Thursday, March 03, 2005

"I think the world is run by 'C' students." - Al McGuire

Random Playlist Song: Bach - French Suite No. 1 in D minor, BWV 812 - 03 Sarabande

Noooooo... Gould's humming is driving me mad.

***

A hairband snapped on me. !@#$%^&*() Maybe my head's too big (and girls' heads are too small - draw your own conclusions).

Meanwhile my friend's flip-flops snapped on her when someone stepped on them.

Moral of the story: female stuff is poor quality since the girls will get sick of it before it spoils anyway

***

As a Happy Tree Friends fanclub member, I got a special link to view: "Out on a Limb - It's trouble in the trees for dimwitted Lumpy!"

Yay.


Tim after I sent him Ode to Nature (Princess Shayla & Merrick): what kind of song is this :(


Someone on the bullshit that is marketing (and indeed all of Business except maybe Finance): marketing, heh
it's a crock of shit, that one

i thought it'd be fun. boy was I wrong.

Me: so what do you learn! what do you learn!

Someone: NONSENSE! BULLSHIT! RUBBISH!
like how companies like challenger superstore put things in a pile so people will dig through it
or the rumours about coca cola's insidious subconcious signal marketing campaign

it's just putting words to common sense stuff that we already know
it's rubbish

they have stupid SWAT analysis techniques
Strengths, Weaknesses, Advantages, Threats
Yah, yah, so easy to identify all 4 ah

if your stupid analysis technique worked we wouldn't need psychoanalysts already ah
hell who needs doctors
jsut use teh SWAT
according to my tutor it can be applied to everything what

i'm so annoyed i'm typing in singlish
this is what marketing does to a man
don't take it


Addendum:

donaq: I think Business is pure crap too. Took a management module once and it gave me the eerie sensation of being a fried rice hawker. You know, you take the same stuff and keep flipping it in your wok. Around and around and around . . .

***

Singapore, HK diverging fiscal fortunes

"“Singapore...may benefit from a re-examination of some of its fiscal principles, especially in light of its strong performance during the difficult past 6 years,” [ said analyst Ping Chew.] “In particular, it may be useful for the government to examine whether its already ample resources are sufficient for further rainy days, and whether funds could be more efficiently managed if they are released into the private sector.”...

... [O]ver the past 6 years...Singapore managed to stay in the black with an average general government surplus of 5.8 percent. S&P figure contrast with that of the government which said in its last budget it was running a small budget deficit of 0.45 percent of GDP.

“Most governments around the world go to some trouble to re-jig their numbers to present deficits as surplus. Singapore tends to disguise surplus as deficit. If you look at the numbers in an international standardize way, Singapore is actually delivering a very large surplus once again,” Paul Coughlin told reporters. “This leaves open the question of whether the government could have done more to cushion its economy from the shocks,” he added."

(By way of The Singapore Commentator)

***

Jack and Jill in single mother shock

"Britain's most popular nursery rhymes, recited by generations of parents to their children, are teeming with references to bed-hopping royals and teenage sex, according to a book on the origins of 24 playground ditties.

While Jack and Jill may seem innocuous enough in their attempt to fetch water, they are in fact preoccupied with losing their virginity, says Chris Roberts, a social historian who has traced the adult stories behind the nursery rhymes. Jill possibly becomes pregnant and there are regrets later.

"The interesting bit is that, having successfully 'lost his crown', it's Jack who runs off rapidly - probably to tell his mates what happened," said Mr Roberts, 37, author of Heavy Words Lightly Thrown.

In an alternative second verse, the sexual association of the rhyme becomes more blatant. Instead of his head, Jack has a different part of his anatomy patched up with vinegar and brown paper.

The rhyme "Goosey, goosey gander, where do you wander? Upstairs and downstairs and in my lady's chamber" can be read as alluding to the spread of venereal disease - known as "goose bumps" because of the swelling."

***

Someone was trying to explain to me why the Japs like tentacle porn so much, and said that tentacles acted as proxies for the male genitals since they could not be shown onscreen.

However, it turns out that this just-so story isn't strictly accurate:

"the ukiyo-e, or traditional japanese woodblock print, was one of the chief sources of entertainment for the common man and samurai alike. topics appearing on ukiyo-e were far ranging, it was possible to find pieces encouraging political dissention and rebelling against the shogunate (always couched in imagery and symbolism, to be blatant was to court with death), scenic landscapes of lake biwa and oshino hakkai, and of course, the topic of discussion, erotic prints in the form of pillow books. these erotic ukiyo-e had its origins from paintings of popular courtesans and mistresses, commissions from the rich painted by famous hands and utilised as mastabatory material. this utilisation of pleasure-prints became popular and filtered down to the common people, who could not afford to buy an actual courtesan and hence resorted to hand and painting (or sometimes, they utilised a false vagina consisting of a silken or hemp bag filled with warm konnyaku jelly) as a substitute.

however, due to the high price of paintings, especially those by famous artists, multiple prints like ukiyo-e were far more affordable (multiple copies could be purchased, so it did not mattter should it get stained when after used), and many well-known woodblock artists such as hokusai katsushika have also dabbled in this offshot of the traditional ukiyo-e, with each of them leaving behind their particular style and influence. it was also hokusai who came up with the famous ukiyo-e prints of mount fuji, and an equally well known (but perhaps in different circles) piece depicting a the wife of a fisherman being pleasured by a pair of octopi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Dream_of_the_fishermans_wife_hokusai.jpg).

in fact, tentacular sex, or the fetishisation (is there such a word? sorry my english is not so good...) of the octopus as an object of sexual fulfilment is not a rarity in japan. since the late kamakura period [Ed: 1192 - 1333] the motif of woman and octopus entwined in erotic, sensual poses has appeared on netsuke, wood carvings, statuettes, prints, in prose and even at the back of religious scrolls. female nuns were also rumoured to masturbate to such scrolls with ivory phalluses because their vows prevented them from satisfying their urges in actual intercourse. the important point to note is that such couplings of woman and octopus are almost always portrayed as being very enjoyable and the octopus is supposed to be a better lover than an man, with its many suckered tentacles and so on...

