"If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee." - Abraham Lincoln

***

Baltics trip
Day 1 - 15th-16th May - Flight, Amsterdam Transit; Vilnius, Lithuania (Part 1)

We flew in to Vilnius, Lithuania via Amsterdam. The first flight was the racially homogenous flight I'd ever taken.

One thing about KLM that distinguishes them from other airlines is the food you get. They really pay a lot of attention to it (yes, even in Cattle Class), from the packaging to the contents:


Breakfast tray


Extolling the symbolism of soup: "For all of us, soup means protection, food for the soul. It's one of the most primitive and simple ways of saying I love you." You just need to mess up the grammar a bit and add "Please enjoy this soup" to make it Engrish. It's probably due to shared translation and intercultural issues.

Meanwhile, the packaging of the pumpkin seeds and croutons read: "This food was prepared especially for high altitude consumption". Don't ask me why.


Breakfast tray


Breakfast spread


A primer on Dutch breakfast: "The main ingredient in a traditional Dutch breakfast is bread. The Dutch usually eat slices of white or wholemeal bread spread with butter and topped with cheese, jam, chocolate sprinkles, peanut butter or ham (or another type of thinly sliced cold meat). Alternative or additional breakfast fare consists of rusks, rye bread, ginger cake, currant loaf, a boiled egg or a bowl of porridge. As well as coffee or tea the Dutch like to drink dairy products such as milk or buttermilk with their breakfast"
This was amusing, since there was no bread in the breakfast set (I had the pancake but the other option was an omelette), and I know the Dutch feel sick when they smell hot food in the morning. Of course, if they served Dutch breakfast no one else would fly KLM.

Unfortunately, not as much attention was paid to the in-flight entertainment as to food. The system lag was the worst I'd ever seen. TVs and CDs under the Kids' section were not available under the Adults section (this might not sound problematic, but they put the Simpsons under the Kids section, so).

Worse, the standard of in-flight service was totally unacceptable. On two occasions, I pressed the attendant call button, and when the light above me lit up, no one attended to me even after many minutes, so I gave up. How un-gezellig. I like that at the back of the plane (and presumably near the other galleys) there were carts set up with water, Orange Juice, Coke and chocolates for passengers to help themselves, but this probably resulted in moral hazard (the stewardesses were tiao kar-ing [putting their legs up] and reading magazines or newspapers when I peeked in the galley to ask for stuff). In fact, one woman asked one of the stewardesses for something, and the stewardess pointed to the self-service trolley and response. I prefer self-service actually, but service is paid for, so KLM gets bottom marks for service.

As a minor point, there weren't sanitary pads in the toilet, but since this doesn't affect me I won't harp on it.

Commands to cabin crew were made in English, not Dutch. Hah.

Schiphol's X-ray machine is like an MRI chamber - a long plastic tube (YC has a pic somewhere but I haven't gotten his pictures yet).


Swingy chair at Schiphol
I love technology. Don't you?

I couldn't find frites in the airport. Boo hoo. I couldn't find the "Not everything in Holland is flat" shirt either, let alone one with the two strategically-placed hemispheres.

I saw a male cleaner going into a female toilet. Hurrah for gender equality. I love this country (then again maybe he was gay).

The flight from Amsterdam to Vilnius was farmed out to FlyLAL, which operated like a low cost airline despite seemingly being the national carrier of Lithuania.

The cockpit window of a 737 can open and the pilot can stick his head outside. How cute. As long as it's not done during a flight, of course (someone can always remove the black rubber window linings).


Vilnius Oro Uostas Airport. Note the Communist-esque carvings above.


Run down Communist buildings. Unfortunately we didn't see much of the most sombre ones except for the transit to/from the airport.


Birds on the walls



Gates of Dawn



Ditto


Rundown houses


YC and nw.t in a tunnel


Subverting capitalism: "M-otherfucker"


YC and nw.t walking on the street. Notice the suffering of the one carrying the trolleybag


St Teresa's Basilica. Pastatyta


Perfect rainbow from Hotel


Street with St Teresa's Basilica

Lithuania felt like Malaysia, with their signs reading Baras (Bar), Apartamentai (Apartment), Rezervusta (Reserved), Policija (Police) and Taksi (Taxi).


