We went to range. I was rather sick of it and was thinking of shooting 0/56 as a protest vote on Day 3, but in the end I decided to shoot my best and I'm now a Marksman by the skin of my teeth - 45/56. My $200 of dirty money should be coming in a month of two.
Our CSM was rather ingenious - after it rained, he got us to drag the foxhole covers to the 50m point so we wouldn't have to prone in the mud. Yeh. Why didn't *I* think of that?
Melvin went to stick an ARMY calender on his cupboard. I was profoundly offended at his lack of good taste. Then when I returned to the bunk later, I found that it had appeared on -my- cupboard. Luckily for him, I managed to restrain my primal instincts long enough for him to return and remove the poster before I defaced it.
Huijun was discussing with me, some time back, about how Singaporeans are so concerned with small things, but ignore the big things. You should see how passionate some people get about the most inane and trivial issues. This is probably due, in some part, to fear of the Men In Black, the ISD and being blacklisted and leading a hard life. There's a tendency to let the government take care of everything. And all the wretched "OB" (Out of Bound) markers are placed very near to the centre because of paranoia.
People like to complain about the ins and outs of politics, whether at school or in the workplace. I have always been blissfully unaware of the backroom deals, the numerous backstabs and such - because of my poor perception in that arena, my uselessness as a pawn and my ineptness in that field. Anyhow, I was able to see a particular manouevre in crystal clear focus because a few people were complaining to me about someone's engaging in it. Only it didn't really seem like backstabbing to me - just simple complaining about someone to colleagues. Though later he *did* bring his complaints to a higher level, so that's a different matter. Maybe it was too subtle for my notice.
"For too long now, too many subjects have been taboo, if they appear to touch on religious practices. We need to move towards accepting debate in areas which affect our social togetherness, even if this touches on aspects of religious behavior" - Mr K Shanmugam, Minister of Parliament, Sembawang GRC. This statement was made within some context, but generally, it seems he does agree with me, though I am more radical, and I think no one rebutted this point. The issue on Affirmative Action, however, is a different story. It plainly doesn't work, generates a crutch mentality and tells everyone that the group in question is inferior, which is why it needs the help.
Apparently the Chinese in China despise Singaporeans' poor command of Chinese. I'm not surprised, really. At least this puts paid to the myth that speaking Chinese (at least, Singaporean-style Chinese, with all words above - and some below - a Primary 4 level of difficulty said in English) gives us an Economic Advantage when doing business in China.
The announcements that they play at MRT stations are really irritating. The woman speaks in a very annoying fashion (whether it's her customary way of speaking, I don't want to know), and the announcements are made in an ingratiating, unctuous and obsequious way which, instead of mollifying people, infuriates them. Or at least me. The excessively courteous manner of speech. in fact, has the opposite of the intended effect. But perhaps the most irritating thing about the announcements is how often they are played - when they don't want you to board a train, they play the announcement 2-3 times before the train arrives, and once when it has. And they HAVE to play the announcements about the train at Platform A going to Pasir Ris or Changi Airport -every- single time. SMRT must think that Singaporeans are idiots who need messages drilled into them unceasingly. Or maybe it's an insidious ploy to stop people resting in train stations by driving those who loiter in them too long crazy.
How are personal care products for men different for those for women? I suspect it's part of the general conspiracy. Perhaps it's to assuage the guilt that men might have at the loss of masculinity, and maybe the scents are different (though I doubt it). The most probable reason (from a marketing viewpoint): so men don't use their girlfriend's/wife's products.
I passed by "Man Studio", a shop which sells clothes for Men (only). Ironically, both the sales attendants inside were women. In the same complex, I also saw one of the shops on carts selling Tupperware - I thought it was only sold at Tupperware parties? Maybe the Tupperware company has finally awoken to sales reality.
Pioneer Junior College (PJC) seems to have changed their uniform some time ago. The new one looks appreciably more comfortable and cooler than the old one. Probably, they changed it after numerous complaints. Maybe that's why I don't smell their students anymore ;) The stark difference can be seen at a photo taken at the PJC Graduation Ceremony.
There's going to be a Cosplay activity in RJC, organised by the Art Club. I feel like swooning. Also, they have some weird event on Sentosa on Valentine's Day - "Raffles Palawan Adventure". The website is hilarious:
"Perks:
- Whole event sponsored mainly by F & N (Qoo)
- Co-sponsors include Subway sandwiches (loads of sandwiches and cookies provided on the day!), EmitAsia (company that supplies us with TIME magazines), Swatch watches worth at least $100 and complimentary Pasir Ris chalets and much, much more!
- Since event held (sic) on Friday, students are allowed to remain in Sentosa for the rest of the day, or even stay for the weekend - though the school will not be held responsible for any event that takes place after dismissal 1300 14th February Friday"
There will be an Aquathalon (Biathalon), Telematch, Beach Games, Games Stalls and a Concert by the Beach / Talentime. Wah.
Roaming fees are wretchedly expensive. My charges from the week in London set me back by $61.34!
There was this weird Channel U show, "Happy Rules", featuring 2 people who'd won the various contests they'd held some time back for people displaying a particular attribute most strongly. One was the person who'd been found to look most like a Japanese, and the other was the fabled well-endowed Ann Poh. Finally seeing her image, I was rather disgusted. They are rather ugly and look deformed :( At least they didn't jiggle much when she went horseriding. Must be have used a customised brand. And in case people wonder why I keep making comments on Chinese shows, well, that's what's showing in my bunk most days.
In other news, Chong Yechao took part in a rapping contest, held to promote Eminem's movie, 8 Mile. Of the 4 finalists, he was the only non-Malay :0 He was fourth of four finalists, though.
Somehow, some people think that every single minute trivial detail of my life goes onto Balderdash. And everytime I write something they assume it's something that just happened, or something about them that will go up. Hah!
Why do girls like Legolas? I suspect almost all girls like him. Perhaps the best analysis I received was this:
"Four reasons for this: the hair, the namby pambyness, the elfhood, and the hair, in that order of importance"
Apparently the hair is important for his cute elf boy looks. Well, seeing as he has nicer hair than most girls will ever have... He's over 3000 years old too, and since girls like older guys, his appeal in this area must be phenomenal :)
Legolas probably combines the best qualities of the old, chivalrous, monster-slaying male, and the SNAG - Sensitive New Age Guy, so. I just think he looks like a cute young gay toy boy! :)
Quotes:
God, once again, has not entered the Garden of Aden (Eden)
biscult (biscuit)
[Forum letter] I used to be a primary-school Chinese language teacher but I have become a secondary-school English teacher after completing a bachelor's degree in English in Britain
I'm surprised that you can remember my name. [Me: Why should you be surprised by that?] Because I can't remember yours.
[Me: They gave me ex-RMJ till [the] 18th. After that, probably - discharge.] Discharged from army? [Me: No lah, I wish.] (I'll probably be discharged)
[On private diaries] What's the point of writing and not letting anyone read? [Someone: Because he got 7 extra for letting people read]
Untok di pek pang / spare arm / spare arms, datang sensjata / senjasta / senjata (Untok di pek sa, datang senjata)
[On Mug Root Beer] I want to drink more swill.
[To me] Were you a happy baby? [Someone else: Were you smiling when your mother gave birth to you?]
[Me on using light stick liquid to soak pipe cleaner placed at the rear sight aperture of the M16 for night range: How novel] Are you going to put it in your diary?
I notice that RJ students never fold their clothes
Indian Prince [Me: Asian Prince] He looks Indian.
L'origine de Bert
Saturday, January 25, 2003
This week, I've made some progress on two books. I finally started, and finished more than half of "Why Do People Hate America" by Ziauddin Sardar and Merryl Wyn Davies, and I read a bit more of "On the Origins of War and the Preservation of Peace" by Donald Kagan.
The former is praised by The Independent, which tells you something, and Noam Chomsky, which probably should tell you something too, but since I don't know the latter's claim to fame, I don't know what I might conclude from his endorsement (besides the fact that he was happy at being quoted favourably in the book). "Why Do People Hate America" is, probably quite obviously, not printed in the USA. It is distributed in the United Kingdom, Europe, South Africa, Asia and Canada but, oddly enough, not in the USA itself. Thus, most of the people whom the book is putatively meant for will not get to read it.
As I'm not done reading the book, I can't produce a general conclusion, but I have to say that the USA's ends are generally good. Self-interest is usually first, but generally they coincide roughly with the ends. And of course, if there are many aims to fulfill, naturally those agreeable with one's self-interest will be pursued first. Of course, the ends don't justify the means. The USA is made out to be bad for the world in many ways, but I wager it being the world's sole hyper-power is a lesser evil than, say, Iraq occupying that position.
To support the authors' claims that the USA has been imposing its will willy-nilly, they reproduce a list, "A Century of US Military Interventions: From Wounded Knee to Afghanistan", compiled by Zoltan Grossman, with a listing of 134 interventions from 1890-2001. However, many of these involved the evacuation of foreigners from war-torn countries, domestic deployments and states of high alert without any overt military action, and worse still, the Gulf War counts as 3 different military interventions.
The book deals with the issues of stereotypes. Stereotypes are unhealthy because people tend to stick to them, but the reason they exist is that, very often, they are true. Thus, while we should keep open minds, the stereotype is a good bet as to what the reality of the situation is.
The economic arguments about how America is trying to dominate the world aren't very convincing. If America was really trying to accumulate all the wealth in the world by exploiting everyone else, then why isn't anyone protesting (the half-washed protestors bandying billboards at conferences of world leaders because they have nothing better to do, and don't understand very clearly what they are protesting against do not count)? Why don't countries break free of the IMF, World Bank and WTO and just go into isolation since they'd be better served so? They can't all be daft.
The arguments about America's evils socially too smack of sophistry and sound shrill and alarmist. For example, the authors claim that one in ten Americans works for the Fast Food industry. Huh? American culture has, and is sweeping the world, but this is not due to some vast US conspiracy to extend US culture and soft power throughout the globe. People *want* McDonalds, baseball caps, MTV, Seinfeld and the like. Is it fair to deny them their choice? Local culture can and should be protected - but not through exclusion of American culture.
American culture also is not as contemptuous of foreign cultures as the book makes it out to be. The arguments do ring largely true, but what about where Americans have taken to elements of foreign cultures? Italian food? Tae-bo? Yoga? Acupuncture? Admittedly, they are modified somewhat, but when borrowing from other cultures takes place, rarely are traits borrowed wholesale.
One person, seeing me read the book, asked why no one wrote "Why do people hate Singapore?" or "Why do Singaporeans hate to be army boys?". Heh. I doubt any publisher would risk publishing that.
The latter book was considerably more readable once I'd gotten past the chapter on the Peloponnesian War. I'm not quite sure why - the Peloponnesian War has always held my interest more than the First World War. Maybe it was the way he retold and analysed it.
The former is praised by The Independent, which tells you something, and Noam Chomsky, which probably should tell you something too, but since I don't know the latter's claim to fame, I don't know what I might conclude from his endorsement (besides the fact that he was happy at being quoted favourably in the book). "Why Do People Hate America" is, probably quite obviously, not printed in the USA. It is distributed in the United Kingdom, Europe, South Africa, Asia and Canada but, oddly enough, not in the USA itself. Thus, most of the people whom the book is putatively meant for will not get to read it.
As I'm not done reading the book, I can't produce a general conclusion, but I have to say that the USA's ends are generally good. Self-interest is usually first, but generally they coincide roughly with the ends. And of course, if there are many aims to fulfill, naturally those agreeable with one's self-interest will be pursued first. Of course, the ends don't justify the means. The USA is made out to be bad for the world in many ways, but I wager it being the world's sole hyper-power is a lesser evil than, say, Iraq occupying that position.
To support the authors' claims that the USA has been imposing its will willy-nilly, they reproduce a list, "A Century of US Military Interventions: From Wounded Knee to Afghanistan", compiled by Zoltan Grossman, with a listing of 134 interventions from 1890-2001. However, many of these involved the evacuation of foreigners from war-torn countries, domestic deployments and states of high alert without any overt military action, and worse still, the Gulf War counts as 3 different military interventions.
The book deals with the issues of stereotypes. Stereotypes are unhealthy because people tend to stick to them, but the reason they exist is that, very often, they are true. Thus, while we should keep open minds, the stereotype is a good bet as to what the reality of the situation is.
The economic arguments about how America is trying to dominate the world aren't very convincing. If America was really trying to accumulate all the wealth in the world by exploiting everyone else, then why isn't anyone protesting (the half-washed protestors bandying billboards at conferences of world leaders because they have nothing better to do, and don't understand very clearly what they are protesting against do not count)? Why don't countries break free of the IMF, World Bank and WTO and just go into isolation since they'd be better served so? They can't all be daft.
The arguments about America's evils socially too smack of sophistry and sound shrill and alarmist. For example, the authors claim that one in ten Americans works for the Fast Food industry. Huh? American culture has, and is sweeping the world, but this is not due to some vast US conspiracy to extend US culture and soft power throughout the globe. People *want* McDonalds, baseball caps, MTV, Seinfeld and the like. Is it fair to deny them their choice? Local culture can and should be protected - but not through exclusion of American culture.
American culture also is not as contemptuous of foreign cultures as the book makes it out to be. The arguments do ring largely true, but what about where Americans have taken to elements of foreign cultures? Italian food? Tae-bo? Yoga? Acupuncture? Admittedly, they are modified somewhat, but when borrowing from other cultures takes place, rarely are traits borrowed wholesale.
One person, seeing me read the book, asked why no one wrote "Why do people hate Singapore?" or "Why do Singaporeans hate to be army boys?". Heh. I doubt any publisher would risk publishing that.
The latter book was considerably more readable once I'd gotten past the chapter on the Peloponnesian War. I'm not quite sure why - the Peloponnesian War has always held my interest more than the First World War. Maybe it was the way he retold and analysed it.
Post ID: 87964967
Friday, January 24, 2003
Prison vs Work
IN PRISON...you spend the majority of your time in an 8X10 cell. AT WORK... you spend the majority of your time in a 6X8 cubicle.
IN PRISON...you get three meals a day. AT WORK...you only get a break for one meal and you pay for it.
IN PRISON...you get time off for good behavior. AT WORK...you get more work for good behavior.
IN PRISON...the guard locks and unlocks all the doors for you. AT WORK...you must carry around a security card and open all the doors for yourself.
IN PRISON...you can watch TV and play games. AT WORK...you get fired for watching TV and playing games.
IN PRISON...you get your own toilet. AT WORK...you have to share with some idiot who pees on the seat.
IN PRISON...they allow your family and friends to visit. AT WORK...you can't even speak to your family.
IN PRISON...all expenses are paid by the taxpayers with no work required. AT WORK...you get to pay all the expenses to go to work and then they deduct taxes from your salary to pay for prisoners.
IN PRISON...you spend most of your life inside bars wanting to get out. AT WORK...you spend most of your time wanting to get out and go inside bars.
IN PRISON...you must deal with sadistic wardens. AT WORK...they are called managers.
Lol I remember this:
Horrible Eighties Cartoons
California Raisins: Designed by some farmer's association in order to sell more raisins, these "hip" little sun-dried dudes took the world by storm. Now that farmers have stopped putting hallucinogens in their crops, I think we can safely say that a show about talking raisins is about as "hip" as falling into a pile of hacksaws.
Is this person hot?
IN PRISON...you spend the majority of your time in an 8X10 cell. AT WORK... you spend the majority of your time in a 6X8 cubicle.
IN PRISON...you get three meals a day. AT WORK...you only get a break for one meal and you pay for it.
IN PRISON...you get time off for good behavior. AT WORK...you get more work for good behavior.
IN PRISON...the guard locks and unlocks all the doors for you. AT WORK...you must carry around a security card and open all the doors for yourself.
IN PRISON...you can watch TV and play games. AT WORK...you get fired for watching TV and playing games.
IN PRISON...you get your own toilet. AT WORK...you have to share with some idiot who pees on the seat.
IN PRISON...they allow your family and friends to visit. AT WORK...you can't even speak to your family.
IN PRISON...all expenses are paid by the taxpayers with no work required. AT WORK...you get to pay all the expenses to go to work and then they deduct taxes from your salary to pay for prisoners.
IN PRISON...you spend most of your life inside bars wanting to get out. AT WORK...you spend most of your time wanting to get out and go inside bars.
IN PRISON...you must deal with sadistic wardens. AT WORK...they are called managers.
Lol I remember this:
Horrible Eighties Cartoons
California Raisins: Designed by some farmer's association in order to sell more raisins, these "hip" little sun-dried dudes took the world by storm. Now that farmers have stopped putting hallucinogens in their crops, I think we can safely say that a show about talking raisins is about as "hip" as falling into a pile of hacksaws.
Is this person hot?
Post ID: 87959882
hahaah! im posting!!!!! *grins*
ermmm.. hmm my platoon was nearly disbanded (or so we heard) but luckily now we'r not.. the prob is that we'r not in the estab.. so actually gonna disband when the new men come in to "replace" us.. but heard now wont.. just that during reservice (hopefully i wont be recalled), we wont get to do the work we do now.. hmm.
ermmm.. hmm my platoon was nearly disbanded (or so we heard) but luckily now we'r not.. the prob is that we'r not in the estab.. so actually gonna disband when the new men come in to "replace" us.. but heard now wont.. just that during reservice (hopefully i wont be recalled), we wont get to do the work we do now.. hmm.
Post ID: 87954716
Thursday, January 23, 2003
Whatever, Gabriel.
Normal snappy mood for debate has been dampened by a moderately somber week - four funerals in succession since Monday. Thankfully no one directly close to me, but all relatives of friends and relatives of relatives. Also thankfully, I had only to attend one of them, but the sudden outbreak of mortality one week before Chinese New Year doesn't really augur well, even to my modern, positivist, post-Enlightenment mindset. Guess the old superstitious Chinaman paradigm is hard to shake.
One of the people who passed away was the infant daughter of a colleague. Now, this colleague was one of the more unpleasant to deal with, for a variety of reasons. I obviously never liked her much, but maybe now I understand a little bit more about why she was always so snappy and bad-tempered - apparently her daughter had been ailing for quite some time now. Ah well. Sometimes in one's self-obsession with self-gratification, one forgets about the world around us; even the little portion of it that encompasses the people we see and interact with from day to day. Even our closest ones.
But in the end, the dead only know one thing, that it's better to be alive.
"Everyone you meet can teach you part of what you need to know. But you need to know some incredibly unpleasant things."
