I've never been there, but Packrat pithily sums up why we shouldn't bother: "When was the last time that you went to a steamboat place and was [sic] forced to pay for the soup?!"
As an antidote to the above, here's my nutshell review of a viable steamboat alternative in that same neighbourhood: Last night we ate at the Hainanese place on the ground floor of 7th Storey Hotel, just across the grass from (un)Happy Pay. Our steamboat dinner came to $20 per head for a group of 10, including drinks, a bit of Tiger beer, extra side dishes like Hainanese chicken, Hainanese pork chops and ngoh hiang, and the authenticity of having steamboat heated not by the usual portable gas cooker but by charcoal. Now that's old school.
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Related entry: Where not to eat in Singapore: Cafe Cartel
Technorati Tags: Singapore, makan, Singapore food, where not to eat in Singapore
As an antidote to the above, here's my nutshell review of a viable steamboat alternative in that same neighbourhood: Last night we ate at the Hainanese place on the ground floor of 7th Storey Hotel, just across the grass from (un)Happy Pay. Our steamboat dinner came to $20 per head for a group of 10, including drinks, a bit of Tiger beer, extra side dishes like Hainanese chicken, Hainanese pork chops and ngoh hiang, and the authenticity of having steamboat heated not by the usual portable gas cooker but by charcoal. Now that's old school.
Related entry: Where not to eat in Singapore: Cafe Cartel
Technorati Tags: Singapore, makan, Singapore food, where not to eat in Singapore
I may be coming late to the party on this one, but has the Mid-Autumn Festival always been this widely celebrated in Singapore? I've never had so many mooncakes before. Usually, Terz's mom gets us some from Malaysia, which she did again this year. But that aside, I've been regularly offered mooncakes by friends and colleagues, seen mooncakes on sale everywhere, and even taken another step in the process of growing up by buying mooncakes for my mother, rather than waiting for her to take care of it. Oh, and we have a mooncake party to go to tomorrow night (though I suspect that one will lean more towards the "party" than the "mooncake" side of things.)
It's like Chinese New Year all over again, with a little bit of Xmas spirit thrown in, in that people are giving mooncakes to each other with the same strange mixture of social obligation and genuine generosity with which they tend to exchange Xmas gifts. I've found myself mentally scrolling through all the people I know but don't see as often, wondering if this might not be a timely opportunity to send them a box of mooncakes by way of thank-you or hello.
Of course, right after that, I ponder whether my sickly bank account will survive if I sneak out a little money for another box of those divinely addictive champagne truffle mooncakes from Raffles Hotel.
The big nostalgia moment for me was having a few of the neighbourhood kids run past last night, their lanterns bobbing with every step they took. Call me old school, but it's nice to see that they had some old-fashioned paper or cellophane lanterns with them, not just the stiff plastic ones. I don't think you can get lanterns with candles anymore, though; most varieties seem to contain a battery-operated bulb these days.
I hear that Sunday is the actual Mid -Autumn Festival day. Don't forget to kiss your lover, hang out with your family and ogle the moon.
Oh, and eat some mooncakes.
This blog post was brought to you by the sliver of green tea snowskin twist mooncake with single yolk that I just ate (from the exquisite and impeccable Hua Ting Restaurant at Orchard Hotel, if anyone's taking notes).
Edited to add (Sep 17): Other bloggers reflect on what the Mooncake Festival means to them:
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Technorati Tags: Singapore, Mid-Autumn Festival, mid-autumn, mooncake, mooncake festival
It's like Chinese New Year all over again, with a little bit of Xmas spirit thrown in, in that people are giving mooncakes to each other with the same strange mixture of social obligation and genuine generosity with which they tend to exchange Xmas gifts. I've found myself mentally scrolling through all the people I know but don't see as often, wondering if this might not be a timely opportunity to send them a box of mooncakes by way of thank-you or hello.
Of course, right after that, I ponder whether my sickly bank account will survive if I sneak out a little money for another box of those divinely addictive champagne truffle mooncakes from Raffles Hotel.
The big nostalgia moment for me was having a few of the neighbourhood kids run past last night, their lanterns bobbing with every step they took. Call me old school, but it's nice to see that they had some old-fashioned paper or cellophane lanterns with them, not just the stiff plastic ones. I don't think you can get lanterns with candles anymore, though; most varieties seem to contain a battery-operated bulb these days.
I hear that Sunday is the actual Mid -Autumn Festival day. Don't forget to kiss your lover, hang out with your family and ogle the moon.
Oh, and eat some mooncakes.
This blog post was brought to you by the sliver of green tea snowskin twist mooncake with single yolk that I just ate (from the exquisite and impeccable Hua Ting Restaurant at Orchard Hotel, if anyone's taking notes).
Edited to add (Sep 17): Other bloggers reflect on what the Mooncake Festival means to them:
- 儒: Nostalgia (or my primary school descriptive essay)
- she bakes and she cooks: 'Li Bai' mooncakes'
Technorati Tags: Singapore, Mid-Autumn Festival, mid-autumn, mooncake, mooncake festival
My cellphone is being wonky. Specifically, the # key, which toggles upper/lower case and the T9 dictionary for messaging, is not responding. This means that all SMSes sent henceforth may be improperly punctuated, except for the automatic capitalization of the first letter of each new sentence.
