"Who is more busy than he who hath least to do?" - John Clarke, Paroemiologia Anglo-Latina, 1639

***

Baltics trip
Day 2 - 17th May - Vilnius, Lithuania (Part 1)


Back of the Gates of Dawn. We went during a morning service.


This Black Madonna is more than 500 years old. It and its part of the city wall (the only bit that remains) was not destroyed by Russia, Germany and then the Soviets due to religious reasons.



She is stepping on the Crescent (we saw representations of figures stepping on crescents in churches often). They must really hate the Golden Horde here.




Stuff at the side of the BM


Street from the window


Apparently they didn't like us (racism, hurr hurr) since they were quiet when we were there but started singing immediately once we left.


Church of All Saints


Inside. The Late Baroque Alabaster was, well, cute (not Italian standard - the use of light paled in comparison and emotion was lacking). This was during a service so we scooted quite quickly.


Strange egg, and cork boards as boarding in the background on the houses

[Addendum: The egg was a placeholder to signify the Republic of Užupis. It has since been replaced by the Angel of Užupis (see future post)]

There were a lot of huge... tracts of land.


Choral Synagogue

When we visited it was Shabat, so the synagogue was full and people were in straggly woolen shawls, skull caps and beards. Photography was forbidden normally anyway, so I didn't try because I didn't want to be hexed.


Dog


Church of the Assumption

Unfortunately it was closed, so we peeked in.


YC using his 10x zoom


Me without 10x zoom



Facade. A very spartan Franciscan church, it looks like it just came out of a Nazi-Soviet shootout (small arms only, please)


Truck with French on it


Street

We then went to the Church of the Holy Spirit, decorated Rococo style.


Hallway on approach in


Mural


Nave


Cross with "JNRI" - maybe they learn a different type of Latin here


Chapel


Paintings


Dome


Altar

We then climbed up to the pulpit, which for some reason was accessible.


People from pulpit

Apparently there were many well-preserved corpses in the cellar, but we couldn't find an entrance to the crypt.

You could see the Orthodox influence in the gilt on the icons, and the presence of icons themselves.


Street


Church behind a dump


Street


Demolishing their past


Scaffolding


Grafitti on wall


Church of St Catherine


Men looking like they're peeing in the Holy Fountain


Church door: "Pro ecclesia triumphanti. Pugnamus in militanti"


Church


Hordes of tourists


Multilingual welcome to fellow adherents of the faith


"SHRINE OF THE DIVINE MERCY... If you have received signal graces through the Divine Mercy (a conversion, deepening of faith, deliverance from a dependency, a spiritual or physical healing, etc.) please inform the resident priest or sisters attending the shrine"
With such vague phrasing I wouldn't be surprised if miracles happened daily.

"We must make do with the imperfect evidence that we can find, not merely lament its deficiencies." - Robert Putnam
Cannot, then much of the Social Sciences will be out of jobs

***

Too many black and Asian faces on TV, says BBC director Samir Shah - ""I don't think that such over-representation is a brilliant idea. Another thing that's not real is some of the casting of non-whites in fiction," he added. He pointed to the casting of the Ferreira family in EastEnders as an example. "If you were to cast an Asian family in the East End, it should have been Bangladeshi. Instead we had a family of Goan descent," Shah said. "The plain fact is that this tick-box approach to equal opportunities has led to an inauthentic representation of who we are: a world of deracinated coloured people flickering across our screens - to the irritation of many viewers and the embarrassment of the very people such actions are meant to appease.""
So instead they are going to have inauthentic quotas for senior executives. Brilliant.

Brain Aging and Midlife Tofu Consumption - "Poor cognitive test performance, enlargement of ventricles and low brain weight were each significantly and independently associated with higher midlife tofu consumption. A similar association of midlife tofu intake with poor late life cognitive test scores was also observed among wives of cohort members, using the husband’s answers to food frequency questions as proxy for the wife’s consumption. Statistically significant associations were consistently demonstrated in linear and logistic multivariate regression models. Odds ratios comparing endpoints among "high-high" with "low-low" consumers were mostly in the range of 1.6 to 2.0."

Drugs returned to red-faced Customs - "A SHOCKED airline passenger has returned a million yen's worth of cannabis that Customs staff planted in his bag in a bungled sniffer dog exercise."
If you find pot in your bag in Singapore, you're better off disposing of it otherwise you might have to prove you're not a drug trafficker.