Normal snappy mood for debate has been dampened by a moderately somber week - four funerals in succession since Monday. Thankfully no one directly close to me, but all relatives of friends and relatives of relatives. Also thankfully, I had only to attend one of them, but the sudden outbreak of mortality one week before Chinese New Year doesn't really augur well, even to my modern, positivist, post-Enlightenment mindset. Guess the old superstitious Chinaman paradigm is hard to shake.
One of the people who passed away was the infant daughter of a colleague. Now, this colleague was one of the more unpleasant to deal with, for a variety of reasons. I obviously never liked her much, but maybe now I understand a little bit more about why she was always so snappy and bad-tempered - apparently her daughter had been ailing for quite some time now. Ah well. Sometimes in one's self-obsession with self-gratification, one forgets about the world around us; even the little portion of it that encompasses the people we see and interact with from day to day. Even our closest ones.
But in the end, the dead only know one thing, that it's better to be alive.
"Everyone you meet can teach you part of what you need to know. But you need to know some incredibly unpleasant things."
Post ID: 87872523
Tuesday, January 21, 2003
To sum up about the summing up:
"The documentary evidence is what the founders of a religion explicitly wanted" - Some of which was modified, distorted, left out, mistranslated, misrepresented or such throughout the ages. And which was also written for that age specifically - polygyny in Islam was a concession to the polygamy practicing Bedouin, women who walked around *bare-breasted* were admonished to throw a cloth over their bosoms, and you wouldn't tell 4th Century AD peoples that slavery was prohibited. Everything is to be taken in context - witness the ridiculous battle believers in Creation Science wage because of over-literal readings of texts.
"ALL religions have absurd practices" - Some more than others? *shrug* And some practice them more than others, even disregarding the effects of comparative development. Again, this is hard to prove, so we shall not go into that minefield.
Anyhow, my stand is, and always has been that I'm perfectly happy if you flagellate yourself while dancing in front of waxen voodoo dolls and engaging in auto-erotic asphyxiation - just don't try to ban abortion, burn widows on funeral pyres or lop people's heads off with swords for making decisions that concern them only.
"The documentary evidence is what the founders of a religion explicitly wanted" - Some of which was modified, distorted, left out, mistranslated, misrepresented or such throughout the ages. And which was also written for that age specifically - polygyny in Islam was a concession to the polygamy practicing Bedouin, women who walked around *bare-breasted* were admonished to throw a cloth over their bosoms, and you wouldn't tell 4th Century AD peoples that slavery was prohibited. Everything is to be taken in context - witness the ridiculous battle believers in Creation Science wage because of over-literal readings of texts.
"ALL religions have absurd practices" - Some more than others? *shrug* And some practice them more than others, even disregarding the effects of comparative development. Again, this is hard to prove, so we shall not go into that minefield.
Anyhow, my stand is, and always has been that I'm perfectly happy if you flagellate yourself while dancing in front of waxen voodoo dolls and engaging in auto-erotic asphyxiation - just don't try to ban abortion, burn widows on funeral pyres or lop people's heads off with swords for making decisions that concern them only.
Post ID: 87774997
Monday, January 20, 2003
Happy Thaipusam to one and all.
First things first - on the way home from Genting yesterday (an interesting day trip which would make a funny blog entry in and of itself if I was so inclined), we drove past Batu Caves, where the Thaipusam ceremonies were being conducted. We had cleverly avoided that road on the way up, knowing that traffic would be horrible, but on the way down, we were slightly high from air pressure changes and the euphoria of finally being able to see more than 10m ahead once we dropped closer to sea level (think Mists of Ravenloft type driving conditions while we were up there). It was almost midnight, and we thought that the highway past Batu Caves should be clear. HOW WRONG WE WERE! Think Armies of Darkness - all around us - and in a three-lane highway, the lanes on left and right were choked with parked cars and motorcycles for about 1.5km. And imagine the resultant bottleneck in which we were trapped for 2 hours.
In the midst of exhaustion and raw frustration at being stuck, a few brief moments of humour were attained. Notably due to the six FRU vans (Special Response Unit aka SWAT) stationed there. As my friend put it: "What are they afraid of? Kavadi-bearers running amok?"
(For the culturally ignorant: kavadis are the metal harness thingies with needles that Thaipusam celebrants stick all over their body. Think Hellraiser with Indians.)
NOW THAT IS A SCARY THOUGHT. I can just see the headlines: "Psychotic kavadi-bearers run riot though the city! Blood flows in the streets!"
Once again, I am terribly misrepresented - I'm not displeased or pleased that Gabriel has seen fit to conclude the debate. In my exact words at the time: "Okay lor. Now run along - I have to finish watching the Fellowship of the Ring DVD (the 4-DVD special extended edition)"
In fact, I thought it was a dead issue, which makes me surprised that he mentioned it again below. Please tell the nice people what I told you about the wimpy excuse of "living/evolving religions" and fundamentalism. I dislike such provocation, man.
To sum up:
a) The documentary evidence is what the founders of a religion explicitly wanted. It usually requires a lot of ridiculous practices in today's modern context. I don't have any creative interpretations about them whatsoever. Which is why I respect fundamentalism in a twisted way - they're the only ones with the courage to stick to their founder's intentions. The soft liberal religious are just trying to have their cake and eat it, from a salvation point of view.
b) My argument simply states that ALL religions have absurd practices, only that you focus excessively on Islam's ones, and that they're all as equally hokey as one another. My issue with your debating technique is that you have serious fallacy of composition issues, as well as a very one-sided presentation. THAT'S IT.
First things first - on the way home from Genting yesterday (an interesting day trip which would make a funny blog entry in and of itself if I was so inclined), we drove past Batu Caves, where the Thaipusam ceremonies were being conducted. We had cleverly avoided that road on the way up, knowing that traffic would be horrible, but on the way down, we were slightly high from air pressure changes and the euphoria of finally being able to see more than 10m ahead once we dropped closer to sea level (think Mists of Ravenloft type driving conditions while we were up there). It was almost midnight, and we thought that the highway past Batu Caves should be clear. HOW WRONG WE WERE! Think Armies of Darkness - all around us - and in a three-lane highway, the lanes on left and right were choked with parked cars and motorcycles for about 1.5km. And imagine the resultant bottleneck in which we were trapped for 2 hours.
In the midst of exhaustion and raw frustration at being stuck, a few brief moments of humour were attained. Notably due to the six FRU vans (Special Response Unit aka SWAT) stationed there. As my friend put it: "What are they afraid of? Kavadi-bearers running amok?"
(For the culturally ignorant: kavadis are the metal harness thingies with needles that Thaipusam celebrants stick all over their body. Think Hellraiser with Indians.)
NOW THAT IS A SCARY THOUGHT. I can just see the headlines: "Psychotic kavadi-bearers run riot though the city! Blood flows in the streets!"
Once again, I am terribly misrepresented - I'm not displeased or pleased that Gabriel has seen fit to conclude the debate. In my exact words at the time: "Okay lor. Now run along - I have to finish watching the Fellowship of the Ring DVD (the 4-DVD special extended edition)"
In fact, I thought it was a dead issue, which makes me surprised that he mentioned it again below. Please tell the nice people what I told you about the wimpy excuse of "living/evolving religions" and fundamentalism. I dislike such provocation, man.
To sum up:
a) The documentary evidence is what the founders of a religion explicitly wanted. It usually requires a lot of ridiculous practices in today's modern context. I don't have any creative interpretations about them whatsoever. Which is why I respect fundamentalism in a twisted way - they're the only ones with the courage to stick to their founder's intentions. The soft liberal religious are just trying to have their cake and eat it, from a salvation point of view.
b) My argument simply states that ALL religions have absurd practices, only that you focus excessively on Islam's ones, and that they're all as equally hokey as one another. My issue with your debating technique is that you have serious fallacy of composition issues, as well as a very one-sided presentation. THAT'S IT.
Post ID: 87706579
Sunday, January 19, 2003
I was forced to watch a CD with MTV videos downloaded from the Internet sometimes this week. Kylie Minogue was prancing around the screen, baring flesh tastelessly. I don't know why people always think that the more flesh you reveal, the better. If you want to show flesh, please do it more tastefully next time instead of just relying on your body and your sickly sweet voice reminiscent of the odour of putrefying flesh to attract attention! Tangentially, I suspect that male strippers have better technique than female strippers.
After the MTV was Enemy at the Gates. It's interesting how the woman had money for lipstick in wartime, and how all the Soviets had American accents.
Someone left a F&N Fizzkidz notebook, with a trivia quiz inside, in the dispensary. Now, if the Fizzkidz are all kids, why does the sole female have disproportionately big breasts? Weird. And there doesn't seem to be minority racial representation inside either. Too bad for political correctness :)
My Pilot G2 07 got stolen at Tengah Medical Centre while I was accompanying 2 patients there one night. One medic asked to borrow it and didn't return it to me. Gah. I had that pen since the good old RJC days and it has accompanied me through BMT and SMM! Grr.
Support Company has a Unisex toilet ala Ally McBeal. Heh. Open minded CSM.
I wonder which drill command sounds funnier - Panji Panji / Punji Punji or Masek Masek? I haven't decided :)
Someone suggested calling the Pseudo-Western food that SAF Cookhouses give us "Fusion" food. LOL.
There was this show on Channel 8 where lithe women were bouncing on big air filled balls and smiling. Exercise fads are very weird.
The most popular brand of bath gel in my unit seems to be Shokubutsu. It is advertised, on the bottle, as having 99% of its active ingredients coming from plants. One wonders about the 1% that doesn't come from plants, and about the passive ingredients. Bad marketing, but at least they're honest.
Most of us call Jason, Jason Toh Ah Beng, for he has some Beng tendencies, but compared to real bengs, he really cannot measure up :) (This is meant as a compliment)
My white hair is growing in quantity and becoming more and more visible. Oh dear.
Effeminate males, ceteris paribus, tend to be nicer than more masculine ones.
They always like to use the Imperial March from Star Wars during SAF parades. I bet they don't have any permission from Mr Lucas, but he probably won't care to take on the SAF in court. Any local court would probably throw the case out anyway, though with his clout, he *might* be able to lobby the US Armed Forces to pull some strings. Anyhow, the Imperial March is the theme of the bad guys. Probably a Freudian slip on the part of parade planners.
There was this show on Channel 8 where lithe women were bouncing on big air filled balls and smiling. Exercise fads are very weird.
Melvin has been picking up many of Boon Huat's bad qualities, rather one major one - irritating people. Tut tut. Kiong and I must scold him more!
Quotes:
[On 'Letter to a Son'] I read it before... Read it on your website. Very funny what, your website. Especially the referrals. You mean people actually search for... [Me: Yes]
[On my Strawberry and Red Berries exfoliating body scrub] Kanna. Tastes like fruit punch. (smells)
[Me: Do you think he looks like Gollum?] Gay boy. Gay boy cum Porn Man. [Me: Why is he 'gay boy'?] He keeps trying to fondle me.
[On a whiteboard in the Treatment Room] Quote of the day:
13/01/03
The unexamined life is not worth living - Socrates
Life w/o sex is not worth living - ALLAN TAN
Why you got so many condoms in your cupboard? Got something wrong with you? [Me: They were there when I moved in]... When do they expire? Don't waste. Give me, I go and cheong. (do you have, Is there, waste them, and I'll)
[On underwear] Robinsons. [Me: What? Oh. You zaogeng more than me what.] It's okay for us to zaogeng.
Why do so many people like Geraldine?... Bomoh [witch doctor] ah?
[Seen on noticeboard] Duli Yang Maha Mulia Seri Paduka Baginda Yang Di Pertuan Tun Tan Sri Datuk Utama Seri [someone's initials]
Gabriel, you can wear bra ah
[To me] A lot of people decided not to keep diaries, because of what happened to you, except that it was in a diary format (have decided, what happened to your weblog happened to their paper diaries)
[Sign in food court] no pork, no lard, cater for all 'races' (people who don't eat pork, but not vegetarians or people who don't eat certain types of meats other than pork)
Actually Letter to a Son' goes rather out of point towards the middle. The writer would fail his GP. I'm not vehemently anti-PAP, and the writer does start to rave incoherently towards the end, but much of the 'letter', especially the first part, *are* true :) I think it's meant to be a spoof of the "letter" that was in "Shoulder To Shoulder - Our National Service Journal".
He Who Must Not Be Named was not pleased by my attempt to bring some closure to our exhausting debate. My main gripe with his arguments really, were that he had many creative (to put it charitably) interpretations of various written creeds and dismissed offhand documentary evidence laying out specific mantras and doctrines to be followed. And his argumentation technique seems to involve wearing people out by carpet bombing till they give up. And since he will probably read this, there is no need to ICQ it to him.
I seem to be getting at least one search referral saying "gabriel seah" per day. My infamy preceds me indeed. Beloved where e'er I go, indeed. *cough*
After the MTV was Enemy at the Gates. It's interesting how the woman had money for lipstick in wartime, and how all the Soviets had American accents.
Someone left a F&N Fizzkidz notebook, with a trivia quiz inside, in the dispensary. Now, if the Fizzkidz are all kids, why does the sole female have disproportionately big breasts? Weird. And there doesn't seem to be minority racial representation inside either. Too bad for political correctness :)
My Pilot G2 07 got stolen at Tengah Medical Centre while I was accompanying 2 patients there one night. One medic asked to borrow it and didn't return it to me. Gah. I had that pen since the good old RJC days and it has accompanied me through BMT and SMM! Grr.
Support Company has a Unisex toilet ala Ally McBeal. Heh. Open minded CSM.
I wonder which drill command sounds funnier - Panji Panji / Punji Punji or Masek Masek? I haven't decided :)
Someone suggested calling the Pseudo-Western food that SAF Cookhouses give us "Fusion" food. LOL.
There was this show on Channel 8 where lithe women were bouncing on big air filled balls and smiling. Exercise fads are very weird.
The most popular brand of bath gel in my unit seems to be Shokubutsu. It is advertised, on the bottle, as having 99% of its active ingredients coming from plants. One wonders about the 1% that doesn't come from plants, and about the passive ingredients. Bad marketing, but at least they're honest.
Most of us call Jason, Jason Toh Ah Beng, for he has some Beng tendencies, but compared to real bengs, he really cannot measure up :) (This is meant as a compliment)
My white hair is growing in quantity and becoming more and more visible. Oh dear.
Effeminate males, ceteris paribus, tend to be nicer than more masculine ones.
They always like to use the Imperial March from Star Wars during SAF parades. I bet they don't have any permission from Mr Lucas, but he probably won't care to take on the SAF in court. Any local court would probably throw the case out anyway, though with his clout, he *might* be able to lobby the US Armed Forces to pull some strings. Anyhow, the Imperial March is the theme of the bad guys. Probably a Freudian slip on the part of parade planners.
There was this show on Channel 8 where lithe women were bouncing on big air filled balls and smiling. Exercise fads are very weird.
Melvin has been picking up many of Boon Huat's bad qualities, rather one major one - irritating people. Tut tut. Kiong and I must scold him more!
Quotes:
[On 'Letter to a Son'] I read it before... Read it on your website. Very funny what, your website. Especially the referrals. You mean people actually search for... [Me: Yes]
[On my Strawberry and Red Berries exfoliating body scrub] Kanna. Tastes like fruit punch. (smells)
[Me: Do you think he looks like Gollum?] Gay boy. Gay boy cum Porn Man. [Me: Why is he 'gay boy'?] He keeps trying to fondle me.
[On a whiteboard in the Treatment Room] Quote of the day:
13/01/03
The unexamined life is not worth living - Socrates
Life w/o sex is not worth living - ALLAN TAN
Why you got so many condoms in your cupboard? Got something wrong with you? [Me: They were there when I moved in]... When do they expire? Don't waste. Give me, I go and cheong. (do you have, Is there, waste them, and I'll)
[On underwear] Robinsons. [Me: What? Oh. You zaogeng more than me what.] It's okay for us to zaogeng.
Why do so many people like Geraldine?... Bomoh [witch doctor] ah?
[Seen on noticeboard] Duli Yang Maha Mulia Seri Paduka Baginda Yang Di Pertuan Tun Tan Sri Datuk Utama Seri [someone's initials]
Gabriel, you can wear bra ah
[To me] A lot of people decided not to keep diaries, because of what happened to you, except that it was in a diary format (have decided, what happened to your weblog happened to their paper diaries)
[Sign in food court] no pork, no lard, cater for all 'races' (people who don't eat pork, but not vegetarians or people who don't eat certain types of meats other than pork)
Actually Letter to a Son' goes rather out of point towards the middle. The writer would fail his GP. I'm not vehemently anti-PAP, and the writer does start to rave incoherently towards the end, but much of the 'letter', especially the first part, *are* true :) I think it's meant to be a spoof of the "letter" that was in "Shoulder To Shoulder - Our National Service Journal".
He Who Must Not Be Named was not pleased by my attempt to bring some closure to our exhausting debate. My main gripe with his arguments really, were that he had many creative (to put it charitably) interpretations of various written creeds and dismissed offhand documentary evidence laying out specific mantras and doctrines to be followed. And his argumentation technique seems to involve wearing people out by carpet bombing till they give up. And since he will probably read this, there is no need to ICQ it to him.
I seem to be getting at least one search referral saying "gabriel seah" per day. My infamy preceds me indeed. Beloved where e'er I go, indeed. *cough*
Post ID: 87680430
I've narrowed my choices down to:
Defeat
Stupidity
Idiocy
Underachievement
Irresponsibility
Individuality
Choices. Which one for the postcards, and which ones for the lithographic prints and desktoppers?
Heck, I'll just save money and get the 12 notecard pack of Underachievement.
8:42PM:
WTH?!
Shipping is US$20. That's even more than the postcards themselves (US$ 6.95). It's exorbitant.
!@#$%^&*()
I think I won't get them after all. Maybe I'll just make my own.
Defeat
Stupidity
Underachievement
Irresponsibility
Individuality
Choices. Which one for the postcards, and which ones for the lithographic prints and desktoppers?
Heck, I'll just save money and get the 12 notecard pack of Underachievement.
8:42PM:
WTH?!
Shipping is US$20. That's even more than the postcards themselves (US$ 6.95). It's exorbitant.
!@#$%^&*()
I think I won't get them after all. Maybe I'll just make my own.
Post ID: 87677080
Some weird site.
