Mahler's Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the death of children) are rather morbid.
The Devil's Dictionary, online!
I query the Oracle:
Who is "Lissa"?
L'origine de Bert
Sunday, July 28, 2002
I had dinner with Yortsin and the history people today at Suntec City. It was nice, seeing the ripples from my old life. On a $100 budget (each of the students chipped in $20), we got a Gambler (1 Chicken, half rack of ribs, 6 middle portions of chicken wing, 6 muffins and 4 sides) and 6 ice teas at Kenny Roger's. And a crazysexycool mudpie, a Boner cake (both of which are much smaller than the ones at the Wheelock Place outlet!!!) and a coffee at NYDC, and we still had $15 left over.
It was very interesting, for those who didn't have dyed hair in school all got some form of highlights (Tong says in her defence, that Felicia was using up the remnants of her dye on her), and Zixuan, who had very obviously dyed hair in school, hasn't coloured her hair since and the highlighting isn't obvious anymore.
Huishan said she remembers me from Nanyang. Apparently even then I was always smiling, a sign that even then, I was mentally disturbed!
I was merrily scribbling away on my ubiquitous piece of paper when Zixuan reached across, grabbed it and crumpled it. So mean!
Apparently Tong looks like some Taiwanese singer/show host "A Ya". I dug up some pics, in the process coming across stuff about the Indian Soyabean board, but frankly I can't see the resemblance. And I finally returned her the 1997 and 1999 RGS Yearbooks.
Huishan and Tong are going to go for Taekwando lessons. Frankly I don't see what's so fun about it, and my groin muscles still hurt from Wednesday's stretching. So much for "the most important stretch", as Melvin liked to say.
Apparently 8 year old girl has had a string of boyfriends. Ooh.
When I stepped past the MRT gates at City Hall, I saw Enbin. He was going to some SYO thing with army friends. Lucky Clerk. Air Force Clerk to boot.
While waiting for Yortsin outside Polo Ralph Lauren's (which Zixuan asked me the pronounciation [sic] of because she claimed I knew everything), I saw Xavier, Xingtai and some other guy walking past. Talking to the former, I found that he didn't notice me during the NDP NE show, when he was chasing people off the field. And he asked if I knew Xingtai, to which I replied that it was a "I know your face, you know my face, but we don't know each other kind of thing". And Xingtai still has the juicer he won at the 1999 RI Graduation Night (and to which Robin, who was MCing, quipped, "How appropriate").
Engineer is in the NUS University Scholars' Program (USP). Wah.
My mother just came in and made some snide remarks, but she did raise one good point - I need to practice for my GP.
It was very interesting, for those who didn't have dyed hair in school all got some form of highlights (Tong says in her defence, that Felicia was using up the remnants of her dye on her), and Zixuan, who had very obviously dyed hair in school, hasn't coloured her hair since and the highlighting isn't obvious anymore.
Huishan said she remembers me from Nanyang. Apparently even then I was always smiling, a sign that even then, I was mentally disturbed!
I was merrily scribbling away on my ubiquitous piece of paper when Zixuan reached across, grabbed it and crumpled it. So mean!
Apparently Tong looks like some Taiwanese singer/show host "A Ya". I dug up some pics, in the process coming across stuff about the Indian Soyabean board, but frankly I can't see the resemblance. And I finally returned her the 1997 and 1999 RGS Yearbooks.
Huishan and Tong are going to go for Taekwando lessons. Frankly I don't see what's so fun about it, and my groin muscles still hurt from Wednesday's stretching. So much for "the most important stretch", as Melvin liked to say.
Apparently 8 year old girl has had a string of boyfriends. Ooh.
When I stepped past the MRT gates at City Hall, I saw Enbin. He was going to some SYO thing with army friends. Lucky Clerk. Air Force Clerk to boot.
While waiting for Yortsin outside Polo Ralph Lauren's (which Zixuan asked me the pronounciation [sic] of because she claimed I knew everything), I saw Xavier, Xingtai and some other guy walking past. Talking to the former, I found that he didn't notice me during the NDP NE show, when he was chasing people off the field. And he asked if I knew Xingtai, to which I replied that it was a "I know your face, you know my face, but we don't know each other kind of thing". And Xingtai still has the juicer he won at the 1999 RI Graduation Night (and to which Robin, who was MCing, quipped, "How appropriate").
Engineer is in the NUS University Scholars' Program (USP). Wah.
My mother just came in and made some snide remarks, but she did raise one good point - I need to practice for my GP.
Post ID: 79510418
Watching any anime episode out of sequence tends to make it utterly incomprehensible(relatively) - animes tend to go for episode-spanning type story arcs, in which a minor event or statement in one episode can have massive emotional or narrative consequences down the road. Utena is squarely in this category, from what I know of it, but there are worse. Way worse animes out there. Check out Serial Experiment Lain. Go on. You know you want to.
You actually re-read your own writing? Isn't that a bit coprophagic? Not to mention self-indulgent?
You actually re-read your own writing? Isn't that a bit coprophagic? Not to mention self-indulgent?
Post ID: 79506710
I've just rebooted (to get my connectin back due to the faulty Terayon modem) after watching Episode 33 of Shoujo Kakumei Utena - The Prince Who Rins (sic) Through the Night. As expected, it made no sense - even the Hentai reviewed previously has more of a plot than what I just forced myself to watch.
But then as the squeaky one pointed out, "were you expecting it to [make sense]?"
Coherence in posting - so it's more tolerable for the readers, no less myself, to read. I read some of my writing sometimes and I don't feel like continuing.
But then as the squeaky one pointed out, "were you expecting it to [make sense]?"
Coherence in posting - so it's more tolerable for the readers, no less myself, to read. I read some of my writing sometimes and I don't feel like continuing.
Post ID: 79504306
Coherence in posting? Whatever for?
Re asianprince: an obvious idea that I'm ashamed to say I didn't think of.
Incidentally, the links to that U. Mass site are now dead. The ENTIRE asianprince site is dead, for that matter. Asianprince has eluded you once again! Either that or his hosting server got antsy with all the probes people were running on his account.
Re asianprince: an obvious idea that I'm ashamed to say I didn't think of.
Incidentally, the links to that U. Mass site are now dead. The ENTIRE asianprince site is dead, for that matter. Asianprince has eluded you once again! Either that or his hosting server got antsy with all the probes people were running on his account.
Post ID: 79503682
Ah, nw.t comes back into his prime (at least in his description of his tryst).
I feel that I should brush up my skills too, but I still seem to be unwilling to discard trivial details which cannot be woven into the tapestry of a coherent post.
So as a token of my commitment to defecate less, say more, I'll just tell of how I defeated Asian Prince's URL masking, as he was "linking to a javascript that controls the links - and that javascript is running on serverside" and with "a lot of stuff... being run off a university of massachussetts server under some viet sounding usernames". Compounding the problem, "the pages in that server are protected. so, no go." This is object oriented conversation for you!
Basically I used Proxomitron as my IE local proxy (Mozilla won't display the menu bar he had at the top), and looked at the HTTP message log for the referrer information.
I got a fansub of Utena through WinMX and I'm watching the opening now. Disturbing - one line of the opening title reads, "Heroically I'll throw away my clothes 'til I'm nude"
I feel that I should brush up my skills too, but I still seem to be unwilling to discard trivial details which cannot be woven into the tapestry of a coherent post.
So as a token of my commitment to defecate less, say more, I'll just tell of how I defeated Asian Prince's URL masking, as he was "linking to a javascript that controls the links - and that javascript is running on serverside" and with "a lot of stuff... being run off a university of massachussetts server under some viet sounding usernames". Compounding the problem, "the pages in that server are protected. so, no go." This is object oriented conversation for you!
Basically I used Proxomitron as my IE local proxy (Mozilla won't display the menu bar he had at the top), and looked at the HTTP message log for the referrer information.
I got a fansub of Utena through WinMX and I'm watching the opening now. Disturbing - one line of the opening title reads, "Heroically I'll throw away my clothes 'til I'm nude"
Post ID: 79503096
Word of the day: "kenosis" (My favourite excuse for appalling behaviour)
Gabriel: How many Swedish-made penis enlarger pumps did you confiscate? Also, Athlon STOCK fans are noisy - that's why I suggested getting alternative cooling systems. And, finally, alt.sex.passwords was and is a very good way to get free passwords. They generally mail off to you within a few days, completely gratis, and they even have an irc channel in AsylumNet where they take requests in real-time to crack passwords for commercial sex sites. Why do they bother? I have no idea - but since a free service exists why not utilise it? Do a deja search on the threads there if you don't believe me.
DVDs are not going to take off for gaming for a while, I agree - but movies are where it's all at. For one thing, pirated DVDs are almost always clearer than VCDs - particularly if you don't mind waiting until they've had time to rip off a proper DVD build. And for another, it's only a matter of time before more games go DVD. Although the last time I played a major DVD PC game was Tex Murphy: Overseer, but that turned out to be a bit of a gaffe on their part as the extra DVD features - graphics, cutscenes, etc were virtually unnoticeable and useless.
Going into Nanyang Primary may have been bad, but do you really think Rosyth, Maris Stella, Henry Park, et. al. would have provided an appreciably less dysfunctional environment? It's the system man! Down with the system!
How did you get the Asianprince URLs in the end? Professional curiosity.
50 years is still very young for a country. Most European countries have been in existence for centuries, albeit in radically different forms. China has been around for a lot longer.
Andrew(sic): "asian student stupidity ??! My ocf friends hang out a lot at Boba pearl!" - thank you for proving my point. Get the Babylon 5 DVD for yourself - The Gathering and In The Beginning are the best tele-movies in the whole Babylon 5 spectrum (the others like Thirdspace and River of Souls are CGI-fests but ring oddly hollow compared to the tv series' episodes).
"Shoujo Kakumei Utena" translates very roughly into "Revolutionary Girl Utena". Before you go, I've only watched one episode, and "ritualistic high school action flick with lesbians" sums it up almost perfectly. Add transsexualism, swordfights, and floral motifs, and there you go. Classic anime:)
Hi-Chew sweets in green tea flavour were my favourite "keep-awake" during university.
My phone line is down, much chagrin and rage involved. Thankfully, two wrongs make a right - because on this beautiful Sunday morning, I am ensconced at my workplace updating blog entries, and doing all the stuff I should have been doing last week instead of frenetically blogging. The fact that I'm still writing this blog clearly shows I haven't learnt my lesson. That notwithstanding however, the utter silence and the chance to get away from home for a while is actually quite refreshing.