I cannot tell you how much this bothers me at a visceral level. I flinched when I had to send a message to Terz tonight with "Darren" spelled in lower case. Trickier yet will be abbreviations that ought to be in upper case to distinguish them from their lower case counterparts, e.g. "IT" vs. "it". I may actually have to go old-school on this point and punch it in as "I.T.", so that the intervening full-stops prompt the T9 dictionary to capitalize the subsequentalphabetletter.
All told, the cellphone's served me well since December 2003, particularly if you consider the fact that I dropped it into the toilet some time ago. I'll try to hold out as long as I can on getting a new one, since the bank account is highly displeased with me after last month's excesses (too many cab rides did it in, methinks).
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Technorati Tags: spelling, cellphone, cellphones, cell phones, mobile phones, sms, texting, T9
I cannot tell you how much this bothers me at a visceral level. I flinched when I had to send a message to Terz tonight with "Darren" spelled in lower case. Trickier yet will be abbreviations that ought to be in upper case to distinguish them from their lower case counterparts, e.g. "IT" vs. "it". I may actually have to go old-school on this point and punch it in as "I.T.", so that the intervening full-stops prompt the T9 dictionary to capitalize the subsequent
All told, the cellphone's served me well since December 2003, particularly if you consider the fact that I dropped it into the toilet some time ago. I'll try to hold out as long as I can on getting a new one, since the bank account is highly displeased with me after last month's excesses (too many cab rides did it in, methinks).
Technorati Tags: spelling, cellphone, cellphones, cell phones, mobile phones, sms, texting, T9
I am really, really craving a good crossword puzzle right now. I firmly blame this on Little Miss Drinkalot's Sudoku obsession. If I recall correctly, the back of her Sudoku book described it as "a crossword puzzle without letters" --- which got me thinking about how long it's been since I did a good crossword... I suspect it was during the flights on last year's vacation.
I have no interest in Sudoku, at least, not at the moment. I like words, and meaning, and word play. It's not about hammering an assortment ofalphabets letters into a black-and-white checkerboard; it's about marvelling at the connect/disconnect, and teasing your brain to make sense where, really, there oughn't to be any.
And now I want a crossword very badly --- in particular, a big ol' Sunday crossword --- and all the sites that used to be free are either charging money for their good crosswords (the New York Times) or their archive sites are mysteriously not responding (the LA Times). So I had to bring myself to register for access to the Washington Post, whose crosswords I've never done before but which I expect should be on par with the other two publications', and get myself a couple of printouts.
That's the thing about me and crosswords. Terz does the Yahoo! ones online, but I like pencilling (or rather 'penning') them in. Yes, even though I'm not actually very good at crosswords and constantly make mistakes, I still like using ink and making a big old mess of the grid.
I got a Borders book voucher for Teachers' Day a couple of weeks ago. I think I shall spend mine on a crossword puzzle book.
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Technorati Tags: crossword
I have no interest in Sudoku, at least, not at the moment. I like words, and meaning, and word play. It's not about hammering an assortment of
And now I want a crossword very badly --- in particular, a big ol' Sunday crossword --- and all the sites that used to be free are either charging money for their good crosswords (the New York Times) or their archive sites are mysteriously not responding (the LA Times). So I had to bring myself to register for access to the Washington Post, whose crosswords I've never done before but which I expect should be on par with the other two publications', and get myself a couple of printouts.
That's the thing about me and crosswords. Terz does the Yahoo! ones online, but I like pencilling (or rather 'penning') them in. Yes, even though I'm not actually very good at crosswords and constantly make mistakes, I still like using ink and making a big old mess of the grid.
I got a Borders book voucher for Teachers' Day a couple of weeks ago. I think I shall spend mine on a crossword puzzle book.
Technorati Tags: crossword
When I attended the Singapore Writers' Festival panel on building online communities last weekend, I remember being annoyed at the extent to which questions from the audience focused on whether bloggers were looking over their shoulders to see if the government was watching, whether some blogs might be considered political websites and therefore required to register with the government, how much responsibility bloggers should take for what they publish on the internet, and how much blogging was a true expression of free speech in Singapore.
My gut reaction was: Get over it, people! Stop secondguessing whether the government is going to approve or, rather, disapprove of what you have to say, and get out there and say it! Yes, there is the attendant responsibility, but "with great power comes great responsibility" (brown, you had to say it, didn't you?). Stop asking for permission and/or approbation!
See, the thing is, everything is political. Blog about your job and whether you're being suitably compensated for it? That's a raw comment on the wage and welfare system right there. Got a beef with gender issues (regardless of which gender you are)? That could be grounds for a reexamination of how men and women are treated under the law, in principle or otherwise. Pondering why your kid has so much homework and why you can't understand half of what's in his textbooks? Maybe it's time for a closer look at the education policies that put the textbook in his hand and the teachers in his classroom. Even if all you're interested in is the price of your morning coffee and kaya toast, that's enough for a primer on issues ranging from global politicisation of agriculture to how much it costs to rent an HDB coffeeshop and why.
