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30 December 2012:

About humanity.

I suppose many know of this by now. A woman was raped in New Delhi about a week ago, and got sent to Singapore's Mount Elizabeth Hospital a few days back. She passed away on 29 December at 0445, according to news reports.

While I was browsing through Facebook, I saw at least two different posts regarding her. They carried her name and a photo of her in the hospital. One of them was The Real Singapore, which according to them is 'Singapore's largest news aggregating platform'. They offered the woman's name as 'Nirbhaya'.

From what I read on various news sources (Straits Times, Channel NewsAsia, The Hindu, etc.), the victim's name is deliberately not named to respect her family's wishes. Why, then, do I see her name on various posts? Also, I have never seen a consistent name of the victim; every post has a different name but all claim to be the victim's name. (So far there's only an unlikely possibility that all names mentioned all over Facebook are part of her full name.)

These posts typically ask people to like it. '1 like = 1 respect, ignore if you have no heart' I truly roll my eyes at such a post. Do these people really think that such a thing works? 1 like = 1 respect.

While it is true that many may respect / empathise her, what for all the likes? Furthermore, what's with 'ignore if you have no heart'. Is that really so? I never liked any of the posts, but I do feel for her and strongly hope too that India does something about it. Yet who knows, amongst the 100+K people who like it, how many actually care? Many are non-Asians, do they even really know what's going on?

To put it bluntly, these people are doing it for the likes and the 'fame'. I previously never thought of it this way, but after watching a Youtube video I have since stuck with this mentality. There seems to be no other reason to explain it. Why else would you assign an activity to every action? 1 like would mean 1 respect, 1 share means 1 prayer, 1 comment means 1 who-knows what ...

Does it really work this way? I think not. You may not believe me and call me cynical, but gaining likes and shares seems to be the only plausible explanation. And as I mentioned earlier, what's with 'ignore if you have no heart'.

Previously there was a similar fever of posts regarding sick or ill children. There was one that seriously made me laugh: '1 like = 1 recover'. Oh really? So how many units of 'recover' does this child need? He / she may really be pitiful but I don't see how your units of 'recover' can help her in any way at all.

The same goes with the 'respect' that people are giving. How many units of 'respect' should there be? Once again, this is all a ploy, don't fall for it. (Although there's strictly no negative side of liking, commenting or sharing, besides the fact that I would see it on my News Feed.)

~

Yesterday I posted a simple thank-you message on my Facebook.

Upon finishing my dinner, I discovered that my phone had ran out of battery. I decided to try my luck and approach people in stores to borrow a phone charger. I first went to Popular, but was refused coldly by a part-timer. Then, I went to the store next to it. The woman I approached gladly agreed to search for a charger for me, and offered to charge my phone for me in the premises. So I stayed in the store while waiting. Five minutes later a man came and asked if I needed any help. I awkwardly explained my situation, and he laughed it off: 'Oh, charging your phone, no problem!' After 15 minutes the woman that helped me previously was busy with a customer, so I approached another staff to help me check if my phone was alright. She was nice enough to ask if I had enough to last (the amount charged) and check how long I need to use it for.

From the bottom of my heart, I would sincerely like to thank the staff at Kai Joo Optics in Sing Post. It was a small gesture of kindness, 15 minutes of helping me charge my phone battery. Yet the small gesture goes a long way, and I truly appreciate the helpfulness and understanding that the three of them have offered me. I believe that for their kind heart, they would surely be repaid in one way or another, as how karma works.

As of post time (of this entry), that post of mine received 20 likes. This is nothing when compared to the 100+K likes that people give to photos of sick children, but what can be seen from here is that it's basic human instinct that we applaud those who have done good.

(By the way, I'm really not vying for likes, so I really don't care if any more people like it or not.)

As I mentioned in the Facebook post, I really would like to thank those people. The comments I received for the post told me about how good their service is, so I may really head over there to make spectacles from them. And yes, I suppose this would be repaying them in one way or another. But whatever it is, I truly believe they would have good karma upon them.

TTFN. R.I.P. to the Indian woman.


28 December 2012:

想問爲什麽,我不再是你的快樂。

(This post is meant to be a musical one, so it would be best if you would listen to the songs / videos as suggested with headphones or earpieces. Try, also, to finish listening to the song / video before going on to read the preceding text.)


I was searching for some Campus Superstar 2013-related stuff when I saw this video.