Friday night I was out for the first time in months - mostly driving around listening to some weird progressive-rock music, The Pixies, and Mansun. These CDs were "kindly provided" by a friend of mine who'd cruised down from Singapore for a weekend after some R&R on Tioman. I use the term "kindly provided" because, as my friend was flipping through the CDs in my car's CD collection, I could read the lines of pain forming on his face as he listened to what I had to offer. After several Chris Isaak and Belinda Carlisle tracks(this was part of my euphemistically named, "Retro" collection aka "Cheesy songs that defined my adolescence" aka "Stuff that 95FM plays because it was what 98.7FM was belting out in my adolescence." aka "Stuff that will hit 90.5FM in a few years' time"), he said, "I can see why you have bipolar mood disorder.". Finally, when we hit my Roxette collection, he intoned, "Any lingering respect I have had for you has just passed through my anus and is now soaking into your car seat." He flatly refused to go through my classical and anime track compilations.
Okay, so my musical collection revolves around sappy retro rock ballads, mainstream-alternative(Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, et. al), Top 40s stuff, classic rock, mainstream gangsta rap and golden oldies. So? Were you expecting Slipknot, Rammstein, Rage Against the Machine, or even, god forbid, Tori Amos just because I read Poppy Z. Brite?
Generally, I don't get many visitors even from my uni mates - much less visitors from my distant high school life - so it was quite a treat to play tour guide, show off our nightlife, make acerbic comparisons between Singaporean and Malaysian culture, and have some really good Japanese food. My friend noted that the slut motif still seemed the order of the night as far as female clubbing/pubbing crowds here were concerned - even if the general choice of apparel differed from Singapore (for instance; we had more camisoles here at night. To which I had to ask, "What the hell is a camisole?").
Dinner was at Ki San Kichi; excellent fare at a reasonable price. It's also the only (affordable) place I know that serves Yebisu beer retail, and their unagi is superb. As we were eating, we were approached by a woman who was flogging charitable contributions from the (sic): "True Love Family Charity Foundation". As she began to unload her spiel, my friend replied, "But we have no love." The poor woman, clearly unused to any reaction that wasn't grudging acceptance or brusque rejection, seemed rather taken aback, and tried to ignore this remark and go on touting the therapeutic values of her 10RM Korean ginseng tea pack.
I then asked, "If this is for families in need of material and/or emotional charity, how come I don't get any of it? I'm probably more in need of both than most of the people on your list." She laughed nervously and tried to relate how the proceeds would go towards educating needy children from broken families - to which my friend interjected, "That's us! That's us! I failed my As!". To which I added: "I have a dysfunctional family situation as well."
It went on in that vein for a while, and I finally said, "Look, altruism is not our thing" - (I don't think she knew what altruism was) - "Why don't you just tell me how much you need, instead of me giving money I don't want to, for shit I don't need, to help people I don't care about." I have to admire her patience and restraint - all that Buddhist meditation must have helped build her tolerance to the vagaries of Mara; a quality similar to some of the more irritating door-knocking evangelists we get around Christmas - for at this point she simply said, "Why don't you make a token donation then?"
I pulled out twenty dollars and handed it over, and said, "I hope they(the needy) learn more from this than we have." She took the money and tried to foist off the ginseng packs on me, to which my friend said, "You got money for nothing and he doesn't want the tea - I suggest you siam while the siam-ing's good." As she left, she had a final parting shot, which went along the lines of, "Family is very important and I hope you learn how to develop good hearts and inner peace." - but at this point I had shut her out to finish up my miso soup.
Now I know it's not very nice by contemporary standards to go about abusing charity workers, but the fact of the matter is, immorality is only an issue if you aren't already in Hell. I might add in my defense that I *did* fork out some charitable gelt in the end, although that was more as payment for entertainment rather than any genuine desire to aid the needy. Still, in a utilitarian sense, everyone's happy - me and my friend were entertained, the charity worker got a decent pay-off for the needy, and I didn't have to humiliate her further by ostenatiously discarding the ginseng tea packs into a nearby drain. So all's good under God's heaven.
After dinner, we proceeded to the aforementioned night drive. KL, being far more spread out, offered us a lot of drives through diverse areas: squatter colonies; verdant secondary rain-forest; dingy suburbs in addition to the glittering cityscapes and the happening pub areas. We drove for about 2 hours, stopped at a quiet bar for margaritas, drove for another 2 hours, stopped at another quiet bar for Hoegaarden light beer, drove for yet another 3 hours, and finally adjourned at a mamak stall for supper. This haj was punctuated by a lot of good conversational catching up as I hadn't seen this guy for almost two years, constant stops for smoke breaks at roadsides, housing estates, or mosques, and a torrent of nihilistic verbal abuse at society, culture, government, politics, Malaysians, Singaporeans, Indonesians, Koreans, Hongkies, Taiwanese, Australians, British, working life, poverty, rich bastards, poor assholes, clubbing lians, clubbing bengs, nerds, scholars, toilet cleaners, writers, poets, the gifted, the retarded, businessmen, family, dogs, sluts, himbos, angsty webpages, happy webpages, ICQ, irc, education, schools, the weather, Shakespeare, commercialised mainstream music, wannabe alternative music, racial slurs, racial harmony, self-help books, financial planning, and losers with no lives who drive around in cars whining (roughly in that order; there's some limited scansion in the way we moved from topic to topic).
As he put it, "Making snap judgements about people and things we know absolutely nothing about is the basis for all conversation."
His parting gift to me was a plastic mineral water bottle filled with Absolut Citron vodka. He had bought it at duty-free but didn't want to give all of it to me because he claimed I had a budding alcoholism problem he didn't want to exacerbate. I was oddly touched. Have been using it to mix screwdrivers with those orange-flavoured Redoxon Vitamin C supplements that dissolve in water. He's heading off to London in a month to work in some PR or media job - he was obscure about the details - but I wished him all the best and joked that he should sponsor a working visa for me to get there. He grimaced and said, not entirely unfairly, "I don't think we should ever reside in the same country."
I spent all of Saturday sleeping - and got up at evening to the usual barrage of questioning from my parents as to where i'd been, what i did, did i drink a lot, etc etc. On one hand it's quite touching to know your parents still care(I guess I must be entering the nascent stage of that "someday you will appreciate what we've done for you..." refrain they've been singing all my life), while on the other hand the incessant nagging is somewhat galling. Still, given my complete inability to do most normal things adequately, such as my own laundry and walking in a straight line, I suppose I do still need a certain level of mild, familial coddling - and definitely I appreciate the fact that much of my lifestyle is subsidised as long as I live under my paterfamilia's roof. But hopefully a measure of greater financial independence that comes with a rising salary(a shame my boss isn't reading this) and a slightly more developed sense of direction will pave the way for leaving the nest.
Since Gabriel has spent so much space on Singapore's NDP, I should share this: there was an amusing parade on television last night. As some of you might know, Mahathir has announced his intention to retire and has even set a definitive date for his departure. Leaving aside speculation about whether they can actually pry the reins of power from his steroid-enhanced, liverspotted claws, there was a "spontaneous" roar of love and support for our beloved leader that manifested in a hastily organised parade in his behalf entitled, "One Nation, We Care." - sponsored, bizarrely, by the National Association of Malaysian Life Insurance and Financial Planning and other insurance companies. Is there a veiled message there?
I wonder how many resources they diverted away from the actual upcoming Hari Kebangsaan parade for this. It's probably being treated as a dress rehearsal of sorts. Nonetheless, it was quite a fine show of paegantry similar to those Communist propaganda galas, sans the overt display of military force �la tanks rolling past or mobile missile launchers with their display of phallic strength. The PM was seated regally on a carved wood throne waving beneficiently at the masses, while banners with the likes of "We Love Dr Mahathir" and "Dr. Mahathir: Father of The Nation's Modernisation" fluttered serenely amongst the crowd.
The parade skills of the military were remarkably good - particularly the navy. They performed quite a lot of elaborate routines involving choreographed movements, formations, tossing rifles around, and the like, with nary a dropped M-16 and almost no mistimings. However, the overall impression was that of armed cheerleaders, particularly due to the campiness of some of their pseudo-dance routines, and their sailor suits with naval smock and all. I was whistling the tune to the Village People's "In the Navy" all the while. The army in particular seemed more manly, but their goosestepping lacked the precision I expect after repeated viewings of Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will(very dramatic movie-isation of the 1934 Nazi Party Congress at Nuremberg).
All the soldiers were Malay, of course, which led to some disturbing worst-case political speculation in my mind.
The highlight came when 14 specially picked paratroopers jumped into the stadium, each bearing one of Malaysia's state and federal territory flags and the national flag. However, one of the unfortunate paratroopers got caught in an overhanging spar jutting out from the covering that protects stadium-goers from the weather. We could see him dangling in his harness, clearly trying not to wiggle too much and dislodge himself. The camera fixated on his struggles for a few seconds, and the commentators were mute with shock - then seconds later they proceeded to focus on the rest of the stadium, all the while pretending nothing had happened! They made absolutely no mention of the poor bastard throughout the rest of the show, and no mention was made of the ostentatiously missing state flag as the paratroopers who made it to the ground brandished theirs in unison.
However, camera pans through the audience for half an hour after clearly showed many heads gazing up from time to time at the entrapped parachutist in worry, including the dignitaries and the PM himself. Some enthusiastic audience members were even gesturing at the guy to the cameras, imploring for help. Mother shook her head and commented, "The broadcasters don't know how to handle a crisis." My guess was that they were simply afraid, Cultural Revolution-style, of broadcasting or highlighting anything that could be taken as implicit criticism of this outpouring of love and devotion to a departing leader who has steered our country so well for the last two decades. Propaganda exercises always amuse me.
Half an hour later, however, the gazes seemed to stop, so I infer that that was when they hauled him down. I doubt even Malaysian broadcasters would have omitted footage of a guy plummeting to his bloody death onto a crowd of spectators. Would they? There was absolutely no mention of this incident in the english and malay newspapers this morning.
For those who want to know, the unfortunate flag was Penang's. Is it an omen of things to come? My father said, "At least it wasn't the national flag."
Okay. Back to work.
Gabriel: How many Swedish-made penis enlarger pumps did you confiscate? Also, Athlon STOCK fans are noisy - that's why I suggested getting alternative cooling systems. And, finally, alt.sex.passwords was and is a very good way to get free passwords. They generally mail off to you within a few days, completely gratis, and they even have an irc channel in AsylumNet where they take requests in real-time to crack passwords for commercial sex sites. Why do they bother? I have no idea - but since a free service exists why not utilise it? Do a deja search on the threads there if you don't believe me.
DVDs are not going to take off for gaming for a while, I agree - but movies are where it's all at. For one thing, pirated DVDs are almost always clearer than VCDs - particularly if you don't mind waiting until they've had time to rip off a proper DVD build. And for another, it's only a matter of time before more games go DVD. Although the last time I played a major DVD PC game was Tex Murphy: Overseer, but that turned out to be a bit of a gaffe on their part as the extra DVD features - graphics, cutscenes, etc were virtually unnoticeable and useless.
