically correct euphemism. its not nice to point fingers at a specific group of people from a northern country of similar ancestry)
People should stop using food related soap. It confuses me ._.
On the way home late from work today, I saw these posters by hpb encouraging people to take the stairs instead of the escalator. It would be funny if health promotion became over-effective, and ended up with everyone walking or riding a bicycle instead. LOSS OF PROFITS SIOL. no doubt, it may mean that trains will be less cramped. but less crowd = less profit = bad. We’d rather have people unhealthy as long as they pay for something.
But I digress.
I am extremely puzzled by people who take beer and ice cream (sometimes both together) but will give me a judging look when i tell the aunty at Mr Bean to add extra sugar for my soya bean milk. Its nomderful and rebels against the whole notion of health promotion and asking for less sugar.
Similarly, I don’t get those people who spend time in the gym lifting weights but would make noise when they are asked to carry a box that is lighter than whatever the heck they’ve been carrying.
This post can be summed up by one oxymoron: ‘diet coke’
LOL.
This troll of a game trailer sort of looks like a Real Time Strategy game, a bit like Civilisations 3 (ironic title to compare with) or Age of Empire (a more fitting title to compare with). There’s actually room for development like having a storyline that involves:
- attempting to clinch deals with tribal lords to get a supply of slaves
- using tactics of intimidation and advanced weaponry
- fighting with rival slave dealers (competition has always been a real concern!) from within the country and from other countries
- fighting with abolitionists who try to outlaw slavery (lobbyists have always been a real concern) – and of course out-lobbying them through the citing of the constitution!
- fighting with rebellious slaves who try to run away/poison you
- actually execute prudent business decisions in the triangle of trade.
While most people are against the game out of sheer disgust, there might actually be some good points as long as a right attitude is adopted. The game becomes a method of re-enacting a historical atrocity and reminding people of this dark past (and maybe the hardship of a merchant involved in the triangular trade also)
The problem is that
1. games often end up trivialising the issue, and reduce it to the fun and matter of Grand Theft Auto. Although attitude aside, the lessons and information are still passed down – my friends from sec four who are gamers have more general knowledge about war and ancient civilisation than I have. They had the balls to attempt the much shunned “nature of world war I/II” question in IB history.
2. we don’t exactly want teens/who-ever to re-enact being slave-masters/traders and feeling the power of dehumanising another group of people. It’s probably for this reason that we never really get any games that are played from the perspective of Hitler and the Nazis. They’re always the enemy at most.
3. Some may argue from the entirely different premise that what is in the past is in the past, and there is no need to remind people of past atrocities when we are now living in a (relatively) harmonious society. This argument is not just against a game about slavery, it is one against all writing and reminder about slavery.
.
4. Even if we wanted to use a game to raise awareness, it’s probably better to play from the slave’s perspective – but that would be a game that is a lost cause. No (white) person would produce that game. And there probably won’t be much of a market for people who want to be on that side of the game
On a whole, having a historical game for historical awareness of this issue probably isn’t a good idea. A better idea is just to make a troll trailer about a fake game on slavery to incite enough debate and discussion about the issue…..right.
I end with a quote from the World of TEMASEK trailer:
“Don’t just read History. LIVE IT”.
With this quote in mind, go rewatch the slavery trailer.
Its a bit of OCD, like the obsession of trying to find that small and invaluable thing that you misplaced, pouring in time and effort just for the sake of finding out where that thing (which you dont really care about) disappeared off to . Its just the need to find the answer to where it disappeared to, rather than the need to recover the item.
Similarly, I vaguely recall seeing this random drawing on the internet – probably someone’s tumblr – that resembled an acquaintance from the debate circuit. I remember that the drawing really caught my eye except that I couldn’t put my finger on it. But after yesterday, it made sense. I just need to see the drawing again to confirm the resemblance.
So I actually spent the past twenty minutes of my precious sunday searching two of my friends’ tumblrs – the most probable location. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anything. I could keep searching, except that the internet is an insanely vast place – and definitely bigger than my room.
Maybe I could just let go of it and hope that it just resurfaces by itself one day, like those things that disappear in my room — like my belt, goggles and numerous thermometers. I’m convinced there are gremlins in my room.
Yeah I should just go sleep.
Recommended read: Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend and Other Short Stories.
While Richard Matheson is more known for I Am Legend because of the Will Smith movie, I preferred the “other short stories”. Maybe it’s just because I favour the brevity and cliffhanger that the short story is effective at providing.
Matheson really does build suspense quite well though. His horror stories (which he prefers to call ‘terror’) could leave you lying in bed wishing you had someone to squeeze, I mean hold onto tightly.
On second thought, you might actually feel safer alone – and behind locked doors. That is where you remember a few more short stories and realise that nothing could protect you from yourself.
If writers of angst need to have an angsty mind, one cannot help but to wonder what goes on in the mind of someone who writes about answering a telephone in your head, a man talking to a mortician about his wife, a young child who goes on and on about her mother’s dress (all in a childlike writing form!). It’s the obsessive repetitions that border on psychotic.
lol, a scared dad. how cute.
And no, I’m not actually scared yet (we’ll see if I get nightmares tonight)– I just like how the short stories often end on a rather bizarre note of puzzlement that sends you searching the front parts of the short story to try to make sense of everything, only to realise that no real clues were dropped. Its all left to your imagination.
but add that to the list of things I’ve been doing while procrastinating, I mean seeking inspiration. ><
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