They were airing "The Queen" on central just now - it so happened that it was also the last movie i watched in an actual movie theater - that was in Jan last year. So i figure that i'm not much of a movie person eh...
ah well, anyways, there won't be much over here in the near future, at least not until by God's grace a sufficient amount of thesis stuff is churned out for the first draft (due 3 Mar)...
So until then, wish me well...
Monday, February 25, 2008
Thursday, February 07, 2008
clash
Yup it's time for my oh-so-favorite holiday of the year again. Perhaps to subconsciously commemorate the occasion, i started playing the few chinese songs that exist on my home pc (and btw doesn't Stefanie Sun look so auntie in those canned food ads at bus stops?), something that i've not done since 18 Aug 2007 (it says so on the itunes thingy) and only after starting to type this post did i realize the link.
Well, i'm glad at least that this year's cny is probably as minimally disruptive as they get - we had dinner last night, then there's lunch today, and that pretty much marks the end of any family observances of the holiday. There's also another dinner tonight, but at least i'm spared from having to do any visiting this year, something that i perhaps was nonchalant about when i was younger, but ever since i got older, and $ got less and less, the sole redeeming quality of it all has gotten less and less effective, and in the past five or more years or so have gotten real sian of visiting. May even head back to school to do work tomorrow, in part to avoid having to be dragged down to visit more random people, but also cos after i left my room yesterday and was on the bus back, i realized that i had both left behind perishable food in my room and left the windows wide open.
Unfortunately though, attempts to avoid cny music by staying away from supermarkets and the like unless absolutely necessary have not met with much success, and to make matters worse, my dear presidential neighbor has some cny activities planned and hence now i hear more cny music blasted from a chinese orchestra (so just as well i'm playing more acceptable chinese music to drown that out...). Hmm, yet another reason to go back to school tomorrow - and in any case i've lots of work to do...
This is the first year that i can remember where i've tried to actively do something in the light of Lent season. Food wise, however, i've found it hard to find something to abstain from - at first i was thinking along the lines of cny delicacies like pineapple tarts/love letters etc, but then i realized i don't really like to eat those in any case, so it would be no kick. I already don't eat seafood so no go there, and i was already cutting down on fish both cos it's often too fishy and cos of my concerns over overfishing and the difficulty here (compared to say, in the States) to find out what varieties have in fact been overfished (and hence, might as well avoid all fish). Then, i was thinking along the lines of beef as well, but then again my choice to avoid it would have more to do with the inefficiency of cows as a food source since the calories they consume in their grain feed is far less than the calories their meat produces (i.e. people go hungry at the expense of wasted calories), and less so for religious reasons. And of course cows fart/belch methane too. But in any case i just remembered that i did in fact eat beef at yesterday's dinner so it can't count either heh... So i dunno, chocs? But i don't exactly crave those. Ice cream? But i don't get to eat it often anyways. Alcohol? But i drink like once a year if not less...
So while i still dunno about the food bit, i've decided to avoid youtube for this period, since i do lose at least four productive hours every month or so to browsing random nonsense thingies. Interesting though, how the RC Church here wrote to the Vatican for permission to find an alternative date for Ash Wednesday fasting observation in the light of it coinciding with typical reunion dinner night - raises questions on if and when it is right to compromise Christian practices (or even to label it a compromise) for the sake of culture...
Ah crap there's the Dook game on now and i can't catch it - they're not even airing it on espn here - what a travesty...
Well, i'm glad at least that this year's cny is probably as minimally disruptive as they get - we had dinner last night, then there's lunch today, and that pretty much marks the end of any family observances of the holiday. There's also another dinner tonight, but at least i'm spared from having to do any visiting this year, something that i perhaps was nonchalant about when i was younger, but ever since i got older, and $ got less and less, the sole redeeming quality of it all has gotten less and less effective, and in the past five or more years or so have gotten real sian of visiting. May even head back to school to do work tomorrow, in part to avoid having to be dragged down to visit more random people, but also cos after i left my room yesterday and was on the bus back, i realized that i had both left behind perishable food in my room and left the windows wide open.
Unfortunately though, attempts to avoid cny music by staying away from supermarkets and the like unless absolutely necessary have not met with much success, and to make matters worse, my dear presidential neighbor has some cny activities planned and hence now i hear more cny music blasted from a chinese orchestra (so just as well i'm playing more acceptable chinese music to drown that out...). Hmm, yet another reason to go back to school tomorrow - and in any case i've lots of work to do...
