Our cookhouse seems to be very taken with the merits of Minestrone soup for the times they have Pseudo-Western food. Well, it's minestrone in name only; it's been getting worse as time passes and now it's more like Cream of Tomato soup with noodles and chili. They should just have gone back to the previous fixation with Cream of Chicken.

It's very sad. Ever since I started imitating him, Kiong hasn't been laughing his inimitable laugh! How to describe it? It's starts as a rasping sound in the throat and then proceeds to sound like a vocal exercise I used to do during choir, one where you hit the top note and then glissando your way down.

An interesting consequence of my JC friends all either being Officers or in OCS, studying overseas, or downgraded (and many from both categories being in stayout, non-operational units) is that I seem to have cornered the market for English writing. So from time to time, I'm asked to smoke up something suitably impressive for someone's use. Somewhat flattering, actually, especially when I see people salivate over the results :) Oh dear, I better not grow too big for my boots.

Someone, as a joke, told me to tell someone else that he was cute, had kissable lips, was well hung and that he could blow him the whole day. The latter's response: "Tell him if he does that I'll go and fuck him... [realises his mistake] Tell him if he does that I'll go and whack him". Haha.

Many people in camp seem to have a powder fetish. I attribute this partly to the touting of the merits of powder during talks in BMT. I've always been skeptical about the benefits of applying powder, and the few times I -have- tried it have left me wanting. Especially repellent is Prickly Heat powder. Perhaps for the same reason people love to trick their mouth and tongues into thinking that they are on fire by eating foods with chili, people love to feel the vulgar, faux-cool/heat that comes from a liberal application of that wretched substance, which has a most vile odour about it, to boot. Those most guilty of this sin are Yongsiang and Melvin (who always has powder around his collar - tut tut). I wouldn't mind if people engaged in powder baths everyday, really, but the thing is all the powder emitted into the atmosphere inevitably lands on my artefacts. And I've no way of knowing where the powder was previously. For all I know it could have been caressing someone's gonads before landing on my bedsheet!


I realise that, apart from the Airport, I haven't seen a Starhub payphone anywhere for a long while. I wonder if they finally recognised the futility of the whole enterprise.

I was discussing our Chief Justice's sentences with someone, and neither of us could recall an instance where he didn't increase someone's sentence on appeal. Probably this is because such cases aren't reported, but I do think it's a little unfair to increase people's sentences just like that, especially when he doubles (or worse) their sentences. Appeal courts aren't supposed to punish you even harder than you have been.

I notice the police didn't arrest the "Lettuce Ladies" from PETA even though they didn't have a permit. Ahem.

I'm quite pissed out (even more than usual) with the tack that those companies offering Breast Enhancement services are taking nowadays. "Local men encouraging wives to take up bust enhancement program". I think we should boycott PrettiSlim and its PrettiBosom program!


The International Criminal Court is finally up. Of course, the USA is not participating because many lawmakers are unreasonably paranoid that the court will be used to persecute US soldiers. It's interesting to see how the USA has been paranoid in many regards, in cases like these. Usually it's only Communist Regimes that are this insecure and neurotic. This, combined with the arrogance coming from being the pre-eminent state in the world today, and the fear that some people are trying to put America down (some are, surely, but the paranoia exhibited is plain ridiculous) goes some way towards explaining much US foreign and domestic policy of dubitable utility.


Quotes:

[Me: Let me weight myself] Weigh yourself? Wait, this I must see.

[On my recording of someone's laughter] His laugh is even more bone-chilling

[On my recording of someone's laughter] It sounds, like Diablo

[On kicking the wall during Unarmed Combat to practice the sliding side kick] And now, gentlemen, I teach you how to vandalise the SAF property (I'll, SAF)

[Me: Your uniform looks very very fresh] It's always been. [Me: How do you keep it so radiant and vibrant?] Ask my maid.

GP car hai2 shi4 (Translation: or) admin vehicle? [Driver: GP car] Yes! Yes! [Sings] I love GP car

[On going somewhere on official business] Bye. I'm off to the zoo.

You can't come in. *** is masturbating.

[On my CPL rank being sewn on shoddily] Jialat. Yours is even worse than mine. Nevermind. This one is called, 'I fucking don't care'. Right? I respect you.

Derrick requests the pleasure of your presence in Room 4 [People start laughing]

[On my chocolate] I want! Can give me one?... Eee, what happened to the colour? (Can you)

You should aspire to be a spec [Specialist]. Then you can do important things like conducting warmups.

Had a department barbeque yesterday. We were supposed to gather at Big Splash at 3pm, or at the pit at 5pm, for those who couldn't make it at 3pm, but Ban Xiong and I were the only idiots there at the time. Sergeant Melvin came a while later, at 3:15, so we had many hours to stone, since Boon Wei came only at 5:30 and the rest at 6:30! At least we got a treat from him at Viking Hotdog :)

Big Splash is a very boring place. Apparently it's been charging no admission since someone died there a few years ago, but the biggest, meanest slide is closed, so it's no wonder no one wants to go there. The whole place, too, looks so 1970s. I wonder if the sales of overpriced drinks and ice cream is not nearly enough to keep the whole place afloat.

While we 3 were waiting at the BBQ pit, we were bored so we alternately slept on the stone tables at the pit and watched a sideshow taking place a way away from us.

