2008年4月 Archives

Yeah, camp activities are so screwed up.

Friday we went to Sentosa for cohesion. The beach, the sand, the sun, un-earthly BBQ equates sun burnt and diarrhea a week later. Perfectly expected. The best part I'd enjoyed is we went out own jolly way to Holland Village for supper at Hagen Daz.

It was fun really, haven't been to Sentosa for years. I appreciate dipping in the sea water, and letting the polluted salt water eats into my dry skin.

But I can't say the same for the horrible BBQ frenzy in the evenings. God, I HATE DIY BBQ. I think these sorta things should be left to PROFESSIONAL CHEF. It really shows the ugly side of people perfectly.

Or what seems to be left of it.

Some of us decided to meet up for a class gathering, between, well class-mates. Majority was absent, but so be it. Well, its been like three years so the turnout rate is not surprising. There were cliches here, and there, and somewhat in between some dropouts. Personally, I'd prefer em dropouts.

Anyways, we went for lunch at Secret Recipe. God, the service sucks. I waited for a full 7 minutes to get someones attention to place my order. I treated myself a ripple cheesecake and a green apple smoothie drink - I can't remember the name of that drink. It had a sour plum in it.

After that, we went for bowling.

Anthony, couldn't bear to pay $1.50 for a new pair of socks left while we were playing. He is probably AB blood-type, can't understand him at all. I actually won both games. Of course, that proves, we all pretty much suck and I was despicable enough to choose the lightest ball I could get my hands on.

Yong Ming, of course being the muscle guy, had to bear the weight of the heaviest ball. Pride issues, I supposed. I could never understand that either. I think Xiu Yun could play well, but she just threw em balls in an anyhow fashion. I could understand that, however.

To suckers like me, I'd be darn happy to break the 100 pt limit.

We went to Ma Maison in Bugis Junction last Sunday, a western Japanese restaurant that warranted good food at reasonable prices. No, I'm not into fine dining so this is as fine as it can get for me.

I got a large hamburger steak - well done. I finished it, the veggies were too salty and the Japanese sauce was nothing amazing. Meat itself was well cooked, just that I'm not a fan of hamburger steaks. I'm the type that believes hamburger patties should remain in between slices of bread. The baked potato chunks were good, apple crumple was delicious. Not too sweet, and soft to the touch. I guess thats why they called it "apple crumple cake". I love it.

Overall, it was pretty good. And to the excitement of that moment, we acted like bloody tourists that we would probably call stupid.

Price-wise was reasonable, I don't mind going back for my meals in the future should the chance occur. Heck, I would like to go back in one month's time to try their other dishes. But the truth it, even though the others said of future visits back to the restaurant, I cannot see that coming for the next decade.

Don't you hate it when there happens to have a group event and somehow the cameras belonged to other people - whom after taking all the pictures, refused or rather can't be bothered to distribute the photographs to anyone else. Well, since they have it, why should they give a damn eh?

I happen to have several group outings including one class photo taking sessions and nobody have the fucking initiative to pass em photographs around despite whatever promises sprouted.

Thats why I hate taking photographs, jolly knowing it would probably take a decade to see myself on my own fucking photograph.

I'm truly amazed.

Which one are you?

I read a comment in ST recently. In it, a reader from China praised the Chinese people for holding peaceful protest against international pressure on the upcoming Olympics. Thousands of people took to the streets in acts of patriotism. He said that Singapore ought to learn and emulate them.

I don't understand, on one hand, they ban peaceful anti-government protests but when these protesting turn to support their policies, they close an eye. Does "patriotism" mean blinding supporting public policy? So when public policy fails, it becomes illegal to speak out against the government?

If that is the case, I will take no part in this dualistic approach to public policy. It disgusts me. I believe that any governance system in this world should be tested; systems that cannot be tested, have no value.

There has been a growing tradition of study related to the observation of consciousness throughout modern history. But how many of those actually questioned the existence of consciousness itself as an individual existing factual entity?

When Descartes said the words "Corgito ergo sum", or "I think; therefore I am," he reached to a final conclusion that the existence of self is an irrefutable fact. However, as modern technology is able to observe the reactions of consciousness, so does it able to reason otherwise.

While we are able to feel and observe our self-awareness, we are unable to prove and define this self-awareness as a unique entity in this world.

