Snapshots of Life...

2007-05-15T13:21:00.000+08:00

I've moved!!!

http://soulgroovesg.wordpress.com

Bye blogspot!

TEST AGAIN.

2007-05-15T11:47:00.000+08:00

This shitty interface by blogspot is irritating me. I wonder why they changed it from the old one.

can't post links can't do anything except write.

KNS i think I may want to change to wordpress.

BLAH.

test

2007-05-11T23:28:00.001+08:00

testing testing. blogspot is so screwed.

******

fark... just wrote a pretty long post just now with lots of random things and blogspot just screws it up. there's something abt it with firefox. using safari now. makes me wanna switch to livejournal or wordpress. it also explains the lack of photos and the absence from blogging after such a long time coming back from japan.

******

anyway, was saying that lots of things happened this week. visited CMC. visited mediacorp studios. watched midsummer night's dream. ate with rey and jared and CT. did a totally weird photoshoot. met up and on the phone with contractors. blah blah blah. i forsee next week to be busy as well...

******

You know, Straits Times really is quite a trashy newspaper if you look at it from the.... what's that word... arty farty political undergraduate student point of view. if one has any simple thought process at all, one can immediately see through all the bullshit they're putting on the headlines. the thing is, most singaporeans just don't have the thought process at all. and of course willingly get psycho-ed.

in today's INSIGHT, where they had the 3 MPs talk about the decriminalisation of homosexuality, 3 points of view. law evolves by pace of society vs law prevents harm to others vs law is about morality. seriously, the whole debate is SO NOT about homosexuality. it's about the philosophy of law, the purpose of law and what law is all about. fortunately, i did AS last last sem and was able to see this point. hurhurhur.

indranee rajah takes the stand on that law evolvees through the norms of society. very similar to what mr balaji said about censorship a few months ago in SMU. but it begs the question. who should take the lead? law or society? does the law change first or society change first? in many instances, the law has changed first. think casino. in other instances, society changes first. think women's rights. then again, how do you even measure how much society can accept? surveys? where is the line drawn? what is the threshold? 54%? 75%? 90%? as you can see, it is quite frustrating if u follow this path.

siew kum hong takes the no harm principle. again, question: what is harm? harm to one person might not be harm to another. think rascist jokes. think media criticism. next, harm to who? 1 person? same severity as to 5 people? 20? harm to society? how do you measure gambling's harm to society? number of people who commit suicides? number of broken families? if gambling harms, why are we still having a casino? although the harm principle may seem the most sensible and logical of all, there is really a different perspective to it.

lim biow chuan's stance by saying law "to reflect social norms and values which are acceptable by the general population" is a politically correct one. he betrays his stand by saying earlier "i think the position of the church is correct, which is that we should hate the sin but embrace the sinner." apparently, this green horn has much to learn about politics. how is law suppose to effect then? we will send homosexuality to jail for 10 years but danny, you may walk free from this courtroom and be purged from gay-ness forever!!!!! HAHAHAHHAa... this guy is a christian and he just CANNOT accept anything against the bible. his bible is above the law. period. family values? don't make me laugh. this family values thingy is being promoted way out of hand by the current government. since when did family get such a good name? just ask lao jiu. HAHAHAHHA... so, please just stop trying to impose your values on the rest of society and say that's its society's values too. BLAH.

oh man... it just seems our MPs, our law-MAKERS, our legislators, can't make any sense of their own philosophy of law. these pple are suppose to MAKE LAW for our country, which I am part of, which YOU are part of. Of course I'm not saying they're stupid or I'm smarter. I make no such unfounded allegations or accusations. I'm just trying to look at their arguments and have a thought process. that's all. most singaporeans lack a though process.

******

please DON'T get me started on the articles a few days ago about the NEED for NTUC and its co-ops to DOMINATE and increase MARKETSHARE for the benefit of the masses. questions questions questions. what exactly is NTUC anyway? The purpose of the co-ops? These answers we know. but the FUNCTIONS of these co-ops? are they making a profit? how much profits are they making? how are they financed? who calls the shots? WHY ARE THEY EVEN MAKING A PROFIT? they're not BUSINESSES. who are their shareholders? workers? do they have voting rights? do they have decision making power? who accounts for the transparency of the various co-ops? AND we haven't even dealt into the ethics behind market competition yet.

i was fortunate enough in short and sweet to be able to meet somebody who had previous working experience there and the answers that i was given were still unimpressive and unconvincing for the justification of these co-ops and the "performance" of NTUC. how does one measures NTUC's performance? how does one measures the co-op's performance?

again, i'm not saying lim swee say is a bad man. he's nice. i've seen him. heard him talk. he knows his stuff. he's a president's scholar for goodness sakes. but in that forum, i thought he was seriously struggling to answer eleanor wong's questions. hurhurhur... there are simply too many questions of NTUC left unanswered.

******

if there's one thing that i took away from the business law module last sem, that is to ask questions. about every single word and its meaning behind it. about every single sentence, its structure, intended purpose, stated purpose and meaning at face value.

******

Without wax,
soulgroove

Going, going, gone...

2007-04-29T22:10:00.001+08:00

At the airport. Gate's opening in 10mins. Byez. =o)

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Bye...

2007-04-29T18:06:00.000+08:00

Woohoo... leaving for the airport in 1 hour. Flying in 5. Can't wait to get outta this place. hurhurhur...

See you all when I get back! Therapy group, Sec Sch group and of course, Bjorny. HAHAHAHAHa...

Satisfied. Just wanna go...

2007-04-25T14:09:00.000+08:00

Woah... 1 week since i last blogged.

short and sweet was finally over. cleared a bit of CIP hours. but more importantly, saw how outside theatre worked and established contacts.

now nothing much to do except worry about finalising sets for July production Lao Jiu. And waiting for Sunday to go Japan. =)

Oh and all results are out... Some expected, some unexpected.

LTB (A+): totally unexpected. think it was my quiz and learning journal that pulled me up.

Intro Econs (A+): expected. quietly confident that i did most of the right things. thankfully my lousy final exam score didn't pull me down.

FA (A): totally unexpected. thot i was hovering between an A-/B+. think my project and class participation pulled me up.

BLaw (A-): expected. knew that i screwed up my final exam paper. project also didn't do so well. was targeting for A tho. but its ok.

Comms (A-): expected but kinda pissed. screwed up my 2nd writing assignment. blah blah blah. was targeting A.

So, all in all, good GPA!! But erm, secretly think that it can be better! Hohohoho... Think other students who see this will prob kill me. so a few unexpected. a few miss target. but hey, got onto dean's list so at least that's good. Earned my japan trip. Hohohoho...

Eh my cousin says white chocolate and potato in hokkaido is good. anyone wants me to buy anything? hehehehehe.... =)

Without wax,
Soulgroove

of theatre

2007-04-17T13:00:00.000+08:00

Volunteered to do backstage work for Short and Sweet. It is held at NAFA, Studio Theatre.

Production Manager: Ireland.
Creative Director: Australia.
Lights and Sounds Crew: China.
Stage Manager & Me: Singapore.

Nice international mix I suppose? Hurhurhur... Quite an eye-opener to be at NAFA and to do such work for a public performance. 10 quality plays. Cheap, cheap. go watch if you can.

******

Went to watch 251 over the weekend (which explains the 2 condoms). I must say, it was quite disappointing. Of all the plays I've watched so far (I think I've watched quite a few) - dead last. I'm not saying there were no positives. There were. But the bleah points outweighed the positive points I think.

I think much has to do with the script. After doing Melange and now doing Short and Sweet, I've come to think that the script is really really damn impt. No matter how good your actors are, they'll still be limited by the script. Ng Yi-Sheng, the playwright for 251, tried to do too many things in 1 show, and not surprisingly, revisited his old theme of gay rights. Too many things. Too many things. No central thread running through all the scenes. Or at least I couldn't see it.

*****

Glad the summer got off to a busy start.

*****

Without wax,
Soulgroove

ahaha...

2007-04-15T00:49:00.000+08:00

OK, I now have 2 packets of Okamoto "harmony" "vibra-ribbed" "for greater excitement" condoms in my bag. I mean, you need to have a partner to USE these things right? Current sex life is like... zilch? Anyone wants to help me use them? =-O

Question: Do these things have expiry dates? =X

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Guess...

2007-04-12T22:40:00.000+08:00

His hand trembles violently under the straining weight of the spoon. Drops of soup jump up and spille onto the tiles below, staining the clean white surface, drawing looks of disgust from others near him. The veins that criss-cross the back of his wrinkled hand pulse with tired blood, urging the fingers to grip the spoon ever tighter, fruitlessly willing the hand to stop trembling. As the spoon with what is left of the soup finally reaches his dry, chaped lips, he draws it in like how a drowning man would draw his last gasp of breath, heavily, deeply. Then, relief.

******

The air was heavy with the burden of sweat, yet she still gasped desperately for it, almost hyperventilating, as it is the only kind of air that can replenish her sinfully deprived blood that is charging through her body. The vein at her temple trobed in tandem with her pumping heart and at that very same spot at the temple, a bead of sweat snaked its way down and carassed her smooth delicate cheek. Spent, she rested her head on his bare chest while the bead of sweat saw the end of its harrasment of her virgin cheek when it was wiped away by his rough fingers which then ran like a comb through her long, soft hair.

******

The sharp blades of the grass cut his cheek with microscopic precision as he laid there, eagle-spread, staring at the far end of the pitch. The piercing bright lights flooded the sky and blurred his vision. He could hardly make out the shape of the crowd. Deep, laboured, rhythmic breathing caused his chest to heave up and down and he couldn't hear anything else. Blinking furiously, his vision suddenly cleared and he could see everything. Everything.

******

Guess what's the main thread running through these 3 mini stories of mine? Very very easy.

Without wax,
Soulgroove

So...

2007-04-12T12:08:00.000+08:00

So exams are over. Think I screwed my last paper. Not that I didn't study enough. But the question sucked I thought. And I got my first grade for Comms. Expected but not what I wanted. Sian.

Nvm. Lots of long long long time to look forward to...

Without wax,
Soulgroove

20 Good Reasons

2007-04-06T20:51:00.000+08:00

Fantastic piece of song and video from Legal Janitor. Must see.

******

With all the hoopla over the impending rise in ministerial salaries, I can't help but realise that the skills taught in AS (analysis skills) last sem have become so useful!! I mean, things like the logical fallacy of false dichotomy have become so much clearer!!

Example: You must pay ministers and civil servants high salaries. This will ensure first class civil service. If not, there will be corruption. The government will become incompetent. The economy of Singapore will go down. Your security will be compromised. Your wives will be maids in other countries.

I mean he even threw in the fallacy of a slippery slope argument as an extra bonus! That's 2 fallacies in 1 train of thought! Amazing! Wait! I just realised there's another fallacy! The appeal to fear! Freaking shit that's 3 fallacies in 1 example! This guy must be damn smart! I wish he was in my AS class so that I can copy his homework.

I mean, they should have wanted to raise ministerial salaries last sem, so when I need to give examples of the different types of logical fallacies in my AS homework, I don't have to crack my brain at all. I just need to open the newspaper and everything can be used! Bloody government. When you need their help in your homework, they just can't help you.

******

When I'm at home, totally not productive in studying for exams. I really should just stay in the library and mug.

And there's far less to study for this sem (FA, BLaw, Intro Econs) unlike last sem where Intro to Psych was such a killer.

Note*: Someone's MSN nick: My lifespan as a SMU student is undergoing double declining depreciation.

HAHAHHAHA....

******

I definitely need to plan my next sem better. The mods I'm going to take. The schedule. Etc etc.

OK, back to mugging for Blaw. Yay. Exciting.

******

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Wow...

2007-04-01T21:00:00.000+08:00

2 days of complete slacking at home... not bad... not bad at all... But I certainly wouldn't want the whole of summer to be like that... Starting tomorrow will start mugging for exams!! Woohoo... how exciting...

******

I like this Yawning Bread article a lot. I like the analysis of:

"1. State keeps out of religion, but religion interferes in the running of the state;

2. Both state and religion keep a distance from each other;

3. Religion keeps out of the state, but the state interferes in religion."

I haven't really thought about the issue this way... Also, the article highlighted the problem with the malay muslim community and the problems that they have with regards to teen pregnancy and other related problems, which is a topic I've been thinking about.

Recently, my friends have had incidents with malays and their recount of the sequence of events go very much towards counting as persuasive anecdotal evidence for the teenage pregnancy phenomena as described in the article. One friend remarked, "Aiyo you know the life cycle of the malays arh. They have free education all the way you know. But they just primary school go secondary school. After that go ITE. After that get pregnant and then do nothing. After that the children go schools and go ITE again and get pregnant again. It's the same cycle."

Of course I know that my friend's remarks are grossly stereotypical, unwarranted, extremely rascist and have no value except incite anger. And even the Chinese have their own wayward youths. I still remember the guy we interviewed as Des's understudy at CMC who told us of his 2 families - his own and the one with his wife and newly born baby. And he was only 20 I think.

But at CMC, we got like the worse of the worse and I can totally understand the truth of my friend's words as stated above, that applied to this pervasive problem in the malay community in Singapore. Pregnant wives. No money. Husband jailed. Family members don't contribute. Hungry baby. No house. I reckon even the judges got tired of the same old story for most of the cases that came before them.

******

Father

Lao Jiu

Shi Fu

If you're free on 6, 7, or 8th July, come support Stageit's show "Lao Jiu" at Jubilee Hall, Raffles Hotel. Tickets going at $18. Erm, I'm not acting. Hurhurhur...

Come and "up" your arty-farty factor of you and your friends!!! It's not about the money. It's not about showing support. It's not about going for the sake of going. Don't crumple your face and give me that look when I ask you to go and watch. Not everything is about cost-benefit analysis. Most importantly, take this opportunity to learn! Learn something about yourself and the lives of others, simply by being an audience of this show. Theatre is all about learning.

******

Can't wait for PJH to come back. We'll be waiting for you at the airport bro. Hug you tight tight. Hahahahaa...

Eh Des, when are you coming back arh?

******

Woah... just read this post by Izzy aka SPG. She's good. Says most of the things in my head.

"All creative endeavour is about a burning need to materialize an idea, to make it applicable to society and to affect other people around you. And preferably to make some money out of it. The last thing any aspiring creative needs is to be told that their vision should be limited by their ability to handle their tools. Be it the pencil or Maya. Instead, your ability with tools should be forced to improve because of the desire to express a vision. If you got no vision, just being a great draftsman, while being a commendable aspiration, isn’t particularly noteworthy. It is the need to say “Look at my idea! Isn’t it grand?” along with the willingness to truly achieve it, take criticism after, and explore grand ideas by other great people that will make a person great."

******

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Oh shit.

2007-03-29T23:52:00.000+08:00

Instead of doing my FA report, I'm here writing this post. I'm so going to die and get killed by my group mates tmr.

******

A year of many changes for all of us? "But there are always changes every year what..." Right...

******

When I looked at her from the booth today, I was shocked. I always thought that she walked and stood strangely somewhat (maybe bad posture), but I never really thought about it. Today, on closer inspection, I guess that the strange walking style must be the shadow of some past disease or inevitability of some inborn bone/muscular growth or something.

I think she looks lonely. I feel guilty for rebuffing her somewhat when she tried to make some conversation with me during class. Then again, most people find me somewhat snobbish during class. I dunno why. OK I admit I'm lana, but not THAT lana.

Back to her, I always thought that she was one of the prettier ones in class. Very sad...

******

People always have commitment issues. ALWAYS. Cause we're all afraid, aren't we. Afraid of making a promise we can't keep. Afraid of disappointing others. Afraid of causing more headaches for ourselves than relief.

******

Oh yah, as I was saying to you, by and large Singaporeans and many of the younger generation (hasty generalisation and stereotype, I know) are a practical lot. We are so practical we are constantly blinded by our practical-ness in anything and everything.

That's why we will never go far.

And I find it funny and ironical that you said I'm so naive. I believe that it is you who are naive. But this is not a lecturing session. It's a thinking session. THINK.

******

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Small update...

2007-03-27T21:47:00.000+08:00

Woo... updates updates...

******

To Kris in chatbox: I did see someone take videos that day, but I don't know where they are from, and I haven't heard from anyone about the availability of videos. Heh.

******

LTB final presentation today. Actually, in many ways, I still just see LTB as any other normal module that I have to take. Hardwork and shit flying everywhere. But looking at the other presentations from other teams, I can really say that everyone went through a lot of blood, sweat and tears to come up with something really substantial.

******

Holidays in 2 weeks. Exams in 2 weeks. I wonder what these summer holidays will bring...

******

OK money is seriously getting tight. I need to stop spending. ANY kind of unnecessary spending.

******

I think I actually have a lot of things to say, but I kinda forgot... Damn...

Without wax,
Soulgroove

More nice photos.

2007-03-20T22:40:00.000+08:00

LTB mates write emo personal comments on slips of paper. Slips of paper put into envelope. Left envelope on table. Lost. At least i managed to read them before the dinner and most of the words are still in my mind.

More pictures from melange...
Kok, Mich + Cand putting up the huge cloth at library level 5.

Cast of "Somebody Else" doing warm-ups just before play starts...

Set-up for "Love in Seasons". First play of the triple bill.

Cand the boss layin the wires for lights.

The audience during the show. I like this photo a lot.

Me and the "Love in Seasons" cast and director. Headache bunch, but I thought overall multimedia effect was the best.

Curtain call by Kenneth the MC for all the 3 plays at the end of the show...

I really enjoyed the experience...

Without wax,
Soulgroove

First theatre experience was good...

2007-03-19T23:55:00.000+08:00

I learnt a lot...

During rehearsal for one of the plays. Quite obviously a love story.

Pep talk by Louis for all cast, crew and directors just before the show.

Cast of "Somebody Else" warming up back-stage. Most well-received play.

Last min make-up for the gals.

Technical crew making sure everything is working fine...

Post production drinking at Ice-Cold Beer at School of Business. =)

I thoroughly enjoyed my experience and am convinced theatre is the way to go.

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Shoes at the door...

2007-03-09T11:36:00.000+08:00

It's very weird to know that within a 10m radius of you, it is just girls and... girls. Thanks C for letting me see the SMU hostel for the first time. Girls dorm some more. I thought the place was totally cool and yes, claustraphobic no doubt, but still somewhat cool.

And while coming down from the stairs, who would appear behind me, but Propagandhi? Checking how her clothes were doing in the washing machines no less.

******

Oh, did I mention I have a test that constitutes 20% of my grade in 4 hours time and I've only started studying 2 hours ago? Shit.

******

Movies I've been watching these few days have been good. Iwo Jima, Protege, The Pursuit of Happyness. Think that's more than what I watched for half of last year. Now wanna watch 300. Seems fantastic.

Without wax,
Soulgroove

2007-03-07T12:53:00.000+08:00

I think I can't ever possibly work in an environment when I'm restricted/obliged to put on a fake face and do/ask for things nicely and consider the nicey-ties of doing something. I really feel that when people do that, the world gets turned upside down and you're obliged to be forever the nice person.

Want something? Seethingly angry? Do it. Say it. Show it.

I'm guessing/thinking/postulating/assuming that many of my friends know that I'm a nice person in general, BUT, and its a very big BUT, if my fuse gets lighted, it's a very short fuse and the explosion ain't quite nice. On the other hand, it takes quite a bit to light my fuse. If it even remotely nears some flame to get lit, that thing MUST be quite shitty.

Example: China Trip - no food to eat. HAHAHAHAHHAHA...

******

Think I'm very fortunate that a lot of things don't clash and work out well in the end. I can't imagine what a nightmare it will be if they do. I REALLY must plan my schedule properly next sem. REALLY.

******

Will we get the car today?? Possibly not, judging from the latest COE bidding results.

