"Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot. By Order of the Author" - Mark Twain

How refreshing to find someone else who hated close reading and literature (ahem).

Random Playlist Song: Sweelinck - Cantante Domino (The Concordia Choir)

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To pre-empt possible complaints from Johnny Malkavian, among others, I am splitting this blog post into two - the quotes are separated from the rest of the post.

You may view the quotes here.

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I don't qualify for the following, but maybe some others do:

Earn $150 (awarded immediately) by taking part in a 2 hour focus group on Technology.

Date: Thurs, 14 April '05
Time: 5:30pm or 7:30pm
Duration: Approximately two hours.
Light meals will be provided.

Criteria for respondents:

- Working full time
- Technology or Business decision maker
- Singapore Citizen/Permanent Resident
- Proficient in English and articulate

Signup for YourSay here, and then answer a pre-selection questionnaire.

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I have been relentless pestered by Bigwig to give my views on a forum I went to about the future of the opposition in Singapore. Most of the material I took from that session was quotes, though (see below).

The forum was not as well attended as the Kent Ridge Ministerial Forum (KRMF) earlier in the year, with maybe a hundred students present. Yet, both the content of the talk and the quality of questions and answers during the Q&A session were more interesting and novel, since the viewpoint we got at the KRMF also comes down to us through the mass media, Propaganda lessons, visits to the Singapore Propaganda Centre and such.

There was a disproportionate number of foreigners and males, and though many questions were asked during the Q&A session, only one was asked by a female, thus giving credence to He Who Must Not Be Named's quip that 'women don't start revolutions', and casting doubt on policies meant to artifically boost the number of female democratic representitives - if most of them are not interested, why force it?


The perils of asking questions at fora (since it is polite to identify yourself before asking them): after the forum, at the reception (students finally got to eat for once, yay), I got approached and greeted by 2 readers within 10 minutes.

One said I am often cryptic, but I don't think so, since I rarely allude to private stuff, or indeed mention it in the first place.


Miss NUS on the former incident: Price of fame. At least it's not crazy sacsal wanting to rip off your clothes (yet)

Me: Haha I dont (really) mind that

Miss NUS: I've been told that when desperate, guys will take whatever girl they can. No looks, see figure. No figure, can sleep with can already.

Me: So you still stand a chance lah.

Me later: so you agree? If so how come you haven't been laid yet haha

Ooh, touche (if I do say so myself).

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From Hedwig and the Angry Inch:

Hansel: Jesus died for our sins.

Mother: So did Hitler.

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Feedback given by slaves on Indoctrination Tours:

After visiting Changi War Museum, a prisoner of war camp in WWII:,

Question: What did you learn from this visit?
Comment: The sufferring, pain and agony that will happen to us if we refuse to defend our nation.

Interpretation 1 - We may be invaded again, and might be forced to go through suffering and pain as a POW.
Interpretation 2 - By refusing to serve NS, we will be dumped into prison, where we will suffer like POWs.

On the Japanese Occupation and the current situation,
Question: What have you learnt from this visit?
Answer: That commanders should not be idiots.

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Benjy doubted the existence of Asian Prince, so I was trying to dig up documented proof of his existence for him. The best I found was a Google Images thumbnail of a poster of some Vietnamese singers (the original got moved, unfortunately). In the top right one may see the familiar smiling visage of Wo-hen Nankan!

I am trying to look for the MIDI file and/or score of: Haydn - Cello Concerto No 2 in D, Op 101, Hob VIIb-2 - Mvt 1 - Allegro moderato. Unfortunately, I have been unable to do so - the closest I can find is a piano transcription in the NUS library (the National Library has nothing). And the galling thing is that MIDIs of the Cello Concerto No 1 in C are readily available.

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Terri Schiavo's Blog - "mmmmmnegh. nggnugh"
Ahh, dark, dry humour.

Mandatory military service turns boys into fighting men - "The physical training is still tough -- obese boys usually leave National Service as buff young men"
Agence France Presse publishes something that would not be out of place in the Straits Tines. And they must be kidding about the 'buff young men' bit.

Spay Your Catgirl Poster - "You too can make the world a better place by cutting down on the rampant overpopulation of catgirls. These poor creatures have been increasing in number so rapidly, it's difficult to walk through a convention without tripping over a few. They lurk in the corridors, shrieking out phrases in poor Japanese and assaulting passers-by for manga money. Please, won't you think of the convention-goers? Be responsible. Spay your catgirl today."

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I checked the statistics for the webcast lecture where the guy propositioned the girl. I heard there were about 1500 viewings on Tuesday afternoon, saw that there were 3500+ on early wednesday morning and as of Wednesday night - 5317. I wonder if it includes hits from people viewing the public feed.

Another source said that he overheard 2 girls from NUS Business talking about the webcast-proposition incident. Apparently sometime back someone in Business also tried the same thing, but without the lecturer's permission - he went to the mic during the break and professed his love for her, but got screwed by the Business lecturer and had his matriculation number taken down.


For our lens analysis essay proposal, one guy used Desperate Housewives. I'm used Power Rangers Time Force, and didn't get slaughtered (not directly anyway).

There are more than 100 extant citation formats. They are, of course, like jargon - just a way of excluding outsiders and creating an air of exclusivity.

The 7-11 near Fong Seng sells vibrating condoms. Funky. No doubt they're testing the market to see how popular these products will be (I don't think they're available in most other 7-11s), since You Sucks Hall and TMS Hall are so close by.

I was sitting in an LT flanked by 2 empty seats on my left and 3 on my right, and someone came in. You'd expect the person to sit 2 seats to my right, such that there'd be one empty seat to the person's left and right both, but the person sat directly on my right. Hmm. This person also intelligently integrated the lecture diagrams into the notes (now they're provided separately in a PDF) by using the screenshot feature.