I tripped and fell and my skates broke today! Ouch! And I was a long way from home, so I had to limp back in broken skates and a bruised elbow! Double Ouch! I'll have to try to get it repaired, failing which it'd be time to get a new pair. Either way, $$$ will have to be spent, sigh...
The only consolation is that my IRiver Mp3 player is still completely intact even though I landed right smack on top of it! Not even a scratch! If I had an IPod Nano I can guarantee you that it would have been smashed into smithereens. Finally verified the durability of the IRiver MP3 players that have been touted on the internet. And mine is the regular model, not even the rubber-coated sports version! Oh well, Easter is tomorrow, something more cheerful to think about ;).
Saturday, April 15, 2006
View from my room
So, that's the view from my room, ain't it pretty? For u guys in the US, I always told you I lived by the sea, so here's to prove it! There are disadvantages, like things get rusty even though they are stainless steel, and there's the perennial dust problem, but you get used to it after a while. That whole vast patch of green looks like a jungle huh? That's East Coast Park, where I in-line skate regularly. No wonder Singapore is called a Garden City huh?
Friday, April 14, 2006
Good Friday
It's been a rainy Good Friday. Good Friday's a holiday over here, so the faithful typically flock to church in the morning, followed by fasting and penance for some. In the US, religious holidays aren't allowed, so Good Friday isn't a holiday. And cos it isn't a holiday, many of my Christian friends over there don't go to church, and it becomes just another day. Easter Sunday is the big deal, they say (cos of the easter eggs?). Many of my Christian friends over here however, are extremely appalled when they hear of Christians not going to church on Good Friday! How could they not remember Christ died for us? I tend to agree with the latter. The fundamental belief of Christianity is that Christ died for us that we may have eternal life, then followed by He rose from the dead 3 days later. So it makes sense that Good Friday (and of course Christmas) is the one day that all Christians go to church.
Well of course the convenience plays a part in Christian behavior here in Singapore. My church has 4 services today, 1 in Chinese too, and it's a public holiday too. Back at Newman Hall in Berkeley, there's only 1 service at 7pm, it's not a holiday, and you probably can't get a seat anyway. But as my Cathechism teacher once taught me, can't you sacrifice a teeny bit of inconvenience to worship the Lord? Another big turn off in Berkeley was that the veneration of the Cross takes so long! The priest brings out this huge Cross, and some old folks even take up to 5 mins praying while there's a long line behind! You can imagine how long the service would last huh?
In other completely unrelated news, 6 HK women lost their breasts because they injected some breast enlargement gel which caused complications and cant be removed after injection. What a bummer huh?
Not too recently I learned something new about corruption. Why are corrupted officials in government always so eager to push for more and more pork barrel construction projects, even projects that do not benefit anyone? Examples include roads to nowhere, bridges that don't increase capacity, replacing buildings that are perfectly fine, etc. I mean, it seems counter-intuitive because by building these useless things they are not exactly benefiting anybody, not even their supporters or themselves huh? Well, the simple reason is that in many developing countries a huge portion of government expenditure goes to construction, and typically one single developer/contractor executes the project. So by pushing for a large redundant construction project and giving it to ONE crony developer/contractor, you can actually receive huge bribes and only have to deal with ONE (or a few) person! Think about it, for a typical airport terminal costing say $500million, I'm sure the developer can spare you AT LEAST a $10 million bribe? $10 million in the pocket without having to do anything at all huh? Compare this to receiving bribes from businesses: small money, many businessmen (and companies) you have to deal with to earn the same amount, which increases your risk of exposure. Interestingly, by accepting bribes from businesses you will have monopolies and cronyism, but the citizens may not actually suffer as much as having to pay huge taxes for completely redundant public construction projects.
Well of course the convenience plays a part in Christian behavior here in Singapore. My church has 4 services today, 1 in Chinese too, and it's a public holiday too. Back at Newman Hall in Berkeley, there's only 1 service at 7pm, it's not a holiday, and you probably can't get a seat anyway. But as my Cathechism teacher once taught me, can't you sacrifice a teeny bit of inconvenience to worship the Lord? Another big turn off in Berkeley was that the veneration of the Cross takes so long! The priest brings out this huge Cross, and some old folks even take up to 5 mins praying while there's a long line behind! You can imagine how long the service would last huh?