Going into Nanyang Primary may have been bad, but do you really think Rosyth, Maris Stella, Henry Park, et. al. would have provided an appreciably less dysfunctional environment? It's the system man! Down with the system!
How did you get the Asianprince URLs in the end? Professional curiosity.
50 years is still very young for a country. Most European countries have been in existence for centuries, albeit in radically different forms. China has been around for a lot longer.
Andrew(sic): "asian student stupidity ??! My ocf friends hang out a lot at Boba pearl!" - thank you for proving my point. Get the Babylon 5 DVD for yourself - The Gathering and In The Beginning are the best tele-movies in the whole Babylon 5 spectrum (the others like Thirdspace and River of Souls are CGI-fests but ring oddly hollow compared to the tv series' episodes).
"Shoujo Kakumei Utena" translates very roughly into "Revolutionary Girl Utena". Before you go, I've only watched one episode, and "ritualistic high school action flick with lesbians" sums it up almost perfectly. Add transsexualism, swordfights, and floral motifs, and there you go. Classic anime:)
Hi-Chew sweets in green tea flavour were my favourite "keep-awake" during university.
My phone line is down, much chagrin and rage involved. Thankfully, two wrongs make a right - because on this beautiful Sunday morning, I am ensconced at my workplace updating blog entries, and doing all the stuff I should have been doing last week instead of frenetically blogging. The fact that I'm still writing this blog clearly shows I haven't learnt my lesson. That notwithstanding however, the utter silence and the chance to get away from home for a while is actually quite refreshing.
Friday night I was out for the first time in months - mostly driving around listening to some weird progressive-rock music, The Pixies, and Mansun. These CDs were "kindly provided" by a friend of mine who'd cruised down from Singapore for a weekend after some R&R on Tioman. I use the term "kindly provided" because, as my friend was flipping through the CDs in my car's CD collection, I could read the lines of pain forming on his face as he listened to what I had to offer. After several Chris Isaak and Belinda Carlisle tracks(this was part of my euphemistically named, "Retro" collection aka "Cheesy songs that defined my adolescence" aka "Stuff that 95FM plays because it was what 98.7FM was belting out in my adolescence." aka "Stuff that will hit 90.5FM in a few years' time"), he said, "I can see why you have bipolar mood disorder.". Finally, when we hit my Roxette collection, he intoned, "Any lingering respect I have had for you has just passed through my anus and is now soaking into your car seat." He flatly refused to go through my classical and anime track compilations.
Okay, so my musical collection revolves around sappy retro rock ballads, mainstream-alternative(Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, et. al), Top 40s stuff, classic rock, mainstream gangsta rap and golden oldies. So? Were you expecting Slipknot, Rammstein, Rage Against the Machine, or even, god forbid, Tori Amos just because I read Poppy Z. Brite?
Generally, I don't get many visitors even from my uni mates - much less visitors from my distant high school life - so it was quite a treat to play tour guide, show off our nightlife, make acerbic comparisons between Singaporean and Malaysian culture, and have some really good Japanese food. My friend noted that the slut motif still seemed the order of the night as far as female clubbing/pubbing crowds here were concerned - even if the general choice of apparel differed from Singapore (for instance; we had more camisoles here at night. To which I had to ask, "What the hell is a camisole?").
Dinner was at Ki San Kichi; excellent fare at a reasonable price. It's also the only (affordable) place I know that serves Yebisu beer retail, and their unagi is superb. As we were eating, we were approached by a woman who was flogging charitable contributions from the (sic): "True Love Family Charity Foundation". As she began to unload her spiel, my friend replied, "But we have no love." The poor woman, clearly unused to any reaction that wasn't grudging acceptance or brusque rejection, seemed rather taken aback, and tried to ignore this remark and go on touting the therapeutic values of her 10RM Korean ginseng tea pack.
I then asked, "If this is for families in need of material and/or emotional charity, how come I don't get any of it? I'm probably more in need of both than most of the people on your list." She laughed nervously and tried to relate how the proceeds would go towards educating needy children from broken families - to which my friend interjected, "That's us! That's us! I failed my As!". To which I added: "I have a dysfunctional family situation as well."
It went on in that vein for a while, and I finally said, "Look, altruism is not our thing" - (I don't think she knew what altruism was) - "Why don't you just tell me how much you need, instead of me giving money I don't want to, for shit I don't need, to help people I don't care about." I have to admire her patience and restraint - all that Buddhist meditation must have helped build her tolerance to the vagaries of Mara; a quality similar to some of the more irritating door-knocking evangelists we get around Christmas - for at this point she simply said, "Why don't you make a token donation then?"
I pulled out twenty dollars and handed it over, and said, "I hope they(the needy) learn more from this than we have." She took the money and tried to foist off the ginseng packs on me, to which my friend said, "You got money for nothing and he doesn't want the tea - I suggest you siam while the siam-ing's good." As she left, she had a final parting shot, which went along the lines of, "Family is very important and I hope you learn how to develop good hearts and inner peace." - but at this point I had shut her out to finish up my miso soup.
Now I know it's not very nice by contemporary standards to go about abusing charity workers, but the fact of the matter is, immorality is only an issue if you aren't already in Hell. I might add in my defense that I *did* fork out some charitable gelt in the end, although that was more as payment for entertainment rather than any genuine desire to aid the needy. Still, in a utilitarian sense, everyone's happy - me and my friend were entertained, the charity worker got a decent pay-off for the needy, and I didn't have to humiliate her further by ostenatiously discarding the ginseng tea packs into a nearby drain. So all's good under God's heaven.
After dinner, we proceeded to the aforementioned night drive. KL, being far more spread out, offered us a lot of drives through diverse areas: squatter colonies; verdant secondary rain-forest; dingy suburbs in addition to the glittering cityscapes and the happening pub areas. We drove for about 2 hours, stopped at a quiet bar for margaritas, drove for another 2 hours, stopped at another quiet bar for Hoegaarden light beer, drove for yet another 3 hours, and finally adjourned at a mamak stall for supper. This haj was punctuated by a lot of good conversational catching up as I hadn't seen this guy for almost two years, constant stops for smoke breaks at roadsides, housing estates, or mosques, and a torrent of nihilistic verbal abuse at society, culture, government, politics, Malaysians, Singaporeans, Indonesians, Koreans, Hongkies, Taiwanese, Australians, British, working life, poverty, rich bastards, poor assholes, clubbing lians, clubbing bengs, nerds, scholars, toilet cleaners, writers, poets, the gifted, the retarded, businessmen, family, dogs, sluts, himbos, angsty webpages, happy webpages, ICQ, irc, education, schools, the weather, Shakespeare, commercialised mainstream music, wannabe alternative music, racial slurs, racial harmony, self-help books, financial planning, and losers with no lives who drive around in cars whining (roughly in that order; there's some limited scansion in the way we moved from topic to topic).
As he put it, "Making snap judgements about people and things we know absolutely nothing about is the basis for all conversation."
His parting gift to me was a plastic mineral water bottle filled with Absolut Citron vodka. He had bought it at duty-free but didn't want to give all of it to me because he claimed I had a budding alcoholism problem he didn't want to exacerbate. I was oddly touched. Have been using it to mix screwdrivers with those orange-flavoured Redoxon Vitamin C supplements that dissolve in water. He's heading off to London in a month to work in some PR or media job - he was obscure about the details - but I wished him all the best and joked that he should sponsor a working visa for me to get there. He grimaced and said, not entirely unfairly, "I don't think we should ever reside in the same country."
I spent all of Saturday sleeping - and got up at evening to the usual barrage of questioning from my parents as to where i'd been, what i did, did i drink a lot, etc etc. On one hand it's quite touching to know your parents still care(I guess I must be entering the nascent stage of that "someday you will appreciate what we've done for you..." refrain they've been singing all my life), while on the other hand the incessant nagging is somewhat galling. Still, given my complete inability to do most normal things adequately, such as my own laundry and walking in a straight line, I suppose I do still need a certain level of mild, familial coddling - and definitely I appreciate the fact that much of my lifestyle is subsidised as long as I live under my paterfamilia's roof. But hopefully a measure of greater financial independence that comes with a rising salary(a shame my boss isn't reading this) and a slightly more developed sense of direction will pave the way for leaving the nest.
Since Gabriel has spent so much space on Singapore's NDP, I should share this: there was an amusing parade on television last night. As some of you might know, Mahathir has announced his intention to retire and has even set a definitive date for his departure. Leaving aside speculation about whether they can actually pry the reins of power from his steroid-enhanced, liverspotted claws, there was a "spontaneous" roar of love and support for our beloved leader that manifested in a hastily organised parade in his behalf entitled, "One Nation, We Care." - sponsored, bizarrely, by the National Association of Malaysian Life Insurance and Financial Planning and other insurance companies. Is there a veiled message there?
I wonder how many resources they diverted away from the actual upcoming Hari Kebangsaan parade for this. It's probably being treated as a dress rehearsal of sorts. Nonetheless, it was quite a fine show of paegantry similar to those Communist propaganda galas, sans the overt display of military force �la tanks rolling past or mobile missile launchers with their display of phallic strength. The PM was seated regally on a carved wood throne waving beneficiently at the masses, while banners with the likes of "We Love Dr Mahathir" and "Dr. Mahathir: Father of The Nation's Modernisation" fluttered serenely amongst the crowd.
The parade skills of the military were remarkably good - particularly the navy. They performed quite a lot of elaborate routines involving choreographed movements, formations, tossing rifles around, and the like, with nary a dropped M-16 and almost no mistimings. However, the overall impression was that of armed cheerleaders, particularly due to the campiness of some of their pseudo-dance routines, and their sailor suits with naval smock and all. I was whistling the tune to the Village People's "In the Navy" all the while. The army in particular seemed more manly, but their goosestepping lacked the precision I expect after repeated viewings of Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will(very dramatic movie-isation of the 1934 Nazi Party Congress at Nuremberg).
All the soldiers were Malay, of course, which led to some disturbing worst-case political speculation in my mind.
The highlight came when 14 specially picked paratroopers jumped into the stadium, each bearing one of Malaysia's state and federal territory flags and the national flag. However, one of the unfortunate paratroopers got caught in an overhanging spar jutting out from the covering that protects stadium-goers from the weather. We could see him dangling in his harness, clearly trying not to wiggle too much and dislodge himself. The camera fixated on his struggles for a few seconds, and the commentators were mute with shock - then seconds later they proceeded to focus on the rest of the stadium, all the while pretending nothing had happened! They made absolutely no mention of the poor bastard throughout the rest of the show, and no mention was made of the ostentatiously missing state flag as the paratroopers who made it to the ground brandished theirs in unison.