I'm sure most know who they are: Fahrenheit, one of the most famous boybands a few years ago. After watching the whole thing, there was some kind of sadness within me. I realised some things.

Firstly, where is Fahrenheit now? They are more or less spilt, no longer as a group. Yet years ago, I read reports saying that they would stay forever as a boyband. If I'm not wrong, Wu Chun (吳尊) was the first to go solo with certain TV productions.

Next was Jiro Wang (汪東城). Then the remaining two, Calvin Chen (辰亦儒) and Aaron Yan (炎亞綸), also had TV productions. At that time, however, they weren't that separated yet. I remember a Taiwanese drama serial called Momo Love (桃花小妹) which featured three of them (without Wu Chun) as its leads. (By the way, I did enjoy the show.)

But as of last year and this year, Fahrenheit seems really to have spilt. In June 2011, their record company HIM International Music announced that Wu Chun would be leaving the boyband officially. The three of them would continue to work as Fahrenheit.

However, things didn't really seem very good after that. Jiro Wang released his solo album on August 2012. In October of this year, Aaron Yan also released his solo album, after releasing an Extended Play in March 2011.


Fahrenheit has never released an album ever since September 2010.

I don't know if the members of Fahrenheit would really get back together and release another album, but I really don't think so anymore. For fans out there, maybe it's time to get used to more solo albums from the three and Wu Chun.

As a consolation, they do sound alright when solo. Maybe this is what works best for them; to spend their early twenties as a team together fighting it out in the music industry, then spending their thirties and beyond going solo since they have the abilities.



I wonder ... would the four of them, any of them, remember today's date? 28 December 2005: that's the date they were officially released and announced to the world. Today would mark their seventh annieversary, but what are they all doing now?

~

The second thing I realised after watching the first video was that artistes basically have the job of making us audiences happy. Of course, they need our support, and we normally support them if they have talent or looks.

The stage that Fahrenheit was standing at (in Mediacorp) wasn't very big, neither very small. The four of them delivered the song together, using hand gestures and various actions to 'look cool'. There's no way you could not hear the audience screaming.

More accurately, they were Fahrenheit's fans. Fahrenheit definitely would appreciate how the fans support them, as with any artiste. According to Maslow's hierachy of needs, this can be considered under the second-highest tier of 'esteem'.

Some people want fame; they want to be recognised. In turn, they have to do something or another - in this case singing. To put it bluntly, it's something like a transaction. Of course, there's nothing wrong with this kind of transaction.

~

The third thing I realised - or rather wondered - would be: 'If Fahrenheit is going to stage a comeback, would there be as many fans?'

Nowadays, KPop seems to be the in thing. Previously, you were 'cool' if you liked bands like Fahrenheit, Mayday and etc. (Of course, there's also the Western alternative of Coldplay, Maroon 5 and etc.) Now, the 'Eastern side' has changed to become that of KPop.

There are so many KPop groups around now; I don't even bother keeping track. Girls in Singapore - guys even - are going crazy over all the groups.


I guess one has no choice but to accept that Chinese music is on the decline and Korean music is definitely gonna be the hit for a very long time. No wonder Jay Chou recently rallied fellow Chinese music artistes to not lose out to KPop. (And some extreme KPop supporters took it that he was condemnning KPop. -.-)

~

The fourth thing is about Campus Superstar 2013. Someone from my previous school got in.

DISCLAIMER
I have no official right - be it as a judge or a professional of some sort - to criticise anyone. I am simply expressing my own opinion. Also, I definitely am not trying to smear anyone.

Personally, I do not think she should have got selected into the final 12. I have watched certain audition clips (hers included). I feel that she is not as good as some other people who participated. Maybe, though, that she underperformed in the clip, but impressed the judges for the two subsequent auditions.

Nevertheless, I shall watch the TV series and listen to its unplugged version. We shall see how things go from here.

TTFN.


This is my first time making a musical post. If you have fully experienced (i.e. watched the videos at only the right time and read all the text) this post and like the style, do tell me in one way or another. I would love to make more of such posts if possible.


27 December 2012:

It's time to stop the hate.

My eye candy recently got himself a boyfriend, and from what I see they are certainly very happy together. Yesterday, though, he received hate questions on his Formspring.

The first hate question quoted a biblical verse which states 'thou shalt not lie with mankind ...'. And my eye candy got called unnatural. Y'know, these are the people that I thoroughly detest.