"Blogs are made by two types of people: stupid people who actually post their true feelings so they have no secrets or privacy, and smart people who post false entries, entries with carefully selected and ordered words that in no way reflect the writer's true emotions but are made to manipulate the thoughts of simple-minded readers and trick them into thinking the posted passages are candid and true beliefs."
And some other weird rantings about the usual stuff on sex and such.
"Blogs are made by two types of people: stupid people who actually post their true feelings so they have no secrets or privacy, and smart people who post false entries, entries with carefully selected and ordered words that in no way reflect the writer's true emotions but are made to manipulate the thoughts of simple-minded readers and trick them into thinking the posted passages are candid and true beliefs."
And some other weird rantings about the usual stuff on sex and such.
Post ID: 87674732
I think I'm rather sian of games now. Most times, there's no kick.
The myriad of units in Empire Earth are just too boggling - there seems to be a different unit for every task, sometimes more. It's nice to have Club Men, Spear Men, Slingers, Javelin Throwers, Rock Throwers and such, but they're pretty much too similar, while being too different. Or maybe I should play more extensively rather than sporadically but intensively so I don't get sick of it.
Blackthorne was quite fun on MAS but maybe that's because I hadn't played it for a while, and I was soundly thrashed by the computer in Street Fighter 2. I could never make it at fighting games (except for Acclaim's 1994 Wrestlemania, and I wager Lin Yucheng had something to do with that ; actually I think it was more fun playing most things with Yucheng and Tim).
Anyhow, most of the genres nowadays aren't really very appealing. Real Time Strategy Games are all the same, first person shooters give me headaches, most RPGs too since nowadays most of them have 3D, headache inducing interfaces (Might and Magic 9 and Morrowind for example), I don't like racing or card games and simulation games aren't really that interesting.
I think only good turn based strategy (eg Alpha Centauri) or non headache inducing RPGs (eg Baldur's Gate II) will turn me on now :)
Or maybe most games are too hard for my puny brain to tackle. *gasp*
I also feel very sian of blogging now, but I think that's because of my residual headache.
Gah, my headache is returning. Time to moan in agony.
The myriad of units in Empire Earth are just too boggling - there seems to be a different unit for every task, sometimes more. It's nice to have Club Men, Spear Men, Slingers, Javelin Throwers, Rock Throwers and such, but they're pretty much too similar, while being too different. Or maybe I should play more extensively rather than sporadically but intensively so I don't get sick of it.
Blackthorne was quite fun on MAS but maybe that's because I hadn't played it for a while, and I was soundly thrashed by the computer in Street Fighter 2. I could never make it at fighting games (except for Acclaim's 1994 Wrestlemania, and I wager Lin Yucheng had something to do with that ; actually I think it was more fun playing most things with Yucheng and Tim).
Anyhow, most of the genres nowadays aren't really very appealing. Real Time Strategy Games are all the same, first person shooters give me headaches, most RPGs too since nowadays most of them have 3D, headache inducing interfaces (Might and Magic 9 and Morrowind for example), I don't like racing or card games and simulation games aren't really that interesting.
I think only good turn based strategy (eg Alpha Centauri) or non headache inducing RPGs (eg Baldur's Gate II) will turn me on now :)
Or maybe most games are too hard for my puny brain to tackle. *gasp*
I also feel very sian of blogging now, but I think that's because of my residual headache.
Gah, my headache is returning. Time to moan in agony.
Post ID: 87669274
Saturday, January 18, 2003
Piqua's library has to flesh out its own Web site
Flesh director gets the skinny directly from Net Nanny
PIQUA | For a while, there was no Flesh in the Flesh Public Library.
Library Director James Oda earlier this month attempted to access the library's new Web site - www.fleshpublic.lib.oh.us - to show it off for the library staff. After three months of work by the staff, Oda was justifiably proud of the site. Unfortunately, the library computer denied him access.
"There must be a glitch in the system," Oda said as he tried again.
Again, he was denied access. It was then that Oda realized what had happened.
"We banned ourselves," he said Thursday.
Oda said he never gave much thought to the library's name - named 70 years ago for businessman Leo Flesh, who donated the money for the library's current location. But Net Nanny, a filter the library uses on all the children's department computers, did not care much for "flesh" linked to "public."
"Growing up in Piqua, I don't think we give it much thought," Oda said. "But when I was in the service, my Mom - who worked at the library at the time - used to send care packages in these little plastic bags that said 'Flesh Public Library.' There was a whole group of Army guys who had a lot of fun with that."
Fortunately, a change in the address - www.piqua.lib.oh.us - has allowed the library to access its own site.
Well done, dumb filters. Why not get a better filter program?
Flesh director gets the skinny directly from Net Nanny
PIQUA | For a while, there was no Flesh in the Flesh Public Library.
Library Director James Oda earlier this month attempted to access the library's new Web site - www.fleshpublic.lib.oh.us - to show it off for the library staff. After three months of work by the staff, Oda was justifiably proud of the site. Unfortunately, the library computer denied him access.
"There must be a glitch in the system," Oda said as he tried again.
Again, he was denied access. It was then that Oda realized what had happened.
"We banned ourselves," he said Thursday.
Oda said he never gave much thought to the library's name - named 70 years ago for businessman Leo Flesh, who donated the money for the library's current location. But Net Nanny, a filter the library uses on all the children's department computers, did not care much for "flesh" linked to "public."
"Growing up in Piqua, I don't think we give it much thought," Oda said. "But when I was in the service, my Mom - who worked at the library at the time - used to send care packages in these little plastic bags that said 'Flesh Public Library.' There was a whole group of Army guys who had a lot of fun with that."
Fortunately, a change in the address - www.piqua.lib.oh.us - has allowed the library to access its own site.
Well done, dumb filters. Why not get a better filter program?
Post ID: 87632706
Tuesday, January 14, 2003
Sunday, January 12, 2003
Whee. I'm getting into the mood again.
More referrals:
"acjc rumours" - Ooo. That the school is going bankrupt? That they are banning hot socks? Oh, the horror!
""chinese high school" blogspot.com gay" - Hahahahaha.
"porn pictures of Mrs Tan Guat Beng" - Wth?! People are searching for Singaporean porn of named people now? Or maybe it's blackmail.
"raffles institution Prefects" - Hrm. Just Wong is one.
"scgs porn" - Gah. They'd have better luck on Kazaa. Or Kazaa Lite 2.02 with K++! You can find *anything* there.
[A simple search for scgs there finds this:
"Secondary school girl of the Singapore Chinese Girls' School stripping for her school mates during their private party during the school holidays. Best Singapore school girl picture ever. Download and spread it! It's one of the finest Singapore school girl bodys around."
Disturbing. Very disturbing.]
"maznah mohamad" - Ah, the enlightened guy whom some Indonesian radical clerics are trying to kill. Hurrah.
"eminem singapore ndp" - I don't see the connection, really. Or maybe they're bringing him in this year? Nah, unwholesome. He doesn't represent, ahem, "Asian Values".
"sexy tudung girls" - Most of them are quite ugly, really. Anyway the tudung is to stop you ogling at them, you perv.
"ncc drill malay commands" - Hmmph. There's absolutely no reason why they should be in Malay. I remember how refreshing it was, watching the 1997 Hong Kong handover ceremony, to hear drill commands that I actually *understood*. What a novely. Maybe they're in Malay precisely because most of us cannot understand Malay, and this will let us put some mental distance between it and the inner sanctums of our minds.
"tekong bmt" - If you're going in, I'd say good luck to you.
"exploitative competition example cat vs. dog" - ???
"pso hentai" - Phantasy Star Online is a good, clean, family game as far as I know. Anyhow how do you hack the platform it runs on?
"pictures of wife sodomise husband" - ... Kinky action with strap ons. Yeh.
"setting up a haagan dazs franchise" - ?!
"naughty cadet marching songs" - They are all naughty. Maybe I should compile a list one day. I hope they are all Unclassified.
"TOPO tekong" - Have fun wandering there. Horlan / Holland (however you spell it) Liao!
"masterbate with household items" - I hope the bleach burns away your skin.
"neutrogena haram" - Goodness. Now skin products are haram too? It's not like they are consumed or ingested.
"ACJC porn" - Try Kazaa.
"sungei gedong camp signal batallion" - Military secrets!
"Nanyang Girls High School yearbook" - Why would anyone want to scan this in?
"downgrade diseases saf" - AIDS. Hepatitis B. Herpes. Diabetes. Have fun getting them. I recommend you not try.
"fuck dave pelzer" - Someone doesn't like uplifting stories I see :)
"bronco attc" - Does Singapore Technologies sell their stuff to foreign countries, even? I suppose they do, for that's what their shiny brochure is for.
"rjc creative writing club" - Ms Ho Poh Fun should really get it renamed the "Poetry Writing Club".
PULHEEMs - Here's a good PULHEEMS to have: P:3 U:3 L:3 H:3 E:3/A E:3/A M:3 S:3 (I'm conjecturing about the values for EE, though).
In other news, these are the all time top queries on my Picosearch search box:
1. neopets 11
2. stephen hand 7
3. manual, return to krondor 7
4. redoxon 6
5. the secret page 6
6. a03 5
7. eugene 5
8. sister 5
9. flesh parade 4
10. darksun shatterd land 4
11. michael 4
12. dipo coins 4
13. choral speaking 4
14. portugal roman coins 4
15. managing written mistakes 4
16. pics 3
17. star control 2 3
18. singing chickens 3
19. kool aid bottles 3
20. queen rania 3
More referrals:
"acjc rumours" - Ooo. That the school is going bankrupt? That they are banning hot socks? Oh, the horror!
""chinese high school" blogspot.com gay" - Hahahahaha.
"porn pictures of Mrs Tan Guat Beng" - Wth?! People are searching for Singaporean porn of named people now? Or maybe it's blackmail.
"raffles institution Prefects" - Hrm. Just Wong is one.
"scgs porn" - Gah. They'd have better luck on Kazaa. Or Kazaa Lite 2.02 with K++! You can find *anything* there.
[A simple search for scgs there finds this:
"Secondary school girl of the Singapore Chinese Girls' School stripping for her school mates during their private party during the school holidays. Best Singapore school girl picture ever. Download and spread it! It's one of the finest Singapore school girl bodys around."
Disturbing. Very disturbing.]
"maznah mohamad" - Ah, the enlightened guy whom some Indonesian radical clerics are trying to kill. Hurrah.
"eminem singapore ndp" - I don't see the connection, really. Or maybe they're bringing him in this year? Nah, unwholesome. He doesn't represent, ahem, "Asian Values".
"sexy tudung girls" - Most of them are quite ugly, really. Anyway the tudung is to stop you ogling at them, you perv.
"ncc drill malay commands" - Hmmph. There's absolutely no reason why they should be in Malay. I remember how refreshing it was, watching the 1997 Hong Kong handover ceremony, to hear drill commands that I actually *understood*. What a novely. Maybe they're in Malay precisely because most of us cannot understand Malay, and this will let us put some mental distance between it and the inner sanctums of our minds.
"tekong bmt" - If you're going in, I'd say good luck to you.
"exploitative competition example cat vs. dog" - ???
"pso hentai" - Phantasy Star Online is a good, clean, family game as far as I know. Anyhow how do you hack the platform it runs on?
"pictures of wife sodomise husband" - ... Kinky action with strap ons. Yeh.
"setting up a haagan dazs franchise" - ?!
"naughty cadet marching songs" - They are all naughty. Maybe I should compile a list one day. I hope they are all Unclassified.
"TOPO tekong" - Have fun wandering there. Horlan / Holland (however you spell it) Liao!
"masterbate with household items" - I hope the bleach burns away your skin.
"neutrogena haram" - Goodness. Now skin products are haram too? It's not like they are consumed or ingested.
"ACJC porn" - Try Kazaa.
"sungei gedong camp signal batallion" - Military secrets!
"Nanyang Girls High School yearbook" - Why would anyone want to scan this in?
"downgrade diseases saf" - AIDS. Hepatitis B. Herpes. Diabetes. Have fun getting them. I recommend you not try.
"fuck dave pelzer" - Someone doesn't like uplifting stories I see :)
"bronco attc" - Does Singapore Technologies sell their stuff to foreign countries, even? I suppose they do, for that's what their shiny brochure is for.
"rjc creative writing club" - Ms Ho Poh Fun should really get it renamed the "Poetry Writing Club".
PULHEEMs - Here's a good PULHEEMS to have: P:3 U:3 L:3 H:3 E:3/A E:3/A M:3 S:3 (I'm conjecturing about the values for EE, though).
In other news, these are the all time top queries on my Picosearch search box:
1. neopets 11
2. stephen hand 7
3. manual, return to krondor 7
4. redoxon 6
5. the secret page 6
6. a03 5
7. eugene 5
8. sister 5
9. flesh parade 4
10. darksun shatterd land 4
11. michael 4
12. dipo coins 4
13. choral speaking 4
14. portugal roman coins 4
15. managing written mistakes 4
16. pics 3
17. star control 2 3
18. singing chickens 3
19. kool aid bottles 3
20. queen rania 3
Post ID: 87303887
One of my theories is what entering JC, or the anticipation of such, does to girls. Most amusing and intriguing. Mmm.
I wonder why double standards are so rampant. Crystal put her arm around Jane's neck, so I put mine around Andrew, and the two of them giggled and looked into a corner, and Kairen stood up and pretended to walk off.
Male footwear (for what it's worth) has come of age! There's a shop dedicated to it now - "Beetle Bug".
There was this game at Cineleisure's E-Zone. "Downhill Bikers". Ugh, it's worse than being on an exercise bike for 20 minutes. After a short game, I had a serious case of vertigo, and the stupid pedals were so hard to grip onto and kept knocking me.
Andrew plays Dance Dance Revolution much better when he has competition. The first time, when "single player" mode was selected, he lost very quickly, but when he faced Crystal, he managed to trounce her soundly. I was invited to join in, but as always, I decided that I wouldn't betray my principles and play DDR!
There were these 4 Malay girls - at least I think they were girls: 2 of them were for sure, the third was probably a girl, and we conjectured the last was one from her shrieking - playing Air Hockey at the "Hockey Stadium" table, and the 2 more female looking ones shrieked whenever they scored, or the opposing side scored. Weird. Interestingly, none of the 4 were in tudungs, nor did I see any tudungs at E-zone or at "Funkypool". I guess they're un-Islamic.
I *did* saw a tudung at Cheers mini-mart downstairs though, worn by a young pre-pubescent girl. Except that she was using a tablecloth as one! I felt so sorry for her, I almost wanted to buy her a proper one.
Quotes:
[On the Anglo-Chinese School Song] It's like a nursery rhyme... In days of yore oldham came and set up a farm or something.
[On a drawing at "Annex" in the Heeren] Any cool guys that is interested in a young lian, pls call or email mi asap (If there are any, are, me)
[On a shirt] There's no price tag. I assume it's free.
My mother borrowed "Everything's Eventual" by Stephen King, a collection of 14 short stories, for me last week. All of the stories are, to a different extent, disturbing. *shudder*
I was reading through my past (school)work - at least what I have in digital format, considering what (if any) to post for the perusal of all and sundry. Most of it sent shudders down my spine and caused me to feel an itching sensation on the nape of my neck.
I think I write badly - very badly - when I am forced to do something that I do not want to do.
Case study:
"Poem on Digestion
Food I am
Eaten I am
Digested I am
Destroyed up I am
In the mouth acted on I am
My starch changed to maltose
By the amylase in the saliva
Luckily, not all is taken
Into that burning, acidic place the stomach, I go.
Renin, Pepsin.
Changing my protein to peptides
And my caseinogen to casein
Past the liver I go.
Am I safe?
No! The bile spurts out to
Emulsify my fats.
Broken, I pass the pancreas.
Am I safe? Of course not.
What starch left is now maltose,
Due to the Amylase.
My fats split into fatty acids and glycerol
I see something else. Will it attack me?
No. The trypsinogen will not destroy more of me.
I am glad.
A long tube next.
The small intestine.
Maltase, lactase, sucrase.
All my sugars now glucose.
Enterokinase, Evepsin, Lipase.
My proteins and peptides now amino acids.
My remaining fats now fatty acids and glycerol.
To add insult to injury, the trypsinogen is now trysin, attacking me.
Lastly, the end?
No. I am shrivelled up.
To be like a raisin.
By the rectum.
My fate I have told.
Follow me not.
You will end up like me.
Broken, dried up, dead."
--- Some "creative" assignment for Biology done in Secondary 3 (c. End April, 1998)
*runs into a corner to hide*
I hope juwel is happy at my self-abasement. You can feel really good about yourself now!
I wonder why double standards are so rampant. Crystal put her arm around Jane's neck, so I put mine around Andrew, and the two of them giggled and looked into a corner, and Kairen stood up and pretended to walk off.
Male footwear (for what it's worth) has come of age! There's a shop dedicated to it now - "Beetle Bug".
There was this game at Cineleisure's E-Zone. "Downhill Bikers". Ugh, it's worse than being on an exercise bike for 20 minutes. After a short game, I had a serious case of vertigo, and the stupid pedals were so hard to grip onto and kept knocking me.
Andrew plays Dance Dance Revolution much better when he has competition. The first time, when "single player" mode was selected, he lost very quickly, but when he faced Crystal, he managed to trounce her soundly. I was invited to join in, but as always, I decided that I wouldn't betray my principles and play DDR!
There were these 4 Malay girls - at least I think they were girls: 2 of them were for sure, the third was probably a girl, and we conjectured the last was one from her shrieking - playing Air Hockey at the "Hockey Stadium" table, and the 2 more female looking ones shrieked whenever they scored, or the opposing side scored. Weird. Interestingly, none of the 4 were in tudungs, nor did I see any tudungs at E-zone or at "Funkypool". I guess they're un-Islamic.
I *did* saw a tudung at Cheers mini-mart downstairs though, worn by a young pre-pubescent girl. Except that she was using a tablecloth as one! I felt so sorry for her, I almost wanted to buy her a proper one.
Quotes:
[On the Anglo-Chinese School Song] It's like a nursery rhyme... In days of yore oldham came and set up a farm or something.
[On a drawing at "Annex" in the Heeren] Any cool guys that is interested in a young lian, pls call or email mi asap (If there are any, are, me)
[On a shirt] There's no price tag. I assume it's free.
My mother borrowed "Everything's Eventual" by Stephen King, a collection of 14 short stories, for me last week. All of the stories are, to a different extent, disturbing. *shudder*
I was reading through my past (school)work - at least what I have in digital format, considering what (if any) to post for the perusal of all and sundry. Most of it sent shudders down my spine and caused me to feel an itching sensation on the nape of my neck.