However, camera pans through the audience for half an hour after clearly showed many heads gazing up from time to time at the entrapped parachutist in worry, including the dignitaries and the PM himself. Some enthusiastic audience members were even gesturing at the guy to the cameras, imploring for help. Mother shook her head and commented, "The broadcasters don't know how to handle a crisis." My guess was that they were simply afraid, Cultural Revolution-style, of broadcasting or highlighting anything that could be taken as implicit criticism of this outpouring of love and devotion to a departing leader who has steered our country so well for the last two decades. Propaganda exercises always amuse me.
Half an hour later, however, the gazes seemed to stop, so I infer that that was when they hauled him down. I doubt even Malaysian broadcasters would have omitted footage of a guy plummeting to his bloody death onto a crowd of spectators. Would they? There was absolutely no mention of this incident in the english and malay newspapers this morning.
For those who want to know, the unfortunate flag was Penang's. Is it an omen of things to come? My father said, "At least it wasn't the national flag."
Okay. Back to work.
Post ID: 79502361
On Saturday, I was a marshal for the first time. Mainly, this involved lots of standing, until my feet hurt (I should get Ex-prolonged standing) and some moving of heavy barricades.
Specifically, I was a gatekeeper of socks, checking people's bags for guns, grenades, condoms, deodourant, Swedish-made penis enlarger pumps, sanitary napkins, food and beverages (confiscating them so they'd have to buy the overpriced food from the kiosk at the top of the stadium).
We assembled at 9am, and fell out at 10pm. During that period of time, my reading materials were in my bag which was in some room. So as you can imagine, I was bored out of my mind.
The control room's idea of entertainment was setting Stefanie Sun Yanzi's rendition of "We Will Get There" on "loop" mode. For extended periods of time. Many times. If I hear that song again, the skin on the nape of my neck is going to start twitching violently, and I am going to start burning some flags.
In between piping the song, together with countless subliminal messages, they played a documentary on NDP 2002. I happened to hear, from my post, the interview with Jo'an Ow twice and she does seem just a touch ditzy - she was more excited about her hot hair balloon than any J1 girl has the right to be.
While we were moving things, one guy came to talk to Seetoh and me. Turns out he was from Obese BMT, and they wrongly posted him as a Scout. His PC said he'd be trained up, but after 2-3 months of daily 5km runs, his arches collapsed, and he's now a clerk.
Some Warrant Officers were using their measuring sticks as walking sticks and to pick things up from the drain. What a great honour they pay to the badge of their office.
There was a group of Red Cross girls who kept going to the toiler, so I was wondering whether they were incontinent, until Andrew pointed out that people go to toilet to allay boredom, and I remembered entry 41 in How Girls Waste Time:
41. Queuing for the toilet / Forever freshening up (often together with other girls in toilet outings, waiting for everyone to be done before leaving and doing dumb things like splashing water and mashing toilet paper to throw on the ceilings)
The CHIJ kiddies were wearing shirts and blouses over their disgusting dresses (all of which were at mid-thigh at the lowest), which meant it was more bearable to gaze upon them. However, I do hope they are wearing something underneath their costume - I was walking beside a staircase down which CHIJ girls were running, and I was afraid to look anywhere above my nose. But I think they've nothing to worry about - most people'd not want to look at most of them anyway.
The Navy Guard of Honour has quite a few females in it, all of whom seem to have long hair. The Police GOH, on the other hand, has some number of females but they are almost all malay and all have short hair. However, the Army and Air Force have no women in their Guard of Honour contingents.
The unisex toilet near my area had one of those cute dustbins in it, the ones to get rid of bloodstained material. It said, "For Disposal Of Sanitary Napkins Only". Which made me wonder about tampons - surely they're not flushed down the toilet bowl to clog the sewage system?
While other people carry M16s or SAR21s, the SCDF marching contingent gets to carry... water guns (Yes, I went to check with them). Well done.
Apparently there are reservists taking part in the parade - I saw some wizened, pitted faces, and some people with copious amounts of white hair, as well as some with the velcro nametags on their No 4s.
Sometime after lunch, Seetoh got to go to Khatib camp to do RT cover for reservists, and he probably reached home much earlier than us.
Looking for some variety, after lunch I went to visit one of the food kiosks in the Indoor Stadium. A hotdog and a 500ml bottle of Coke set me back by a hefty sum of $4.50! The hotdog had some slices of processed milk products (sliced cheap 'cheddar' cheese), which made it taste terrible, but at least the sausage was of higher quality than the normal ultra-cheap low quality chicken sausages.
After I'd brought my hotdog down to my area, 2 sniffer dogs were brought in by their handlers, who played with them from time to time. I swear one was eyeing my hotdog! The other, and English Spaniel, pawed my right leg and licked my wrist, and I petted its head. Yeh!
One of the fringe benefits of being at the Indoor Stadium: The Milo Van! It was as popular today as it always is at RI's Cross-Countries, and as usual people were filling their water bottles merrily despite a sign asking them not to.
Someone gave me some Hi-Chew sweets - essentially they're wads of chewing gum hat dissolve. So you get to pretend you're chewing real chewing gum, as the texture is exactly the same. I wonder how well Hi-Chew sells, exploiting the suppressed urges of Singaporeans.
I was at my post at the "Premier Entrance" on the ground floor of the Indoor Stadium when I was slapped on the back by my BMT sectionmate Joshua, who's marching for the Signallers for NDP. Too bad he had to run off.
I saw one guy carrying a "Camelpaint" carton. Hehe.
The purpose of the black netting some of the girls, especially those in the Red Cross, put on to cover the part of their hair dangling at the back eludes me. As does a way to describe it lucidly. Have my descriptive skills really eroded that much?
I was checking the bag of a little girl, and her father said "rang4 uncle kan4". Sheesh, I feel old.
Around 5pm, people started coming to our gate with tickets for the parade. Apparently they thought it was to be held at the Indoor Stadium. Has it ever? Bah.
I don't know why people always get agitated whenever they see me take out my piece of paper to scribble down stuff. The 2 Indoor Stadium staff who were attached to us (rather, we were attached to them) yesterday kept mulling about what I was writing. Maybe people think I'm writing down their deepest secrets.
Andrew Tan tells me that "the western [Lindy Hop Ensemble] dancers keep screaming when it [glorified sparklers/mini-fireworks] goes off in front of them. every rehearsal. quite amusing. =)" Well both of us are affected by the pyrotechnics too - the heat and noise is rather intense. The two times I was nearby when they ignited, I didn't just blink - I jerked and recoiled, to the amusement of those around me.
I wonder why they always make brassards and armbands so tight - it's very hard to put them on and even then, they fall off very easily.
My lack of common sense continues to amaze me (or perhaps it shouldn't, after so long). When many participants were walking around, I ducked into a room to hide, and got chided by everyone. This brings to mind an incident on Wednesday, when we were languishing in the bunk after IPPT. Yiliang called up and asked what we were doing, and I said they were in the bunk playing Street Fighter. Alvin then commented that I had no "SA" - Situational Awareness. Hmm, I think that's one of the more lucid paragraphs in this post - the disadvantages of scribbling every mildly amusing thing down, and of blogging in the middle of the night.
As the Soka people were filing out of the Indoor Stadium to proceed to the National Stadium for the item, the "NKF" dancers (those dancing to the songs in each of the 4 national languages) were practicing their dance steps. Then as Vernon Cornelius crooned the chorus of "I Wanna Hold Your Hand", the Soka men started singing along boisterously!
My suspicions were confirmed - some of the "boys" in Temasek Secondary's item are actually girls.
I got the chance to try Lucozade. It's terrible. Ugh.
I must congratulate the organisers. The fireworks display was the best that I've ever seen. Needless to say, it was also probably the most expensive. It was like a warzone, with bombs and grenades exploding over our heads, as the ground trembled. Some of the fireworks had very long lasting bursts, so the air was seemingly filled with gold dust, which slowly disappeared, fading into the cool night air.
Back in the Indoor Stadium, the motivators were being told, "If you leave a mess, the poor army officers will have to clean up again". Officers? Yeah right.
I think the motivators have been braiwnashed too well - as they were leaving the stadium, they were clapping and dancing along, Vegas style with linked shoulders, to some song played over the PA system.
When we finally fell out, it was 10pm - and that's with no post-parade party. Sigh. At least I got some mangosteens, left by a Soka lady by the door since they couldn't bring food in, but which she hadn't collected.
SMSes:
"[On "Kyrie Eleison"] who's kyrie?" (A Tan)
"pass the stadium everyday on the way home, the ns men always look so hilariously dejected" (...)
"i don't think the rc girls are incontinent- it's more in the nature of some sophisticated social ritual mere males could never get =P" (!@#$%^&*())
The brand of that stupid pill with the irritating commercial with the man stroking his fake beard is Beiklin! Shame.
Yaoi Girl has asked me to watch "Shoujo Kakumei Utena". Apparently it is a "ritualistic high action school flick with lesbians" and will drive me nuts. Bah, my prowess is greater than she thinks.
But a synopsis I found here doesn't make any sense. There seem to be Yaoi elements in it, as well as "Shoujo" / "Yuri" themes (I've learnt a new word - the former, today)
Haha this is ridiculous.
OCS SONG
We come from many places,
All across the land,
Of many different races
Together hand in hand.
United we stand
Divided we fall;
Ready to serve our nation's call
Chorus:
We come from OCS,
We are the very best
Leading with dignity and pride
Wherever we go
We will always know
Our spirit lives forever more,
Loyalty to country,
That's what we all believe;
To Lead, Excel and Overcome,
Is what we must achieve.
Forever strong and valiant,
We'll give our lives and more;
Never ceasing to serve Singapore
Specifically, I was a gatekeeper of socks, checking people's bags for guns, grenades, condoms, deodourant, Swedish-made penis enlarger pumps, sanitary napkins, food and beverages (confiscating them so they'd have to buy the overpriced food from the kiosk at the top of the stadium).
We assembled at 9am, and fell out at 10pm. During that period of time, my reading materials were in my bag which was in some room. So as you can imagine, I was bored out of my mind.
The control room's idea of entertainment was setting Stefanie Sun Yanzi's rendition of "We Will Get There" on "loop" mode. For extended periods of time. Many times. If I hear that song again, the skin on the nape of my neck is going to start twitching violently, and I am going to start burning some flags.
In between piping the song, together with countless subliminal messages, they played a documentary on NDP 2002. I happened to hear, from my post, the interview with Jo'an Ow twice and she does seem just a touch ditzy - she was more excited about her hot hair balloon than any J1 girl has the right to be.
While we were moving things, one guy came to talk to Seetoh and me. Turns out he was from Obese BMT, and they wrongly posted him as a Scout. His PC said he'd be trained up, but after 2-3 months of daily 5km runs, his arches collapsed, and he's now a clerk.
Some Warrant Officers were using their measuring sticks as walking sticks and to pick things up from the drain. What a great honour they pay to the badge of their office.
