trivialising fun
Saturday, October 31, 2009 (1:41 PM)
many-a-times when someone does something and people ask "why did you do that?" the answer goes, "just for fun."
"just" trivialises "fun".
we're way too uptight about being serious. relax and have some fun!
time heals shit
(1:29 PM)
time doesn't heal wounds at all. zero, zilch, nada.
when people say time heals all wounds, i find that patronising. it's relinquishing responsibility to allow yourself to heal and when you do that, you find that it takes a lot longer for you to heal than it actually should have.
it takes time to heal, but that does not mean time can heal. the only person who can allow you to heal is you. only you can choose to let yourself recover and when you do, you find that the time it takes is a lot shorter.
pressing issues
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 (10:14 AM)
october 27, 2009, law minister k shanmugam said "if it is said that someone is stupid... then you can't sue" effectively giving us the right to call anyone stupid, including minister mentor lee kwan yew. not that i think he is stupid. and more than for just political correctness, he is through-and-through a highly intellectual individual. but i digress. no less than what mr. shanmugam did.
the topic was on singapore's press freedom ranking by reporters without borders. and to tackle such "misperceptions among some Americans", which he claimed were at times "divorced from reality", he decided to argue with points that are totally irrelevant and, intentionally or unintentionally, mislead readers. and on his side, ironically, the press (today) made the same irrelevant point.
today talked about singapore being below guinea, "whose military junta of late was reported to have gunned down people and had women raped on the street." and mr. shanmugam himself said that we are now below kenya, "which saw riots following a disputed election." the above 2 examples relate to autocratic dictatorship which does not refer directly to press freedom. were the people gunned down and raped because of what they published in the papers? and what does a disputed election have to do with press freedom?
a look at the local press reveals a lot. just look at how the straits times publishes. there is as good as zero negative publicity on the government. look at the local broadcast media, they are extremely careful about jokes played on political figures, even for good harmless fun. and there is the recent forum with mr. lee. questioners were planted and questions vetted before the forum. and i totally agree with the guy who wrote in to the papers asking what the point of the forum is when you can't really ask what you want...
but truth be told, i am thankful and grateful for the safety and comfort we have here. though that has nothing to do with press freedom.
the necessity to mark-up prices
Saturday, October 24, 2009 (3:49 PM)
it may have been the owners' greed backfiring. it may have been the tourists' paranoia at being ripped off. whatever it stemmed from, marking up prices has become necessary for the survival of the thais.
tourists now shop in thailand expecting to shave a significant amount off the quoted prices. it doesn't matter much the amount you quote in the beginning, what matters is how much you shave off the quoted prices. an item going for 1000 baht has to be quoted much higher. possibly at 1500 baht. and letting the buyers bargain till it hits a 1000 baht is a lot more gratifying for them than quoting 1000 baht to start with and refusing to cut it further.
it doesn't make sense but cutting prices and entertaining bargains have long become a form customer service.
officially in love with them
(2:00 PM)
a pair of very talented sisters...
i love sonia!
functions of the law
Tuesday, October 20, 2009 (9:03 AM)
we often turn to the law when attempts to create change fails. perhaps the law is the only source that can implement forced changes. or so we think.
i read in the papers today, a particular animal rights activist appealing for the law to make fur trading illegal. i didn't read the article in detail but the heading suggests that law is the only one that can stop fur trades. the truth is, the law changes nothing. at least not much.
making something illegal doesn't stop something from happening. it just makes it much less assessible and moves it from the open to the underground. such trades will go on regardless of the lawbooks because the demand is there and the rich will go through all means and ways to get it. the catch is, they don't have to do it themselves. they pay the hard-up-for-money to do it, and if they get caught, they'll just find someone else. just because something is made illegal doesn't mean people no longer have interest in them. and the fact that it's become illegal makes it even more elusive and charming. human behaviour works like this. and that it is no longer legal makes the prices go up. why wouldn't the already indifferent-to-animal-welfare traders be happier to deal in them?
it is much easier to control something that is legal than illegal.
the random guy i don't care about
Thursday, October 15, 2009 (11:05 AM)
no one's gotten on my nerves but i find it interesting an inclination for people who get poked the slightest bit to rant a whole chunk of entry in their blog about it and finish with, "why should i care?" or "he's not worth my time".
well, guess what sister? he's made it to your blog.
we all try to act indifferent towards someone whom we know isn't worth our time and shouldn't care but the fact is, we still do one way or another. and it just makes us feel better spending time articulating it and then proudly announce to the world "we don't care". somehow, not caring sends you up the high road, at least that's what it seems. but frankly, as soon as you take the driver's seat to talk about it, it doesn't matter how it ends. you just sent yourself down the other way.
i do not disagree with such a behaviour because when i think about it, i probably did it as much if not more. it's therapeutic somehow. and if you're disturbed by this entry, go ahead and leave a comment. i'll just write the next entry about you and declare i don't actually care. you're just a waste of my time.