Think about it, what makes you think that you exist as an individual entity simply because you think that you had thought?

Netizens shocked with security lapses at detention centre

By Ian Lim

NETIZENS were flabbergasted and shocked over the security lapses revealed in Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng's account of Mas Selamat's escape from the Whitley Road Detention Centre. Mr Wong, who is also Home Affairs minister gave a 21-page detailed account of how operational lapses and a combination of several critical factors enabled the Singapore Jemaah Islamiah leader to escape seven weeks ago. He told Parliament that guards who escorted Mas Selamat lost sight of him when he entered a toilet cubicle, and did not react quickly enough. Mas Selamat, 47, who was born in Singapore in 1961, was accused of plotting to hijack a plane in order to crash it into Singapore's Changi Airport in 2001 but was never charged. He had been held at the WRDC for about two years under the Internal Security Act a law before the Feb 27 breakout. Reports of his daring escape drew over 40 comments at straitstimes.com. Most of the comments called for more accountability, and many like Eagle2004 put the blame on Mr Wong. 'Since it took the fugitive less than 11 minutes to slip out of a prison designed to hold terrorists, the security measures were grossly inadequate.' 'Who oversees this detention centre? The Ministry of Home Affairs. Who heads this ministry? Is anybody going to be held accountable? Will it be the poor ground level guards?' asked Eagle2004. On the security lapses, kakakuli said: 'Why use female guard to escort mat into the toilet, and wasting so much time when something was found amiss?' 'What kind of SOP was that? There's total breakdwon in the ISD system, and that Mr Wong has to shoulder the responsibility.' cjcjcjcj added: 'It's very difficult to believe the report and if the guard waited outside the toilet has to waste more than that few minutes to open the toilet door.' 'From a few mins to 11 mins before the door opened! Yet no one is held responsible?' Another point of contention with Netizens is the statement by the CID chief on Monday that no staff of the detention centre will face criminal charges for Mas Selamat's escape. abductboy, who said he was shocked with this decision, wrote: "If there is negligence, then there is punishment. The govt has decided not to punish its own officers, is it becos it might mean the Govt is at fault.' 'So it is nobody fault. Please, nobody is perfect. If Govt starts to protect himself when its officers do wrong, then we Citizens are in trouble.'

"Repression, Sir is a habit that grows. I am told it is like making love - it is always easier the second time! The first time there may be pangs of conscience, a sense of guilt. But once embarked on this course with constant repetition you get more and more brazen in the attack. All you have to do is to dissolve organizations and societies and banish and detain the key political workers in these societies. Then miraculously everything is tranquil on the surface. Then an intimidated press and the government-controlled radio together can regularly sing your praises, and slowly and steadily the people are made to forget the evil things that have already been done, or if these things are referred to again they're conveniently distorted and distorted with impunity, because there will be no opposition to contradict."

- Lee Kuan Yew as an opposition PAP member speaking to David Marshall, Singapore Legislative Assembly, Debates, 4 October 1956

A COUPLE were charged on Tuesday with distributing a seditious publication to two others.

Ong Kian Cheong, 49, and Dorothy Chan Hien Leng, 44, are alleged to have distributed The Little Bride, an evangelistic material, to Sembawang resident Irwan Ariffin last Oct 19.

They are also said to have distributed the same publication to one Madam Farharti Ahmad at her home in Woodlands on March 6 last year .

It is not clear why they face the Sedition Act and the Undesirable Publication Act when the publication is the same.

Ong, who works in a telecommunications company, and his wife, a bank employee, were represented by Mr Selva K. Naidu.

The police prosecutor sought an adjournment of the case pending a Health Sciences Authority on handwriting specimen.

The couple were freed on $10,000 bail each. Their passports were impounded.

The case will be mentioned on April 29.

Under the Sedition Act, the maximum penalty is a $5,000 fine and/or a jail term of up to three years.

The maximum penalty under the Undesirable Publication Act is a fine of up to $5,000 and/or up to 12 months.

This is a slideshow on the so-called Little Bride. It's one of the most religiously offensive material, and moreover so, since it is a cartoon targeting children. Pui!

I can't sleep. I'm boiling inside and my tummy is topsy turvy. Add some hor fun just now and its taking effect on my stomach.