Everything is political, not just what the government does to us, in its creation of the space in which we live, but also what we do to others. I choose to buy a Tungsten E2 instead of backsliding to use a hardcopy diary --- that has political implications on how technology is and will be used, and for that matter, on how much paper our world consumes. I fall in love with Firefly and start talkin' like it's all that matters --- that has implications on the promulgation of certain cultural and aesthetic qualities, including values that may not sit well in the current political climate (The noble captain harbours fugitives from the all-knowing, all-goodly Alliance? Tut tut, we can't have that in our neat and tidy society.) I'm a married university graduate who doesn't have any children --- you bet your ass that has political implications in this town.
Embrace the political, if you are a citizen who's going to be engaged and involved in this society. And remember: the political is not the seditious.
What is seditious? Ay, there's the rub. As I commented over at My Very Own Glob earlier today:
If anyone can enlighten me, I would be very, very happy, and also feel more knowledgeable --- if not necessarily comfortable --- about my rights as a citizen.
(Oh, don't snicker. I wrote that with a straight face and no sarcasm whatsoever.)
You see, without knowing where I stand as a citizen, I really wouldn't dare dream of discussing subsections 1(a)-(c). And all those people that we hear about --- secondhand, no, thirdhand info, really, or actually, it's urban legend --- we heard that these people say things like, "I hate the government!" and "The judge doesn't know what s/he is doing!" These people clearly should be removed. (Whew, exempted myself by dint of subsection 2(a) --- or so I hope.)
Fuck that. See how lame that paragraph was?
Be personal, be political, certainly be responsible, and pray very hard that no one finds you seditious. Be aware that you can't just say anything, but don't let it stop you from saying the things that need to be said. Be a good citizen. Be engaged. Love your country.
Don't scared.
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Technorati Tags: Singapore, sedition, blogging
My gut reaction was: Get over it, people! Stop secondguessing whether the government is going to approve or, rather, disapprove of what you have to say, and get out there and say it! Yes, there is the attendant responsibility, but "with great power comes great responsibility" (brown, you had to say it, didn't you?). Stop asking for permission and/or approbation!
See, the thing is, everything is political. Blog about your job and whether you're being suitably compensated for it? That's a raw comment on the wage and welfare system right there. Got a beef with gender issues (regardless of which gender you are)? That could be grounds for a reexamination of how men and women are treated under the law, in principle or otherwise. Pondering why your kid has so much homework and why you can't understand half of what's in his textbooks? Maybe it's time for a closer look at the education policies that put the textbook in his hand and the teachers in his classroom. Even if all you're interested in is the price of your morning coffee and kaya toast, that's enough for a primer on issues ranging from global politicisation of agriculture to how much it costs to rent an HDB coffeeshop and why.
Everything is political, not just what the government does to us, in its creation of the space in which we live, but also what we do to others. I choose to buy a Tungsten E2 instead of backsliding to use a hardcopy diary --- that has political implications on how technology is and will be used, and for that matter, on how much paper our world consumes. I fall in love with Firefly and start talkin' like it's all that matters --- that has implications on the promulgation of certain cultural and aesthetic qualities, including values that may not sit well in the current political climate (The noble captain harbours fugitives from the all-knowing, all-goodly Alliance? Tut tut, we can't have that in our neat and tidy society.) I'm a married university graduate who doesn't have any children --- you bet your ass that has political implications in this town.
Embrace the political, if you are a citizen who's going to be engaged and involved in this society. And remember: the political is not the seditious.
3. ---(1) A seditious tendency is a tendency ---What isn't seditious? Subsection 2(a) would seem to exempt any opinions that "show that the Government has been misled or mistaken in any of its measures" --- I believe that's what the whole casino debate was about.
(a) to bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against the Government;
(b) to excite the citizens of Singapore or the residents in Singapore to attempt to procure in Singapore, the alteration, otherwise than by lawful means, of any matter as by law established;
(c) to bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against the administration of justice in Singapore;
(d) to raise discontent or disaffection amongst the citizens of Singapore or the residents in Singapore;
(e) to promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Singapore.
(2) Notwithstanding subsection (1), any act, speech, words, publication or other thing shall not be deemed to be seditious by reason only that it has a tendency ---
(a) to show that the Government has been misled or mistaken in any of its measures;
(b) to point out errors or defects in the Government or the Constitution as by law established or in legislation or in the administration of justice with a view to the remedying of such errors or defects;
(c) to persuade the citizens of Singapore or the residents in Singapore to attempt to procure by lawful means the alteration of any matter in Singapore; or
(d) to point out, with a view to their removal, any matters producing or having a tendency to produce feelings of ill-will and enmity between different races or classes of the population of Singapore,
if such act, speech, words, publication or other thing has not otherwise in fact a seditious tendency.from the Sedition Act
What is seditious? Ay, there's the rub. As I commented over at My Very Own Glob earlier today:
Am I the only one who, after reading and rereading the Act, still doesn’t really get what a "seditious tendency" is? If it's anything that raises discontent or disaffection among citizens, or promotes feelings of ill-will and enmity between different races or classes, how does that differ from any number of casual remarks made by a person --- whether it's Joe HDB or an esteemed Minister --- in the course of a given day?Pop quiz: Are the following examples of an "act, speech, words, publication or other thing" with a seditious tendency?
