July Trip
25/7 - Brussels

The stereotype of Americans is that they're monolingual. Those who decry stereotypes like to point to counterexamples, for example XXX in his dorm who speaks 5 languages fluently, and YYY who speaks 6, and I also met some multilingual ones while traveling, but this is the danger of selection bias - the monolingual ones are less likely to travel or to go to college. Also, I'm not sure how high the level of proficiency is - each language may not be spoken at the level of a first or even second language (as the Great Leader observed, most people can never be truly bilingual in the sense of being able to think or write poetry in 2 languages). There's also the case that whereas some people are too quick to justify stereotypes with a few examples, others are too quick to demolish the same stereotypes using equally few examples. A few bad apples shouldn't taint the barrel, but neither should a few good ones make you pass it off as prime quality.

People also think that Europeans are all multilingual and can speak their neighbors' languages. This isn't really true since nowadays the most popular seocnd language is English, and not everyone learns a third. People also are conversant with foreign languages to varying degrees of proficiency, and most of them certainly can't write poetry in them. Unless you live in screwy countries like Belgium or Switzerland, where even the country as a whole has no one language.

One of the house rules at the back of the hostel room door was that blankets had to be folded before leaving. Disobedience was potentially punishable with being thrown out without a refund. Just for that, I left mine unfolded (especially since I was only staying for a night).

I read somewhere that the giant structure which looked like a molecule I'd seen in April was the Atomium (iron molecule model) from the 1958 World Fair.

I saw a Delifrance in Brussels. I wonder if there were any in Wallonie.

One franchised waffle chain with many branches was 'Belgaufra. Probably the best since 1950'. Since this was accompanied with a figure in an almost Malaysian pose, I was naturally skeptical:


At 9:43, a large group of women were standing outside a C&A which had a 40-60% sale and waiting for it to open. It was supposed to open at 9:30, tsk.

I'd awoken too late for breakfast and when I reached the breakfast room there was little left, so I just had a cup of vile juice. But then complimentary breakfasts are usually unappealing, so I was much happier to have a Belgian Waffle. It wasn't 100% fresh but was still warm, and mostly chewy and flaky. Sugar had been baked into it instead of sprinkled on top.

A pain au chocolat I had was not as good as the pains I had in France. Which is probably why Delifrance can survive in Brussels.

Although Brussels is officially bilingual, I get the sense that French trumps Dutch as a language. In the hostel, signs were in English and French, and Dutch only for a few bits. More people also spoke in French instinctively, rather than Dutch, and talked among themselves in French; they also seemed to warm more to me when I attempted to speak French than Dutch.


This was my second waffle of the day, with Chantilly. It was heavenly, beating the first by leagues. It was crispy, chewy and even a bit flaky. However eating it while walking was a bad idea, since the powdered sugar landed on my black shirt.

I then went to the main thing I came to Brussels to see - the art museum.


Wappers - Episode of the September Days 1830 on the Grand place of Brussels (1835)


Grupello - Diana.
I think he went overboard in doing the folds of the garment

Half the non-modern art collection was closed. Gah.


Meester van de Lucialegende, Virgo Inter Virgines (last quarter of 15th century)


Noord-Franse School (?), Twee luiken van een retabel-rechterluik: The Ascension (1460-70)
This was very funny because you could see his lower body going up into a hole in the sky. Usually it looks majestic but this was comical.


Hieronymus Bosch - Temptations of St Anthony. Replica.
This could pass for modern art, with its grotesque shapes. And what's with the fish?!

In Lucas Cranach the Elder's Venus en Amor (1531), Cupid had ants on him. Wth.


Barroc: - de roeping van de Hl. Petrus & Hl. Andreas. 1586

Almost all Rubens have that irritating blur watercolour effect. Gah.

Why did Eugene Delocroix do a copy of Rubens' "The miracle of St Benedict"? The two are almost the same!


Frans Snijders & Jan Wildens - Damhertejacht


Rubens - Martyrdom of Hl. Livinus


Rubens - Assumption of the Virgin


Pieter Brueghel II - De Goede Herder (1696)


Westerwald - Pal (Pul?). Mid 17th century
It's nice to see something you read about in class

In the Martyrdom of St Apollonia, I don't get why her teeth are being pulled out.


Joos de Momper II - The Ziggurat of Babylon The Tower of Babel


Theodoor Rombouts - Prometheus
Andrew: the liver's on yr right side of yr belly
the left side is, erm, stomach. and spleen
haha


Travel tips:

- Travel in the evening. It's good because you save time traveling when attractions are closed.

"Her virtue was that she said what she thought, her vice that what she thought didn't amount to much." - Peter Ustinov

***

I think the reason why orange juice from concentrate (aka Vile Juice) is always vile is that they throw the whole fruit into the blender to get as much 'juice' as possible. After they've squeezed it, they soak the peels in water and press them again, forcing the bitterness into the liquid extracted.

There was this really dumb Channel 8 drama I was forced to view on TV Mobile. 2 people were locked in a container truck's container by some enemy and were dying of suffocation, since they'd somehow found an airtight container. And then one confessed her love for the other ("我喜欢你"). At which point the door to the container opened - it was a scheme by his friends to get her to admit that she liked him. *facepalm* Who writes such things? And who watches them?!

Marks and Spencer has Cocoa Butter and Vanilla deodorant. Guys should try wearing it, then the girls will all want to eat them.

I'm told a Hong Kong girl introduced herself: "Hi, my name is Vagina". Her name was Virginia.

HGWT: Burying their phones at the bottom of their bags and ensconcing them in pouches so by the time they fish them out incoming calls have been diverted to voicemail, if they can even hear the phones ringing in the first place.

I saw a moustachioed woman. Previously the most I had seen was hair on the upper lip, but this one had a full blown moustache.

There're sanitay napkins with aloe vera and herbs. Wth.