Now, this couple from ACJC was frolicking in the sand. The guy was still in his uniform, but the girl had changed out of her skirt into gray jeans. From a far distance, the blue inner lining of their collars was visible, which was how I identified them and did an IFF (Identification Friend or Foe). It was only 5 plus, not even 6pm, but they were already turning up the heat on the beach; petting and cuddling on the sand. Later, they moved on to french kissing and necking, and though we could only see them from the back, we could conjecture which targets the guy's hand and mouth were seeking. When sunset came, the two moved up and down the beach, finally settling at a spot further from our location.

Ban Xiong remarked that it was no wonder one of his friends from ACJC was a father. I was intrigued, and on making further enquiries, I discovered that this ACJC father - in our year - was not the same ACJC father that I already knew. What a happening school, to have at least *2* fathers in one year! We also speculated on why the ACJC blouse was so much more transparent than the ACJC shirt. Perverted uniform makers, maybe. Geraldine claims ACJC girls wash the blouses more, but I doubt that's the reason (maybe they do wash them more, but not to keep them clean...). Apparently there was other action going on around us, from other players, but I didn't see it.

I saw a male toilet cleaner in a female toilet at East Coast. Go Men's Lib!

The food at the BBQ was rather well bought/prepared, with a wide variety and high quality of food. I think it's one of the better barbeques I've been to recently, really.

While we were eating, troops in Full Battle Order from 10SIB suddenly appeared and marched past us. It must've been a torture seeing all the barbequers eating and enjoying themselves while they were slogging, but at least they were marching at night, when it's cooler. Even when we're out of camp, we're not free from reminders of bondage! Gah.

As Chinx said in the Days of Yore, there is always too much food at barbeques. And for some reason the organisers always feel compelled to try to finish the food, so they attempt to stuff everyone to bursting point. Then later people throw some away, bring some back and feed the rest to the cats, who play with the sausages. I suggest that, when BBQs are held near beaches, the food be buried. I buried some myself and I think crabs are now feasting merrily.


Maybe because he's going to ORD, and because the night was cool and we were full, the person who has some degree of animosity with me was talking to me yesterday. We effected a sort of rapprochement, I think. I am glad :)


Quotes:

You should write: AC blouses are see-through. [Me: You didn't know that?] You can even see the colour of her bra... Perverted uniform makers.

Ohh... sand got in her blouse. And he's taking the opportunity to help himself. Under the watchful eyes of Gabriel Seah.

Nothing is happening at the sideshow. The show has not started yet. [Me: No, there was a show just now. Now they're taking a rest.]

When the sun goes down, they'll go where the sun don't shine.

He's on top of her [Me: Wishful thinking. He's lying beside her] Now he's beside her. In 30 minutes he'll be on top of her.

[Me: The sideshow has moved to the table] Both sitting on the table? That's not right. [Me: What, one {should be} sitting at the table and one kneeling in front?] I didn't say that.

I was going to mark this month's anniversary - my halfway point - 3 days ago, but forgot. Dear me.

50% of (full time) slavery finished!

[a sneak peek]

Skepticism and Christianity

1) Disclaimer

2) Why do people need religion?

3) Personal history and the stimulus of the Sabah retreat

4) First principles - Is there a God? Brief meta-physical discussion, since I've no training in philosophy/meta-physics.

5) Rebutting the untenable claims and ludicrous beliefs of literalists.

6) Circular arguments and inescapable flowcharts in finding God etc

7) Some fundamental precepts of Christianity - eg sin, sex as a sin. This is not a book, merely an essay so a short discussion will suffice.

8) Questioning applied religion - assumptions and interpretation.

9) Goings-on of the retreat, personal reflections


"If cows and horses or lions had hands,/... Horses would have drawn horse-like gods, cows cow-like gods,/ and each species would have made the gods' bodies just like their own" - Xenophanes


I wonder if I'll manage to complete this essay. I'll try to exercise essay discipline this time to stop it from becoming a vaguely linked collection of ranting paragraphs :) And to keep to my self-imposed 1-2 week deadline! Hopefully I'll have it done by Sunday.


My computer (or at least the area around the monitor) has been infected by ants for the longest time. Gah!

Oh yeah.

I got an A1 for GP!!!

The insult to my honoured clan has been avenged. The winds howl their approval. The lightning streaks from the clouds above.

:)

Wth. What's this doing in my mailbox?

NB: Personal particulars have been blocked out to protect the sender's privacy

"Subject: The Uncertainty Principle Is Untenable

please reply to ***@***.***
thank you.


THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE IS UNTENABLE


By re-analysing Heisenberg's Gamma-Ray Microscope experiment and the ideal experiment from which the uncertainty principle is derived, it is actually found that the uncertainty principle can not be obtained from them. It is therefore found to be untenable.

Key words:
uncertainty principle; Heisenberg's Gamma-Ray Microscope Experiment; ideal experiment

Ideal Experiment 1

Heisenberg's Gamma-Ray Microscope Experiment


A free electron sits directly beneath the center of the microscope's lens (please see AIP page http://www.aip.org/history/heisenberg/p08b.htm or diagram below) . The circular lens forms a cone of angle 2A from the electron. The electron is then illuminated from the left by gamma rays--high energy light which has the shortest wavelength. These yield the highest resolution, for according to a principle of wave optics, the microscope can resolve (that is, "see" or distinguish) objects to a size of dx, which is related to and to the wavelength L of the gamma ray, by the expression:

dx = L/(2sinA) (1)

However, in quantum mechanics, where a light wave can act like a particle, a gamma ray striking an electron gives it a kick. At the moment the light is diffracted by the electron into the microscope lens, the electron is thrust to the right. To be observed by the microscope, the gamma ray must be scattered into any angle within the cone of angle 2A. In quantum mechanics, the gamma ray carries momentum as if it were a particle. The total momentum p is related to the wavelength by the formula,

p = h / L, where h is Planck's constant. (2)

In the extreme case of diffraction of the gamma ray to the right edge of the lens, the total momentum would be the sum of the electron's momentum P'x in the x direction and the gamma ray's momentum in the x direction:

P' x + (h sinA) / L', where L' is the wavelength of the deflected gamma ray.