- Someone decides to increase public transport fares. People who earn less money (i.e. in a different class) feel ill-will towards the government.
- Someone brings a dog to a coffeeshop which has Muslim stalls and Muslim customers. Muslims feel ill-will towards the non-Muslim dog owner.
- Society has a grand debate about whether to allow casinos in Singapore. Despite protests from a vocal group of citizens, the decision to build the casinos goes ahead. The vocal group in society feels discontented.
If anyone can enlighten me, I would be very, very happy, and also feel more knowledgeable --- if not necessarily comfortable --- about my rights as a citizen.
(Oh, don't snicker. I wrote that with a straight face and no sarcasm whatsoever.)
You see, without knowing where I stand as a citizen, I really wouldn't dare dream of discussing subsections 1(a)-(c). And all those people that we hear about --- secondhand, no, thirdhand info, really, or actually, it's urban legend --- we heard that these people say things like, "I hate the government!" and "The judge doesn't know what s/he is doing!" These people clearly should be removed. (Whew, exempted myself by dint of subsection 2(a) --- or so I hope.)
Fuck that. See how lame that paragraph was?
Be personal, be political, certainly be responsible, and pray very hard that no one finds you seditious. Be aware that you can't just say anything, but don't let it stop you from saying the things that need to be said. Be a good citizen. Be engaged. Love your country.
Don't scared.
Technorati Tags: Singapore, sedition, blogging
The title of the previous blog post sounded rather ho-hum, so I thought this one should at least benefit from the energy of an exclamation mark.
The new PDA is up and running. I had to beam information over from the Clie, which got a little tedious with the datebook entries, so I've only updated datebook entries from today onwards. Depending on how much free time I have this week, I'll see how much old datebook information I want to bring over. After all, you never know when an officer of the law will ask you where you were at such-and-such-a-time on such-and-such-a-date, and with my Swiss cheese memory, it's only with the help of my PDA that I could contrive the semblance of an honest answer.
For the record, this is my fourth PDA. The genealogy runs as follows: Palm Pilot ---> Palm Vx ---> Sony Clie T665 ---> Palm Tungsten E2. I can no longer live with out a 'find' or 'repeat' function.
The other thing I bought today --- totally unrelated to the PDA --- is a new backpack. Hauling the iBook around in a sturdy messenger bag got wearying on one shoulder. I felt very much like a kid hunting for school supplies as I zipped and unzipped my way through a number of bags at sports and outdoors shops this past week, except that now I had the added consultative power of Terz, Packrat and wahj. As I told wahj over SMS a couple of days ago, I was looking for the grad-student-with-style urban-warrior-goddess look. On hindsight, I'm not sure what that is (I suspect the co-opting of 'warrior goddess' into my vocabulary might also be blamed on too much Firefly), but my new purple backpack with oodles of side pockets makes me very happy indeed.
On that note, I need to stop gushing about consumerist experiences and/or Firefly and go to bed, for tomorrow is the first day of the last school term of the year.
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The new PDA is up and running. I had to beam information over from the Clie, which got a little tedious with the datebook entries, so I've only updated datebook entries from today onwards. Depending on how much free time I have this week, I'll see how much old datebook information I want to bring over. After all, you never know when an officer of the law will ask you where you were at such-and-such-a-time on such-and-such-a-date, and with my Swiss cheese memory, it's only with the help of my PDA that I could contrive the semblance of an honest answer.
For the record, this is my fourth PDA. The genealogy runs as follows: Palm Pilot ---> Palm Vx ---> Sony Clie T665 ---> Palm Tungsten E2. I can no longer live with out a 'find' or 'repeat' function.
The other thing I bought today --- totally unrelated to the PDA --- is a new backpack. Hauling the iBook around in a sturdy messenger bag got wearying on one shoulder. I felt very much like a kid hunting for school supplies as I zipped and unzipped my way through a number of bags at sports and outdoors shops this past week, except that now I had the added consultative power of Terz, Packrat and wahj. As I told wahj over SMS a couple of days ago, I was looking for the grad-student-with-style urban-warrior-goddess look. On hindsight, I'm not sure what that is (I suspect the co-opting of 'warrior goddess' into my vocabulary might also be blamed on too much Firefly), but my new purple backpack with oodles of side pockets makes me very happy indeed.
On that note, I need to stop gushing about consumerist experiences and/or Firefly and go to bed, for tomorrow is the first day of the last school term of the year.
Ain't nothin' like having a colleague drop his PDA in Zouk and immediately losin' all his information --- and he didn't get round to backing it up on his laptop in near six months! --- done made me high-tail it to Funan Centre and immediately procure me a new PDA.