******

Without wax,
Soulgroove

One of the reasons...

2007-03-04T12:08:00.000+08:00

why I like Boston Legal, is that it deals with 'God' issues nicely and subtly and doesn't make moral / value judgements.

Alan: "Do you believe in God?"

Denny: "Of course I do, you know I do."

"Why?"

"Why? Why? Because... if you believe in God and it turns out there's no God, there's no harm, no foul. But if you don't believe in God and if it turns out there is one, you're screwed!"

"What do you think he looks like?"

"Like me, perhaps thinner."

"You think he looks like you??"

"God made man in his image..."

"And specifically..."

"Me."

"Ahaha... ... why does he allow for all this suffering that goes on?"

"Over-extended. What do you believe?"

"I'm not sure. I think I believe mostly in friendships. Yours and Jerry Aspenson's. I wasn't a very good friend to him today."

"I hate that you're seeing him again."

"Ha. He's opposing counsel... I hurt him today."

"How?"

"By being a lawyer."

"At the end of the day, we have to be who we are. Now, you and I, more than anything..."

"We're lawyers."

"Damn right."

******

During the Q&A of our leadership presentation on Steve Jobs, our prof posed a question to the class, asking them who were examples of servant leadership. Gandhi was mumbled and our prof agreed. Then someone at the back of the crowd said, "Jesus."

I almost fainted.

The rest of the class shifted uncomfortably in their seats and the prof gave soft smiles to try to ease the awkward situation. I thought that the guy who said what he said seem rather smirky and self-righteous.

On hindsight, I should have retorted, "And Buddha and Mohammad and Shiva and Guan Yin and my mother." Ha.

******

"Elv, you might want to take note that your drawings and designs are usually quite straight and flat. Play more with angles and corners."

Shitz. I think its because of my science and robotics background that's why.

******

I'm eagerly looking forward to summer hols. I think my parents wanna go Europe. Yippie... And the annual production. And FTB camp. And smux camp. Nice. And I'm looking forward to zipping around in the car during weekend and late night escapades. At least I'm doing SOMETHING.

******

Oh, oh. Just bought Age of Empires 3 online. Costs near 100bucks. Shit. So much for Mac games and copyright software. But I think I'll enjoy the game.

And oh, IT show next weekend. Buy 1xmouse (haven't bought yet after so long!) and 1xUSB drive.

******

Life's OK in general, but could be better. =(

******

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Hello?

2007-02-25T21:22:00.000+08:00

I like this photo of WB. The expression that he has here is completely my mental image of him. Bright-eyed. Small sincere smile and forever on his phone.

And the buddies hug each other. Rey, as usual, was late.

I manage to capture the sweetest moment (as Rey agrees it is) between WB and his GF. The girl was crying buckets and WB was trying to wipe away the tears from her cheeks. Stuff you see in story books.

See you in another 10 months my friend. I wonder how you will change. I wonder how I will change.

******

CONFIRMED: favourite show of all, ALL time = Boston Legal.

Dialouge is fantastic. Acting is great. Lots of controversy yet lots of simplicity as well. Everything is brilliant.

******

Just when things were starting to turn sucky, the posters came out. And then came the realisation that tons of people are going to watch your show hits you, or rather me. Like a fresh injection of adrenalin, there is motivation to start working again, especially when internal preview is so close.

******

I've been telling people so much, I think I should just stop talking. Stop all the premature speculation and questions. It's bad. Time will tell.

******

As I was saying, I'm quite proud of the fact that I've covered in some way, almost every major field of studies that is out there.

For engineering, I did micromouse and I know the pain-saking trouble shooting involved for both hardware and programming side. For sciences, I took trip science in JC so I roughly know the academics involved. For arts, I'm now involved in Stageit, like photographing people and I'm going to do more Social Science modules next sem, so I'm going to get a taste as well. For sports/outdoors, I've joined SMUX and have experienced the chionging and braving the weather elements.

I think there comes a point in time where I will have to make a choice. Or is there something I can do that combines everything together? Now, I'm interested in knowing more about a job of a copywriter. Anyone has got any info??

******

I'm going to have 3 summers in school. This summer is used for Stageit and SMUX camp. Last summer is used for internship. And I wonder what the next summer I should use it for...

******

OK, gotta go bathe and start mugging again. Business law is heavy reading... but I quite like it and I think I can manage. We'll see how... =P

Without wax,
Soulgroove

2007-02-21T23:41:00.000+08:00

Am sick. Think its from Chin and/or Jared who came over to my house. Darn!

******

CNY overall was ok. Did more stuff this year as compared to last few years. Went KTV and went visiting to new friends places. Nice. This year no gambling luck tho. Play blackjack or whatever game also lose.

******

I think I should sleep earlier. Have been sleeping at 3am like these few days. Even worse than when I'm studying. Haiz....

******

I didn't run away. I'm still like hanging around. Waiting. Perhaps for a chance. Earlier worries were unfounded.

******

Oh, congrats to CT for having found a new GF. And from an unexpected source too! Hahahahaha... so sneaky. We know you are good, so don't need to hide! Hahahahha...

******

Still got stuff to write and books to study. Sick until like that how to study? Bleah... I should sleep now to get better.

******

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Words.

2007-02-16T22:37:00.000+08:00

After thinking for about 1 day and what Chris said about his last sem experience, I'm thinking that I should seriously run away... thanks for the wake-up call Sui and Joa.

******

I told Joa that every time she walks past me, I have this urge to just slap her butt cause it's just so huge. I think they've given up on me and my words. But hey, others (including guys) have also told her about her great assets, so I'm not the first one.

******

LTB today was like hoo hum... getting to interact with the residents as a group was very awkward in the first place, cause we were clearly SUPER unsure about how to go about talking to them and getting them to play the sports. It was an interesting experience. And Chris got trashed by one of them 11-4 in table tennis.

******

OK, this thingy about trying to send the photos to Joa/Sui/JW is driving me nuts. Fortunately, I have seeked help from Adrianna. Fellow student from SMU. Fellow Mac user. Totally cool. Hope she replies soon.

******

Chinese New Year just around the corner. I need to (1)eat. (2)write comms speech. (3)study business law. (3)collect Ang Pows and use money to buy mouse.

******

Grey's Anatomy is starting to be like *gasp* and Boston Legal is getting *wow*. Love them.

******

Dad just ordered a car. Coming within 3 months. Nice. OK, that makes things very VERY nice.

******

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Think.

2007-02-16T01:48:00.000+08:00

I think Joa made me think tonight. Hahahaha... I never thought I said something like what I said tonight to Sui and Joa. Hrm.... thinking... thinking... I think I think too much... HAHAHAHHA...

Dinner at Crystal Jade.

Drinks as usual at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. 5 up!

Me, myself and I.

I super like this photo of Sui. Captures her so well.

This photo of Joa is nice too. Captures the lazing side of her...

And the 2 friends blend together in a perfect moment...

At peace with each other, like the star shining brightly in the sky.

5 drinks.

Origami made in peace...

Us.

Cheers,
Soulgroove

Faces.

2007-02-07T20:57:00.000+08:00

To say that I'm busy would be an understatement. My to-do list is more than 10 items long.

First of all, LTB is driving me and my team nuts. I mean the intention of the module is all well and good and important. But the paperwork! GAH. The beauracracy! GAH x 2. The travelling ! GAH x 3. The meetings! GAH x 10000 x infinity.

This is how I'll look in 40 years time. Photoshoot yesterday for annual production in July. Don't think my photos turned out very well. Didn't see many of them. We'll see how they do the posters then. Heh.

On other nicer matters, went to cut my hair today. I thought the guy did a damn good job. That's why I keep going back. Semi-funky neighbourhood shop but still good. Cheap for cut and wash at 17bucks. He asked me whether I wanted to dye my hair. Errr... no.

All photos courtesy of integrated iSight camera of my MBP. Nice.

Busy. Busy. Uber busy. Mind is too crowded with thoughts.

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Words. Lots.

2007-01-30T00:30:00.000+08:00

When the MP stopped by around our house, it felt like the queen bee paying a visit to one of the many holes in the honeycomb estate. People buzzed around him like hurried worker bees, bending and bowing to his every command.

"Where is the HDB man? Ask him to come here," he barked his order, as my Dad complained to him about paint peeling off our toilet ceiling. Sure enough, the "HDB man" turned up in 30 secs and duly surveyed the damage and took down my father's complaints.

I wonder whether Chaim See Tong and Low Thia Kiang have their own "HDB man".

******

From the way I see it, the current batch of year 1 SMUX people are full of talent. I forsee an interesting election during next semester.

******

In a sense, kayaking is like running. Needs constant persevearance to repeat the motions. Only diff is, kayaking there are people around to talk to. And the sea is always full of challenges. Haha...

******

Thanks Mr. Bjorn for even-ing things out today. I enjoyed the food. Heh. One reason why you form a new "special circle of treat", seperate from my other friends, is perhaps, that I can almost always predict what you are going to do. And your reasons for doing it. And your words usually don't represent what is on your mind. I suppose I can sense that. And you know that. You know I can sense that. And I know you know. And you know I know. Without even saying anything.

Rare I think. Hahahahhaa....

******

These days, I suppose it would take quite a bit for words to shock me, or awe me, or surprise me or to hurt me. I seem pretty immune to words that will usually bring out dramatic reactions from people. The effect that words have on my are slowly eroding away.

I wonder why.

******

As I was talking to CT the other day, parents nowadays would kinda expect their children to be Christians, as influenced by their friends and popular church teachings. Somehow, it seems to be cool in a way to be a Christian? City Harvest, New Creation and all...

One reason why I have never taken to Christianity, is because I think it restricts my mind. It restricts my mind to the teachings of a book.

Of all things human about me, I value the freedom of my mind to explore the unbounded vasts lands and seas of things that are, the most. Being unable to do likewise would probably be like bounded to chains to a wall in a room, unable to see, hear, feel the outside world.

Also, are Christians weak? It seems that they turn to God for everything they can't cope with and can't explain and when they despair. Giving them strength yada yada. I question this constant need to find external sources of strength. Or even the need to find more strength at all. I just give up after I've done my best and accept it as part of life. I think people are just afraid to give up.

*Note: I would want to restrict any debate, if there is any, to Christianity only perhaps, and leave out the other religions. Thanks.

******

Without wax,
Soulgroove

More nice photos...

2007-01-24T22:02:00.000+08:00

These are pics from the pro-year-4 photographer that tagged along with us. He's good. Very good. Hahahhaa... this is a nice shot of all the paddles lined up at Changi Beach b4 we set off.

Giving last min instructions. Everyone listen up!!

Group photo before we set off!!

I told u the photographer was good...

PJH!! I received your postcard from Wisconsin!!! Thanks for writing it to me... You take care too...And early happy birthday!!! and happy birthday to Rey too...

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Of Birthday Things...

2007-01-22T18:07:00.000+08:00

The simple pleasures in life.

We just love our huge asses.... my my....

First group photo taken in front of a temple in Pulau Ubin. Had to cycle round the island to collect photos given by clues. I was their GL!!! I think they made me Gl cause it was my birthday. Heh... so I got to single kayak!!

In front of the German Girl Shrine which was quite eery. Lost 3 members due to biking injury bah. Freaked out as GL to ask for First Aid manz... Walkie talkie was like shitz...

We climbed and trekked up a short space and arrived at this amazing vantage point across the quarry. Its like damn high and the echo was damn loud and clear. Cool!

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Privileged.

2007-01-16T20:58:00.000+08:00

You know, you bunch of people whom I'm going to meet on Thursday to treat for my birthday are really REALLY privileged.

After making the appointment with you all to meet on Thursday, I fought tooth and nail to swipe off all the requests by various SMU groups for meetings. LTB lah. Intro Econs lah. SMUX briefing lah.

You lucky folks... *hahahahaha*.... shows how much I value all of you....

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Was initially nervous.

2007-01-13T11:39:00.000+08:00

Hello.

I did most of the talking. She was bored.

Still the same after 2 years. "Eh what is that Ding Tai Feng ah?" Favourite place is Swenson's.

Just like my Intro Econs project group mate. "Eh how come I can't find Africa on the world map ah?" "You mean Africa is not a country?"

Bye.

******
I'm starting to like the Isetan supermarket at Shaw House a lot. The Japanese are really good I tell you. Of course, if I had the purchasing power of Mr. Bjorn, I would by everything within my sight. But alas, life is unfair, so I gotta restrain myself from reaching into my pocket.

******

Week 3. I better start studying, especially FA, inter alia. Hahahaha!!! Learnt that from BLaw. Studying BLaw always brings me back to the Court Martial setting, where I would be keying in sentences, using all the law lingo and looking at the Acts and Regulations. I should go back and visit some day.

******

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Time Froze

2007-01-11T20:58:00.000+08:00

The icy air-con caused a layer of condensation to form on the glass panel on the outside, blurring the view of what was going on inside. But amongst the blur, I could make out the girl, whom I recognise to be from my Stats class last sem.

I was about to walk away, thinking nothing of her at all, when she leaned over and gave the guy a quick peck kiss on the lips. I couldn't see the guy, nor could I see her face, but I could imagine the glow of the smile.

Time froze. Not for them, but for me.

I really, really wonder what I'm going to say to you when I meet you tomorrow. Or even, what you have to say to me.

Without wax,
Soulgroove

2007-01-10T22:07:00.000+08:00

Haven't blogged for quite some time cause I wanted to go through all my classes for this term first and give my thoughts on them.

Intro to Econs
- Prof OK. Project seems interesting. Group mates are quite gung-ho and nice and good. Think it should be ok. Just that I think I need to study quite a bit to score in the tests because I haven't studied Econs at all.

Communications
- The prof is very good. Rumours of assistant prof being very bad. Yet to be seen. Class participation is very important!! Hope I'll like this class.

Leadership and Teambuilding
- Prof is OK. This course is very ra-ra and smokey. I dun like smoke and dunno how to smoke. Everyone seems to wanna have fun doing this course, but you know, I think "fun" is over-rated. WAY over-rated. But having done MPW before, I should have an edge in understanding the team dynamics better. TA is hot. Harharhar...

Financial Accounting
- Prof is good. Topic is very very dry. If this is what accounting is, I wonder why people study accounting at all. Have to study a lot. Have to mug for this.

Business Law
- Prof is fantastic. Having have had quite some contact with law in court martial centre, I'm farily comfortable with the content. Hope that my experience will give me some added advantage too! Hahahaha... But have to mug a lot for this also.

Total: 3 mugging courses, 1 class participation course, 1 project course. looks like i'll be hitting the books fairly often this sem then.

******

I wonder what I will say to you when I meet you on Friday. It has been a long time... a very, very, very long time...

******I think the porridge is quite nice. But I think we should eat Zi Char more often. HAHAHAHa...

******

Am excited about annual production and mini-showcase for Stageit. It's getting infectious. Everyone who's in SG in July must MUST come down and give me face and watch ok?!?!?!?!?!

******Queued up for around 1 hour for these. Ate them in school. Fantastically cheap. $11 for 12. But i enjoy such stuffs only if I have a craving for them. Otherwise, they're just quite normal.

******

This guy in my class wants to change the world. Don't make me laugh.

******

On the other hand, this guy in my class is a Guiness World Record holder recorded in the Guiness Book of World Records. He holds the world record of being the owner of the most number of different, unique, airline luggage tags in the world. Talk about cool.

******

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Cleaning up memories.

2007-01-01T13:24:00.000+08:00

Letters from 2 Angels and 2 Mortals. Plus someone in the top left hand corner. That piece of Winnie the Pooh cross-stitch is turning yellow. I wonder whether I should just throw it away.

Without wax,
Soulgroove

HNY

2007-01-01T11:18:00.000+08:00

This is why I don't go for Countdown thingies... Not worth it. Had a bad experience myself.

Anyway,Happy New Year...

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Photo....

2006-12-30T13:14:00.000+08:00

And the long haired one cuts her Tiramisu cake...

Ice cream!! In cups!!!

The tiramisu was damn nice....

Jelly!! So very kiddy but full of creativity... courtesy of Sui's mum...

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Loads of stuff.

2006-12-28T10:59:00.000+08:00

Ah, the route taken on the Ubin training session...

******

I saw you at the food court under the MRT tracks between Tampines Bus Interchange and Tampines MRT Station. You were just walking through.

******

Ah. Actual route taken for the kayaking expedition. As you can see from the distance, it was very very far. On our way there, we stopped at Sisters' Island for lunch but on the way back, we just chionged all the way back to ECP, passing by Sentosa.

******

On other more sneaky matters, it seems that according to today's front page news on HOME, our dominant GLC in the local taxi market, has found an "excuse" to increase the flag-down rate for taxi fares. Apparently, to take one of the new cabs that adhere to the new emission standards, one has to pay a flag-down rate of $2.70 instead of $2.50.

Firstly, the math. The article states that at $57000 each, the new cabs are 22percent more expensive than the old ones. Simple math shows that the difference is $10279. Because of this, "dominant GLC" will charge drivers higher rental, between $95-$98, up from $88. Let's take $95. Simple math shows the "dominant GLC" will recoup the difference in about 4 years for 1 new cab. I don't know about you but I'm quite sure the lifespan of a cab is more than 4 years? Eh what happens to the extra money ah?

Even so, let's look at the intention behind the fare increase. NEA sets new EURO IV emission standards. Assume legislation passed. Business has to adhere to new standards, which are greener for the environment. Let me get this - consumers have to pay for the extra costs that businesses acquire from adhering to new legislation that cuts down pollution? Certainly not a company up on corporate social responsibility I would say.

And it doesn't help that the spokesman for "dominant GLC" has the name Tammy.

******

I think I have the same genes as Kennysia.

******

We should eat Macs breakfast together more often, Jared.

******

Oh bugger. Did I mention that one more issue that is has been irritating me for some time is the 10% service charge that fancy (and sometimes completely not fancy) restaurants have? I believe I somewhat debated this with Des last year. I feel that there is completely no valid justification at all why restaurants have the 10% service charge. And what's the bullshit with the "1% cess" thing?

All costs should be taken into consideration when pricing the food. Tip if you feel the restaurant or the waiter or whomever deserves something extra. Why do these idiotic businessmen have to conjure something like the 10% service charge that doesn't go to the service staff in any way? KNNBCCB.

******

Happy birthday YP.

******

Did I mention that I absolutely adore the VSFS, both music and women alike?

******

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Miss you.

2006-12-23T01:28:00.000+08:00

I think we miss you bro.

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Rant.

2006-12-15T20:12:00.000+08:00

Haven't been blogging because I wanted to wait for the release of my AS results to come to a meaningful conclusion. But apparently, my AS prof is damn proud of being THE professor who can cause students to experience insane amounts of agony by doing things that are just so simple. For example, not releasing the AS results. Bah.

I guess I can say that I'm satisfied with my results. I just cannot complain when people around me and in my group project are getting Bs while I'm getting As, can I? Just wanna make a note that class participation is indeed damn important I think. 2 examples.

For MPW, most of my group mates got B/B+. I got A-. Judging that I think I sucked at the written tests like my fellow group mates, and that we shared common marks for our team project, class participation can be attributed to the difference in grades. They said nothing in class, while I said... quite a lot of things. Hahahahha...

For psychology, I got A-. Was super happy. After looking at the breakdown in results, my mid-terms plus my final exams could only secure a B+ mark. But my prof gave me full marks for participation (which involves contributing to an online forum discussion) which pulled me up. Am very thankful now cause that means that I can continue my double degree.

******

I think I saw her yesterday while eating breakfast before going to Changi Sea Sports Club for kayaking training for the upcoming Southern Island Expedition.

******

I think Tym puts it very nicely when she says, "In fact, the worst that can happen is that I'll have nothing to say to them, not because I don't want to speak to them, but because there are always just some people in the world that one meets and just doesn't have anything to say to, and it's absolutely nothing personal, just one of those mysteries of human relationship."