To those who don't know, 'homosexuality is quite common in the animal kingdom', as quoted from one article. This page on Wikipedia states out documented behaviours of homosexuality in animals.

Because this first 'argument' (using religion to hate on LGBTs) contains religious references, I shalt not comment further lest say something wrong or disrespectful to any religion out there. Generally, though, I would like to believe that religions teach us to be better people, not judgemental ones.

If I do meet an anti-gay religious person in real life, I would like to ask them what happens to those LGBTs who are not in the same faith as them. Do they 'go to hell' too? Have they sinned? To me, I would think that they have not, since these people do not even believe in the same faith. And if they have not, why do you care so much to condemn and hate on them?

The second question was simpler, calling him a freak. This argument is obviously flawed, because according to Oxford Dictionary a freak is someone with an unusual physical abnormality. LGBTs do not have any physical abnormalities, yah.

The third question was a face-palm. That homophobic arsehole reasoned that if homosexuality can be allowed, then bestiality should be allowed. (In case you don't know, bestiality refers to sexual intercourse between man and animal.)

What the asker is trying to do here is use a logical fallacy. It normally is in the form of 'if we X, therefore we must Y'. However, he did not consider carefully the context of why homosexuality should be allowed but not bestiality.

Homosexuality (referring to human-human behaviour) is between two consenting adults of the same gender. Bestiality is between an adult and an animal. For the latter, there is no way to gauge consent of the animal. Besides, even if the animal shows consent, it cannot be substantiated because animals are unlike humans where we have language and critical thought to express ourselves.

Also, I would presume that most of the times humans are the ones who carry out bestiality. I cannot imagine an animal that actively 'seduces' humans. Maybe during their oestrus cycle they may be a bit horny, but still humans - equipped with a higher-level thought ability - should stop such behaviour.

Next, the asker went on to drag down paedohilia. I don't know why anti-gay people have such a fetish for bestiality and paedophilia. Every time, they would drag it down. In the start of the last century (if I'm not wrong), Britain was considering allowing women to vote.

When the Bill was passed in Parliament, one newspaper then claimed that next time, they would have to allow babies and dogs to vote. I suppose you see how ridiculous it is; the context simply isn't there! Same with the argument regarding allowing paedophilia and bestiality. These two acts are perverse and they do not consist of two consenting adult humans.

There's still a little bit more hate from that arsehole but nah I'm lazy to paraphrase it. But why I typed all the above is not to show how impressive I am in rebutting such things, if I am at all impressive. I'm simply trying to dispel and misconceptions or fallacies held by people. All these contribute to a society that is anti-gay, which I don't think it's good.

If you come to think of it, this current anti-gay sentiment is similar to the anti-black sentiment in the U.S. during the 1960s. Of course, in the former's case there is religious condemnation as well. I don't remember any religion condemning blacks. Things changed for the latter after the Civil Rights March around the same period of time in the U.S.

In some ways this can be interpreted as a social revolution where people were more tolerant of blacks and tried to embrace racial diversity. I would think Singapore has been coping very well since Independence.

Perhaps now it may be a time to embrace sexual diversity. We should be more accepting of people with different sexual orientation, while remaining opposed to those with perverse sexual fantasies such as bestiality or paedophilia.

Something encouraging for LGBTs around the world, a short excerpt from Ban Ki-moon, the secretary-general of United Nations:

Let me say this loud and clear: lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are entitled to the same rights as everyone else. They, too, are born free and equal. I stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them in their struggle for human rights.

Being the secretary-general of the United Nations, Mr Ban rightly represents the world as a whole. No doubt there would be countries (like Singapore) with anti-gay laws that would frown upon this declaration, but I shall just say that the whole world has to improve and progress.

By the way, a little titbit. Homosexuality has actually been very prevalent in ancient times. Ancient civilisations like China and Greece had records (historical and literary) of homosexuality in society. According to one source, in fact, homosexuality in ancient China was a thing sought-after.

Why is it, then, that homosexuality seems to be a 'great evil' now, if our ancestors have been practising it since hundreds or thousands of years ago? Most of these happened Before Common Era. Not long after, religion spread to these lands and homosexuality was condemned from there on.

I shall not, and cannot, judge to say whether religion is right or wrong in condemning such an act. Maybe time will tell and society would experience a change in attitude towards LGBTs.

TTFN.


25 December 2012:

Drum roll for blog roll.