Church of the Holy Trinity gateway

There's something about the smell of grilled onions on the cool temperate air that is irresistable.


Town hall


The two things they're most proud of: inscription on the World Heritage List and George W Bush's: "Anyone who would choose Lithuania as an enemy has also made an enemy of the United States of America"


Town square


Church of St Nicholas. There were Byzantine-style icons inside, and a nonatych (9-panelled polytych) below an arch, and red cyrillic letters which glowed like neon in the light.


Huge amber necklace


Street


Dragonball in Lithuanian


Jewelry


Russian Dolls - including Harry Potter, Osama bin Laden, a Beatle and more in addition to the normal cast

I saw a guy in a ponytail (which was very tangled) with a fieldpack, fatigues and boots.


Viesbutis "Narutis" - A hotel which claimed to be established in 1581.


Street

We then went to the first of many underground restaurants (they have a lot of underground food and alcohol establishments in the Baltics).


The Underground Restaurant


The wonderful menu. As you can see the meat with the biggest share is pork.

The black sourbread was the most sour bread I'd ever had. It had a complex flavour, a bit like raisins (maybe there was wine must inside).


I had Kvass (the yellow thing on the right), a sour drink made of bread that all 3 Baltic states had. It was quite nice, tasting like slightly sweet beer without the alcohol. It's probably what beer used to taste like in the past before they added hops, since they had to drink it everyday (due to bad water quality).


Me having mushroom soup and sourbread.


Snack plate: "Smoked bard (sic) (non-rendered pork underskin fat with little or no meat), smoked bacon, herring, pickles, blue onion, black olives"
The smoked lard had an extremely strong bacon flavour. We couldn't finish it (especially not the skin).


Pork chop. It was very nice, but it was still a pork chop (tenderloin).


Potato pancakes and herring


Restaurant cellar

We then went to the vicinity of the Cathedral-Basilica.


A horse about to push a man over a precipice. This is a monument to Gediminas, Grand Duke of Lithuania.


The statue from other angles


The cathedral and a tower


The throng


Ang mohs playing chapteh

Picture of Otaku pillows JX sent me

Are people more interested in reading the Baltics travelogue or the Japan travelogue first?

"When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading." - Henny Youngman

***

โฮเวอร์คราฟท์ของผมเต็มไปด้วยปลาไหล

"Nobody outside of a baby carriage or a judge's chamber believes in an unprejudiced point of view." - Lillian Hellman

***

Stuff I managed to get:
Tenga Cup
Manta Ray stuffed toy
Love amulet x2
Shiroi Koibito 1x18+1x36 x2
Macallan 18 year old Scotch Whiskey
Sofy Tampons

Stuff I didn't:
Gyoza crimper
Takoyaki keychain


Ugh. Everytime I come back from a place with a civilised climate, I get a headache.

Distance from the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn is probably a good predictor of health, correcting for GDP and health systems.

See if you can spot me in "Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)":

For some reason, there're at least 5 Singaporean girls at my Hiroshima youth hostel (in a group of 2 and one of 3; there might be more hiding in the rooms but these 5 are those I've seen).

When the second group came in, one of them was unable to carry her trolley luggage up the stairs by herself, and one of the other 2 who'd gone up made some remark about getting the guy to help. She then publicly voiced her realisation that she'd been talking too loudly. I helped anyway, since there's nothing to do at night (there's an onsen but it uses artificial 'spring water' and I had dinner a bit too late).

Then later one was trying to figure out how to find the "@" sign; it was a Jap keyboard but on EN layout mode (the solution is to pretend you're using a normal keyboard and touchtype).

Two all-pork patties, special sauce, lettuce, onions on a bun.

Note to self: Don't ever order anything with Shuto ("酒盗" - bonito guts pickled in salt) again.