In the other extreme, the observed gamma ray recoils backward, just hitting the left edge of the lens. In this case, the total momentum in the x direction is:

P''x - (h sinA) / L''.

The final x momentum in each case must equal the initial x momentum, since momentum is conserved. Therefore, the final x momenta are equal to each other:

P'x + (h sinA) / L' = P''x - (h sinA) / L'' (3)

If A is small, then the wavelengths are approximately the same,

L' ~ L" ~ L. So we have

P''x - P'x = dPx ~ 2h sinA / L (4)

Since dx = L/(2 sinA), we obtain a reciprocal relationship between the minimum uncertainty in the measured position, dx, of the electron along the x axis and the uncertainty in its momentum, dPx, in the x direction:

dPx ~ h / dx or dPx dx ~ h. (5)

For more than minimum uncertainty, the "greater than" sign may added.

Except for the factor of 4pi and an equal sign, this is Heisenberg's uncertainty relation for the simultaneous measurement of the position and momentum of an object.

Re-analysis

To be seen by the microscope, the gamma ray must be scattered into any angle within the cone of angle 2A.

The microscope can resolve (that is, "see" or distinguish) objects to a size of dx, which is related to and to the wavelength L of the gamma ray, by the expression:

dx = L/(2sinA) (1)

This is the resolving limit of the microscope and it is the uncertain quantity of the object's position.

The microscope can not see the object whose size is smaller than its resolving limit, dx. Therefore, to be seen by the microscope, the size of the electron must be larger than or equal to the resolving limit.

But if the size of the electron is larger than or equal to the resolving limit dx, the electron will not be in the range dx. Therefore, dx can not be deemed to be the uncertain quantity of the electron's position which can be seen by the microscope, but deemed to be the uncertain quantity of the electron's position which can not be seen by the microscope. To repeat, dx is uncertainty in the electron's position which can not be seen by the microscope.

To be seen by the microscope, the gamma ray must be scattered into any angle within the cone of angle 2A, so we can measure the momentum of the electron.

dPx is the uncertainty in the electron's momentum which can be seen by microscope.

What relates to dx is the electron where the size is smaller than the resolving limit. When the electron is in the range dx, it can not be seen by the microscope, so its position is uncertain.

What relates to dPx is the electron where the size is larger than or equal to the resolving limit .The electron is not in the range dx, so it can be seen by the microscope and its position is certain.

Therefore, the electron which relates to dx and dPx respectively is not the same. What we can see is the electron where the size is larger than or equal to the resolving limit dx and has a certain position, dx = 0.

Quantum mechanics does not rely on the size of the object, but on Heisenberg's Gamma-Ray Microscope experiment. The use of the microscope must relate to the size of the object. The size of the object which can be seen by the microscope must be larger than or equal to the resolving limit dx of the microscope, thus the uncertain quantity of the electron's position does not exist. The gamma ray which is diffracted by the electron can be scattered into any angle within the cone of angle 2A, where we can measure the momentum of the electron.

What we can see is the electron which has a certain position, dx = 0, so that in no other position can we measure the momentum of the electron. In Quantum mechanics, the momentum of the electron can be measured accurately when we measure the momentum of the electron only, therefore, we have gained dPx = 0.

And,

dPx dx =0. (6)

Ideal experiment 2

Single Slit Diffraction Experiment


Suppose a particle moves in the Y direction originally and then passes a slit with width dx(Please see diagram below) . The uncertain quantity of the particle's position in the X direction is dx, and interference occurs at the back slit . According to Wave Optics , the angle where No.1 min of interference pattern is can be calculated by following formula:

sinA=L/2dx (1)

and L=h/p where h is Planck's constant. (2)

So the uncertainty principle can be obtained

dPx dx ~ h (5)

Re-analysis

According to Newton first law , if an external force in the X direction does not affect the particle, it will move in a uniform straight line, ( Motion State or Static State) , and the motion in the Y direction is unchanged .Therefore , we can learn its position in the slit from its starting point.

The particle can have a certain position in the slit and the uncertain quantity of the position is dx =0. According to Newton first law , if the external force at the X direction does not affect particle, and the original motion in the Y direction is not changed , the momentum of the particle int the X direction will be Px=0 and the uncertain quantity of the momentum will be dPx =0.

This gives:

dPx dx =0. (6)

No experiment negates NEWTON FIRST LAW. Whether in quantum mechanics or classical mechanics, it applies to the microcosmic world and is of the form of the Energy-Momentum conservation laws. If an external force does not affect the particle and it does not remain static or in uniform motion, it has disobeyed the Energy-Momentum conservation laws. Under the above ideal experiment , it is considered that the width of the slit is the uncertain quantity of the particle's position. But there is certainly no reason for us to consider that the particle in the above experiment has an uncertain position, and no reason for us to consider that the slit's width is the uncertain quantity of the particle. Therefore, the uncertainty principle,

dPx dx ~ h (5)

which is derived from the above experiment is unreasonable.

