"Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the fact" - Bertrand Russell

***

Me: WWJS?

Singapore third in empowering women

"The Global Summit of Women held in Santiago, Chile voted Singapore third in terms of policies on empowering women in society.

Singapore was lauded for helping women achieve work-life balance based on impact, innovation and policy sustainability...

These included policy and support services, as well as promoting mindset change in employers, unions, family members, the community and among men."

HWMNBN: how far does the former boss of temasek skew the results?

In any event, I'm not surprised nor should you be, because you and I both are victims of the below.

Me: In this case, only insofar as rich people are victims of progressive tax systems

HWMNBN: that's rich coming from a man who spends half of his literary output criticising the empowerment of women and its excesses.

In any case, the social and cultural damage which disenfranchises people like you and me romantically is far greater than the net economic advantage (some of which trickles down to us as individuals) gained by increased workforce participation.

Me: Criticising the excesses of the empowerment of women /= not supporting "policy and support services, as well as promoting mindset change in employers, unions, family members, the community and among men."

HWMNBN: so you're talking out of both sides of your mouth as usual then.

Me: That's like saying someone who criticises both the Holocaust and Israel's treatment of the Palestinians is a hypocrite

HWMNBN: One can say the former is far worse than the latter, even if one only
uses cold comparative statistics.

In your case, supporting "policy and support services, as well as promoting mindset change in employers, unions, family members, the community and among men." in its current incarnation is what leads exactly to the excesses of the empowerment of women you spend the other half of your time.

A more appropriate analogy would be a government who complains about the dangers of passive smoking but says consumers need to smoke more local cigarettes to keep the local economy going.

Me: Just because you are against Israel's treatment of the Palestinians does not mean that you should equate Zionism to Racism, or deny its right to exist.

Not treating women as chattel does not mean calling not sending girls to school "gender-based violence"

HWMNBN: > excuse me, *we* are the oppressed chattel in today's society. *We* are the stone-throwing West Bank residents here against their tanks of political correctness, settlements of pro forma equality, and airstrikes of conditioned behavioural expectations of paying the bill.

Supporting their cause now would be like supporting the KKK in the 1850s fearing coloured "domination" of the Deep South.

(historical anachronism: KKK was founded in the 1860s.)

Edward Said put it most eloquently; we are in the unique position of being the "victims of the victims"

"We live in a moment of history where change is so speeded up that we begin to see the present only when it is already disappearing." - R. D. Laing

***

Me: "moral intuitions" are just our prejudices
so people work backwards to justify them

MFM: actually the working backwards to justify thing comes from a trust in reduction ad absurdum

so for e.g. one takes it that if one's moral theory results in hitler being a good person, there is something wrong with that theory

I think that's an ok position actually, so long as we can agree on what is patently absurd

Me: that's one way of looking at it
well that's if you assume what humans agree on is a necessary and sufficient criterion

MFM: the problem is that for many issues people don't agree on what's absurd

Me: aiyah the pomos will always come up with some funny thing
like saying some people say genocide is okay

MFM: it may not be but we really have no better way to proceed. the alternative is to not do ethics (my choice)

it's a case of making the best of what we've got

I just can't be bothered with ethics b/c I think it's too difficult and quite likely imposisble to get around the sceptical problem


MFTTW: Free BJ today! Unfortunately there isn't one near campus...

Me: Unfortunately my time is worth more than free ice cream now, hurr hurr. And was studying French during lunch =D

MFTTW: I want the old gssq back. This one is no good.


MFTTW: u need to find a girl like ***'s mum
who enjoys sitting at home and cooking random things more than shopping
ahhaha

she doesn't shop
chasing girls who don't shop is cheaper on budget
just sit home and have sex

Me: ...

...

MFTTW [on the Public Service]: iron rice bowl leh!

Me: iron makes rice taste bad

MFTTW: er but it's good for menstruating women. ahahhaah.

Me: ..........


HWMNBN: i'm trying to download fallout 3 add-ons
which are only available in the us and uk

but my credit card won't validate after setting up us and uk accounts
rage

i have points
but the dlc isn't available
scumbags

Me: too bad
how do you want them to tie it to geography then

HWMNBN: they should releease in all 3 locations then

i don't know why asia hasn't released DLC yet
when the original DLc came out months ago

i'll ask jk if i can borrow his credit card

and they have the nerve to show the advertisement fo rthe DLC on the windows live front page even in the asian portal

fuck i'll just download the torrent
if they won't even let me pay for it...

i woudl ike to support bethesda soft for their great games
but sinec they won't support me as a consumer
they can go fuck themselves


PPBI (Princess of Peach Blossom Island): another friend has a potential girlfriend test

he'll offer to pay for movie tix

if she offers to pay back, he'll consider her
if she doesn't, he won't


Someone: sigh.. eh be my sugar papa
i need a better [internet] connection

Me: err
sorry I'm not into little boys :)

Someone: thanks anyway


MFTTW: i've never had really good food in m'sia before

cos i never know wehre to go
esp in KL


Someone: yeah i'm just kinda disturbed at your friend skinnylatte

because all along i believed in what the gay community has been saying: that sexual orientation is immutable
it's not by choice, it's just who they are, they didn't ask to be gay

that's fine by me

but it seems that what the gay community thinks isn't what the lesbian community thinks

one of the things i was told about gay men is that they would never make moves on anyone other than fellow gay men

but it seems that lesbian girls seem to think that straight girls are fair game and that they can be 'converted'

now that rings a lot of alarm bells

Me: women are more complicated than men

Someone: agreed

Me: eh
gay men don't wish cute guys were gay meh
they do lah

but somehow it's okay for them to go "I wish he were gay"
and not for guys to go "I wish [lesbian girl] were straight"
this is called heterophobia

Someone: no they wish, yes. but they won't go out and try to convert [straight] men

Me: oh active conversion
not many people actively convert lah

Someone: like i wish some gay girls were straight (not like they'd be with me lah) but i don't go out and try to convert them
or even question why they think they're gay

haha so skinnylatte is one of the rare minority?

this is impt to me because everything i've been saying in defence of the gay community hinges on this specific point: that sexual orientation is immutable and the gay community is not going to convert straight ppl

Me: haha
I dont think they are rare
but they're probably a minority

she says she doesn't try to convert people
they come to her

Someone: yeah right
like i believe straight girls would turn gay without her doing anything

Me: anyway I think immutability is irrelevant

Someone: haha that's the thing. the moment they start to convert people, i have no basis to defend them
maybe this is why i trust the gay community more than the lesbian one

Me: ><
you can defend their right to exist what

just not their right to resist conversion haha

Someone: hahahaha

"I am not ashamed of paying for sex. I pay for food. I pay for clothing. I pay for shelter. Why should I not also pay for sex?"

Recent extended correspondence:

me: See http://articles.latimes.com/2006/sep/21/world/fg-bride21

One of the benefits of globalization. It's not just us [in Sg]!:)

I don't think i've ever asked you this, but would you mail-order?

gssq: If I could mail-order a very-good fit wife, maybe. But there's a matching problem.

It's just like in theory enlightened despotism is the best form of government. But how do you ensure the despot is enlightened?

me: the matching problem is easier to resolve than you think
a) research
b) try before you buy
c) yank her passport and kick her back - as you can see from the article the power imbalance [represents] an inherent return policy of sorts:)

Put it this way, treat it like you're buying a new car or a new computer. Surely you will study/try out/explore/talk first rather than [just] telling the agent: "give me this one"

And pick a reputable agent that allows you take a look first.