(Clap for my failed pun, would you.)

Today, as promised, I would share about my blog roll. As you can see, my blog layout (as of today; it may not be the same if you're reading this from the future) is slightly different from others. Basically, it starts with a big BHB sign. Then there's the quote line which is mostly not in use.

Next would be the posts, two of them on the main page. After that there's a red line and below that would be the blog's description, typography I used and my archives. What I lack from others is the section for links.

I used to do such a thing to. My previous layouts had a section where I would link people. There also used to be a Cbox, which was sort of like a message board where people posted comments. Nowadays I think it's 'extinct'.

I took away the Cbox because it was attracting 99% spam. Random people seeking to promote their products or websites would post fake compliments, sometimes in languages that I don't even understand like Tagalog. Besides, my audience was so little then, so I guess there was no need for it anyway.

Why did I take away the links section then? I didn't think it would look nice and fit in to my current design. Hahah, that's really it. I know my blog layout isn't the nicest, but I've tried to make it look minimalist. (Recently the archives are causing a little bit of problems.)

However, I'm now considering reinstating the links section. Reason being, there are a few of other bloggers like me, and I think it would be nice to help promote them as well. (Although my blog isn't exactly influential or popular, I know.)

I used my latest skin (which I call Red Wax) in April. Normally, I try to stick with one skin for as long as possible, because otherwise I would change it so frequently and it's disruptive as well. So it's been 8 months now. If I reinstate links, then I probably have to make a major change. I could probably still use the base, but my chunk of code has to change to allow links to squeeze in.

I was thinking of creating a blog roll besides my posts, but yeah the code would be affected quite a bit. I built it from scratch (clap clap) and frankly speaking I'm lazy to go in there and re-look at 122 lines of code. (Actually that is not a lot for programmers, I know.)

If you're reading this and think I should have a blog roll (links section), do let me know in one way or another. There's Formspring, Facebook or Weibo. (Hahah Weibo.) But I digress.

~

My original intention of this post was to share about the blogs I read. Then yah I got carried away about the above.

For those of you using Blogger, there's a function provided called Reading List, seen on the home screen. I don't know if many use it, but I do. I use it to follow 14 blogs, amongst them famous blogs.

Starting of with the famous ones, which I think needs no further introduction,

1. mrbrown.com
2. Xiaxue (I'm actually surprised that she didn't bother applying for a custom address like xiaxue.com since she's so popular already. The first time I heard of her I typed xiaxue.com.)
3. TypicalBen
4. Cruz Teng (丁志勇 from Yes! 933)

Then there's the rest, which are not famous people but people I personally know. (Well, not famous as of now but who knows about next time?)

1. JQ @ here. (Btw, JQ, your blog address a bit the long and confusing ah. I know you have a strong sense of personal identity lah but ... Hahah.)
2. YM @ here. (Recommended before. Hopefully posts would come more frequently ... *hint hint*.)
3. LJ @ here. (The 'odd one out' that uses Wordpress. Recommended before too, he still blogs all kinds of interesting stuff.)
4. D @ here. (I don't think D knows I read her blog, which can be creepy to her hehehe. But anyway ... I find that her blog is rather interesting eh with very life-like posts. Some are reflections too which is always nice to read.)
5. G @ here. (A blog I just knew of yesterday. And I didn't even know YM and G knew each other!! So far it's three posts but they're nice to read as well, with the occasional curse word.)
6. T @ here. (I don't know whether she's blogging anymore ...)

If you do the maths, there's only 10 yah, but I have 14 blogs. The remaining four are secret. (Okay lah one is my eye candy's but no, not gonna say who he is.)

Yup, that's about it for my blog roll. Once again, tell me if you can about whether I should have a blog roll.

TTFN.

Okay those six of you, $5/word I used to describe your blog. Nah kidding.


24 December 2012:

(Untitled.)

Firstly,


My blog hit 17000 views today.



I reached 16000 views on 10 Dec. Which means I hit 1000 views in 14 days, or half a month. I know to bloggers like Xiaxue this is nothing, they probably get 10+K views a day. But for me, it's still an encouragement.

~

Now, let me haolian a little.


See that screen shot? It's from a Facebook game called Army Attack. After returning to Facebook from a months-long hiatus, I went to play it again. So far I've played for less than a week, and look at my progress!

Okay lah I must admit, I only conquered the top part. Previously I had already conquered the whole plot of land below, so it's nothing to conquer the top part within a few days. In fact I spent a while raising money to even unlock East Midlands.