Concluson


>From the above re-analysis , it is realized that the ideal experiment demonstration for the uncertainty principle is untenable. Therefore, the uncertainty principle is untenable.



Reference:
1. Max Jammer. (1974) The philosophy of quantum mechanics (John wiley & sons , Inc New York ) Page 65
2. Ibid, Page 67
3. http://www.aip.org/history/heisenberg/p08b.htm



Author : **** *******
Postal address : P.O.Box ***** ****** ****** ****** *****
GuangZhou 510800 P.R.China

E-mail: ****@***.***
Tel: **---**---******"


Hrm.

GainRWeb
The site for Guys and their Guts

"Q: How can I get fat ... NOW? ...OR... I have too high a metabolism. I can't gain, can I?
A: The answer can be given in one word: EAT! Your body makes fat to store up the energy from any extra calories you may consume. So, since it takes 3,500-3,600 calories in excess of the amount your body requires to gain each and every pound ... you must EAT. Eat more than what is required for your body. Eat it every day! If you live a lifestyle that requires that you consume 3,000 calories per day to maintain your current weight - then you must eat at least 700 extra calories each and every day to put on a pound per week.

Now, although that sounds simple, remember, even the very act of eating and digesting those 700 extra calories will cause you to burn more calories.

Your body requires more calories when it is cold than when it is warm - stay warm after each meal.

Your body will use the food in your digestive track first, then go to your fat reserves for the calories it needs. Don't exercise right after eating. The digesting food will be used by the body instead of your fat reserves. That sounds backwards....but the body is more efficient when it uses stored fat, than when it uses digesting food. You want all the calories in your digestive system to turn to fat and then get used. In the long run, you'll get fatter this way."

?!

Back from Sabah.

Tim was right. The retreat actually *was* very good. It forced me to examine many issues and questions that I'd been ignoring (conveniently) for a long time, being a semi-skeptical non-denominational Christian, and to reflect. I still need some time to meditate on everything, though, but for now, I'd classify myself as a hopeful skeptic.

Naturally, I took copious volumes of notes (about 4 A4-sized sides, in my usual spidery handwriting). Look for the essay to come up in 1-2 weeks.

No offense intended!

Oh i just had to put this down! At the OCF free bbq yesterday, PL and i were at the welcome table commenting on the quality of RY's hair, and she asked him what shampoo he used.

RY said "All you have to do is pray for salvation for yr hair, and it will get re-born!"

Just had a talk with Timothy's father about the Sabah retreat. He seems awfully enthusiastic for me :) My mother, on the other hand, is anxious and unsure.

Oh well, I guess there's only one way to find out :)


For obvious reasons, I won't be able to blog when I'm there, so my next post will probably be on the 10th of March.

Toodles.

"What's Opera, Doc?"

Featuring Bugs Bunny (Mel Blanc), and Elmer Fudd (Arthur Q Bryant)

Elmer: Be vewy quiet. I'm hunting wabbits.
(spoken) WABBIT TWACKS!! WABBIT HOLE!!
(thrusting spear) KILL THE WABBIT! KILL THE WABBIT! KILL THE WABBIT!

Bugs: (spoken): Kill the wabbit?

Elmer: YO HO HO! YO HO HO! YO HO...

Bugs: Oh mighty warrior of great fighting stock
Might I inquire to ask eh... what's up doc?

Elmer: I'm going to kill the wabbit!

Bugs: O mighty warrior, 'twill be quite a task
How will you do it, might I inquire to ask?

E: I will do it with my spear and magic hewmet.

B: Spear and magic hewmet?

E: Spear and magic hewmet.

B: Magic hewmet?

E: Magic hewmet!

B (spoken, disparagingly): Magic hewmet.

E: Yes, magic hewmet, and I give you a sample!
(exit Bugs at warp speed)

E (spoken): That was the wabbit!

(Then a chase, followed by:)

E: Oh, Bwoonhilda, you're so wovely.

B: Yes, I know it, I can't help it.

E: Oh, Bwoonhilda, be my wove...
(A dance, then... )

E: Weturn, my wove... a fire burning inside me...

B: Return my luv, I want you always bee-side me.

E: Wove wike ours must be...

B: Made fer you and fer me...

E & B : Return, won't you return my love... for my love is yours.

(While singing, they embrace. Bug's helm falls to the ground... revealing his ears)

Elmer (spoken, outraged): I'll KILL the wabbit!!

E (spoken): North winds bwow, south winds bwow. Typhoons, Hurricanes... Earthquakes!! SMOG!!!!!!

E (spoken): Thunder, wigtning, stwike the wabbit!!

(Lightning flashes, striking in the distance -- now moving in, we see the limp and lifeless form of Bugs -- a drop of water clings to a crushed flower)

E: What have I done?.... I've killed the wabbit... Poor wittle bunny... (sob)

(Bugs is carried off in Elmer's arms... )

B (spoken): Well, what did you expect from an opera, a happy ending?

------------------- The End... That's all Folks -------------

On Straits Times' misquoting (or in this case, totally fabricating quotes):

"Top RI boy, Benedict Eoon, 16, who took art on top of nine other subjects, noted that government bodies and statutory boards which give out scholarships ask for the O-level results as well.

He said: 'For the best scholarships, you are competing with the best, who will all have perfect 10 A1s. Why would I want any less?'"

wth. i sound so arrogant here. esp since i didn't say a thing to the friggin interviewer. she asked me my family background, siblings, subjects. and then asked me about some art stuff. since when did i talk bout scholarship??? ... oh well the media is really crappy. they love putting words into your mouth.