This is the first year that i can remember where i've tried to actively do something in the light of Lent season. Food wise, however, i've found it hard to find something to abstain from - at first i was thinking along the lines of cny delicacies like pineapple tarts/love letters etc, but then i realized i don't really like to eat those in any case, so it would be no kick. I already don't eat seafood so no go there, and i was already cutting down on fish both cos it's often too fishy and cos of my concerns over overfishing and the difficulty here (compared to say, in the States) to find out what varieties have in fact been overfished (and hence, might as well avoid all fish). Then, i was thinking along the lines of beef as well, but then again my choice to avoid it would have more to do with the inefficiency of cows as a food source since the calories they consume in their grain feed is far less than the calories their meat produces (i.e. people go hungry at the expense of wasted calories), and less so for religious reasons. And of course cows fart/belch methane too. But in any case i just remembered that i did in fact eat beef at yesterday's dinner so it can't count either heh... So i dunno, chocs? But i don't exactly crave those. Ice cream? But i don't get to eat it often anyways. Alcohol? But i drink like once a year if not less...
So while i still dunno about the food bit, i've decided to avoid youtube for this period, since i do lose at least four productive hours every month or so to browsing random nonsense thingies. Interesting though, how the RC Church here wrote to the Vatican for permission to find an alternative date for Ash Wednesday fasting observation in the light of it coinciding with typical reunion dinner night - raises questions on if and when it is right to compromise Christian practices (or even to label it a compromise) for the sake of culture...
Ah crap there's the Dook game on now and i can't catch it - they're not even airing it on espn here - what a travesty...
Friday, February 01, 2008
work = mad
Graduation requirements are such that i've had to take class after class of so-called breadth modules - i can envision the official rationale behind it is that nus can then go on to produce well-rounded young men and women who will be well-equipped to face the unique challenges of today's society or something along these lines, only cheesier.
Well at class the other day the lecturer noted that F = ma - fair enough, i remember that from O level physics. Then came the next equation: work = Fd. And of course, being the diligent well-rounded young man that i am, i substituted formula one into formula two - voilà: the only thing i still remember from that day's class: work = mad. Go figure.
Wonder why each semester seems to pass by faster and faster - that three weeks of school are already over is just insane - and it's now just under two months till ht is due [and so far the (lack of) progress report sees me having written no more than a tentative, pre-edited and horribly overly-long lit review (but i've probably read more books than the whole rest of last year already)] and exactly a month after that when i take my first and last papers of the sem and of my entire undergrad career. That's quite hard to fathom now, but judging from the pace that things have been coming this way in no time it should be easier to grasp - just hope that my writing can keep pace with it! But seriously (yes, seriously =p) i'm quite happy with the amount of stuff that somehow has been done so far - it's a real reminder that the Lord is carrying me through it...
So cny is coming up, and as per usual i'm looking forward to it as much as i am to the latest update on Britney Spears' struggles with sobriety, child custody and the like. Guess the big silver lining i can draw out of it is the extra few days free to get some work done (i wanna say "but who am i kidding?" but in faith, i'm sure i'll get quite a bit done =)
And hooray for trips post-exams (dunno what they might be yet, but i shall celebrate in advance too)!!!
Finally managed to catch me some tennis the other day since channel 5 decided to air the Aussie Open Finals - only managed to catch the men's one, but anyways i guess my eardrums needed a rest and subjecting myself to Maria Sharapova's shrieks wouldn't help. As normally happens when i end up following a match, the one i didn't want to win won, and by my analysis it was more of Tsonga losing the match than Djokovic winning it (not that he wasn't good though), but ah heck, at least it was real quality tennis. My father, of course, theorized that Tsonga would have played better sans the ear stud - i'm not too sure about that one =p
And speaking of tennis, who's game for this wed 10-12pm at SRC?
Was reading the ST when they talked about the monetary awards presentation to the SEA Games gold medal winners - i couldn't help noticing the many foreign-born people among them - then they were also talking about how player A from the table tennis team just overtook player B in the world rankings, and how she's the highest non-Chinese player in the rankings. Then i thought to myself, but wait a minute, she is Chinese, as is player B, and i reckon just about close to every single player in the world's top ten.
Kudos to the Chinese (no matter what country they represent) for being so talented at ping pong. Heck, if i remember correctly, all but one member from our male and female national team's players are actually from China. And honestly speaking, i don't think that under these circumstances, Singapore deserves any more credit than being the best recruiter of Chinese talent that would otherwise be barely able to represent China on the highest world stages cos there are too many better players already in China. So to that end, i don't really care for any of the foreign sporting talent's achievements for S'pore, as in i welcome these foreign-born S'poreans, and they definitely deserve their accolades and all, but the SSC shouldn't go around trumping their achievements as S'porean achievements, assigning the S'porean label to them just like that. To me, it just cheapens the S'poreanness of the whole thing.