Although I suspect you, like me, are looking for qualities that are very unlikely to be found in the kind of person who would end up on the auction block.

gssq: Har.
a) How? Google them?
b) Har? Can ah
c) I'm looking for a wife, not a car, computer or slave

It's cheaper to hire a cook, maid and wh0re than get a wife like this anyway

me: a) They fly you there for trips. In most cases I'm told you can talk to them a bit via email or even letter correspondence first. If you get a good agent he'll let you kick the tyres before you buy - that's where the Internet comes in (ie. forums and such - admittedly [the feedback is] not quite as detailed as sammyboy from a cursory examination)

b) Conjugally, I am not sure (doubt it), but you can check them out first in other ways - see a)


c) A wife is needed to drive you, calculate your taxes (okay I doubt my parents' marital model applies here), and obviously the kind you purchase, while not exactly a slave, is a bit closer to the maid paradigm than the [traditional courtship-based] life partner paradigm.

Cook - according to the net the median salary of a sous chef is about $20k in SG (I assume per annum) http://www.payscale.com/research/SG/Job=Sous_Chef/Salary

Maid - standard live-in maid pay scales are about $1000 per month (salary + levy + plane ticket (it's market practice to pay for a plane ticket back once a year) + agency cost + 5k immigration bond which in this case we assume you'll never get back)

wh0re - standard overnight is about $300-$800 depending on the quality, location, context etc, so let's say you have conjugal bliss twice a week, that makes it $3-6k a month.

Add it up, and we're talking about recurring $40k per annum, excluding the costs of grocery, increased utility [bills], and other daily expenses, etc etc.

A wife who can deliver a recent standard of all 3 may need some research, but the costs of most mail-orders I've seen is pretty much a one off $15-30k type deal, and let's say throw in another $5-10k or so for set-up costs, wardrobe, wedding, etc, and from then on it's just providing for [live-in] expenses in aeternam.

gssq: I doubt the kind you buy can drive....

Find me a Viet wife who can cook like a sous chef?
I rarely hear of maids going back every year.

You get a different WL each time. Vs the same wife all the time. And I don't necessarily want overnight.

And what's the other expenses of a wife?

me: The point i'm trying to make is that you get a generalist for cheaper - *much* cheaper - than hiring specialists in each of the three fields you mention.

And don't diss Viet cooking:)

I hear of employees paying for maid tickets back, or giving in cash if they don't want to go back. Not super common, but not unheard of either.

You may not want overnight, but you essentially *get* overnight for a wife. You trade in variety for consistency and availability (although utility functions differ, I get the impression you would prize the latter more than the former)

unless you're easily besotted/bullied into buying LV handhags for her, most of the other wifely expenses in a mail order context are quite insignificant (apart from grocery, utility costs, and daily expenses).

Hell you even get tax deductions!
(And childcare/offspring costs are more without a wife - single parents dont' get a lot of deductions/options nuclear families do)

gssq: I don't want children. Or a "wife" who's just a maid/cook/wh0re

me: So you shouldn't have said "i can hire a maid/cook/wh0re for cheaper" in the first place, which is demonstrably wrong.

And for a mail order wife you CAN get more than a maid/cook/wh0re - with research and matching, which is patently simpler than the normal quest for a r/ship.

gssq: Cook gives better goods. And you don't need a sous chef. Wh0re gives better service and variety. And I don't need overnight.
If you don't buy things for the wife, even a Viet might leave you.

me: as i said, don't diss vietnamese cooking, but realistically, even a school canteen aunty will charge at least $10k a year to be your full-time cook

wh0re - not necessarily better service. Even if you don't want overnight, one pop for $100-150 twice a week still sets you back about $15k a year.

hold her passport. and you don't have to buy as many things as you would a normal wife. just threaten to cut off her remittances back home.

gssq: I'll get a tiffin service.
Viets can only cook Viet food

How do you know the Viet will have good service like a WL? Ceteris paribus...

That's even more of a mockery of a marriage than normal mail order brides.
And she can run to the police and you can go to jail.

me: How much is a tiffin service in SG, actually?

And in a tiffin service it's primarily uni-cuisine (ie. it's chinese tiffin or indian tiffin, i don't know of any decent tiffin services that do both, if you do pls let me know. Or if you start one)

Because the variance of WL service is huge. [With a mail-order] it's not necessarily better service ([although] I'll admit that at least with a WL you can move on [if it sucks, whereas] with a mail-order, unless there's try-before-buy you can't get very far)

eh.. no. the police can't stop you from cutting off her remittances. And if you know what you're doing she wont' have the wherewithal to find a divorce lawyer. And from anecdotal evidence, the police can't do very much if you aren't physically abusive, but just keep her passport locked away. And don't forget, she'll probably be here on a social visit pass of some sort which needs your support in order to maintain (unless you're dumb enough to get her PR or citizenship from the get-go).

gssq: $5 a meal? I'll start a tiffin service
Viet wife is all Viet food. Unless you make her cook non-Viet food.

Upset women have ways of escalating and aggravating and making your life miserable, as you know. And I don't want a slave. What's the point

me: It's probably easier to get her to learn to cook non-Viet food than have multiple tiffin services for multiple cuisines. Besides can always eat out what.

Anyway even you must concede the ridiculous point that it's cheaper to pay for 3 specialists on a regular scale, rather than buy one generalist up front, even after controlling for differences in quality/quantity of service. (should point out you potentially get way more quantity than a wh0re, theoretically)

If you consider the potential of getting some additional holistic synergy / extra emotional liao from the generalist, it really increases the value proposition.

I'm not saying you have to abuse/mistreat her. I'm just saying that mail-order is one avenue for getting what you want, if you really feel that you are too sian to go through the normal relationship acquisition process. Not saying you have to settle.

gssq: I doubt there will be holistic synergy from treating her like an investment
Why will I get what I want from mail-order?!

me: They're *all* investments. *heavily* I'm surprised this point even needs mentioning.

to recap - you say you are ready for a long-term r/ship, but you are unable to go through the process of acquiriing one for a variety of reasons

I'm just saying that a mail-order gives you the possibility of attaining one in a process that is relatively less random, and hassling (repeated failures and multiple shots in the dark) than normal avenues.

gssq: If you view a relationship as an investment, your investment will evaporate

me: Look at our parents' generation. Viewing marriage as a long-term equity investment works out pretty damn well for them, even if they don't use those terms of discourse.

Anyway even if you don't want to view it in NPV terms, why not view it as an alternative relationship sourcing mechanism with just more up front costs? You can still potentially find your caring/loving/whatever partner, with a little bit of legwork, in a process that's potentially less taxing/onerous/frustrating than the normal one which you have made clear no longer works for you.

[Ed: HWMNBN: "btw, other than HWMNBN i don't know what tags you want to use.

was torn between conversations, economics, family, food, life, muppets,
observations, rape, sex, slavery, and women."]

"In some circumstances, the refusal to be defeated is a refusal to be educated." - Margaret Halsey

***

Transcribed (or otherwise gotten) by HWMNBN:


"There came to me an angel, and his essence was fire.
His garments were of spun gold, and his eyes were blazing scarlet.
His sword shone with holy flame, too bright to look upon,
And by that sign I knew him for Michael, dread minion of my father's God.

I knew that he meant me to kneel before him.
So I did not.
I knew that he meant me to fear him.
So I did not.
I knew that he meant me to be humbled.
So I was not.

He said unto me,
"Caine, first-born of Adam,
I bring to you the word of the Lord:
Repent of your crime and you will be forgiven.
Turn with humility towards your God
And He will cleanse you of all sin.
For He is a God of mercy,
who forgives the outcast
And makes a place for him among the blessed."

I felt pride well up inside me at his words, and I answered,
"I gave Him my heart's own worship,
And He deemed it unworthy.
I offered Him the fruit of all my labours,
And He deemed it too little,
And when I offered Him blood, as He had taught me to do
He cast me out.

Of what should I repent?" I demanded.
"For what beg forgiveness?
For what prize should I fall to my knees,
And worship again that God whose face was turned from me
when I loved Him most?"