Gay rodeo undermines sexual stereotypes - "Philadelphia's gay community sought to dispel some sexual stereotypes when it held the city's first gay rodeo... But the event - like other longer-established gay rodeos elsewhere in the United States - distinguishes itself from mainstream rodeos by injecting a little fun along with the strength and skill required to control a bucking animal. Interspersed with familiar events like steer riding and calf roping were "goat dressing" - in which pairs of contestants try to put hot-pink underwear on the hind quarters of an uncooperative goat in the shortest time - and "steer decorating" in which one partner of a team has to tie a ribbon on the tail of a struggling steer while the other tries to hold on to its horns."
I'm sure they undermined many sexual stereotypes.

Atheists caught having sex in cathedral - "The agency said the pair -- a 31-year-old laborer and a 32-year-old teacher -- defended their conduct saying: "We are atheists and for us, having sex in church is like doing it any other place." However, Bishop Antonio Lanfranchi of Cesena-Sarsina took said the couple's behavior was "an outrage of notable proportions which bespeaks unutterable squalor." He added that a special ceremony would be held to purify the confession box."
RC (TiT): "It could have been worse: they could have been using a condom."

The hardware way to boost your productivity - "What makes the Northgate OmniKey so special? First, the keyboard weighs in at almost five pounds. Its "Alps" key switches — the gizmos underneath the keys themselves — are rated for 10 million pushes. I bet most of Northgate's switches can stand up to ten times that number of presses, and I should know because I've pushed at least that many Alps switches over the years... Some keyboard purists feel that the Avants don't live up to the OmniKey ideal. For example, the letters on the Avant key caps are printed, while those on the OmniKey are embossed into the key caps themselves. This isn't a huge deal until you press a key 10 million times or so."

Learn to Be Nice to Your Wife, or Pay the Price - "A change in Japanese law this year allows a wife who is filing for divorce to claim as much as half her husband's company pension. When the new law went into effect in April, divorce filings across Japan spiked 6.1 percent. Many more split-ups are in the pipeline, marriage counselors predict. They say wives -- hearts gone cold after decades of marital neglect -- are using calculators to ponder pension tables, the new law and the big D... The husbands association ranks its members on a scale of 1 to 10. A "1" is a well-meaning but clueless guy who has done little more than show up at a group meeting. A "10" is a husband who has reached a Zen-like state of being able to show his wife through his daily behavior that he truly loves her -- and even manages to spit out the words "I love you." It is not common in Japanese culture for men or women to say those words, even in happy marriages, according to marriage counselors. So far, the husbands association has unearthed only one "10."... Asked whether he has yet mastered the art of telling his wife that he loves her, he replied: "I can say, 'I love you,' if I am drunk.""
Great. You slog for your family for decades and then get dumped and screwed out of your pension.

Intelligent people 'less likely to believe in God' - "Professor Richard Lynn, emeritus professor of psychology at Ulster University, said many more members of the "intellectual elite" considered themselves atheists than the national average. A decline in religious observance over the last century was directly linked to a rise in average intelligence, he claimed. But the conclusions - in a paper for the academic journal Intelligence - have been branded "simplistic" by critics."
Unless the critics had anything more than vague accusations lined up, this is like the classic accusation that someone is a 'pseudo-intellectual', ie "We can't refute what you're saying, so we'll try a Jedi mind trick and hope no one notices we haven't actually refuted you". It is heartening that he does controversial research linking intelligence to things other people would rather not link them with. Hopefully he won't lose his job.

"I used to wake up at 4 A.M. and start sneezing, sometimes for five hours. I tried to find out what sort of allergy I had but finally came to the conclusion that it must be an allergy to consciousness." - James Thurber

***

Something I got via email (reposted via Azrul Hisham - My Real Life):

Culture West vs East

Blue --> Westerner

Red --> Asian

Opinion

B: Talk to the point
R: Talk around the circle, especially if different opinions

Way of Life

B: individualism, think of himself or herself.
R: enjoy gathering with family and friends, solving their problems, and know each other's business (keh poh).

Punctuality

B: on time.
R: in time.

Contacts

B: Contact to related person only
R: Contact everyone everywhere, business very successful.

Anger

B: Show that I am angry.
R: I am angry, but still smiling... (beware!)

Queue when Waiting

B: Queuing in an orderly manner
R: Queuing?! What's that?

Sundays on the Road

B: Enjoy weekend relaxing peacefully.
R: Enjoy weekend in crowded places, like going to the mall.


Party

B: Only gather with their own group.
R: All focus on the one activity that is hosted by the CEO .

In the restaurant

B: Talk softly and gently in the restaurant.
R: Talk and laugh loudly like their own the restaurant .

Travelling

B: Love sightseeing and enjoy the scenery.
R: Taking picture is the most important, scenery is just for the background.