I think I write badly - very badly - when I am forced to do something that I do not want to do.
Case study:
"Poem on Digestion
Food I am
Eaten I am
Digested I am
Destroyed up I am
In the mouth acted on I am
My starch changed to maltose
By the amylase in the saliva
Luckily, not all is taken
Into that burning, acidic place the stomach, I go.
Renin, Pepsin.
Changing my protein to peptides
And my caseinogen to casein
Past the liver I go.
Am I safe?
No! The bile spurts out to
Emulsify my fats.
Broken, I pass the pancreas.
Am I safe? Of course not.
What starch left is now maltose,
Due to the Amylase.
My fats split into fatty acids and glycerol
I see something else. Will it attack me?
No. The trypsinogen will not destroy more of me.
I am glad.
A long tube next.
The small intestine.
Maltase, lactase, sucrase.
All my sugars now glucose.
Enterokinase, Evepsin, Lipase.
My proteins and peptides now amino acids.
My remaining fats now fatty acids and glycerol.
To add insult to injury, the trypsinogen is now trysin, attacking me.
Lastly, the end?
No. I am shrivelled up.
To be like a raisin.
By the rectum.
My fate I have told.
Follow me not.
You will end up like me.
Broken, dried up, dead."
--- Some "creative" assignment for Biology done in Secondary 3 (c. End April, 1998)
*runs into a corner to hide*
I hope juwel is happy at my self-abasement. You can feel really good about yourself now!
Post ID: 87303465
Haha.
On a new principal (NOT of ACJC):
"it's quite amusing to see how they demand us that the guys cut so short their hair that it almost becomes crew, girls having to wear distasteful socks and the lamest ever ban on ankle socks. this isn't a madrasah, man! we want to see more legs! but the sad fact is that there isn't much of "legs" to be see in my school. i've got this friend who wears really short a skirt to college almost everyday, and when questioned told me that her skirt "shrank" after washing (yeah like right and why doesn't my school pants shrink as well) but the butt of all jokes is that she's got a really unsightly face which led to a couple of mates labelling the short skirt as nothing but a smokescreen to draw attention away from her face. hah, evil."
"somewhere in acjc several girls go missing from lecture. led of course by the laziest of laziest vivien "can't even take a moment standing" t (who so happens to my girlfriend, haha.) having since graduated, her legacy still lives on..."
On a new principal (NOT of ACJC):
"it's quite amusing to see how they demand us that the guys cut so short their hair that it almost becomes crew, girls having to wear distasteful socks and the lamest ever ban on ankle socks. this isn't a madrasah, man! we want to see more legs! but the sad fact is that there isn't much of "legs" to be see in my school. i've got this friend who wears really short a skirt to college almost everyday, and when questioned told me that her skirt "shrank" after washing (yeah like right and why doesn't my school pants shrink as well) but the butt of all jokes is that she's got a really unsightly face which led to a couple of mates labelling the short skirt as nothing but a smokescreen to draw attention away from her face. hah, evil."
"somewhere in acjc several girls go missing from lecture. led of course by the laziest of laziest vivien "can't even take a moment standing" t (who so happens to my girlfriend, haha.) having since graduated, her legacy still lives on..."
Post ID: 87301566
Totally disparate ramblings:
Adrian wanted to play with my lavender bear. Heh heh.
Apparently haircuts are free in camp. I've been cheated. Twice. Gah.
The notice regarding the photocopying machine in the Medical Centre is stuck onto the shredder. I hope no one mistakes one for the other :)
It is somewhat flattering to have one's talents and abilities (for what little they are) appreciated and used, but it is sometimes irritating to have to write or rewrite things for others.
Yong Siang got very excited when he saw my "Juice It" grapefruit and green tomato gel, and he started asking me what effects it had on the skin. I am amused :)
We were removing our window panes to clean them, and Boon Wei got a large corner of one chipped off, and Adrian dropped one and it shattered. Penny wise, pound foolish we are. Oh well.
I saw Khairuldin and Wenda when I went to Safti for physiotherapy. They're stayout. Good for them. Gah. Their complex is big, and they've a hydrotherapy room which can be used as a pretty mean Jacuzzi, I wager. And while I was trying to stop the stupid wobble board from touching the floor, all Seetoh had to do was let the ultrasound machine heal his knee. Gah.
I got zapped by the door handle at E-mart. Gah. Anyhow, I've a new Evil Scheme (TM) for using up credit. Toilet paper is a credit item too, so all we have to do is buy 10,000 rolls of it to sell on the black market. Beats Kiwi.
We were sitting in the treatment room and Jason started mouthing lyrics to some pop song. As he mouthed them, he opened his legs and straddled my right knee, whereupon I adroitly jerked my knee in a general upward direction. Aww.
Yiliang and Tse Ming are clearing leave for ORD. I'll miss the bantering, the antics and them in general. The wheel of time turns relentless.
It's a small world. Soh Choon Seng is in Sungei Gedong also, and I met him at the bus stop wearing a T-Shirt parodying a Visa ad - it said "Vagina Accepted Here" and had a Visa logo in the centre. He's mellowed somewhat since BMT.
Some people are too used to procedure - during Games Day today one person wrote a score wrongly on the big scoreboard, which is surfaced with plastic and written on with a whiteboard marker. The person cancelled the score and counter signed. Oh well :)
Quotes:
[Me on my music tastes: Different people like different things, let's just leave it at that. For example, I don't like Korean Pop] [Someone: I also don't like Korean Pop.] I don't like Korean Pop, but I like Korean Girls.
[On sggirls.com] Quite cool. A lot of my friends there. [Me: You searched for 'acjc girls'?] I clicked 'school uniform', looked for my school. Eh? I know her. I know her. You know how they get there? [Me: They scan in the yearbook.] Fuck lar, damn cheapo.
[On sggirls.com] A lot of AC girls. All cannot make it. RJ girls are better, especially your year.
[On me lying on the floor] See, when Tang is not around this is life in the Medical Centre. Life should be like that.
[On "Agagooga" and "N!ôrlãn" being from Africa] You like African girls ah? [Someone else: No, he likes Asian Prince]
[On being strapped up for an ECG] You want [the] white candle or [the] red candle?
[On Games Day] Okay, we will play a game - hide and seek. Then who shall be the catcher? CSM.
I saw this Indian guy at a bus stop on Clemenceau Avenue. He looked like a cleaner, but he was wearing a RI PE T-Shirt. Eh?
For various reasons, I have decided to close the debate I was having with The Associate. Among them: It's impossible to argue because of the surfeit of evidence, for with every anecdote I related, he could come up with one illustrating the opposite point, the issue, some of the points and arguments were subjective, contentious, ambiguous and nebulous, it is impossible to ascribe blame to any few factors when the causes are so hard to pin down, and to quantify the impact of various factors and compare them with another situation as everything is relative, and most importantly, I realised the futility of arguing with Him when he's determined to win an argument for his resources are infinite and his mental capacity of such a depth and breadth that mine pales in comparison.
Adrian wanted to play with my lavender bear. Heh heh.
Apparently haircuts are free in camp. I've been cheated. Twice. Gah.
The notice regarding the photocopying machine in the Medical Centre is stuck onto the shredder. I hope no one mistakes one for the other :)
It is somewhat flattering to have one's talents and abilities (for what little they are) appreciated and used, but it is sometimes irritating to have to write or rewrite things for others.
Yong Siang got very excited when he saw my "Juice It" grapefruit and green tomato gel, and he started asking me what effects it had on the skin. I am amused :)
We were removing our window panes to clean them, and Boon Wei got a large corner of one chipped off, and Adrian dropped one and it shattered. Penny wise, pound foolish we are. Oh well.
I saw Khairuldin and Wenda when I went to Safti for physiotherapy. They're stayout. Good for them. Gah. Their complex is big, and they've a hydrotherapy room which can be used as a pretty mean Jacuzzi, I wager. And while I was trying to stop the stupid wobble board from touching the floor, all Seetoh had to do was let the ultrasound machine heal his knee. Gah.
I got zapped by the door handle at E-mart. Gah. Anyhow, I've a new Evil Scheme (TM) for using up credit. Toilet paper is a credit item too, so all we have to do is buy 10,000 rolls of it to sell on the black market. Beats Kiwi.
We were sitting in the treatment room and Jason started mouthing lyrics to some pop song. As he mouthed them, he opened his legs and straddled my right knee, whereupon I adroitly jerked my knee in a general upward direction. Aww.
Yiliang and Tse Ming are clearing leave for ORD. I'll miss the bantering, the antics and them in general. The wheel of time turns relentless.
It's a small world. Soh Choon Seng is in Sungei Gedong also, and I met him at the bus stop wearing a T-Shirt parodying a Visa ad - it said "Vagina Accepted Here" and had a Visa logo in the centre. He's mellowed somewhat since BMT.
Some people are too used to procedure - during Games Day today one person wrote a score wrongly on the big scoreboard, which is surfaced with plastic and written on with a whiteboard marker. The person cancelled the score and counter signed. Oh well :)
Quotes:
[Me on my music tastes: Different people like different things, let's just leave it at that. For example, I don't like Korean Pop] [Someone: I also don't like Korean Pop.] I don't like Korean Pop, but I like Korean Girls.
[On sggirls.com] Quite cool. A lot of my friends there. [Me: You searched for 'acjc girls'?] I clicked 'school uniform', looked for my school. Eh? I know her. I know her. You know how they get there? [Me: They scan in the yearbook.] Fuck lar, damn cheapo.
[On sggirls.com] A lot of AC girls. All cannot make it. RJ girls are better, especially your year.
[On me lying on the floor] See, when Tang is not around this is life in the Medical Centre. Life should be like that.
[On "Agagooga" and "N!ôrlãn" being from Africa] You like African girls ah? [Someone else: No, he likes Asian Prince]
[On being strapped up for an ECG] You want [the] white candle or [the] red candle?
[On Games Day] Okay, we will play a game - hide and seek. Then who shall be the catcher? CSM.
I saw this Indian guy at a bus stop on Clemenceau Avenue. He looked like a cleaner, but he was wearing a RI PE T-Shirt. Eh?
For various reasons, I have decided to close the debate I was having with The Associate. Among them: It's impossible to argue because of the surfeit of evidence, for with every anecdote I related, he could come up with one illustrating the opposite point, the issue, some of the points and arguments were subjective, contentious, ambiguous and nebulous, it is impossible to ascribe blame to any few factors when the causes are so hard to pin down, and to quantify the impact of various factors and compare them with another situation as everything is relative, and most importantly, I realised the futility of arguing with Him when he's determined to win an argument for his resources are infinite and his mental capacity of such a depth and breadth that mine pales in comparison.
Post ID: 87270280
I was gallivanting with Yisa, dropping dry comments every now and then in Kinokuniya, when I decided to go meet the 2Lers.
They were at Breeks again. I think we've gone there before. Maybe they like the food there a lot. When I arrived, they threw me this blue women's top that Junxian had gotten free with some purchase. It's rather tight. Ahem :)
Yong Lin's grown his hair long too - now he looks like Abdul Kalam, the President of India, with the way his locks curl.
Actually, a better picture can be found at http://atomoikane.homeip.net/.../Image54.html. Obviously, he's not the one in a mini-skirt.
Yaoxian was showing off 3 albums of pictures he took of some Singapore Cosplay (Costume Play - another weird Japanese thing involving dressing up as characters from Anime, Hentai etc) that took place at Suntec City last year. It's really freaky to see teenage school girls and school boys (mostly the schoolgirls, though, somehow) dressing up as. Erm. Things. At least there weren't many lians or bengs.
VIEW THE ENORMITY OF THE HORROR
I pulled Kairen's choker from the nape of his neck and he slapped me on my right breast, and I yelped. Bah.
Apparently Yaodong went to crash RJ's O Nite :0
Quotes:
Oh my god, Gabriel, you're a woman. You've no Adam's Apple
[On a picture of a Cosplay Convention] The costume is nice. The girl is ugly.
This song is dedicated to Screwed Up Girl :)
They laugh at me, these fellows, just because I am small.
They laugh at me because I'm not a hundred feet tall.
I tell 'em there's a lot to learn here on the ground.
The world is big but little people turn it around.
A worm can roll a stone,
A bee can sting a bear,
A fly can fly around Versailles
'Cos flies don't care!
A sparrow in a hat can make a happy home,
A flea can bite the bottom of the Pope in Rome!
Goliath was a bruiser who was as tall as the sky,
but David threw a right and gave him one in the eye.
I've never read the Bible but I know that it's true
It only comes to show what little people can do!
A worm can roll a stone,
A bee can sting a bear,
A fly can fly around Versailles
'Cos flies don't care!
A sparrow in a hat can make a happy home,
A flea can bite the bottom of the Pope in Rome!
So listen here, professor,
With your head in the cloud.
It's often kinds useful
To get lost in a crowd!
So keep your universities,
I don’t give a damn.
For better or for worse,
It is the way that I am!
Be careful how you go,
'Cos little people grow...
And little people know,
When little people fight,
We may look easy pickings
But we got some bite!
So never kick a dog
Because it’s just a pup!
You better run for cover
When the pup grows up!
And we’ll fight like twenty armies,
And we won’t give up!
A worm can roll a stone,
A bee can sting a bear.
A fly can fly around Versailles
'Cos flies don't care!
A sparrow in a hat can make a happy home.
A flea can bite the bottom of the Pope in Rome!
They were at Breeks again. I think we've gone there before. Maybe they like the food there a lot. When I arrived, they threw me this blue women's top that Junxian had gotten free with some purchase. It's rather tight. Ahem :)
Yong Lin's grown his hair long too - now he looks like Abdul Kalam, the President of India, with the way his locks curl.
Actually, a better picture can be found at http://atomoikane.homeip.net/.../Image54.html. Obviously, he's not the one in a mini-skirt.
Yaoxian was showing off 3 albums of pictures he took of some Singapore Cosplay (Costume Play - another weird Japanese thing involving dressing up as characters from Anime, Hentai etc) that took place at Suntec City last year. It's really freaky to see teenage school girls and school boys (mostly the schoolgirls, though, somehow) dressing up as. Erm. Things. At least there weren't many lians or bengs.
VIEW THE ENORMITY OF THE HORROR
I pulled Kairen's choker from the nape of his neck and he slapped me on my right breast, and I yelped. Bah.
Apparently Yaodong went to crash RJ's O Nite :0
Quotes:
Oh my god, Gabriel, you're a woman. You've no Adam's Apple
[On a picture of a Cosplay Convention] The costume is nice. The girl is ugly.
This song is dedicated to Screwed Up Girl :)
They laugh at me, these fellows, just because I am small.
They laugh at me because I'm not a hundred feet tall.
I tell 'em there's a lot to learn here on the ground.
The world is big but little people turn it around.
A worm can roll a stone,
A bee can sting a bear,
A fly can fly around Versailles
'Cos flies don't care!
A sparrow in a hat can make a happy home,
A flea can bite the bottom of the Pope in Rome!
Goliath was a bruiser who was as tall as the sky,
but David threw a right and gave him one in the eye.
I've never read the Bible but I know that it's true
It only comes to show what little people can do!
A worm can roll a stone,
A bee can sting a bear,
A fly can fly around Versailles
'Cos flies don't care!
A sparrow in a hat can make a happy home,
A flea can bite the bottom of the Pope in Rome!
So listen here, professor,
With your head in the cloud.
It's often kinds useful
To get lost in a crowd!
So keep your universities,
I don’t give a damn.
For better or for worse,
It is the way that I am!
Be careful how you go,
'Cos little people grow...
And little people know,
When little people fight,
We may look easy pickings
But we got some bite!
So never kick a dog
Because it’s just a pup!
You better run for cover
When the pup grows up!
And we’ll fight like twenty armies,
And we won’t give up!
A worm can roll a stone,
A bee can sting a bear.
A fly can fly around Versailles
'Cos flies don't care!
A sparrow in a hat can make a happy home.
A flea can bite the bottom of the Pope in Rome!
Post ID: 87267868
Friday, January 10, 2003
ROFL
"letter to a son"
Dear Son,
Soon, you will begin National Service.
You will pack your bags and report to a camp ringed by high wire fences and guarded round the clock by armed sentries. To keep intruders out, or to keep you in, I wonder?
You will leave the security and comfort of home to spartan barracks where you will have to live by a clock that is not yours, to a regimen of brutal training designed to break individuals into automatons who will jump to any order unquestioningly, no matter how stupid or physically dangerous.
The slogan that is shouted at you will be that you are being turned from 'boys to men' but the reality is that the training is designed to turn 'kids to killers'. You will learn dozens of ways to kill human beings. From shooting them with a rifle to bayoneting them in the chest, to a quick, silent slash with a commando knife.
During your training, you will probably learn most of the vices that you never knew as a kid. To drink, because beer will be almost as cheap as mineral water. To smoke, because that is what everybody else does. And to find release from hellish camp conditions in paid sex, when you and your platoon mates are let off once in a while. It is all part of the pseudo macho culture of camp life. You will probably learn to swear, too, because swear words are the lingua franca in camps.
You will develop a hardening of the spirit, a carelessness to life; the opposite of the sensitising influence that all your previous education instilled in you. The refinements of Shakespeare will seem far away in the coarse barracks. It will seem another world, another time.
After your 6 months of BMT, you will gradually wind down. Most of your time will be spent in aimlessness, like area cleaning, sleeping and just hanging around. You will waste 2 to 2 1/2 years of your life thus.
That is, if you are lucky. If you are unlucky, you could be shipped to 'peacekeeping operations' in a nearby country. Where you run the real risk of being killed or injured. If you have not been killed or injured in camp training.
You see, our Government is far too ambitious. Not knowing the limitations of itself, its intelligence and its men in uniform, it has a textbook approach to its geopolitical ambitions. It has military aspirations far beyond what is sensible, which may result in your possible death and the deaths of many more of your mates.
Attacking and capturing Johor to secure our water supply is probably justifiable in a crisis, if our Government is stupid enough to let it develop into a crisis, but all other military adventures are totally unjustifiable. Especially when all our neighbours know that we have atom bombs and can deliver them to their major cities. That is deterrence enough to preclude any military intentions towards us.