Then the angel grew angry
His eyes blazed with scarlet fire
And the flames of his sword scorched my clothes and my flesh.
"Creature of pride, " he pronounced,
"be thou damned, then.
Not by my will, but by thy own words.

My fire shall be an enemy to you,
that you and your children shall fear
until the end of time.
Not all the magic that you have learned can tame it.
Not all the power that you have gained can withstand it.

Such is the curse I set upon you.
Until the day your spirit is humbled.
Such is the cost of your defiance."

I said, "So be it." And still I did not kneel.
The angel left me then, and I was alone.

Then came another angel, riding the winds of morning.
Behind him all the hues of heaven
spread out across the horizon,
And the demons of night fled at the sight of him.
I knew him for Uriel, shepherd of the sun,
And I stood my ground proudly
As he came to earth before me.

"Caine", he said, "first-born of Adam.
Your brother's soul cries out for your redemption,
And God has heard his pleas.
Say only that you would leave this land
And return to your father's embrace
And it will be done."

"Once again," I said, "my brother speaks to God,
Once again his words are favoured over mine.
I do not ask for his pity, nor for yours.
I will make my own fate in lands east of Nod.

And establish my kingdom in exile.
I will set my children on golden thrones
And we will rule over Seth's brood together.
For surely it is better to rule in the darkness
Than to humble myself falsely in the light."

The angel's face grew white with fury.
And the light of dawn behind him becamse a sea of blazing poison unto me
"Wretched creature! Damned for your pride,
Now doubly damned for your defiance.
The light of the sun shall be your enemy
Searing your soul when you gaze upon it, burning your flesh to ash.
Those of your blood who would rule the earth
Shall cower in the dust by day, fearing the light,
And the sons of Seth who seek after power
Will hunt them down as they sleep even as the dead sleep
Unable to defend themselves or beg for mercy from those who hunt them
Thus shall your kingdom be, your prideful empire.
Its throne made of fear, its crown cast in shadows."

I could not answer him, for
the sun rose then
I meant to stand my ground before it
But its rays were as venom upon my skin
And within my veins, that
blood which ran so cold with anger and pride
Began to boil, molten as the sun's own fire.
I fled the light, to the nearest place of safety.
Which was the earth itself, cool beneath my feet
And in that place, sheltered
in the darkness of the world below
I cursed the name of the
one who had driven me there,
And of his eternal Master.

And when the day had passed, and
night fell once more
I arose from my resting place to see a third angel awaited me.
His eyes were jet, twin mirrors of the night
His wings were shadow, that beat
about his form like wild winds
And I knew him for an angel of divine wrath.
Dread Gabriel, by whose hand Sodom was destroyed.

"Caine", he said, "in you the seed
of Adam is doubly shamed,
And all the laws of life defiled.
Yet even such a soul as yours may
yet be saved
By true repentance.
Forswear your sins and return to
His fold,
And all will be as new again, all sins forgiven,
all wrongs undone.
The Lord grants you this, your
third and final path to forgiveness.

To him I said simply,
"I am what God has made me."
And still I would not kneel.

The black wings beat with fury
And the voice of the angel echoed with rage.
So fearsome was his dread display
That the very night itself did seem to tremble.
"Then be thou cursed forever,
and set apart from all living things.
Neither living nor dead yourself,
neither human nor beast.
You shall walk the earth in darkness,
and all your children with you.
Unchanging, undying and ever without hope.
Blood shall be your only food,
and all your dreams shall be ash.
Life, and love shall wither at your touch,
and hunger shall devour mercy.

And those you treasure most of all,
the offspring at your pride,
Shall war amongst themselves
according to their blood:
Brother against brother,
young against old,
weak against strong.
Until the best are vanquished
and the ranks of your family laid waste.
Then you will walk amongst them
as judge and know
the ultimate torment.
Which is for a father to condmen his own children.
So has God done with you, this night.
So shall you do with your own,
untli the end of time."

He left me alone in the darkness then,
To suffer the pain of my changing.
The blood-hunger rose in me like a flood tide.
The beast began to gnaw at my soul.
Still I would not kneel."

[Addendum (the last part of the fragments):

Then there came a fourth angel,
with wings as pale as moonlight
His face was a thing of alabaster beauty,
And his voice was finer than the
finest music.
I knew him for Raphael, patron of all healing.
And I stood my ground before him.
Even as I trembled to hear what his
curse would be.
"Behold," he said, "the Lord is merciful.
Even to the undeserving.
I give you a path to seek peace for
your soul
Even in this bitter darkness.
I give you the light of hope, for
you and your children,
To await the day when anger fades
and pride gives way to yearning.
The name of this path is Golconda.

And those who seek it with a true
heart may yet gain salvation,
Though they walk in the night as
demons
And bear the curses of a thousand
angels."
He left me then, without hearing
my reply.

And again I was alone.
When he was gone, I knelt in
the darkness.
And I wept.]

--- The Erciyes Fragments, "Temptations"

"There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all." - Peter Drucker

***

MFS: if anything i've learned from travelling the world
and america in general

is that you ALWAYS TRAVEL WITH MEN

easier

Me: HAHAHAHAHA

MFS: less complaints about food, temperature, destination, fatigue, etc

its very sad
but traveling with women
is a pain in the ass

you know you can be at like macchu picchu
beautiful and all
but if you're with shit company, its meaningless

but if you are in the slums of india with great friends
it'll still feel like a worthwhile/meaningful trip

plus guys don't worry too much about safety either

Me: well I guess the sex makes up for it

MFS: hahaha

if i ever get married
the closest thing that can stimulate a "marriage"
is really traveling together for an extended period of time
you basically see the best and worse of each other's habits
and if that's ok, then the marriage should be ok

women are terrible

naggy
fussy

its very sad!

i would love to travel with a girlfriend or something
but ... maybe i'm just too selfish to take care of her needs

or maybe i don't see why shopping is so important... or why physical exertion is wrong... why we can't walk instead of "take taxi"

i'm a pragmatic backpacker at the end of the day
good friends, good trips, good beer and food and fun
and good photography along the way too

sad to say this, but across the world and the US, my trips that have girls in it tend to be more shitty than the all guys trips

even spring break this year
*** guys and *** girls

the girls were BAD mistake
fucking fussy!

about everything from splitting the cost of food we buy
sleeping arrangements (we went camping)
which care to sit in

travel with flexible men
that's the way to go

good men, who are easy going
is the best

i think if we travel
you can lead the way

i'll just take the pictures
and we can eat anything
just make sure its full of meat

i notice that women
bring immense first aid kits
and all sorts of stuff we guys never bring on trips

its scary i guess


Someone: why do so many socio-political blogwankers believe that they are many
and that they are all-powerful?

the best i've read today: "we will have more say"

Me: that happened in 2006 also and look what happened

all the excitement
"this is the year"
"the regime will fall"

Someone: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAA

http//foo.bar
this posting made me spill my tea

the depth of the delusion.
"notice me!"
"respect me!"
"LOVE me!"


HWMNBN: friend: "thank you jesus for dying and giving me a holida"
me: "don't forget he gave us a holiday by being born too"
friend: "oh yeah. JESUS IS MY SAVIOUR!"


Me: [I want to go to] agincourt and crecy if there's anything there

someone: there is othing in agincourt and crecy
its only the English who remember these places

to the french, crecy is a place where u grow great carrots


MFTTW: shit i ate a "bread crumb" off my desk again
and it turned out to be a piece of dried snot

aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh *trauma*

it was dried so it was dark brown... thus it resembled the bread crust, which is why i ate it lah. if it was normal snot colored i wouldn't have eaten it.