Useful site for checking train schedules in Japan: http://www.hyperdia.com/ (click on 'English')

(Courtesy of Kenny)

After having a meal of Shōjin Ryōri ('精進料理' - Japanese vegetarian food with no garlic, onions, leeks, chives or shallots), I now understand why it is the only thing you can eat if you are to attain Enlightenment.

"When I cook, I am always amazed at how beautiful the vegetables are... All of the vegetables are full of energy, and they reinvigorate us. I feel Buddha in each plate, and appreciate the vegetables' offerings all the time."

"Public speaking is the art of diluting a two-minute idea with a two-hour vocabulary." - Evan Esar

***

Outrage as French judge annuls Muslim marriage over bride's virginity lie - "The annulment of a young Muslim couple’s marriage because the bride was not a virgin has caused anger in France, prompting President Sarkozy’s party to call for a change in the law... Mr X went to court the following morning and was granted a annulment on the grounds that his bride had deceived him on “one of the essential elements” of the marriage. In disgrace with both families, she acknowledged that she had led her groom to believe that she was a virgin when she had already had sexual intercourse. She did not oppose the annulment."
Naturally, if a guy lied about his job before marriage, not allowing the wife to annul the marriage would be sexism and yet another ugly manifestation of patriarchy. However, I am informed that in the sexist and patriarchal society that is Singapore, lying about your job is not grounds for annulling a marriage.
Someone: people can get divorced because one of the spouses plays their music too loudly
why not because one of them lied about being a virgin

Why China Loves to Hate Japan - "After Japanese invaders shoot Little Zhang's grandmother in the back, the boy seeks revenge by joining an underground Red Army detachment. He moves among heroic Chinese patriots, sniveling collaborators and sadistic Japanese. The finale comes with Little Zhang helping blow up a trainload of Japanese soldiers and receiving a cherished reward: a pistol with which to kill more Japanese. "I thought about including one sympathetic Japanese character, but this is an anti-Japan war movie and I don't want to confuse anyone," says Sun, who will premier his film on International Children's Day... The problem is that just as Japanese soldiers once dehumanized Chinese, Beijing's propaganda often paints Japanese as pure monsters. Grade school textbooks recount the callous brutality of Japanese soldiers in graphic detail, and credit the Communist Party with defeating Japan. (Another reason for Japan's surrender, it says, was the atomic bombs dropped by the U.S.) More moderate voices are silenced. A 2000 film by one of China's leading directors, Jiang Wen, remains banned because it depicted friendliness between a captured Japanese soldier and Chinese villagers. Although the film showed plenty of brutality, censors ruled that "Devils at the Doorstep" gave viewers "the impression that Chinese civilians neither hated nor resisted Japanese invaders.""
It's no wonder "young people are more anti-Japanese than their elders who actually experienced the Japanese occupation"
Addendum: With all this venom it's no wonder the Chinese grow up brainwashed and blinded by hate.

LiveLeak.com - Evolution of mobile phones 1985-Today (Video) - "Sharp J-SH04 (2001) The first popular cellphone to feature an internal camera, released in Japan in 2001. These days you'd be lucky to find a phone without one"
Maybe on a SAF contract. Oh, maybe it's a conspiracy to increase sales of basic handsets.

Amsterdam delicacy: Herring - "Stamppot is a reflection of traditional Dutch values: soberness, hard labor, and moderation — values rooted in Calvanism, and still very much in evidence outside Holland’s big cities... Traditionally, the fish (minus its head) is eaten by grabbing it by the tail, throwing one’s head back, and — while gently lowering the fish — biting off tasty morsels... Suffice it to say that for most people herring is love at first bite."
Hahahaha

UCPD Crime Alerts & Advisories — 2008 - "Annoying/Molesting a Child" is a crime in Berkeley. Truly, it is a Liberal campus.

Japanorama's Subliminal Kana Screen Savers - "Subliminal Japanese Screen Savers allow anyone of any age to learn to read Japanese. With these colorful screen savers slowly cycling on your Windows PC, you can passively absorb characters at your own pace, while protecting your computer's screen!"