(But yay at least I liberated Eastshire, the capital of the East Midlands.) Currently my supplies are low and all but one of my troops are injured, so I can't progress. Quite sucky, but luckily I've ordered big containers of them.

I quite like the game cos unlike others, I don't need much time to get used to it after months of inactivity. And of course, I do like it that I already have conquered the southern part of the country which makes life easier.

I don't have any allies now, so if you are interested please do add me as your ally. I would send gifts to you every day, or at least days that I play it.

Tomorrow I shall get back to defeating the rest of the enemy forces. Hopefully they don't attack during the awaiting 24 hours.

~

For those that celebrate Christmas, Merry Christmas to you in advance.

~

Do ask me questions to solve my boredom on my Formspring. I may be closing my Instagram soon, but I'll talk about that later on. In my next post, I think I would mention my blog roll.

TTFN.


23 December 2012:

Leave for the last time.

Yesterday was POP (passing-out parade) for Student Council. By right POP is meant for Uniformed Groups cos they would march and all that, but oh well we somehow used the name too.

I went to lunch with my section. The planned time was 1 pm. I reached at 1 and sent a message to QX. Then I went into Popular to browse books. While browsing, I went to look at textbooks (haiz nerdboy96). The new syllabus O Level textbooks were there!

Except for history, which I was more interested in cos the syllabus seemed much more interesting. I don't think there are much changes to sciences though, and EMaths. For AMaths the only change I noticed was that now they have to learn as well. Hehe too bad.

The bio and chem textbooks look much nicer now. They got a style revamp. And some diagrams were much clearer. The part on DNA transcription didn't look that confusing and intimidating anymore.

I didn't get to see physics, but the topics were largely the same. As for SS, heheh. British healthcare is no longer inside, so is traffic policy, but the style still looks the same old 土 style hahah.

At around 1315 there was still no reply from QX. I went over to Pastamania (where they agreed to eat) and there was no one from our section there! I panicked and made some calls. In the end most were late.

J and XY had arrived, but they were chilling at Gong Cha above. So I went there to wait instead. Eventually those that arrived went to Gong Cha instead of Pastamania straight.

We reached Pastamania around 1345. Considering that we had to reach school at 3, there wasn't much time. Furthermore the juniors had to reach by 1445 for further preparation.

The food at Pastamania was rather expensive. The cheapest was around $6. And that meant really bland stuff like pasta with sauce. So of course I ordered something more expensive but had meat in it.

During mealtime, XY told me that she had 皈依-ed. This is something like baptism but for Buddhists. I took a look at what she ordered. Beef bolognese. I got a shock and quickly asked her if she made a mistake.

Then she told me that her form of Buddhism was more lax and she could eat beef. Also they did not need to be vegetarian, even during 初一十五. I was slightly shocked to hear that, cos I never knew there were such lax forms. But okay, it's understandable. I haven't 皈依 yet; I don't even know how to.

The juniors left around 1415. By then JL and YS arrived as well. (She's still as pretty especially with her hair let down.) They had lunch to and we waited for LH to come. We left at 3, when by right we're supposed to reach by then.

We followed LH to a bus stop and took the bus to a station near Dakota MRT, at the canal. Don't know since when, but there were some renovation works going on there and they blocked half the path. So I wonder how the juniors are gonna run 2.4 now.

When we reached school, then we realised that there was a mis-communication. Us seniors only had to reach at 4. -.- So we wait till 1545 and got led into LH2 by juniors.

~

The POP started with cutting log cake. Each section had a log cake. We spilt it amongst ourselves and ate it while watching a movie. It was a 2006 movie called Rob-B-Hood. We only watched around half of it, which is quite sad cos the movie's nice and I've never watched it before.

After that we were supposed to watch section videos but for a very long time there was nothing. People got bored and started playing around. LJ went crazily immature when he burst a light stick. He started running around smearing the liquid on people's arms. He stopped after I took a plate of log cake and threatened to throw it on him hahah. Haiyo don't know why LJ suddenly so siao.

When they finally played section videos, it was around 1830. As usual, Section 5 was really the funniest and most humorous. Different people make it each year but every time it's so fantastic. I really wonder how they did it and how long they spent.

My section also not bad lah, did something out of the blue. Hahah I really never expected that. Thanks to them!

~

That's about what happened. Separately ...