Me: ... this is why I don't eat bread crumbs off the table if I didn't see them fall there

MFTTW: i was eating bread for breakfast mah... it was a logical assumption that it was bread
the bottom line is that i should stop eating random crumbs off the table lah


UD #6: WHAT? why are you stressed at work?

i thought working life = mundane-ness

i thought uni is the end of it


Me on an essay about how feminism necessarily encompasses LGBTQ rights:
might as well say Glass Castle is against oppression, fullstop

Someone: Glass Castle is oppressively against oppression, you mean.

...

*** is in favor of going to war
what the heow

Me: you know who will suffer in this war?

the people who the feminists claim to be fighting on behalf of
non-vacuum cleaner feminists
LGBTQs

Someone: precisely
and the battered women AWARE also helps, btw

hahahaah funniest line on AWARE site:
"$50 can teach a teenage girl how to love her body."
MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAA

Me: wth is teaching a teenage girl to love her body?
masturbation ah

Someone: $50? sounds like 30 minutes in a geylang room.


Someone else on the AWARE hysteria: throw too many women in together and this is what you get

too many men and democracy happens
too many women and indecision happens


Someone on Wayang Times: How to Seduce a Man You Like: this is worse than any philosophy or difficult book I've read


Someone else: tbh most girls don't watch their eating nowadays
so they take like crap

last time when we were teens
now those were tasty girls

now fuck
taste like corruption
OF THE WYRM

*RAGE RAGE RAGE RAGE*

Me: they take like crap?
oh taste

err
isn't it still salty
now bitter liao ah

Someone else: DUNNO lar
seriously i just don't like it

"The only way to entertain some folks is to listen to them." - Kin Hubbard

***

HWMNBN:

i was having a long conversation with a guy at the smoking corner about army and chao keng.
he was describing his elaborately budgeted plan ($300 max!) on how to dodge IPPT for as long as possible - combination of

one-off $50 fines and paying specialists for a 1-year "knee pain" MC.

i pointed out that some specialists have been blacklisted for supporting too many pes F people with "back pain" tow hich he retorted "of course a lot of back pain lah. these are back spceialists right??"

my conclusion: it seems like the only enemy the Singapore army is at war with are its own population of conscription dodgers:)


From “Bullshit and the Art of Crap -Detection” (Neil Postman):

"There is nothing personal about Eichmannism. It is the language of regulations, and includes such logical sentences as, “If we do it for one, we have to do it for all.” Can you imagine some wretched Jew pleading to have his children spared from the gas chamber? What could be more fair, more neutral, than for some administrator to reply, “If we do it for one, we have to do it for all.”"

Funny. This matches Slavery to a T!

Later in the essay:

"By far, the most amusing of all our superstitions is the belief, expressed in a variety of ways, that the study of literature and other humanistic subjects will result in one’s becoming a more decent, liberal, tolerant, and civilized human being. Whenever a professor of literature alludes to this bullshit in my presence, I invariably think of the Minister of Propaganda for the Third Reich and the ideological head of the Nazi Party, Dr. Joseph Goebbels, who at the age of 24 received his Ph.D. in Romantic Drama at the University of Heidelberg. Sometimes, I even think of the professor of literature himself, and wonder if he would dare offer his own life as an illustration of the benefits that will accrue from humanistic studies. In any case, I have not noticed that English teachers are any more humane than, say, garage mechanics or certified public accountants...

It is almost always better to deal with a corrupt man than with an idealist. A corrupt man knows all about bullshit, especially his own; which is another way of saying, he has a sense of humor. An idealist usually cannot acknowledge his own bullshit, because it is in the nature of his “ism” that he must pretend it does not exist. In fact, I should say that anyone who is devoted to an “ism”--Fascism, Communism, Capital-ism--probably has a seriously defective crap-detector. This is especially true of those devoted to “patriotism.” Santha Rama Rau has called patriotism a squalid emotion. I agree. Mainly because I find it hard to escape the conclusion that those most enmeshed in it hear no bullshit whatever in its rhetoric, and as a consequence are extremely dangerous to other people. If you doubt this, I want to remind you that murder for murder, General Westmoreland makes Vito Genovese book like a Flower Child. Another way of saying this is that all ideologies are saturated with bullshit, and a wise man will observe Herbert Read’s advice: Never trust any group larger than a squad. "

HWMNBN on why we use "Basis points" rather than "percentage points":


Two main reasons

a) To avoid relative vs absolute confusion.

Let's say a given interest rate is 20%. If we say it's increased by 2%, you can interpret it as: either 20% -> 22% (absolute), or 20% -> 20.4% (relative)

Saying 200bps makes it very clear it's an absolute increase in the rate from 20% -> 22%

b) Granularity.

Most times interest rates increase by tiny increments. eg 4.5% -> 4.52%, etc. However these granular increases can have large effects on exposure (because we're usually

talking about million or billion dollar impacts here). It's mentally easier to visualise 10-15bps as having a large effect vs 0.1%

Same reason why we have cents, rather than denominating everything in dollars (eg 0.5 dollars, 0.65 dollars) - it's just more convenient

"Education... has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading." - G. M. Trevelyan

***

PPBI: the tchs/acs/ri boys joke is

if a girl and a guy walk into an LT and there is only one seat left
the tchs guy will snatch the seat
the ri guy will offer the seat
the acs guy will ask her to sit on his lap
or something

Me: HAHAHAHAHA

PPBI: sorry
it should be the other way around

the ri guy will snatch the seat
the tchs guy will offer the seat
the acs guy will ask her to sit on his lap

Me: gah


Someone else: you have so many blog posts tagged "sedition"
that i won't know which one to blame
the day u disappear.


Someone: nah he's terribly bust
busy

Me: cheh I thought busty

Someone: WAHAHAAHHAAHAH

no gabriel, no one can rival you


Someone else: gabriel
i need advice

give me 3 good reasons why you don't have a religion

Me: you don't need 3, just 2

1) there's no evidence that gods exist
2) even if gods exist, there's no reason to worship them

is a girl trying to convert you? hurr hurr

Someone else: indeed, you are quite prescient

i have less problems with reason (1.), but plenty of problems with reason (2.)

but i wonder if the problem arises due to my understanding of the word "worship". perhaps it means less of "throwing yourself at the feet of someone", but rather "to adoringly respect and honour"?

sigh, gabriel. girls.

Me: "the only folly of man is women"

Someone else: haha
what do you think of my point about "worship"?

Me: well why would mere existence require respect and honour?
and worship in the divine sense includes obedience as well

Someone else: maybe it's because God's a role model?

if we use the classic Christian framing of this as a father-son relationship?
so we respect and honour our father, and obey him because he is wise

Me: that depends on the attributes of these gods

I wouldn't respect an abusive, drunkard father
whose sole contribution to my life was spawning me

Someone else: and as a splendid legerdemain, if the message we're getting is perverse, then it's not the "true" message?

Me: that's begging the question
in more ways than one:

- assuming the existence of beings
- assuming they are good

Someone else: why not hold both to be true? from a personal perspective, they can both be valid

Me: they are theoretically possible
but we do not have reasons to believe that they are the case

it's also theoretically possible that an omnipotent but totally evil god exists
(in fact that would fit the facts a lot better)

Someone else: sigh, Gabriel. i've walked into the worst possible outcome. non-Christian boy meets hardcore Christian girl.

i'm wondering, from a practical perspective, whether the church is the best bet for long term stability

it offers you a doctrine, philosophical pondering within its parameters, a social life and support within its community, fairly sensible aspects of decency, etc

Me: well communism brought stability to the USSR
except that there was stagnation as well

almost everyone would want to know if their spouse was cheating on them
even if it is not good for long term stability

"it offers you a doctrine, philosophical pondering within its parameters, a social life and support within its community, fairly sensible aspects of decency, etc"

so does Singapore :P

Someone else: and most importantly, it offers you a girl you like

Me: also I'm not sure that one can choose to believe something
without causing cognitive dissonance
and attendant schizophrenia

see
this is one big reason why religion continues on
female mate choice

if she's really worth going for, she'll be able to accept you as a non-christian

Someone else: precisely
i'm trying to reframe the problem

i think that i've come across a solution
i think i believe in God

therefore, i can posit myself as a veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyy doubtful Christian
but a Christian nonetheless
ahah!