******

You know school has taught you something when you look at the small box that declares "Never a conflict of interest in roles" about the outgoing NTUC chief, Mr Lim Boon Heng, and can't help but chuckle inside. I wouldn't go so far as to say Mr Lim was "blatantly lying" but the things that he reportedly said surely would have ruffled the feathers of my BGS professor and would have made a huge topic for discussion in BGS class.

Example: "But we have a government that is pro-labour." I can imagine the shock and horror that would spread across my prof's face if anyone dares utter such a statement in his class. In all our various analysis of this Singaporean government, the conclusion has always been that it is "pro-business". More insight comes in when Mr Lim tries to justify his above statement.

"Have I ever found myself in a position of conflict of interest? My answer is no, because the objective of a good government is to improve the livelihood, or welfare of the people. The objective of a trade union movement is to improve the welfare of the workers. Workers and people are largely the same. So the objectives of government and the unions largely coincide."

<the objective of a good government is to improve the livelihood, or welfare of the people> This is true. This Singaporean government consistently uses the above said objective to adopt pro-business policies, arguing that it is always important for the businesses to be here, in Singapore, so that they can create jobs for Singaporeans. It is always about the numbers, not the quality. When I mean quality, I mean workers' rights / individual rights. Individuals/small groups always, ALWAYS get sacrificed for the larger number.

<objective of a trade union movement is to improve the welfare of the workers. Workers and people are largely the same>This is where Mr Lim commits the fallacy of equivocation by using the ambiguity of the word "workers". Are you talking about the overall job market and the numbers(Group 1)? Or are you talking about fighting for the rights of workers who already have jobs(Group 2)? These 2 groups of people have necessarily very different priorities and represents the conflict of interest. Group 1 would love this government because of its consistent pro-business stance as described above, but group 2 is obviously neglected in Singapore with no legislation to protect the individual (example, employment discrimination based on age/race, women pregnancy discrimination).

******

Wow, what a rant. The whole argument's a bit messed up, but the jist of my idea is still there. In short, the party that makes up our government is extremely smart in pulling a "George Bush mislead the American people into the Iraq War".

Hope this whole chunk is not too cheem. Hahahhaa...

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Misc

2006-12-09T12:41:00.000+08:00

Events from Thursday...

As I sat in the room with the others, seeing everyone talk passionately about what they do, I was somewhat overwhelmed by the sense of... of... I dunno... I know I've told many people many times that I would never take up a government job, but if there's a chance from Esplanade or NAC, I may yet consider my choices...

******

The salivating hyenas gapped at the offering of fresh, bloody meat. They had been starving for the past days, countless weeks and months and now, the smell of ripe, raw meat lingered over their noses, pulling their wet, hissing snouts like gravity, enticing them to sink their teeth into the succulent, juicy flesh. The pack licked at the blood that dripped down from the overhanging cuts, howling with delight. But they cannot bite. They can only lick. They cannot bite.

******

Events from Friday

Going with some of the StageIT people to look at the backstages of Jubilee Hall and DBS Arts Centre for the annual production was simply amazing. Having finished reading the script, all of us were quietly imagining the stage and the acting of the play that is going to be completed in the next 7 months.

As we sat there, talking and discussing about the various plans to make in the coming months, I was (again) overwhelmed by this sense of passion and commitment. I think I had found what I had always wanted to do. =)

******
I seriously think we need to consider wine next time. Coffee drinking doesn't cut it for me. HAHAHAHHA.... And who's organising next week's outing? We're asking the others also is it?

******

For those who are insanely in love with Boston Legal and have 1 and a half hours to spare, like me (HAHAHHA), you may want to watch this ACADEMY OF TELEVISION ARTS & SCIENCES presents An Evening with BOSTON LEGAL (Thursday, November 9, 2006). I just cannot wait to lay my hands on the Season 1 and 2 that I ordered over Amazon.com. When in the world are they coming?!?!?!?!

Without wax,
Soulgroove

simple pleasures in life...

2006-12-06T10:51:00.000+08:00

A bunch of good friends is like a good bowl of Sarawak Kolo Mee. Very simple ingredients make a mouth-watering dish, no matter whether you put it into a bowl, a plate, a box... So we should stop trying to crack our brains to find stuff to do. Dinner with coffee/(wine!) and nua-sing on a couch is still the bestestest...

Without wax,
Soulgroove

P.S. But eat too much Kolo Mee and you'll likely burn a hole in your pocket! Hahahahaha!!!!

2006-12-04T11:31:00.000+08:00

You are The Fool

The Fool is the card of infinite possibilities. The bag on the staff indicates that he has all he need to do or be anything he wants, he has only to stop and unpack. He is on his way to a brand new beginning. But the card carries a little bark of warning as well. Stop daydreaming and fantasising and watch your step, lest you fall and end up looking the fool.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

finish. pictures.

2006-12-03T22:20:00.000+08:00

So the dreaded exams have finished. Relief. Next term is going to be worse I think. With Stageit and SMUX commitments. But well, live life to the fullest. Pictures!

BGS presentation!!!! Last presentation of the term b4 exams!!!

Guess who I'm roleplaying?? =P Haiz... Ever since I played the role of C-Man, I've become the person that group turns to when they want pple to roleplay someone... someone not our age... HAHAHA... haiz...

Met up with Bjorn at SITEX for lunch. Couldn't find the mouse that I wanted to buy. Logitech VX Revolution. Dang.

Yesterday went for Kenneth's (see SMU BGS project mate in above first picture) 21st Birthday party at Goodwood Park. Very nice and cosy place. Had a ball of a time with the BGS pple there. They're very onz... hahahaha...

Guess what we bought for present? It's sleeping right there between my legs!!! Very nice dog....

Lynette's spy shot on me... Hahahha... very handsome!!!! HAHAHAHAHa....=P

And this morning, went to run the Standard Chartered 10KM. As usual, baggage collection was a chore. They seriously need to think of something better. Hire management consultants? Hahahahah...

Without wax,
Soulgroove

BF.

2006-12-01T17:07:00.000+08:00

Danny is jealous that Alan is having a good time fighting a murder case with Jerry.

Danny: (stares out the window) Don't talk to me.
Alan: (closing the door) It's not like I went fishing with him.
D: Don't make fun of me! I don't know whether you know this, but not many men... take the time, everyday, to have a cigar, or a glass of scotch, to talk to their their best friend. That's not something most men have.
A: No it isn't.
D:What I give to you, what I share, I do with no one else. Like what you do with me, you do with no body else. I may sound silly to you, but here's what I think is silly - the idea that jealousy or... fidelity is reserved for romance. I always suspected that there was a connection between you and THAT MAN. That you got something you didn't get from me.
A: I probably do. My gosh.... What I get from you Danny... (Walks to the window beside Danny) People walk around today calling everyone their "Best Friend". The term doesn't have any real meaning any more. Mere acquaintences are lavished with hugs and kisses upon the 2nd or at most 3rd meeting... Birthday cards gets passed around in offices so everbody can scribble a snippet of sentimentality for a colleague that they've barely met. And everyone just loves everyone. As a result when you tell somebody you love them. Do they? I guess I'm not sure... ...I love you Danny. You are my best friend. I can't imagine going through life without you as my best friend... I'm not gonna kiss you however.
D: I don't want you on my balcony, or any balcony, alone, with THAT MAN.
A: OK.

I love Boston Legal!! Woohoo... OK, now back to mugging...

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Run.

2006-11-25T13:38:00.000+08:00

Today, I went to collect the Race Pack for my Standard Chartered 10km next Sunday.

Anybody wants to buy 4D? And I bought a cap! 20% discount... Can be used for kayaking in the future...
Without wax,
Soulgroove

Fight!

2006-11-22T13:22:00.000+08:00

When I saw today's The New Paper's headlines about the planned 2 guys (RJC vs ACS) getting at each other in a boxing match for a girl (CHIJ Katong Convent), I couldn't help but laugh at the pathetic response of the expressed "outrage" by parents, old boys, netizens and principals.

They OBVIOUSLY haven't watched Season 3 Episode 4 of Boston Legal.

In that episode, best buddies, Danny (D) and Alan (A) wrestle it out for the right to have Shirley (S) as the prize. Here's the conversation:

S: You're going to wrestle?
D: Why not? It's not like he can beat me.
S: And you think I'm the prize?
D: You're always the prize Shirley.
S: Of all the humiliation! How dare you. Making me the prize of a wrestling match.
A: Oh get over yourself. Man has done battle to get the girl since the beginning of time.
S: Man has evolved, Alan. With the exception of course being Danny.
D: Thank you.
A: Shirley admit it. This has to be at least a little bit thrilling.
S: Thrilling? 2 fat boys fighting it out on a mat?
A: You know the problem with mankind Shirley? We legislate our morality, our being! With this code of reason and comman sense and respectable restraint and it leaves no room for passion! For beastialy yearning! It leaves Jack a very dull boy and Jill thoroughly unsatisfied. How rich this moment is if you think of it. 2 men in their sexual... OK, twilight... are about to enter a cage for the right to nestle into your loins, to uncork your holy grail. This is LIFE Shirley! We are willing to kill for you. This is the very ESSENCE of LIFE.
D: What he said. Totally.

Absolute amazing ain't it? And when I look at some of the responses, totally anal.

One Mr Lim: "Based on this incident, are they telling the public that their schools encourage fighting over small matters, like the right to pursue a girl?"

Fallacy!!! Let me practice my AS here. This is the fallacy of false cause. The boxing match does not mean that the school encourage fighting. Bad assumption! Bad!

Principal of ACS Barker: "... ...We do not condone nor support any fights or acts of violence, staged for entertainment or otherwise... ..."

Fallacy!!! Fallacy of false dichotomy by non-exhaustion. No one is saying that you're condoning or supporting the fight. You may remain neutral on the fight. You may have protested but the parents still agree yo let the boy fight.

One Mr Cheng, president of old rafflesian association: "... ...made it sound like it was a school-sanctioned event but it wasn't... ..."

Fallacy!!! Fallacy of hasty generalisation. Assuming that all events that uses the school name are school-sanctioned.

One Mr Yao, former ACS(BR) student: "... ...what's more, the event promotes violence... ..."

Fallacy!!! Fallacy of straw man. The staged "fight" was about settling a dispute to win a prize. The idea of "promoting violence" is a misrepresentation of the organiser's intention of entertainment.

One Mr Kan, executive director of Family-life centre: "Girls might get the wrong idea that having guys fight over them gives them significance and helps them gain attention."

Fallacy!!! Fallacy of false cause: after this, so because of this. Implying that the fight will cause girls to get the "wrong idea". Has got nothing to do whether the fight should be staged or not.

It's amazing the kinds of (fallacious) reasons that people give to try to support their stand. Hahahahahha....

Without wax,
Soulgroove

4 Dumplings.

2006-11-17T23:08:00.000+08:00

And oh, before I forget... Here's a toast to us!!

Without wax,
Soulgroove =)

Cheers...

2006-11-17T14:14:00.000+08:00

No fancy effects on my part... just the very fun Photo Booth that did all the work... Cheers to another Therapy Session outing... =)

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Whiner.

2006-11-14T20:54:00.000+08:00

Haven't posted for very long due to a variety of reasons... Feeling quite empty of late... Dunno why... I guess its the school work. In 1.5 weeks time, I'm gonna have my first exams in SMU. I'm half freaking out, half remaining absolutely calm and serene. Dunno why also.

A few things that I've been reading in the newspapers recently poked some sensitive nerves.

(1)Increase in GST to 7%.
You know what. I don't like this at all. AT ALL. I mean sure, we need to help the poor. But to raise taxes to help the poor? Seems like a rather flimsy excuse to me. I dunno. I'll need to apply AS concepts here to try to dig out any fallacies I can find in the gov's explanation. Hahahha... Anyway, I hope George Yeo replies my comment that I posted on Ephraim's blog soon.

(2)Woman loses job after getting pregnant
This case was recently highlighted when the husband wrote to the Straits Times a few days ago to explain the predicament of his wife who had no form of recourse (is this the correct word?) whatsoever. Employer was ruthless in sacking her. I found this piece of information absolutely outrageous. Exactly like my previous post on the president of AWARE talking about women in the workplace!

Our pregnant women should be protected! To hell with this constant pro-business, pro-employer bullshit. If it was up to me, drafting legislation to prevent the non-discrimination of pregnant women in the workplace would be right up there with the same prority as "fighting terrorism". Why are there no P65 MPs talking about this issue? Their wives don't get pregnant one ah?

(3)Amendment of the Penal Code in Section 377 and 377A
Erm... finally, oral/anal sex are gonna be decriminalised!!! Woohoo!!! People finally don't have to check for the presence of police outside our bedroom doors when they want to engage in some hanky-panky. But wait, it's only for heterosexual couples only.

Seriously, I have had enough of this homophobic, singapore-is-a-conservative-society bullshit. As I read in someone'e else's blog, I wonder 12 years of saying"...to build a democratic society, based on justice and equality..." has really gone any where. Consider: (from wikipedia) 8%-15% of the world's population is left-handed. If you consider all the studies done on sexuality as well, if you add up the numbers for gays, lesbians and predominantly-but-not-exclusively homosexuals, the numbers hover around 10% of the world's population as well. One wonders why left-handed people are not singled out for being the "odd-ones-out". Oh, if we do that, we would have to single out our PM LHL as well because he Is a left-hander.

But oops, I just realised I've committed the fallacy of using a weak analogy. After this week's lesson in AS, I've come to be more aware about the philosophy of law. What is the purpose of law? Is an unpopular law valid? Why have that Section 377A discriminate against homosexuals when you're not even going to exercise it (the Ministry of Home Affairs has come out to say they will not be actively searching for and prosecuting people who flout 377A)?

It's just like saying "You're not allowed to eat in your bedroom. If you do, I'll deduct 50cents from your allowance. However, you may do it as long as I don't catch you. You better not let me catch you. Still, if I catch you, I can choose not to punish you." Dang, another weak analogy. But you get the idea.

(4)Raising of Bus/MRT fares
I thought the most recent hikes were completely unncessary at all despite what many other in the newspapers may say. So what if the cost of fuel has risen by whatever%? If you're still maintaining your profits of gazzillion, or even having increased profits, why should the rising cost of fuel worry you at all? I'm seriously looking at whatever new formulae that PTC is using to calculate transport fares and seeing whether they will indeed reduce prices if fuel costs fall or the economy gets bad. I betcha they wouldn't.

So much for the whining. I need something else to cheer me up. Dang.

Without wax,
Soulgroove

One more happy 21st.

2006-11-10T20:13:00.000+08:00

Happy 21st Birthday Huangyi!!! Hahahaha...

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Mugging + Photos

2006-11-06T21:58:00.000+08:00

Have been busy with... mugging, what else? Still trying to find the best way to study. Time. Place. Temperature. Lighting. Don't like the school library.

Happy 21st Birthday JW and HM!!!! Surprisingly, the photos turned out quite well... haven't been able to know how to get consistently not-blur photos with my camera... heh...

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Philosophy of Liberty

2006-11-01T11:03:00.000+08:00

Very American. But relevant nonetheless. 8 min video.

Without wax,
Soulgroove

DND...

2006-10-30T11:43:00.000+08:00

After the past few days of squirming in bed with bad stomache, LS, fever... I'm now back and mugging like siao. Intro Psych test is next sat. DND me!!!!

Anyway, here are some photos...

Therapy session group photo!!!

Happy 21st Birthday YF!!!!

The guys... hrm come to think of it... black and white flanking the birthday boy... hurhurhur...

Happy 21st Birthday Jared!!!!

Sing for us again Jared!!! Woohoo!!!!

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Wrong.

2006-10-22T22:03:00.000+08:00

44 students in the class. I'm in the 2nd quartile. Which means there are at least 11 students better than me. Or rather, they make more sense than me when they talk. I can't believe it. I cannot. Not when it is something I can see and KNOW in class. Because well, the mark is for CLASS PARTICIPATION.

The prof says to email him if we feel that we have been wrongly "quartiled". I think I should.

Damnz...

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Some stuff

2006-10-21T23:09:00.000+08:00

Yesterday's therapy session was corny as usual. Made more fun of someone's bum. I think we're getting used to making fun of each other. Hahahahaha...

You Are Miss Piggy

A total princess and diva, you're totally in charge - even if people don't know it.
You want to be loved, adored, and worshiped. And you won't settle for anything less.
You're going to be a total star, and you won't let any of the "little people" get in your way.
Just remember, piggy, never eat more than you can lift!

The Muppet Personality Test

Hahahaha... I think many bloggers are finding this test totally accurate for them. It's just blatantly blunt, isn't it.

Oh, to switch back to yesterday's therapy session talk things, after some checking up on the internet, it seems that yes, anal sex has a higher probability of tranmission of the HIV virus than normal vaginal sex. Gosh, it makes you REALLY wonder what we talk about. But, the caveat is there seems to be no conclusive scientific evidence (meaning experiments) that shows this.

The claim/fact/theory is based on the idea that the rectal wall lining tears more easily than the vaginal wall, thus the greater chance of exposure to the virus transmitting. A hypothetical experiment set-up would be to compare the difference in probability success between alpha male having vaginal sex with a HIV-positive partner, and beta male having anal sex with a HIV-positive partner (not necessarily homosexual male). Of course, no sane person would do that.

The above, does not actually, talk about the HIV-infection rates between heterosexual people and homosexual people. For a gay perspective, it may help to read yawningbread's article here.

OK, total ick, why am I talking about this? Cause I wanna understand. I think Analytical Skills is starting to have a significant effect on me. "Accepting or rejecting presupposes understanding."

On another note, there has been some stirrings in the blogosphere regarding a certain Wee Shu Min, daughter of an MP (they have identified the MP), ex-student of RGS and current-student of RJC, about her blog posting, in response to another person's (a certain Derek Wee) all-to-common "complaint of situation in Singapore". Read the whole saga here.

Her blog posting, if reproduced accurately in full, was, in my opinion, highly offensive, similar to K Bhavani's letter to Mr Brown. Hahaha... This was not to say that Derek Wee's essay was not without flaws, but then again, her posting was too harsh I felt.

However, me feeling that her posting was too harsh and blunt did not take away the fact that I could see where she was coming from and understood what she was saying, due to my experience talking with Des last time. Contrary to the many people lambasting her, I agree with some of the points she made! The message should not be confused with the messenger.

OMG I think analytical skills is REALLY having an effect on me. Hahahha... but I like it...

******

I'm now super "chao-ta" and tired from the one whole day of kayaking and there's another day to go tomorrow, so I shall end here.

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Please read till the end...

2006-10-18T20:36:00.000+08:00

In the past few weeks, I have attended quite a few of the lunch-time talks in SMU. These talks are held on Wednesdays at 1230, with free lunch!! *slurps* I mean the lunch is not fantastic. It's usually some packet lunch with rice, veggie, fish/chicken and tofu/egg. But hey, free lunch plus 1.5 hours of real learning from real people, what a deal!

So far I've attended a talk by John Bittlestone (writer, entrepreneur, businessman, mentor) - "Can Capitalism Become Cool?", Alex Au (blogger) - "From selective wisdom to selective folly: why the future does not belong to bloggers", Tan Joo Hymn (President-AWARE, mother)-"Whose Baby is it Anyway?" and most recently today, Philip Jeyaretnam (President-Singapore Law Society, Senior Counsel-Rodyk & Davidson, writer, father)-"Where Are We Going With This?"

To hear all of them talk is terribly fascinating because well, (1)they're not from the government, (2)they're talks contain information about local affairs NOT from The Straits Times, (3)they're experienced and know what they are talking about. For the transcript of Alex Au's talk, you all may go here. Now, however, I shall try again, as best I can, to look back at what Ms Tan Joo Hymn said in her talk "Whose Baby is it Anyway?".