I support criminalising denial of the 1964 race riots!

"No one has ever had an idea in a dress suit." - Sir Frederick G. Banting

***

Me: women are permanently depressed
it's a gender defect

Someone: i'm not permanently depressed now, and i know plenty of women who aren't permanently depressed, so that statement is a bit hard to understand

Me: maybe it's a singaporean thing

I find that girls are depressed more than guys

Someone: how about guys in NS?
guys in NS are always depressed

Me: ah
that's a bit different

that's very different

see. girls vs slaves

Someone: yeah but ......................... aiyah, how to explain to you how shitty and limiting being a girl in singpoare is


Someone on apologists: i'll never understand, are they trying to win arguments with you because of your intellectual reputation, or is it just that they are incredibly obstinate?


Me: jb said I should buy furry ones
but they're out of fashoin gah

Someone: they're SO out of fashion

Me: boo

Someone: most guys i see now just use plain elastic bands... and the girls too.
i think i only see scrunchies on PRC girls nowadays

Me: even non furry scrunchies

Someone: yep

JB: elastic bands are eww

sorry
I don't like them
they leave a bigger kink


Someone: starting to read forums is a bad idea, it's addictive and not very productive

i've tried to read about singapore less generally coz it feels like that too


Someone else: i took sc**** last sem
there was this fundie catholic piece of shit who tried to challenge him abt the first 2 lectures' content which touched on religion in particular catholicism
then he asked the fundie shit to present his argument in the nxt lecture

which the fundie shit did, and then later the lecturer took over, and trashed all his points and we were merely impatient with this whole 'fundie contesting soci lecturer' nonsense

tat fundie shit only presented for 15 minutes, his pathetic slides made no sense becuz he tried to challenge gayle rubin's (an essential reading) points with his own fundamental beliefs
wat nonsense

just talked abt certain points rubin raised in her article, den say no backing up and so on lor
den later the lecturer re-illustrate rubin's argument in lecture and we saw the light
and catholicism became bullshit next to sociology suddenly

Me: ooh offence to religion
put him in jail!

did the fundie see the light
haha

Someone else: i doubt so becuz i met the fundie at someone's birthday gathering in july and he was still lamenting abt the biasedness of sc**** which clashed with his fundamental beliefs

i wanna push him into the pool man (it was at some condo pool area)


Me: oh but apparently a lot of these scholars go overseas
then when they come back they go "oh you should go overseas then you'll know how good singapore is"

Someone: yeah it's coz they don't do jackshit in the way of interacting with people here

i saw this firsthand in cam, people would isolate themselves in their little Singaporean enclaves and then mouth off like they knew anything about the country they were living in


Someone else: I don't know what Pathos is :)­
I'm slightly more familiar with Porthos and Athos


Someone: i remember the sop solo for rutter's requiem, done by stephen layton and the london sinfonia

now, THAT was a lao char bor voice
was quite horrified

because you know everyone has heard the original cambridge recording and rutter got a sweet young voice to sing it

then... imagine the hyperion version. lao char bor.

going.... PIE JESU DOMINE at half the speed and with an entire turkey stuffed down her throat or wattle

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Hallelujah Oratorio Society
Handel's Messiah

The last time I'd been to a Messiah concert was in 2000, but it was only a highlights concert. This isn't actually a bad idea, since the full thing is 2 1/2 hours, and the 2nd half of the oratorio isn't quite as good as the first half (Handel probably ran out of ideas towards the end).

I was seated in the gallery behind the orchestra. The view was bad, but the sound was okay and I got to see things like the orchestra using photocopied scores. Tsk.

The concert was presented by a very cheena group. The announcements and programme were bilingual and the performers list for the Hallelujah Chorus and Chorale was in Chinese (excepting Indonesian names).

The start of the Sinfonia felt very stilted and ponderous. Luckily it got better when it moved into the more legato part of the piece. Overall the interpretation was rather less legato than I liked, and it seemed the orchestration had been modified in some places, with trills cut out and some parts simplified. Perhaps due to my sitting above the division between the sopranos and altos, the lower strings sounded a bit strong.

When I saw there was a harpsichord/organ player listed on the program I was quite intrigued, since I didn't know there were any harpsichords in Singapore. But when it suddenly started producing organ sounds for Comfort Ye I got very pissed off and looked closer. It was in fact a synthesiser, cunningly disguised as a harpsichord: it was mounted where the keyboard of the real thing would be, but built or set into the frame of what looked like a harpsichord (complete with the section where the strings would've been, and a cover for it propped up with a piece of wood). The effect wasn't all that bad, since harpsichords produce a fairly uniform sound, so a synthesiser is less unfaithful to the real thing than it would be for a piano. But still. If nothing else, they should've listed the synthesiser player as playing a synthesiser, not the "harpsichord/organ"!

David Wilcocks had noted that the Tenor had "excellent diction, rhythm, and pitch" and indeed I found him to be the best soloist. One thing about soloists is that they tend to have a thick voice and use a lot of vibrato (maybe it's an opera tradition, it helps one's voice to carry, or it helps distinguish one's voice from that of the chorus/ensemble, but I personally think it sounds hideous). His was very clear.

And the Glory of the Lord saw a return of the ponderousness that characterised the start of the Sinfonia. If I'd closed my eyes I might have though I was listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It put me in the mind of Zombie Jesus lumbering around and trying to eat my brains. The altos were particularly embalmed, and the sopranos busy blasting away.

In Thus saith the Lord, the bass soloist sounded like he was being shaken, and some unpinpointable quality being shaken out of his voice, making him sound a bit hollow. Luckily he recovered after this piece.