Wow, I am watching too much Firefly. Back to English.
While my current PDA (a Sony Clie T665 in a very nice bright orange) is still serving me well, the battery's near the end of its lifespan and a full charge lasts barely two days, even with my brand of minimal usage: calendaring, keeping track of daily expenses, checking phone numbers and occasionally updating address book data, editing a memo or two or using the calculator. Far more disturbing is the fact that the hold button is either loose or faulty, because there have been too many occasions when I flick the device on, only to find that the battery's somehow drained itself dry and I have to rush the Clie back home to recharge it before all the information is lost.
Of course, losing information wouldn't be such a critical fear if I backed it up regularly, which I used to do when I was using a PC. Since I switched to the iBook, though, here lies the conundrum: Palm no longer has desktop software that's compatible with my two-year-old Clie, and the software that came packaged with the Clie was for the Windows platform only. And my old PC died within a month after I acquired the iBook, so I couldn't've used it purely as a backup device, even if I'd wanted to.
Needless to say, for the last six months or more, I've been taking extremely good care of my Clie since I have no way of backing up its data. Other interim measures: charging the Clie every other day, manually entering some address book entries from the Clie into the iBook, and keeping an eye on the local Palm website for new products and deals.
Ultimately, it took the little calamity at Zouk to move me to action. No point dwelling on the fact that I'd just missed all the deals that were fit to offer at Comex. I marched right down to Funan Centre today and picked up a Tungsten E2, bundled with a case, screen protector and 256MB SD card.
Everyone should shop at Edpol Systems (#04-23) because the guy running the store is friendly, helpful, chatty and totally doesn't pressure a customer into buying anything. He's also honed the application of a screen protector down to a fine art and helpfully made me a copy of Palm Desktop software for the Mac because that (still) doesn't come prepackaged with the PDA. He even told me to bring my Clie in with the new E2 if I have any trouble transferring the data over, and said he'd take care of it. Of course, the paranoid corner of my brain immediately retorted, "A-ha! But he might copy your data and use it for all sorts of foul deeds, and next thing you know, you'll be hauled up for crimes you did not commit!" But I think that's just the science fiction talking.
Speaking of transferring data, it's been about the requisite three hours since the E2 started charging, so it should be fully charged now and ready for action. Here goes...
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Technorati Tags: PDA, Palm
Wow, I am watching too much Firefly. Back to English.
While my current PDA (a Sony Clie T665 in a very nice bright orange) is still serving me well, the battery's near the end of its lifespan and a full charge lasts barely two days, even with my brand of minimal usage: calendaring, keeping track of daily expenses, checking phone numbers and occasionally updating address book data, editing a memo or two or using the calculator. Far more disturbing is the fact that the hold button is either loose or faulty, because there have been too many occasions when I flick the device on, only to find that the battery's somehow drained itself dry and I have to rush the Clie back home to recharge it before all the information is lost.
Of course, losing information wouldn't be such a critical fear if I backed it up regularly, which I used to do when I was using a PC. Since I switched to the iBook, though, here lies the conundrum: Palm no longer has desktop software that's compatible with my two-year-old Clie, and the software that came packaged with the Clie was for the Windows platform only. And my old PC died within a month after I acquired the iBook, so I couldn't've used it purely as a backup device, even if I'd wanted to.
Needless to say, for the last six months or more, I've been taking extremely good care of my Clie since I have no way of backing up its data. Other interim measures: charging the Clie every other day, manually entering some address book entries from the Clie into the iBook, and keeping an eye on the local Palm website for new products and deals.
Ultimately, it took the little calamity at Zouk to move me to action. No point dwelling on the fact that I'd just missed all the deals that were fit to offer at Comex. I marched right down to Funan Centre today and picked up a Tungsten E2, bundled with a case, screen protector and 256MB SD card.
Everyone should shop at Edpol Systems (#04-23) because the guy running the store is friendly, helpful, chatty and totally doesn't pressure a customer into buying anything. He's also honed the application of a screen protector down to a fine art and helpfully made me a copy of Palm Desktop software for the Mac because that (still) doesn't come prepackaged with the PDA. He even told me to bring my Clie in with the new E2 if I have any trouble transferring the data over, and said he'd take care of it. Of course, the paranoid corner of my brain immediately retorted, "A-ha! But he might copy your data and use it for all sorts of foul deeds, and next thing you know, you'll be hauled up for crimes you did not commit!" But I think that's just the science fiction talking.
Speaking of transferring data, it's been about the requisite three hours since the E2 started charging, so it should be fully charged now and ready for action. Here goes...
Technorati Tags: PDA, Palm
Gorram it, it took a fricking Josh Whedon TV series to make Chinese sound cool. I have never listened so closely to the dialogue on a TV series to figure out if the characters were saying 混蛋 ('bastard') or 王八蛋 (another variation of 'bastard'), and feeling positively tickled with myself when I identified a 管你自己的事 ('mind your own business').