... my final point would be that the japanese have been kinky from a very long time ago. +_+"

***

Five drown in baptism tragedy - "After the baptism of the males, one of them wanted to be baptised again. He was overcome by the Holy Spirit and wanted to go further into the sea and we had to try to restrain him. While we were busy a big wave hit us and pulled us in."

The Fashion of the Christ - This is hilarious


Pain and Suffering is Good for You?

"'The Vatican accused affluent societies yesterday of gobbling up too much of the world's health-care resources with their fetish for stay-young-forever medical cures, urging them to look to Pope John Paul II as a model for the inevitability of old age and illness whose stoic suffering should be imitated.

Vatican psychiatrist Manfred Lutz hailed the 85-year-old Pope as "the living alternative to the prevailing health-fiend madness."

Referring to the Pope's advanced Parkinson's disease and other illnesses, Dr. Lutz said: "Precisely in the handicap, in the disease, in the pain, in old age, in dying and death, one can . . . perceive the truth of life in a clearer way."

It was rather an abrupt turnabout for the Vatican, which has vigorously obscured -- even lied about -- the Pope's state of health in the past.'

But, if the Vatican really feels that handicaps, disease, pain and suffering are beneficial, then why does the Catholic Church continue to operate shrines such as Lourdes around the world where the afflicted can travel at great expense to seek a miracle cure?"

***

Abuses of surveillance cameras - "We are told that surveillance cameras are never abused by their operators, each of whom can supposedly be trusted not to use the awesome technology at their disposal to engage in despicable or outright illegal behavior. But this information is false: camera-operators are not angels; they are subject to the same prejudices, temptations and corruptions that we all struggle with; camera-operators get bored or arrogant and abuse their cameras on a regular basis. To confirm this, one only has to keep up with the news being reported from around the world, which is precisely what we plan to do here, on this page, in chronological order."
Hurrah for "security". Who will watch the watchers?

Rice with Everything in China - Including Relics - "Rice fills the bowls on many Chinese tables -- and also the cracks in its ancient buildings, and maybe even the Great Wall, Xinhua news agency reported."

On the protests against supposed gay imagery in cartoons: "Could it be that in their tender years they got a subliminal message from the cartoons they viewed; perhaps the cross-dressing Bugs Bunny passionately kissing Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, or Daffy Duck? Or was it the macho Popeye homoerotically fighting the testosterone-charged Bluto over the androgynous Olive Oil, with the sexually ambiguous Swee'pea lurking in the background? Or was it the less-than-subtle S&M roleplay between Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner? Whatever the influences, these protesters have an unhealthy obsession with sexual issues."

better living through buttermilk. because sour is the new sweet. - "Pei Chi: NICHOLAS LIU, back and in old form, making fun of other people's crappy blogs and inviting flame wars. Nicholas vs. The Internet, Round 40895204398590923845."

***

You have decided to go for a game of floor ball rather than prepare for your mid-term test in Economic Policy Analysis that is day after tomorrow. One can infer that

a) you have made an irrational choice.
b) you are doing poorly in your economics class.
c) the economic surplus from playing floor ball exceeded the surplus from studying.
d) you need to grow up.
e) the cost of studying is greater than the cost of playing floor ball.

!@#$%^&*()

Someone: if it's an econs test, then obviously c
if it's a review qn at the end of your teacher's review form then b
if it's a political sci class then answer is a
if it's a test given to u by your shrink answer is d

Me: when is it E

Someone: when is it E? oh
when it's a business test lor.. simple


Which of the following situations does not involve game theory?

a) Buying a pair of pants at Guess.
b) Pyonyang (North Korea) deciding to spend more on nuclear weapons.
c) A married Singaporean couple deciding to have a second child.
d) A student considering cheating on this mid-term test.
e) Intel debating whether to lower the price on its microprocessors.

***

My favourite misanthrope:

"From the Kalven Report (pdf file):

The mission of the university is the discovery, improvement, and dissemination of knowledge. Its domain of inquiry and scrutiny includes all aspects and all values of society. A university faithful to its mission will provide enduring challenges to social values, policies, practices, and institutions. By design and by effect, it is the institution which creates discontent with the existing social arrangements and proposes new ones. In brief, a good university, like Socrates, will be upsetting.
(Emphasis mine)

Compare and contrast with what Agagooga calls the Premier Institution of Social Engineering. The crucial difference being the last six words of the cheerful orange statement. Needless to say "upsetting" is something that nobody in that island of conformity wants, or possibly they don't really know if they want it but are told by politicians who only care for the citizens' own good that nobody wants it, which is utterly convincing to anyone (that is, nearly everyone there) who hasn't thought about it.

We must give it some slack for being a government-funded institution that is supposedly obliged to use tax revenue in only patriotic ways. Except, of course, that taxpayers are not allowed to decide whether, or how, they should use their own money to socially engineer themselves. But it's all for their own good, what do they care so long as they're getting well fed and entertained."


Another reliable source assures me that there's no point printing at the Science Library because:

1) You have to buy a card and the System Assistant will tick off the number of pages printed on the card itself (ie It's a manual system)
2) You can only send print jobs to the printer via their computers
3) There are long queues
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