In other completely unrelated news, 6 HK women lost their breasts because they injected some breast enlargement gel which caused complications and cant be removed after injection. What a bummer huh?
Not too recently I learned something new about corruption. Why are corrupted officials in government always so eager to push for more and more pork barrel construction projects, even projects that do not benefit anyone? Examples include roads to nowhere, bridges that don't increase capacity, replacing buildings that are perfectly fine, etc. I mean, it seems counter-intuitive because by building these useless things they are not exactly benefiting anybody, not even their supporters or themselves huh? Well, the simple reason is that in many developing countries a huge portion of government expenditure goes to construction, and typically one single developer/contractor executes the project. So by pushing for a large redundant construction project and giving it to ONE crony developer/contractor, you can actually receive huge bribes and only have to deal with ONE (or a few) person! Think about it, for a typical airport terminal costing say $500million, I'm sure the developer can spare you AT LEAST a $10 million bribe? $10 million in the pocket without having to do anything at all huh? Compare this to receiving bribes from businesses: small money, many businessmen (and companies) you have to deal with to earn the same amount, which increases your risk of exposure. Interestingly, by accepting bribes from businesses you will have monopolies and cronyism, but the citizens may not actually suffer as much as having to pay huge taxes for completely redundant public construction projects.
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Restructuring
What a great start to restructuring: I just worked 15 hours today!! Apparently during the transition period somebody forgot that I'm working 200%... Somebody better figure out the handing/taking over process quick!!
Sunday, April 09, 2006
I watched Ultraviolet today. It may sound like a "save the earth" kinda movie (UV rays and all), but really its about a superhero/mutant/"experiment gone wrong" chick called Violet, hence Ultra-Violet. Ultraviolet's full of fast pace action and violence, kinda like a cross between Kill Bill and Run Lola Run, with some fantastic matrix style fighting, though YK was right to point out that some parts were copied right out of The Matrix. It went a little to fast to catch the full story, and the show lasted less than an hour an a half. Didn't help too much that the superhero's a vampire of some sorts (had enough of that in Underworld Evolutions) and appears to be all too invincible. But otherwise an enjoyable movie for a Sunday afternoon with discounted tickets! ;)
Lesson 1 for villians: Don't encircle your enemy in a circle and then try to shoot her, 'cos if she ducks u'll be shooting at your own comrades!
Lesson 2 for villians: If Violet says you're all dead, better start running away!
Yeah it's just a show, but the way Violet starts killing a whole room of baddies it's almost like a reflex action for her. Like she doesn't need to think. Brushing my teeth is almost like a reflex action too. I almost don't need to think. Couple of days ago, however, I realised that I've unwittingly been slacking off and brushing a few strokes less! I guess all that "doing without thinking" just inadvertantly to slacking off huh? Does this happen to doctors in the ER? After many shifts of nightwork doing CPR, do chest compressions seem so much like a reflex action that they skip a step without knowing it? Maybe if you have a sense of purpose and you know something more important is at stake your reflex thinking won't subconciously start to slack off. Or maybe not...
A foreign visitor would naturally concur that Singaporean's aren't a very happy bunch. A ride on public transport is often greeted with disenchanted looks and pushing/shoving to get up the bus/train. Some say it's just the result of being in an overpopulated overcrowded city. But is that really so? San Francisco is pretty overcrowded. There may not be that many people living there, but certainly the number of commuters by rail, car or bicycle is astounding! Just look at the Friday evening jam up the Bay Bridge! I know of commuters who go straight to the bars/restaurants till late night on Fridays just because of avoiding the jam. But San Franciscans (Is that what you call it? sounds like the monks...) seem a much more happy lot...
I think the lack of cheer is largely attributed to diet. Most Singaporean food sold in the hawker centers/foodcourts is unhealthy, no matter how much we swear by the taste! All that salt increases our blood pressure, and all that grease brings up our cholesterol to obscene levels! I see so many young people in the office who have high blood pressure and cholestorol. This is exacerbated by poor working conditions (overworked and underpaid, no time for exercise), super hot weather, and of course the crowded city effect. Which is what accounts for the unhappy outlook. So why do I care? If you look at all those factors above, we can do something about it (except for the crowded bit, which is not so important from the SF example), so we are not doomed to being an unhappy bunch!