The alto soloist was horrible. She had perhaps the most lao char bor (old woman) voice I'd ever heard (too much resonance within the body rather than letting the sound out, due to an overuse of head voice if I remember the theory correctly). If she'd been a soprano she might still have been forgiven since that's a technique sometimes needed to hit high notes, but it was unforgivable in an alto. I was trying to think what was a better description of the singing: muffled or like a dead feathered chicken was stuffed down her throat; usually it comes along with vibrato but I don't think there was much of this today (you can tell my vocal theory is rusty). No one may abide the day of his coming, but with this rendition I'm taking leave a week before D Day. Since the orchestration of the air seemed simplified, there was less to distract me from the horrible sound. Luckily, in some other recitatives and airs, I couldn't hear her over the orchestra.

The chorus came on again, and with the waves of undead the scooping of the sops was added. The orchestra sounded oddly like it was farting though. From this point on though, the chorus and orchestra sounded better. Either they'd warmed up, the stuffiness of the concert hall (or where I was sitting, at least) was making me lose concentration or everyone sounded good after the alto soloist.

For Unto Us was okay musically, except that they managed to top some other choir's "The Prince of Piss" with "The Ever-Lusting Father". This particular mangling hadn't come to my mind before I heard it, so it cannot be the backmasking effect (hearing what you expect to hear). Gotta love Singaporean pronunciation. I don't know why they liked to blast so much in this and other choruses, though (sometimes even shouting, eg 'Surely'). They were very big already as it was, and the slightly mistimed blasts of "Wonderful. Counsellor" were unsettling.

The soprano soloist's pronunciation was a bit off (eg 'shay purds') but otherwise she was alright. Her voice was less thick than the alto soloist's (though how it could be thicker I do not know) and I could actually make out what she was singing.

For some reason, perhaps to make up for lost time, Rejoice was rushed. I was quite disappointed, since those wonderful coloratura passages could not then be demonstrated to good effect.

Listening to Messiah was a good time to ponder divine injustice: 'And the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all'. More like the iniquity of the Lord.

After the intermission, the bass soloist seemed to have been infected by the alto, since it sounded like he had half a feathered chicken stuffed down his throat (this wouldn't have been so bad if it'd been a chicken transfer, but it turned out to be a chicken cloning since the alto was still singing the same way). At first I'd thought that the fact that the alto soloist was the one most easily drowned by the orchestra was due to the disadvantages of the alto range, but once the bass soloist had the same problem he got drowned by the orchestra sometimes as well, so it was the chicken after all; on further consideration I realise that when I'm not sitting behind the performers, although this mode of singing sounds hideous it also projects well, so it's probably a way to project one's voice forward, ensuring that those who buy $15 tickets and sit behind the performers get their money's worth.

Let Us Break was another chance to reflect on divine violence. Breaking the heathens with a rod of iron is fine, and dashing them into pieces like pottery is splendid, but it leaves out my absolute favourite bit: dashing babies on rocks. What was Jennens thinking?!

Hallelujah was the only chorus the soloists sang. I was very annoyed by this person in front of me: just because everyone is standing doesn't mean you should sing along. And badly too. Gah.

The Trumpet Shall Sound is one of my favourite pieces showcasing an instrument. It was okay except when the trumpeter tragically made a small misstep in the introduction. The drowning out of the bass soloist, with his post-intermission chicken, was especially clear in this air.


Elia Diodati's exellent attempt to characterise the sort of voice (feathered chicken in throat) that I am vainly trying to describe: muffled brilliance
if it were vocalized correctly, it would be 'colorful'
but somehow the voice is not aspirated

that kind of voice gives me the image
of swallowed cotton wool or singing into a glove

or perhaps more correctly, cotton wool stuck in the vocal cords
or even the trachea


They did the Magic Flute here this year. Argh.

The timpani guy was very free. He only needed to do work on 2 choruses.

I fully support copyright in perpetuity, since the ticket prices would've doubled and the profits would've gone to some corporation that had bought the rights to Messiah while Handel's relations were living in penury.

"The mood and temper of the public in regard to the treatment of crime and criminals is one of the most unfailing tests of the civilisation of any country. A calm and dispassionate recognition of the rights of the accused against the state and even of convicted criminals against the state, a constant heart-searching by all charged with the duty of punishment, a desire and eagerness to rehabilitate in the world of industry of all those who have paid their dues in the hard coinage of punishment, tireless efforts towards the discovery of curative and regenerating processes and an unfaltering faith that there is a treasure, if only you can find it in the heart of every person – these are the symbols which in the treatment of crime and criminals mark and measure the stored up strength of a nation, and are the sign and proof of the living virtue in it." - Winston Churchill

***

Quotes from Tertullian:

- Plane nihil deo difficile: sed si tam abrupte in praesumptionibus nostris hac sententia utamur, quidvis de deo confingere poterimus quasi fecerit, quia facere potuerit. (Certainly nothing is difficult for God: but if in our assumptions we so rashly make use of this judgement, we shall be able to invent any manner of thing concerning God, as that he has done it, on the ground that he was able to do it.)
- Exigo rationem bonitas, quia nec aliud quid bonum haberi liceat quod non rationaliter bonum sit, nedum ut ipsa bonitas irrationalis deprehendatur. (I demand reason in his [Marcion's god] goodness, because nothing ought to be accounted good which is not rationally good: far less should goodness itself be found irrational.)
- ... facilius est, ut aliquam rationem habeat unum illud capitulum, quae cum ceteris apiat, quam ut apostolus diversa inter se docuisse videatur. (... it is easier (of belief) that that one passage should have some explanation agreeable with the others, than that an apostle should seem to have taught (principles) mutually diverse.)
- Nihil enim mali necessarium. (Nothing that is evil is necessary.)
- Si dii eliguntur ut bulbi, utique ceteri reprobi iudicantur. (If gods are selected like onions, certainly the rest are rejected as bad.)

How excellent. More apologists should follow these principle.