Firstly, she started of by asking something to the effect of "When it comes to babies, should the state interfere?", simply because the responsibility of having the baby and caring for it is solely up to the parents.

Currently, the government is coming up with various monetary incentives to encourage people to have babies. However, this is the wrong approach, because it is a fact that having a baby makes no economic sense at all. The baby will always be a burden in terms of money. The state simply cannot use an economic approach to encourage. In a small survey of 123 respondents, 67% agree that it is not useful for economic incentives.

What then can the government do? In AWARE's study of Scandinavian countries (which are somwhat successful at implementing pro-baby policies), they found that these countries placed a lot of emphasis on respect for the individual choice and the improvement of the quality of life. They give de facto or de jure autonomy for women to make choices.

In Singapore, AWARE proposes women-centric incentives - such as legislating the end of discrimination at work which is one of the most serious issues. Their studies have also found that the "encouragement and prodding method" favoured by our government now to end discrimination at work by employers did not work in the U.S., and only worked when laws came into effect.

In a terribly sad local case study, a woman was asked by her employer to work even though she was pregnant and weak. She disregarded her doctor's advice to stop work immediately due to her poor health and condition of the baby and continued to work. In the end, a weak and unhealthy baby was born and the baby died within a month. 2 weeks later, the boss called back and said something to the effect of, "Your baby is dead already, so you don't have to take maternity leave any more. Come back and work."

What if one quits and stay at home and look after the baby? In Singapore, the women who end up as home-makers or taitais are extremely vulnerable simply because they have no rights guranteed. It is tempting to think that their husbands would never commit adultery, but in reality, it happens. When things go wrong, both parties are guilty, and when things turn ugly, the home-maker is left much less financially insecure.

In AWARE's research, they found that from 1980 to 2002, there was an increase in the gap of CPF balances held by male and female. One would think there should be a decrease due to increased woman education but the converse was true. Today, the poorest people in society are women between 50 to 65 years old and above because many of them have been home-makers throughout their lives.

(leave out one big chunk here because I made a mess of my notes of what she said)

On the micro level, many women who stay at home to look after their babies feel a sense of isolation, because we largely interact with society through our work. The colleagues and jobs that we do.

Should men take up the job of looking after babies then? AWARE's research found that among non-managers, women earn 83cents to every dollar that men earn. Hence, it simply does not make economic sense. Besides, the man would have to be ultra-confident of his ego to stay at home and take care of the baby.

How about hiring maids? In Singapore, there is only 1 thing that you pay around 50-100% tax for - that is the hiring of foreign domestic workers. The "Foreign Domestic Worker Levy" is $295 (normal) or $200(concession) monthly. Their salary can range from $200 to $400 monthly. You do your own math.

So, in the end, why do you want to have a baby? In AWARE's survey, 53 respondents cited their number 1 reason being - for the love and joy of having a child. 72 respondents were spread over other 3 options - natural thing to do after marriage, parents' wishes, look after them in old age.

In Singapore, the definition of success is narrow. Either economic wealth or power. People look down on home-makers and then parents place great pressure on their babies and children to perform well. In this way, they place pressure on themselves too.

Today, young parents face a barrage of noises from every corner of society. Government, parents, colleagues, friends, relatives, people on the mrt, people in the supermarket. Everyone thinks that they know what you should do and they tell you what you should do, but in the end, if something goes wrong, the blame falls on you.

Sign up for a job right now. Promises countless opportunities to learn throughout your career. You get to have much fun along the way. However, there are no salary and no promotions. Many hours, days, weeks and months of sleepless nights. It opens your eyes to a completely different world. You are on-call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You are not entitled to any rest days. It promises to make you feel joy and love. Pain and sorrow are definite. Hugs and kisses are guranteed. But hey, you are not allowed to quit. Once you sign up for this job, you sign up for life.

******

I think I want to volunteer for AWARE. Hahahahha...

Without wax,
Soulgroove

interesting...

2006-10-16T21:15:00.000+08:00

Read 2 posts recently. (1) Myths about Singapore Malays (2)The Charade of Meritocracy.

I have the general impression that both articles start off with fairly good intentions but then swerve somewhat off course with various inaccuracies and invalid arguements (analytical skills coming into use here!!! Woohoo!!). But I wish to point out 1 point, and 1 point only.

In Myths about Singapore Malays, the author writes, "Malays here have given rise to its fair share of President Scholars, PSC Scholars and other prestigious graduates."

However in The Charade of Meritocracy, Michael D. Barr, specifically looks at the civil service and the path towards high posts via scholarships and notes,

(1)"Yet if Singapore’s meritocracy is truly a level playing field, as the Lees assert, then the Chinese must be much smarter and harder working than the minority Indians and Malays. Consider the distribution of the top jobs in various arms of the Singapore government service in the 1990s (based on research conducted by Ross Worthington in the early 2000s):

• Of the top 30 GLCs only two (6.7%) were chaired by non-Chinese in 1991 (and neither of the non-Chinese was a Malay).

• Of the 38 people who were represented on the most GLC boards in 1998, only two (5.3%) were non-Chinese (and neither of the non-Chinese was a Malay).

• Of the 78 “core people” on statutory boards and GLCs in 1998, seven (9%) were non-Chinese (and one of the non-Chinese was a Malay)."

(2)"...Of the 200 winners of Singapore’s most prestigious scholarship, the President’s Scholarship, from 1966-2005 only 14 (6.4%) were not Chinese. But this was not a consistent proportion throughout the period. If we take 1980 as the divider, we find that there were 10 non-Chinese President’s Scholars out of 114 from 1966-80, or 8%, but in the period from 1981-2005 this figure had dropped to four out of 106, or 3.8%. Since independence, the President’s Scholarship has been awarded to only one Malay, in 1968. There has been only one non-Chinese President’s Scholar in the 18 years from 1987 to 2005 (a boy called Mikail Kalimuddin) and he is actually half Chinese, studied in Chinese schools (Chinese High School and Hwa Chong Junior College),..."

(3)"Although only indicative, this table clearly suggests the Chinese dominance in SAFOS stakes: 98% of SAFOS winners in this sample were Chinese, and about 2% were non-Chinese (counting Mikail Kalimuddin in 2005 as non-Chinese). Furthermore I found not a single Malay recipient and only one Muslim winner (Mikail Kalimuddin). A similar picture emerges in the lower status Singapore Armed Forces Merit Scholarship winners: 71 (25.6%) of 277 (as of late 2005) scholars identified, with 69 (97%) Chinese winners to only two non-Chinese—though there was a Malay recipient in 2004, and one reliable scholar maintains that there have been others."

Again, I'm not going into long ramblings about what is wrong what is not and what should or should not be done. The quotes are just food for thought. Something for us to chew on. Go read if you have the time.

******

Enough of the depressing stuff again, here's a video of an ang moh boy speaking Singlish. Apparently a fan of mrbrown.

Regards,
Soulgroove

Long post...

2006-10-15T19:43:00.000+08:00

And so, the mid-term break has ended. Before I launch into another few weeks of intensive studying, let me recap what I did this week. I stopped at Monday in my previous post, let me now continue with the rest of the days.

******

On Tue, met the SMUX group to go ice-skating at Jurong. Tampines - Jurong? Not nice. Hahaha... But I was still the earliest.

Seriously, I think ever since I got in SMU, I've gotten used to people being late. Like very late. Very late like 50mins. I used to think that was very bad. Now it seems OK. I don't know why. A case of being de-sensitised?

Anyway, we spent the afternoon ice-skating. Had a fairytale birthday surprise for one of our group mates in the skating ring.

Evening was dinner at Mahatten Fish Market at PS.

After dinner programme was KBox at Paradiz Centre.

Got home @ 2am. 16hours since I stepped out of house.

******

Wed was spent nua-ing at home. It only got exciting when night fell.

Met CT, Jared and Rey to go to Cudoroy (spelling??) and Finch for CT's 21st Birthday dinner. It's along Bukit Timah, very near Sixth Avenue, where the Starbucks, Venezia, Cold Storage place is. CT's treat, so we were rubbing our hands in glee. Hahahaha... No photos cause Mr Rey decided he was too busy to send them to me. Hrmph...

I ordered lamb shank and a glass of wine. I thought that was well within the $50 per person budget that CT had for us, but then, I was informed by the ever-observant Jared, that with Mr Rey ordering the dessert platter for 4, the budget was busted. Darn.

The lamb shank was OK, slightly tough, very lamby. I think I would have preferred Jared's sausages. But the mashed potatoes that came with most of the dishes was heavenly. Almost like cream. Mr Rey's order of crab meat soup was unbelievable as well. But that was like 12 bucks. For a soup.

Update: Some photos from CT. Above, dessert platter for 4.

The dessert (spelling??) was the killer. Mr Rey's order of the dessert platter for 4 came with ALL the desserts on the dessert menu. ALL. I think there was about 20? Mountains of chocolate, berries, sugars. 42 bucks for all the desserts. We ended up playing "Zhong Ji Mi Ma" to finish off all the desserts. We were all sick with chocolate at the end of the day.

Nice interior.

The place is actually a very nice. Maybe I should bring the therapy group there next time. hohohoho....

After dinner ended at about 11pm, CT and I hailed a cab down to Zouk for the "almost-everyone-in-smu-turned-up-cause-it's-midterm-break" Mambo Night. I finally got to meet CT's "interest", whom he now consistently denies to have any feelings for. I thought she was OK, but the outfit... eeks...

She was wearing a strappy, lacy, browny, flairy, top that would have looked nice on any girl, and perhaps on her as well if she was 2 sizes bigger. The thing is that the top was so big/loose/straps-long/flairy, that it was an open invitation for one to have ample time to eye-power measure her complete bra size - cup and all. Would you like single hook or double hook? Front opening or back? Any fancy straps to go with along with your new purchase? Eeks... one click and everything would fall off... *gasp* *horror*

Besides that shock, Mambo night was fun once again. Too bad they didn't play 'Ghostbusters'. I love that song when they played it in Zouk the last time we went there.

Oh, did I forget to mention that I also managed to get the number of a girl, a complete stranger? Granted that she was a fren's fren, but it was still her number from her, nevertheless. Eeks. I never imagined I would be doing something like that. But I guess that was the natural progression after shouting a couple of times in her ear over the loud music, sharing tidbits of information about each other, while smelling the sweet scent of her hair, like oxygen in the otherwise smoky clubbing environment. No I was not drunk. But I won't be calling her any time soon, perhaps never.

Arrived home at 4am.

******

On Thur, arrived at ECP Mac at 2pm to meet "Jubs" for blading. It's funny cause "Jubs" initiated it. But we talked quite a bit, about our histories, likes and dislikes about SMU, generally what most people would talk about in an extended get-to-know-you session, while blading.
I thought some of her questions were somewhat cutting for I've never quite met such a forthright person in SMU, but I replied in a surprisingly forthright manner as well. She seemed like an old friend. Hahahahaha... That's "Jubs" in the background. She says its a fugly angle of her. It's just the wind. =P

You know what, that's the thing I was telling the therapy group (you know who you are) about me being different talking to guys and gals in SMU. I can't explain it myself. Hahahahha...

After some serious blading with "Jubs", she gave me a lift (she drives a Nissan Latio!! Her own!! *gasp*) to the Pasir Ris chalet where the SMUX kayaking group was having their chalet. Erm, I was the first one there again??

Chatted with R quite a bit, and taught his GF how to play bridge. Hahahaha... oh, and someone tried to sell me the passive-income thing again.

You know, I never really got to know what WP was talking about when he started trying to sell me his MLM thing, simply because I never got past the talking-on-the-phone stage. This time, however, I had the opportunity to sit down and have someone talk to me, paper and all. He started by asking me what is my first priority in life. Eeks. I don't even know what I should do tomorrow and you ask me what my priority in life is??

I first apologise if the following words are offensive to anyone, but it is the most suitable analogy for me to use. In my opinion, to him(the person now talking to me in the chalet), and to the rest of them, Robert Kiyosaki is like God, having taught them "the way", in this case, "The Cashflow Quadrant". The wholesaler (he didn't mention the company, but I believe it to be Amway), is rather like a church/temple/mosque, allowing them to have a means of working towards their goal, that is "80% passive income, 20% active income".

In explanation, the whole model makes perfect, logical, rational sense. You provide the knowledge of obtaining products at a "wholesale" price to people. The people save. You get your referral fee, everyone goes home happy. If only the reality was that simple. I wouldn't start to go into my long rant about the whole thing, but here's my simple take on it - if it really works, (1)the world would be a much happier place, (2)no one would have to work for their money, (3)every single person who follows will be "financially secure". I don't see those 3 things happening in the near future, do you?

******

Enough of the depressing stuff.

On Fri, I went back to school for BGS meeting again and "Jubs" complained about the blading session yesterday. The new blades the uncle rented her gave her blisters. Poor girl. Hahahahhaa... time to get your own blades!!!

After meeting, met up with the production crew of Stageit, to pack up things in the Stageit store room. 3hours of dirty work, but somewhat satisfying, nevertheless.

******

Sat was my only empty day. Nua-ed at home.

******

Today, went to Changi Sea Sports Club to begin my 2 star kayaking course. Had quite a fun time doing the rescue drills with, of all people, my primary school classmate, K. Hahahahhaa... Damn funny. Had an enjoyable time talking about those silly times with him.

******

Sun-tanned. Tired. Going, going, gone.

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Start.

2006-10-09T21:24:00.000+08:00

Weee!!! The start of the term break has been damn enjoyable lah!!!

On Sat, totally enjoyed MAF outing with the peeps... you know what, after every MAF, we should ALWAYS go to Holland V. No point jostling with the rest of the crowd. Hohohoho...

On Sun, slacked at home and played the demo version of Football Manager 2007 for the WHOLE DAY. Hwa... there have been great improvements in all aspects of the game since I was last played it as Championship Manager. Hohohoho... I dunno whether to buy this game. The demo version seems fine... Anyway, Christmas is coming!!! So it wouldn't hurt having another present idea. Hahahahha...

Today, went back to school for a tiny project meeting, then went gym, then got ferried home by a nice fren. I seriously think its a case of "so near, yet so far"... Hahhahaa... and I just finished watching the 2nd episode of the new 3rd Season of Boston Legal. OMG... its damn funny lah!!! James Spader is UNBELIEVABLE... I find myself having a few traits in common with him. Hohoho... Can't wait to watch episode 3.

So here are some pictures from MAF.

Guess where we went to eat dinner? Hohoho...

Everything's still the same...

Even the food...

And we take a group photo!!!

The place is still the same...

The unlit centre-piece...

The lit centre-piece. This year had the lights taking the shape of a changing moon, from a crescent to a full moon.

From you-know-where...

I also took loads of videos, but they're all too big to be put up on youtube. I guess my "Superhero" video will entertain everyone for now. Hahahahaha...

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Finally

2006-10-07T15:20:00.000+08:00

And at last, some respite.

I thought the Intro Stats exam today was OK. But if its OK, I really should get full marks, cause I studied my ass off. But I know I won't get full marks, so the test was not OK.

OMG. That sounded so much like reductio ad absurdum.

But then the thing is I didn't really work my ass off last night. I spent 1.5hrs of last night watching SAW, which I just downloaded. Hello??? Watching a movie, and SAW at that, the night before your mid-term paper that constitutes 30% of your marks?? I deserve not to get full marks.

Point to self: one should ALWAYS learn from past lessons. I am such an idiot.

******

I have an impression that most SMU guys are morons. For being whatever they are.

Obviously I do not belong to the "most".

******

I have an impression that most SMU girls are complex. For being whatever they are.

Obviously, I like complex girls.

******

"So all of the sudden, I'm the President of "The People with Crappy Lives"?"

******

OK, the haze, this thing, is really getting to me. I can't get out to run!!! KNN...

I'm left with gym, which is bad cause I don't like lugging my running shoes to school, which I don't like wearing on to walk, because I feel running shoes are not meant for walking.

******

Without wax,
Soulgroove

What I Did.

2006-10-06T12:01:00.000+08:00

Mugging away in the library is so totally calming for the mind and soul, especially when it involves a topic like statistics - where formulas guide the path to one answer, and one answer only. Mid-Term test for Stats is tomorrow and counts for like 30%. I hope I crash and burn like I did for my Intro Psych test the other time.

In other happier matters, the Creative Thinking module ended with a bang on Wednesday, with our final presentations put forth to the rest of the class. No more going to school on Wednesdays!! If you want to find out what I have been doing in school on Sundays, feel free to watch the video below. It may take some time to load though as it is 10mins. But it promises to be fill with you laughter and make you go ROLMAO.

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Decisions. Decisions.

2006-10-02T14:17:00.000+08:00

I surprised myself by finishing the 2000 word BGS essay an hour ago, so for the next few hours and at night, I can choose to spend my time in a variety of ways:

(a)Revise for up coming Intro Stats Test on Sat (30% of total marks).

(b)Re-Revise for the MCQ test for MPW tomorrow (5% of total marks).

(c)Start doing the AS assignment due on Friday.

(d)Start critiquing the 2 AS essays due on Friday as well.

(e)Watch Grey's Anatomy Season 3 Episode 1 which I just downloaded.

(f)Sleep.

(g)Go for a jog.

******

SMUX is organising a white-water rafting trip to Perak, Malaysia during the Week 8 break (next week) from Monday till Wednesday. I don't know whether I wanna go.

Consideration 1: It costs around $250 and might steal precious time away from doing other things.

Consideration 2: CT's 21st birthday dinner is on Wed.

Consideration 3: Zouk Mambo is on Wed (heard lots of SMU pple going).

Consideration 4: Can I just nua at home after mugging in school for so long???

******

Without wax,
Soulgroove

My take.

2006-09-29T15:37:00.000+08:00

You know what, I now TOTALLY understand/empathise/identify with Zi about life in SMU. When I used to ask her out to watch the plays last time, it was always the case of her saying, "You wait ah, I check my schedule." I then learnt that the appropriate time to get her to watch anything was to inform her 2 months in advance. I still remembered we went to watch Quills on one of her presentation days (after her class of course). I can't imagine myself doing that at all!!!

Now, it's my turn. Want to get me to turn up for anything? Please make appointment at least 1 month in advance (I have reached the "2 months" stage yet). I think the decision to meet up for MAF was made 1 month in advance. CT's decision to have his birthday dinner on 11 Oct was only 3 weeks in advance so you caught me there. Hohoho...

There haven't been any good plays floating around recently. OK, not that they're not good, they just don't catch my eye and probably wouldn't be worth my time which could be better spent mugging or writing the next essay that comes up along the way. =P

I didn't catch Forbidden City because (1)I don't like musicals, (2)innately biased against big productions, (3)they don't need my money. Judging from the reviews, there is no doubt that it was good though. However, my sticking point is that, if you could spend something like 80 bucks to watch Forbidden City, why wouldn't anyone spend that same amount of money and watch 2 (perhaps 3) plays over the course of the year that are just as good (albeit much smaller productions but the human intensity is still there), maybe even better??

Is it because of marketing? The oohahhs? You betcha that the same regular working guy/gal that you spied a few seats away from you would never be caught dead in the Esplanade Theatre Studio, watching a small local play. The thing is, I think these other small guys need our support more than folks doing Forbidden City do. It's really not about local versus foreign acts. It's about small versus big productions. Let those people with deep pockets pay the 3-digit figures for their shows. We should support the smaller guys by, well, simply going for their plays.

And now, back to more essay writing...

Without wax,
Soulgroove

I is frustrated.

2006-09-28T13:58:00.000+08:00

I am typing this in Psych class simply because I NEED to let it out of my system.

My Intro Psych exam results SUCKED. My score is a hairline above the MEAN. Mean means AVERAGE. Near mean means equals to AVERAGE.