Before heading into LH2, the Sec 4s were waiting at the concourse. I was talking to LJ about his failed attempt to join Campus Superstar. He reasoned that he did not get in cos he has graduated and doesn't really have a school. Furthermore, if he gets into the competition but goes to poly, he would be disqualified which is problematic. Therefore, they decided not to get him.

All that was his speculation lah, but it does sound quite reasonable. Suddenly W heard of it. Then he said 'aiya you should have told me then I could have called them to settle'.

That was an instant eye-roll statement, I tell you. I really felt like suan-ing him. He claims that his father knows someone high up in Mediacorp, so he could use this to resolve the matter and let LJ enter.

Hello. Not everyone wants to resort to such methods like you, some prefer to use 光明正大 ways. Besides, even if LJ could get in because of W, people would surely gossip. Do you think LJ would really enjoy his time there? He would probably be outcasted and the first to be voted out or something.

I know that many within the cohort don't really like W. I can see now why. Thankfully I don't think I'll be seeing him again.

TTFN.


21 December 2012:

Some random musings V.

1. ERMAGHERD PEOPLE, THE WORLD HAS REALLY ENDED ON 21 DEC. I REALLY SHOULDN'T HAVE MOCKED THOSE PEOPLE WHO BELIEVED IN IT.

2. The phrase 'see how' is possibly The Most Annoying Phrase of 2012. I don't know when it exactly became popular (at least amongst my social circles) but I'm guessing it's this year.

This phrase is a scumbag. It is often thrown to provide no definitive answer, and the speaker cannot be regarded as a dao-ist because he has replied.

On the recipient's side though, this means nothing. This phrase does not have a more positive or negative connotation, a bit like LOL where people overdose on it and it becomes meaningless.

Therefore, given a choice, I would surely vote 'see how' (optional 'lah') as The Most Annoying Phrase of 2012.

3. I really hope somehow that this time it is not false hope anymore. I really do want such a job to do.

4. There's less than a month to the release of O Level results release. I truly haven't done anything academic in these two months or so; I can feel my IQ dropping from 2 to 0. I talked with my senior B yesterday about JC life. He was telling me that the transition would be smooth enough. Hopefully so.

5. There are new syllabuses for O Levels on SEAB's website. After reading some, I really wished I was born two years later lorh.

TTFN.


19 December 2012:

Some random musings IV.

1. I'm sure the whole world knows about this now. There was a shooting in America. What I say may be very mean, but America, this is karma.

I don't know ... is this American culture? Why are Americans so opposed to gun control? From what I know, it's because of historical reasons and because of their need for 'freedom'.

America is known as the Land of the Free. Yes, the founding fathers envisioned a free land where they were not subjected to British control and taxation. In the Constitution, it explicitly states that Americans are allowed to bear arms.

Till now, some are using this as a reason as to why they oppose gun control. I cannot fathom and accept this explanation. America was founded in 1776, where everywhere (in the land) was not really developed. The forests were filled with wolves, bears and other wild animals. These posed a threat to humans, Americans.

In that context, it is understandable and justifiable if one says there is a need for gun, as a means of protection. But it's 2012 now. Many Americans live in city areas where there are almost no wild animals.

Instead, now people say that 'we need protection from fellow humans'. From what I read on the news, the day after the shooting occurred, gun sales hit a record high. People went to buy guns / more guns, to protect themselves from such attacks in the future.

I truly shake my head at all these. Americans regard owning guns as part of their lives. Why do they not think of it from a different perspective? They claim that they need guns to protect against others who use guns to attack. In this case, shouldn't the clear solution be to ban all guns?

People who wish to attack would have to use other weapons like knives, which are less lethal than firearms. It would also be easier to take down people holding knives.

Also, after this incident, a large portion of Americans continue to think that this is a one-off incident. They refuse to think of it as a societal issue. Seriously ...? How many shootings does America want to go through before it decides that maybe guns should be controlled?

Some have commented that 'this guy is mental, the problem we should be solving is the mental problem'. That is true. However, banning guns would solve a large factor of how these shootings occur. A mental patient that does not have access to such firearms may not cause such large-scale damage.

I truly hope that there would be gun control in America. And that such shootings would be no more.

2. There was a similar incident that occurred on the same day, however it was in China. And the weapon was a knife. No one died, but the kids were seriously injured.