July Trip
24/7 - Bayeux

There were also 3 Scottish boys. One was only 17, in his last year of high school. They brought the Scottish flag down to Bayeux with them and one of them draped himself with it and walked around. Later they asked us to sign on their flag, on the same table used for The Distribution of the Keys.

Breakfast that morning at the youth hostel was very good. Someone averred that it was the best complimentary youth hostel breakfast that one could find. There was baguette sections, Nutella, hard boiled eggs, yoghurt, honey, vile juice, coffee, milk, golden honey balls (like Honey Stars but a different shape), cold cuts and croissants (still quite flaky).

Someone in the hostel said that a week before, it had been 42 degrees in Sorento. Wah.


M4A1 Sherman


M10 tank destroyer.
I like the serial: USA 12345678.


Char Churchill Crocodile
The serial was more imaginative: T17325857

Bayeux was the only town in Normandy to be totally spared from damage in the battle.


Place Charles de Gaulle. Where he re-established the republic.


Alain Chartier, poet

woman: popee. wife of rollo, 1st duke of normandy


I saw this symbol on all the streets and pavements. Maybe it was from the tapestry, I was not sure.

There were funny signs in the TV area in the hostel: 'destred (?) for video casettes', 'don't steal' (someone said the latter probably sounded right in French). This was because the videos shelf had a lot of 80s Schwarzenegger movies.

A sign in the hostel said if you helped clean the kitchen you might get a free bed/lunch. Heh.

I saw what must be the cheapest moules et frites in the world - €9. And this included a drink. A pity I didn't have that much time before my train, or I'd have had it.

If the French don't want to pronounce all the letters in their words, why do they include them in the first place? Gah.

Lay's BBQ in France was labelled 'Saveur Barbeque". The packaging was the same colour, but there was a picture of 2 kebabs on a grill.

bfast, lingual, pommes

When I tried to buy a ticket to Brussels, I found that the 2nd class youth tickets were sold out. I had the choice of getting 2nd class normal tickets for €74,50 or 1st class youth tickets for €59, so I obviously pounced for the latter. In all I think I lost a few Euros on my French rail discount card. Pity.

If Eurostar (Paris-London) return tickets can be cheaper than one way tickets, why would anyone buy the one way ones?

The French using the same word ('pommes') for both apples and potatoes is annoying. I bought a pain aux pommes one time and expected a savoury filling, but bit into a sweet filling. I'm sure there're situations when the context won't tell you what they're called - apple chips might be called 'pommes frites', for example. And if they combine apples and potatoes, do you get 'pommes et pommes'?


On the way to the Gare

The date/time of my journey were printed on my Bayeux-Paris train ticket, but on top the words 'Utilisable du 24/07 au 22/09' were printed. Maybe the date/time was printed just for convenience.

'Welcome to our liberators' - sign on the door of a cafe in Bayeux just outside the Gare. Above were the US, UK, Canadian and German flags. Wth.

Half the French trains I took were 5-10 minutes late. But then after Italy, who cares?


French progress - exhibition in Bayeux Gare

In Paris, while I was travelling between train stations, there was a traffic jam, so I got off the bus and walked. I entered the station with <20 minutes to spare and got ripped off at a concessionaire stand because I needed a drink. And the can wasn't even cold, grr. This also meant I had no leisure to browse the magazine racks and make more snide remarks, but I did notice another men's magazine in a price war (€1,95) with FHM (€1,90). Travelling to Brussels by Thalys First Class was an experience. Each seat had a power socket, newspapers (in English!) were provided and we even got dinner.
'Farmhouse' menu: Roast pork, Turnips carrots & leeks, Lentil salad dressed with Herb Vinaigrette, French cheese, Apple tart, Spa mineral water and coffee/tea. I was offered more bread later, but the best part was probably the cote d'or mini bouches. This is (was) the life. Though I'd rather save the difference and have moules et frites.

Once again, I smelled the piss smell in Brussels. And this was summer time too. Uh oh.

The signboards in the Brussels metro are very smart. They show you not only when the next few trains will arrive but which stations they are currently at. Lights also show you when the trains are in the tunnels between the last 2 stations and the current one.

I was very happy to see that my hostel had a fee for sheets. This was because for the second time, I would get to use the sheets that I brought. Unfortunately the fee for sheets was compulsory (deceptive pricing!). !@#$.

The card reader in the lift was also spoilt, so I had to swipe my doorcard 10 times. Stupid security measures. Even more infuriatingly, the lift was only one way - you could take it up, but not down. Presumably they were trying to coerce us into upgrading to their gold class hostel.

Reviewing my options for the next day, there was an interesting-looking city tour. Unfortunately the English speaking guide was on holiday.

I doubt that, past knee length, short skirts are really that much cooler. Summer heats things up in more ways than one.

I doubt that, past knee length, short skirts are really that much cooler. Summer heats things up in more ways than one.

Someone: and anw, short skirts do get cooler the shorter they get, even past knee length hAhAH
nv tried?

MFTTW: they aren't cooler lah. hello. you wear and try. it's annoying to not have anything absorb the sweat from your thighs.

i think the skirt mat3erial makes more differene

"When love is gone, there's always justice.
And when justice is gone, there's always force.
And when force is gone, there's always Mom.
Hi, Mom!"
- Laurie Anderson

***

"It was a lesson he absorbed as a boy from his wealthy and cynical father, who taught him that greed, arrogance and unscrupulousness were the way of the world. At the same time, the precocious young Conrad learned from his passion for history that real heroes were permitted to flout rules designed by the mediocre to shackle them... Even now, Lord Black, confrontational to the last, sees himself as a victim of the 'spite and envy' of others rather than of his own towering ego. This is a gripping cautionary tale that still awaits its denouement." - On Conrad Black. Sounds familiar.