And BEING AVERAGE IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH!!!

KNS!!! I NEED to score an A- in this module and AVERAGE for this exam is the best I can do? KNS!!!!

Can SOMEONE slap me PLEASE!!

Damn Angry With Self,
Soulgroove

Busy

2006-09-27T10:44:00.000+08:00

Hectic weekend and busy start to week.

Sat afternoon. Intro Psych exam. Think I did OK. Have to get at least 48/60 for the MCQ questions in order to obtain at least A- standard. Should reach target.

Sat Night. Nitebike 2006 SMUXGashboard. Started at 930pm. Route as follows:

Bishan Park to Macritchie Reservoir.
-Via Thomson Road.

Macritchie Reservoir to Bukit Timah Beauty World.
-Via Lornie Road and Bukit Timah Road.
-Past Hwa Chong, King Albert Park.

Bukit Timah Beauty World to Labrador Park.
-Via Clementi Road, Holland Road, Queensway.
-Past Ngee Ann Poly, Singapore Institute of Management HQ, Holland Village, Queensway Shopping Centre, former SAJC.

Labrador Park to Marina Bay.
-Via Telok Blangah Road, Anson Road.
-Past Harbourfront, Suyi's house, CBD area, International Plaza.

Marina Bay to Indoor Stadium.
-Via Benjamin Sheares Bridge, Nicoll Highway.
-Past Benjamin Sheares Bridge, Esplanade, Marina Square, Suntec City, PA Sea Sports Club Kallang, National Stadium.

Indoor Stadium to East Coast Park.
-Via Fort Road.

Xiong boh?!?!?! We cycled 55km. It felt like the whole of Singapore. Visited so many memorable places.

******

I wonder if I can cope with both Stageit (drama group of SMU) and SMUX (SMU Xtremists) commitments. Sooner or later, I'm going to have to give up one and I think it may be Stageit. A pity. But we shall see eh??

******

The KEY to scoring good grades in SMU - MUG. Oh, and don't forget to "por" the professor. How one does that I seriously don't know. But I think I'm getting pretty good at it. HAHAHAHAHA... So don't want face...

******

Nitebike group at Labrador Park. It's a damn nice place. Should go there more often.

******

Just as I was enjoying my Fillet-o-Fish Breakfast meal, waves of St. Hilda's kids (Bjorn Lee!!! Your School!!!) flooded through the door. As I eyed them out of the corner of my eye, they too were eyeing me with their oh-so-naive minds...

Tsktsktsk... I scrambled home after gobbling down the remnants of my breakfast.

******

Without wax,
Soulgroove

What the hell am I doing here.

2006-09-22T14:29:00.000+08:00

You know you're really going super nuts and stressed, when you have an EXAM (even though they like to call it a TEST, just to lighten things up) tommorrow and you've BARELY read through 3/4 of the most important materials and which is for a module which you KNOW you MUST get an at least an A- in (if not I can kiss my double degree goodbye) and which the textbook LAUGHS at you at your stupidity in studying so late every time you open it up to study the next 50 pages or so.

Thank goodness the CT project meeting today was cancelled and I can now study, otherwise I would have choke-slammed myself all the way home, just to make sure I puke up enough blood in order to avoid the impending first EXAM in SMU tomorrow.

10 minutes of sanity here is reward for 50 pages of mindless reading and highlighting. Hey, the book says that this is INSTRUMENTAL CONDITIONING!!! Giving a reward to emphasise some correct thing being done! Like giving a small treat to a dog after it has performaned the "shake hand" trick.

KNS. I'm a dog.

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Permutation

2006-09-19T22:42:00.000+08:00

First presentation in SMU. Sucked. Well, learning experience.

******

I REALLY need to start mugging away.
AS homework partially completed.
Intro Psych Mid-Term test coming up this Saturday.
I should stay in the school library to mug till midnight I tell you.

******

So, it has ended up like that huh?? Well, never mind. Whatever.
Seriously, looking at the pile of work that I have before me, I couldn't be bothered.

******

As some of you might have seen my recent MSN nick, I've proclaimed Zi to be the new HOT GODDESS, taking over the position from my HOTTEST FASCI.

Haven't seen her at school AT ALL for the 1 month school has started and the first time I see her along the corridor, she's head-spinningly, nose-bleedingly HOT. I told her straight in the face when I saw her. HAHAHAHA...

She says there are loads more girls in SMU who are hotter than her and that I haven't opened my eyes enough, but seriously, she's the HOTTEST so far that I've seen.

******

I SO wanna go kayaking... out there, its only you and the sea and no one else...

******

I think this weekend is burnt again.
The SMUX Nitebike event is definitely going to sap out all the energy that I have. H
ow to do the AS assignment like that?
KNS.
And not to mention the CT video project of which I'm supposed to act as a super hero.
Dang.
I think its gonna be damn funny.

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Censorship 101

2006-09-15T21:49:00.000+08:00

WARNING: The following post is very long. Hence, if you're not the "read things" type, you may want to skip it.

NOTE: The fact that I'm typing this post and not spending the time on better things (e.g. reading 2 chapters of the BGS textbook or read 4 chapters of the Psychology textbook for my mid-term test next week or complete the AS homework) goes to show how much I hope to learn from this. I hope everyone will learn too!

Today, I attended the Ministerial Forum 2006: Is Censorship Relevant in a First World Singaporean Society? The speaker invited by Econs Soc and Soc Sci Soc was Dr Balaji Sadasivan, Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs & Information, Communications and The Arts.

In this posting, I will attempt to paraphrase, to the best of my lousy English abilities, what Dr Balaji Sadasivan said in his speech during the forum and the questions and responses in the Q&A thereafter. Hence, I would like to apologize first to Dr Balaji if you do read this and find that I have misinterpreted anything of what you said and there are any inaccuracies in what I write here. Here and there I will also add in a few of my own comments and observations and I will say so explicitly if I do.

Background: Dr Balaji Sadasivan is a pediatric neurosurgeon by profession. He also has a law degree. During the 2001 election, he contested alongside PM Lee Hsien Loong in Ang Mo Kio GRC and was labelled by the media as one of the "Super 7s". For more information, you may view his CV here.

Talk: He starts of by introducing what he is going to talk about today - mainly introducing to us to the principles that the ministry applies in censorship and how they go about doing it, while trying to make relevant references to local examples as much as possible.

A bit of personal history. When he was a student in NUS studying medicine, he organised an arts event - a triple bill of sorts as we would call it today - a comedy, musical and theatre rolled into one. On the first day of the screening, the Dean's wife walked out of the theatre because she had found some of the contents of the play offensive. As the same play was to be shown on the next day, the organizing members (including him) went down to the Dean's office and debated with him about the contents. They eventually won over the Dean and no changes were made. So, he finds it somewhat amusing that he's handling censorship now, as 30 years ago, he was on the other side of the fence.

Why exactly is freedom of speech / freedom of expression so contentious? We value it, that's why. If we did not value it, then we would not be griping about it. It is perhaps what makes the human species different and more dignified than other animals.

However, freedom of speech is not absolute. It is always constrianed. In every society, there exists a tension between liberty and authority. It can move both ways. How this tensions exists and comes about is due to many factors and one of the main factors is the history of the country.

In European history, during the 18th, 19th and 20th century, the region was ravaged by 2 World Wars and the religious wars before that, hence, there is a culture for people to talk freely and lightly of race and religion. The result is the Danish cartoons on Prophet Mohammed which most Europeans had no problems with but greatly infuriated people from the Middle East.

In Singapore, there were the racial riots and the Maria Hertogh riots (Muslims rioted against the court decision to return Maria, then 13, back to her biological Dutch Catholic parents after she had been raised a Muslim under foster parents), indicating the fragile relationships that exists between different races and religions in Singapore.

With reference back to the tension that exists between liberty and authority, it is a tough job in censorship to move between the 2 ends, towards either of the ends. It is not easy because there is inertia. Whenever you try to shift between the 2, people are afraid of going down the slippery slope either ways - towards too much liberty, or towards too much authority.

Firstly, in applying censorship, there is the "harm" principle. And there are a few examples of this.

One. Recently, a person was arrested for writing letters and providing certain formation to foreigners in protest of something. Now this is unacceptable because there are things that are secret and obviously they had to act quickly before more things are leaked.

Two. Hate speech. This is in reference to the bloggers who deliberately targetted a a specific group within the society in Singapore to cause them harm. This is harmful to society and hence, they were arrested, charged, and although their punishements were light, the correct message had been sent out.

Three. Sex and pornography. It gets a bit more tricky here because there is an area where the arts is involved. How and by what standards do you disinguish between art and pornography? Where does a picture of a bare breasted woman stand? Some time ago, MICA shut down a website titled "Fluffyboy" which posted obscene pictures of under-aged boys.

Secondly, there is the "offence" principle. How people will take offense to what is presented. For example, Playboy & Comopolitans and the relevant magazines. If you want to stop this ban, soceity has to change and not take offence. Society needs to understand that with freedom there needs to be tolerance and unless society understands this, we cannot stop the constraint.

This is where the idea of a committee comes in. Dr Balaji says that there is actually a committee, made up of everyday, ordinary Singaporeans who come in and make the decisions on censorship. Don't have the mistaken impression that there is some high-powered civil servant doing all censorship. The idea of the committee will come in later.

But people are selfish and what is offensive to one may not be to another. Whenever you fight to expand your own space, you are constricting the outside space for things that we don't like and this will infiltrate other people's space which would lead to confusing standards.

In another area, there is the issue of "political sensitivity". The Singapore Biennale has some examples. In one exhibit, there was a video of Bin Laden and also a video of a Japanese drinking Sake. Then there's a person saying, repeating "Koizumi is an idiot". We had to take it out because it may cause offense to the Japanese! Then there was a terrorism exhibition at the National Library and there was a picture of Arafat. Is he or is he not a terrorist? We had to tell them to take the picture out. Then there was another exhibition in which Gandhi's face printed was on a slipper and the Indian Ambassy wrote to us to complain. Fortunately, the Indian artist (from India) had a good explanation. Many countries are so sensitive that we are forced to use censorship on our own and it is unnecessary for us to go around offending countries for no good reason.

And then there is race and religion for the "offense" principle. For religion, there was the "Da Vinci Code". Despite the fact that there was considerable representation to protest against the screening of the movie, we went ahead with it anyway because we (the committee) felt that there was sufficient fiction in the story for people to understand that it is a work of fiction.

As for race, there was the recent case of the banning of the play "Smegma". This term is actually a word for some mammalian genetelia secretion. The inefficient manner in which the play was approved, then banned with a statement, then banned with a different statment is a given, but the fact is that the play deserved to be banned.

Dr Balaji then proceeds to read a highly offensive scene. I can't really remember the exact words but it was something to the effects of:

>2 chinese soldiers deciding how to rape a malay muslim woman.
>Soldier 1: I say fuck her now.
>Soldier 2: We will wait for the one to come and fuck her.
>Soldier 1: Why wait? Fuck her now. Who's the one.
>Soldier 2: The HIV-positive fucking one. Wait for im to come around and fuck her.
>Malay woman: Stay away from me, you chinese pigs.

And then Dr Balaji tells us that there is another scene which describes 2 Singaporean chinese males having sex with 2 under-aged Muslim Indonesian women in Batam, but it is too offensive so he would not read it.

Journalists are of course eager to want to know what happened and perhaps support the arts group, but when MICA gave them a copy of the script to read, all of them backed down in writing what was in the script because it was too offensive.

Then there is the area of sexual liberty. Again the committee plays an important role. There was the introduction of Crazy Horse. Dr Balaji describes going to watch the show with his wife with 2 young officials (late 20s). After 20mins, they excused themselves, went to the toilet and were never again seen for the whole show. Even young officials are uncomfortable with the show which goes to show even most young Singaporeans are conservative. There is a way to improve this area and that is by the increase in classification of shows and the zoning idea - CITY vs NEIGHBOURHOODS.

A local community that has felt particularly agrieved is the gay community. With regards to this, there jury is still out on whether it is NATURE vs NURTURE. The committee takes the stand of impressionable minds (nuture-bias) and therefore have the requirement of gay-events to be R21 labelled. Unless there is conclusive evidence that it is genes (nature) that is the cause of homosexuality, the stand is one of non-promotion and of R21-requirements for gay events.

In one particular instance, a concert by a gay couple was banned simply because the organizers did not want to have the R21 classification. The organizers argued that the concert was organized in support of some AIDS foundation and that they had already sold tickets to people under the age of 21 and hence did not want the R21 classification. Therefore, the concert was banned.

As for the NATION party, there havve been conclusive studes to show that there are many people who are HIV positive attend these parties and the social interaction the happens after the party would be disastrous, hence the ban. In fact, many other countries which organise similar parties are considering not organising them.

Recently, there was a gay and lesbian pride month named INDIGNATION, which showcased healthy events like poetry reading and the works, hence it was left untouched.

Finally, there is the issue of political censorship. They understand that in an open society, it is not possible to censor peoples' views because the internet will always be the alternative. The newspapers are there to be as accurate as possible. During the elections, only political websites (PAP, SDP, etc) have the limitations on the podcast and videocast rules, no other websites are limited. Of course this will be reviewed for the coming elections.

Mr Brown. Dr Balaji states up front that MICA did not censor Mr Brown. He agrees it was a badly written response by the MICA official and that it was written in bad taste.

However, 1 point needed to be clarified and rebutted in Mr Brown's column and that was with regards to the suppression of information. Mr Brown's column implied that there was suppresion of information about Singapore's poor till after the elections which was not true, as the information was already out before the elections, which was the reason for the progress package.

MICA did not ask TODAY to suspend Mr Brown as a columnist. The editor of TODAY did the suspension. The editor was at fault for not checking the accuracy of the column even though he was fully aware of the inaccuracy of the information in Mr Brown's column.

Q&A:

QN: You say Singaporeans are constrained and intolerant. From my knowledge as a psychologist, no one is inherently conservative or liberal. I feel that the conservativeness is imposed by the government. The government is a major socializing agent.
ANS: Opening up can only occur if people themselves are tolerant and to convince society to be tolerant then we will reflect the views of society and the space will be open. The government is ultimately answerable to the society that it is governing and it has to reflect those views. Right now, the majority view is still fairly conservative. What you all can do is to support people like Mr Brown and to push society along to believe in you!

QN: Why does the government have to slam down and bankrupt all the JBJ and CSJ?
ANS: The government is responsible for correcting facutal errors. And it is the individuals that sue. Not the government. It is not what so much one says, but whether one says in the correct medium and context. For example, talkingcock.com VS The Straits Times. Also, people like CSJ do not stop at criticising. They always go one step further and allege things as fact, such as corruption of money etc, and that cannot be tolerated.

Dang. I forgot the rest of the questions. OK, I definitely missed out a lot of the questions but I think I've tried to cover as much as possible what Dr Balaji has said. I hope it gives everyone an insight on how MICA works. I did. Hahahaa...

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Come back soon...

2006-09-13T22:03:00.000+08:00

This blog BADLY needs pictures to liven it up!! Gosh... Seeing rows and rows of photos is enough to make my head spin. Its so boring reading all my random rants!! Hahaha... So here goes... (Photos are not in any order. They're just the happenings since from FTB camp which was about 1 month ago... Come to think of it, so many things have happened within 1 month...)

Freshman Bash @ MOS. In this picture, you can see a glimpse of my fasci (the HOTTEST fasci) just turning her head at the split moment!! Hahaha... At first, we (or rather I) thought everyone didn't want to go. But with some cajoling, most of the FTB group went! But most left early cause they were guai kias... Hahaha... I left at 1am so I'm a guai kia too!!! Bleah...

CT, Rey and I went to watch Jared's concert at the Esplanade!! I thought the acoustics of the place was great and that Jared sang great too!!! He sang solo!!! Jared was so excited and busy hoping from place to place to take pictures with all his friends.

This is a picture of YM and YL gazing out to the sea at... secret!! Hahaha... the place is indeed very beautiful. I was there with them to attend Lennon's early 21st Birthday celebration on the boat. See the small chinese junk to the right hand side of the picture? Yes we eventually noarded that thing!! Loads of memories from JC flooded back as YL, YM and I reminescend about the days we had in the micromouse room...

Sending Lennon off at the airport. He's off to Columbia to study Chemistry (or is it Physics?) of all things on an A*Star scholarship. We've never been REALLY that close in micromouse, we still kinda have an unwritten, implicit understanding that we're KINDA good friends, mainly because of all the shit we've been through together. HAHahahaha... All the best mate...

This was taken just outside Raffles City with Lina, YT and YF. We were there to see Lina to have a small gathering because her exams are over and she's come back to her JB house from KL. Incidentally, on the same night, they were having the fireworks display, so we went to take a look there and ended up outside Raffles City to catch a glimpse of the action which was, frankly, nothing much to shout about.

This picture was taken at the National Library, at the forum of "Old Singapore, New Singapore" organised by the Singapore Theatre Festival as a discussion for the play "The Campaign to confer the Public Service Star on JBJ".

From left to right, Tan Tarn How, Alfian Sa'at, Eleanor Wong, Sylvia Lim, Gayle Goh, Martin See. Quite the panel eh? I think I've blogged about this before, on what they talked about. As I said before, the image that kept floating in everyone's mind was the day when he-who-must-not-be-named passes on, and whether Singapore would progress from then on. Hahahaa...

Taken during the FTB camp. It's so sad that I have absolutely NO classes at all that I share with my group mates. Damn jia lat lah... If not I'm quite sure I would have gotten to know them better... Now I hardly see any of then except for the occasional Hi and Bye at the underground... Sadz...

Nice picture hor?! Hahaha... It was taken at Yimin's 21st Birthday party at her condo in Hougang. All her friends were girls lah while Lennon and I were the only 2 guy friends there. Luckily Cindy (my cousin) was there and I've met some of her friends before so it was not too bad.

Notice YM wearing her skirt?! Hahaha... she bought it with her mum, specially for this birthday party because she NEVER wears skirts!!! Hahaha... And the most funny thing is, all the girls were busy taking pictures of her and asking her to pose in various positions in her new outfit and she DOESN'T know how to pose!!! Even I had to teach her how to pose!! Hahaha... Damn funny. It was damn awkward for her lah... Hahaha...

Convocation 2006. Where all the freshies get "inaugurated" into SMU. Was held at Suntec. Notice the all white and black outfit? It was a REQUIREMENT!!! Dunno what it was for anyway but heck... All the girls in my FTB chio hor? Hahahaha... And the guys are shuai too... Of course including me! Bwahahhaa... so no shame....

Fun day with Serena, Winfrid and Terence (SMUX group) at Sentosa... Gosh it seemed like ages ago but it was only last month?? In this pic, Winfrid is getting "Muah Zi" because he lost the "Diu, diu, diu" game... Hahaha... Still remember "muah zi" the local delicacy that one usually gets at pasar malam?? The sticky thingy with lots of peanuts on it?? Hahaha that's what Winfrid went through....

Sending dear Des off at the airport. Oh Des I miss you!!!! Bwahahaha... haiz... you know what, thinking of all the time that we spent in CMC right and the fact that you're not mugging away in Cornell, it almost brings tears to my eyes!!! OMG!!!

Mr Desmond Cai!! Do you know you're the only person now who can bring tears to my eyes!! You bloody ass!!! I am the most NOT emo person around and you're the only person who can make me emo!!! I shall kick your ass when you come back next year!!! Hahahaha...

Sending JH off at the airport... Haiz... This august send off so many people. I is so sad!!! JH is another good fren and he's gonna to be away as long as Des!!! *bawlz* This A*Star ah... really no good leh... send all my friends overseas to study... Hahaha... haiz... I'm also waiting for you to get back JH!!!! Come back soon!!!