There was a group of Red Cross girls who kept going to the toiler, so I was wondering whether they were incontinent, until Andrew pointed out that people go to toilet to allay boredom, and I remembered entry 41 in How Girls Waste Time:
41. Queuing for the toilet / Forever freshening up (often together with other girls in toilet outings, waiting for everyone to be done before leaving and doing dumb things like splashing water and mashing toilet paper to throw on the ceilings)
The CHIJ kiddies were wearing shirts and blouses over their disgusting dresses (all of which were at mid-thigh at the lowest), which meant it was more bearable to gaze upon them. However, I do hope they are wearing something underneath their costume - I was walking beside a staircase down which CHIJ girls were running, and I was afraid to look anywhere above my nose. But I think they've nothing to worry about - most people'd not want to look at most of them anyway.
The Navy Guard of Honour has quite a few females in it, all of whom seem to have long hair. The Police GOH, on the other hand, has some number of females but they are almost all malay and all have short hair. However, the Army and Air Force have no women in their Guard of Honour contingents.
The unisex toilet near my area had one of those cute dustbins in it, the ones to get rid of bloodstained material. It said, "For Disposal Of Sanitary Napkins Only". Which made me wonder about tampons - surely they're not flushed down the toilet bowl to clog the sewage system?
While other people carry M16s or SAR21s, the SCDF marching contingent gets to carry... water guns (Yes, I went to check with them). Well done.
Apparently there are reservists taking part in the parade - I saw some wizened, pitted faces, and some people with copious amounts of white hair, as well as some with the velcro nametags on their No 4s.
Sometime after lunch, Seetoh got to go to Khatib camp to do RT cover for reservists, and he probably reached home much earlier than us.
Looking for some variety, after lunch I went to visit one of the food kiosks in the Indoor Stadium. A hotdog and a 500ml bottle of Coke set me back by a hefty sum of $4.50! The hotdog had some slices of processed milk products (sliced cheap 'cheddar' cheese), which made it taste terrible, but at least the sausage was of higher quality than the normal ultra-cheap low quality chicken sausages.
After I'd brought my hotdog down to my area, 2 sniffer dogs were brought in by their handlers, who played with them from time to time. I swear one was eyeing my hotdog! The other, and English Spaniel, pawed my right leg and licked my wrist, and I petted its head. Yeh!
One of the fringe benefits of being at the Indoor Stadium: The Milo Van! It was as popular today as it always is at RI's Cross-Countries, and as usual people were filling their water bottles merrily despite a sign asking them not to.
Someone gave me some Hi-Chew sweets - essentially they're wads of chewing gum hat dissolve. So you get to pretend you're chewing real chewing gum, as the texture is exactly the same. I wonder how well Hi-Chew sells, exploiting the suppressed urges of Singaporeans.
I was at my post at the "Premier Entrance" on the ground floor of the Indoor Stadium when I was slapped on the back by my BMT sectionmate Joshua, who's marching for the Signallers for NDP. Too bad he had to run off.
I saw one guy carrying a "Camelpaint" carton. Hehe.
The purpose of the black netting some of the girls, especially those in the Red Cross, put on to cover the part of their hair dangling at the back eludes me. As does a way to describe it lucidly. Have my descriptive skills really eroded that much?
I was checking the bag of a little girl, and her father said "rang4 uncle kan4". Sheesh, I feel old.
Around 5pm, people started coming to our gate with tickets for the parade. Apparently they thought it was to be held at the Indoor Stadium. Has it ever? Bah.
I don't know why people always get agitated whenever they see me take out my piece of paper to scribble down stuff. The 2 Indoor Stadium staff who were attached to us (rather, we were attached to them) yesterday kept mulling about what I was writing. Maybe people think I'm writing down their deepest secrets.
Andrew Tan tells me that "the western [Lindy Hop Ensemble] dancers keep screaming when it [glorified sparklers/mini-fireworks] goes off in front of them. every rehearsal. quite amusing. =)" Well both of us are affected by the pyrotechnics too - the heat and noise is rather intense. The two times I was nearby when they ignited, I didn't just blink - I jerked and recoiled, to the amusement of those around me.
I wonder why they always make brassards and armbands so tight - it's very hard to put them on and even then, they fall off very easily.
My lack of common sense continues to amaze me (or perhaps it shouldn't, after so long). When many participants were walking around, I ducked into a room to hide, and got chided by everyone. This brings to mind an incident on Wednesday, when we were languishing in the bunk after IPPT. Yiliang called up and asked what we were doing, and I said they were in the bunk playing Street Fighter. Alvin then commented that I had no "SA" - Situational Awareness. Hmm, I think that's one of the more lucid paragraphs in this post - the disadvantages of scribbling every mildly amusing thing down, and of blogging in the middle of the night.
As the Soka people were filing out of the Indoor Stadium to proceed to the National Stadium for the item, the "NKF" dancers (those dancing to the songs in each of the 4 national languages) were practicing their dance steps. Then as Vernon Cornelius crooned the chorus of "I Wanna Hold Your Hand", the Soka men started singing along boisterously!
My suspicions were confirmed - some of the "boys" in Temasek Secondary's item are actually girls.
I got the chance to try Lucozade. It's terrible. Ugh.
I must congratulate the organisers. The fireworks display was the best that I've ever seen. Needless to say, it was also probably the most expensive. It was like a warzone, with bombs and grenades exploding over our heads, as the ground trembled. Some of the fireworks had very long lasting bursts, so the air was seemingly filled with gold dust, which slowly disappeared, fading into the cool night air.
Back in the Indoor Stadium, the motivators were being told, "If you leave a mess, the poor army officers will have to clean up again". Officers? Yeah right.
I think the motivators have been braiwnashed too well - as they were leaving the stadium, they were clapping and dancing along, Vegas style with linked shoulders, to some song played over the PA system.
When we finally fell out, it was 10pm - and that's with no post-parade party. Sigh. At least I got some mangosteens, left by a Soka lady by the door since they couldn't bring food in, but which she hadn't collected.
SMSes:
"[On "Kyrie Eleison"] who's kyrie?" (A Tan)
"pass the stadium everyday on the way home, the ns men always look so hilariously dejected" (...)
"i don't think the rc girls are incontinent- it's more in the nature of some sophisticated social ritual mere males could never get =P" (!@#$%^&*())
The brand of that stupid pill with the irritating commercial with the man stroking his fake beard is Beiklin! Shame.
Yaoi Girl has asked me to watch "Shoujo Kakumei Utena". Apparently it is a "ritualistic high action school flick with lesbians" and will drive me nuts. Bah, my prowess is greater than she thinks.
But a synopsis I found here doesn't make any sense. There seem to be Yaoi elements in it, as well as "Shoujo" / "Yuri" themes (I've learnt a new word - the former, today)
Haha this is ridiculous.
OCS SONG
We come from many places,
All across the land,
Of many different races
Together hand in hand.
United we stand
Divided we fall;
Ready to serve our nation's call
Chorus:
We come from OCS,
We are the very best
Leading with dignity and pride
Wherever we go
We will always know
Our spirit lives forever more,
Loyalty to country,
That's what we all believe;
To Lead, Excel and Overcome,
Is what we must achieve.
Forever strong and valiant,
We'll give our lives and more;
Never ceasing to serve Singapore
Post ID: 79495299
Saturday, July 27, 2002
Kit Chan mutilation
I remember these cards. Didn't think anyone'd be bored enough to scan in the mutilated cards though :)
I remember these cards. Didn't think anyone'd be bored enough to scan in the mutilated cards though :)
Post ID: 79475601
(after Semester 2 post-academic dinner smoko in ormond college)
I. am. not. drunk.
So what if i can't walk in a straight line
I. am. merely. erm.
I'm just erm Sleepy! Yeah, that's the ticket! (hic)
Oh, i saw a Babylon 5 DVD with the pilot episode "The gathering" and the spinoff movie featuring the earth-minbari war "In the beginning" on clearance sale in Sanity, a cd shop in town here. Anyone wants it? It's retailing for $20 a piece. Send me a msg or something.
I. am. not. drunk.
So what if i can't walk in a straight line
I. am. merely. erm.
I'm just erm Sleepy! Yeah, that's the ticket! (hic)
Oh, i saw a Babylon 5 DVD with the pilot episode "The gathering" and the spinoff movie featuring the earth-minbari war "In the beginning" on clearance sale in Sanity, a cd shop in town here. Anyone wants it? It's retailing for $20 a piece. Send me a msg or something.
Post ID: 79474091
Your search - +"*** ****" +"horse" - did not match any documents. [NB: Name has been edited out to protect the person's privacy]
Suggestions:
* Make sure all words are spelled correctly.
* Try different keywords.
* Try more general keywords.
* Try fewer keywords.
Also, you can try Google Answers for expert help with your search.
"he's the one who tore up a photo of joy chia .... at the rehearsal of musical concoction concert ... i think he didn't like her or something." - On Junbin.
Huh?
Ooo!
And she's listed under "Basses", where Yunxin would go too.
http://www.yale.edu/somethingextra/photos/2001photos/Tap%20Night%202001/babies00web.jpg
http://www.yale.edu/somethingextra/photos/2001photos/Tap%20Night%202001/babies%2700.jpg
http://www.yale.edu/somethingextra/photos/2001photos/retreatandrush/allofus.jpg
She doesn't look so * now. But of course there's nothing wrong with looking *. As Khairul told me, "You look like pig, sound like pig, eat like pig, behave like pig". Or something to that effect.
Please compare with this:
Andrew: whenever i'm sad i think of rabbits (live ones. Specifically live families of them gambolling in meadows). Then i'm happy again !
Me: *Tries to send him video of rabbit getting knocked down by car. But ICQ2GO won't accept my file*
"one consolation now is that our int'l history lecturer is far better than david liew. already i learnt far more from her in 45 mins regarding the vietnam war and copied far more notes than in 3 months at rjc. most of the teachers seem better. SEEM. at least they can teach."
http://web.singnet.com.sg/~chanmier/march2002.htm
Suggestions:
* Make sure all words are spelled correctly.
* Try different keywords.
* Try more general keywords.
* Try fewer keywords.
Also, you can try Google Answers for expert help with your search.
"he's the one who tore up a photo of joy chia .... at the rehearsal of musical concoction concert ... i think he didn't like her or something." - On Junbin.
Huh?
Ooo!
And she's listed under "Basses", where Yunxin would go too.
http://www.yale.edu/somethingextra/photos/2001photos/Tap%20Night%202001/babies00web.jpg
http://www.yale.edu/somethingextra/photos/2001photos/Tap%20Night%202001/babies%2700.jpg
http://www.yale.edu/somethingextra/photos/2001photos/retreatandrush/allofus.jpg
She doesn't look so * now. But of course there's nothing wrong with looking *. As Khairul told me, "You look like pig, sound like pig, eat like pig, behave like pig". Or something to that effect.