But no, we go on to overkill. In order to develop a powerful offensive capability, we are spending US$4 billion a year. That is enough to build several hospitals offering totally free hospital care with even airconditioned C Class wards; build several new MRT lines; pay 50% of the last-drawn salaries of all retrenched workers until they find new jobs; build all schools into single session schools, airconditioned and with the best computer and science labs; in short, even to achieve the most generous social and living benefits equalling the Scandinavian countries.
But at the rate we are going, it is we who will entertain and engage in geopolitical games and military adventures. For example, if Indonesia breaks up and descends into turmoil for several years, our politicians and generals, often one and the same, may decide to provoke an excuse to annexe say, Sumatra (if they think big enough) or at least, nearby Batam, Bintan and some Riau Islands because they are near and easily defended.
Of course, the same can be done if Malaysia descends into, say, racial turmoil. We would annexe up to the planned Segamat Line and the largely Chinese Malaysians within this territory will make it easy to consolidate.
Many lives will be needed for these adventures. Perhaps even yours.
It will not only break my heart but will incense me because I always believed that no one should be forced to fight and die for something he does not believe in. If you are a volunteer and you choose to join the army, that is fine but as a NS man, you have no choice. You are conscripted and ordered to fight and perhaps die.
I know that there are those who argue that the Government is 'elected' and therefore, once elected, it governs without further reference to us or our wishes. And that therefore, we should obey even if it means dying.
But in Singapore, the voters have no real choice. Because of the way the PAP rigs the General Election and opposition politics, the voters never had a choice of Government. Therefore, we did not choose the PAP willingly. Thus, we never gave them the mandate to order us into wars, especially wars not directly threatening our security.
Nobody should have to die for something he does not believe in. In Singapore, many, many Singaporeans have stopped believing in the PAP. You only have to visit the local websites to find the depth of feeling against the PAP. Even PAP members find no pride in being a member. It is like some dreadful, shameful secret they don't want others to know.
The GE will be upon us soon. If given the chance to vote, that is, if our constituency is contested, I shall vote Opposition, no matter who. It is a pity that you have no vote. Like they say, you are old enough to die for the country but you are not old enough to vote.
Make no mistake about it. The PAP has lost its moral authority. It is now even gagging the Internet, a futile exercise that indicates its desperation in trying to silence the vocal public. It is now engaged in a virtual war against even its own people. But it will lose. And I believe it will begin its losing in the coming General Election.
Take care, son.
Dad
Actually the above goes rather out of point towards the middle. The writer would fail his GP. I'm not vehemently anti-PAP, and the writer does start to rave incoherently towards the end, but much of the 'letter', especially the first part, *are* true :) I think it's meant to be a spoof of the "letter" that was in "Shoulder To Shoulder - Our National Service Journal".
Also found a very disturbing anti-Singapore website, with bad English, much rambling and general incoherence and irrelevance.
Sample article:
http://harimau.org/0102/sgpstory.htm
The Singapore Story! Haram!
11 May, 2001
H. Nasution
Surabaya
Melayu Singapura bagaikan menumpang di negara sendiri
Sebagai sampah di-tengah laut, terapung apung tanpa tujuan.
The Malay langauage edition of LKY’s "The Singapore Story" has hit the market. Few Malays will show much interst in the book, as it is written by a man considered by many to be very ant-malay and anti-Islam. In fact a "fatwa" should be decreed that any Malay reading the book should be condidered an "apostate(murtad)".
LKY had softetened his approach towards all things Malays by stating that the Integration process between Malays and other Races are progressing well. On a scale of 1 to10, he claimed that Malays will achieve the scale of 7 or 8 within 20 years. The scale of 10 indicates that Malays are no longer Muslims. They will drink hard liquor at the same table as the Chinese and will be relishing pork meat dishes. Mayhaps LKY’s optimisim is stemmed from the Straits Times article (28/4/2001) "Malay Dancer" fined S$1000/- for showing(bared) her breasts (Buah Payu, the Bertita Harian calls it), at Venom discotheque on 18/11/2000.
What is MUIS or the Shariah Court’s action on this "Buah Payu" issue? Nothing.
All Malays should read instead the book writen by Dr. Lily Zubaidah Rahim "The Singapoe Dilemma- The Political and Educational Marginilty of the Malay Community". An abridged version of the book in Malay and English will be available shortly.
Watch the Harimau Organization website for the annnouncement.
"letter to a son"
Dear Son,
Soon, you will begin National Service.
You will pack your bags and report to a camp ringed by high wire fences and guarded round the clock by armed sentries. To keep intruders out, or to keep you in, I wonder?
You will leave the security and comfort of home to spartan barracks where you will have to live by a clock that is not yours, to a regimen of brutal training designed to break individuals into automatons who will jump to any order unquestioningly, no matter how stupid or physically dangerous.
The slogan that is shouted at you will be that you are being turned from 'boys to men' but the reality is that the training is designed to turn 'kids to killers'. You will learn dozens of ways to kill human beings. From shooting them with a rifle to bayoneting them in the chest, to a quick, silent slash with a commando knife.
During your training, you will probably learn most of the vices that you never knew as a kid. To drink, because beer will be almost as cheap as mineral water. To smoke, because that is what everybody else does. And to find release from hellish camp conditions in paid sex, when you and your platoon mates are let off once in a while. It is all part of the pseudo macho culture of camp life. You will probably learn to swear, too, because swear words are the lingua franca in camps.
You will develop a hardening of the spirit, a carelessness to life; the opposite of the sensitising influence that all your previous education instilled in you. The refinements of Shakespeare will seem far away in the coarse barracks. It will seem another world, another time.
After your 6 months of BMT, you will gradually wind down. Most of your time will be spent in aimlessness, like area cleaning, sleeping and just hanging around. You will waste 2 to 2 1/2 years of your life thus.
That is, if you are lucky. If you are unlucky, you could be shipped to 'peacekeeping operations' in a nearby country. Where you run the real risk of being killed or injured. If you have not been killed or injured in camp training.
You see, our Government is far too ambitious. Not knowing the limitations of itself, its intelligence and its men in uniform, it has a textbook approach to its geopolitical ambitions. It has military aspirations far beyond what is sensible, which may result in your possible death and the deaths of many more of your mates.
Attacking and capturing Johor to secure our water supply is probably justifiable in a crisis, if our Government is stupid enough to let it develop into a crisis, but all other military adventures are totally unjustifiable. Especially when all our neighbours know that we have atom bombs and can deliver them to their major cities. That is deterrence enough to preclude any military intentions towards us.
But no, we go on to overkill. In order to develop a powerful offensive capability, we are spending US$4 billion a year. That is enough to build several hospitals offering totally free hospital care with even airconditioned C Class wards; build several new MRT lines; pay 50% of the last-drawn salaries of all retrenched workers until they find new jobs; build all schools into single session schools, airconditioned and with the best computer and science labs; in short, even to achieve the most generous social and living benefits equalling the Scandinavian countries.
But at the rate we are going, it is we who will entertain and engage in geopolitical games and military adventures. For example, if Indonesia breaks up and descends into turmoil for several years, our politicians and generals, often one and the same, may decide to provoke an excuse to annexe say, Sumatra (if they think big enough) or at least, nearby Batam, Bintan and some Riau Islands because they are near and easily defended.
Of course, the same can be done if Malaysia descends into, say, racial turmoil. We would annexe up to the planned Segamat Line and the largely Chinese Malaysians within this territory will make it easy to consolidate.
Many lives will be needed for these adventures. Perhaps even yours.
It will not only break my heart but will incense me because I always believed that no one should be forced to fight and die for something he does not believe in. If you are a volunteer and you choose to join the army, that is fine but as a NS man, you have no choice. You are conscripted and ordered to fight and perhaps die.
I know that there are those who argue that the Government is 'elected' and therefore, once elected, it governs without further reference to us or our wishes. And that therefore, we should obey even if it means dying.
But in Singapore, the voters have no real choice. Because of the way the PAP rigs the General Election and opposition politics, the voters never had a choice of Government. Therefore, we did not choose the PAP willingly. Thus, we never gave them the mandate to order us into wars, especially wars not directly threatening our security.
Nobody should have to die for something he does not believe in. In Singapore, many, many Singaporeans have stopped believing in the PAP. You only have to visit the local websites to find the depth of feeling against the PAP. Even PAP members find no pride in being a member. It is like some dreadful, shameful secret they don't want others to know.
The GE will be upon us soon. If given the chance to vote, that is, if our constituency is contested, I shall vote Opposition, no matter who. It is a pity that you have no vote. Like they say, you are old enough to die for the country but you are not old enough to vote.
Make no mistake about it. The PAP has lost its moral authority. It is now even gagging the Internet, a futile exercise that indicates its desperation in trying to silence the vocal public. It is now engaged in a virtual war against even its own people. But it will lose. And I believe it will begin its losing in the coming General Election.
Take care, son.
Dad
Actually the above goes rather out of point towards the middle. The writer would fail his GP. I'm not vehemently anti-PAP, and the writer does start to rave incoherently towards the end, but much of the 'letter', especially the first part, *are* true :) I think it's meant to be a spoof of the "letter" that was in "Shoulder To Shoulder - Our National Service Journal".
Also found a very disturbing anti-Singapore website, with bad English, much rambling and general incoherence and irrelevance.
Sample article:
http://harimau.org/0102/sgpstory.htm
The Singapore Story! Haram!
11 May, 2001
H. Nasution
Surabaya
Melayu Singapura bagaikan menumpang di negara sendiri
Sebagai sampah di-tengah laut, terapung apung tanpa tujuan.
The Malay langauage edition of LKY’s "The Singapore Story" has hit the market. Few Malays will show much interst in the book, as it is written by a man considered by many to be very ant-malay and anti-Islam. In fact a "fatwa" should be decreed that any Malay reading the book should be condidered an "apostate(murtad)".
LKY had softetened his approach towards all things Malays by stating that the Integration process between Malays and other Races are progressing well. On a scale of 1 to10, he claimed that Malays will achieve the scale of 7 or 8 within 20 years. The scale of 10 indicates that Malays are no longer Muslims. They will drink hard liquor at the same table as the Chinese and will be relishing pork meat dishes. Mayhaps LKY’s optimisim is stemmed from the Straits Times article (28/4/2001) "Malay Dancer" fined S$1000/- for showing(bared) her breasts (Buah Payu, the Bertita Harian calls it), at Venom discotheque on 18/11/2000.
What is MUIS or the Shariah Court’s action on this "Buah Payu" issue? Nothing.
All Malays should read instead the book writen by Dr. Lily Zubaidah Rahim "The Singapoe Dilemma- The Political and Educational Marginilty of the Malay Community". An abridged version of the book in Malay and English will be available shortly.
Watch the Harimau Organization website for the annnouncement.
Post ID: 87220380
Haha
Something a friend forwarded me :)
Bigger version available.
Interestingly, the original email came from a government address :0
Something a friend forwarded me :)
Bigger version available.
Interestingly, the original email came from a government address :0
Post ID: 87219559
Strap-on aircraft to be sold on eBay
Associated Press
Ever wanted your very own personal flying machine? Now's your chance to get one, but you'll have to shell out some serious cash - and resist the urge to take it for a spin.
The SoloTrek XFV, which made its maiden "flight" in December 2001, is scheduled to go on sale Friday on eBay with a starting bid of about $50,000. Michael Moshier, chief executive of Trek Aerospace, the military-funded company designing the machine, expects the final price in the seven-day auction to exceed $1 million.
The prototype has only hovered a few feet off the ground in tests. But it is built to zoom up to 69 mph for 100 miles, carrying a person who weighs up to 180 pounds. Two overhead ducted fans lift the gas-powered machine, and a standing operator steers with a joystick in each hand.
"We didn't want to test it higher than we were willing to fall," Moshier said.
Engineers at Trek Aerospace retired the prototype last summer to concentrate on a second-generation model with better joysticks and a smoother engine. The Sunnyvale-based company hopes to sell personal flying machines to the military, allowing soldiers to pass over swamps, mine fields and other rough terrain.
The company is studying whether consumers would use its craft, which theoretically could ascend to 10,000 feet.
The winner of the auction must sign a contract promising not to fly the prototype, to use it for exhibition only. Moshier expects to sell the aluminum and titanium machine to a museum or aviation enthusiast.
"It's a different kind of aircraft," he said. "It has a tremendous amount of historical value."
Associated Press
Ever wanted your very own personal flying machine? Now's your chance to get one, but you'll have to shell out some serious cash - and resist the urge to take it for a spin.
The SoloTrek XFV, which made its maiden "flight" in December 2001, is scheduled to go on sale Friday on eBay with a starting bid of about $50,000. Michael Moshier, chief executive of Trek Aerospace, the military-funded company designing the machine, expects the final price in the seven-day auction to exceed $1 million.
The prototype has only hovered a few feet off the ground in tests. But it is built to zoom up to 69 mph for 100 miles, carrying a person who weighs up to 180 pounds. Two overhead ducted fans lift the gas-powered machine, and a standing operator steers with a joystick in each hand.
"We didn't want to test it higher than we were willing to fall," Moshier said.
Engineers at Trek Aerospace retired the prototype last summer to concentrate on a second-generation model with better joysticks and a smoother engine. The Sunnyvale-based company hopes to sell personal flying machines to the military, allowing soldiers to pass over swamps, mine fields and other rough terrain.
The company is studying whether consumers would use its craft, which theoretically could ascend to 10,000 feet.
The winner of the auction must sign a contract promising not to fly the prototype, to use it for exhibition only. Moshier expects to sell the aluminum and titanium machine to a museum or aviation enthusiast.
"It's a different kind of aircraft," he said. "It has a tremendous amount of historical value."
Hmm :)
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE
China: Internet users at risk of arbitrary detention, torture and even execution
Amnesty International called today on the Chinese authorities to release all those currently detained or jailed for using the Internet to peacefully express their views or share information.
"Everyone detained purely for peacefully publishing their views or other information on the Internet or for accessing certain websites are prisoners of conscience," Amnesty International said. "They should be released immediately and unconditionally".
Post ID: 87218503
Varsity Science & Technology -- The Leidenfrost Effect
The Leidenfrost Effect
or how to walk over hot coals
By Raymond Ho
Browsing through my physics textbook (odd as it may sound) I happened upon something called the Leidenfrost Effect. The phenomenon, named for the German physicist who studied it, explains how it is possible for people to walk over hot coals.
Leidenfrost heated a spoon red-hot over a fireplace. He placed a drop of water in the spoon, and noted that it lasted for about 30 seconds. After the drop had evaporated, it left a "dull" spot, where the spoon had cooled considerably. The next drop of water lasted for about 10 seconds, and subsequent drops of water lasted for only a few seconds. Thus, at lower temperatures, the drops of water evaporated more quickly than at higher temperatures. How was this possible?
For many liquids, there is a temperature well above its boiling point called the Leidenfrost point. Water has a Leidenfrost point of over 200 degrees Celsius. Consider a simple experiment where a droplet of water is placed on a hot surface (hot: a temperature above the boiling point of water). If the temperature of the surface is below the Leidenfrost point, then the droplet starts to spread out and vaporises rather quickly. At or above the Leidenfrost point, however, the bottom layer of the droplet vaporises almost immediately on contact, effectively creating a cushion of vapour that repels the rest of the droplet from the surface. The droplet does not make contact with the surface, and thus no heat can be transferred directly from the surface.
At such high temperatures, one might expect that the vapour layer would quickly transfer enough heat to the rest of the droplet to vaporise it. Water vapour, however, is a very poor conductor of heat at these temperatures. Hence, the vapour layer actually acts as an insulator.
Being curious, I tried conducting this experiment myself. I took a frying pan and began heating it on my stovetop. I sprinkled a few droplets of water on it, and watched as they quickly fizzled away. As the pan grew hotter, the droplets took longer and longer to vaporise. After some time, the pan was hot enough so that the droplets of water remained for well over a minute. This "experiment" is actually a common practise in the kitchen, to determine whether or not your skillet is hot enough for making pancakes.
Intrigued by the effect, I continued. Eventually, I managed to produce a globule of water, approximately two centimetres in diameter, that vaporised at an extremely slow rate. It remained on the pan for about three minutes before disappearing.
At this point, I grew even more curious, and decided to conduct more experiments. I had read that it is possible to plunge wet fingers into molten lead for a split-second. The insulating vapour layer would allow very little heat to be transferred to the flesh. A variation of this: holding liquid nitrogen in one's mouth.
I wasn't about to try my hand at these activities, but I did try an experiment that relates to walking over hot coals. With the frying pan still hot, I wet my fingers and went to touch the hot surface. After conjuring up enough courage to go through with this, I put my finger on the pan for a split-second, and marvelled as I felt no heat. I did this several times, with the same result. By this time, my finger tips had become slightly charred, but I didn't feel any pain. I tried touching a dry finger to the surface, and noticed that it became quite hot.
I still wasn't satisfied. I took the frying pan off the stove and stared at the red-hot element, wet my finger, and touched it. As expected, I didn't feel anything. I repeated this several times. And as if this wasn't enough, I went one step further. Being a brave fool, I wet my entire hand, and placed it across the element for an instant. The laws of physics did not fail me; I was unharmed, but I noticed afterwards that there were white marks on the palm of my hand, roughly in the shape of a stove element. It was probably just some burnt dead skin. Nothing to worry about.
The Leidenfrost Effect explains how people can walk over hot coals without burning themselves. Either they wet their feet prior to the stunt, or they become so nervous that the perspiration on their feet is sufficient. In addition, the heat capacity of coal is relatively low. So although the coals may have a high temperature, they will transfer little heat to the person's feet. If walking briskly, then the time that one's foot is in contact with the coals is very short, thus decreasing further the amount of heat that can be transferred.
The Leidenfrost Effect has long been observed in various carnival stunts. Personally, I would not recommend doing any of the more ambitious experiments that I mentioned above. These stunts have been performed by many people, but not without a few accidents. Though if you're more foolish than I am, and you really, really, have faith in physics, then who's going to stop you?
The Leidenfrost Effect
or how to walk over hot coals
By Raymond Ho
Browsing through my physics textbook (odd as it may sound) I happened upon something called the Leidenfrost Effect. The phenomenon, named for the German physicist who studied it, explains how it is possible for people to walk over hot coals.
Leidenfrost heated a spoon red-hot over a fireplace. He placed a drop of water in the spoon, and noted that it lasted for about 30 seconds. After the drop had evaporated, it left a "dull" spot, where the spoon had cooled considerably. The next drop of water lasted for about 10 seconds, and subsequent drops of water lasted for only a few seconds. Thus, at lower temperatures, the drops of water evaporated more quickly than at higher temperatures. How was this possible?