Finally!!! The most recent photo of me!!! Doing the kayaking for my 1 star certification. See my cao ta skin??? You can imagine how black I am now... Hahahaha... But I really enjoyed kayaking... looking forward to expeditions organised by SMUX and the 2-star course!!!

Gosh... So many thing happened in the past 1 month... highs and lows...

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Return of the Random Rantings...

2006-09-09T22:02:00.000+08:00

I have never, ever, liked the idea of using one's "connections" to further one's erm... hrm... ambitions? No. Ideas? No. Agenda? No. Motives? Yes!!!

Yah. I'm reminded of this fact due to the recent discovery of certain details, regarding certain people, regarding certain things. Damn I hope they're not reading this.

For myself, I can say that I've always minimized doing such unspoken "things". As far as I can remember, I've only ever conscieously, blatantly, done such a "thing" once - that was to get the part-time job at HSA through my mum (even that I still had to register with the recruitment agency). And I regret it.

I don't know why but I just take a very dim view on this kinda stuff, even though the jury's still out on whether it can actually be labelled "OK" or "not OK". I have the impression that most people do take a negative view too, but they still do it anyway.

You know, its the businessmen who REALLY rely on these kinds of "connections" to further their own interests. I mean, if people want to help you and they don't mind, why not? So, maybe I'm not cut out to be a businessmen after all.

Wow, how nice to realise this after 3 weeks into SMU life. Fantastic.

******

A man lay dead, lonely, peacefully, in his coffin.

5 metres away, seperated by a wall of concrete, workers slowly snipped of the decorations on the platform, on which hours ago, sat a happily newly-wed couple, receiving blessings from their relatives.

Another 10 metres away from this soon-to-be-non-existant platform, a pretty shop, housed 3 very similar couples, attended by 3 very similar attendants, eagerly planning their upcoming glorious wedding.

This is a true scene that I saw near my block while coming back from running last week.

******

Today's newspaper featured something called "Your Guide to the IMF & World Bank". So, I read the very nicely tabulated information, to glean off some information, just for general knowledge.

(1) "IMF's managing director if Mr Rodrigo de Rato, A Spainard. The head of the IMF has traditionally been a European."
- Erm. Why?

(2) "The World Bank's president is Mr Paul Wolfowitz, an American. By unwritten convention, the World Bank is always headed by an American."
- Erm. Why again? Wasn't he the former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense? Like defense has anything to do with fighting poverty for developing countries.

(3) "Not all IMF members are equal. Their voting power depends on their "quota" or shareholding in IMF. Quotas are calculated by a formula which includes GDP. current account transactions and size of foreign reserves. Currently, top voting power goes to the United States with over 17 percent, followed by Japan, Germany, France and Britain. The US effectively has veto power because major decisions by the IMF need an 85 percent majority of vote."
- Erm. What happened to democracy? It really means that big countries can force decisions on smaller countries because of their voting power, right? And judging from the last statement, what I could REALLY say is, that the US controls the IMF. Correct?

(4) "As with the IMF, the most powerful members of the World Bank are developed nations which are also its top contributors: the US, Japan, Germany, france and Britain. They have extra voting rights unlike the rest, which have only one vote each."
- Erm. Yoohoo??? I don't think I see democracy around here have you? I think its funny that they've trying to plant that decent chap into the place called Middle East, but the thing is, they can't even do it in their own back yard!!

In other more "interesting" news, The Malaysian Star published an article from Reuters, in which I saw a statement by IMF and the World Bank, "urged the government to allow all properly accredited representatives to attend the meetings." "We have consistently opposed any restrictions on full participation and peaceful expression of views," the statement said. "We strongly urge the Singapore government to act swiftly and reverse their decision on entry and access to the meetings for these representatives."
-I wonder why The Straits Times has not published this. *Update: The Straits Times HAS published this*

Also, British charity organisation Christian Aid reports that "Lobby groups and activists have been told that they will be turned away from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank meetings due to take place in Singapore next week – even though they have official accreditation to attend. The organisations hit by the ban are non-violent campaigning organisations that have been doing work on the IMF and World Bank for a number of years."
- 1 word. Nice!!

To know more about our LIMITED constitutional right to free speech, expression and assembly, please read the excellent article by Yawning Bread and his other article as published by the Asia Times Online.

*Update: Another worthy article is from Financial Times. It actually says that "Singapore had violated the terms of its agreement to host the event by blocking the entry of 19 civil society representatives, who allegedly posed a security threat."

******

After I get my 1 star-kayaking cert tomorrow, I am SO going to kayak alone and of course, ask other to kayak with me too!!! I love kayaking!!!

Without wax,
Soulgroove

What kind do you like?

2006-09-09T00:07:00.000+08:00

What genres of plays do I like?

Thank goodness I didn't reply: SEX.

HAHAHAHA...

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Recount.

2006-09-06T21:11:00.000+08:00

Had a very intersting day today.

Went back to Court Martial in the morning. Walking back along the same path brings back so, so, so many memories. I think the guard still recognises me. Some new guards look at me weirdly, because I was acting lao jiao and all. Hahaha...

Hey Marc, Mdm Irene was commeting that she hasn't seen you or Chee Wai for some time. You all should go visit. Hurhurhur. Everyone's still the same. I guess so. Bo An is eagerly looking forward to his ORD in Dec, while Keith and Jevan still have to wait for next year. Hahaa.. Dave, well, I wrote in his autograph book that he should get out of CMC soon, and he says he's planning, slowly but surely. After spending so long in CMC, I really think he should move on.

After lunch with the guys, headed back to school. Explored the Library for the first time. Gosh the 2nd floor is really big, with everyone mugging away. I managed to do 3 AS questions there before heading down to the SMU Wellness Centre for my appointment.

My appointment? Yes, I signed up for a massage. Haha... the SMU Peerhelpers invite blind people down from (dunno where) and offer massage services (head/shoulder or feet). One blind uncle did the head/shoulder massage for me. For a solid 20 mins, he kneaded and pressed every single inch of my upper back with his incredibly strong hands. Muscle knots were attacked with great gusto. Hahaha...

In the end, my shoulder felt comfortably relaxed, albeit deceptively, because when I touched them, they were incredibly sore. I think I paid a slight premium at $12 but well, it was in a convenient location in school and they were blind, so I didn't mind. I think I'll go for the foot massage next week. Hahaha... Oh oh, and I saw my Introduction to Psychology prof there too! And she said hi. Hahahah... She must remember me from her class! Hahah...

The class at 330pm was CT (Creative Thinking). We had a group activity and for the first time, our group had to REALLY work together. The lessons in the last 2 weeks didn't had any big group activity. In the end, I thought our group did the best, and I'm quite sure most people did too. But it was how we worked that got me somewhat assured because initially, I wasn't sure our group dynamics was good at all.

******

Another plus point about SMU that I really REALLY like, is that there are always talks/seminars/conferences/dialougues organised by the school/faculty/student-bodies by Ministers/CEOs/prominent-Businessmen/industry-experts/reknowned-academics for students/faculty. This happens every single week and I'm not talking ALMOST, I'm talking about EVERY single week.

Best of all, they're not limited to "elite students". ANYONE can just register and go. For example, in the very FIRST week of school, I registered and attended a talk by Mr Hsieh Tsun-Yan, Chairman, Asia, McKinsey & Co. When I read the email, I was like, "OMG?! McKinsey? No. 1 management consulting firm in the WORLD?" His talk was really, really very insightful and I'm totally looking forward to more such CEO talks in the future.

There are were also many talks by prominent people (Ministers & CEOs) last week and this week, but I was not interested in any of the topics. Next Friday though, is getting SO, SO exciting.

830am-1000am: "Poverty Reduction & Economic Management in Asia"
Speakers: (1)Professor Michael Spence, Nobel Laureate in Economics (*GASP!!*), and Philip H. Knight Professor Emeritus of Management in the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University (2)Professor Paul Romer, STANCO 25 Professor of Economics in the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University and Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution (3)Visiting Professor M. G. Quibria, SESS, SMU, and former Senior Advisor, Operations Evaluation Department of the Asian Development Bank

I mean, that's an exciting lineup of panellists (nominee for understatement of the year). SERIOUSLY, exciting. But. BUT. BUT Can you believe that I actually have AS lessons at the exact time slot? OMG! I am so going to slap myself for missing such a panel. Argh!!!!

Then, at 315pm: "Is Censorship Prevalent in a 1st World Singaporean Society?"
Speaker: Dr Balaji Sadasivan, Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs & Information, Communication & Arts

Hello? That kinda topic just brings blood temperatures up and pressures sky-rocketing. I am SO going for this talk.

My whole fuss about all these talks is that they're organised at a rate that is simply PHENOMENAL for such a small university like SMU. I think so (guess so due to my limited knowledge of NUS) because I've done the ministerial forum with Marc for NUS and for them to organise even 1 Minister talk, it's already a big HOOHA. And well, no one turns up. Or rather, more accurately, only a handful of people turned up at our talk.

And I think, I guess (due to limited knowledge of NUS again), that talks by prominent businessmen, are organised into shiny, polished, limited entry events, judging from one that I attended with Marc and Des. You can quote me on that. Like there's a load of HOOHA and a need to posh up everything because a big name is coming.

For us, a mike and a conference hall and you're good to start, Mr Hsieh.

Oh man, this is so turning into a US versus THEM divide eh? Bwahahaha... oh, I can't believe I'm saying this. Can you believe it Marc? I'm actually saying such things. Bleah... Can't believe myself.

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Directly Proportional

2006-09-03T11:09:00.000+08:00

As I was telling Rey last night, the reason(s) why I usually/mostly/most-of-the-time seem moody/pissed/unhappy/stoned is because either (1)I'm hungry; or (2)I'm sleepy; or both. Amplitude of moodiness/stoneness is directly proportional to level of hungriness/sleepiness.

I probably shouldn't be and its really not healthy to be like that... but... WTH, I'm me.

So... please don't mis-interpret me. It's totally not you out there. It's just me. If it's you, I would tell you.

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Randomness...

2006-09-02T16:26:00.000+08:00

I'm actually very tired... but I want to pen this down... or rather, blog this down before it escapes my feeble mind.

******

Recently, with all the merry friend-making, I've come to some situations which I'm uncomfortable with. Don't like. Detest.

Some call it pour old water / sao3 xing4 (literally to sweep away the fun) / spoiler / extra or just simply, "Don't like that leh."

The thing is, I don't like doing things that I don't like to do. I just don't like. Don't force me. And don't you DARE use peer pressure to force me. I'll be pissed. And when I'm pissed, you don't wanna mess with me. JH would know that.

So, maybe I'm a hypocrite, because I sometimes do these kinda things to others too, but I REALLY try not to. Hence, I would like to think that I somewhat redeem myself.

Usually, the way I deal with this kinds of situations is... I walk away. I will completely, resolutely, walk away from the thing that the group so likes to pressure people to do to fit into the group. People already do so little things for themselves (that's what I think, contrary to popular belief that people always do what they want), why do they still want to do things for other people?

The problem comes when I think people judge me for that. As I've said before, I'm pretty paranoid about how people think I am. I shouldn't be and I know I shouldn't be, but like... what the hell. Until I start believing that God is the only person who judges people, I will always think about people judging me and I know because as a fellow human being, I'm always judging people too.

******

Which brings me to my next point of why I really REALLY would like to KNOW know people.

I would like to be their mirror. To let them see themselves. And I always hope that they can be my mirror too, so that I can see myself. And learn.

Its damn fascinating seeing the guy beside me swoon over chio girls, talking about which ones are "available", rave about the clubbing last night and acting like a "player" and then the next thing you know it, he's lowering his head, praying to God and giving thanks for the food before him.

******

If anyone has time, read up this legal case by Yawning Bread. Very intersting read. I can identify with it very strongly because of my work at Court Martial Centre last time.

******

If you have more time, please read this case of a Malaysian blogger being detained and harassed by our police outside the American Embassy. Quite a funny episode I think. But the implications and complications... Too long for me to think about it now...

******

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Stories...

2006-09-01T21:21:00.000+08:00

“Tap, tap, tap”, went his left index finger, like a woodpecker, silently willing the handphone for a response. The fancy sliding mechanism worked itself to repeated perfection, guided by the impatient thumb. As if conducted by the said thumb like an orchestra, the screen flashed on and off in precise unison with the slide. I need a response! I need something from you! Please!

*****

She rested her heavy, aching head on the cold, cold window pane of the taxi, closing her eyes, taking in the soft thud, thud, thud of the rain drops splattering into nothingness. The world passed by outside. A diamond of a tear crawled its way down her soft pink cheeks, pausing occasionally, as if unsure which route to take to its final destination. The world continued.

*****

The silk-like smoke, rising from the tip of the wet cigarette, drew delightful patterns in the air and vanished, as quickly as it had been formed. The edges of the tip burned amber-bright, like simmering coals in a fireplace, as he drew the cigarette to his chapped lips and sucked in the gift. Escape. The ultimate escape.

*****

“No!”, she yelled at the top of her voice. “I will not allow you to control me!”

“Why do you think that just because you are my father that you have the right to control every, single, part, of, my, life?” she continued, strained, in a far more measured tone, but not because she intended it, simply because she was concentrating her full hate and anger for him at the very tip of her index finger, now raised, pointing directly at him, like one would aim a pistol at a target.

“Fuck you! I want my life BACK!” she screamed, heart rapidly sinking, bringing up tears of frustration and hate, as she began collapsing, freefalling, crumbling, disintegrating.

“I am your father. I am your life.”

*****

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Mind Flip.

2006-09-01T11:38:00.000+08:00

There are no 2 sides to an arguement. There are 2 perspectives on an issue. An arguement has an inherent claim, that seeks to substantiate/provide reasons for that claim. An arguement can be sound/unsound, valid/invalid. There is no such thing as a "true arguement", just like there is no such thing as a "square circle". Logic is a tool that can help us - (1)discover, (2)confirm, (3)test - truth.

"There is no absolute truth". Is it true?

If Ruth is at the party, then Joshua is at the party.
(a) Ruth is at the party. Joshua?
(b) Ruth is not at the party. Joshua?
(c) Joshua is at the party. Ruth?
(d) Joshua is not at the party. Ruth?

I think I'm starting to like Analytical Skills a tiny bit. I still hate the mind acrobatics though. Besides, I think I'm going to get a 0 for the first assignment because I didn't explain my answers. Damnz.

******

I would like to know people. KNOW know people. REALLY KNOW know people.

Very tired of the predictable, surfacy responses that I get from fellow Singaporeans. I think I'm too cynical.

The foreign students are nice. They SEEM nice. I hope to REALLY KNOW know them.

******

Do we KNOW people? Like REALLY KNOW know them.

Hell, how can I expect to know people when I don't even know myself? Is that a pre-requisite?

******

You are not here. I have no idea where you are. Should I know where you are? I'm uncomfortable not knowing where you are. Should I be uncomfortable? I'm getting impatient waiting for you. Should I be impatient? I'm getting bored waiting for you. Should I be bored? I keep wondering where you are. Should I be wondering?

I don't like the feeling of this. I don't like the sound of your voice. Yes I don't.

Without wax,
Soulgroove

3M

2006-08-29T21:04:00.000+08:00

Recently, PM LHL touched on the 3M (Medisave, Medishield, Medifund) safety net that we have for Singaporeans who are worried about the rising cost of healthcare in Singapore. I never thought much about it.

Recently, I've been receiving more letters from the CPF (since I've started contributing while working part-time) regarding various schemes, like DPS (Dependents Protection Scheme I think) and the works.

Not too long ago, I received a form asking me to fill out my medical history for one of the M(s) as stated above. I treated it as a minor inconvenience, so I didn't really bother much about the details (I didn't know which M it was for) but just filled up the form accordingly, noting the 2 problems that I had - (1) Scoliosis, (2)Gout.

Yesterday, a lady called me and asked me about more details about my conditions like, when they were diagnosed, what treatment am I currently receiving etc. After her questions, she then told me that since the problems were diagnosed before the period of coverage started (must be some insurance thing right?) those problems would most probably not be covered under the policy. I didn't thought much about it again and merely muttered an "Oh."

With the benefit of hindsight, I now realised that I should have enquired further because, her point to me was that if, for any reason, I were to be hospitalised in future for any of the 2 stated conditions, I would not be "covered" under the policy, which really, is a nice way of saying you got to come up with lots and lots of money of your own.

Question: "Which one of the M did I fill up the form for?"

Question: "Why are my conditions that are diagnosed before the start of coverage not covered under the policy? Is it common insurance practice?"

Question: "So what exactly are the 3Ms?"

I suppose information is readily available on the web, but I'm too lazy to find them. Darn.

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Is It?

2006-08-26T22:07:00.000+08:00

OK. Very nice. So I have listed all the very nice points about SMU. Nice profs. Nice environment. Nice people. But really, there must be some faults right? Of course there are!!!

Firstly, timetable. The timeslots for lessons are very standard. Lessons run from either 0830hrs to 1145hrs, or 1200hrs to 1515hrs, or 1530hrs to 1845hrs. Very often, I feel, 2 lessons in a row is quite the killer. Of course the 15mins breaks during classes helps... but... its still quite heavy.

So let me think, should I whack one morning lesson and one 12noon lesson together? Or should I do one morning lesson and then a 1530hrs one so that I have time to slack in between? But i'll probably feel the most sleepy during the 1530hrs lesson so that's not ideal. But if I take the earlier 2 lessons, how to eat lunch? How about the 12noon lesson and the 1530hrs lesson together? But that's totally crazy too.

Hrm... what other flaws can i think of? Ok, I haven't experienced this yet, but some of my other friends have complained that there are irritating people in the class who speak up just to gain the prof's attention and are really contributing nothing to the class at all. I guess that will always be a problem when the class participation marks are so vital. We just have to trust the profs to be able to discern the good ones from the bad ones and limit the participation of such irriating folks.

So, on first impression, these are the only 2 gripes. SMU really does seem to be quite perfect eh?

Or is it?

Without wax,
Soulgroove

SMU 1st Week in Review

2006-08-25T19:44:00.000+08:00

Well, so one week of SMU life is over. How do I feel?

First up. Profs.

Due to the fact that I want to bid for 2 more modules, I decided to drop in on as many lessons as possible.

First lesson - Business, Government, Society (BGS). Compulsory. Lesson was great because I loved the approach that the prof took (he's semi-retired and taught for many years in NUS) and that I could contribute to the class. All my reading over the past years have come to some use.
Second lesson - Business Processes (BP). I was the only freshman there. Everyone was giving me weird looks. I totally had no idea that this Business core module was a slightly more advanced one. Prof (Singaporean) was very mild-mannered and nice. Many students in the class said that they bidded for his class because he was highly recommended by others.
Third lesson - Management of People at Work (MPW). By far the most popular course that incoming freshman want to bid, simply because it requires no foundation technical knowledge from other courses. Prof(Canadian) was very mild-mannered and softspoken.
Forth lesson - Research Methods in Social Science (RMSS). I was 1 of 2 freshman to sit in this class. Weird looks from seniors again. Prof (China) was having his very first class in SMU. I thought he did superbly well for his first class. But the usual problem of not being able to understand due to accent cropped up. It was a small problem which would certainly be ironed out in the near future.
Fifth lesson - Creative Thinking (CT). Compulsory. Prof (Singaporean) was really really weird on first impression. Seemed to behave like a mad scientist. But after a while, realised that he was actually a very knowledgable and warm person.
Sixth lesson - Introductory Statistics B. Compulsory. Prof (Singaporean) was, as my senior described, very motherly and nice. The problem was with the subject. How do you make a topic such as stats interesting to a class which was half from social science? Hahaha...
Seventh lesson - Introduction to Psychology. Prof (Hong Kong) was having her first lesson as well. Again, topic was very dry, so it was no fault of her's. Some problems of accent here and there, but overall was OK also.
Eight lesson - Analytical Skills (AS). Compulsory. Another lesson which I enjoyed. Prof (American I suspect) totally reminded me of Mr Thody. Always lambasting students with superlative words and making fun of students. But he did get his point across about AS being the most important course in SMU, ever.
Ninth lesson - Management Science (MS). Previously known as Quantitative Methods. Prof (China) was OK. Topic was very very dry again. Was advised to take this course before taking other courses.