But trying to decipher the actors' crazy Chinese pronunciation --- they'd never spoken Chinese before they joined the show --- is just half the fun. Mispronunciations or not, cussing in Chinese never sounded so good as when it's at home with American-accented English. Our local TV network needs to import this show stat, so that all the kids who appreciate fiction that rises above meaningless melodrama will also be subliminally motivated to work harder at their Chinese. Just look at me: watching Firefly made me wonder how the title would be rendered in Chinese, and now I know, thanks to Terz, and will forever remember, that it as 飞火虫. I'm not sure if it's the official Chinese translation for the TV series title, but it sounds cute, don't it?
Also, everyone needs to go see Serenity (宁静) when it opens in Singapore --- and I'm hoping that ain't too long after it done open in the US on September 30. Shiny!
Technorati Tags: Firefly, Serenity, Josh Whedon, Whedon
Only in Singapore are two units of the anti-riot police dispatched to the scene to ensure that curious onlookers do not disrupt ongoing police investigations at a downtown crime scene.
The anti-riot police units are getting quite a workout this year.
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Technorati Tags: Singapore, police
Woman's head, limbs found in bag near Orchard MRT stationOf course, this is also the country where last month, "40 police officers with 10 or 12 in riot gear" were dispatched to contend with four unarmed, peaceful protestors from the Singapore Democratic Party at a downtown quasi-government building. (See Singabloodypore for more information, if you didn't know about that incident already.)
By Wong Siew Ying, Channel NewsAsia
SINGAPORE : A woman's severed head and limbs were found next to Orchard MRT Station on Friday.
The victim's torso is still missing but police have discovered a black canvas bag in a carpark off Lornie Road near MacRitchie Reservoir.
It is not yet known if the contents are related to the case.
The body parts were stashed in a blue sports bag on the grounds near Orchard MRT Station.
The woman's head was wrapped in a red plastic bag, the arms and legs in two black trash bags.
A cleaner found the unattended sports bag behind the MRT station, between the mosaic wall and the park.
ASP Siow Cheng Cheng, Police Spokesman, said: "Police immediately cordoned off the surrounding area and conducted a search. We are presently working towards establishing the identity of the victim. The search for further remains and evidence is on-going."
The gruesome find drew a large crowd of on-lookers.
Two anti-riot police units were called in to ensure CID officers could carry out their work.
After five hours of investigations, the victim's head and limbs were removed.
One youth said: "The fact that there is a dead body on Orchard Road really freaks me out because I pass here every day to go to the cinema or go to eat."
One woman said: "It reminds us of the Huang Na incident and the previous Chinese girl incident."
This is the second body parts case in less than three months - a grim reminder of the June 16 case where the body parts of Chinese national Liu Hong Mei were found in the Kallang River.
The anti-riot police units are getting quite a workout this year.
Technorati Tags: Singapore, police
This isn't a vacation vacation like the last time, but a break-from-school vacation.
No. of exam scripts I want to finish grading by Monday, 12 September: 4 classes' worth.
No. of exam scripts I've finished as of right now: 1½ (ack!).
No. of leads I'd planned to follow up on after 1 September: 3.
No. of leads I've followed up on as of right now: 4 (yay me!).
Amount of money I'd planned to spend this week before payday (Monday, 12 September): Not that much, so I could offset the cost of the real vacation.
Amount of money I've spent this week as of right now: Oh boy. Let's just say that there is going to be no offsetting of the vacation, and it's possible that savings may be dipped into to offset the regular monthly expenditure.
No. of mornings I wanted to sleep in: All 9 of them, of course!
No. of mornings I've managed to sleep in: 4 out of 6 so far ain't bad, I s'pose.
No. of pimples I'd planned to cultivate: Zero, duh.
No. of pimples I have right now: Only one, but it's right in the middle of my face!
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No. of exam scripts I want to finish grading by Monday, 12 September: 4 classes' worth.
No. of exam scripts I've finished as of right now: 1½ (ack!).
No. of leads I'd planned to follow up on after 1 September: 3.
No. of leads I've followed up on as of right now: 4 (yay me!).
Amount of money I'd planned to spend this week before payday (Monday, 12 September): Not that much, so I could offset the cost of the real vacation.
Amount of money I've spent this week as of right now: Oh boy. Let's just say that there is going to be no offsetting of the vacation, and it's possible that savings may be dipped into to offset the regular monthly expenditure.
No. of mornings I wanted to sleep in: All 9 of them, of course!
No. of mornings I've managed to sleep in: 4 out of 6 so far ain't bad, I s'pose.
No. of pimples I'd planned to cultivate: Zero, duh.
No. of pimples I have right now: Only one, but it's right in the middle of my face!
It's wildly appropriate that after spending the afternoon surveying cultural theories of mass culture (as Packrat put it, it feels as if someone took a crowbar to his head), I am off to partake in an evening of consumerist, commodified, co-opted nostalgia-remixed-as-novelty at Zouk's weekly Mambo Night. There will be teenagers (born in the '80s), bopping to music from the '80s (that's in turn a cover of something from the '50s), wearing clothes that were also fashionable in the '70s. There will be a good bit of preening and posturing, where being seen at the venue means more than the venue itself. There will be drinks (produced by the Establishment) and music (manufactured by the Establishment) for all the anti-Establishment rebels partying on a weeknight.
