Wednesday, February 25, 2004

*What Singapore Is?*

*Ahem*...idea borrowed from Paul

Here you go, mental exercise for the day: Come up with a quick list of what you associate Singapore with....say five or six...done?

Now glance through it; is there anything on the list that is not materialist in that list? Anything that speaks of some form of concept or thought or ideal? Odds are, probably not... Char Kway Teow and Chicken Rice are hardy symbols of Singapore, but there's nothing can we can call our own that speaks to a higher ideal....

Home is where the food is. The danger? If everything that we call home is physical and tangible in form, by identifying oneself with possessions, who's to say we cannot replicate it overseas? What grounds us here? What ties us together? Friends and family may be one...but uprooting yourself thus is not an impossibility when and where communication is cheap and life is greener on the other side. There must be something I know, the Afro-American cab driver in LA that drove us back from this shopping strip rightly identified us as Singaporean...by the way we dress apparently... =)

Why do I want to stay on? This is where I start speaking in really vague fuzzy terms like....Because this is Singapore, my Home and I believe that it can be a much better place. I believe that it can be a bastion of liberal democracy, meritocracy and secular humanism (I don't trust religion...don't get me started on this).

Miss Chua Mui Hoong (our resident political corrospondent for the main english daily) seems typical of much Singaporeans who cannot accept life as not being part of the dominant socio-ethnic group...shame I say....how...Chinese.... Other than that, she never makes any point that somehow differentiates Singapore from other countries...=P

*Shrugg*...ah well...

Tuesday, February 24, 2004

*Dazed, stoned and frustrated*

Hmmm... Mr Paul, if I start to write about my camp and its internal politics, can I get charged?

Right, *ahem*, imagine the next three minutes of me cursing and using every expletive I can think of.................*three minutes later* Done? Good...load off my chest...

*Clears throat* sorry for the unpleasantness there. The end of the course with its accompanying madness always drives me wild... And it so doesn't help that I lost my pack like two months ago and only realised it yesterday. After a day of fruitless searching, I'm tempted to renounce my belief in the sanctity of human life and encourage not just amputation but summary execution for those caught stealing...my stuff in particular...especially after I noticed that my Sesame Street pencil box has been emptied of all forms of useful material...grr....

Right, back to something more rational, logical and cerebral.......................can't think of anything.......um....Yao Ming hits a career high of 40 points and just misses out on a triple double? Ah forget it...

cya around



Saturday, February 21, 2004

*A Long Day (210204)*

Eh heh heh...forgor to publish this... But anyway....

I'm not entirely certain why I bother with titles...but I suppose it has to do with the inate goodness of my heart *ahem* fair warning before proceeding to read my entry with all the possibility of a traumatised psyche...from boredom or *yet another defence of the status quo* kind of article. Besides, it appeals to my Singapore-Education indoctrinated mind that all essays must have head, body and tail and it must be proportional (human sized I suppose).

Anyway, after being on duty for the past 24h with 5 hours of sleep, I go forth into the educational hub that is the Western part of our sunny island to attend the Service Quality Training Seminar. The cool part? Our very own personalised format (yes yes...I know it's a military term but it ain't a book alright?!@!) with tons of stuff based upon a psychometric assessment of us. The bad part? One saturday burned...the guys will understand but probably not the females barring regulars and the few with NS boyfriends (*explitive deleted* inegalitarian system)

It seems that I'm:
1. High openess (to change): I'm a debater....'nuff said ya?

2. Moderate conscienciousness (to tasking/work): Depending on how one looks at it...I either have a propensity to slack or to work...=)

3. Moderate extraversion (response to other people/sensory activities): Moderate sensory trashold...ability to ease from working independently to working with others and vice versa...prolonged sensory bombardment/deprivation will lead to insanity (probably others)

4. Low Agreeableness (to Authority): Apparently, I'm a challenger...someone who responds sceptically to those in authority and will work to protect my own interest... True, but unfortunately screw by the atypical circumstances of NS....when insubordination means a trip to Kranji and a free...REALLY short haircut, you'll tend to go "Yes Sir, Yes Sir, three bags full"...

5. Moderate Negative Emotionality: Moderate stress treshold, can handle crisis and stress but not persistantly and constantly... Sleep deprivation kills me....

Well there you go....if you ever wondered what The Author of this blog is like....=)

Cheerios!

p.s. 3 3/4 months to ORD ORD ORD ORD ORD ORD!!!!!!!!!!! Hooyah!

Monday, February 16, 2004

*Shadowed lights on curtains*

I like the imagery so bite me...=P

I'm trying out this new theory which goes along the fuzzy wuzzy lines that if I blog more often, it might translate into my sub-conscious/psyche/animus/ego that I'm more self-disciplined...which hopefully can translate into tangible weight loss... *Sigh*...I see eating as a social thing...and having a canteen break is like the only real way to get a break anywhere in camp...

Anyway, V-Day was a blast... I'm so so glad we celebrated it like a week early... No long queues, over inflated prices or the absolute lack of choice on the menus... Instead I get to adjudicate a debate, have prata with Her and spend loads of quiet time with my Angel in the Chatterbox reading and critiquing the hist sem essays. Kudos to HC and AC in particular, I seriously enjoyed your essays...=)

Alright, logging off before my veneer of civility disapates and my strangely increasing desire to wreck havok and mayhem as my ORD approaches emerges...

Cheerios and chocolate milk!

p.s. *Ahem* sorry for the slight kawaii mood there....

Thursday, February 12, 2004

*Food Glorious Food*

*Cough*...yes oh glorious senior of mine... I like Pizza Hut calamari... Me a poor NSF spec with a really lousy allowance considering the work I get stuffed with so no money to eat good stuff.