So there. I have 4 preassigned classes and I attended 5 more others. My mind is going to explode I tell you.

Next, Environment.

The classroom facilities are nothing short of excellent.
Profs always give at least 15 mins break in the very long 3 hour lesson to let us freshen ourselves up.
Toilets are relatively well maintained.
And I especially love the Group Study Rooms (GSR). If no one is using them, one can just scan your card and go right in and enjoy your own private room. Total silence. Aircon. Bright lights. Lovely.
I haven't had the opportunity to go to the library though. I'm thinking I may not like going there very much at all. I never liked the idea of people looking at me while I study. I'm always thinking of what other people are thinking. I'm so paranoid eh.

Next, Students.

Questions: Does SMU really attract a different calibre of students from NUS/NTU? Does it really produce more outstanding students than NUS/NTU? Is it really because of its interative teaching pedagogy and small class size?

My answer after 1 week of lesson: Yes. On the average. Yes generally. Yes overall. But if you're talking about the best and the brightest, I think undergraduates from all universities are comparable. Just take a look at Marc man. Hahahaha... He's from NUS!!!

The small class sizes is really the killer. The profs know you by name. They can see everyone up close. They can detect any small twitch on your face. The mood of the class is very clear to him/her. Every laughter, giggle, cough, sneeze, scratch, snigger, tilt-of-head, wave-of-hand, even the blink of and eye, is magnified 10X in the small class of 45. Especially so when the classroom is semi-circled shaped and everyone is facing the prof. So don't expect to pull any fast ones in class.

The 3 hours of lesson time also allows the prof to have ample time to do whatever he/she wants in class. Gone are the days in JC when videos have to be stopped halfway, group discussions have to be cut short and debriefings hastily rushed through. The time is often more than enough.

And that concludes my review of 1 week's worth of lessons in SMU.

Without wax,
Soulgroove

School...

2006-08-21T22:18:00.000+08:00

My head is now swimming with different permutations and combinations (1 of most hated chapters in JC Maths) of various classes to fit into my horrible pre-assigned timetable.

First, decide whether to take 2 extra Business modules or a combination of 1 Business module and 1 Social Science module. Conclusion: Can't make up my mind.

Second, decide which Business modules to take. Depending on 1st answer, choose 1 or 2 out of 4. Management of People at Work? Business Processes? Management Science? Finance? Conclusion: MPW and something else.

Third, decide which Soc Sci module to take. Plural Perspectives on Political Issues? Research Methods for Soc Sci? Conclusion: Plural Perspectives.

Forth, decide whether timing clashes. Conclusion: No.

Fifth, decide whether you like timing. Conclusion: No.

Sixth, decide whether you like prof teaching. Conclusion: Do I have a choice?

Result: START OVER.

WLEKNSTMDWBDCCD.

If I have trouble deciding how to fit 2 extra lessons into 4 timing slots, I can't imagine how I would fare trying to plan my own timetable.

**********

My hot fascilitator just informed me yesterday that she managed to see my blog. From the link from tomorrow.sg. So HELLO!!!! And here's a small fact as to how HOT she is - she won the title of "HOTTEST FASCILITATOR" in the Freshman Teambuilding Camp. HOT right? HAhahahaha...

Thank goodness I only posted up photos of the FTB and didn't bitch about anyone here. HAhahaha...

**********

School starts tomorrow for me. First lesson, is "Business, Government and Society" (henceforth BGS). And my prof has already been sending out emails to ask us to read through the course outline and also to watch PM Lee Hsien Loong's speech!!! *gasp*

Of course, me, being the faithful student, dutifully watched the National Day Rally and took down notes. I have a feeling I would like BGS, but the thought of exams just freaks me out.

**********

Secrets. Skeletons in the closet. Cards close to your chest. Dirty linen. Whatever you call them.

When people know, they look at you differently. Or rather, I do. I did. But I only looked at her differently. I didn't think about her differently. Cause I was just waiting for some info like this to be out. Should I be surprised? Should people be surprised?

Curiosity killed the cat. But humans are such natural voyeurs. We live for entertainment and gossip. Assures that our own flaws are not so bad after all.

**********

The flashing rainbow of lights jumped off her neck, illuminating her smooth, porcelain skin. The tiny hint of bosom gasped for air. Hips sashay to the thump, thump, thump of the music. Curved shoulders bounce mere inches - up, down, up, down. Angel eyes closed, absorbing the vibrations through the mist. Everything freezes over. Revel in the moment. Pure woman.

**********

OK, dang. Enough writing for now. The above paragraph took me forever to write. I think I'm losing my touch. KNS. School tomorrow!!!

Without wax,
Soulgroove

NOT reflective

2006-08-14T22:27:00.000+08:00

Loads of stuffs happened over the past few days.

Watched "The Campaign to Confer the Public Service Star on JBJ".
Attended the forum, "Old Singapore, New Singapore".
Had dinner with Lina, Will and YF and watched the fireworks.
Sent Des off to the States at airport.
Went to Sentosa with SMUX people.
Went to watch Lakehouse with Della.

The play was great. I thought Pam Oei and Rodney Olivero did excellent acting and Eleanor Wong's script was fantastic. "Imperfect past makes present tense". Hahahaha...

The forum was amazing as well. Panellists were - Tan Tarn How (Playwright), Eleanor Wong (NUS Law Professor and Playwright), Sylvia Lim (Workers' Party Chairman), Gayle Goh (Blogger), Martin See (Film Maker). Lots of topics were covered. Gayle spoke amazingly well and really held her own against the adults, but then again, she represented Singapore recently in the World Debating Championships... so... hahaha... But everything was great...it seemed that a lot of things hinged on when "He-who-must-not-be-named" will pass on and what will happen after that... hahaha...

The fireworks were nice, but were mostly too low. Yf, YT, Lina and me were standing at the Raffles City, trying to catch a glimpse of the proceedings at the Esplanade.

It was a little sad seeing Des leave for the States. But hey... my thinking is that he will always be back. Sooner or later... Dunno about his GF though.

Had a fun time at the beach with some of the SMUX people. Most didn't turn up, but those who did were the 'ON' type, so it was cool. Hrm... I should go there more often shouldn't I? Hahhaa...

I met Della at the Business Academic Briefing about 1-2 weeks ago, and she's a foreign student from Indonesia. Very nice. Asked her about loads of stuff about her coming here to study. Got her msn contact there and then as my laptop was open to take down notes. Ha. Lakehouse was my idea. Went to her place after watching Lakehouse. Very big and spacious. But pretty empty. Has absolutely no food (i don't consider maggie mee food) whatsoever in store. Have an urge to start cooking pasta at her place straight away to bring some brightness to the gloomy kitchen. Hahaha...

OK, this update is SO not reflective again.

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Teambuilding

2006-08-10T22:15:00.000+08:00

OK, so I've come back from FTB, Freshman Teambuilding Camp, which they repeatedly emphasise that they refuse to call orientation camp. Objective of the camp: "To build your group into a high-performance team in the shortest time possible."A shot of the dorm where we slept in.

Btw, here's a photo of the dinner we had at JH's house last week.
And this morning's breakfast at Jared's house...
I've hit the limit of photos that I can upload to flickr this month, so no more photos till next month!!! Sadz... Hahaha...

On another note, I think I've been writing too many "reporting" posts. Will write more "reflective" posts tomorrow.

That's all for now.

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Report Report

2006-08-06T10:39:00.000+08:00

OK! A quick round up of activities before I go out blading in the afternoon and have dinner at JH's house. Tomorrow, Tue and Wed, will be the compulsory Freshman Orientation Teambuilding Camp, so no more updates from me by then.

Yesterday went to Rey's house to have a surprise farewell dinner for JH. And of course JH was very surprised. No pics yet, but will post them up soon when I get frm Rey.

Friday went to Giraffe (opposite Istana) to have Des's farewell dinner. Very nice place. Only sticking point was that they don't serve water!!! Horrors... More photos in my flickr set.And we also celebrated his 21st Birthday early for him. And of course his birthday is on the... 20th September. If I remember correctly. hahaha...

A few days before that, I met up with long-lost Sec Sch classmate, Mr Naveen, at the Esplanade to watch The Car and 41 Hours.Oh I tell you, Norlina Mohamed, the main actress in "The Car" is fast becoming my new theatre idol!!! She is so versatile in the different roles that she plays within this single production - from the cute young girl who's fascinated with the new car, to the teenager who gradually starts to hate the car, to the mature woman who wants to sell off the car, and finally to the itzy-bitzy-cutey potrayal of a new japanese car in the household - and she masters them all!!! OMG OMG OMG!!!

And the best part is that I think she recognises me somewhat because I turned up to watch "Serve" and "Over The Wall" with Des some time ago, of which she was the main organiser, and during the Q&A after that, I asked her quite a few questions. STILL in addition, she was part of the cast of "Queen Ping", which I watched with ZX earlier in the year, and at that time, I thought she was one of the best performers in the play... OMG OMG OMG!!!

She is just so mind-bogglingly attractive in the intellectual kinda way... Hahahahaha... only thing is, Naveen and I overheard someone in the audience comment that she's already in her forties... *gasp*!!! She looks barely a day out of twenty-five!!!

Hwa okok, no more time liao... Will end off here...

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Photos from SMU Xtremists Camp

2006-08-02T18:22:00.000+08:00

Woohoo... flood loads of photos in my flickr from the SMU Xtremists Camp. Here's a sample...

Everyone's "injury part" (labelled by the orange cloth) before embarking on the trek.

Take a photo in the jungle!!!

Atop the abandoned railway... Its somewhere near Clementi...

Blading at West Coast Park the next morning...

Scuba diving!!! Ultimate coolness...

Pointing at the starry starry night at Changi Beach... or campsite for the 2nd night...

Last activity of the camp... telematches... Quite crazy...

Yay.... hahaha... our winning bottles for the "Most Enthu Group / Best Cheer" Group of the whole camp... woohoo....

Without wax,
Soulgroove

SMU Camps

2006-07-31T09:28:00.000+08:00

Now that I'm sufficiently rested from all the camps, time to blog again... hohoho... Should I do a straight out comparison or individual reviews? This is so like a geog/bio essay...

1. SMU Sports Camp (20 July - 22 July)
Main purpose of this camp was to introduce camp participants to not-so-common sports in SMU. We started off mass-participation icebreakers, followed by "Amazing Race" where we got to try out golf, dragon-boating, archery, rock-climbing, pool. The highlight at the end was the completely free DHL Hot-Air Balloon Ride at Liang Seah Street, near Bugis Junction. The night view was quite amazing.The next day was spent at MOE CCA Branch (Bukit Timah) where most of us got damn shacked and sun-fried playing floorball, touch-rugby, ultimate frisbee and water games. The water games were quite creative and funny e.g water mahjong, where basically group members had to dive underwater individually to the bottom of the pool in search of the required mahjong tiles. At the end of the day, we had a massive buffet at SOA where there was even a band to entertain us.The night ended with funny games at the auditorium of SOA. The last day was telematches. Introducing Group 8!!!Overall, I felt everything was very organised and that most of the sports were fun! Anyone who goes to SMU should definitely join the Sports Camp.

2. SMU Xtremists Camp (24 July - 26 July)
My impression of the SMU Xtremists (henceforth SMUX) took a nosedive immediately at the start of the camp because everything was disorganised. No place to report to and to register. GLs were not around. When approached, answer was, "Please wait for a while. We are trying to get everything organised." Hello? You should have been organised super long ago lah! Why wait till now?

But things got better soon after. We had trekking through an abandoned railway which was super dirty cause we had to trek through mud. Then after dinner near Pandan Reservoir, we cycled from the reservoir to Jurong Hill (near Jurong Bird Park). After completing a small task, we proceeded to cycle to West Coast Park where we spent the night in tents. Bathing facilities were completely non-existent and we had to "shower" by re-filling bottles.

The next day was learning blading at West Coast Park. This was easy as I already knew how to blade. The afternoon's activity was super cool though cause we were transported to East Coast Park where we did scuba diving in a swimming pool there. Scuba diving is uber cool and fun!!! But one must always remain calm in water and not panic cause everything would go downhill from there if one freaks out. The night was spent at Changi Beach near Changi Village, again in tents.

The last activity of the camp the next day was kayaking. We kayaked to an uber small island and actually had lunch there and also had an super fun game with the instructors. Came back to Changi Beach in the afternoon and had a super tiring telematch again. Being super super shacked at the end of the camp is a serious understatement.

This camp is recommended for people who enjoy or would like to try out the xtremists activities of trekking, biking, blading, scuba-diving and kayaking. I think I would like to do kayaking. I most probably will be going for the 1 Star course.

3. Social Science Camp (28 July - 29 July)
This camp was very fun as well in that one could see that the organisers put in a lot of effort into constructing a theme around the camp and again made sure that the challenges were as fun as possible. It also helped that the main organiser had a hilarious name of ChiChing. Makes one want to go to the jackpot... hahaha...Conclusion...
Everyone should really try join as many camps as possible simply because (1) its fun; (2) they really really give ou a feeling of what smu is all about; (3)get to know the activities that the main groups in smu offer; (4)get to know your seniors and you can always ask them loads of questions; (5)get to know fellow freshies so that school life ahead may be easier...

Later in the afternoon, I shall blog more about what happened in between and after the camps... Hahahaha....

Without wax,
Soulgroove

PS All photos except the Sports Camp group photo was taken by my new Nokia 6280!!! Nice...

Thinking...

2006-07-19T20:57:00.000+08:00

Ahha... so, tonight is, I think, the last sane night for some time to come (maybe 4 years?) because I'm going to, technically, start my SMU journey from tomorrow onwards.

Tomorrow morning, I'm going to meet up with a whole new bunch of people, opening up my life to a whole new spectrum of society, maybe idiotic, maybe not. Hurhurhur... I don't know why I choose to describe meeting potential friends like that. Ha... Still, it should be pretty interesting.

With particular reference to Steve Job's speech (again), he said, "Your work is going to fill a large part of your life and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking and don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know it when you find it. And like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years go on. So keep looking. Don't settle."

That may explain why I sometimes like to watch Formula 1 and see Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher battling it out in laps and laps of the race track. It really reminds me of the days when I was doing Micromouse (in sec sch and JC). Its all about testing, re-testing, what went wrong where, when, why, how, fine-tuning and stuff like that.

Which is like me trying to find out what I love to do. Trying here, there, everywhere. I haven't found it yet, that's why I abandoned the Micromouse route. Which also explains why I'm joining the SMU Sports Camp, and the SMU Xtremist Camp. I'm thinking I may find something there. Perhaps. Maybe. Gut guess.

Again, Steve Jobs said something to the effect that you can only connect the dots looking backwards and not forwards and that you should just trust something, anything, that will give you the confidence that things will work out fine in the end.

What am I trusting? I don't know. Guts, God, Destiny, Life. Anything. Nothing.

"No one wants to die. Even people who want to get to Heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It's life change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now, the new is you. But someday not too long form now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but its quite true. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma and just living with the results of other peoples' thinking. Don't let the noise of other peoples' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition - they somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

So yeah, with those words, I'm gonna take a small hiatus from blogging due to the upcoming orientation camps. Hope to blog again next week.

Without wax,
Soulgroove

P.S. Dear Mr Bjorn Li Songqing, I have a sense of some unfinished business with you (although there really isn't, because its just a sense), so I think we should meet sometime soon before you start school. Maybe sometime late next week.

2006-07-18T10:47:00.000+08:00

Hwa lau!!! The new Liverpool European Away Kit is bloody ugly lah!!!! Its not even ugly!!! Its fugly!!!!!

John Arne Riise looks like an absolute cock wearing it!!!! AAAAHHHHH!!!! Just hope that the home kit will be better....

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Wasting Money

2006-07-17T16:20:00.000+08:00

I have decided to become evil and stay at home today instead of going for guitar lesson. In fact, I'm not going for any more guitar lessons at Music Forest. 2 reasons:

(1) Next few weeks will be packed with camps and getting-to-know-you stuffs which then leads to the start of school. No time for attending lessons. (Lame excuse - there's always time for everything)

(2) The teacher's good but... the teaching sucks. *sigh*... let's just say its a waste of my investment. KNS. What did I learnt in the few lessons that I was there. Erm... how to change chords faster... And nothing else I suppose. Double KNS.

So... no more guitar lessons for me. That's it. Until I find a good place and time to learn. Meanwhile, I'll just practice the few pieces that I know until the "GOD-LIKE" level.

hurhurhur...

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Weiping's 21st Birthday PLUS Why Are There More Random Thoughts?

2006-07-17T10:57:00.000+08:00

Happy Birthday to Wei Ping!!!

Wow... I wonder whether this will truly happen in 10 years time. Not a bad projection - 10 years.

Everyone put your best foot forward!!! Hurhurhur.... For more photos, please go see my flickr at www.flickr.com/photos/soulgroovesg/

***************

Its actually quite interesting how vividly I remember the dream that I had last night. The death. The feeling. The search. My mum once said that your dreams are the extension of our thoughts on real life, - like an amplification of sorts.

Thus, how interesting is it that this person, in real life, is classified by me (*gasp* I classify people!!!) as a somewhat close, but not close friend. The craziness that I kinda felt in the dream upon knowledge of her death (also in the dream), points to a somewhat hidden attachment that I have to her in real life.

Which is totally crazy. *sigh* I think she has become the benchmark. Hahahaha...

P.S. If any of you were wondering, she is not the same one as the one mentioned in my earlier "random thoughts".

***************

Haiyo... I guess I'll have to read another instruction manual again... this time, its my new handphone. The quite popular Nokia 6280. I decided against getting the N80 because... it was just not worth it... Besides... I think I've spent enough money on this Mac. Hurhurhur...

***************

KNS. I don't think I can join the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon this year because it falls on 3 Dec, which is like the last day of exams, which means that its still within exam range, which means that there could be exams on that day...

***************

On another note, The Car & 41 Hours is playing this coming 27th July to 30th July. Any takers??

**************

Seriously...

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Why Do I Have So Many Random Thoughts Now A Days?

2006-07-14T15:46:00.000+08:00

If you take the trouble to call me up nicely early in the morning to inform me that I'm nominated for the scholarship, why the heck are you not sending me the email with the details to let me know about it?!?!?! Why is it taking so long just to send one simple email to me?!?!?!

**************

I think I'm a bit nuts by signing up for 4 camps. But after watching Steve Job's speech on youtube, I think my decision was correct. Stay hungry. Stay foolish.

(1) SMU Sports Union Camp (20 July - 22 July)
(2) SMU Xtremists Camp (24 July - 26 July)
(3) Uni-Y Community Service Camp (31 July - 4 Aug)
(4) Freshman Orientation Camp (7 Aug - 9 Aug) *compulsory

***************

When it says click and drag the green duck to the applications folder, it REALLY means click and drag the green duck to the applications folder.

***************

I'm always afraid of screwing up. Damn. Some day, I should learn how to screw things up like some people always do.

***************

It always amazes me how different people can be.

One dresses and talks like a Jehovah's Witness, while the other, about 10 places further in front of him in the queue, peppers his sentences with generous amounts of "F***!!!", putting extra emphasis to make it short and curt so as to have the most vulgar effect possible.

Put them side by side, and you would really wonder what in the world happened to produce such contrasting personalities within such similar people.

But, for now, their minds are as far apart as the boy selling evening newspapers from passenger to passenger in the dark, dimly-lit train station and the teenager, flipping his skateboard, frozen in mid-air, baking in the afternoon sun - totally engrossed in their own little world.