All that's missing, really, is a healthy dose of irony --- which is what I'll be there for. Let the fun and games begin.
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Technorati Tags: Zouk
All that's missing, really, is a healthy dose of irony --- which is what I'll be there for. Let the fun and games begin.
Technorati Tags: Zouk
It started raining as we arrived at the coffeeshop downstairs for lunch. By the time we were done eating, half an hour later, the winds were whipping madly through the neighbourhood, rattling the awning over the al fresco seating area of the coffeeshop and scattering bits of stray litter and ashes from yesterday's Seventh Moon burning of offerings. Customers exclaimed, stallholders cursed as untethered items went flying; something crashed loudly off a shelf.
I wonder if this was what it was like, just before the hurricane first hit ground at Louisiana.
One side-effect of deliberately not reading or watching the news, is not knowing about big things that happen. It wasn't till I saw my brother's entry yesterday that I got to digging at websites to find out what the hell was going on.
Hell, indeed.
Some points to ponder:
Read. Learn. Be grateful. And help.
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Technorati Tags: Hurricane Katrina
I wonder if this was what it was like, just before the hurricane first hit ground at Louisiana.
One side-effect of deliberately not reading or watching the news, is not knowing about big things that happen. It wasn't till I saw my brother's entry yesterday that I got to digging at websites to find out what the hell was going on.
Hell, indeed.
Some points to ponder:
- Christastrophe's "The situation as it stands":
It would be one thing if the reaction were coordinated and if there had not been budgetary cuts to these programs. Then we should hang our heads and say, "What can we do in the face of the power of nature? We have done ALL THAT WE COULD DO. But that's not the case.
- Cherie Priest's "Disjointed thoughts on the socio-economics of disaster":
They stayed because they could not run, and now they might die because they cannot swim.
- John Scalzi's "Being Poor":
Being poor is relying on people who don't give a damn about you.
- Rogue Slayer Law Student's "The Presidential Tour":
Speak true, Mr. President. Drop the spin and we might start believing you.
- Salon's "The culture war over Katrina" (subscription or clicking through ads may be required):
Right-wingers point to blacks looting and see a Hobbesian war of all against all. Liberals see a failure of civilization to help the poorest among us.
- Edited to add (Sep 5): IZ Reloaded's "Katrina survivor speaks", an interview with his friend, who was on holiday in New Orleans when the hurricane hit:
We come to the Superdome to seek refuge but all we get is hell.
- Edited to add (Sep 8): Alternet Blogs has an extremely informative interactive timeline on the buildup to the tragedy.
Read. Learn. Be grateful. And help.
Technorati Tags: Hurricane Katrina
Nothing reminds you about the relentless penetration of new technology than receiving more Teachers' Day greetings via SMS than in person or handwritten missives, as was the abolute norm four years ago. Even more interesting was that I received numerous Teachers' Day greetings from non-students, including mother, aunts, friends and vendors. Has the holiday so penetrated the wider market that it's become, like Mother's or Father's Days, an occasion for automatic salutations-of-the-day to anyone you know who happens to fall into the category of what the Day is for?
Then I learned from First Aunt that her granddaughter's preschool instructed all the children to bring gifts for their teachers for Teachers' Day. Somewhere between my jaw dropping open in a rictus of astonishment and then freeing itself to yammer any number of outraged protestations, I remembered what Keat commented over at Top of Mind about "tacky plastic ornamental doodads" labelled for sale as Teachers' Day presents and decided that, clearly, the end is nigh because even Teachers' Day --- I mean, think about it, doesn't it sound vaguely Confucian-socialist, something no other developed nation would celebrate as a school holiday? --- has succumbed to the scourge of commercialisation.
tscd asked me in my previous post what my students gave me this year. To be honest, in composing that post, I was torn between publishing an inventory of loot and ignoring the situation altogether --- the former seemed tastelessly narcissistic while the latter might smell vaguely of premeditated false humility. Then, of course, there was the consideration that I didn't actually collect very much loot this year, so a short list could then leave the bitter aftertaste of the blatant clamouring for extravagant displays of affection or, conversely, the self-pitying blubbering of an inadequate mind clearly unsuited to the travails of teaching. And unlike trisha, I don't have the dignified modesty to reflect, "There's something worse than not getting any gift, it is getting something you don't think you deserve."
I have too many thoughts, I know.
Okay, here's the list, to satisfy curious readers. In publishing it, I hereby declare that I am not fishing for more pressies, I certainly don't need or want more stuff, and I'm certainly not trying to guilt anyone into wishing me happy T-day either. If you've said it, thanks! If you haven't, no hard feelings! Let's all get on with our lives already!