For many liquids, there is a temperature well above its boiling point called the Leidenfrost point. Water has a Leidenfrost point of over 200 degrees Celsius. Consider a simple experiment where a droplet of water is placed on a hot surface (hot: a temperature above the boiling point of water). If the temperature of the surface is below the Leidenfrost point, then the droplet starts to spread out and vaporises rather quickly. At or above the Leidenfrost point, however, the bottom layer of the droplet vaporises almost immediately on contact, effectively creating a cushion of vapour that repels the rest of the droplet from the surface. The droplet does not make contact with the surface, and thus no heat can be transferred directly from the surface.
At such high temperatures, one might expect that the vapour layer would quickly transfer enough heat to the rest of the droplet to vaporise it. Water vapour, however, is a very poor conductor of heat at these temperatures. Hence, the vapour layer actually acts as an insulator.
Being curious, I tried conducting this experiment myself. I took a frying pan and began heating it on my stovetop. I sprinkled a few droplets of water on it, and watched as they quickly fizzled away. As the pan grew hotter, the droplets took longer and longer to vaporise. After some time, the pan was hot enough so that the droplets of water remained for well over a minute. This "experiment" is actually a common practise in the kitchen, to determine whether or not your skillet is hot enough for making pancakes.
Intrigued by the effect, I continued. Eventually, I managed to produce a globule of water, approximately two centimetres in diameter, that vaporised at an extremely slow rate. It remained on the pan for about three minutes before disappearing.
At this point, I grew even more curious, and decided to conduct more experiments. I had read that it is possible to plunge wet fingers into molten lead for a split-second. The insulating vapour layer would allow very little heat to be transferred to the flesh. A variation of this: holding liquid nitrogen in one's mouth.
I wasn't about to try my hand at these activities, but I did try an experiment that relates to walking over hot coals. With the frying pan still hot, I wet my fingers and went to touch the hot surface. After conjuring up enough courage to go through with this, I put my finger on the pan for a split-second, and marvelled as I felt no heat. I did this several times, with the same result. By this time, my finger tips had become slightly charred, but I didn't feel any pain. I tried touching a dry finger to the surface, and noticed that it became quite hot.
I still wasn't satisfied. I took the frying pan off the stove and stared at the red-hot element, wet my finger, and touched it. As expected, I didn't feel anything. I repeated this several times. And as if this wasn't enough, I went one step further. Being a brave fool, I wet my entire hand, and placed it across the element for an instant. The laws of physics did not fail me; I was unharmed, but I noticed afterwards that there were white marks on the palm of my hand, roughly in the shape of a stove element. It was probably just some burnt dead skin. Nothing to worry about.
The Leidenfrost Effect explains how people can walk over hot coals without burning themselves. Either they wet their feet prior to the stunt, or they become so nervous that the perspiration on their feet is sufficient. In addition, the heat capacity of coal is relatively low. So although the coals may have a high temperature, they will transfer little heat to the person's feet. If walking briskly, then the time that one's foot is in contact with the coals is very short, thus decreasing further the amount of heat that can be transferred.
The Leidenfrost Effect has long been observed in various carnival stunts. Personally, I would not recommend doing any of the more ambitious experiments that I mentioned above. These stunts have been performed by many people, but not without a few accidents. Though if you're more foolish than I am, and you really, really, have faith in physics, then who's going to stop you?
Post ID: 87216419
Thursday, January 09, 2003
I got a really confusing mail
"Subject: pork post
Body: I was searching google for info on the coke-worms rumor, and I stumbled upon your grossly ignorant, pretentious - american commentary on the subject. Instead of wasting my time countering every ignorant statement made by you, in all your teenage glory - I will assault yet one. The worms they speak of eating are the parasitic type. You are not such a genious afterall, huh sweetie?"
I don't really understand what this person was trying to say, but I got inspired and updated my rebuttal of the Poorly argued article on why we should not eat pork, reproduced below, with one or two additional points from Xephyris :) Once he's done with his research, more will follow from him, now, won't it? *poke poke*
More Referrals:
"guiness book malays world most stupid race" - Someone really doesn't like our Malay brothers.
"blog singapore soc" - It's tough. At least the one I think the person was looking for.
"nude singapore ah lians" - Argy. Will this nightmare of bad taste never end?
"aunty's nude photos" - Eeeeeee. This is even worse than Lians.
"morrowind nude naked sex" - One level up from nude character dolls.
"lindy hop knee hurts" - Ooo. After Runner's Knee, we have Dancer's Knee.
"pictures of singaporeans nude in swimming pool" - Weird tastes people have.
"killer chicks" - Chickens can spread Salmonella, you know?
"bubbly girls nude pix" - How can you tell personality from a picture"
"SCGS Uniform" - I'm sure there're lots of pictures of these on Yahoo Auctions. I notice no other school gets searches for their uniforms. Not Nanyang, certainly.
"how to find child porn" - I'm the only hit for this query. WTH?! I hereby disassociate myself with Pedophiles.
"Daniel Radcliffe shaving photo"
"daniel radcliffe pictures in swimming trunks" - He's so young. Isn't it rather cruel to prey on one such as he? Be content with the slash fics and begone with ye!
"chinx blog" - Someone's looking for Mr Chong Chin Xiang's rants?
"blog, jc orientation" - 3 years past, I am *wistful*
+"singapore armed forces" +invade - Someone looking for Classified information? Won't find it on my blog, no you won't. Though I've some eccentric ideas, which *just* might work, yes I do.
"cute guys from rjc" - Very few. Very very few.
"military "powder bath"" - This doesn't work at all, I tell you. The flies still get at ya.
"Smurf Porn" - !!! That is just so repellent. Corruptors of my childhood - off with ye!
"how to avoid reservist singapore" - Ask a clerk. I don't know. I might want to know myself :)
"malaysian malay girl's sex service" - Eugh.
"featherlite condom review" - Never tried them, won't know.
"sweat" + "smell of ammonia" - Yes, this plagued me a lot in BMT. Disgusting, it was.
"Sun Yanzi Porn" - Erm. Try Kazaa.
"chij girls nude" - Sigh. Why CHIJ anyway?
"nude cheongsam picture" - Doesn't wearing a cheongsam preclude being naked?
"fhm ladies malay" - I think there are none in FHM. Maybe FHM Malaysia.
"Subject: pork post
Body: I was searching google for info on the coke-worms rumor, and I stumbled upon your grossly ignorant, pretentious - american commentary on the subject. Instead of wasting my time countering every ignorant statement made by you, in all your teenage glory - I will assault yet one. The worms they speak of eating are the parasitic type. You are not such a genious afterall, huh sweetie?"
I don't really understand what this person was trying to say, but I got inspired and updated my rebuttal of the Poorly argued article on why we should not eat pork, reproduced below, with one or two additional points from Xephyris :) Once he's done with his research, more will follow from him, now, won't it? *poke poke*
More Referrals:
"guiness book malays world most stupid race" - Someone really doesn't like our Malay brothers.
"blog singapore soc" - It's tough. At least the one I think the person was looking for.
"nude singapore ah lians" - Argy. Will this nightmare of bad taste never end?
"aunty's nude photos" - Eeeeeee. This is even worse than Lians.
"morrowind nude naked sex" - One level up from nude character dolls.
"lindy hop knee hurts" - Ooo. After Runner's Knee, we have Dancer's Knee.
"pictures of singaporeans nude in swimming pool" - Weird tastes people have.
"killer chicks" - Chickens can spread Salmonella, you know?
"bubbly girls nude pix" - How can you tell personality from a picture"
"SCGS Uniform" - I'm sure there're lots of pictures of these on Yahoo Auctions. I notice no other school gets searches for their uniforms. Not Nanyang, certainly.
"how to find child porn" - I'm the only hit for this query. WTH?! I hereby disassociate myself with Pedophiles.
"Daniel Radcliffe shaving photo"
"daniel radcliffe pictures in swimming trunks" - He's so young. Isn't it rather cruel to prey on one such as he? Be content with the slash fics and begone with ye!
"chinx blog" - Someone's looking for Mr Chong Chin Xiang's rants?
"blog, jc orientation" - 3 years past, I am *wistful*
+"singapore armed forces" +invade - Someone looking for Classified information? Won't find it on my blog, no you won't. Though I've some eccentric ideas, which *just* might work, yes I do.
"cute guys from rjc" - Very few. Very very few.
"military "powder bath"" - This doesn't work at all, I tell you. The flies still get at ya.
"Smurf Porn" - !!! That is just so repellent. Corruptors of my childhood - off with ye!
"how to avoid reservist singapore" - Ask a clerk. I don't know. I might want to know myself :)
"malaysian malay girl's sex service" - Eugh.
"featherlite condom review" - Never tried them, won't know.
"sweat" + "smell of ammonia" - Yes, this plagued me a lot in BMT. Disgusting, it was.
"Sun Yanzi Porn" - Erm. Try Kazaa.
"chij girls nude" - Sigh. Why CHIJ anyway?
"nude cheongsam picture" - Doesn't wearing a cheongsam preclude being naked?
"fhm ladies malay" - I think there are none in FHM. Maybe FHM Malaysia.
Post ID: 87166756
Tuesday, January 07, 2003
Sunday, January 05, 2003
My trip - Part 5 of X
On New Year's Eve, my last full day, I went to Greenwich with my sister and brother in law.
At the Royal Observatory, I looked through a replica of a 1774 telescope, only to see Pluto in all its glory, in full colour. With ears, tail, ears and all. Someone has a sense of humour, apparently. I also got to try using a quadrant, and there was a corner about the stupid Powder of Sympathy way of finding longitude. When I was done I had a look around the National Maritime Museum.
We had lunch - at 3pm or so - at a place called 'Saigon Buffet' which supposedly served Chinese and Vietnamese food. In fact, there wasn't any Vietnamese food at all, and there was beef and chicken curry too. It was awfully cheap though - £5.50 for a weekday lunch (12pm-6pm), and there were about 40 things to eat, though there is this odd 10% surcharge on Valentines Day and Mothers Day.
Exiting Covent Garden tube station later, on my way to watch My Fair Lady, I heard an announcement - "Customers are advised that there are 193 steps. This is equivalent to 15 storeys". No wonder I got so winded in 2001 when I got sick of waiting and decided to climb all the way to the top!
At the theatre, some people were obviously struck with compulsive photo taking syndrome, for I was asked by *2* couples, one elderly and the other consisting of 2 young women, to take their pictures. And at the end of the wonderful show, the cast came up for their second bow just a little too early.
It was interesting contrasting the musical technology used in HMS Pinafore and My Fair Lady. The late 19th Century show has a static stage, but in the latter the floor keeps moving and props fly down from the ceiling.
The good thing about watching shows in London is that NO mobile phones ring. Not that I've heard. Yeh! However, people like to clap at inappropriate times, so sometimes the dialogue is cut off, or the beginning of a song cannot be heard.
The night of New Year's Eve was pleasantly warm, but there were many Bobbies at Embankment and many young people running around deliriously, many clutching bottles of cheap alcohol (mostly champagne).
I got cheated of 50p at Canary Wharf because the machine swallowed my money and wouldn't vend anything or give it back. Looking at the LCD, I saw that it had already swallowed £23.90 of hapless consumers' change before I'd been conned. To add insult to injury, calling the hotline, I was told - twice - by an automated voice that calls from mobiles were chargeable, so I gave up.
The next day - New Year - the train was full of young people coming from the party at the Millennium Dome. They all were bleary-eyed and were dazed and wasted. I wonder how many did drugs or got lucky the previous night. And in the next carriage there were people dressed as high school basketball players and cheerleaders. Weird.
At Heathrow, I decided to try Dr Pepper again. The first and previous time I'd sampled it was in Hawaii and I recall it being so vile that I threw the rest away. I thought, 'Surely it can't be so bad a second time?', and indeed it wasn't. It reminds me of artificial cherries, among other unspecified things. Does it really contain pepper?
"Its unique flavor comes from the blending of 23 fruits, none of which are prunes." - Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Inc.
It now behooves me to decide whether F&N "Freaky" Fruitade or Dr Pepper is the worst drink of all time.
The flight back was very crowded, so I couldn't spread my legs as I did on the flight to London. We got ice cream again - instead of the cheap Nestle Crunch type, we got Losely Natural Flavour Ice Cream (the same brand as what I ate during HMS Pinafore). I also got to read the New Straits Times on the flight back - it's rather parochial, covering Malaysian stories of no import (I'm not interested in the ins and outs of the latest Khalwat case), and the selection of World News pathetic. It is also very biased in its writing. The 'Life and Times' section is rather good, though, with a wide range of topics.
Some idiot stole the Men's and Women's cologne in one of the aircraft toilets. Must be a kiasu Singaporean. Lucky no one stole the toilet seat covers. There were no sanitary pads or tampons to steal, though. It's rather stingy of MAS not to provide them, actually.
I got a free upgrade to Business Class on the way back to Singapore. 40 mins, but nice anyway. Must be to reward me for my steadfast loyalty to Ma-laysia Airlines!
There was this crazy woman running around with a one strapped top and a half thigh long skirt one night.
I saw the Kingfisher Book of Evolution going for £14.99 at Greenwich's Maritime Museum. Maybe I could've bought that for my MO :)
I got 3 Cadbury's Creme Eggs. Mmm.
The confectionary machines in the Underground stations are really nice, but they need drink machines too.
There were these ads for a "School Disco", one of the weird concept parties. Basically you have these grown adults going to a disco in school uniforms. Altered ones, rather. In the ad, there's this girl whose white blouse is tied under her breasts, is playing with her tie and is wearing a microskirt. I saw some people going to one of the School Discos on New Year's Eve. The males look disheveled and typically have ties that aren't tied properly, pants that are too short, untucked shirts and weird shoes. The females dress like the girl in the ad, and I saw one with thin knee high socks (this isn't a Japanese School Disco!). Maybe it's a fetish.
Maybe I will make a company selling funky tudungs in the future. The ones they have now are just so plain and boring.
Why do Airline Stewardessed have to wear so much makeup? They look like dolls or, dare I say, harlots.
My jet lag on the way to London was much worse than what I got when I returned. Wrong sequence of events, I say :(
Cheapskate enough to get me to bring toilet paper to London, my sister got me to mail her postcards for her from here. Bah.
My 13 SMSes suddenly became 2 when I returned my father his SIM card :(
Quotes:
[In Canary Wharf station toilet] Surveillance cameras in constant operation (!)
Suicide Bomber Barbie! Ultimate empowerment.
On New Year's Eve, my last full day, I went to Greenwich with my sister and brother in law.
At the Royal Observatory, I looked through a replica of a 1774 telescope, only to see Pluto in all its glory, in full colour. With ears, tail, ears and all. Someone has a sense of humour, apparently. I also got to try using a quadrant, and there was a corner about the stupid Powder of Sympathy way of finding longitude. When I was done I had a look around the National Maritime Museum.
We had lunch - at 3pm or so - at a place called 'Saigon Buffet' which supposedly served Chinese and Vietnamese food. In fact, there wasn't any Vietnamese food at all, and there was beef and chicken curry too. It was awfully cheap though - £5.50 for a weekday lunch (12pm-6pm), and there were about 40 things to eat, though there is this odd 10% surcharge on Valentines Day and Mothers Day.
Exiting Covent Garden tube station later, on my way to watch My Fair Lady, I heard an announcement - "Customers are advised that there are 193 steps. This is equivalent to 15 storeys". No wonder I got so winded in 2001 when I got sick of waiting and decided to climb all the way to the top!
At the theatre, some people were obviously struck with compulsive photo taking syndrome, for I was asked by *2* couples, one elderly and the other consisting of 2 young women, to take their pictures. And at the end of the wonderful show, the cast came up for their second bow just a little too early.
It was interesting contrasting the musical technology used in HMS Pinafore and My Fair Lady. The late 19th Century show has a static stage, but in the latter the floor keeps moving and props fly down from the ceiling.
The good thing about watching shows in London is that NO mobile phones ring. Not that I've heard. Yeh! However, people like to clap at inappropriate times, so sometimes the dialogue is cut off, or the beginning of a song cannot be heard.
The night of New Year's Eve was pleasantly warm, but there were many Bobbies at Embankment and many young people running around deliriously, many clutching bottles of cheap alcohol (mostly champagne).
I got cheated of 50p at Canary Wharf because the machine swallowed my money and wouldn't vend anything or give it back. Looking at the LCD, I saw that it had already swallowed £23.90 of hapless consumers' change before I'd been conned. To add insult to injury, calling the hotline, I was told - twice - by an automated voice that calls from mobiles were chargeable, so I gave up.
The next day - New Year - the train was full of young people coming from the party at the Millennium Dome. They all were bleary-eyed and were dazed and wasted. I wonder how many did drugs or got lucky the previous night. And in the next carriage there were people dressed as high school basketball players and cheerleaders. Weird.
At Heathrow, I decided to try Dr Pepper again. The first and previous time I'd sampled it was in Hawaii and I recall it being so vile that I threw the rest away. I thought, 'Surely it can't be so bad a second time?', and indeed it wasn't. It reminds me of artificial cherries, among other unspecified things. Does it really contain pepper?
"Its unique flavor comes from the blending of 23 fruits, none of which are prunes." - Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Inc.
It now behooves me to decide whether F&N "Freaky" Fruitade or Dr Pepper is the worst drink of all time.
The flight back was very crowded, so I couldn't spread my legs as I did on the flight to London. We got ice cream again - instead of the cheap Nestle Crunch type, we got Losely Natural Flavour Ice Cream (the same brand as what I ate during HMS Pinafore). I also got to read the New Straits Times on the flight back - it's rather parochial, covering Malaysian stories of no import (I'm not interested in the ins and outs of the latest Khalwat case), and the selection of World News pathetic. It is also very biased in its writing. The 'Life and Times' section is rather good, though, with a wide range of topics.
Some idiot stole the Men's and Women's cologne in one of the aircraft toilets. Must be a kiasu Singaporean. Lucky no one stole the toilet seat covers. There were no sanitary pads or tampons to steal, though. It's rather stingy of MAS not to provide them, actually.
I got a free upgrade to Business Class on the way back to Singapore. 40 mins, but nice anyway. Must be to reward me for my steadfast loyalty to Ma-laysia Airlines!
There was this crazy woman running around with a one strapped top and a half thigh long skirt one night.