Please compare with this:
Andrew: whenever i'm sad i think of rabbits (live ones. Specifically live families of them gambolling in meadows). Then i'm happy again !
Me: *Tries to send him video of rabbit getting knocked down by car. But ICQ2GO won't accept my file*
"one consolation now is that our int'l history lecturer is far better than david liew. already i learnt far more from her in 45 mins regarding the vietnam war and copied far more notes than in 3 months at rjc. most of the teachers seem better. SEEM. at least they can teach."
http://web.singnet.com.sg/~chanmier/march2002.htm
Post ID: 79441334
Friday, July 26, 2002
Haha! I found out how to get the real URLs despite Asian Prince's ridiculous attempt to mask them.
http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~nnguyen/fan2.htm
This crosses the bounds of good taste.
As do the poems:
"Hair so bushy and flowy,
eyes so mushy and glowy,
you are so sexy and hot,
please be my tea while i am your teapot,
everytime i see your site,
i hope that you will marry, you might.
Will you marry me?"
"Oh asian prince Oh asian prince,
how sweet is your face......
your eyes are deep like a hole,
it's like i'm looking into your soul....
Oh asian prince Oh asian prince,
you are so lovely and cute......
your really nice and funny,
please pet me like a bunny.....
Oh asian prince Oh asian prince,
your body is hot and sexy......
i really am in love with you,
you turn me on,
oh yes you do.....
Oh asian prince Oh asian prince,
i want to be with you under your cover,
Oh please asian prince let me be your lover"
and
"your ass is a beautiful sight
your teeth are pearly white
you're so manly and strong
please write me a song
you one bad mother
come lay me, brother
then take me away your private jet"
I think I'll print Wo-Hen Nankan pics for my bunk!
http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~nnguyen/fan2.htm
This crosses the bounds of good taste.
As do the poems:
"Hair so bushy and flowy,
eyes so mushy and glowy,
you are so sexy and hot,
please be my tea while i am your teapot,
everytime i see your site,
i hope that you will marry, you might.
Will you marry me?"
"Oh asian prince Oh asian prince,
how sweet is your face......
your eyes are deep like a hole,
it's like i'm looking into your soul....
Oh asian prince Oh asian prince,
you are so lovely and cute......
your really nice and funny,
please pet me like a bunny.....
Oh asian prince Oh asian prince,
your body is hot and sexy......
i really am in love with you,
you turn me on,
oh yes you do.....
Oh asian prince Oh asian prince,
i want to be with you under your cover,
Oh please asian prince let me be your lover"
and
"your ass is a beautiful sight
your teeth are pearly white
you're so manly and strong
please write me a song
you one bad mother
come lay me, brother
then take me away your private jet"
I think I'll print Wo-Hen Nankan pics for my bunk!
Post ID: 79440269
Near-end week post:
Restored Post
My suspicions were confirmed! As I booked in, I saw people making Temasek's kites. Welcome to the SAF sweatshop.
This morning, we were mopping tarpaulin with soapy water and then folding it up, for use during the system run. Horrible experience, it was. The damned weight was the best part of it all. The stench was rather bad, like cow dung, and our hands got all dirty. Maybe I'll get ringworm, tapeworm or assorted other worm infestations, and get MCs. Right. Oh and my shoes, socks and feet got drenched by the dirty soapy water.
I was at Somchaya's store, to dry my shoes, socks and feet after doing sai kang, and I found out that he gets to exchange his preview tickets for Off days! So he now has 4 more. Unfair! I want also. Oh and his nametag cuts his surname into two - "Liemhetcharat" becomes "Liemhet", Most amusing!
I am confined on the 4th of August for being late for the Battalion Life Run. Turns out I read the Routine Orders wrongly - the assembly time was 7:30, not 7:45. Doh! Incidentally, this will be my first confinement/extra duty ever. You can't run away from this sort of things! At least this beats the last batch of new medics, who all signed one extra duty on the first day because they didn't greet our OC.
Thought: Do Pioneer writers have to write more articles when they sign extra duties? :)
5 Tonners have seat belts for the passengers. Argh. But we don't use them anyway, so.
We went down to the National Stadium today. We sat and performed various antics on, the newly repaired choir stage, the one that was partially burnt down. The purpose of our acting as guinea pigs is to assuage any doubts the choir members' parents might have about the stage's safety, even after it's been certified safe. Bah. More likely, weakened by 800 army boys sitting on it, the stage will collapse spectacularly on National Day!
After posing on the stage, we went down to the field and formed the outline of a heart (as the NDP participants do at one point in the parade, except they form a solid heart and not just an outline) by wearing giant red Mexican hats, which probably aren't washed or otherwise cleaned in between NDP rehearsals.
Apparently the NDP motivators were told that any Army boys asking them for their phone numbers, or pestering them otherwise, would sign 40 extra duties. But then, there's nothing attractive about them, as one of us put it :) Haha.
Looking at the Singapore flag, the thought struck me, as it has before, that our flag would have to change as our country became older. Since the Crescent Moon signifies a young nation, the moon will have to wax at least in our 50th year of nationhood! But then, how old must a nation be to be an old nation? I wonder what East Timor has on its flag - maybe a New Moon, signifying a VERY new nation.
On hearing of my confinement, my dear mother had to gloat about it. I don't know why she is so sadistic and likes to cackle when other people encounter misfortunes.
I think I've found the full version of the stupid "oei" cheer.
http://home.njc.edu.sg/student_council/cheers.htm
NJC OEI
(NJ oei!) oei!
(NJ oei!) oei!
(NJ oei!) Sat! Sat!
Substitute NJC with your desired school name :)
Restored Post
My suspicions were confirmed! As I booked in, I saw people making Temasek's kites. Welcome to the SAF sweatshop.
This morning, we were mopping tarpaulin with soapy water and then folding it up, for use during the system run. Horrible experience, it was. The damned weight was the best part of it all. The stench was rather bad, like cow dung, and our hands got all dirty. Maybe I'll get ringworm, tapeworm or assorted other worm infestations, and get MCs. Right. Oh and my shoes, socks and feet got drenched by the dirty soapy water.
I was at Somchaya's store, to dry my shoes, socks and feet after doing sai kang, and I found out that he gets to exchange his preview tickets for Off days! So he now has 4 more. Unfair! I want also. Oh and his nametag cuts his surname into two - "Liemhetcharat" becomes "Liemhet", Most amusing!
I am confined on the 4th of August for being late for the Battalion Life Run. Turns out I read the Routine Orders wrongly - the assembly time was 7:30, not 7:45. Doh! Incidentally, this will be my first confinement/extra duty ever. You can't run away from this sort of things! At least this beats the last batch of new medics, who all signed one extra duty on the first day because they didn't greet our OC.
Thought: Do Pioneer writers have to write more articles when they sign extra duties? :)
5 Tonners have seat belts for the passengers. Argh. But we don't use them anyway, so.
We went down to the National Stadium today. We sat and performed various antics on, the newly repaired choir stage, the one that was partially burnt down. The purpose of our acting as guinea pigs is to assuage any doubts the choir members' parents might have about the stage's safety, even after it's been certified safe. Bah. More likely, weakened by 800 army boys sitting on it, the stage will collapse spectacularly on National Day!
After posing on the stage, we went down to the field and formed the outline of a heart (as the NDP participants do at one point in the parade, except they form a solid heart and not just an outline) by wearing giant red Mexican hats, which probably aren't washed or otherwise cleaned in between NDP rehearsals.
Apparently the NDP motivators were told that any Army boys asking them for their phone numbers, or pestering them otherwise, would sign 40 extra duties. But then, there's nothing attractive about them, as one of us put it :) Haha.
Looking at the Singapore flag, the thought struck me, as it has before, that our flag would have to change as our country became older. Since the Crescent Moon signifies a young nation, the moon will have to wax at least in our 50th year of nationhood! But then, how old must a nation be to be an old nation? I wonder what East Timor has on its flag - maybe a New Moon, signifying a VERY new nation.
On hearing of my confinement, my dear mother had to gloat about it. I don't know why she is so sadistic and likes to cackle when other people encounter misfortunes.
I think I've found the full version of the stupid "oei" cheer.
http://home.njc.edu.sg/student_council/cheers.htm
NJC OEI
(NJ oei!) oei!
(NJ oei!) oei!
(NJ oei!) Sat! Sat!
Substitute NJC with your desired school name :)
Post ID: 79439033
I can't go for College Day/Rafflesian Recall because I've to be at the Indoor Stadium by 9AM. Boo hoo!
Google really doesn't like me. On a search for "phantasy star online patch", I'm 405. Of 405. I'm surprised the person so was desperate he searched all the way to #405.
I'm thinking of putting those descriptions of posters in the sidebar. At this point, it seems incredibly amusing, as we can come up with lines suitably parodying (or imitating, if you prefer) the fluffy, vague and irksome descriptions some people like to have for themselves.
On computer parts:
Athlons have noisy fans.
I like my optical mouse but wireless seems a touch expensive - and to little visible end
Sub-$900 is "ok" for an LCD? Mine was ~$600, bought late last year. $900 seems a tad expensive. If you've WinXP you can have Cleartype! Looks great on screenshots.
DVD: DVD has failed to take off in the PC arena. DVD-RAM and DVD-RW are new and upcoming (as far as I, ensconced in my camp, know), but generally DVDs are only used for watching movies.
My SBLive! cost me ~$50.
Yeah internal modems are evil and screw up your system. I want my expansion slots! Though I won't use em.
I think GeForce 4 is too much for Andrew. One generation less maybe?
Thanks to a certain guardstalker, all of you can enjoy PJ Girl's Cleo article!
It does read like one of those "I'm going to make a statement by writing an article" articles. Do I sense that the writer is trying to give herself advice, or draw parallels with her life? Or maybe I read too much into it, despite not being a lit student.
My mother is being bitchy again. Perhaps this is why I try to stay away when I'm at home.
"You are so mad on the computer, when you go to the U we will sell it, or you will get Henderson (name of a school that has poor results) grades"
I think it hasn't occured to her that one of the reasons I like the computer so much is that it gives me solace from her.
My parents were talking about how all the parents who cry when their children don't get a place in Nanyang Primary. If it counts for anything, the response from ex-pupils is unanimous (but for one lone soul) - Nanyang Primary sucks.
To that, my father said I'm ungrateful and my mother was going on about how parents spend hours on doing work for the school so their students can go in. This is supposed to be evidence of how good nanyang is. But did anyone ask the children? Nooooo.
They claim Nanyang educated me such that I could get into the GEP. However, I am of the opinion that it repressed me, perhaps contributing to my somewhat disturbed present mental state :)
Google really doesn't like me. On a search for "phantasy star online patch", I'm 405. Of 405. I'm surprised the person so was desperate he searched all the way to #405.