According to today's reports, six officials were fired. When they heard of this case, they didn't bother to respond or react. Some say they were even playing games on their handphone. As for the teachers, I read that no one teacher was present. All fled or hid.

Typical China, eh. Thankfully no kid died. Otherwise the teachers and officials' hands would be stained with blood.

3. My eye candy has started dating someone already. I can tell he's really happy now that he found someone for him. :) both are so hansum hahah now I have double eye candies. I truly hope that he does not experience any more heartbreak lah else he gonna be emo-tweeting all the way.

Back then when I had Twitter wah his tweets all so emo, so sad. Now more are happier, and the mood is uplifting. Yay for him. And him.

4. Singapore is going against Thailand today, at night. Go Lions!

5. I can't wait for December 22. Then I can laugh at those who so firmly and faithfully believed in Dec 21.

TTFN.

By the way, there's another blog that I would like to recommend, and that is LJ's. He blogs long posts as well, a bit like my style. Here is his blog. It's interesting yah to read his articles cos he blogs about a wide range of topics.


16 December 2012:

Support.

The plastic bag rustled as I took it from the gnarled hands of the kway teow man. “Your wife doing okay?” he asked me in Hokkien.

I’ve heard that umpteen times since she slipped into a coma. It’s been almost six months now, and she has no sign of waking anytime soon.

I mumbled “still the same”, thanked him for the piquant packet of fried kway teow, and left. I think I would soon get used to buying kway teow without her by my side.

I met my wife 13 years ago at this exact kway teow stall. She was only 23 years old then, a dainty, shy lady who was waiting patiently at the side of the stall. The fumes from the kway teow frying, although saliva-inducing, caused the area to be very hot and stuffy. She was sweating profusely.

I handed her a piece of tissue and the rest, they say, is history. After two years of courtship, we got married.

As the car cruised along the expressway, I thought of my wife now. For almost six months, she lay motionless on the hospital bed. The constant beeping from the life support machine was the only indication that she was still around.

I sacrificed my work for her, and my boss Jean was unhappy. Thankfully, she was very empathetic and helped me out whenever she could. For six months, she supported me along this difficult journey.

The car engine grumbled till silence and I yanked the car key out. I had reached the hospital. I walked in through the sliding glass doors, took a lift up to the eighth floor, walked through door B, turned left, walked all the way and turned right at the corner. This routine to get to my wife’s ward, I have been doing it for almost six months. It was routine to me, almost like a hypnotic experience.

“Beep … beep …” the usual sound of the life support machine. I pulled a chair to her bedside and opened the packet of kway teow. It was cold by now.

I was almost done when the door opened. I looked up and saw Jean’s familiar face.

“Hello Tim!” she was forever cheerful. Perhaps that’s how she helped me out through these six months, by filling my life with laughter.

Jean pulled another chair over and sat beside me, observing me finish the last of my fried kway teow. The room was still silent, only filled with the faint “beep … beep …”

Jean started looking intently at me when I came back from throwing the empty packet away. Her right hand crept onto my left thigh and she started moving it up and down. I cocked my head at her and frowned a little. “Not here, Jean. Not in front of my wife.”

“Why?” she asked coquettishly, “she has been lying there for six months. She won’t know.”

“But …”

Jean put a finger to my lips. “These … should not be used for talking.”

I shrugged, but it soon turned into a smile. My wife went into a coma almost six months ago. Times were tough since then. You can’t blame me; all I merely wanted was support.

This one is another short story I've written, this time in English. I wrote this months back before my O Levels, as a practice for free writing in English. Due to its risque nature, I eventually decided against sending it to the teacher for evaluation. I hope you liked it.


