Divine Wine Extraordinaire

Thursday night was the second time I had drinks at the "Divine Wine Extraordinaire" at Parkview square. For those of you folks who haven't been reading my blog, that's the place where there's a 3 storey high wine cellar and a "fairy" that flies up and down. We had absolutely no difficulty getting in (that's 2 out of 2 times already!) and even got good seats where we could have a good view of the live band! The place was quite empty, just the way I like it, and the singer was really really good. The lighting was good, the service was good, the decor, which never fails to impress me, added the final touch to create the perfect ambience....

The only thing lacking was that nobody seemed to have ordered a bottle on that night, so we didn't get to see the "fairy" in action. In fact the "fairy" had to double up as waitress since there was nothing for her to do..... But it was alright, our attention was captivated by the songstress anyway. We walked around after closing and noticed that what makes Parkview Square unique is its unusual mix of ancient and modern. The building really is a modern building, yet it has all these greek vases, gothic ornaments, and statues of great people of the past. And that weird artpiece on one wall of well-dressed modern people dancing in front of an ancient egyptian man standing next to egyptian building columns just amazes me! It's the kind of mix of old and new that just makes the place so mysterious! Oh and there's also that golden goose out in the courtyard with chinese inscriptions below it, totally out of place! Feng Shui maybe?

The most bizarre train ride

The most bizarre thing happened to me on the train today! I changed trains at Jurong East MRT on my way to work today. The train headed towards Yew Tee was almost empty, at least at the section I was sitting in, so I picked a nice seat and proceeded to read my economist. Just at this moment a relatively good-looking girl comes right in and SITS RIGHT NEXT TO ME!!! This section of the train was almost completely empty, and people didn't start coming in till the next eastbound train arrived, so she had plenty of other places to sit but she chose to sit right next to me, and pretty close too! I almost freaked out and ran out of the train but I managed to keep my nerves! Maybe its an "illegal worker" from China.... Is that the most bizarre train ride or what?

Pluses and Minuses

Life's about pluses and minuses. You won't score points all the time but you probably won't keep losing 'em either. So just try to keep the pluses more than the minuses! ;)

Christmas Spirit

Today I helped decorate the Christmas tree at Grandma's place. The rest of the night was spent writing Christmas cards to some of my friends overseas. Wow, the Christmas spirit's really getting to me now! Yah, its kinda late, since decorations have been up for more than a month, but better late than never! I guess I've been too caught up in work and all that to really appreciate that Christmas is coming....

Anyway, I actually drove past (in my friend's car) the Orchard Road lightup on Friday. I've seen it before, but not the full thing. Somehow it feels lacking. There's lights and glitz and all, but the feeling of warmth is not there. All those tents, gazebos and stages by the roadside kinda spoils the mood. And the stupid ribbon thing on those banners across the streets? That's just an eyesore! The best Xmas decorations I have seen are actually not those put up by department stores or the tourist promotion board. The best Xmas light up I've ever seen was driving down a street in Albany and seeing all the homemade decorations adorning everyone's yard and the glitzy white trees inside. Now that's what I call warmth! Sometimes less is more....

The Other Side

In Afghanistan's violent Helmand province, an American special-forces captain... analyzed his furtive Taliban enemies as thus: "They're cowards. Why don't they step up and fight like men?" Apparently, he had not considered how he might fight if he had no armor, no radio, an ancient rifle and the sure knowledge that if he fought like a man, he would be obliterated in minutes.
- The Economist, December 17th

Capital Punishment

"State-sponsored killing is inhuman, its effectiveness as a deterrent is as best unproven and it is no less prone to miscarriages of justice than more easily reversible sentences."
- The Economist, Dec 17 2005

Fiat Lux

I have seen the light!

Burrrrp

Roast pork belly, mussels in white wine, fries, beer, and the company of a fellow Cal CE grad. Was it a wonderful evening or what?