Me: err
are you framing this just to get the girl?

muslims believe in 'god' also
but it'd be a stretch to call them christians

you could say the same (disingenously) about hindus and other polytheists, in fact

Someone else: to be very honest, it is very very tempting to collapse into religion

Me: it is very tempting to get hooked on heroin or to become a drunkard too

Someone else: personally, i think islam and christianity perfectly compatible, but that is for another day
haha

Me: religions aren't even compatible with themselves
and certainly not reality

Someone else: how gabriel how

Me: well, if you think you can lie to yourself, you can try
but I don't think it's good for your mental health
and it's very dishonest. like taking from the church collection tray and justifying it as not theft by saying you need the money

Someone else: i know what you mena

religion does have a remarkable effect on its believers though
i'm talking about moderate, sensible believers

incredible amounts of faith and conviction, while maintaining a moderate (i.e. non-proselytising) outlook

Me: err
actually proselytisation is part of the christian's responsibility

as for faith
"A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything."


HWMNBN: apparently they kissed and made up (ie XXX and her guy)

and going from the night before of: “i feel so stupid for loving that asshole who doesn’t care of rme”
to: “i love him so much i can give up everything except him” the next afternoon

at this we can both solemnly utter in unison: “...women”

"It is possible to be below flattery as well as above it." - Thomas Babington Macaulay

***

Someone: hahaha
me just looking for fun

it's fun to just date
no obligations

Me: when you say "looking for fun" people think ONS

Someone: erhm
ok
fine..i shall not say looking for fun


MFTTW: "NUS grads all look v free
the girls esp seem to do nothing but doll themselves up
they're super overdressed for students lor
like more dressed than the working people
I think cos they have nothing else to do in life
the working people don't have that much time to primp"

one of my friends who was complaining about law students who wear 5''
heels when it's totally impractical


Someone: i don't think i wanna weigh anymore

Me: Ignorance is bliss but knowledge is power

Someone: i heard guys like ignorant girls, and girls like powerful guys


Me: Not many people understand "Je veux une petite fille publique"

Someone else: I see a little girl in public?!! haha


Someone on the argument that most people don't mind part-time slavery (aka Reservist) after a few cycles: Does that same logic not defeat the very purpose of NS since after a few years of occupation by a foreign power, Singaporeans would like their new governors?

That argument is flawed and unacceptable. It is a crime to the intellect that [it should be used]

There are many facets of NS that are unacceptable and indefensible, but all these years of maturation have led the SAF to develop really tricky persuasion for it. I bet that is what many officers learn in military school. Silly arguments that have been polished intensively.


Me: why do women like cars

Someone else: why do men like sex

Me: do you?

Someone else: orgasms are the best thing in the world. they make u happy. best of all, they're free.

aiya, women dont need men anymore to get their orgasms la


Someone: my friend told me he was gonna get married

estiamte at 80k cost
30k can subsidise

so u n future spouse have to pay out 50k

so get married
or lifetime geylang membership lor

Me: I think lifetime geylang membership cheaper

Someone: ok la

one time 100 dollar
u can fuck for at least 500 weeks

that's slightly less than 10 yrs

Me: 500 times
depends how often you go :P

Someone: wife sometimes won't even give u
n u gotta take more shit

Me: then 1/4 of the time menses

Someone: yea lor
hahaha


HWMNBN: do you agree that all women are whores?
just direct or indirect?

Me: about as much as all men are rapists
just direct or indirect

HWMNBN: hahahahahahahahahaahahah


TMM: the UK is a lot like Malaysia
in terms of architecture and infrastructure

but th key difference is that its not rotting and decaying
and there's little litter
if at all

and the weather is nice too


Someone who has nicer hair than me: haha
good

i am also irritated when girls ask me 'so when are you cutting your hair'
i say 'cannot leave long ah – you jealous that i have nicer hair than you right'

Me: haha
what do they say

girls get very pissed off at guys with long hair. I think jealous

Someone: yeah, or it's some sexist rule that guys must keep short hair
rubbish

they try to laugh it off, but i bet they're cursing me inside hahahaha

Me: they dont like it when people are sexist about them
but they can be sexist themselves

"Learning to dislike children at an early age saves a lot of expense and aggravation later in life." - Robert Byrne

***

HWMNBN: As I have often said, libertarians expect too much of humans, communism expects too little.


Someone: *** was sharing with me how he cut his cock during his army days to get 2 weeks of mc

Me: OMG
I'm not the only one with that idea

I didn't know anyone would do that


Someone else: 2 days ago i mislabeled my folder as 2008 instead of 2009 and had a major freak out after i could not find it
and only realized 1 hr later it was 2008

i wrote 03-10-08 instead of 03-10-09

Me: do it 2009-03-10 lah
easier to find some more
tsk

Someone else: then i'll have like 20 folders starting with 2009

Me: then your eye will move on to the next bit
and see the month

Someone else: heh heh

hiyah my life is not THAT complicated lah
i may date a girl
but she doesn't train me up for such things

Me: if complication in your life is measured by file structure, you have it good

Someone else: bwahahhaha

but i'm a grad student. our lives are dictated by file structures.
your self-worth is only as much as the number of data backups you have


UD #6 on my moobs: -_-
okayyy

hahahas, but man
it looks huge

do you drink soya?

Me: hee hee
I've heard various theories about getting big boobs

bigger than yours isit

the theories range from milk to chicken breast (when young)

[Ed: Later I added that it cannot be Soya, since in Japan they consume soya products everyday]


Someone on sexual harassment: hahaha not that i think that SH is not a problem, but seriously, i think some girls are just too oversensitive

rubbing against you or exposing yourself or making lewd jokes openly is wrong, yes
but checking a girl out, especially if she's wearing a tight t-shirt with sexual innuendo isn't

i was gonna comment something about how some girls like to wear t-shirts with interesting slogans
then when all you're trying to do is read what the slogan is, they think you're staring at their breasts

and is that sexual harassment?

plus i think they're not being all that sincere when they say they are not trying to instigate a crackdown

i think what they want is to drum up publicity so they can have a witchhunt

plus all these girls think they have been harassed before, so that will inadvertently colour their perception of men on public transport from then on

that liane girl herself said it "we really have personal stakes in the issue"


Someone else: The army experience has left such a bitter taste in my mouth that I find the idea of staying in the land of my birth unappealing

Now this may not be the humble thing to say
But by most any objective measure I think you and I are highly educated people who should be welcome in any country

And the fact that there the army turns us against the land of our birth should say something about the tremendous cost to it

It's not as though we're an isolated case either

Me: I think the sad thing is that most people aren't rational
so they go "I've already served my 2 years. I might as well stay here"

that's like a rape victim going: "I've already lost my virtue. I might as well marry my rapist"

"Times have not become more violent. They have just become more televised." - Marilyn Manson, Columbine statement

***

Someone: 10 min for me to walk there
hopefully

whahaha

Me: ok
wearing comfortable shoes today ah

Someone: never
hahaha

i dun wear comfortable shoes from mon to thurs

Me: haha
yoiur proboem
who ask you

Someone: i can't work w/o high heels

Me: why. high heels put you in work mood ah

Someone: yah


Someone else on the McPork photo: wheee!!! i love this photo of you. it encapsulates your spirit.