I saw the Kingfisher Book of Evolution going for £14.99 at Greenwich's Maritime Museum. Maybe I could've bought that for my MO :)
I got 3 Cadbury's Creme Eggs. Mmm.
The confectionary machines in the Underground stations are really nice, but they need drink machines too.
There were these ads for a "School Disco", one of the weird concept parties. Basically you have these grown adults going to a disco in school uniforms. Altered ones, rather. In the ad, there's this girl whose white blouse is tied under her breasts, is playing with her tie and is wearing a microskirt. I saw some people going to one of the School Discos on New Year's Eve. The males look disheveled and typically have ties that aren't tied properly, pants that are too short, untucked shirts and weird shoes. The females dress like the girl in the ad, and I saw one with thin knee high socks (this isn't a Japanese School Disco!). Maybe it's a fetish.
Maybe I will make a company selling funky tudungs in the future. The ones they have now are just so plain and boring.
Why do Airline Stewardessed have to wear so much makeup? They look like dolls or, dare I say, harlots.
My jet lag on the way to London was much worse than what I got when I returned. Wrong sequence of events, I say :(
Cheapskate enough to get me to bring toilet paper to London, my sister got me to mail her postcards for her from here. Bah.
My 13 SMSes suddenly became 2 when I returned my father his SIM card :(
Quotes:
[In Canary Wharf station toilet] Surveillance cameras in constant operation (!)
Suicide Bomber Barbie! Ultimate empowerment.
Post ID: 86959953
Echoes:
Someone: anyway i've lost most of my confidence in the military thanks to you.
Me: you're welcome
but just what did I say
Someone: no, it's just the thought of people like you having to defend us. i mean, you have soft toys in your bunk
Me: umm, I can let the sick patients cuddle my lavender scented bear!
Someone: this isn't helping
Me: don't worry, you can go to the S-Cube seminar next year!
Security, Survival, SUCCESS!
http://www.mindef.gov.sg/ne/2002/index.html
Someone: the s-cube is lousy... there are 2 words on the same plane
the third one ought to be on the yellow face
Me: they claimed that each dimension had to be of an equal size so the tube wouldn't topple over
evidently they don't know basic physics
larger surface areas make it more stable
supposing it were a wide, long, low cube (with security being the lowest dimension).
it'd never topple over
anyhow success is more a result of survival and security
Someone: like, whatever. it's not aesthetically pleasing. it's badly photoshopped
and i think they're running out of ideas. it's soo obvious they just picked the nicest sounding s-words
Me: well. these are bureaucrats
they need to hone their skills at rebuffing troublesome malcontents like me
please follow in my footsteps and suan the guy
Someone: who?
Me: the guy who will be trying to brainwash you
I wonder if he still remembers me
*wistfully* in an odd way I'm actually rather fond of him
he managed to dissemble and ignore the points I was making, bringing up irrelevant qualifiers
Eek!
Someone: anyway i've lost most of my confidence in the military thanks to you.
Me: you're welcome
but just what did I say
Someone: no, it's just the thought of people like you having to defend us. i mean, you have soft toys in your bunk
Me: umm, I can let the sick patients cuddle my lavender scented bear!
Someone: this isn't helping
Me: don't worry, you can go to the S-Cube seminar next year!
Security, Survival, SUCCESS!
http://www.mindef.gov.sg/ne/2002/index.html
Someone: the s-cube is lousy... there are 2 words on the same plane
the third one ought to be on the yellow face
Me: they claimed that each dimension had to be of an equal size so the tube wouldn't topple over
evidently they don't know basic physics
larger surface areas make it more stable
supposing it were a wide, long, low cube (with security being the lowest dimension).
it'd never topple over
anyhow success is more a result of survival and security
Someone: like, whatever. it's not aesthetically pleasing. it's badly photoshopped
and i think they're running out of ideas. it's soo obvious they just picked the nicest sounding s-words
Me: well. these are bureaucrats
they need to hone their skills at rebuffing troublesome malcontents like me
please follow in my footsteps and suan the guy
Someone: who?
Me: the guy who will be trying to brainwash you
I wonder if he still remembers me
*wistfully* in an odd way I'm actually rather fond of him
he managed to dissemble and ignore the points I was making, bringing up irrelevant qualifiers
Eek!
Post ID: 86955826
The Associate and Gabriel both would like to open the ongoing debate between him and Gabriel to the general public (or at least our not inconsiderate audience of readers and those who regularly search for zaogeng pics)
The Associate believes that all religions are prone to misinterpretation (if the true interpretation can ever be grasped at, which he denies) and that socio-economic-political-historical-cultural factors affect the extant and popular interpretations of any doctrine.
On the other hand, while Gabriel acknowledges that while everything is subject to interpretation to some degree, certain philosophical doctrines are inherently more rigid than others, being spelt out in black and white rather than being left ambiguous, and injunctions are injunctions, however one chooses to view them. Furthermore, minor points of polemic in certain places are more prone to uncharitable and condemnable interpretation, resulting in a Pareto degradation in the amount and quality of free utility and happiness in the world. Even considering the wider social context and demographic in which these doctrines are applied, it is demonstrably harder to justify a libertarian, non-radical perspective which is compatible with such doctrines. Such doctrines are fundamentally unable to remain more equitable and less injurious to others who do not follow such doctrines in certain issues when compared to other contending doctrines.
Gabriel is a a Bear of Very Little Brain, and big words bother him.
It will be obvious to all but the most unenlightened reader why we have phrased our issues in such a manner.
Transcripts of our long debate are available upon request for readers who wish either The Associate or myself to clarify our positions further.
Gabriel would like to add:
For further reading, you way want to view a Liberal Muslim Website (the most Liberal that Gabriel has found in his virtual travels), which shows that Islam is really not as intolerant as it is usually expressed, and a supposed Muslim-Christian dialog page which is not as cheery, happy and jolly as it is made out to be on the front page, but which nevertheless does have some excellent points for all and sundry to ponder over.
On the former, your may rack your brains over the injunctions to engage in Wife Beating, wonder why polygyny is permitted, albeit with caveats, but not polyandry. On the latter, you can see how they try to slime and discredit by bringing up all the terrible things Mr Mohammad is said to have done (whether he did them or not is another matter), like marrying a 9 year old girl when he was 53. Anyhow, he made no claim to be sinless, so whatever he did was not necessarily grounds for doing the same thing.
The Associate believes that all religions are prone to misinterpretation (if the true interpretation can ever be grasped at, which he denies) and that socio-economic-political-historical-cultural factors affect the extant and popular interpretations of any doctrine.
On the other hand, while Gabriel acknowledges that while everything is subject to interpretation to some degree, certain philosophical doctrines are inherently more rigid than others, being spelt out in black and white rather than being left ambiguous, and injunctions are injunctions, however one chooses to view them. Furthermore, minor points of polemic in certain places are more prone to uncharitable and condemnable interpretation, resulting in a Pareto degradation in the amount and quality of free utility and happiness in the world. Even considering the wider social context and demographic in which these doctrines are applied, it is demonstrably harder to justify a libertarian, non-radical perspective which is compatible with such doctrines. Such doctrines are fundamentally unable to remain more equitable and less injurious to others who do not follow such doctrines in certain issues when compared to other contending doctrines.
Gabriel is a a Bear of Very Little Brain, and big words bother him.
It will be obvious to all but the most unenlightened reader why we have phrased our issues in such a manner.
Transcripts of our long debate are available upon request for readers who wish either The Associate or myself to clarify our positions further.
Gabriel would like to add:
For further reading, you way want to view a Liberal Muslim Website (the most Liberal that Gabriel has found in his virtual travels), which shows that Islam is really not as intolerant as it is usually expressed, and a supposed Muslim-Christian dialog page which is not as cheery, happy and jolly as it is made out to be on the front page, but which nevertheless does have some excellent points for all and sundry to ponder over.
On the former, your may rack your brains over the injunctions to engage in Wife Beating, wonder why polygyny is permitted, albeit with caveats, but not polyandry. On the latter, you can see how they try to slime and discredit by bringing up all the terrible things Mr Mohammad is said to have done (whether he did them or not is another matter), like marrying a 9 year old girl when he was 53. Anyhow, he made no claim to be sinless, so whatever he did was not necessarily grounds for doing the same thing.
Post ID: 86954612
Gabriel has deleted my last post. I feel hurt. Nevertheless, nothing should make his hypocrisy in claiming his devotion to freedom of spech plainer.
[Ed:
Gabriel has, with you, reframed and restructured your post, such that it rises, soaring like a Phoenix, from the ashes, in more than its accustomed splendour and glory]
[Ed:
Gabriel has, with you, reframed and restructured your post, such that it rises, soaring like a Phoenix, from the ashes, in more than its accustomed splendour and glory]
Post ID: 86952473
"I suppose the worst move in the vjc dance, (not the hardest but the worst :) is the boob jiggling dance where you jiggle your uppder body and your butt using your shoulders so your boobs end up jiggling back and forth! quite a scene when you watch people do it. "
*choke*
Two Jews are sitting on a bench, reading newspapers. One notices that the other's paper is a vile, anti-Semitic rag.
"Why read that trash?" he asks.
"Well," says the second, "I used to read a paper like yours. But it was too depressing: all that news about suicide bombs and Ariel Sharon. My new paper, on the other hand, is full of good news: apparently we control Hollywood, own all the banks, dominate American politics."
*choke*
Two Jews are sitting on a bench, reading newspapers. One notices that the other's paper is a vile, anti-Semitic rag.
"Why read that trash?" he asks.
"Well," says the second, "I used to read a paper like yours. But it was too depressing: all that news about suicide bombs and Ariel Sharon. My new paper, on the other hand, is full of good news: apparently we control Hollywood, own all the banks, dominate American politics."
Probably the best of the Christmas articles:
Conspiracy theories
That's what they want you to believe
Dec 19th 2002
From The Economist print edition
Why are conspiracy theories so popular?
WHO crashed those planes into the World Trade Centre? Israel, obviously. Mossad must have known that their country would profit from a surge in American hostility towards the Arabs, who were set up to take the rap. Shortly after September 11th 2001, the consensus on the Arab street was that only the Israeli secret service could have managed such deadly precision. Corroboration was quickly found in a report that 4,000 Jews who worked in the twin towers had been secretly warned to stay away that day. (*For the record, around 300 Jews and 100 Muslims were among the 3,000 victims. The origin of the rumour was probably a report in the Jerusalem Post of September 12th, which mistakenly said that 4,000 Jews had "disappeared" in the disaster.)
This was not the only interesting theory bandied around the souks. The doyen of Egyptian pundits, Hassanein Heikal, blamed the Serbs, noting that they were mad about losing Kosovo. Others fingered home-grown, Oklahoma-style extremists, or a plot by America's military-industrial complex, ever hungry for new enemies to boost defence budgets.
One fellow in a Cairo café told The Economist that the culprit was clearly not al-Qaeda, but rather something called al-Gur. Was this, perhaps, a terror network still more murderous than the Bin Laden gang? No. On closer listening, it transpired that the evil al-Gur was bent on avenging not some wicked Yankee geo-blunder, but the theft of the 2000 American presidential election. "It's obvious," declared the café sage. "Who else could have wanted to hurt George Bush more than his rival, the former Vice-President al-Gur?"
The citizens of Cairo may be skilled at concocting diabolical scenarios, but they are not the only ones. Plenty of Africans from further south pooh-pooh the conventional view that the virus that causes AIDS originated with monkeys. It was cooked up in an American lab, of course, to kill black people.
Many Asians, including the prime minister of Malaysia, blame a clutch of Jewish financiers for causing their economies to crash in 1997. Some Jews, meanwhile, equate Amnesty International, which often criticises Israel, with the Nazi party. Credulous Indians see the hand of Pakistani intelligence behind everything from train crashes to cricket match fixing, and many Pakistanis return the compliment. Slobodan Milosevic, smug in court at The Hague, has testified that the 1995 massacre of 7,000 unarmed Muslims at Srebrenica was carried out not by Serb militiamen, but by French intelligence. Less whimsically, China's government launched its vicious campaign to crush Falun Gong in the belief that the movement, whose stated aims are to improve its devotees' spiritual and bodily health, is a dangerous cult bent on subverting the state.
Americans like a good plot too. The assassination of John F. Kennedy still generates a thriving industry, complete with a thicket of suggestive websites (see article), books, college courses, one big-budget movie and a whole vocabulary of arcana. (If you don't know what is pictured in frames 112 and 113 of the Zapruder film, or wonder what the Grassy Knoll is, better stay quiet on the subject.) A 1991 poll showed that, three decades after the president's murder, 73% of Americans still think he was a victim of conspiracy.
Such fables are nothing new. American pamphleteers in the 1790s warned of a plot by atheist, libertine Illuminati and Freemasons to concoct an abortion-inducing tea and "a method for filling a bedchamber with pestilential vapours". The bestselling book of the 1830s was a racy confession by a repentant nun detailing a scheme by Catholics to undermine Protestant morals. At around the same time, Samuel Morse, better known as the inventor of Morse Code, exposed an Austrian plan to install a Hapsburg prince as emperor of the United States. In the 20th century, Americans feared reds more than royals; hence Joe McCarthy's witch-hunts, and the popularity of Father Charles Coughlin, who told radio audiences that "Masons and Marxists rule the world".
In "Under Western Eyes", Joseph Conrad wrote that "to us Europeans of the West, all ideas of political plots and conspiracies seem childish, crude inventions for the theatre or a novel."
Some modern scholars go further, arguing that the conspiracist habit is a sort of disease or syndrome. The "paranoid thinker", instructs material from a course at the University of Rhode Island, is "rigid, victimlike, cowardly". This contrasts with the traits of the "rational thinker", who is "open, flexible, empowered, strong".
Daniel Pipes, the author of two books about conspiracy theorising, describes the classic grand theories - such as those about Masonic or Zionist or Papist plots for world domination - as:
a quite literal form of pornography (though political rather than sexual). The two genres became popular about the same time, in the 1740s. Both are backstairs literatures that often have to be semi-clandestinely distributed, then read with the shades drawn. Elders seek to protect youth from their depredations. Scholars studying them try to discuss them without propagating their contents: [with] asterisks and dashes in the first case and short extracts in the second. Recreational conspiracism titillates sophisticates much as does recreational sex.
Mr Pipes does good work in skewering anti-Jewish conspiracy theorists, but his recent founding of "Campus Watch", a website devoted to "outing" pro-Arab academics, emits a whiff of burning books.
Belief in conspiracies is not necessarily foolish. Some are real. The Holocaust, for example, actually happened, though few believed it before the camps were liberated. Consider also the Bolshevik revolution of 1917: a small group of violent fanatics seized control of a large empire, as millions of their victims could testify, were they still alive. Businessfolk conspire, too. Adam Smith, a man to whom The Economist accords considerable respect, once wrote that: "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public."
That some conspiracies are real, however, does not mean that they all are. As a tool for explaining how the world works, conspiracism has certain drawbacks. It inhibits trust: if everyone else is out to get you, better have nothing to do with them. It dampens optimism: if "they" are sure to frustrate your plans, why bother doing anything? And, of course, it leads to harmful errors, such as the belief, once popular among Africans, that condoms were yet another ploy to reduce their population.
The evolution of theories
So what is the attraction of conspiracism? For starters, as grand unifying theories of geopolitics go, it is simple to grasp. In ill-educated societies, that makes it appealing. It is also impossible to disprove, because any fact that does not fit the theory can be dismissed as a trick by the conspirators to throw ordinary folk off the scent.
In countries with opaque and authoritarian political systems, rumour is often the only alternative to official news sources. If the people in such countries remember falling victim to real conspiracies, they may be inclined to attribute fresh misfortunes to a similar cause.
Take more or less anywhere in the Middle East. The very borders of countries such as Jordan, Syria and Lebanon are a product of the 1916 Sykes-Picot accord, a secret agreement between Britain and France to divvy up the region between themselves, despite earlier British pledges of statehood to Arabs. In 1917, war-pressed Britain sought to curry favour with the growing Zionist movement by promising a "Jewish national home" in Palestine. The Palestinians, nine-tenths of the territory's population at the time, were not consulted. Thirty years later, when the UN voted to give Jews 53% of the land, the 13 "Eastern" countries that objected were overruled by 33 "Western" countries, which between them ruled over some 120 future members that surely would have voted otherwise had they been able to. Small wonder Palestinians see the world through a lens of victimhood.
In the West, conspiracies have, for some reason, tended to fail, and so fade from the popular imagination. Who now frets about the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, when a gang of Catholics failed to blow up Britain's Parliament? Or the doomed Carlist uprisings in 19th-century Spain? Or the European anarchists who assassinated seven heads of state in the 1890s, to no avail? Or the Watergate scandal?
In Iran, by contrast, people still seethe over the CIA-backed coup of 1953 that toppled Muhammad Mossadegh, a man much loved for having dared to nationalise British oil interests. Syria and Iraq have suffered a dizzy sequence of successful plots and counter-conspiracies, ending with the pair of Baathist coups in the late 1960s that installed their current ruling cliques.
Half the governments of the Middle East trace their origins to coups. In a sense, conspiracy is the region's only real form of politics, which can make it hard for Middle Easterners to understand the dynamics of open, democratic societies. Hence, for example, the Arab tendency, as the French say, to "occult" America's generous backing for Israel. Aiding the Jewish state infuriates hundreds of millions of oil-supplying, American-product-consuming Arabs and Muslims. So why does America do it? It must be a conspiracy by the Zionist lobby, or perhaps a plot to divide and rule Arabs to control their oil, or part of a Christian crusade against Islam.
Blaming others for one's troubles may be emotionally satisfying, but it is a counsel of despair. Stella Orakwue, a journalist, writes in the New African that: "Today, [Africa] has to remain in deficit so Europe and America can maintain their obscene wealth." Given that Africa accounts for less than 2% of global trade, this is hardly an adequate explanation of why the West is rich and Africa is poor. And without understanding why their continent is poor, Africans will find it harder to grow rich.
In extreme cases, conspiracy theories can cost lives. Osama bin Laden genuinely seems to think he is fighting a Zionist-Christian-materialist assault on Islam. Adolf Hitler sincerely believed he was ridding the world of a Jewish menace. Many Serbs were convinced that the Muslims of ex-Yugoslavia were out to annihilate them. And many Rwandan Hutus, informed by their leaders that the Tutsis were planning to kill them, were happy to follow orders to pre-empt this threat.
Post ID: 86948962
Which is why it is my job to point out the error of your ways, as an older and wiser person, so that you can be brought into the straight and narrow path.