PocketPC at Macs

Have you experienced PocketPC ordering at McDonalds? Today I had dinner at the Tiong Bahru Plaza Macs outlet. I originally wanted to go to the food court but since it was late and I was too lazy to climb upstairs, I figured I'd just grab a quick bite. However, once I got in line and realized how crowded it was, I started having second thoughts..... until this girl came up to me with a PocketPC and said "can I take your order sir?" Well, she came up from behind and I almost freaked out right there, until I realized they have this new system where the waitress takes your order in the line using a PocketPC! She then gave me a number to present to the counter when it was my turn; fast and efficient, the way fast food is meant to be! Oh, the waitress was wearing a LiveStrong band. Why does it matter? Cos the LiveStrong band is for a good cause, is made by Nike, is made of silicone, and is cheaper than all those knock offs out there, so go support the Lance Armstrong Cancer Foundation!

Ok, so what the hell was I doing at Tiong Bahru Plaza in the middle of the night anyway? Well, today was a very busy day. Work just kept coming in the minute I stepped into the office. And it just kept coming and coming.... On a Monday too huh? Thank goodness bonus is coming in a few days' time, at least that's something to look forward to!

So just as I was about to leave the office at around 8pm, somebody called on my cell phone. "Hello M, E here." Nobody calls me at 8pm, if its a friend, usually its an sms, so I figured it must have been somebody from the bank soliciting. Probably trying to sell me some unit trusts linked to CAO or citiraya, or maybe another credit card or something. So I sheepishly answered "Yes??" And she replied, "Eh, I ask u something ah..." It was only then that I realised it was somebody I haven't talked to in such a long time, and I almost shouted "OMG, WHASSSSSUPPPPP!" when I realised that my boss (and his boss too) were still in the office! What an eventful Monday evening!
;)

Freakonomics

In the bestselling book "Freakonomics", Steven Leveitt advocates that "abortion was one of the greatest crime-lowering factors in American history." This conclusion was based on research done by himself and John Donohue which was published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics in 2001.

However, an article (Oops-onomics) in last week's issue of The Economist states that 2 economists at the Federal Reserve Bank in Boston recently discovered that Messrs Donohue and Levitt committed "an inadvertent but serious computer programming error" which, if removed, shows "that the impact of abortion on arrest rates disappears entirely"! Ooops!

Anyway, shame on anyone who thinks that unwanted children should just be aborted to reduce the crime rate. If that's the case, is he advocating that unwanted people be killed off too? Those jobless do not contribute to society so does that mean they should be killed off? How about those unreformed criminals who are a burden to tax payers money? Kill them off too? What a ridiculous argument some pro-choice people have!

An apt conclusion to the article in The Economist sums up the boo boo: "To be politically incorrect is one thing; to be simply incorrect quite another."

Is there any environmentally friendly source of energy?

Is there a panacea to our every growing global energy woes that does not cause environmental pollution? At the moment, no. Oil, coal and gas, which require large amounts of combustion, are obviously out since their waste products contribute to the greenhouse effect and global warming.

A few decades ago, hydroelectric dams, harnessing the power of moving water, were cited as the next big thing. However, today, dam construction has proven to be ecologically damaging, resulting in siltation, adverse thermal gradients upstream, destroyed habitats, amongst other woes. Many parts of the US have banned the construction of new dams, and environmentalists have condemned the Three Gorges Dam in China.

Lately, there has been a lot of revived interest in nuclear power. Politicians say less greenhouse gases are produced by nuclear power, so it solves all our problems! If only things were that simple.... Firstly, nuclear power plants discharge large amounts of hot water (product of the water-cool process) which gets dumped into the rivers and lakes, killing all the fish in the vicinity. Secondly, there is NO KNOWN method of safely disposing nuclear waste. And yes, I mean it, despite what those politicians tell you, there is NO KNOWN method of safely disposing nuclear waste.

So what about wind power then? What can be wrong about wind power? Well, its been shown that to generate sufficient wind power, you have to use lots and lots of wind turbines. So many that people use the term "wind farms". And wind farms need to be placed at the top of a hill to be effective. This takes up a lot of good land and kills scores and scores of birds! Yes, you'd be grossed out by the carcasses found below the wind turbines.