Me: italians are quite boring food-wise
they only eat their own food

XMM: yea, true
ut then again
their food culture is good

Me: italian food is more than pasta and pizza :P

and tiramisu
(which is quite recent)

XMM: OOOOH tell me more

i like tiramisu.

the one at al forno's
is heavenly.

Me: you dont know other sorts of italian food meh

XMM: ravioliiiii
:D

i loveeeee ravioli

Me: ... that's pasta also

...

XMM: OH YES PARMA HAM
I LOVE PARMA HAM
I LOVE BALSAMIC VINEGAR TOO
I LOVE NUTELLA AND GELATO TOOOOOOO

omg i'm so excited

Me: ... are you okay?

XMM: I LOVE FOOOOOD


HWMNBN: *reflectively* she said that when she was out in that refugee camp in ethiopia, she managed to resettle about 25 refugees

she went into a pretty harrowing segue about how emotionally and psychologically messed up she was after 3.5 months in an ethiopian refugee camp

(not letting girls go to elementary school apparently counts as "gender-based violence")


Someone: Chiku - gay, duku - lesbian... Chiku and duku come from my friends in professional theatre- seems they're longstanding codewords in the theatre circles :-)


Someone: how the fuck do ppl spend below 600
my monthly spending is likje 3k lor

and as u can see
im home OFTEN
plus i dun wine n dine lar

kns
balrdee hell

Me: women lubricate the economy


Someone else: my favourite posts from your blog are the ones highlighting weird stuff
too bad you're not in uni anymore
haha

Me: or unemployed? haha
what sort of weird stuff?
links? book extracts? weird shit I saw?

Someone else: ya stuff like that
or weird thing you overhear in school
or during lectures
those were the best
ahha

"From the moment I picked up your book until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it." - Groucho Marx

***

Someone: after looking at the gals from SDU magazine, i think the pple around me arent bad after all...=P whoops

wa lao....if u see e SDU ones.....for me i rather be a monk

Me: consider that the magazine ones are probably the better ones

Someone: they will send u a free membership soon

stay tuned
around march


Someone else: my school does not allow ex-students with long and coloured hair to come to school to visit teachers
because the current students "might form the wrong perception that the school actually endorses such grooming."


Someone on HWMNBN: he'd fuck a pencil if it wore a skirt

HWMNBN: Only if it was a chio pencil. None of those HB sluts.


Someone else: i have rape fantasies
which is apparently quite typical

Me: rape fantasies
or fantasies of submission
not nec the same

Someone else: rape fantasies (:

Me: so who do you want to rape you

Someone else: not you (:


jb: when guys a little less than twice your age want to meet you alone, it doesn't mean anything good

i used to think it was just being friendly
but it really isn't


Someone: *wants to be an ancient chinese taoist for the wrong reasons.*

"In early Chinese Culture, sex was regarded without guilt. Like Princess Shan Yin, the Taoists were great believers in sheer quantity: "The more women with whom a man has intercourse" wrong one early Taoist sage "The greater will be the benefit" Another advised "If in one night he can have intercourse wiht more than 10 woman is best" - Christopher Hart in Ancient Sex Manuals, reading for SC 3219

Everyone was fucking like bunnies then.

Me: Eh. You think so easy ah. Last time no contraception. And they didn't know about STDs. But yah pre-Ming Chinese were kinky

Anyway more importantly the Taoists believed that you could not COME. If you came too much you'd die. So you should either withdraw before coming or you practice finger presses/breathing control to prevent your come from shooting out (actually it went into the bladder, but the Ancient Chinese didn't know that)

Someone: Wrong la, they believe that you could come, the only thing is that, they believe that men have limited amount of yang qi, therefore they shouldnt come too often. Will finish up the good stuff.

They tried to simulate multiple orgasms for men by withholding ejeculation. Apparently, recent science has shown the ejeculation and orgasm are two separate events.

Anyway STD sounds like moral panic to me leh.

Me: SAME LAH. That's like saying you can shoot someone, just that you'll go to jail.

There're tantric techniques that involved exercising your PC muscles and breath exercises. You go and try. I'm too lazy to try.

Eh VD quite big last time you know

Someone: Different leh, if they dont shoot then they die.
Not having sex will severely impair your yang qi!

Eh I want to go learn.
Gab, we go learn together la,
set up class make some money.
Can make it a CCA in NUS,
get SDU sponsor

Me: If they don't shoot they die?!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Someone: ya lor, they repress yang qi.
Maybe internal combustion.

Someone else: haha...SDU won't sponsor a no-shooting class la!


HWMNBN: he's been poisoning my well

i can't abide treachery in my male friends
so i've decided to keep away

Me: so you can abide treachery in your female friends?

HWMNBN: i expect treachery from my female friends
it's inehrent to their nature

males are a different story

Me: ...


TMM: I hope SUG doesn't stand for Single Ugly Girl


MFTTW: i still think the customs inspector who took my bak kwa ate it
and pocketed the $170 fine

"fine is $350 by credit card... $170 by cash"
YEAH RIGHT

Me: HAHAHAHAHAHA
like malaysia like that

MFTTW: yup

i should have told him "yeah i know what's going on.. i'v been ot malaysia"
he was desi

prob ABCD
american-born confused desi

the epithet of choice of the indian-born desis

i've noticed that overseas indians are disproportionately represented in customs/immigration

i think it's a power trip thing
to compensate for them failing to get into medical/law/business school

Me: ><

MFTTW: SERIOUS

the indians here are either all doctors/lawyers/business
or they are border police


MFTTW on this exchange: your fb spouse is damn cheong hei [cantonese... "long winded" (literally)]
need so many words to explain simple concepts

i summarize for you

1) sg gahmen acts as Big Brother
2) Languages are hard to learn

ok chop chop done.

oh ya, unless he's Malay he shouldn't use "brudder" :P

"A man has a choice. That's where he's different from an animal."

Caleb Trask - better than the world allowed him to be.

"Freedom is just another word for nothing to left to lose."

***

Someone: anyway i think maybe he is jus bored

Me: haha

I'm also bored
what should I do

Someone: ask me out loh

thats what EVERYBODY does
-_-

Me: hahahahahahahahahahaha
you like social escort ah

Someone: yar
except dont get paid

only if lucky get free food
damn sucky

Me: depends on the food

Someone: not great lah i assure u

sigh
i look like clown meh

SCOWL

when bored then can call to entertain


Someone else: your search referral terms are getting from bad to worse
it's about time i contributed to the rot

i'm going to search

xiaxue fucking gabriel seah

hahahahaha
see if you are going to put tha ton


Someone: i wonder if there are much more guys than girls in SG? why do i see so many guys with f**ked up gals

Me: hahaha
cos spore girls are ugly

Someone: ugly is besides e pt...

fiery-tempered, spoilt,

yet still got demand
wth

Me: this is called "female mate choice"


Me on someone's present: what's wrong with red

Someone else: hate red. irritates me

Me: haha
and he didn't know?
time to dump!

Someone else: yah... point to consider
sin to add to list of transgressions

but really
you're a boy right
why encourage pettiness in female friends?

that's like making your own life miserable


Someone: scrunchies are really outta fashion

Me: hurr hurr
in singapore the fashion is don't tie

Someone: which is stupid

i think we need to do more/ experiment with our hair here

all chinese guys have the same look
and chinese girls in sg too
long straight hair
bleah

then once in a while the "perm wave" hits and everyone copies

the guys have spiky short hair

Me: no leh. perming was in fashion recently
now not sure

Someone: yeah, the jap perm
soft curls
;)

very predictable

at weddings, nobody does anything with their hair
just let it long and down

and teh reason is cos guys like long haired gals

Me: except the bride

Someone: yes
precisely...