Claiming that tough training is the best welfare you can give your soldiers is like a deserter saying that by deserting he is being loyal to his country because the alternative is to desert his battle post, reveal information to the enemy under interrogation/torture or betraying the country willingly (eg Switching sides); technically correct but grossly misleading given common understanding. [Someone: either side is capable of capture and interrogation, so don't switch sides. downgrade and get a vocation incapable of providing anything useful]

Never let a few good apples taint the barrel! We cannot generalise and conclude that entire groups are praiseworthy just because we have had good experiences with a few of them!

The staff at Hard Rock Cafe have to try the food so if customers ask for their recommendations, or what the food tastes like, they can answer. I don't think all restaurants do this.

One Firefox extension had an "assistant" mode (as opposed to the "advanced" mode). I asked the developer why he didn't just call it "Wizard" (a la MS), and the reply was that "it's easier to translate for many folks plus it's more or less consistent over all languages. Wizard translates in most languages only as that old guy with the wand making evil things."


Some girls were talking about marrying a rich man in the future (and presumably not working). I found this annoying, and not only because of the near impossibility of doing such a thing as a male.

One will probably find that if a woman does not work, her marriage is more stable, since the lack of financial independence means she will have to put up with more from her partner. So conversely, I promote financial independence despite (or even because of) this seemingly deleterious effect (this even discounting my ideological objections to that institution).

What those who lament the modern decline in marriage longevity and occurence do not see is that marriage is not an end to be sought in and of itself, but a means to an end (whatever it may be). For women, the corollary to marrying a woman uglier than you is to marry a man not only nicer than you, but also one poorer than you.

"The average person thinks he isn't." - Father Larry Lorenzoni

***

Someone: i think science as it exists right now cannot conclusively prove or disporve God.

for the same reason math, art history, literature and economics can't disprove/prove god. becuase they'll all academic disciplines. by definition they are relevant to our world but have little capability to throw light on anything beyond it.

Me: can you disprove that there is a teapot in orbit around the rings of saturn?

Someone: hm, do we have telescopes of sufficient power yet?

Me: can you disprove santa claus? the easter bunny? the tooth fairy? mother goose?

Someone: but if we do not, then we can't disprove that, can we? we can only say because it's a man-made object, and we've never been to Saturn, there probably isn't.

Me: it is contingent on those proposing things to prove them
rather than those contending them to disprove them

Someone: well, we do have satellite imaging over the North pole and we don't see a Santa Base....so...

Same for the rest too.

Me: santa base could be invisible

Someone: er, no known technology can make things invisible yet, on such a scale. here at duke they've only just developed a light-bending mini-cloak.

Me: santa does not need to rely on technology
he has christmas magic

...

Someone: if we don't even know how a simply atom works, how can it prove/disprove god?

Me: how an atom works has nothing to do with gods

if gods exist, they show no sign of their existence or presence in the world today
and are as relevant as teapots around Saturn

Someone: no, but understanding the nature of the universe could explain why we havne't observed god. and we are nowhere near understanding the nature of the universe

so what is to say a god doesn't exist?
especially since he is real to so many people?

Me: you're begging the question

what's to say santa claus doesn't exist?

Elvis is real to many people

Someone: we know santa is fake cos we know the origins of the myth

Me: we know the origins of the god myth too ;)

Someone: Jesus is real to even more people =) and he makes a larger difference, too

Me: so if there was only one christian left on earth, your god would not be real?

Someone: No--but if there was only one christian left on earth, then the world population would be one.

Me: and again you're artificially defining the argument so you will win it
which is intellectually dishonest

...

Someone: Yes, if you want to pin the blame on God just so you can vindicate yourself. you might as well point out so-and-so, a Chrisitian, behainvg worse than so-and-so, who's not.

Me: so everything good that christians do is because of god
and everything bad is their fault?
that's very dishonest

Someone: why is that dishonest? we do good when we allow god to work through us. we do evil when we ignore him or turn away. how is that dishonest?

Me: sigh
nevermind. this is pointless

if your god can do no wrong, and you have already decided it, then there's no way I can prove that he can

I can just as validly say if christians do good things it's because they're good
and if they do bad things it's your god's fault

it is morally repugnant
assuming humanity is incapable of goodness
and gods are incapable of evil

July Trip
24/7 - Bayeux

I never took the contacts of people at youth hostels, but one person took mine. Maybe I'll hear from her in 10 years when she visits Singapore.

Admission to the tapistery was €7,60 for adults but €3 for students. No wonder there's a big market for fake ISIC cards.

The tapistery (where they kept the Bayeux tapestry) was really silly. They had lots of moronic writeups, like so:

A stupid writeup glorifying the French: "Guy behaved properly: neither drawn by the lure of a reward nor compelled by force, he came himself to the castle of EU, and brought before the Duke a man whom he was at liberty to torture, slit the throat of or sell"

On William and friends attacking Conan of Brittany: "Conan, the Count of Brittany, who refused the protectorate of Normandy, had actually risen up against Duke William. Renewing his father's rebellion, [Conan] memta (?) be the enemy, not the vassal, of Normandy.

Yes, the underlines were in the original writeups. Maybe they took a leaf from Wo-hen's webpage.

"William made Harold a Knight
The Duke was indeed very much aware that chivalry did not exist in England. No doubt he hoped that he could make Harold - who must have been impressed by Conan's submission - realise the deep meaning of the dubbing [of himself as a knight]"

Harold's supporters were called wicked and the man himself "the enemy of justice and law".

Other silly writeups kept stressing the rightful claim of William to the throne of England, but didn't talk of the coercion of Harold and how he was tricked into swearing his oath on a Saint's relics. Bloody French (unless these were quotations from Norman French chroniclers, which I doubt, but if that is the case - Bloody French of 1000 years ago].

boastful words chroniclers. no say in english part. but yes in french (?)