This year's loot from students:
What happens when two teachers and my grammatically strict mother go shopping? We talk about all the words that get mispronounced and mangled in Singapore. Pop quiz:
-----|||||----- Technorati Tags: Teachers' Day
Then I learned from First Aunt that her granddaughter's preschool instructed all the children to bring gifts for their teachers for Teachers' Day. Somewhere between my jaw dropping open in a rictus of astonishment and then freeing itself to yammer any number of outraged protestations, I remembered what Keat commented over at Top of Mind about "tacky plastic ornamental doodads" labelled for sale as Teachers' Day presents and decided that, clearly, the end is nigh because even Teachers' Day --- I mean, think about it, doesn't it sound vaguely Confucian-socialist, something no other developed nation would celebrate as a school holiday? --- has succumbed to the scourge of commercialisation.
tscd asked me in my previous post what my students gave me this year. To be honest, in composing that post, I was torn between publishing an inventory of loot and ignoring the situation altogether --- the former seemed tastelessly narcissistic while the latter might smell vaguely of premeditated false humility. Then, of course, there was the consideration that I didn't actually collect very much loot this year, so a short list could then leave the bitter aftertaste of the blatant clamouring for extravagant displays of affection or, conversely, the self-pitying blubbering of an inadequate mind clearly unsuited to the travails of teaching. And unlike trisha, I don't have the dignified modesty to reflect, "There's something worse than not getting any gift, it is getting something you don't think you deserve."
I have too many thoughts, I know.
Okay, here's the list, to satisfy curious readers. In publishing it, I hereby declare that I am not fishing for more pressies, I certainly don't need or want more stuff, and I'm certainly not trying to guilt anyone into wishing me happy T-day either. If you've said it, thanks! If you haven't, no hard feelings! Let's all get on with our lives already!
This year's loot from students:
- Two handwritten thank-you notes, both of which referenced my abhorrence of the adjectives "unique" and "unusual" in describing literary style --- hurrah for students who paid attention last week!
- A block of homemade cake that now sits in the fridge (too full from today's buffet to break into it yet).
- A poem (not written for me, but written by the student).
- Various SMSes received since Tuesday evening.
What happens when two teachers and my grammatically strict mother go shopping? We talk about all the words that get mispronounced and mangled in Singapore. Pop quiz:
- How do you pronounce "their"?
- How do you pronounce the letter "H"?
- How do you pronounce "student"?
- How do you pronounce "resources"?
- How do you pronounce "mood" (not a trick question)?
- How do you pronounce "patronage"?
- "their" --- it's "there", not "they're".
- the letter "H" --- it's "aitch", not "haitch".
- "student" --- it's "STEW-dent", not "STU-dent".
- "resources" --- try "re-ZAW-ces", not "re-SAW-ces".
- "mood" --- it's "mood", not "mode".
- "patronage" --- if you're British, it's "PAIR-tronage"; if you're American, it's "PAY-tronage"; either way, the last syllable should take a "niche" sound, i.e. "PAIR-tron-niche", not "PAIR-tron-nayge" (if you're British).
At some point after dawn, Terz turns to me and goes, "Don't you have to get up for school?" To which I happily (yes, even in my sleepiness) reply, "No, it's Teachers' Day." And then we go right back to sleep again.
At 9:45 am, I got up. A short while later, over blogs and email, we had champagne truffle mooncakes. Absolutely divine, absolutely decadent.
While the mooncakes were not a gift from my students, this is an appropriate moment to point out that the best gifts you can give your teacher are a personalised message --- be it in the form of an SMS, card, handwritten note or email --- and edible goods. Forget the stuffed toys, mugs, doodads and knick-knacks; don't wrack your head over what your teacher would like unless you know his/her taste well (e.g. the class that got me nothing but Buffy and Powerpuff Girls swag a few years ago scored rather highly in that respect). We don't need stuff, but a sincere thank-you is always welcome and, oh, if you insist, a little tasty treat won't be out of place either.
And speaking of tasty treats, I'm now off to lunch, since my grandfather's birthday is also 1 September and there will be some buffet delights in his honour.
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Technorati Tags: Teachers' Day, teachers
At 9:45 am, I got up. A short while later, over blogs and email, we had champagne truffle mooncakes. Absolutely divine, absolutely decadent.
While the mooncakes were not a gift from my students, this is an appropriate moment to point out that the best gifts you can give your teacher are a personalised message --- be it in the form of an SMS, card, handwritten note or email --- and edible goods. Forget the stuffed toys, mugs, doodads and knick-knacks; don't wrack your head over what your teacher would like unless you know his/her taste well (e.g. the class that got me nothing but Buffy and Powerpuff Girls swag a few years ago scored rather highly in that respect). We don't need stuff, but a sincere thank-you is always welcome and, oh, if you insist, a little tasty treat won't be out of place either.
And speaking of tasty treats, I'm now off to lunch, since my grandfather's birthday is also 1 September and there will be some buffet delights in his honour.
Technorati Tags: Teachers' Day, teachers
Thirtysomething, Singapore-born and -bred (barring five years spent in wintrier climes), and thus far resisting all forms of government propaganda exalting procreation. I watch too much American TV, eat too much local food (to which the concepts of low-fat/low-cal/low-anything except low price do not apply) and read too many blogs, most of them American or local. I'd love it if Singapore were visited by the monsoon more often and if I could wear jeans to work.
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