Also, as result of my socio-economic upbringing and general exposure to food, I wouldn't know good Western food even if you force fed it down my gullet...=P

Quick update:

1. Trainees currently on attachment, so if you see me in Alexandra Hospital, I'm supposedly looking after them

2. Currently reading Up the Down Escalator, basically a critique on the current pessimistic culture prevalent today. About to finish it so anyone who wants to borrow it please leave me a note

3. Looking for The Sceptical Environmentalist, would be very grateful if someone is willing to loan or sell me a copy. Again please leave me a note.

Lastly, a reply to something on Her blog, the cute email on USA's foreign ply. Tried to post a comment but the computer said that I was at fault and refused to post it... *Sigh*, story of my life in NS.

*Ahem*...anyway, the email was very cute but ultimately fundamentally flawed because it is predicated on the basis that if you can't solve the whole problem, don't even bother to solve the bits that you can...=P

Cheerios Amigos!

Saturday, February 07, 2004

*A Good Day*

I figure that my previous titles, while cute, and appealed to my inate desire to say and write inane things might give the wrong impression that I'm some airy, bleeding heart liberal arts student...=P

1. Anyway, I got to sleep in...an absolute rarity when you've stuck in camp six and five and a half days a week with trainees you've got to conduct first parade for every freaking morning. Why oh why did I accept being an Instructor.....dwang....

2. Lunch with mom...always good coz she actually listens to my whinging and whining and comes up with viable solutions.

3. Debate with the NTU (And NUS and SP I think) chaps. 2 debates. One on This House Would make Directors criminally liable for the actions of their company and the second on This House would ban all ostentatious religious symbols from public schools (many thanks to Amit and RK for this =P ) Still quite rusty from the lack of debating but managed to hold my own and won both (many many thanks to the rest of the team)

Intelligent conversation is a real rarity in NS. Male debaters who have not entered NS beware...if you ever felt offended that Singapore is an ESL (English as a Second Language) country, don't be...you'll realise that it's actually praise coz it's ETL...

4. Dinner with Her at Forsters...not bad but hardly anything to rave about.... Fried Calarmari for the both of us (pretty good but the one I had at Pizza Hut was sweeter and tastier). Roasted Herb Chicken for her (which was really quite good) and mixed grill for me which was decent I suppose...

Well off to bed...some Civil-Miltary relations exercise in camp tomorrow whereby for the sake of some grassroots leaders, I get my Sunday burned....

Thursday, February 05, 2004

*Sleep*

Literally collapsed on the Mr.T today... Listening to my Shaun Paul CD when the next thing I know, my knees have buckled and I'm mere inches from the ground... Yup...events like these do great things for manly male ego...=)

Mother finally coming back from HK *cheers*...on 12 midnight flight *sob* and I'll be meeting her at the airport. I wouldn't mind so much if not for the fact 1. Me got slavery...*ahem*...work tomorrow 2. It's a full day of practical test tomorrow. I'm so dead...my trainees will be even worse off... Eh? Shortness of breath? What? CCF? You're giving ventolin? Okay...pass... (Sorry, unless you're medically trained, you probably won't understand) Whatever shreds of credibility I still retain will evaporate like Iraqi resistance in Bagdad when the M1 Abrams came rolling in... C'est la vie...

Wednesday, February 04, 2004

*Streetlights on Windows*

Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies...=) Don't ask why I'm still up at this time of the time...

*Stretch*...right...first off, some guy is building a web directory called insight.com and wants me to add my blog on it...under the heading, *get this*, Pyschic/Spirituality.

Well the fact that my blog actually receives notice (and not simply culled up from a search engine) would be a massive cause of jubiliation and delight....except for one thing... My website is about as spiritual as Saddam Hussein was an Islamist.... There's nothing on my blog that touches on the philosophical/religious (for reasons why, check out my disclaimer on my first blog) unless one includes my new found interest in Zen rock-gardening, anyone?

Oh...and here's my 2 cents worth on public morality and particularly the dangers of hyper-extrapolation of known facts (For more details, please check out my almight senior Paul's blog under Yes Prime Minister).

Anyway, the finals of the SIA-JC debates 2000 was on censorship and I think it was Guan Hua (you still across the road?) who raised the point that a slippery slope would be created whereby we would end up granting children access to bad stuff (forgot his exact words but pronography and weapons come to mind, and personally, I think proxy votes are dangerous). Well firstly, I don't see the innate harm in doing so (well, at least I'm sure the NRA doesn't mind) but here's another reply. Consider this analogy... At the rate my basketball skills are improving, I should be really to enter the NBA when I'm...oh...say...104 and run the the 100m sprint in negative time...=) The fact is, there are physical limits and in this case the physical body...and in the above situation with children, their mental capacity to understand and acknowledge crime/wrong-doing (okay on really fuzzy ground here, could my various law reading classmates/friends please help me out here...) and that's the basic premise behind why we have a separate category for juvenil delinquents and why we don't execute child murderers...except in Texas I think.

As to cannibals versus gay marriages/civil unions (very very confused still), I think two points can be made. Yes, despite the fact that assuming both sides are predicated on the fact that it is between 2 consenting adults, most would say that there are very different. 1. Society (Or as Maggie Tatcher would put it...the people who make up society) is not rational, we have a greater tendacy to accept someone stealing intellectual property but not property itself (Own up those of you who have pirated stuff...=P) 2. Secondly, life is life, and (un or)fortunately, we still don't own our deaths.
3. Moral revulsion...at this point in time, the act of cannibalism is passe...if it ever makes a comeback and society accepts it, so be it... Taboos are taboos I suppose. As one of the Justice's puts it (horribly hacked), :"I know porn when I see it." Right and wrong are obvious (to some people, some of the time)