Was also reading about the upcoming Uni Town thingy nus is putting up, and how it was put in some special 'green' category which meant that it would be given priority access to limited building resources. Same goes, if i'm not wrong, to the casino (let's call a spade a spade please) developments. Fair enough - what i think stinks is that they never did the same thing for the new KTP Hospital, something that is arguably more important. After all, the Uni Town is only being pushed to be completed so fast because S'pore is bidding for the Youth Olympic Games, yet another marquee event that would put S'pore up there with the Londons and New Yorks as a (and i'm so sick of this term) "World Class City". Healthcare for a rapidly ageing (and expanding - though lky took the target down by a whole 1 million people) population takes a back seat, even when there's been a space crunch at the govt hospitals, especially in the C class wards. Just as well that something is being done to regulate the demand side by introducing means testing, but how about the supply side by speeding up the construction of the hospital (and original plans in fact had in mind a general hospital in Jurong by 2004 or so - what happened to that?). Once again the everyday S'porean whose voice gets lost amidst the progress-minded and pragmatic in our political landscape has gotten played out...
Well at class the other day the lecturer noted that F = ma - fair enough, i remember that from O level physics. Then came the next equation: work = Fd. And of course, being the diligent well-rounded young man that i am, i substituted formula one into formula two - voilà: the only thing i still remember from that day's class: work = mad. Go figure.
Wonder why each semester seems to pass by faster and faster - that three weeks of school are already over is just insane - and it's now just under two months till ht is due [and so far the (lack of) progress report sees me having written no more than a tentative, pre-edited and horribly overly-long lit review (but i've probably read more books than the whole rest of last year already)] and exactly a month after that when i take my first and last papers of the sem and of my entire undergrad career. That's quite hard to fathom now, but judging from the pace that things have been coming this way in no time it should be easier to grasp - just hope that my writing can keep pace with it! But seriously (yes, seriously =p) i'm quite happy with the amount of stuff that somehow has been done so far - it's a real reminder that the Lord is carrying me through it...
So cny is coming up, and as per usual i'm looking forward to it as much as i am to the latest update on Britney Spears' struggles with sobriety, child custody and the like. Guess the big silver lining i can draw out of it is the extra few days free to get some work done (i wanna say "but who am i kidding?" but in faith, i'm sure i'll get quite a bit done =)
And hooray for trips post-exams (dunno what they might be yet, but i shall celebrate in advance too)!!!
Finally managed to catch me some tennis the other day since channel 5 decided to air the Aussie Open Finals - only managed to catch the men's one, but anyways i guess my eardrums needed a rest and subjecting myself to Maria Sharapova's shrieks wouldn't help. As normally happens when i end up following a match, the one i didn't want to win won, and by my analysis it was more of Tsonga losing the match than Djokovic winning it (not that he wasn't good though), but ah heck, at least it was real quality tennis. My father, of course, theorized that Tsonga would have played better sans the ear stud - i'm not too sure about that one =p
And speaking of tennis, who's game for this wed 10-12pm at SRC?
Was reading the ST when they talked about the monetary awards presentation to the SEA Games gold medal winners - i couldn't help noticing the many foreign-born people among them - then they were also talking about how player A from the table tennis team just overtook player B in the world rankings, and how she's the highest non-Chinese player in the rankings. Then i thought to myself, but wait a minute, she is Chinese, as is player B, and i reckon just about close to every single player in the world's top ten.
Kudos to the Chinese (no matter what country they represent) for being so talented at ping pong. Heck, if i remember correctly, all but one member from our male and female national team's players are actually from China. And honestly speaking, i don't think that under these circumstances, Singapore deserves any more credit than being the best recruiter of Chinese talent that would otherwise be barely able to represent China on the highest world stages cos there are too many better players already in China. So to that end, i don't really care for any of the foreign sporting talent's achievements for S'pore, as in i welcome these foreign-born S'poreans, and they definitely deserve their accolades and all, but the SSC shouldn't go around trumping their achievements as S'porean achievements, assigning the S'porean label to them just like that. To me, it just cheapens the S'poreanness of the whole thing.
Was also reading about the upcoming Uni Town thingy nus is putting up, and how it was put in some special 'green' category which meant that it would be given priority access to limited building resources. Same goes, if i'm not wrong, to the casino (let's call a spade a spade please) developments. Fair enough - what i think stinks is that they never did the same thing for the new KTP Hospital, something that is arguably more important. After all, the Uni Town is only being pushed to be completed so fast because S'pore is bidding for the Youth Olympic Games, yet another marquee event that would put S'pore up there with the Londons and New Yorks as a (and i'm so sick of this term) "World Class City". Healthcare for a rapidly ageing (and expanding - though lky took the target down by a whole 1 million people) population takes a back seat, even when there's been a space crunch at the govt hospitals, especially in the C class wards. Just as well that something is being done to regulate the demand side by introducing means testing, but how about the supply side by speeding up the construction of the hospital (and original plans in fact had in mind a general hospital in Jurong by 2004 or so - what happened to that?). Once again the everyday S'porean whose voice gets lost amidst the progress-minded and pragmatic in our political landscape has gotten played out...
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