Handling of Problems

B: Take any steps to solve the problems.
R: Try to avoid conflicts, and if can, don't leave any trail.

Three meals a day

B: Good meal for once a day is sufficed.
R: At least 3 good meals a day.

Transportation

B: Before drove cars, now cycling for environmental protection.
R: Before no money and rode a bike, now got money and drive a car .

Elderly in day to day life

B: When old, there is snoopy for companionship.
R: When old, guarantee will not be lonely, as long as willing to baby-sit the grandkids.

Moods and Weather

B: The logic is, rain is pain.
R: The more the rain, more prosperity .

The Boss

B: The boss is part of the team.
R: The boss is a Fierce god.

What's Trendy

B: Healthy Asian cuisine
R: Expensive Western cuisine.

The Child

B: The kid is going to be independent and make his/her own living.
R: Work, live and all for the kids, the centre of life.

"Never believe anything until it has been officially denied." - Claud Cockburn

***

Given differing desires about the order of my travelogues, I have come up with the horribly creative solution of doing both at once. Due to the lack of satiation effects, it will probably take slightly shorter than if I'd done both sequentially.

Despite my Japan trip only being 1-2 days longer, I scribbled twice as much stuff. Tells you something about the Japs, the Baltics or both.


Japan trip
Day 1 - 6th June - Aobadai, Tokyo

To save on cab fare, I went to Changi the night before. However I was unable to sleep (probably some combination of anxiety about missing my flight, uncomfortable airport chairs and annoying music - though none of that has stopped me in the past) and so observed a couple of things.

There was an Indian couple at Imperial Treasure La Mian and the man was annoyed at the PRC waitress being unable to communicate with him: 'This is Singapore. Nobody speaks English anymore!' He should try looking Chinese - it's even worse. I swear, one day I'm going to pretend I can't speak Mandarin and see what happens, to simulate the plight of non-Mandarin-speaking Thai Chinese/Koreans/Japanese in Singapore.

Later I saw 2 toilet cleaners, one PRC and one Indian. When the PRC spoke to the Indian she used English, but it was so heavily accented it sounded like Mandarin.

NWA (Northwest) had self-service checkin, but it was really silly because they had people to operate the machines for us.

The differing classification of Men's magazines in the airport was interesting. FHM and Maxim Singapore were untouched, but FHM UK, Arena UK and Ralph Australia were labelled "Unsuitable for the young" and sealed. I know that FHM UK has pictures of topless women, but I am extremely skeptical that that is allowed in Singapore. Maybe they mosaic-censor the nipples Jap-style or something, or paste the stickers that adult shops use to cover naughty parts (bah). I would've found out personally, but $13 for Ralph or $18 for FHM UK is too much without a research grant. Oddly enough, the women's mags weren't marked "Unsuitable for the young" also. Hah.

To kill time I snipped my split ends with nail clippers. Very fun.

Pilot to Japan: "Your last piece of useless trivia to impress friends and family back home with: *our speed and altitutde*"

I agreed to switch seats to let a family sit together, and at the end of the flight I was given 2 amenities vouchers. Air miles are a waste of time, and I didn't need a beer/wine/cocktail or snack on the plane (does this mean alcohol or snacks are not normally served to you in Cattle Class?) so I saved them for airport dining.

My flight was actually transiting in Narita on the way to Minneapolis, which apparently is a big air hub, so very few of us exited immigration. So few, in fact, that we did not get our own luggage belt - our luggage was unceremoniously dumped at one side.

Customs was extremely strict, and seemed to check most people's luggage. They claimed it was because of security, but I know they were actually checking for people trying to sneak in sacks of rice.

Sign in the Narita airport lift: "Do not jump in the elevator". Wth.


There was a UNEP photo exhibtion in the airport. This woman doing a hair flip and this "Jamping polar bear" (sic) were the best photos.

I was on my way to MR's dorm, which was off in the suburb of Aobadai. I chose the cheap way, so had a ridiculously long ride with 2 transfers.


"Women Only... On weekdays, the last car of selected up-bound commuter limited express trains is for women only"
No Chikan. I briefly considered trying to sneak in and see if it'd work, but I didn't have fake eyelashes, have a flashy wardrove or speak in an unnaturally high voice so it wouldn't work.

There was a 4-masted windmill in between 2 of the train stations near Narita.

I saw a Jap Miffy ad, which was amusing, since the first time I saw Miffy, I thought it was another Jap abomination (just try putting her and Hello Kitty side by side).