Now we come to solar power. Harnessing the power of the sun is probably the best we've got. However, for it to be of any use, you need to have a large solar farm, which is very expensive, and difficult to maintain. By the way, solar cells are made of silicon, and producing silicon creates pollution.

Geo-thermal power was supposed to be the next big thing. Except that it didn't become anything... 'nuff said.

So is there ever an environmentally friendly source of energy? Probably not. So are we doomed to having to live with a dying planet? There may not be an environmentally friendly source of energy, but there is an environmentally friendly solution: ENERGY CONSERVATION.

There was a fish....

There was a fish
Just a teeny weeny fish
And the fish was on the hook
And the hook was on the rod
And the rod was on the hand
And the hand was on the boy
And the boy was on the rock
And the rock was on the bank
And the bank was by the stream
And the stream was on its wa-ay.....
And the moon shines high in the clear blue sky
And all is bright and gay!

Theta Chi

That's Chris with the axe after this year's Big Game. We just had a little alumni gathering just now to watch the Big Game, and LV was there! I haven't seen LV in more than 3 years. 3 years seems like a really really long time ago! The last time we met, we were playing basketball with the Indonesions along with N, PP and YJ at the Albany Middle School along Brighton Ave. After shooting hoops we adjourned to the usual lunch at the mee pok place at Ranch 99 (where I usually just park my car illegally somewhere at the back). That particular day I had a long chat with LV and N after lunch, and after that, I never saw them again, and never really played basketball again for that matter.... I did, however, in my last days in the "Land of the Free (and home of the Bears!)", introduce my juniors to this wonderful basketball court, so that the tradition of Saturday basketball would carry on...

LV said that this Indonesian guy in his batch "revived" a frat along with some other smart guys he gathered. These smart guys would go on to win the frat "academic honors" and eventually steal the StanfUrd tree! I thought about it for a while, and I remembered that there was indeed one frat which had an Indonesian and a lot of smart guys, and that was Theta Chi on Frat Row just to the south of the Piedmont "circle". I used to hang out at Theta Chi with my floormates in freshman year. Theta Chi was an unusual frat. They didn't drink much (I think I enjoyed the free drinks more than the Brothers did), but they had real good BBQ ribs! There was this real tough guy called Art who was like one of the big Brothers. He was a personal trainer at the RSF and would be the bouncer at the door during parties. All you had to do was to befriend this guy and you'd have no problem getting in! I gained his respect by trashing him at pool one day after he had downed like 10 drinks (I don't really play pool haha). Towards the end of freshmen year Theta Chi bought a karaoke system, and they practically karaoked to "punk" all night long! I had absolutely no idea that "punk" was karaokeable....

Our sturdy Golden Bear
Is watching from the skies
Looks down upon our colors fair
And guards us from his lair!
Our banner gold and blue
The symbol on it too
Means fight for California
For California through and through!

Infantry

More exerpts from "The Yom Kippur War" by Abraham Rabinovich:
"The Israeli armored units, no longer presuming to win the war by themselves, called for foot soldiers.... As at Tel Shams on the Golan, the infantry proved capable of rapidly overcoming resistance that had stopped armor."
Armor calling infantry for help? Go infantry! Now that's what I'm talking about! Hooah!

Bread of life

Bread of life and cup of hope
We come as gift to you
Change our hearts, fill us with peace
Transform our lives anew
Open our eyes so that we might see
Your presence in one another
Your life poured out in love today
Unites us all in you!

Loving Lord, Creator God
Open our eyes to see
The good that lives in each of us
That called the world to be
And when we fail to see the good
When friendships falter and crumble
Give us the courage to forgive
That we may live in peace!

Living Word, O Son of God
Your love shows us the way
That we may live in harmony
And from you never stray
Wipe all oppression from our midst
Give us a love for all people
Your song of justice sing in us
To live for peace today!