I'm thinking of putting those descriptions of posters in the sidebar. At this point, it seems incredibly amusing, as we can come up with lines suitably parodying (or imitating, if you prefer) the fluffy, vague and irksome descriptions some people like to have for themselves.
On computer parts:
Athlons have noisy fans.
I like my optical mouse but wireless seems a touch expensive - and to little visible end
Sub-$900 is "ok" for an LCD? Mine was ~$600, bought late last year. $900 seems a tad expensive. If you've WinXP you can have Cleartype! Looks great on screenshots.
DVD: DVD has failed to take off in the PC arena. DVD-RAM and DVD-RW are new and upcoming (as far as I, ensconced in my camp, know), but generally DVDs are only used for watching movies.
My SBLive! cost me ~$50.
Yeah internal modems are evil and screw up your system. I want my expansion slots! Though I won't use em.
I think GeForce 4 is too much for Andrew. One generation less maybe?
Thanks to a certain guardstalker, all of you can enjoy PJ Girl's Cleo article!
It does read like one of those "I'm going to make a statement by writing an article" articles. Do I sense that the writer is trying to give herself advice, or draw parallels with her life? Or maybe I read too much into it, despite not being a lit student.
My mother is being bitchy again. Perhaps this is why I try to stay away when I'm at home.
"You are so mad on the computer, when you go to the U we will sell it, or you will get Henderson (name of a school that has poor results) grades"
I think it hasn't occured to her that one of the reasons I like the computer so much is that it gives me solace from her.
My parents were talking about how all the parents who cry when their children don't get a place in Nanyang Primary. If it counts for anything, the response from ex-pupils is unanimous (but for one lone soul) - Nanyang Primary sucks.
To that, my father said I'm ungrateful and my mother was going on about how parents spend hours on doing work for the school so their students can go in. This is supposed to be evidence of how good nanyang is. But did anyone ask the children? Nooooo.
They claim Nanyang educated me such that I could get into the GEP. However, I am of the opinion that it repressed me, perhaps contributing to my somewhat disturbed present mental state :)
Post ID: 79435093
Oh well. Going in to work on Sunday. Due to the screw-up alluded to in previous post, certain server upgrades have been put on hold - as a result, certain tests have to be run on Sunday. Obviously, I volunteered to atone for my earlier transgression.
How depressing - although it DOES provide me with an opportunity to get some work done(I only need to be there for an hour or so). I shall be optimistic!
No charge for the advice, Andrew - now how about that phone?
Curious interlude: I decided, on the imploration of all the virtuous folks here - to call the phone's owner. Now here's the rub - I've tried calling him twice, and both times no one answered. I didn't write down the extension number each time, so I've been going to the toilet to check the notice each time.
Now, that notice on the toilet is gone. I left a message the second time telling his colleague I was calling about the handphone, but forgot to leave a number and name. So if I never contact him again, he may now be filled with the despair of knowing that his phone was close to being restored to his grasp....
The sadism deepens.
I'll try to drudge up the number over the next couple of days.. I hope. In the meantime, all you kind readers keep up the relentless moral assault on the vile hordes of evil.
How depressing - although it DOES provide me with an opportunity to get some work done(I only need to be there for an hour or so). I shall be optimistic!
No charge for the advice, Andrew - now how about that phone?
Curious interlude: I decided, on the imploration of all the virtuous folks here - to call the phone's owner. Now here's the rub - I've tried calling him twice, and both times no one answered. I didn't write down the extension number each time, so I've been going to the toilet to check the notice each time.
Now, that notice on the toilet is gone. I left a message the second time telling his colleague I was calling about the handphone, but forgot to leave a number and name. So if I never contact him again, he may now be filled with the despair of knowing that his phone was close to being restored to his grasp....
The sadism deepens.
I'll try to drudge up the number over the next couple of days.. I hope. In the meantime, all you kind readers keep up the relentless moral assault on the vile hordes of evil.
Post ID: 79431449
Word of the day: "hypoxia"
I think I've done a decent job of cleaning up most of my more embarrassing traces in the public domain, leaving only a couple of vague hints to pique public interest:) My university homepage is long gone, as is my connection to the Gavrilo Princip Society among other subversive materials. Unfortunately, newsgroups are another matter - but what the hell, the stuff I used to post under my own name there is stuff I don't mind people reading. Juvenile opinions are my stock in trade:)
Thanks to the plethora of free email services around, creating a pseudo-account for posting is terribly easy - I defy you to find all my posts to alt.sex.aluminum.baseball.
A testament to the power of interactive marketing and product placement.
Today was a more miserable day at work thus far - the projects are piling up, the office politics are hitting a Macchiavellian pitch, and I still spend far too much time surfing the web and blogging. A couple of screw-ups made a few days ago have snowballed exponentially into a major headache at present. Some of my work involves verifying and entering values and calculations into a server which generates a whole set of other calculations and values for use in day-to-day trading activity, monitoring and valuation.. and a few mistranscriptions two days ago by my careless self have now blossomed into a nightmare in which our bank's VAR(Value At Risk) went up about 14 times. As the alarm bells rang, I hunkered down for the inevitable hammering. The whole debacle required a system re-run for the last 48 hours to regenerate the correct data sets.
Basically, I have some work of significance to do - but as the new guy, most of those projects are being snowed under by the little everyday tasks that "new guys" are saddled with. As a result, the (reasonably intersting) work I was originally employed for is now taking a distant second to the far more banal sai kang routines heaped on me. Still, I will prevail - despite feeling like I've hit a mid-life crisis in my early twenties.
On top of it, there is a serious logomachy going on between departments, with a lot of my seniors caught in the crossfire; battles over turf, conflicting requirements, personality clashes, and people trying too hard to prove personal points. Thankfully, I'm far too junior to be enmeshed in this kind of corporate politicking - I simply go about my daily labours and go unnoticed for now.
Andrew - agh. That foul concoction known as bubble tea has finally infiltrated my favourite copy shop! Before I left, it was already making inroads into Australian society, or at least the Asian-student demographic. I hear that the shop near Hoyt's is owned by some enterprising students and they reportedly rake in about 10k profit a month. Goes to show that Asian-student stupidity has great market potential - remember that Neoprint shop next to Mind Games on Swanston?
As for computer parts; here are my opinions:
a) Pentium 4.... 2.0 gHz or higher. (Or should i get an athlon?) - Athlon. Definitely. It's cheaper, and they survive longer in temperate climes. Make sure you don't get a stock fan - buy a decent brand like Thermaltake. The swap meets should have them on sale.
b) optical mouse - Go for wireless!:) If you don't mind changing batteries.
c) LCD monitor. If the price is okay... like sub $900 i guess...? = Sub $900 is doable for a 15" - probably around low 800s. But frankly, I find LCD monitors a bit.. irritating to my eyes. It's highly subjective, but I personally prefer a cheaper, flat-screen CRT monitor. You'll have to peer into many monitors to ascertain what you're comfortable with. While CRTs may look less funky, they're easier on my eyes at least, and for the same price as a 15" LCD I can jack up to a 19" model equivalent.
d) CD-RW and 16x DVD drive(s). Separately? Separately, of course - how are you going to do on-the-fly CD-to-CD copies otherwise? Ripping an image onto HD takes time. I'd recommend a Lite-on CD-burner; they're the best value for money and they're good quality as well - particularly if you can't afford a Plextor like most normal humans or non-Indonesian students. Same goes for DVD-ROM
e) Printer, inkjet, sub $200... about $100. You could get a low-end Lexmark or Canon for $100, but I suggest forking out a little more and getting a decent Epson Stylus 480 or thereabouts. A decent printer is an investment you will not regret as a student.
f) Reasonable soundcard. About $100. These are dirt cheap. An SB Live! Value will be just fine.
g) 56k Modem. Internal or external? Either would do. With voice/data/fax. Sub ... 100. Internal modems are evil. Evil! They can mess up your system in all sorts of ways and they take up space you might want to use next time. Don't skimp - get a US Robotics 56k Fax/Data for about $150 or thereabouts. You won't regret it. Or better still, get broadband.. but I know how restrictive the connections at hostels are.
h) Ethernet card (hrm, i saw one selling for $30 at the computer shop in the union) For your usage level it doesn't really matter. Get a cheap 100BaseT card anywhere.
i) Video card (i know nuts about them, what is good?) + j) 3D card HAHAHAHAHA. Long gone are the days when you had to get an Orchid Righteous 3D card with that mondo thick pass-through cable to plug onto your S3 Trio OEM. Erm... as far as I can tell , your gaming needs are fairly simplistic, so go for a half-way decent GeForce 4 MX 440, They're about $220-$270AUD depending on which brand - shop around a little. Make sure you ask if they have OEM cards as they'll be cheaper - but it's not easy to find for new graphics cards. If thats a little too steep, downgrade to a GeForce 4 MX 400 for about $150 or so - Leadtek retails at that price, I believe.
USB ports and stuff, umm can't think of anything else. Hard drive? Keyboard? Speakers? HD space depends on your budget; as for keyboard get a decent Logitech one if you can afford it - it'll last - and speakers also depends onyour budget. Try to find the old Altec Lansing ACS45 sets - 4 satellite + subwoofer. It's quite decent value for money. Some of the older ones even still have wood subwoofers, which add greater resonance.
Go to this site for some comparison shopping.
And, finally, if you're not above second-hand stuff, check out this page. It also details when the monthly swap meets occur - that's where you can get some really good prices. They also sell a few odds and ends on occasion you might like to pick up - like antique 386 RAM:)
Lunch time.
I think I've done a decent job of cleaning up most of my more embarrassing traces in the public domain, leaving only a couple of vague hints to pique public interest:) My university homepage is long gone, as is my connection to the Gavrilo Princip Society among other subversive materials. Unfortunately, newsgroups are another matter - but what the hell, the stuff I used to post under my own name there is stuff I don't mind people reading. Juvenile opinions are my stock in trade:)
Thanks to the plethora of free email services around, creating a pseudo-account for posting is terribly easy - I defy you to find all my posts to alt.sex.aluminum.baseball.
A testament to the power of interactive marketing and product placement.
Today was a more miserable day at work thus far - the projects are piling up, the office politics are hitting a Macchiavellian pitch, and I still spend far too much time surfing the web and blogging. A couple of screw-ups made a few days ago have snowballed exponentially into a major headache at present. Some of my work involves verifying and entering values and calculations into a server which generates a whole set of other calculations and values for use in day-to-day trading activity, monitoring and valuation.. and a few mistranscriptions two days ago by my careless self have now blossomed into a nightmare in which our bank's VAR(Value At Risk) went up about 14 times. As the alarm bells rang, I hunkered down for the inevitable hammering. The whole debacle required a system re-run for the last 48 hours to regenerate the correct data sets.