Someone else: someone: "do u read the Bible?"
me: "Well, I've watched Bible Black"


Someone: i wanted to try bidding for korean

cos i wanted to draw squares and circles and lines
and make sense


HWMNBN on swap.avi: i heard about it on somethingawful before but never watched it. until now

it makes 2girls1cup look like the carebears

i deleted it
couldn't stand it
it was worse than 2girls1cup

if you want i can download it again for you
but you can find it yourself quite easily

i can say watching swap.avi truly changes a man

"Old age is not so bad when you consider the alternatives." - Maurice Chevalier

***

Some pictures forwarded by HWMNBN:



"Recycling Center: Cans; Glass; Nagging Bitches"


"All the other women in the office are suing you for sexual harassment. Since you haven't sexually harassed me, I'm suing you for discrimination."


"Make me irresistible to women!" *poof!* *Visa Card*


"The Seven Dwarves of Menopause: Itchy, Bitchy, Sweaty, Sleepy, Bloated, Forgetful & Psycho"

"Television is for appearing on - not for looking at." - Noel Coward

***

HWMNBN: bitching is like sex, revenge, bacon, alcohol, butter and porn. THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS ENOUGH


HWMNBN: housewives have falling sex drive
housework is almost as bad as work

Me: so much for desperate housewives

HWMNBN: most desperate housewives have maids
tai tais and th elike

most housewives actually being dragged down with domestic work aren't promiscuous
(execpt for bad tvb or romance soap operas when some guy wnats to take them away from it all)


Me: [NUS stipend for] phd is like 2.3
WAH LAO. more than some jobs lor

Someone: but your life is shit

it's just... 24/7
no break really
even on break you're working

and you become (or already are!) alienated from everyone else

it's not that much worse from masters

it's abt the same
just a higher level of weirdness I think

Me: weirdness? o_0

Someone: yeah, you know, that interest called 'research interest' which only you and 5 other weirdos care about?

2 of the 5 weirdos are your markers


Someone else: All business students/graduates should go to GL [Ed: Geylang].
See how they do business.

Me: haha
case study

Someone else: Yup.

Too bad i am not required to write a final year report on business. I'll definitely pick GL.

Confirm get A.

Me: hehe
creativity

what do you learn?

Someone else: one example.

Most of the chinese merchandise were dressed to kill. One or two stood out by dressing like the girl next door.

Differentiate yourself ftrom the competition.

Another:

one hotel nearby advertised the following room rates: 1 hour/$10, 2 hour/$15, 3 hours/$20, until morning/$40. This is to cater for the different needs of customers.

They know what their target market is and they attacked the sector.

Good marketing.

Be on good terms with the local law. They exist to protect local interests. If your business is a bit 'off the beaten track', it pays to keep a low profile. The fuzz only picks on people who make a nuisance of themselves.

The effective management of stakeholders is crucial for success.

Another example (i believe that the fish tanks can benefi from my advice):

Be more respectful to your prospects. Don't rush them, make them feel at home (in this case, not too 'at home') Let them look at the merchandise. No rush.

Me: no one goes to fish tanks anymore
right?

now it's all the streetwalkers

Someone else: On the contrary, the fish tanks continue to exist. The 'turnover' rate the professionals operate is swift.

Fish tanks = solid business.

The goods are segregated according to the country of origin and quality. Easier for the prospects to select. This has the added benefit of effective control. Being in a mangerial position, handlers need to do POLC (plan, organize, lead and control). This is not possible without establsihed rules and operational procedures.

As lower level managers, handlers need to be expert especially in technical skills (they must know the rules of the trades etc). human skills are necessary for all managerial levels. Effective netwoking, communication will allow handlers to excel in their business endeavors. They must be able to relate to the needs of their employees and manage stakeholders.

To first get into this line, candicates must have certain attributes: personality/job fit; ability/job fit etc.
­
On a non-related note, GL industries support the Yellow Ribbon campaign. Many of the fish tank managers had done their time in various correction institutes.
­
As one well versed in economics, what methods can you think of that will maximize the benefits of price vs demand? How would you do your pricing according to the current economy and other variables?

I am quite fascinated with reagrds to this case study and it'll be nice to have a peer-review.


Someone: dunno la, i just thought hwa chong had a very sucky sch admin

starting from foisting a sudden merger on us
and the name change
and we only found out on the 9pm news

and basically schools run on chinese (confucianist?) philosophies suck

Me: hahahaha nanyang primary sucked

Someone: see what i mean


Someone else: my girlfriend has to do full body checkup on male patients
her conclusion is that singaporean men have small penises

Me: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
east asian guys are small mah
wait who is she comparing to?

Someone else: i dunno who is she comparing too

maybe cucumbers and bananas
:D


Someone: i'm looking at ***'s job prospects. given his interests, govt seems like the way to go

Me: they soak up arts grads like malaysia soaks up criminals

Someone: depends what kind of criminals ok. msia gets petty thieves and violent crims. singapore gets the white collar and money laundering ones (if gossip regarding burmese and indon money is to be believed)


Someone else: my classmate is

- a PAP youth wing member
- a very devout christian [and so anti-sex too]

when i am in his presence, i feel neutered as a human being

"Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names." - John F. Kennedy

***

Spam HWMNBN got. It's getting more and more ridiculous:


Dear Sir,

I am Sonia Ehiosun from Port Norvo, Benin. My parents were assassinated by unknown masked men on July 13thth 2008. I ran away from my school where I am living in the hostel because of fear of being killed by the people that killed my parents.

As I am writing to you now, I am in tears and my life has not been the same since the assassination of my parents. I am presently hiding in a convent in Kalavi district. I wish to seek your assistance to help me get out of this place.

I am ready to share with you my inheritance and it is because of the material things that my father owned that made both my family members and other people plan against my family and killed my parents. Please help me. I need your assistance.

There are so many false people in the internet and please if you do not have a genuine intention to help me do not harm me or destroy me. God is watching us and whatever goodness you show to me, God will bless you for it.

I come in peace be my consoler. I am suffering for no just cause and no one is showing concern.

Sonia.

"Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself." - Friedrich Nietzsche

***

"Escalators never break down they only become stairs"

"Listen to Bohm's recording, and it will turn into your own requiem!"

"The problem with investment bank balance sheet is that on the left side nothing's right and on the right side nothing's left."

"grades are structuralized violence"


MSN spam from your contacts (with links leading to sites designed to steal your passwords to spam even more people) is irritating enough, but one link I was spammed with led to YouShare, a file hosting site. Wth. I suppose spamming people is not the sites' only aim - they need a revenue stream (besides advertising, a more common one is probably hijacking Hotmail accounts to send ads to the contacts found in them)

From a site advertised in spam - "Meet safe, sexy, and real girls NEAR YOU". Where do you find un-safe and un-real girls?

Some suggestions:

"Changi Village"
"you finds unreal girls on the internets. they tend to be 44 year old men"
"Thailand"
"GL"
"cyberspace, where females can actually be shemales"


I realise that some of the arguments about how race supposedly does not exist (e.g. people of mixed race, genes varying more within than between races) can be applied to religion (in some ways even more so). Yet anyone championing the strong form of this assertion would surely be recognised as losing sight of the forest for the trees.

I always wondered why companies use psychometric tests, since people can answer the "right" answer. I theorise what they're looking for is not so much a certain personality type but consistency in answers (so they can tell if people are lying - one I took explicitly warned you about this) and endurance (the tests are ridiculously long). This might explain bizarre questions like "I need my boss or supervisor at work to care about me as a person", "I expect to have a best friend at work", "I enjoy being on the phone all day long", "I am interested in a swinging lifestyle" and "I would like to try marijuana".

There might be a correlation between dairy product consumption and breast size. For example, I am told that in Northern China they consume more dairy products than in Southern China, with corresponding effects. This might explain something about East Asians (though I am trying to see if the effects hold on a global basis).