****************

The pain in the ass continues to be a pain in the ass and what I really mean, is a pain in the ass. Nothing else.

****************

Camp costs = $30 + $40 + $35 = $105

Kinda makes the $0 that I spent on food the other day seem really insignificant.

****************

Fat. Flab. Blob. Whatever you call it. How the heck do you get rid of it in like 1 week?!?!?!?!

****************

KNS! Just remembered that I need to go to the nearest SISTIC collection centre to collect the tickets for the play tomorrow. Can't go home early and sleep now. Darnz...

And who still wants to watch the plays at the Singapore Theatre Festival? Don't like that leh... Support, support leh...

****************

Seriously waiting for the 2nd season of Grey's Anatomy DVD to come out. How long more must I wait?!?!!?! *Bawls*...

Without wax,
Soulgroove

IMG_2976

2006-07-12T23:27:00.000+08:00

IMG_2976
Originally uploaded by soulgroovesg.

First bootup!!! Actually it was already booted up in the store where the person upgraded to Mac OS X 10.4.7 for me. Here in this photo, the comp's asking me whether I want to connect to my neighbour's wireless network!!! Hahahaha... I could deetect more than 5 networks I tell you!!!

IMG_2975

2006-07-12T23:25:00.000+08:00

IMG_2975
Originally uploaded by soulgroovesg.

Excellent shot of the ports on the left hand side...

IMG_2971

2006-07-12T23:24:00.000+08:00

IMG_2971
Originally uploaded by soulgroovesg.

Sleeky closed Macbook Pro with all te accesories...

IMG_2962

2006-07-12T23:23:00.000+08:00

IMG_2962
Originally uploaded by soulgroovesg.

My Macbook Pro!!! Woot!!! First Pictures!!!

Even More Random Thoughts.

2006-07-12T16:16:00.000+08:00

I'm surprised at myself for starting to get irritated by people misusing the word "Karma". The truth is that in these recent boring weeks in the office, I've been thinking and reading loads about Buddhism. Having understood the basic concepts of Buddhism, its kinda frustrating to see people equating "karma" as "what does around comes around". That is SO not it. Why won't people go and read up and learn? KNS.

Many thanks to JH for your book "Mere Christianity". I think I understand Christianity better.

Having understood (to a beginner's amateur level), I think I can better identify myself as a Buddhist. But hor, I don't wanna become a vegan leh. How ah. Must become vegan a not one ah? No need right?

*****************

OMG. The last day of the early bird discount for the Singapore Theatre Festival is today and I've only booked 1 set of tickets to watch "The Campaign To Confer The Public Service Star on JBJ" with Marc... No one else wants to watch the rest? Hwa lau... looks like I'm gonna miss out on the 20% discount. I guess I'll have to settle for the student discount... Grrr...

*****************

Ths girl is nice. But she is SO not my type.

I think I would prefer someone with the brains of Angelique, understanding level of Blinkymummy, dress sense of Sassyjan and adventurnous (hurh?) of Popagandhi. Hwa seh... Why am I mentally constructing someone out of these famous female bloggers? Reality is so different from blog personalities.

But, what if they are really who they are on their blogs?

*****************

My butt hurts from the leg pumping machine from gym yesterday.

Hey CT, I saw a guy twice your size do 2/3 the weights you do of the chest machine yesterday. You usually do something like 60s right? He was doing 40s. KNS I only do 20s.

*****************

My boss just treated me to lunch on my 2nd last day of work. I'm going home for dinner. Breakfast was paid by mum. Total amount spent on food today = $0.

*****************

My boss is very smart. Life smart.

"Life is a game. Like a poker game. Everyone has their cards covered. The difference comes where who can read and use their cards better."

"Life is 60% luck. 40% of what you've got."

"In everything that you do, you must always be very conscious of what you are doing. Must be very conscious."

*****************

I really don't wanna say hurtful words. But its really REALLY getting on my nerves.

Buddha taught not to cause harm and be hurtful to others. But then, Buddha probably didn't know that the world is such a place now.

******************

When I go home, I'll need to install my Microsoft Office, Quicksilver and to find more interesting widgets to fill up my desktop.

Hey, HM. Can you ask WM whether he needs Microsoft Office? I got the "Student/Teacher Edition for Macs" and have 3 licenses. I could sell him 1 installation at a discount if he wants.

******************

Suffering from Grey's Anatomy withdrawal symptoms because Channel 5 pulled out the show on Monday to show the replay of the World Cup Final. KNS! I must be one of the few guys who would choose Grey's Anatomy over the World Cup Final.

Without wax,
Soulgroove

VERY VERY Random Thoughts (Much More Random Than Sui's)

2006-07-11T15:58:00.000+08:00

Sometimes, we might think that we really, really know a person. But, you know, the truth is, we don't.

*************************

Why don't those f***ing waiting-to-die aunties just send me those damn freaking statistics so that I can completely waste my brain by using the oh-so-easy Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V shortcut functions to aimlessly compile all my numbers into a silly, confusing table which wouldn't even elicit a twitch of an eyebrow response from the very suave CEO, but would instead lie marooned by itself like a rolled up note in a bottle amongst the vast, ever-expanding ocean of imaginary kilobytes in the system, waiting for someone to one day, just one day, pick it up and discover that the water-soluble-smeared-ink writing makes no sense at all to another absolutely sane person who is reading the same damn thing.

*************************

Why in the world are they so similar again? I seem to be meeting the same types EVERYWHERE!!! They just bug me!!! F***!!!!!

Don't eat vegies? Checked.
Somewhat Sporty? Checked.
Completely Naive? Checked.
Don't have a life? Checked.
Absolutely Clueless About The Vast World Outside? Checked.
Inability to Engage In "That-Level" of Conversation? Checked.
Can Only Crap and Crap Some More? Checked.
Am Somewhat Smitten By Crapping With Them? Checked.

God!!!! *Swats them away like flies*... Not my type!!! Not my type!!! Quit bugging me!!!!

*************************

I need to get back and charge my Macbook Pro's battery to full again before using it. Or can I use it while its charging? Will that interrupt the calibration process? I need to download more useful widgets?

*************************

People in the office must be thinking that I have bladder problem because I keep going to the toilet to pee every few hours when the truth is that now-a-days I'm drinking like a camel that has just returned from an arduous journey in the desert in a bid to pass out all the uric acid in my blood to prevent a re-occurance of gout and to delay the inevitable old-age onset of kidney failure which HY nicely pointed out during the class reunion.

And thanks Bjorn, I did not get finger cramps the next morning after eating that bowl of tau-hway which I knew I probably shouldn't have, but yet I did anyway. I did it as a test.

**************************

The only way to get rid of male boobies, Mr Joey Pragas (hell, why am I even thinking about you?), is to run and run more. But not before you get nipple rash. Ouch.

**************************

Why is Mr. Busy Marc not replying to my sms? Did I even send out that sms in the first place? I think I did. Did I?

**************************

Seriously.

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Photo 1

2006-07-09T20:40:00.000+08:00

Photo 1
Originally uploaded by soulgroovesg.

I'm now offcially a mac convert!!! i've just bought my very own MacBook Pro!!! Wah seh!! I sibeh excited!!! And the internet connection was bloody easy to set up!!! I was online in less than 3 minutes!!! No more fumbling with lousy software and crap!!!! Hahahaha!!!

Paiseh ZX, now no more offer already. I bought my Macbook Pro from the iShop at Cathay Cineleisure which had great bundled software and upgrade.

This photo was is showing the posters that I have up at my wall that I just took with iSight!!!

Abt Class Gathering & PERTH

2006-07-08T23:16:00.000+08:00

Wooo.... the class gathering was a mini success!! It could have been more people if Joan, YiAn, Weiping, Dephne and Andrea could have made it, but sadly, they didn't. Still, Joa and JW declared it to be a record turn-out!!! Woohoo!!!

The concoction of wine and Bailey's that I brought... Many apologies to Yiting for pouring so much wine for you!! So much so that you forgot to wear your shoes after coming out of the house... Hahaha!! That was the funniest thing!!!

As usual, the ever-alert (before she was drunk) Yiting catches me trying to take a photo and quickly poses her signature "V" sign.

Food! Food! Endless amounts of food!!! Thanks everyone for buying and bringing food. Especially those who cooked like Huimin's "Fruity Tiramisu" (which was delicious) and Hongye's "Mee Goreng aka Hokkien Mee" (which was commendable... hahaha!!!)

Finally! A class photo!!! Yay!!

On a seperate note...

Just wanna report that on Wed, I went with Bjorn to watch the film "PERTH" at National Museum, Gallery Theatre.

The very nicely refurbished National Museum interior. I think its still out-of-bounds to most of the public actually.

The movie poster for "PERTH". The main character is Harry Lee, played by veteran actor of "Growing Up" fame, Lim Kay Tong.

The production crew having a Q&A with the audience after the screening of the film. The actress who plays as a Vietnamese girl in the movie is super chio!!! OMG!!! She's damn hot!!!

In the end, I must say, this is one of the best, complete local films that I've ever seen, rivaling "Singapore Dreaming". The filming and acting was great. Everything about the plot was amazing. It makes one think so much.

One wonders why Jack Neo received so much publicity when his movies are of such sub-par standard and superb, quality local films like these are resigned to short, limited screenings, available only via word-of-mouth to a deprived audience. KNS.

Worse, isn't it so very sad that the only ones who seem to appreciate these kind of films are ang mohs in France, who awarded the film with 4 awards in a film festival, and locals just don't seem to have the "brain power" to understand the quality of such a production.

Haiz... such is the state of the film and theatre in Singapore.

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Why I Want to Buy a Mac

2006-07-06T15:35:00.000+08:00

I am so hell bent on buying a Macbook!!! *Drools....*

OK, here's my reason.

Can you just see the way the apps move?!?!?! Be patient and watch through the whole 6 plus mins of the video!!! OMG! OMG!!! I'm like gasping for air. Someone clear the space, clear the space please!! I need more oxygen!!! You try doing it on Windows sure kanna illegal operation one ah I tell you!!!

And who says you can't run Windows on a Mac now? Now, you have 2 options of running Windows on the Intel-based Macs!

(1)Bootcamp - as released in beta version by Apple, Bootcamp allows one to create a partition in the hard disk for both the Mac OS and the Windows XP. Upon start-up, you can choose either to boot up in Windows or Max OS X. Can you just look at the video?!?!?!? OMG OMG!!!! Bootcamp is slated to be fully released in the new Mac OS 10.5 "Leopard" next year.

(2)Parallels - allows one to switch effortlessly in between running both Mac OS X and Windows XP. Would you please look at the video?!?!?! Do not be fooled by this small tinkering in the first few seconds. The transition to Windows XP occurs in a blink of an eye!!!

Excuse me anyone got anything to say now? From the sources that I've heard, its just a pity that SMU doesn't have any tie-ups with any companies to provide Apple laptops. Don't worry I got my own plans. Presenting a unbelievable deal!

This is a limited time offer ONLY!! Imagine getting $100 off an 30GB iPod video? Now you can!! Here's the thing. Apple Education Store online is now offering a $312 rebate if I buy a Macbook and an iPod Video together. You see, the thing is I don't NEED an iPod video. So I tell you what. I'll share with you the rebate!!! Here's the maths.

A 30GB iPod video (Free Engraving!!) costs $464 online (with education discount). Apple Care Protection Plan (extends warranty to 3 years) costs $82. Total price is $573.30 (inclusive of 5% GST). So, I'm offering this very same iPod video at $480 NETT. Deal Anyone?!?!?!?!?!? That's slightly more than 16% discount off the Educational Price!! Much cheaper than in ALL stores now!!

This offer also applies to the iPod Nano (4GB, 6GB) and iPod Video (60GB). If you don't want the Apple Care Protection Plan, fine by me. For all my smart friends out there, the maths is the same.

So! Grab your chance today!!!

Please SMS me OK?!?!?!?!

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Cousin Outing

2006-07-03T22:21:00.000+08:00

OK OK. Since M has warned me about the serious consequences of drawing attention to myself and invoking the fury of the authorities, I shall post up some nice photos to placate everyone!! Dun charge me OK? I promise I will be a good boy from now on...

Anyways, yesterday went to meet up with my cousins, C, J and Jon.

Gasp! Blur photo!!! And C and Jon are both taller than me!!! KNS... (&@)&@_%&$#)! Cannot tahan this... Must... (*jump*) grow... (*jump*) taller!!! (*jump* *gasp* *gasp*) I realise I look quite bulky around the chest area. KNS X 2. That's not the desired effect of the gym training regime!!! Must change!!!

Then we went to Esplanade to talk cock and walk about and I managed to take this quite nice photo...

I tell you I'm such a sucker for long, loud, somewhat-inspiring, raw and angry script sentences. To be honest, I've never watched the movie "Trainspotting" before, but I fell in love with this poster immediately when I saw it in the shop. Gosh it just sends goosebumps all over me...

Also, if you haven't noticed, my blog description is the long dialougue of "Mr Anderson, blah blah blah..." You may recall it in the one of the last scenes of the Matrix Revoluions where the bad guy was fighting with Neo. I simply love that long sentence!!!

Without wax,
Soulgroove

THIS IS FEAR

2006-07-03T16:42:00.000+08:00

This is what I call fear. Never mind if its humour, criticism, comment, opinion, view, or whatever bullshit that we have, if its against the government, its bad and it will only earn you a sharp, pointed rebuke from the authorities.

A few days ago, mrbrown wrote this article in this regular column in the TODAY newspaper. As usual, it was full of satirical humour about recent developments and he took jabs at the government's various policies.

Amazingly, one K Bhavani, Press Secretary for the Minister of Information, Communication and the Arts replied in a strongly-worded letter that was published today.

Distorting the truth,mr brown?

When a columnist becomes a 'partisan player' in politics

Letter
from K BHAVANIPress Secretary to the Minister for Information,
Communications and the ArtsYour mr brown column, "S'poreans are fed, up with progress!" (June 30) poured sarcasm on many issues, including the recent General Household Survey, price increases in electricity tariffs and taxi fares, our IT plans, the Progress Package and means testing for special school fees.

The results of the General Household Survey were only available after the General Election. But similar data from the Household Expenditure Survey had been published last year before the election.

There was no reason to suppress the information. It confirmed what we had told Singaporeans all along, that globalisation would stretch out incomes.

mr brown must also know that price increases in electricity tariffs and taxi fares are the inevitable result of higher oil prices.

These were precisely the reasons for the Progress Package — to help lower income Singaporeans cope with higher costs of living.

Our IT plans are critical to Singapore's competitive position and will improve the job chances of individual Singaporeans. It is wrong of mr brown to make light of them.

As for means testing for special school fees, we understand mr brown's disappointment as the father of an autistic child. However, with means testing, we can devote more resources to families who need more help.

mr brown's views on all these issues distort the truth. They are polemics dressed up as analysis, blaming the Government for all that he is unhappy with. He offers no alternatives or solutions. His piece is calculated to encourage cynicism and despondency, which can only make things worse, not better, for those he professes to sympathise with.

mr brown is entitled to his views. But opinions which are widely circulated in a regular column in a serious newspaper should meet higher standards. Instead of a diatribe mr brown should offer constructive criticism and alternatives. And he should come out from behind his pseudonym to defend his views openly.

It is not the role of journalists or newspapers in Singapore to champion issues, or campaign for or against the Government. If a columnist presents himself as a non-political observer, while exploiting his access to the mass media to undermine the Government's standing with the electorate, then he is no longer a constructive critic, but a partisan player in politics.

WAH LAU!!!! When I read this letter, I is very angry. Please let me point out which lines I am extremely uncomfortable with.

(1)"There was no reason to suppress the information." Then why was it surpressed until now?

(2)"mr brown must also know that price increases in electricity tariffs and taxi fares are the inevitable result of higher oil prices." Of course this statement is true. But, let us just see whether when the oil prices go back down one day, whether the taxi fares will go down or not. Better still, why don't the taxi companies "help" the taxi drivers by cutting down on rental fees? Of course, they would never do that, being a private company.

(3)"These were precisely the reasons for the Progress Package — to help lower income Singaporeans cope with higher costs of living." Hello? You think we're stupid? Its just a legitimate way to vote buy!!! OMG. Did I just make that accusation? Damn, I'll get charged in court like the Chees! Please don't! Please don't! I still have a bright future ahead of me!!! I think.

(4)"As for means testing for special school fees, we understand mr brown's disappointment as the father of an autistic child. " Bloggers all around are screaming about this statement as a personal attack. A low-blow, that's what I call it. Parents of children with special needs already have enough problems of their own to cope with, yet they still have to pay fees enough to send a normal kid to an independent school like RI.

(5)"He offers no alternatives or solutions." and "Instead of a diatribe mr brown should offer constructive criticism and alternatives." You mean in any issue that I have opinions/views about I must have alternatives? I understand if you ask that of opposition parties lah, but to common folks like us, we're not paid thousands of bucks to come up with alternatives OK!! Why can't one air one's unhappiness?!?!

(6)"It is not the role of journalists or newspapers in Singapore to champion issues, or campaign for or against the Government." If one truely wants to follow this rule strictly, then remove the "4 million Smiles" adverts, remove the "10min-Mozzie-Wipeout-Campaign" adverts, remove the "Singapore Food Festival" adverts. Afterall, they're intiatives by the government what. You want to remain neutral? Remain neutral lor.

(7)"then he is no longer a constructive critic, but a partisan player in politics." Again this is crap. If I complain about the PAP, I'm a partisan player in politics? If I complain about the government, I'm a partisan player? If I complain a lousy initiative, I'm a partisan player?

This response by K Bhavani obviously goes to show that this administration cannot handle any criticism, be it constructive or not. Now, bloggers everywhere are cursing the 66% of Singaporeans who voted for the PAP.

Shameful. That's the only word I have.

Without wax,
Soulgroove

Complaints.

2006-06-30T11:42:00.000+08:00

WAH LAU... how come like that one... I post about boxers vs briefs hor, then got a lot of comments in the chatbox. I post about theatre leh. No one interested.

@#%)#$)^$%*^#*)%*&%^)& Can don't like this a not? Don't be the typical Singaporean leh!!! Show some interest for the arts lah!!! Must support local artists mah!!! Channel 8 show all no blain one leh!!!

Anyway, Marc has replied in the affirmative to watch "The Campaign to Confer the Public Service Star on JBJ" with me, while Des will watch "Serve + Over The Wall" with me. Woopie!!!! And next week watching "PERTH" with Bjorn, so yeah, things are going arty-farty. I have high expectations of "PERTH" though, with Lim Kay Tong acting as the main lead in this film.

I need...
(1)A tan. I look like a solid piece of white tofu in the gym as compared to all the macho guys around.
(2)A haircut. As much as I like a bit of long hair, my hair is sticking out at weird angles all over the places on my head. Attempts to use gel to rectify the problem has proved futile. Damn. Why the hairstylist need to go overseas at this time?
(3)A smaller butt. I know this I shouldn't be complaining about this but what the heck. i'll probably never going to fit into smaller size jeans and pants. I think it is caused by my scoliosis though.
(4)More money. Just realised that part of my money goes into CPF!!! KNS!!! But wait. If my pay is less than $500, there will be no CPF contribution on my part. But if it more than $500, then there will be CPF contribution. So, if I submit my timesheet every 2 weeks, my pay is slightly less than $500, which means I get all in cash. If I submit my timesheet every 1 month, my pay will be more than $500, which means I'll have to chop off 20% of my pay for CPF. KNS! Why like that!!!! So the regularity of my submission of time sheet determines whether there will be CPF contribution or not?!!?!?!?!?!? )#$&%#^*#()$%@)&^(&@#!!!!!!!!!!

I is ANGRY!!!

Without wax,
Soulgroove