They better not try that with members of The Party.

I proudly state that all the quotes *I* have are true... if not I can rename Improve Your English "Improve My Hearing".


Damn. The stimulating part of Blue Bear's right paw has gotten out of position again. I'm not dexterous or skilled enough to sew it back into position, and my sister isn't around to do it for me. My mother probably could, but I don't want to set her off again. No matter, I still love him :)

SAFISAM 2003 has ended, and with it my glorious, wonderful attachment there. The char-broiled skin and Malay food (though curry is remarkably agreeable once you get used to it. At least when the burnign sensation subsides) notwithstanding, I think I have grown used to the stayout life, the early fallouts, the chance to read and sleep (albeit on rough and dity surfaces) and the lack of anything remotely strenuous, mentally or physically, to do. I've become nua!

One guy was complaining, during SAFISAM at Nee Soon range, about his nymphomaniac girlfriend, who pestered him for her fix everyday. In the end he grew exhausted and had to trick her by saying he had to go outfield the next day. Hah!

Recently there was a blood donation drive. All those who donated one day off and got to go for a night off everyday for a week, and my department gets to go for one everyday in the month of March. Somehow, this is just plain wrong. Bribing people to donate blood? I don't even want to consider the ethics of that.

Our new MO is often vivacious and jovial. And he's very professional and meticulous too. Yeh.

A few sightings of friends and acquaintances this period too, but they're too trivial to blog here, and I'll feel silly doing so.


Hearing Geraldine's imitation of the revolting singing unicorn wasn't enough for me, so being the masochist that I am, I asked her to let me listen to it over the phone. It was horrible. It was bone chilling. It was spine shattering. It was perhaps the most gruesome sound that I have ever heard, and on hearing it, I suffered apoplexy and began to go into a seizure.

After a long hiatus, Tym is back. Hurrah!

Why do all Chinese Dictionaries have the same names? All of them are proclaimed to be, in big bold letters on the cover, "Zhui4 Xin1 Han4 Yu3 Ci2 Dian3" (Newest Chinese Dictionary), and you have to scrutinise the fine print to look for the company's name. Maybe it's a reminder of the roots of Communist China. Anyhow, since they all have the same name, you never know which is the newest of the dictionaries. I remember, when I was with my first Chinese tuition teacher in the 90s, this dictionary (with pictures of things and their chinese names at the back) which proclaimed itself to be "Zhui4 Xin1" (the Newest), when actually it had been published in the 80s. So much for being "Zhui4 Xin1"

I was at Boon Lay station again, one station I'm starting to dread due to the unbearable MRT announcements (which is one of the many factors weighing in on the side of taking the MRT home from Choa Chu Kang instead), and they only played the dreaded long announcement about not boarding the train (which I've spelt out in its full horror before) 5 times, and thankfully didn't play the even longer one. In tandem with the noise pollution, the staff had dispatched this Indian man in a tie to run down the cabins chasing people out, and from my vantage point, it appeared that all those who were chased out were Bangladeshi construction workers, most of whom probably don't understand English anyway. I guess they've finally figured out that bombarding commuters with irritating messages relentlessly won't work. Perhaps they should just let the idiots who choose to enter the train carriages be carted off to an unnamed depot, and fine them $10 each. The idea behind this is actually pretty similar to that of clamping car wheels, so why not?


David asked me to go to the Harmony Awards 2003 Semi-Finals at Scotts, and as usual I had nothing to do so I followed. Not unpredictably, I saw not a few familiar faces, though why Jason ran off to eat at Marche (one MRT stop down the road!) instead of watching the show with his friend I don't quite comprehend.

Imponderable imponderables:

- Why is it always the guys who make the sleazy percussion / mouth-drumming noises? The girls never rise to the challenge. Except for Yunxin :)
- Where do they get such cringe-worthy group names? Do they randomise them out of a computer, or draw them out of a hat? Perhaps a quote can explain better. "We were sitting outside the school toilet and we saw the hosereel. So we decided to call ourselves 'hosereel'" *wince*
- Why were there so many groups of kiddos? I applaud the effort, but many of them were really unbearable.
- Do you even need an audition to get to the Semi-Finals?
- Why did Bach's Menuet in G (the famous one used as a handphone ringtone) appear suddenly in a medley of Chinese songs?
- How come Edmund got to appear in both the Resonance subgroups? I thought you aren't allowed to moonlight. He changed his shirt for his second appearance, but naturally that didn't fool eagle eyed me! Anyhow he really got into his element the second time he was onstage. I think he's the best person I know at making sleazy percussion noises
- Why does almost all A Capella include sleazy percussion noises? Upping the sleaze factor isn't always good!
- Why did the judges - Neri Per Caso, some Italian A Capella group performing in Singapore sometime soon - consent to even judge this? Must have been in the small print
- Why did Neri Per Caso sing some songs at the end of the whole thing, putting most of the groups that had performed to shame by showing how measly they were?
- Why does David think I give all my friends nicknames?

To keep it all in perspective, some comments about last year's from someone who may prefer to remain anonymous:

"i went for it last year.. the finals. it was atrocious. they couldn't bloody even sing in pitch. simple third apart harmony.. like shit. different key.. both singers.

a few kids who can't think of a name for nuts, and can't sing to save their lives.. in contention for the HARMONY awards.. the standard has really dropped to shit... i remember in 2000 the grps were all of such standard, the judges had a difficult decision

imagine.. a grp named popcorn. i still remember "we [the grp] popped like popcorn because we shared a love for singing.. and so we popped into a grp!"
............

i felt so ashamed that these fantastic foreign grps were coming to singapore to judge such shit stuff comin' from kids.. they must think that our acappella scene is so sad... but there are pretty good grps around just that they seemed to have boycotted the harmony awards...

i was a judge recently at my own vjc's music fest
even the grps i heard were so much better than the harmony award finalists... which is like a NATIONAL competition. goodness. even the "laymen" in vj sing better than them."