Another thing that disturbs me a lot is the "herd mentality". Peer pressure is about people wanting you to conform to their idea of what's cool and what's not. And I must say we have reached the pinnacle of "herd mentality"! Anyone disagrees? Just talk a walk down Shenton Way during lunch time what will you see? See what colour pants all the locals are wearing? All black. How about the shirts? For bankers, mostly white long sleeves with some patterns. Non bankers, standard one tone pastel or dark (for the flashy, but u stick out like a sore thumb in the office). In fact, people in the office are telling me how I should comb my hair, what type of glasses I should wear. If we all follow the same advice won't we just be a bunch of drones? Just take a walk down Wall Street or Market Street, and you'll see what it means to show your true personality, be it dreadlocks in a suit, or grey suit with striped shirt and pink tie, or guys with tied back long hair (and suit). How about that professor who used to skateboard to work at Cal (though skateboarding is now banned on campus)? That's what I'm talking about.
Lesson 1 for villians: Don't encircle your enemy in a circle and then try to shoot her, 'cos if she ducks u'll be shooting at your own comrades!
Lesson 2 for villians: If Violet says you're all dead, better start running away!
Yeah it's just a show, but the way Violet starts killing a whole room of baddies it's almost like a reflex action for her. Like she doesn't need to think. Brushing my teeth is almost like a reflex action too. I almost don't need to think. Couple of days ago, however, I realised that I've unwittingly been slacking off and brushing a few strokes less! I guess all that "doing without thinking" just inadvertantly to slacking off huh? Does this happen to doctors in the ER? After many shifts of nightwork doing CPR, do chest compressions seem so much like a reflex action that they skip a step without knowing it? Maybe if you have a sense of purpose and you know something more important is at stake your reflex thinking won't subconciously start to slack off. Or maybe not...
A foreign visitor would naturally concur that Singaporean's aren't a very happy bunch. A ride on public transport is often greeted with disenchanted looks and pushing/shoving to get up the bus/train. Some say it's just the result of being in an overpopulated overcrowded city. But is that really so? San Francisco is pretty overcrowded. There may not be that many people living there, but certainly the number of commuters by rail, car or bicycle is astounding! Just look at the Friday evening jam up the Bay Bridge! I know of commuters who go straight to the bars/restaurants till late night on Fridays just because of avoiding the jam. But San Franciscans (Is that what you call it? sounds like the monks...) seem a much more happy lot...
I think the lack of cheer is largely attributed to diet. Most Singaporean food sold in the hawker centers/foodcourts is unhealthy, no matter how much we swear by the taste! All that salt increases our blood pressure, and all that grease brings up our cholesterol to obscene levels! I see so many young people in the office who have high blood pressure and cholestorol. This is exacerbated by poor working conditions (overworked and underpaid, no time for exercise), super hot weather, and of course the crowded city effect. Which is what accounts for the unhappy outlook. So why do I care? If you look at all those factors above, we can do something about it (except for the crowded bit, which is not so important from the SF example), so we are not doomed to being an unhappy bunch!
Another thing that disturbs me a lot is the "herd mentality". Peer pressure is about people wanting you to conform to their idea of what's cool and what's not. And I must say we have reached the pinnacle of "herd mentality"! Anyone disagrees? Just talk a walk down Shenton Way during lunch time what will you see? See what colour pants all the locals are wearing? All black. How about the shirts? For bankers, mostly white long sleeves with some patterns. Non bankers, standard one tone pastel or dark (for the flashy, but u stick out like a sore thumb in the office). In fact, people in the office are telling me how I should comb my hair, what type of glasses I should wear. If we all follow the same advice won't we just be a bunch of drones? Just take a walk down Wall Street or Market Street, and you'll see what it means to show your true personality, be it dreadlocks in a suit, or grey suit with striped shirt and pink tie, or guys with tied back long hair (and suit). How about that professor who used to skateboard to work at Cal (though skateboarding is now banned on campus)? That's what I'm talking about.
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