Mobile phones expose human habits - "The results showed that most people's movements follow a precise mathematical relationship - known as a power law. "That was the first surprise," he told BBC News. The second surprise, he said, was that the patterns of people's movements, over short and long distances, were very similar: people tend to return to the same few places over and over again. "Why is this good news?" he asked. "If I were to build a model of how everyone moves in society and they were not similar then it would require six billion different models - each person would require a different description." "

Bond breakers - "A couple of months ago, I was asked by a professor J in the office building to review the credentials of a graduate school applicant X from my alma mater, the National University of Singapore... Then, I noticed that X was from the PRC. More specifically, X is an MOE scholarship holder (as stated in his resume), the kind that is obliged to serve out his/her bond in Singapore for 6 years after graduation in exchange for a tax-money sponsored university education in Singapore. What on earth was he doing, applying to go to graduate school in the US immediately after graduation when he has signed a 6-year contract with the MOE?... The irony is, for people like X who will probably 'break' his bond and mind you, not fulfill the terms of his contract, i.e. not pay the financial penalty of not serving out his bond, the Singapore government will stay silent, very very silent. By letting someone like X go, at least 100 to 150 thousand dollars of Singaporeans' tax money spent subsidizing his eduction has gone down the drain. Where is the accountability so often trumpeted by our civil service? On the other hand, in contrast, when one of our PSC/EDB scholars does not serve out his/her bond but pays back the money to the government, plus a little bit more, the national broadsheets scream bloody murder"
takchek: Now you know why there is so much ill-will and resentment by the Singaporean students towards foreign undergrads in NUS/NTU/SMU when it comes to this topic of foreign MOE scholars (leeching off the goodwill and generosity of the Singaporean tax-paying public).

"The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found." - Calvin Trillin

***

Japan edition:


MFTTW: i've played [all look same]
i'm not too bad, 13/17 i think

Me: WAH
no one else I know has gotten >=10

MFTTW: relaly

it's not too hard, just look at eyes
the koreans are all slitty

Me: we all 6-8
then jap/chi?

MFTTW: facial hair
japs have more

Me: err

MFTTW: it's true lah
jap guys can grow beards

chinese guys cannot
they can only grow cheekopek goatees like ***


Someone: are u going kyomizu dera?
in kyoto

this place is very famous for blessing love
supposedly

Me: AHAHHAHAHA
so did you get any luck?

Someone: i din pray for it
regret
haha

Me: damn
cannot test the hypothesis

maybe the gods only understand jap

Someone: no lar not true

Me: maybe chinese ah

Someone: supposed to be omnipotent

Me: not all gods are like God

Someone: there are 2 famous rocks there 18m apart

it is said if one can walk from one stone to the other blindfolded, he/she will definitely be blessed with TRUE love

Me: just memorise the direction lor
if the sacred chickens wont eat, let them drink


Me: sure you dont wnat anything from spore ah

Someone else in Japan: my rmmate wants hello panda chocolate
and instant milo... if u have space...

Me: hahahahah
ok I'll go look

EH WAIT
ISN'T HELLO PANDA FROM JAPAN

Someone else: dunno...

i dont know... he say cannot find here...
not so common maybe...


Me: people are asking me to buy all sorts of shit from japan

tampons
gyoza maker
18 year scotch whiskey
shiroi koibito
love amulet

wth

[Update: I've been asked to get a Tenga Cup also]

Someone: haha
i bought a ice kachang maker in kyoto

Off to the land of Soaplands, shōjin-ryōri (ie no garlic or onions) and disguised racism on a morning flight.

Back on the 23rd.

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

"A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on." - Samuel Goldwyn, Goldwyn's Law of Contracts

***

"Today I took a cab to school because I had a test at 4.15 and I was freaking still at home at 3.30 so fine. I hailed some comfort cab, and this malay cabbie with a nice smiley face greeted me. I was kinda happy, cause he seemed nice -maybe he'll give me a discount? Total opposite of what was to come!