About halfway through the groups' performances, I noticed something vaguely familiar about 3 of the people sitting in front of me, and after a while, seeing more clues, I got it. They were none other than members of the group which won the titles: All Female A Cappella Group of the Year Award (2001) [Ed: For which they were the only nominee] and All Female A Cappella Group of the Year Award (2000) - Vis-a-vis! I was rather disappointed that I took so long to recognise Culottes Girl and Blank Faced Girl's Understudy [Ed: If word of this gets around, as it surely will, I'd like to reiterate that no stigma at all is attached to these monikers]. Must be the stress of the As - look what they do to people! I wonder if they recognised me as "that weird, freaky RJ J4 guy" ('Weird' pops up a lot when people describe me, I have noticed :) Apparently that's how Peggy described me when she was relief teaching in RJ last year) I was actually considering going rabid and professing to be a great fan and pressing them for an autograph :)


Geraldine had a dinner to celebrate her birthday. She's now 18 and can drink herself silly and do many other stupid things. Whee. Anyhow, somehow I was the only one at dinner *not* born in 1985. Gah.

Yechao was telling me about 10 or so boys in his class who are bored and lonely, like us. Maybe we can form a club. Hah!

Later, Geraldine *had* to goad Yujia into asking me what I call her Secondary School. Gah. So of course she fumbled some manner of defence, that you needed to "know how to wear the uniform properly". But anyway my theory was further vindicated when the other ex-SC girl, Jiawen, said that she always preferred to go out in the PE Shirt and skirt.

Later, at an aracde, someone accidentally hit Geraldine and she started whining and sulking to Kenneth for a ludicrously long period of time. So I got fed up and cuffed her lightly with the back of my hand, and she started sulking even more. Apparently it wasn't as light as it was supposed to be. Or her threshold of pain is even lower than mine, pathetic as that already is.

The dinner was free, but what made it more rewarding was that, just before I left, she gave the first proper hug in more than a year.


Quotes:

[On marginally sensitive information] If I see it anywhere on the Internet, I'm going to kill you.

What's your nickname for me? Idiot? Specky?... Or Screwed Up Boy? No that's Yechao.

[On the 2003 Harmony Awards Semi Finals] Yeh! The end! We can all go home now... I'm exhausted. [Me: I'm exhausted from listening to bad music]

[Me: Medical Appointment] Wow. [Me: I've 2 Medical Appointments today] Wow. Can you give me one?

GAH

I just realised the music they used at SAFISAM is from Battlestar Galactica. (Though I've no idea what that is)

!@#$%^&*()

Cheapskate SAF people.


Haha.

Reality Show Parody

I think that the story is bad, especially for a Gaiman one.

Collection of Right Wing Essays - The logic is often appalling and blatantly obvious points are conveniently ignored or skimmed over. The wonders of partisan writing.

Disturbing Neil Gaiman story Geraldine just read me - Babycakes. Why do people like to read his work? If all of it is similarly disturbing... *shudder*

The Associate returns, finally clambering out the hole that he has been cowering in all these weeks. Hurrah.


http://www.publishingnews.co.uk/pn/pno_news6.asp

Wizard plans big ad campaign for Fantasy series

THE FIGHTING FANTASY series of adventure game books popular in the 1980s, is to be brought to a new generation of adolescent boys by its new publisher, Wizard Books, the children�s imprint of Icon Books which plans a major ad campaign for next Christmas. Andrew Furlow, Marketing Manager at Icon, says: �This is a major campaign, and we want to get everyone involved in it early on, because it�s all about big head office orders and, as we know, head offices in large companies have to order things months ahead.�
Publishing Manager Simon Flynn brought the series to Wizard in June last year after contacting the co-authors and co-creators of the Fighting Fantasy books, Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. Originally published by Puffin, the rights had reverted to Jackson and Livingstone. Flynn and Peter Pugh, MD of Icon, met them and �hammered out a deal�.
Since then, Wizard has sold over 200,000 copies worldwide, and now aims to improve on that. �Of course, it�s been very successful for us, but we feel the potential is exponentially greater than this,� says Furlow.
Wizard�s new �250,000 campaign will be spearheaded by a 30-second TV advertisement to be shown over five weeks, starting in November. Furlow says: �The premise is that Fighting Fantasy takes you away from the world of school and homework into a world of excitement and fantasy. The underlying idea being that even in this world of computer games and television, it�s books that really fire the imagination.� Wizard will also be setting up a Fighting Fantasy website, as well as a fan club which will be advertised in the books.
Wizard plans to make thorough preparations for the demand that is expected to result from the campaign. �We�re putting together lots of packs, gift sets, boxed sets, and all sorts of add-ons that fans can get hold of. We�re very much promoting the series as a brand.� Livingstone, currently Creative Director at computer games company Eidos, commented: �It�s fantastic that Fighting Fantasy has been relaunched. It�s a very bold move that Wizard has made. Steve and I are very enthusiastic.� Jackson agreed: �Icon has really brought the look of the books into the 21st century. I think it�s important to bring the covers up to date, and that�s been done.�

Something He Who Must Not Be Named insisted I post ; I don't understand Malay, so you can have fun puzzling this out. Assuming my OCR added no errors. He says it's something along the lines of: "Headline: Proposal to use Kongming Lanterns as anti-aircraft weapons. (Kongming Lanterns are those glowing hot air balloon/lanterns they raise during..erm..some festival.... yeah, i'm culturally ignorant too...)"