I am told that in a study of building toilets, it was found that they were dirtiest where people were most unhappy - they take it out on the toilets (this explains why paid toilets tend to be dirtier than free ones).

Can Muslims drink non-alcoholic wine? Many sources say no, but "The tiny amount of alcohol in alcohol-free wines is not enough to make you feel drunk and is actually less than you might find in a glass of fresh orange juice." Hurr hurr

SAF sandals: you get what you pay for (within a month part of the sole had come out)

Tweet from Acidflask: "大陆人：你的中文讲得很流利，到底是不是新加坡人？凭我经验，认识的新加坡人讲的中文都是吞吞吐吐的⋯同时英文并不是讲得很顺⋯贯通语文到底是什么？是不是马来文？⋯真的吗？难倒双语社会的造型是两语都不行的⋯⋯" (This is the full version of the tweet)

Alcohol dampens testosterone levels, which demasculinises heavy drinkers, feminising them at the same time: their muscles shrink, leading to narrower shoulders, and more fat is deposited around the pelvic girdle. This might be a better way to get guys to drink less than emphasising health reasons.

It is possible to disagree with what someone is doing while still supporting his decision (like supporting your country's troops while disagreeing with their mission/orders). This is a subtlety most people don't ponder.

HWMNBN, returning after 2 years, confirms my observation that there're a lot more White/Asian pairings than before. He thinks it's an attempt by the latter to stave off economic disaster.

In the CBD, there are quite a few women who look like men (dress and hair - only the shoes are appreciably different, but I've seen girls wearing male shoes as well), but no men who look like women. This is indicative of the bigger picture: female gender norms are much softer and more flexible than male ones, and while females may aspire towards male ones without too much cost (if any), the reverse is not true.

Frigid Girl: "The thing about women authors is that they sometimes forget what they're doing and start inputting personal traits into their heroines and protagonists. Extremely Obviously. One of the reasons I've never really liked George Eliot is because she tends to imagine herself as the heroine, and then write embarrassingly narcissistically."

Apparently Gan Eng Seng and Fairfield used to be better schools - until they turned co-educational.

Only apathetic people can survive in Singapore - it's a survival mechanism.

"Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live." - Oscar Wilde

***

Those who lobby for the welfare of foreign workers are right in that there're plenty of bad employers.

However, there are also plenty of bad maids, and measures to protect non-bad maids from bad employers can be abused by bad maids to exploit non-bad employers.

This principle can be extended to traditionally oppressed groups and people in general: "[Traditional oppressor group] is evil" is just not an adequate principle, since people (both traditionally oppressing or traditionally oppressed) respond to incentives.

In the same vein, HWMNBN supplies the following:

"I try to love my fellow man, with varying success, the poor slaves among the rest. But the truth is I neither like nor dislike them more than any other creatures. Now your stern abolitionist, becaues he detests slavery, feels he must love its victims, and so he insists on detecting in them qualities deserving unusual love. But in fact these qualities are not to be found in them, any more than in other people. Your extreme anti-slaver mistakes compassion for love, and this leads him into a kind of nigra-worship which, on a rational examination, is by no means justified."

[on special consideration due to suffering of slavery] " Special compassion, by all means, just such as I received when I had the chicken pox. But having the chicken pox did not make me a worthier or better person, as some people seem to suppose is the case with victims of slavery. I tell you, sir, to listen to some of our friends, I could believe that every plantation and barracoon from Florida to the river is peopled by the disciples of Jesus. Reason tells me this is false; the slave being God's creature and a human soul, is no better than the rest of us.... God forgive me, when I become just a little tired of nigras."

--- Letters from Lincoln, 1844 to Greeley

(from his archives, so the attribution may be mistaken; "i believe i wrote this shit down from stuff i was reading at either a bookstore or the library in hk in early 2007 but can't remember now")

"Electricity is actually made up of extremely tiny particles called electrons, that you cannot see with the naked eye unless you have been drinking." - Dave Barry

***

Someone: when i was younger i wanted to be a philantropist
because i thought giving away money was an easy job

then i realized you have to have money first


Me: that's why I say girls like screwing themselves up

Someone else: I don't think they *like* it but it happens

Me: well they keep doing it

Someone else: I think they keep doing it cuz hmmm... ok this will sound bad, but I'm just being honest

1) low self-esteem
in general, for almost every girl I've met, including myself

so it's really not too tough to get round a girl lor. Most of the assholes will lie or at least distort some portion of the truth

say he'd be there for you etc, be 'understanding'
praise her -- this really works -- as dumb as it might sound

so go for the bastard lor

hey I've been there :P
I intend not to go there again!

Me: yeah women have pathologically low self esteem

Someone else: the only woman with high self esteem I've ever met was this one in jc
wah she thought she was damn smart, damn chio lor
(truth is she was neither :P )

2) I really think women are tended to be more emotive and less logical
even if got logical faculty it is usually not primary, or turned off in relationships

Me: yes
and I'm fat too

Someone else: rofl
evil

I have no idea though, maybe it's biological?

I'm not sure what it is
but I know it's quite bad for me, I get affected emotionally damn bloody easily

tsunami in 2004, see tv, keep crying
read book, cry
if book ends in happy ending, happy

I always think, oei wtf
damn weird lah

Me: as my JC classmate said
"happy also cry, sad also cry"

Someone else: then I can feel bad for absolutely no reason at all and sit on the bed and cry and cry for AGES
like hours

and like it's a mental blanking out -- during that time I *can't* think
I just wail and wail >_<
(that's why I never thought of myself as unconventional :P I feel so typical lor!)

3) women use the excuse that they're women to continue doing 1 and 2

it's a tad ironic
and quite clever

as in, I think -- from my exp lah -- remember I was from lit, where there are A LOT of dumb girls
who feel they're profound

Me: HAHA

*** kept saying that lit was full of smart people
soci people would die in lit etc

Someone else: bullshti lah
10% of the population is smart

actually, the better students in EN
tend to be guys
if you coutn the number who have second upper and above...

Me: clear evidence of institutional sexism

Someone else: it's usually around 10-15 students
and the ratio is split maybe 60% girls to 40% guys

but consider that the ratio in lit
is 95% girls ro 10% guys

so this means, in general guys do better

I think the reason is really that the guys feel lit is a 'feminine' discipline
so those coming to it really work at it
they don't take it for granted

which ties back into what I said

like there are a lot of girls there who are like, ah, but I feel the book!! that's only 5% of your work done. An important 5% but still
only 5%

'aiyah but must feel what' -- they just stop here lah

'we're girls' etc
then say something abt patriarchy. Which is true to some extent -- but again

they remove nuance out of it
so liddat lro

as my prof says, it's as if they take out all the nuance they can from whatever you say!
(she was complaining)

then when they are unreasonable, it's 'girl power'

Me: HAHAHAHA

Someone else: no it's true

it's not such an easy issue lor
but they make it an easy issue

it's like, they don't think lor, they just stop.


HWMNBN: i actually am old enough to feel a little affronted to be used a[s] tissue paper in her emotional trauma

it's a pity she's not cute anymore

*shrugs* truly, once a woman loses her only weapon
she is utterly defenseless/useless


Someone: SAF = Evil. I had a friend who puked while talking about army.
like he really puked

or maybe it was the hot wings but at any rate he was talking abt NS and suddenly .... WOOOSSHH


MFTTW: she's just counting the days (until ***) when she gets married and becomes a tai tai

Me: good lah
to be a girl

till your 30s anyway

MFTTW: her husband to be is [cushy job]
she can slack liao

Me: hoho

MFTTW: yeah my friend's husband is taking *** scholarship to do MBA or something lah

so she gets to tag along and be overseas expat tai tai

Me: see this is why women are paid less

MFTTW: it's a vicious circle lah

the women are paid less so they have less incentive to climb the career ladder and then quit