He was so fucking rude from the start, it's like once I shut the door this whole other person who resented his life as a poor taxi driver took over his smile. He asked;
"do you know the way!?"...

he had the guts to tell me:
"Next time no change don't take cab!"
HELLO ITS NOT LIKE THE CAB FARE COSTS LIKE $2 OR SOMETHING ITS $20 OK and I just shut up cause I had the perfect comeback, which I dished after I collected my change, before slamming his door;
"You're such a stupid useless malay, GOD!""


Comments:

A: your racist thread is being marked
sending to ISD and Singapore Police Force with a complain for your racist overtone.

Good luck............. :)

B: you fat piece of shit, can't even spell 'underprivileged' properly.

no wonder.. youre from RP.. the shit school.. why so elitist? you don't deserve that right when youre from a shit school like RP.

STOMPed and reported to the ISD and Police Force racist pig

C: If we were to report every single possible cause of "potential racial riots" due to such posts, I believe most cabbies woulda been thrown to jail about now.


I'm sick of the lynch mobs.

You're such a stupid useless malay, GOD!

One small line, and people are rushing to give our security services even more work. Please, they've better things to do.

There're huge differences between "You're such a stupid useless XXX, GOD!", "All XXX are stupid", "All XXX must die" and "All XXX must die, let's kill them now!".

I don't read Malay, but I bet my hat you see similar or worse complaints about Chinese by Malay bloggers; as they say in Malaysia, "tak tipu, bukan cina" ("if you're not a conman, you're not Chinese"). There're similar descriptions of the other two races, but mentioning them would surely be seditious. Presumably, we don't have spiteful idiots who speak Malay.

With the police bogged down taking care of all the police reports lodged by spiteful idiots, it's no wonder we haven't found Mas Selamat yet. And the fact is that people respond to incentives, so the more people you prosecute for making offhand "racist" remarks, the more spiteful idiots you'll have making police reports about alleged "racism" that grows steadily more trivial.

Malaysia is a much more racist, racially charged and racially stratified country than Singapore, but you don't hear the police catching people for offhand racist remarks or the country descending into racial riots. Maybe that's why they're progressing faster than us.

Everyone's a little bit racist
Sometimes.
Doesn't mean we go
Around committing hate crimes...

If we all could just admit
That we are racist a little bit,
And everyone stopped being
So PC
Maybe we could live in -
Harmony!

"The reason there is so little crime in Germany is that it's against the law." - Alex Levin

***

Law Minister Shanmugam condemns attacks on judiciary

SINGAPORE: Singapore's Law Minister K Shanmugam said it is the duty of all citizens to condemn attacks made on the country's judiciary.

He was responding to questions at a community event on Wednesday on the recent behaviour of Singapore's opposition politicians, Chee Soon Juan and Chee Siok Chin, at the High Court.

This was during a hearing to assess damages for defamation to be awarded to Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew.

The Chee siblings were found guilty of contempt of court and surrendered themselves on Wednesday to begin their jail sentences.

Mr Shanmugam said: "If you take a country like Singapore, based on democratic principles, and you look at the institutions that underpin our society, then conceptually, rule of law is important. It means independence of the judiciary and equality of everyone before the law.

"In order to have that – not just as a slogan but in reality – you need an independent judiciary that really protects the citizens and in fact, anyone who goes before the courts. People must have confidence that the judiciary is independent.

"In order to make sure that we protect the integrity of the judiciary and people's confidence in the judiciary is not affected, you have to be very, very strict with anyone who attacks the judiciary in scurrilous ways or calls into question its independence."


Scurrilous attacks are to be condemned, but if you don't ask questions, you're never going to get answers.

"I would rather be a coward than brave because people hurt you when you are brave." - E. M. Forster, as a small child

***

Club mad

"He had planned a night of revelry with friends at St James Power Station last Saturday, but when National University of Singapore student Matthew Rao flashed his identity card (IC) at the door of the popular nightclub, he was requested to pay the $20 cover charge.

His four friends - from England, Germany, France and Finland - filed in for free.

The reason: They were foreign students on exchange in Singapore, while he was local...