Basically, I have some work of significance to do - but as the new guy, most of those projects are being snowed under by the little everyday tasks that "new guys" are saddled with. As a result, the (reasonably intersting) work I was originally employed for is now taking a distant second to the far more banal sai kang routines heaped on me. Still, I will prevail - despite feeling like I've hit a mid-life crisis in my early twenties.
On top of it, there is a serious logomachy going on between departments, with a lot of my seniors caught in the crossfire; battles over turf, conflicting requirements, personality clashes, and people trying too hard to prove personal points. Thankfully, I'm far too junior to be enmeshed in this kind of corporate politicking - I simply go about my daily labours and go unnoticed for now.
Andrew - agh. That foul concoction known as bubble tea has finally infiltrated my favourite copy shop! Before I left, it was already making inroads into Australian society, or at least the Asian-student demographic. I hear that the shop near Hoyt's is owned by some enterprising students and they reportedly rake in about 10k profit a month. Goes to show that Asian-student stupidity has great market potential - remember that Neoprint shop next to Mind Games on Swanston?
As for computer parts; here are my opinions:
a) Pentium 4.... 2.0 gHz or higher. (Or should i get an athlon?) - Athlon. Definitely. It's cheaper, and they survive longer in temperate climes. Make sure you don't get a stock fan - buy a decent brand like Thermaltake. The swap meets should have them on sale.
b) optical mouse - Go for wireless!:) If you don't mind changing batteries.
c) LCD monitor. If the price is okay... like sub $900 i guess...? = Sub $900 is doable for a 15" - probably around low 800s. But frankly, I find LCD monitors a bit.. irritating to my eyes. It's highly subjective, but I personally prefer a cheaper, flat-screen CRT monitor. You'll have to peer into many monitors to ascertain what you're comfortable with. While CRTs may look less funky, they're easier on my eyes at least, and for the same price as a 15" LCD I can jack up to a 19" model equivalent.
d) CD-RW and 16x DVD drive(s). Separately? Separately, of course - how are you going to do on-the-fly CD-to-CD copies otherwise? Ripping an image onto HD takes time. I'd recommend a Lite-on CD-burner; they're the best value for money and they're good quality as well - particularly if you can't afford a Plextor like most normal humans or non-Indonesian students. Same goes for DVD-ROM
e) Printer, inkjet, sub $200... about $100. You could get a low-end Lexmark or Canon for $100, but I suggest forking out a little more and getting a decent Epson Stylus 480 or thereabouts. A decent printer is an investment you will not regret as a student.
f) Reasonable soundcard. About $100. These are dirt cheap. An SB Live! Value will be just fine.
g) 56k Modem. Internal or external? Either would do. With voice/data/fax. Sub ... 100. Internal modems are evil. Evil! They can mess up your system in all sorts of ways and they take up space you might want to use next time. Don't skimp - get a US Robotics 56k Fax/Data for about $150 or thereabouts. You won't regret it. Or better still, get broadband.. but I know how restrictive the connections at hostels are.
h) Ethernet card (hrm, i saw one selling for $30 at the computer shop in the union) For your usage level it doesn't really matter. Get a cheap 100BaseT card anywhere.
i) Video card (i know nuts about them, what is good?) + j) 3D card HAHAHAHAHA. Long gone are the days when you had to get an Orchid Righteous 3D card with that mondo thick pass-through cable to plug onto your S3 Trio OEM. Erm... as far as I can tell , your gaming needs are fairly simplistic, so go for a half-way decent GeForce 4 MX 440, They're about $220-$270AUD depending on which brand - shop around a little. Make sure you ask if they have OEM cards as they'll be cheaper - but it's not easy to find for new graphics cards. If thats a little too steep, downgrade to a GeForce 4 MX 400 for about $150 or so - Leadtek retails at that price, I believe.
USB ports and stuff, umm can't think of anything else. Hard drive? Keyboard? Speakers? HD space depends on your budget; as for keyboard get a decent Logitech one if you can afford it - it'll last - and speakers also depends onyour budget. Try to find the old Altec Lansing ACS45 sets - 4 satellite + subwoofer. It's quite decent value for money. Some of the older ones even still have wood subwoofers, which add greater resonance.
Go to this site for some comparison shopping.
And, finally, if you're not above second-hand stuff, check out this page. It also details when the monthly swap meets occur - that's where you can get some really good prices. They also sell a few odds and ends on occasion you might like to pick up - like antique 386 RAM:)
Lunch time.
Post ID: 79424934
I'm irritated. Clicking on one of Gabriel's damn links has totally erased the post I was writing. Fudgecakes.
Why would anyone want to convert a BAT to COM? I mean, who uses BAT files anymore? The only one I have left is a little thingamajig I whipped up a few years back to organise my mp3s, and nowadays there are heaps of freeware utilities that can carry out this function more effectively. But then again, I suppose as a genuflection to the technogeek aesthetic, we should be promoting such technical trivia....
For reasons too complicated to explain, I was scouring the web today for pics of straitjackets(specifically a Kansas gallows vest), or of medical orderlies in mental hospitals. It was surprisingly difficult to find one that was non-pornographic - I cannot begin to describe some of the degeneracy I had to wade through. This only goes to prove the Internet's power as a force for creating communities; even for freaks and perverts with the most outre of tastes. As a friend of mine once said: "These days you can not only find people who share your taste in sex with goats, but people who like the same *colour* of goat." Here's one of the more disturbing ones - disturbing precisely because it isn't so overtly depraved, but has more sinister overtones.
Well, I assure you most of the money raised in Islamic banking (at least in Malaysia) goes into very secular pockets:) But yes, there ARE a lot of rich Islamic merchants around using their money to fund terrorist activity. Sad, but true.
You know and I know money-lending isn't getting something for nothing - but we're approaching it from a modern, Econs-educated sensibility. As you pointed out, no one in the Dark Ages understood Economics. To them, it was witchcraft: money being used to generate more money without any form of concrete investment. To be frank, it does sometimes seem like witchcraft to me today:) You do know that in our society, after you make your first million, it's generally easier to make more millions. This was probably more true in the Middle Ages - the Black Death and internecine warfare notwithstanding
I was going to describe today's goings-on, but it was eliminated by Gabriel's evil link. Damn him. So I'll have to give the short version: went for a mid-afternoon karaoke session with some of my colleagues. Shall not depersonalise them but instead address them by name: Saravanan (aka Sara), Reza, Simon, and an ex-colleague, Ian, who was my predecessor at the department I work in. Now, this karaoke bar we went to is called the Red Box - it's this surreally techno-congested place with lots of perspex, blinking lights, transparent walls around a central area which contains the LD banks, their network server, as well as the automatic feeder arms, and a generally technosleazy motif. It reminds me oddly of the Cheap Hotel in William Gibson's Neuromancer - all the karaoke rooms are extremely small, yet comfortable coffins equipped with fake-leather seats, a 29" television set and a control panel for song selection. Nothing does the job of relieving a week of stress like belting out Queen's "We are the Champions" at 1:30 in the afternoon while still in afternoon garb. I think we were the loudest group there - when going to the toilet I could hear Simon screaming the lyrics to Bon Jovi's "You Give Love a Bad Name". It's remarkably cheap too - 10RM per person for the room plus a meal, soup and soft drinks. However, the karaoke captions had more spelling mistakes than in the whole of Gabriel's "Improve Your English" section. I kid you not.
Beep. Neverwinter Night calls. And I *still* didn't get any work done today.
(note: I've just realised that I can't post from home again. And this is despite going into safe mode. So I guess from now on all posts, even late night ones, will have to be done from work the following morning. Nevermind; Internet access is my inalienable right as a constructive member of the workforce)
Why would anyone want to convert a BAT to COM? I mean, who uses BAT files anymore? The only one I have left is a little thingamajig I whipped up a few years back to organise my mp3s, and nowadays there are heaps of freeware utilities that can carry out this function more effectively. But then again, I suppose as a genuflection to the technogeek aesthetic, we should be promoting such technical trivia....
For reasons too complicated to explain, I was scouring the web today for pics of straitjackets(specifically a Kansas gallows vest), or of medical orderlies in mental hospitals. It was surprisingly difficult to find one that was non-pornographic - I cannot begin to describe some of the degeneracy I had to wade through. This only goes to prove the Internet's power as a force for creating communities; even for freaks and perverts with the most outre of tastes. As a friend of mine once said: "These days you can not only find people who share your taste in sex with goats, but people who like the same *colour* of goat." Here's one of the more disturbing ones - disturbing precisely because it isn't so overtly depraved, but has more sinister overtones.
Well, I assure you most of the money raised in Islamic banking (at least in Malaysia) goes into very secular pockets:) But yes, there ARE a lot of rich Islamic merchants around using their money to fund terrorist activity. Sad, but true.
You know and I know money-lending isn't getting something for nothing - but we're approaching it from a modern, Econs-educated sensibility. As you pointed out, no one in the Dark Ages understood Economics. To them, it was witchcraft: money being used to generate more money without any form of concrete investment. To be frank, it does sometimes seem like witchcraft to me today:) You do know that in our society, after you make your first million, it's generally easier to make more millions. This was probably more true in the Middle Ages - the Black Death and internecine warfare notwithstanding
I was going to describe today's goings-on, but it was eliminated by Gabriel's evil link. Damn him. So I'll have to give the short version: went for a mid-afternoon karaoke session with some of my colleagues. Shall not depersonalise them but instead address them by name: Saravanan (aka Sara), Reza, Simon, and an ex-colleague, Ian, who was my predecessor at the department I work in. Now, this karaoke bar we went to is called the Red Box - it's this surreally techno-congested place with lots of perspex, blinking lights, transparent walls around a central area which contains the LD banks, their network server, as well as the automatic feeder arms, and a generally technosleazy motif. It reminds me oddly of the Cheap Hotel in William Gibson's Neuromancer - all the karaoke rooms are extremely small, yet comfortable coffins equipped with fake-leather seats, a 29" television set and a control panel for song selection. Nothing does the job of relieving a week of stress like belting out Queen's "We are the Champions" at 1:30 in the afternoon while still in afternoon garb. I think we were the loudest group there - when going to the toilet I could hear Simon screaming the lyrics to Bon Jovi's "You Give Love a Bad Name". It's remarkably cheap too - 10RM per person for the room plus a meal, soup and soft drinks. However, the karaoke captions had more spelling mistakes than in the whole of Gabriel's "Improve Your English" section. I kid you not.
Beep. Neverwinter Night calls. And I *still* didn't get any work done today.
(note: I've just realised that I can't post from home again. And this is despite going into safe mode. So I guess from now on all posts, even late night ones, will have to be done from work the following morning. Nevermind; Internet access is my inalienable right as a constructive member of the workforce)
Post ID: 79416894
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