As a counterpoint, a video screened before the entrance to the tapestry room showed Harold's wife arguing (and providing the English point of view) with some guy called "Odin" (a knight of William's, IIRC), who was clad in chain mail.

The stupid audioguide could not be paused - it turned on automatically on entering the chamber. It could not be replayed either It's probably a scam to get you out of the place ASAP.

The tapestry was in surprisingly good condition, especially given it's 900 years old. The colours were surprisingly vivid.

Just like the Pont du Gard museum, photography was nominally forbidden, but there was no gestapo inside.


Horses on a ship, laughing when it sets out for England.


Harold being tricked by the evil Normans


I spy with my little eye, something starting with "A"


Charging the Anglo-Saxon shield wall


William is alive

I have 2 T-shirts with tapestry scenes on them, but neither were sold in the shop. They change their stock often.


Mill of Bishop of Bayeux, on river Aure (l'aure)


Bayeux Cathedral. They built it in only 17 years!


Portal


Nave


Pulpit


Altar


Chapel of St Michel and St Blasse


Tomb in the crypt


Ceiling design

Next I went to a D-Day museum (Museum for the Battle of Normandy, IIRC). They had the same funny no entry signs as in Italy. Maybe it's an EU directive.


Beach tetrahedron

They dressed up one mannikin as a soldier. With a tie. People go into battle with ties?!

There were lots of information panels and photos in the museum, but the artifacts weren't labelled.

The Canadians fought their way through Caen and the French gave them roses and wine, but they weren't allowed to drink it. Aww.


Medals


Short range artillery (?)

Montgomery named his dogs Hitler and Rommel. Gah.

There was a very long and amusing Patton quote which I wanted to take a picture of to save me the writing, but a staff member finally came along. Grr. Of course, this time they didn't even have the excuse of conservation (the stuff being 60 years old at most). Maybe they were leery of spies from the tons of other D Day museums in the area. Or they just wanted to increase the profit they could reap from the death and destruction of 62 years ago. Reprehensible, especially since some of these veterans are still alive.

I'd learnt my lesson after being unable to find hilarious Sissy poetry online (at least in English), and wouldn't have bought a book on Patton even if it'd been sold at the bookshop, so:

"Don't worry about your flanks. We must protect them, okay, but not to the point of doing nothing else. A damn fool once said that flanks must be protected, and since then every the (sic) idiot in the world thinks of nothing but protecting his flanks. We want none of that in the 3rd Army. The enemy can worry about his flanks. Now there's another thing I want you to remember. I don't want to get any messages saying that we are holding our position. We're not holding anything, we'll let the Hun do that. We are advancing constantly, and we're not interested in holding onto anything except the enemy. We're going to hold onto him by the nose, and we're going to kick him in the ass. We're going to kick the hell out of him all the time, and we're going to go through him like crap through a goose." - Patton in his first speech to his troops

Incidentally, I am vindicated, since I couldn't find this quote on Google.

Allied propaganda was very funny.

There was a lot of information on the battle of Normandy, but no conclusion. A summary of the rest of the war, or even one of the rest of the war for France would have been very welcome. A commentary on the role the battle for Normandy played in the war, or even 'The battle was won. Now the war continued' or some such would've been nice, but none of this could be found at the museum.

First Date

Dilbert: Do you feel like doing some conversation?

Girl: Okay. I love talking.

Dilbert: Do you like politics?

Girl: No.

Dilbert: Science and technology?

Girl: Not really.

Dilbert: War?

Girl: No.

Dilbert: Sports?

Girl: No.

Dilbert: Current events?

Girl: No.

Dilbert: What's left?

Girl: I like to talk about my hair.

Dilbert: Um... Okay, we can try that.

Girl: This brown is a browner brown than I wanted.

Dilbert: Right. Are we done with hair?


I thought Scott Adams was unmarried, but it seems he got married in July this year.

Crucifixus est dei filius; non pudet, quia pudendum est.
Et mortuus est dei filius; credibile prorsus est, quia ineptum est.
Et sepultus resurrexit; certum est, quia impossibile.


Ceux qui peuvent vous faire croire à des absurdités peuvent vous faire commettre des atrocités

Talking bull

"The central tenet of the New Economy faith was that the free market was the highest and most rewarding form of human existence, a notion that would have seemed transparently ideological had it not always been couched in the language of technology and in lofty phrases about the juggernaut of history and the will of the common man. The great management theorists of the 90s didn't dissect the corporation so much as propagandise for it. And the stock market gurus of the age, with their fond dreams of a nation of small shareholders, openly looked forward to the destruction of the New Deal regulatory state, to a time when the little people would identify more with the corporation than with the government...

Whatever happens, they argue, it cannot possibly be the fault of the market. Never mind the fact that one of the very measures taken by corporations in the 90s to ensure that market rationality prevailed - the granting of stock options to top executives - is the single greatest culprit in the present fiasco: markets never fail. Other parties, namely government, must be responsible. For yesterday's bubble-blowers, this is true in the way the law of gravity is true; it is axiomatic. "This is Washington's recession," glowered Larry Kudlow a little over a year ago, "for which nothing is more to blame than the arrogance of policy-makers who refused in the first place to recognise the real sources of prosperity and then refused to acknowledge that slumping stock markets were a referendum on Washington's mistakes." The only trick is finding the exact bit of misguided government meddling that triggered this vast disaster.

Over the last year, dozens of candidates have been unearthed and pushed forward, then abandoned out of self-evident absurdity. Kudlow, for example, blamed the anti-trust lawsuit against Microsoft. Gilder blamed anti-trust restrictions placed on WorldCom. Others got indignant about taxes, which are always too high since by definition they are equivalent to theft, or about New York's lawsuit against Merrill Lynch. With my own eyes, I once watched a TV show in which business reporters blamed government policy for tripping up the good people of Enron. It pleases elements in the Wall Street Journal to pin the crash on the country's remaining telecom regulations, while others bemoan the government's failure to subsidise "broadband" aggressively enough."