Ms Khong said the policy aimed to "encourage a cosmopolitan party atmosphere for our young partygoers" and added that St James regularly hosts parties thrown by local tertiary institutions and students."

The reaction to this is unequivocably negative, and there are cries of discrimination and such.

Yet, nary a sound is heard about Ladies' Nights, which are equally discriminatory. This is probably because Ladies' Nights work out for everyone - women like the free entry and men like the women, so no one complains.

Policies designed to attract and which give advantages to tourists are not unique to Singapore. Tourist-only beaches in Cuba aside, the Eurail pass cannot be bought by residents of non-European countries, the Japan Rail Pass cannot be bought by Japanese residents, the Great British Heritage Pass can only be bought by "international visitors to Britain" and in Denmark you have tax-free cars which only tourists can rent. Furthermore, in most countries with Value Added Tax (VAT), tourists can get a refund upon leaving them.

***

Singapore Peak Oil: Energy, Entropy, Economics, Ecology: Axioms of Sustainability for Singapore

"I compiled these axioms of sustainability from Heinberg, Feeney, Bartlett and Monbiot. The Singapore government needs to abide by these axioms if we are to tackle climate change successfully and ensure a sustainable living environment for present and future generations. Failure to conform to these axioms will render MEWR's blueprint (Green Plan 2012) towards environmental sustainability ineffective in the long term."

Much of this is New Age Neo-Malthusian rubbish. I agree with some parts, but a lot of the rest is dodgy. The more misleading bits:

Our flawed neoclassical economic growth paradigm.
This article accuses Economics of being stuck in the 19th century, but that's because it attacks 19th century Economics. Among other things, there are economic growth models incorporating limited natural resources and there are ways of internalising environmental damage into economic analyses.

Our fractional reserve banking system which is based on a flawed assumption that infinite economic growth is both possible and desirable.
I don't know why fractional reserve banking and economic growth are mentioned in the same breath. Given that the energy intensity of GDP (Energy use per dollar of GDP) has been steadily declining, I don't see what the problem is (ie infinite economic growth is possible). And it is certainly desirable, since without it people are unhappy due to hedonic adaptation.

Food self-sufficiency
Singapore and food self-sufficiency do not go together in the same sentence. One word: trade.

(Tainter’s Axiom): Any society that continues to use critical resources unsustainably will collapse.
True enough, but this is a tautology. Ditto for many of the other lines there.

(Bartlett’s Axiom): Population growth and/or growth in the rates of consumption of resources cannot be sustained.
Yes, but development lowers population growth: look at the Developed World. And if new resources are discovered, then increasing consumption of resources can certainly be sustained.

The system which governs our economic lives, which we call capitalism, is itself is a limited resource. Capitalism is a pyramid scheme.
????????????????????????????????????????????

The response time of populations to changes in the human fertility rate is the average length of a human life, or approximately 70 years. ( Bartlett and Lytwak 1995 ) [ This is called "population momentum." ]
This seems to be a misunderstanding of the term. Fertility rate can change due to many things - family planning, contraceptive availability, one-child policies etc.

The size of population that can be sustained ( the carrying capacity ) and the sustainable average standard of living of the population are inversely related to one another.
This is assuming a static world. Technology progresses.

The benefits of population growth and of growth in the rates of consumption of resources accrue to a few; the costs of population growth and growth in the rates of consumption of resources are borne by all of society.
This ignores how 60 million Chinese were lifted out of poverty between 2001 and 2004 or how the number of people living on under a dollar a day has fallen and is projected to fall further.

When large efforts are made to improve the efficiency with which resources are used, the resulting savings are easily and completely wiped out by the added resources consumed as a consequence of modest increases in population.
This is one of those grand sounding statements that doesn't mean anything. How large is large? How modest is modest?

The benefits of large efforts to preserve the environment are easily canceled by the added demands on the environment that result from small increases in human population.
Ditto.

When rates of pollution exceed the natural cleansing capacity of the environment, it is easier to pollute than it is to clean up the environment.
I would think that it is almost always easier to pollute than clean up the environment.

The chief cause of problems is solutions.
????????????????????????????????????????????