Syor Iraq guna tanglung Kongming halang serangan AS

Saudara Pengarang, SAYA mencadangkan supaya rakyat Iraq meng-gunakan tanglung Kong-ming sebagai senjata bagi menghalang jet-jet peju-ang Amerika Syarikat (AS) daripada menyerang negara mereka.

Sekiranya besar tang-lung Kongming holeh naik tinggi ke udara dan meng-akibatkan kemalangan pe-sawat jet, bolehlah Iraq mengggunakan alat yang mudah ini untuk menang-kis serangan AS.

Saya pasti dengan cara ini sahaja jet jet pejuang AS akan lakut dan boleh dihalang daripada melan-carkan serangan udara se-cara besar-besaran seba-gaimana yang dilakukan ke atas bumi Afghanistan dulu.

Saya percaya dengan kuasa jet-jet pejuang yang mempunyai daya sedutan udara yang lebih kuat akan menyedut tanglung Kongming ke dalam enjin.

Tenaga jurulatih boleh dihantar dari Pulau Pi-nang ke Iraq bagi menga-jar rakynt negara itu mele-paskan seberapa banyak tanglung ke ruang udara-nya apabila tiba ketika yang sesuai. Rakyat Iraq boleh membuat tanglung yang lebih besar supaya naik lebih tinggi dan terapung lebih lama.

Kos membuat tanglung ini amat murah jika diban-dingkan dengan lain-lain senjata penangkis serang-an udara. Lagipun senjata tanglung ini tidak akan dibantah oleh Majlis Kese-lamatan PBB.

Saya juga menge-syorkan namanya diubah daripada tanglung Kong-ming kepada tanglung Saddam Hussein. - AH-MAD ADAM. Jasin, Me-laka.

Ties, dress codes and sexual discrimination

A blow for Men's Lib!


Sex row over tie rule

A man who was ordered to wear a shirt and tie at work is a victim of sexual discrimination, an employment tribunal has been told.

A dress code brought in by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) stipulated that men working in Jobcentre Plus offices had to wear a collar and tie to work - but set no similar stipulation for women.

Now Matthew Thompson, an administrative assistant at Jobcentre Plus in Stockport, Greater Manchester, has taken a test case against the DWP complaining of sexual discrimination.

Women in his office were allowed to wear T-shirts and on one occasion, one of his female colleagues even wore a football shirt without facing disciplinary action, Mr Thompson told the tribunal in Manchester.

"It may not be the convention for women to wear a collar and tie but the point I am making is that a similar standard of business dress is not applied to women as it is to myself," he said.

"Women are allowed to wear T-shirts, they have logos on the T-shirts, and on at least one occasion they have worn football tops," he added.

Before the hearing, Mr Thompson said he seldom came into contact with the public.

He added: "My duties are post sorting, distributing computer printouts, photocopying and issuing documents internally and through the post to customers.

"Women are not required to wear any specified items of clothing. The dress standard makes no sense.

"Why should I be threatened with the sack if I do not wear a tie?"

Mr Thompson's case is being backed by the Public and Commercial Services union, which has another 39 cases ready to be followed up.

National officer David Burke said Jobcentre Plus workers faced fines of up to 10% of their salary as well as dismissal for refusing to conform to the dress code.

He said: "The code is draconian and unreasonable."

A spokeswoman for the Department for Work and Pensions said the dress code was part of a drive to provide improved services to the public.

"It puts us on a level with banks and building societies," she added.

The hearing continues.


Mr Thompson's case is being heard by an employment tribunal

"Why should I be threatened with the sack if I do not wear a tie?" - Matthew Thompson

Probably the most insightful reader comment (a testament to the sad society we live in):

The shirt-and-tie rule for men certainly is sexist but because it's not women who are being discriminated against, nothing will change.
Russ, Wales


Ed: Additional keywords - kilt (for some reason I thought he wore a kilt to protest - I must be mixing this up with another case), "football jersey" (they are not called that in this article for some reason)

Freedom is a hairy body

February 24 2003


What is it, do you suppose, that marks out modern women from our 19th-century sisters who were trussed up in bodices and Sunday bonnets?

You may respond that we have the vote, or perhaps equal rights and pay. You may say that we are free to chair the board or wear the trousers. Yet you would probably overlook a key difference between us: that we, 21st-century women, spend a hellish amount of time, money and effort on depilation. And they? They walked the planet with unmown shins and bushy armpits, strangers to their husbands' cut-throat razor.

I know this because the producers of the recent British TV drama Sons and Lovers took such pains to achieve period authenticity that actresses were forbidden to remove any body hair in preparation for their roles. Women didn't depilate in late-Victorian England. In one hour of Sons and Lovers, there were nine explicit sex scenes involving full-frontal nudity - and all of it filmed without recourse to hair remover. If this sends a shudder down your spine, you're not alone. After all, it has somehow become accepted that women should be bald from the forehead down, save for a mild eruption at pubic level - and only then if it's kept as trim as a well-groomed box hedge.