Most Japanese train station ticket gates are open. Although this means you can go through them in either direction, it made me wonder why people didn't just underpay or better yet, run through the ticket gates without buying a ticket. (Stay tuned for the answer)


"Movie
Sports
Music
Book
Disney
Adult"
I love how "Disney" was above "Adult". I was told that most of the products were porn. After grocery shopping (below) we went in to have a look, and 90% was porn (all Japanese, amazingly - it must be due to protectionism [they do have foreign porn, but they have to censor it and domestic demand probably doesn't like it much]), 7% gravure, 1% sex-related stuff (eg Tenga Cup and underwear in a packet with a girl's photograph), 1% assorted goods (e.g. nail clippers) and 1% non-sex-related DVDs (Disney etc).


Menu of dinner place. Calories are listed.


I had 'Southern Barbarian' style chicken - chicken in a general sweet sauce, with maybe a little chili (just for colour).

At dinner, there were 2 schoolgirls outside, and one squatted down to look at the menu, with predictable results. GAH GAH GAH.


Jeansmate - where you can buy jeans 24/7.


Something I didn't expect to see: Tesco products at the supermarket.


Bamboo

All the cold green tea sold in Japan has no sugar, whereas virtually all cold green tea sold outside it in Singapore does.


I don't know whether these were tied up because they were Hentai or because they didn't want kids reading them.


Tied-up dog outside grocery place.

Future days will have many more pictures.

"Democracy means government by discussion, but it is only effective if you can stop people talking." - Clement Atlee

***

HWMNBN: someone wrote that she saw and heard more crying and grieving at sex and the city theaters than in any war movie or mourning scene than she could remember in recent memory


Someone who asked for a Love Amulet: i just checked out the jishu website
din noe they actually have a website

it does give description of the amulets in english

Me: hoho
so what's yours

Someone: Find love

Me: yeah that's what it said there

Someone: they claimed tt the amulet is valid for a year
and if ur wishes r granted within a year, u shld go back and thank the gods

i wonder this attributes in any way to their booming tourism

Me: !!!
wth
tell them to go and die

I didn't know these things expire !@#$

Someone: http://www.jishujinja.or.jp/enmusubi/omamori/index.html
u wun throw it away after a year mah

Me: damn japs


Someone else: 輪h市t

Me: ?

Someone else: oh shit w
at least he didn't stab a lot of people this time

Me: yah
what does the jap mean

Someone else: what jap
wtf, it was just a swiss army knife

Me: "輪h市t"

Someone else: oh that's just ohshit

try it
go japanese IME then type in ohshit

Me: gah


Someone on overpriced sex toys in Singapore: 1000 yen is like less than $15 right?
sell for $30 lah

set up a ninja van business

go to the halls in nus
and ntu

best if you can get a hippie van

Me: haha
shagmobile

maybe at uni level they're still into vanilla sex

Someone: ah well with a shagmobile you can set up shop everywhere
go where the demand is


Me: the MDA block on websites is ridiculously easy to circumvent
!@#$

Someone else: how do you do it?

Me: ***

Someone else: wow

Me: I want to kick something

Someone else: don't. You know we have people who work in there, who give us these loopholes to work through

they are our heros

Me: yah I know
hahahahah

it's like how gay sex is officially banned in singapore to make conservatives happy
but consenting gay sex in private is legal

so everyone is happy except the liberals

Someone else: the door is there, it's just hidden. It;'s a cognitive filter

Me: and informational

but if too many people know, it gets shut

[Ed: A friend on Singnet tried it but it didn't work. It doesn't work with Chick.com - telling, huh? I found another easy method to circumvent that, though.]


Someone: china is fucking blocking sourceforge

i feel so sorry for cs guys in china
want to use a tool that's on sourceforge? oops, can't

Me: wth

what
subversive msgs hidden in code ah

Someone: i heard it's because notepad++ was protesting something

it's stupid lah w

"That's the secret to life... replace one worry with another...." - Charles M. Schulz, Charlie Brown

***

More local film-makers tackle sex and nudity

"Dr Tan says: 'A common approach to sex in many of these Singapore films has been the idea of sexual repression, where a materialistic, rigid, conservative and authoritarian culture is presented as a severe constraint on authentic human creativity and the erotic impulses.'

Or as Mr Zhang put it: 'The sex depicted is usually quite depressing and is very stark.'"


Haha, academic-speak.

"If I only had a little humility, I'd be perfect." - Ted Turner

***

Baltics trip
Day 1 - 16th May - Vilnius, Lithuania; Selected pictures from HWMNBN (I will get YC's pictures tomorrow, but I doubt I'll find anything I want to post so I'll move on)


One way I sleep on planes


Vilnius from the air