Humans will always be dependent on agriculture. Supermarkets alone are not sufficient. The central task in sustainable agriculture is to preserve agricultural land.
If agricultural yields keep increasing, agricultural land can be reduced.

In every local situation, creating jobs increases the number of people locally who are out of work.
????????????????????????????????????????????

"People that are really very weird can get into sensitive positions and have a tremendous impact on history." - Dan Quayle

***

David: So, how was your trip? What was the most interesting thing you saw?



Gotta love these Europeans.

"Making duplicate copies and computer printouts of things no one wanted even one of in the first place is giving America a new sense of purpose." - Andy Rooney

***

Someone: you're right you know: when women blame men, they say it's patriarchy; when men blame women, they say it's misogyny, like wtf


Someone else: if we go on the basis that hatred is a feeling,
without any necessary rational justification whatsoever,
then a thin form of hatred is just as scary as the thick form

Me: that's like saying if you shout "faggot" at a gay guy it's as bad as if you stab him to death

Someone else: if you stab him to death, you will be charged for murder.

anyway, hatred is just intention, no? not consequences
we're still on defining the word here
this is starting to soudn like a [Jol] conversation

Me: whose fault is that ah

if you shout "faggot" at a gay guy it doesn't mean you hate him as much as you would if you stabbed him to death

Someone else: okay
so?

Me: you claim all hate is as bad

Someone else: no, i said it's as scary

Me: yes
but that draws a faux equivalence

why is it as 'scary'?

Someone else: because it can swing without reason from thick to thin to whatever in between

it doesn't need a provocation, even.
at all.

Me: that's the slippery slope fallacy

just because I shout 'faggot' doesn't mean I'll feel on a level so strong that I want to murder

Someone else: what is this thing about murder

Me: you say small hate and big hate are as scary
I'm saying they're different


My Toy: my lappie is down

Me: too old liao

My Toy: no la
i tried to reformat and fail

this is something tt only happens to a girl
like what can go wrong when u juz have to run the recovery??????

Me: no lah
just that only girls can't solve it themselves :P


Cunning Linguist: btw the one where there was homicide
the person really died

the chancellor sent a circular

Me: err
that's the definition of homicide

Cunning Linguist: hahaha
FINE


Someone: it seems your friends thinks you're a purveyor of sex toys and menstrual goods

Japan sketchpad

Itinerary:
6 June - Tokyo. Arrive Narita 14:25 (Fri)
7 - Tokyo (Sat)
8 - Tokyo (Sun)
9 - Kyoto (3 hrs from Tokyo) (Museums closed on Monday; Nijo Jinya?! Reservations, Jap-speaker. Closed Wed.) (Mon)
10 - Himeji-jo / Kyoto (1 hr Osaka, 1.5 hr Kyoto) (Tue)
11 - Kyoto (Wed)
12 - Amanohashidate (1.5 hrs from Kyoto): Train info (Thu)
13 - Nara (<1 hr from Kyoto), Horyu-ji (<1/2 hr from Nara) (Fri)
14 - Osaka (Daytrip? AWASHIMA JINJA) (Sat)
15 - Koyasan (more interesting than Yoshino, through Osaka 1.5hr); Festival (Sun)
16 - Hiroshima (Mon)
17 - Itsukushima (1/2-1 1/2 hr from Hiroshima) / Hiroshima (Tue)
18 - Nikko (1.5-2 hrs by train) (Edo Wonderland - similar to Hokkaido place?) (Wed)
19 - Mt Fuji views: Fuji Go Ko. Hakone also? Bus up Fuji? (JX's suggestion: stay a night at Fuji Go Ko, "u feel a sense of peace") (Thu)
20 - Matsumoto Castle (2.5 hrs from Tokyo) / Tokyo (Fri)
21 - Matsushima Bay (30 mins from Sendai: 2 hrs from Tokyo) / Tokyo (Sat)
22 June - Tokyo. Leave Narita 18:40 (Sun)


I considered the overnight bus but:

1) there's no toilet
2) I still need rail travel on shorter routes. eg Tokyo-Nikko, Tokyo-Hakone, so I should be better off getting the JR pass.