Once again, according to the faith of market fundamentalism, government is somehow mysteriously to blame for market failure.

"There is nothing so absurd but some philosopher has said it." - Cicero

***

Someone: ha i'm was studying in the medicine library just now and i saw the a few female med students wearing their lab coats in the lib. quite a funny sight. and i wonder why is it only the girls. i think it's because they have no dress sense so the lab coat is their best attire. i didn't know that students wear lab coats in the lib. interesting.maybe one day engine students will wear their safety uniform cos that's their work attire.ha

Someone else: only in med lib
for med students they can wear lab coats

other science student cannot, cos we deal with chemicals
lab coat is actually barred from sci lib

Medicine Student: ah well
its true though

girls like to hang out in their lab coats
sometimes they dress too skimpily under the labcoat

so they're like cold or whatever
and the med library is like pretty cold sometimes
so they wear their labcoats

someone commented that the courses with professional degrees ahve people who put more effort into dressing up
like law, medicine, dentistry, etc.

not just during the clinical, internship years but in general

but then in today's world dressing up is like dressing down
people pay more for less cloth


Someone: i heard u using magnifying glass lol
did u did that for econometrics too?
cause i rem someone doing that

u was impress lol i was sitting behind u that time lol
so shock wahaha


Me: in spore you got so much attention [from Singaporean students] or not

Someone on exchange: nope
here they deprived mah
ahahaha

Me: hahahaha

the culture more liberal
so they want more sex ah

Someone on exchange: i dunno?

haven had sex in a while
not too interested either

Me: haha
*** too cold ah
become frigid

Someone on exchange: good arh
hahaha

gg to snow on fri
whee
8 inches of snow predicted

Me: haha you need a man to warm you up

Someone on exchange: lol
heat paks are more reliable than men

Me: no
heat paks can use once only

Someone on exchange: guys oso wad
LOL
guys shld be use n throw too

Me: tsk

men are free :P
no they'll pay you to warm your bed haha

Someone on exchange: lol
precisely

so use and throw


Someone: i know in sweden the guys are smarter
they would offer to send the girl home

i learnt this when i send this swedish girl home
she said...i been to asia before, so i know that u are not thinking of anything else
but if a swedish guy send me home, he most probably wants to sleep with me...

Me: they don't send girls home in singapore meh
they do lah

Someone: at first i thought it's her own twisted perception
and it's quite embarrassing

coz i wanted to pee, and i aksed her, can i use ur toilet?
she said yes, and that's another excuse which the guys use

anyway, as i was saying, at first, i thought it's her own twisted perception
but i asked this other swedish girl
oh, what happens when a swedish guy offers to send u home
then she replied, oh, if our homes are far apart, he just want to get me in bed....

Me: aiyah
cos in asia people live with their parents

Someone: oh true
nvr tot of that

i went to belgium and it's very common that some of the guys and girls sleep around
thought u should know that in holland

Someone else on the above: i nvr send a gal home unless i wanna get into her panties; i'm actually interested in dating her; or a special r/s exists i.e. we're really gd friends.


Someone (2): the bf says new creation church has a "forced-enrolment" singles ministry

once you hit a certain age, you have to go into the singles ministry. and APPARENTLY (this is all hearsay) they can only date within their church. not denomination, church.


Frigid Girl: haha =p this is one weird trend i haven't seen before

Me: you've been living in a cave
pls refer to previous archived convos

Frigid Girl: err. i'd rather live in a cave
­with the things you've been showing me

Stupid Crystal Jade has no web presence, and Vivocity has no contact number on its website. Gah.

Crystal Jade Vivocity: 62785626

"Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before." - Mae West

***

List of Modules Offered - Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

"XD2201: The Bible and Christianity

The module is a multidisciplinary academic study of the bible and Christianity, open to all interested in these themes. Major topics will include a) interpretative approaches to biblical texts, b) history of the collection of the bible, c) biblical authority, d) Christianitys basic moral code and beliefs, and e) popular issues (Gnostic Christianity). The course assumes no prior knowledge of Christianity and will count toward the Religious Studies minor."

I bet 99.9% of the class will be believers. If I take it (failing in the process). If I don't it'll be 100%.

Actually I think all the fundies will die also if they take this class. If they write in the exam that the Bible is literally true, or that Moses compiled the Pentateuch, they're going to get zero credit. So they'll end up being as pissed off as during Evolution.


Someone: u can try converting all of them to become anti christians

what's fundies?
­underwear for two?
http://www.bachelorette.com/fununfortwo.html

Someone else: the prof will sure hate u
the whole class will hate u

Someone (2): he hosted the "Breaking the Da Vinci Code" thingy, and he's a moderate-to-liberal Christian, so, this should be interesting...


Someone (3): hahahahaahahh
i don't think the fundies will take lah

Me: hahahaha
why won't fundies take

Someone (3): how can
that means that they will actually have to study the bible leh

Me: ahahahahahahah
never doubt the power of cognitive dissonance


Me: I'm told a christian is teaching
shit lah. should get me

Frigid Girl: your students might try to murder you
you can be the first modern antichristian martyr
lynched by christians

"When everyone is somebody, then no one's anybody." - W. S. Gilbert

***

I finally got Bloodbones. Too bad its cover and spine are greatly out of place among the other 59 books.

Turnitin.com and similar online plagiarism-checking services surely subscribe to essay mills and download their essays for the purpose of storing and cataloguing them to compare submitted essays to to check for plagiarism. Yet, I am sure that essay mills can state in their terms and conditions that unauthorised use of their essays (eg in plagiarism-checking software) is forbidden and can be prosecuted. I'm quite a case has come up already. [Someone: that's precisely why the mills will never dare to ban plagiarism checkers from using their essays. look. why cut off one half of your clientele]

A Political Science major said that someone who'd gone to SMU on local exchange said that people talked a lot in class but it was all rubbish. The stupidest things said by NUS were at least relevant, or if not they were smart enough to cut and paste something the professor had said, but at SMU it was just irrelevant nonsense, said to get participation points. This sort of feedback about the students seems to be the case across disciplines.