The problem is, that's not how we are built. Whisper it softly, but most of us have bristling knees, armpits and shins. Some of us even have moustaches. You wouldn't know it, though, for we spend great amounts of time perpetuating the myth that we're as smooth as eggs. And why? You might hate the bitter truth, but it has everything to do with the fact that men prefer us that way. If that's the case, surely this is something we should have overcome by now - in the same way that we have ditched eyelash fluttering and corsetry.

While women have won many battles since D.H. Lawrence penned his opus, depilation is the battle that liberation lost. To my shame, I am among the worst serial depilators. By recent calculation, I have spent on $7000 waxing in the past decade. I'm a junkie for the well-marketed arsenal of hair-nixing weapons, each one more ludicrous and time-consuming than the last.


My favourite is the Epilady - a hand-held device that rips out hair, follicle by follicle. If you haven't tried it, it's similar to poking yourself in the eye with a toothpick. Then there's electrolysis. This uses a current to electrocute the buggers, eliciting packets of vicious pain.

Even the mild depilatory options are obnoxious: what woman doesn't abhor the eggy smell of depilatory cream, the searing of a blunt razor dragged up her shin bone, the embarrassment of opening the door to the postman with creme bleach still clinging to her upper lip?

Perversely, the most up-to-date methods of depilation are the most torturous, involving the kind of pain once lavished on the village witch.

Chief among these is the Brazilian bikini wax, which was surely developed in Hades, but (get this) has actually received good press from the world's ditzy beauty editors. Not only is it a humbling and hideous experience, during which you proffer your undercarriage to an unknown shop girl, it also hurts like bejaysus.

Its sole benefit is that it allows you to look nice in a thong, especially when bending over to lace up your espadrilles. To all Brazilian devotees, three questions: how much time do you spend gazing at your own perineum? Does it need to be bald? Are you mad as a frog?

So why do we do it? Men wouldn't. Men generally don't. And that, in part, is the answer. In her study on the relationship between a woman's politics and sexual orientation and the shaving of her legs and underarms, Dr Susan Basow, professor of psychology at Pennsylvania's Lafayette College, found thatmost women who did not shave their legs were identified as "very strong feminists and/or as not exclusively heterosexual", and the major reason they did not shave was for political reasons.

However, 81 per cent of the women surveyed shaved their legs and/or underarms on a regular basis. They identified strongly with their own heterosexuality, suggesting that the hairless norm serves to exaggerate the differences between men and women. "The implication of the hairless norm," she writes, "is that women's bodies are not attractive when natural and must be modified."

Great. If you don't depilate, you're either a man or a dyke. It's yet another branch of beauty's pernicious directive to conform. And at its heart is fear - fear of looking too masculine, of deviating from the established aesthetic that dictates women be hipless, breastless and, above all, hairless.

Instead of letting it all hang out, we're trapped in an endless, Sisyphean cycle of tweezing, waxing and plucking in some vain attempt to quell the beast within. But perhaps it's time to break the stranglehold that hair has on our lives.

Cardinal rules - such as the classic "once shaven, always stubbly" - could be taught in school, alongside how to fit a condom on a banana and how to make pastry using the rubbing-in method. Or perhaps coming out would work. They could do a Sex and the City special and make body hair hot.

In time, it might even be perceived as a thing of beauty. Some years ago, I glimpsed a woman on the banks of a river in British Columbia, Canada. She was beautiful, with a heavy rope of plaited hair down her back - the kind of woman who carries a dagger and makes her own bolero jackets from the skins of small mammals. Sandwiched between knee and sock, she had the legs of a yeti. The hair was so abundant that I could see it from the opposite bank. I was filled with awe and admiration. Here was a wilderness woman who owned little more than a tepee, but she had greater authority over her body than I did over mine, perched in a kayak with a lipgloss in my pocket and a Philips Ladyshave in my rucksack.

If we were all to let it grow rife, like the shrubs in the Lost Gardens of Heligan, I'm convinced we would soon find that hair in all the usual places isn't quite a turnoff after all. Give us more Julia Roberts' armpit fur, more European tennis champs. Put it on the cover of Vogue.

After all, it is incredible that the subject is still taboo. We freely discuss anal sex, female sexual dysfunction, paedophilia and boob jobs. But still body hair in the wrong place is off limits. Isn't it time to ditch the depilation, storm the shelves of chemists, burn the bleach and spike the tweezers? Of course it is. But, hey sister, you first.

-Guardian



This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/02/23/1045935277714.html

I shall be indulgent today and rant without much discipline or focus.

I had duck noodles for breakfast today. It was pretty good. Unfortunately, in my morning daze I forgot to ask them not to put chili :( Later, at 11 am, the people at the range got us, the butt party, wanton noodles. Not bad too, though it also had chili. Roti Prata was starting to get tiring :) Less than 2 hours later was lunch. It seems the Muslim cookhouse's cook came back from leave - I'd not seen all the dishes served for lunch before. Well, the curry tasted the same, but at least it was a different colour! And they also gave us the fish that Malays are so fond of - the one with grey flesh and lots of bones: ikan kembong or mackerel, I think.

The SCV repair man gave us a new modem today since the old one was found to be spoilt. A new white Surfboad SB4100. No more disconnection problems! But on the flipside I might have to start paying for broadband and my fixed mobile phone charges. Unlike Xephyris, my schedule is not fixed enough to moonlight ; why is everyone into tutoring??? Or maybe I'm just lazy.


Sometimes, I feel like ranting about some subjects that I have touched on in the past, but keep coming back to again and again, probably because I am still bothered by them (or rather, -people- bother me with them). However, that is in very bad taste, so I won't indulge in it here.