Osaka sounds rather boring. Universal Studios can burn down for all I care.

Someone: osaka got food.. and red light district

Someone else: THE AQUARIUM
i'm sorry i swear by it
1i go to it EVERY TIME i go to osaka
but it's just me


Someone: help me buy sofy tampons back

i heard they're good
only found in japan
ahahahhaha

Wth.

Someone else: HAHAHA
help me buy vibrators they're cheap in japan
HAHAHA

Wth x2

Why are there no toilets on Japanese overnight buses?

DAMN JAPS

"Women's intuition is the result of millions of years of not thinking." - Rupert Hughes

***


Clear and damning evidence of racism in the French Football team


Why you shouldn't get a boob job


Whoever designed this should be fired


"I love you this much"


Simply indescribable (NSFW)

"Some things have to be believed to be seen." - Ralph Hodgson, on ESP

***

Because, unlike the last time, I can't be bothered to censor out potentially seditious representations:


A: The God rejected by ATHEISTS is not the God a true Christian would recognise

God cannot be EMPIRICALLY investigated - He is INEFFABLE, beyond our thought capacity

A true believer in the MYSTERY of God knows that proper talk about God is always HUMBLE, always TENTATIVE

As St Augustine said, if you understand it, it is not God

B: Does that mean you are going to STOP trying to tell everyone what God thinks about things like Embryonic STEM CELL RESEARCH and GAY MARRIAGE?

A: No

"It's never just a game when you're winning." - George Carlin

***

Police arrest former Singaporean for insulting public servant


The sad thing is that the activists are just perpetuating the hegemony they so loathe by discrediting alternatives to it.

Damn, forgot to ask Chee about that when I met him.

"I'm too shy to express my sexual needs except over the phone to people I don't know." - Garry Shandling

***

Malaysian-made Pringles are a world away from US-made Pringles.

There's a reason why they're labelled "For sale in ASEAN only" - if you tried to sell it outside of ASEAN, people would complain.

Whereas the Malaysian-made product is thick and insipid-tasting, the real thing feels thin and crisp, and it packs a whole lot more flavour into the chip.

I just popped open a tube of Cheese and Onion from Schiphol and sadly, they are like Malaysian Pringles.

An examination of the first two ingredients in the ingredients list provides us with a clue to solve this mystery:

US Pringles: DRIED POTATOES, VEGETABLE OIL (CONTAINS ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING: CORN OIL, COTTONSEED OIL, AND/OR SUNFLOWER OIL)
Malaysian/European Pringles: Dehydrated potatoes, vegetable oil

It is no surprise that potato chips fried in Sunflower oil taste much better than those cooked in "vegetable oil" (read: Refined Bleached & Deodorised Palm Olein, better known as Palm Oil). Given that the centre of European Pringles production is Mechelen in Flanders, it wouldn't be surprising, given that the Dutch are the top importers of palm oil in Europe and Belgium's long history in palm oil production.

Oh well, at least I can't get either Cheese and Onion or Salt and Vinegar in Singapore anyway.

Insist on Kualiti with a Kapital K - buy US Pringles, not ersatz Malaysian shit! (Buy European Pringles only for flavours like Paprika that you can't get here)

(Oddly, my friend had some Indonesian Pringles and she claimed they tasted oily and tasty, like they were fried with **** )

Le Patrimoine Mondial

"Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river." - Nikita Khrushchev

***

An American guy was enjoying his first night in Rome drinking cappuccino at a pavement cafe when a pretty girl sat beside him.

"Hello," he said. "Do you speak English?"

"Only a little." she answered.

"How much?" he asked.

"Fifty dollars." she replied.


And the following was first told to me by Hum Sup Guy:

Man: Would you sleep with me for £1,000,000?

Woman: Yes.

Man: Would you sleep with me for £100?

Woman: How dare you! What sort of woman do think I am?

Man: We've decided what sort of woman you are, now we're just haggling about the price.