I am aware of my cultural and racial prejudices that colour my pereceptions of other races. However, most of the time this manifests during more nationalistic and political type of arugments - for instance, I find myself becoming oddly defensive of Malaysia at times, despite the numerous indefensible positions Malaysia assumes:) For isntance, I admitted that the government was stupid to ban Brad Pitt, and I freely admit that a lot of the PAS doctrines are ridiculous. And I have very strong racist feelings (Racist, as opposed to religious bias. Not QUITE the same thing)
But in issues of religion, I can safely say that I am almost completely objective and neutral, despite a slight sneaking bias towards Buddhism for its philosophical elegance.
And as for complicating your argument I do so because you're bringing up wrong points, and not backing them with evidence of your own. I submit that if we were to bring the record of our debate to any objective adjudicator, they would award the argument to me for having the better case.
And in all honesty, I AM tying all my points back to a single basic argument, while you are just heaping out individual snipes and points without any overarching coherence.
Look. Put it this way. Can you prove to me that Islam is MORE susceptible and MORE prone to misinterpretation and hijacking. Independent of cultural and social defaults and factors? If you're going to say that your "gut" instinct is that Islam is more irrational and wrong than Christianity, then any argument is futile. Agreed?
[Ed: Ah, but I never said ANYTHING about my gut instincts.]
But if you say you can logically prove it, then that's when the argument truly begins.
It's like saying that 2 + 2 = 5 is not as wrong as 2 + 2 = 47,231 - you have to objectively show that one proposition is further off the track than the other. (although it's hard to objectively gauge "futher off the track" when religion is concerned, I admit, so this may be a bit of a wrong metaphor)
I am aware of my cultural and racial prejudices that colour my pereceptions of other races. However, most of the time this manifests during more nationalistic and political type of arugments - for instance, I find myself becoming oddly defensive of Malaysia at times, despite the numerous indefensible positions Malaysia assumes:) For isntance, I admitted that the government was stupid to ban Brad Pitt, and I freely admit that a lot of the PAS doctrines are ridiculous. And I have very strong racist feelings (Racist, as opposed to religious bias. Not QUITE the same thing)
But in issues of religion, I can safely say that I am almost completely objective and neutral, despite a slight sneaking bias towards Buddhism for its philosophical elegance.
And as for complicating your argument I do so because you're bringing up wrong points, and not backing them with evidence of your own. I submit that if we were to bring the record of our debate to any objective adjudicator, they would award the argument to me for having the better case.
And in all honesty, I AM tying all my points back to a single basic argument, while you are just heaping out individual snipes and points without any overarching coherence.
Look. Put it this way. Can you prove to me that Islam is MORE susceptible and MORE prone to misinterpretation and hijacking. Independent of cultural and social defaults and factors? If you're going to say that your "gut" instinct is that Islam is more irrational and wrong than Christianity, then any argument is futile. Agreed?
[Ed: Ah, but I never said ANYTHING about my gut instincts.]
But if you say you can logically prove it, then that's when the argument truly begins.
It's like saying that 2 + 2 = 5 is not as wrong as 2 + 2 = 47,231 - you have to objectively show that one proposition is further off the track than the other. (although it's hard to objectively gauge "futher off the track" when religion is concerned, I admit, so this may be a bit of a wrong metaphor)
Post ID: 86948446
See, Gabriel, unlike you, I can clearly see where my arguments fall into incoherency, and acknowledge where I have made points of error, or needed to take certain other factors into consideration. However, I have yet to see you do anything other than evasively sneak and nitpick and turn - which you claim I have - when I have squarely faced and confronted every one of your facts within the larger context of my argument. Whereas you simply snipe one point, and then say something else to prove another.
Concessions are one thing -but lest you let pride master you, let me remind you of my real feelings in this matter: "i but marshal a fraction of my powers towards this pitiful debate. to use more would be a waste... i'm just providing practical criticism in case you meet another foe - it'd be embarrassing for me to have admitted i sparred with one of your feeble standard."
[Ed: Unlike you, I don't need to keep piling layers onto other people's arguments and complicating them till they you hope they give up, confused, annoyed and irritated by the disparate irrelevant trains of thought, none of which are less than a mile from the original topic of debate.
Unlike you too, I don't have perfect recall skills.
The thing is, for every point I bring up, you heap endless quantities of qualifications onto it to nullify it. If we proceed like that, no point I make will ever be valid.
This is unfair. You're a Uni student. And a debater too.
I have a mere Higher Secondary Certificate, and have been in atrophy for 13 months.]
Concessions are one thing -but lest you let pride master you, let me remind you of my real feelings in this matter: "i but marshal a fraction of my powers towards this pitiful debate. to use more would be a waste... i'm just providing practical criticism in case you meet another foe - it'd be embarrassing for me to have admitted i sparred with one of your feeble standard."
[Ed: Unlike you, I don't need to keep piling layers onto other people's arguments and complicating them till they you hope they give up, confused, annoyed and irritated by the disparate irrelevant trains of thought, none of which are less than a mile from the original topic of debate.
Unlike you too, I don't have perfect recall skills.
The thing is, for every point I bring up, you heap endless quantities of qualifications onto it to nullify it. If we proceed like that, no point I make will ever be valid.
This is unfair. You're a Uni student. And a debater too.
I have a mere Higher Secondary Certificate, and have been in atrophy for 13 months.]
Post ID: 86931753
HAHAHA
S-Cube 2002 Homepage
Survival Security Success
Central National Education Office
Doesn't look like they included anything to rebut malcontents like me :)
S-Cube 2002 Homepage
Survival Security Success
Central National Education Office
Doesn't look like they included anything to rebut malcontents like me :)
Post ID: 86931546
Gah. It is irritating, yet refreshing, debating with He Who Must Not Be Named.
The amount of research that I've had to do...
"and i note that you remain silent under my withering onslaught
yet another opponent's fallacies silenced and defeated by **** **'s noble debating crusade for truth."
Bah.
At least I got some concessions from him:
"Parables .. good one. I had to think a fair bit and actually dig up some old notes before I could answer you."
The amount of research that I've had to do...
"and i note that you remain silent under my withering onslaught
yet another opponent's fallacies silenced and defeated by **** **'s noble debating crusade for truth."
Bah.
At least I got some concessions from him:
"Parables .. good one. I had to think a fair bit and actually dig up some old notes before I could answer you."
Post ID: 86928338
My trip - Part 4 of X
Bodiam Castle is one of the quintessential ones, alongside places like the Tower of London and Crac des Chevaliers (or, as I prefer to spell it, Krek des Chevaliers) Bodiam's visage is familiar, its sheer walls rising from the moat. Inside, however, it is less complete and its dilapidated state is more evident. Furthermore, it was rather muddy and wet that day, so my shoes got sullied and soaked. I should've brought my stout pair of outdoor walking shoes (as I observed many other visitors to the sites I went to doing, changing into them just as they exited their vehicles).
Before we left Bodiam, we had National Trust Elderflower Sorbet. Wonderful!
Then we drove down to Hastings. Or rather, the site of the Battle Of Hastings, a town which is, very imaginatively, called "Battle", built around Battle Abbey (which was built by William the Conqueror to do penance for the blood he had shed in 1066), sited on top of Senlac Hill.
Though it was drizzling and very windy, I deigned to take the "Battlefield Walk", which took me and Kheng Hwa across the battlefield. It was very wet and muddy - if Bodiam was bad, this was 5 times as bad. At the end, just before we left, I espied two people who'd dressed up in period dress in the gift shop - a Norman Knight (with arrows for demonstration purposes) and a Saxon Huskarl (who looked a little sad because the American Tourists didn't want to talk to him, being fascinated with the more glorious and chainmail clad Norman).
At night, I saw La Boheme. It's the first opera I've watched, I think, and I don't think, after this, I want to watch any more. I hate constant vibrato, I couldn't understand what was going on despite having read the plot outline in the program before the show and I dosed off a few times. The music (the only thing I could understand) was okay, I guess, appropriate but not very striking. Or maybe that's because I wasn't awake during the nicer songs.
Yeah, I'm lousy. I'm not an Opera Person. I think I prefer Aeschylus, Sophocles or Aristophanes, at least from those of their plays that I've read.
I know that most or all operas were written for a popular audience, and the combination of song and action is meant to keep you occupied so you won't fall asleep - which is partially why opera is the or one of the most popular aspects of "High Culture" today. It is also understandable (if you understand Italian or have memorised the English version of the script, at least), unlike the bulk of extant plays which are arty-farty/angsty/deliberately obtuse.
On the 30th, I popped into the British Museum to see what was new since the time I breezed through its halls and saw everything. There was an Albrecht Dürer exhibition, of his Renaissance art, which I would've wanted to see but the queue was too long. There were also two minor items - one of Graphic (lit) War Scenes in Islamic Literature and the other of some minor trinkets that Charles Mason had unearthed in Afghanistan. Neither were very impressive (but then, I have high standards).
Outside the British Museum, I had a hotdog. It was £2.50 - 50p more than in 2001! I expressed my concern to the vendor and he claimed that the rates the council was charging were ridiculous and kept going up. Right.
After that I trudged down to the Science Museum for the James Bond exhibition. Only to be informed it was fully booked until 5:30pm. Apparently only a limited number of people are allowed in each time. Maybe they're afraid someone will steal the shoe with the knife in it. Anyhow later, after my sister advised me to eat out instead of returning home for dinner, I went to the ticket booth for the James Bond exhibition again, only to find that it was sold out for the day :(
So I ended up browsing the immense hulk of the Science Museum. Among other things, I saw ploughs, Arabic chocolate, a V-1 and a sword that Japanese doctors used to carry (they used to carry swords? Wow.). The place was just overwhelming. I had some time to spare after I got weary of the Science Museum, but I cared not to look at Victorian tables, footstools and steel grates at the Victoria and Albert, so I went to my show have an early dinner before my show - a McChicken Premiere. Very nice, it was, with salsa, sour cream and chive sauce and a focaccia bun.
That night, I viewed HMS Pinafore at the Savoy Theatre, burnt down in 1381 by William Tyler and friends, where it was first performed. Now, why anyone in the Royal Navy would christen a ship after a piece of female outergarment is beyond my comprehension, and I didn't see any of the cast, female or otherwise donning pinafores either. Maybe Gilbert and Sullivan were trying to send subliminal messages about cross dressing and transsexualism, seeing that the show features strapping young men prancing around in sailor suits.
The show was pleasant and funny and - thank god - there was little vibrato. Nice music, and from a 125 year old show too. Some of the jokes were a little corny though, some sailors -did- salute wrongly (not that I care, this is simply a POI), and for all the 'rank doesn't matter' talk, the ending reinforced the conception that it does - very much so. And there was the hearty British nationalism, with all the patriotic ditties. Twas worth queueing up for 45 mins at tkts (formerly known as The Official Half Price Ticket Booth)
Anyhow, the bar offered free ice, water and lemon slices - a nice gesture on their part. And during the intermission, there was ice cream being sold at a very reasonable price - £1.50 for 125ml of Loseley Strawberry Ice Cream, and the usher was very helpful and helped me throw away the empty tub.
The car my brother in law rented lets the driver control the radio from his right side. Wah.
I thought Britain had moved to the metric system in the 1970s. So why do they still use miles and yards on their highways to measure distances?
People seem enjoy life more in Britain. I saw very few skeletal figures compared to Singapore, and a good deal more cellulite too :)
The woman sitting behind me at La Boheme put her legs on the seat to my left. Gah.
What are all the "open" buttons on London Tube Trains for? They're totally useless and non-functional (except on the Docklands Light Rail, which isn't strictly part of the underground).
I swear that there were more Americans than British present in London. The demographic breakdown was roughly: Americans, British, French. And there were many PRCs too.
The Savoy Hotel is so exclusive, there are 2 armchairs in the toilet adjoining the male cloakroom. Do people actually sit there and smoke their cigars?
My feet hurt many afternoons :(
"Wow! Welcome to the Azn.nu! We have lots of free services just for ASIANS only!" Haha.
Me: I don't know who Heidegger is :) and don't know much about Nietzsche. He said "God is dead". His first name was Frederich. And was German (I think). That's most of what I know :)
He Who Must Not Be Named: Your knowledge of Nietzsche is stunning - and, disturbingly, above average for most singaporeans.
Later: "your insolence and sheer insensitivity is refreshing at times."
The preceding covered more than half of the remainder :) The end is in sight!
Bodiam Castle is one of the quintessential ones, alongside places like the Tower of London and Crac des Chevaliers (or, as I prefer to spell it, Krek des Chevaliers) Bodiam's visage is familiar, its sheer walls rising from the moat. Inside, however, it is less complete and its dilapidated state is more evident. Furthermore, it was rather muddy and wet that day, so my shoes got sullied and soaked. I should've brought my stout pair of outdoor walking shoes (as I observed many other visitors to the sites I went to doing, changing into them just as they exited their vehicles).
Before we left Bodiam, we had National Trust Elderflower Sorbet. Wonderful!
Then we drove down to Hastings. Or rather, the site of the Battle Of Hastings, a town which is, very imaginatively, called "Battle", built around Battle Abbey (which was built by William the Conqueror to do penance for the blood he had shed in 1066), sited on top of Senlac Hill.
Though it was drizzling and very windy, I deigned to take the "Battlefield Walk", which took me and Kheng Hwa across the battlefield. It was very wet and muddy - if Bodiam was bad, this was 5 times as bad. At the end, just before we left, I espied two people who'd dressed up in period dress in the gift shop - a Norman Knight (with arrows for demonstration purposes) and a Saxon Huskarl (who looked a little sad because the American Tourists didn't want to talk to him, being fascinated with the more glorious and chainmail clad Norman).
At night, I saw La Boheme. It's the first opera I've watched, I think, and I don't think, after this, I want to watch any more. I hate constant vibrato, I couldn't understand what was going on despite having read the plot outline in the program before the show and I dosed off a few times. The music (the only thing I could understand) was okay, I guess, appropriate but not very striking. Or maybe that's because I wasn't awake during the nicer songs.
Yeah, I'm lousy. I'm not an Opera Person. I think I prefer Aeschylus, Sophocles or Aristophanes, at least from those of their plays that I've read.
I know that most or all operas were written for a popular audience, and the combination of song and action is meant to keep you occupied so you won't fall asleep - which is partially why opera is the or one of the most popular aspects of "High Culture" today. It is also understandable (if you understand Italian or have memorised the English version of the script, at least), unlike the bulk of extant plays which are arty-farty/angsty/deliberately obtuse.
On the 30th, I popped into the British Museum to see what was new since the time I breezed through its halls and saw everything. There was an Albrecht Dürer exhibition, of his Renaissance art, which I would've wanted to see but the queue was too long. There were also two minor items - one of Graphic (lit) War Scenes in Islamic Literature and the other of some minor trinkets that Charles Mason had unearthed in Afghanistan. Neither were very impressive (but then, I have high standards).
Outside the British Museum, I had a hotdog. It was £2.50 - 50p more than in 2001! I expressed my concern to the vendor and he claimed that the rates the council was charging were ridiculous and kept going up. Right.
After that I trudged down to the Science Museum for the James Bond exhibition. Only to be informed it was fully booked until 5:30pm. Apparently only a limited number of people are allowed in each time. Maybe they're afraid someone will steal the shoe with the knife in it. Anyhow later, after my sister advised me to eat out instead of returning home for dinner, I went to the ticket booth for the James Bond exhibition again, only to find that it was sold out for the day :(
So I ended up browsing the immense hulk of the Science Museum. Among other things, I saw ploughs, Arabic chocolate, a V-1 and a sword that Japanese doctors used to carry (they used to carry swords? Wow.). The place was just overwhelming. I had some time to spare after I got weary of the Science Museum, but I cared not to look at Victorian tables, footstools and steel grates at the Victoria and Albert, so I went to my show have an early dinner before my show - a McChicken Premiere. Very nice, it was, with salsa, sour cream and chive sauce and a focaccia bun.
That night, I viewed HMS Pinafore at the Savoy Theatre, burnt down in 1381 by William Tyler and friends, where it was first performed. Now, why anyone in the Royal Navy would christen a ship after a piece of female outergarment is beyond my comprehension, and I didn't see any of the cast, female or otherwise donning pinafores either. Maybe Gilbert and Sullivan were trying to send subliminal messages about cross dressing and transsexualism, seeing that the show features strapping young men prancing around in sailor suits.
The show was pleasant and funny and - thank god - there was little vibrato. Nice music, and from a 125 year old show too. Some of the jokes were a little corny though, some sailors -did- salute wrongly (not that I care, this is simply a POI), and for all the 'rank doesn't matter' talk, the ending reinforced the conception that it does - very much so. And there was the hearty British nationalism, with all the patriotic ditties. Twas worth queueing up for 45 mins at tkts (formerly known as The Official Half Price Ticket Booth)
Anyhow, the bar offered free ice, water and lemon slices - a nice gesture on their part. And during the intermission, there was ice cream being sold at a very reasonable price - £1.50 for 125ml of Loseley Strawberry Ice Cream, and the usher was very helpful and helped me throw away the empty tub.
The car my brother in law rented lets the driver control the radio from his right side. Wah.
I thought Britain had moved to the metric system in the 1970s. So why do they still use miles and yards on their highways to measure distances?
People seem enjoy life more in Britain. I saw very few skeletal figures compared to Singapore, and a good deal more cellulite too :)
The woman sitting behind me at La Boheme put her legs on the seat to my left. Gah.
What are all the "open" buttons on London Tube Trains for? They're totally useless and non-functional (except on the Docklands Light Rail, which isn't strictly part of the underground).
I swear that there were more Americans than British present in London. The demographic breakdown was roughly: Americans, British, French. And there were many PRCs too.
The Savoy Hotel is so exclusive, there are 2 armchairs in the toilet adjoining the male cloakroom. Do people actually sit there and smoke their cigars?
My feet hurt many afternoons :(
"Wow! Welcome to the Azn.nu! We have lots of free services just for ASIANS only!" Haha.
Me: I don't know who Heidegger is :) and don't know much about Nietzsche. He said "God is dead". His first name was Frederich. And was German (I think). That's most of what I know :)
He Who Must Not Be Named: Your knowledge of Nietzsche is stunning - and, disturbingly, above average for most singaporeans.
Later: "your insolence and sheer insensitivity is refreshing at times."
The preceding covered more than half of the remainder :) The end is in sight!
Post ID: 86926818
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