Girls like to refer to their boyfriends as "The Boy", but I haven't found any boy who refers to his girlfriend as "The Girl", probably because they fear being accused of objectifying women.

***

"If you're still unconvinced and insists that "evolution is still a theory", go jump off a building. Gravitation is, after all, only a theory and less "satisfactory" explained by physics than evolution is.

After, what kind of science will explain that mass actually causes space to warp!?!"

***

Comment on How Girls Waste Time:

"Stumbled upon this piece randomly and loved it :D You have a hell lot of patience to bother doing this. But before you go on to generalize these mostly odd/despicable characteristics to all women in the world, might I mention that it's mostly Singaporean women who could possess ALL of these qualities. Even as a girl, I couldn't fathom the sheer dumbness of some of the traits/activities considered typically feminine in this country. A few (strictly very few) of your points could be true for normal women beyond the borders of this nation (Like 'Am I fat?' - that's universal :D)

"women are like elephants"

Oooh, you probably earned the wrath of all the women wondering if they are fat. Haha!"

"Scholarly articles for fiona xie zao geng: The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China - Ronan - Cited by 18"

Wow, this guy is amazingly dedicated. On the day before the exam:

"Dear All:

Do you have any last minute questions/doubts on the notes, past exams or concepts...?

You can consult me between 10AM-12nn tomorrow."


Yesterday I had the hardest exam I've ever had, period: even the GEP admission exams were a cakewalk compared to this. Even all the shen (gods) said it was hard (one shen claims I'm also a shen, but I resolutely reject that title - I am a demigod at most).

The lecturer has really outdone himself this time, both in ingenuity and sheer difficulty; I feel like Annabel Chong: I got screwed again. And again. And again. And again...


"The following model attempts to estimate a causal effect of attending the last lectureon a student's final exam score of ***. In order to maintain exogeneity of attendance, I flip a coin at the entrance of the lecture venue, and let a student attend the last lecture if the coin shows head but let him or her go home if the coin shows tail."

"Tests for mathematics and English are going to be administered by an examiner to a total of 100 students to explore the relationship between mathematics and English scores... On its way to venue B, the blue bus unexpectedly has a flat tyre, hence arrives at venue B 20 minutes later than the green bus... Thus 50 students who happen to take the blue bus have 20 minutes less time for the English test."


What a semester of contrasts this has been.

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

"Now we sit through Shakespeare in order to recognize the quotations." - Orson Welles

***

This girl was studying Immunology and complaining about the pictures of diseases in her notes. I asked why she didn't delete them before printing, and she said she didn't read her notes before printing.

Then I showed her the breast rash larvae picture so she'd forget about the diseases, and it seemed to work.


Lut on the breast rash larvae: if u put it as yr wallpaper and go set it up in the library

all the prcs will fail their exams
or whoever those ppl who camp in the library are

Me: oh yah
bell curve


One person doesn't think it disgusting ("the sickness is prob more with me than the object of scrutiny agh"), another thinks it boring since it's "too fake", and recommends this instead (Personal rating: Shiver inducing, but I think the larvae is worse. That is truly nightmare material) and a last comments dryly, "hm i don't know about disgusting. i was more engrossed with um how the pores could be so neat."

Meanwhile another thinks it "interesting, disturbing, but not very disgusting" (that qualifies it in my book, since it's disturbing).

I think it says something that even the person who sent me MeatSpin.com cursed me to hell and be eaten by Cerberus when I re-acquainted him with it.

An examination of the psychology of the reaction:

Medical Student: man
yeah
the fake one is grosser

geez
like GEEZ
its sick
and i'm from a profession which doesn't really squirm at such stuff

maybe because it looks pristine despite the supposed infestation that makes it surreal

cos if teh canal tracts are like 5cm deep
the whoel breast should be compromised and scerwed already
the skin should be messed up cos the underlying structure is dead

Me: uhh
it looks too good so it's gross?

I think the juxtaposition adds to the disgusting feel

Medical Student: something like that
what i meant to say was
if its all black and gooey and messed up with worms, i might not react so strongly to it, cos that's something i'm used to?

but that one just looks uhm, peacefully sick, it doesn't really look like the worms have drilled 5cm holes in her breast

"Singapore lies in the tropics, but it has grown faster than all but perhaps a handful of countries in the last 40 years. Explain why Singapore is an outlier to the pattern of tropical underdevelopment. Give particular attention to the concept of social infrastructure in your discussion."


An economics exam with maths, essays *and* NE.

Hong gan liao.

This can be expressed as either ~s -> f OR (more correctly) s v f

A pity. It should've been s -> ~f, but even ~s -> f <-/-> s -> ~f.

"Kidnapping for kidneys is rubbish:?? what world are you living in? and just as your entry says its all rubbish, i am sure there are many more sites that do claim this is true... maybe in safe singapore it might not be the case but venture out to the developing worlds where the organised crime is way more common and things such as kidnapping for kidneys is way more real than the rubbish you think it is...

besides that, the forum is a place for discussion not dictatorship. everyone has a right to what they choose to believe in so saying things like "rubbish" may be your opinion but it does not have to be mine."


Sigh.

(The above was posted in one of my module's IVLE forum)

Day 4 of the SDP candlelight Vigil at Queenstown Remand Prison: There were 6-7 people there.

Pictures by my brother in law.

Unfortunately this little diversion hasn't cured my exam sian-ness. I can imagine how much worse it'd been if I'd gone on full sabbatical instead of semi-sabbatical.