For the whole of today, I'm fairly proud to say I've consumed one beef stick and a can of tuna. It feels terrible now, if only I had taken MC today then I'd have crushed this nuisance at its bud. But no, office culture indicates bring your sickness to work makes you macho! I'm sure it has nothing to do with me from now on, even though I'd preached that from before but hey, I didn't know a bad stomach can lead to fever! So its new to me too. Yay.

My throat is beginning to sore, I know, I can feel it.

I realised it creeps me out when I'm playing horror shooter PC games. Especially at night, and there isn't any sound other than my fan and occasion snore from my parents' room.

hana no iro wa
utsurinikeri na
itazura ni

wa ga mi yo ni furu
nagameseshi ma ni

 

The cherry blossoms
Have faded now in hue--

Gazing emptily
Upon the long spring rains,
I too know what it is to age.
                    -- Ono no Komachi

This waka was taken from the "Spring" section of the Kokinshū. Ono no Komachi, who flourished in the second half of the ninth century, is the only woman classed with the traditional "six immortals" of waka poetry (rokkasen; so called because of their mention in the preface to the Kokinshū, although there they are not praised without qualification). She is supposed to have been an incomparable beauty, and many legends sprang up around her name.

Two pivot words (furu and nagamesu, both in the last two lines) provide the key to interpretation here, one sets that results in the translation "the long rains that fall in the world,"  the other itself with a double meaning that joins "growing old"  with "gazing on the world in a reverie." The poem makes use of the traditional association between the short time during which cherry blossoms are at their peak and the transience of human life. The conceit was already sufficiently established in Komachi's day for the reader to understand that "flower" (hana) referred specifically to cherry blossoms. Structurally, the poem is broken semantically after the second line (a technique called niku-gire), which is here combined with tōchi-hō ("grammatical inversion"; the first two lines would normally follow the last three) to increase dramatic effect.

Literal rendition and notes

• Line 1:  blossom | 's | color | as-for
• Line 2:  has-changed | !
• Line 3:  meaningless | -ly
• Line 4:  I | 's | self | world | in | grow-old / falling (furu used as pivot word joining the idea of aging to the falling of the rain)
• Line 5:  was-gazing / long-rains (nagame used as a pivot word to join the idea of gazing to the ceaseless rain) | period | in ("period in" = "during" or "while")

Recently, I've become quite particular over minor amounts of money. Just now, the malay stall at Jurong East pasar malam short changed me 10 cents and I stood there until the cheating woman blew her miserable cover and returned me my money.

Life is hard. The nasi lemak sucks.

Today, I've received a certificate stating that I've completed the course for Basic Thai from Cambridge School of Languages. Yay.

But I still can't speak Thai. LOL! On to Intermediate course!

I kenna while on my way for my appointment this morning.

Singaporeans once again faced MRT service disruption as they headed for work this Monday morning, when a man was found dead on the train track at the Choa Chu Kang MRT Station.

Police received a call at 8 am that a man had fallen onto the track. The man, a Chinese in his mid-40s, was pronounced dead at 8.30 am.

A portion of the North-South line was affected. According to signs flashed at MRT stations, there was no train service from Yew Tee station to Bukit Gombak station towards Jurong East station.

Trains running on this line had to turn around.

SMRT deployed  a dozen buses to the station to bring the stranded commuters to the connecting stations shortly after 8 am.

Normal train services resumed at about 8.50 am after the body of the man was removed from the track.

A shopkeeper in the station said he heard commuters saying that the man had jumped onto the track.

Singapore Civil Defence Force and Singapore Police Force personnel were seen at the scene, which has been cordoned off. Police are now investigating the case.

Kids write interesting things sometimes.

My family play with me. This is so funny. I saw my friends at the Supermarket. I eat fish and vegetable. I sit at the sofa watching the TV. I play the toy car with my friends. My family tell me to sweep and mop the floor. My mother says "Thank you."

My family and my friends is good because they play with me. I am so happy. I love my friends and family. My family is my life. My family love me. I play the white board. My family and friends are happy. I am a very good boy. My mother tells me to go to school.

My family is smart. My family teaches me homework. My family is happy. I have brother, sister, mother and father. My family and friends are helpful. I hug my family and friends. My friends give the toy car. I love all of you because it is funny.

(155 Words)