single standard
Monday, October 12, 2009 (3:35 PM)
i just saw an episode of law and order today and it had something to do with religion. a person holding a prominent position in a particular place of worship said, the essence of faith is to believe despite the absence of proof.
fair enough reasoning. but i often get challenged by a certain group of people to show proof of the existence of the higher being that i believe in. now what say you about this single standard? one that only applies to you?
tokyo sonata
Saturday, October 10, 2009 (3:46 PM)
i haven't seen any movies for a while now, much less one from the picturehouse. i'm not so much a movies person but when a good movie and good company comes my way, i'll definitely catch it.
tokyo sonata is one rare jewel that runs for 122 mins yet feels like a 60 min show. not many good shows make time fly like that. i recall times in the theatres when i constantly check the time and wonder, "how come only 45 min passed... sheesh. another 45 min to go."
or something to that extent.
i loved the realness of sonata. as my companion said, it reflects the highly patriarchal japanese society incredibly well. the oddity of the family is way out of the ordinary - at least out of what is typically depicted in shows. but it felt real.
how many shows have you watched and whether or not you predicted the plot correctly, it just felt like another show? yes, i haven't watched a lot of shows but no matter how much i enjoyed the few favourites of mine, i always walk away feeling having watched just "another great movie."
sonata was an art. and i left the theatre feeling i just observed the life of a japanese family. the realness of the satirical humour played out so well, at times, i knew not if it was appropriate to laugh. it felt as if i had to be sensitive to the characters in the show and so i contained my laughter to a smile or a giggle.
the almost packed theatre surprised me. the night before, only 1 seat was booked. thankfully the companion booked it online that same night before. all-in-all, definitely a worthy show. i'm glad they ran it for over a month from 17th sept since i wasn't around to catch it then.
working or not...
Wednesday, October 07, 2009 (5:32 PM)
it's been three days since i returned from the 5-week long trip to thailand and i haven't gotten back into the momentum of being at work. the pace and speed of my work is still there but the kind of energy is missing. perhaps 'cause i haven't been sleeping enough in thailand. the intensive course took hours of my sleep away each night and after those times, i am worn but i loved every bit of it. ask me if i'll do it again if time turns back, i wouldn't bat an eyelid when i say "yes". no doubts, no hesitation. the course was great, the trainers were great and the fellow trainees were marvellous. there couldn't have been a better time to do this course.
the previous course had 9 trainees. 3 dropped out and 1 failed. the current batch has 18-19 of them having to do 9 training practices. three days into the course, they have 1 dropout. although 1 guy failed in our batch, i'm thankful that no one dropped the course.
i've been submitting lots of applications for work overseas and haven't had much luck since. one corporation in japan responded pretty positively and i was told to email them my details by 1st october. but upon research on the school, it appears that it promotes fraternization and doesn't exactly have that cool a reputation in japan. so, i didn't reply to that email. the name of the company also makes it dubious. i am not a gigolo!
anyway, i've been contemplating leaving work but the bonus and the prospect of not having anything to do when i quit is too great a hinder. what if after leaving i still can't find work? i've got pretty good advice from friends and one of which was that if i have the financial means to go overseas to source for work for some time, then i should just head there instead of waiting and waiting. then again, no matter how in to pursuing our dreams we are, the singapore blood in us still spells "pragmatism". jeez... let me bleed dry.
the "pretentious" accent
Sunday, October 04, 2009 (9:14 PM)
for a long time, i've been so disturbed by fake american accents of singaporeans that i didn't realise it didn't make much sense for my irrationale feeling. even those who sound natural and whom i happen to know didn't use to speak that way gets on my nerves.
but this trip to thailand got me thinking about accents in a whole new light. as much as the highly distinguishable fake-ness of the american accent still shakes me up every now and then, i've begun to find them more forgivable. and in fact, i feel that it should be encouraged. we should encourage the "correct" accents.
being in the academics of linguistics for a number of years now, i've been brainwashed into supporting the local flavour of english and the accent that comes with it. "there's no such thing as the "correct" accent!" yea right...
the incorrectness of the singlish grammatical structure is of no importance in this entry. but i've begun to seriously consider picking up the accent. american or british. whatsoever. i won't be using the "pretentious" accent to speak to my fellow singaporeans for sure. but i may try to speak that way when i deal with foreigners. americans or brits no less.
why?
if you think of yourself taking up a foreign language, like japanese, spanish, thai or whatsoever, somewhere in the back of your mind, you will (knowingly or unknowingly) make the effort to try to speak like the native speakers. because that's when language learning arrives at its peak. if by listening alone, my interlocuters are unable to tell that i am not a japanese when i speak their language, i have succeeded. the same goes for spanish, thai, korean etc. we don't want to speak japanese sounding like a singaporean. neither do we want to speak spanish like an asian. we want to speak like the spaniards and thai like the thais. so why doesn't the same go for english?
why?
as for the mandarin accent, i can't bring myself to speak like the beijingers. sorry...