15 December 2012:

做朋友

兩天前,她打來。

「能做我的男朋友嗎?」

他倆認識有七年了。記憶以來,她從未那麼衝動、那麼勇敢。於是乎,他也有些嚇到。

「怎麼了?不答應嗎?」她的語氣令人難以理解:沒有尷尬,也沒有失落。反而是一種安穩,像是一種「早料到會這樣」的安穩。

「干嘛講到這個?」男的開口了。

「……呵呵。」她只懂傻笑。

七年前,就是這個傻笑,讓他看到她。那時是迎新會,她和其他女生在談天,笑了。

他不相信一見鍾情;那天他錯了。他們不久后認識彼此。

甭一個月,學校的人都聽說了他們的事。人們議論紛紛,有的說在一起了,有的說在一起又分手了。

「我們是朋友。」

「我們是朋友。」

你問男,問女都是這個答案。誰也不多說甚麼,八卦的都被氣死了。

不過,他們真的是朋友。彼此沒有拍過拖、談過戀愛。七年了一直是這樣。

每天十一點,電話響起。他打給她,或她打給他。沒有人知道這回事,他們樂意如此進行。

有時電話三個鐘頭都沒講完,有時半個鐘頭他們就掛斷了。也有經典的那次。

那次,她特別傷心。她那天十點四十五就打了過去,電話一接通就哭。

他被嚇到了。半個鐘頭後,她躺在它肩上,不斷抽泣。一點鐘,她好多了,也回去了。

那次過後,他們倆更親密了,學校的謠言更大聲了。他們不管,繼續做朋友。

幾年來,他們依然保持聯繫。兩天前,她打來。

「能做我的男朋友嗎?」

「幹嘛講到這個?我們不是已經做朋友了嗎?」

「……呵呵。」她只懂傻笑。


14 December 2012:

Order up!

There's this iPhone game I've been playing called Order Up!! To Go, and it's simply nice to play. I'm still very surprised that this fabulous game is totally free, because it's filled with so much details and programming.

Upon checking on its Wikipedia page, this game was created by SuperVillian Studios in 2008 for the Wii. There are other subsequent version for PS3 and Nintendo DS but the one I played is its free version on iOS. The developer for iOS is Chillingo Ltd, and it too has many nice games to I enjoy.

The game starts when you are dropped off a helicopter and land at Port Abello (portabello, get it?). The island is supposed to be the best place for food and such. There are three regions in the island, but you would start at the lower-left region at Burger Face.

That's the least high-class restaurant. In fact, it's actually a drive-thru window of a fast food restaurant. They really want you to 白手起家. Anyway, there's this pimply assistant who teaches you the basics like how to fry stuff or slice stuff.

There are many actions such as 'dredge' or 'saute', and you'll experience more throughout the game. You would get used to it after a while, it's the same few actions. However, some are more difficult to master. So you would want to read the instructions carefully cos they only appear the first time you see the action. Other than that there's only a small blue box giving you a 'hint' of what to do but it may not be very useful. I myself learnt how to slice after accidentally doing it correctly.

Once you learn the basics, you are sent to the first restaurant called Gravy Chug. It serves Western food in general, such as hamburger and fries or roast chicken. You own the restaurant and it's up to you to manage it.

Each restaurant has 20 dishes to master, supposedly 12 + 8 specials. But actually, there are 24 dishes in total per restaurant. If you see the menu board, there's a 4 by 4 grid of dishes and a small spot for the daily special. The first column of the grid are dishes that are sort-of backup: customers only order those when their original choice is out of stock. These dishes cost lesser but are always available.

The second to fourth columns are the 12 'normal' dishes I'm talking about. And out of these 12, 8 of them have special versions which include spices in them. There are 6 categories of spices, the five tastes plus a general category. Within each category there are four spices which progressively unlock with each restaurant bought. Anyway, the specials are separately bought, provided you have the required spices as well.

So yes, you have to master 24 dishes in total. At the start of each restaurant you are given 3 dishes to start with. Before you begin each day in the game, you have to stock up dishes. The game would tell you how many guests there are for the day, and it's up to you to gauge what you should stock. Each dish you stock costs an increasing amount of money. If you stock wrongly or disproportionately then you'll lose money at the end of the day.

Actually I personally feel that the stocking becomes a problem only when you start the second row. At the first row you are able to better gauge. As for the third row where you have all dishes available, I too have a method to gauge so for me that's not a problem. It's only the second row where it's neither here nor there.

Whenever you buy all dishes from a row, you would receive a food critic. He tests your ability to serve all perfect food for what he calls 'table of four'. (He orders the four dishes in that row always.) Speaking of perfect, there is a meter to tell you how good you are at the actions.

For example, when boiling, you would wait till the arrow point to the green 'perfect' range before collecting. You don't want to remove it before when it's at the 'good' range. Over-cooking is also no good. Other actions like slicing are more demanding. You slice around 5 times for each ingredient. To get a final 'perfect' score, you need to score all perfects.

In case you don't, there's always the choice of thrashing the ingredient. It doesn't waste money but wastes time. And time in turns costs you money because impatient customers pay less. However for the food critic I suggest you to thrash unless it's perfect, so that he pays the maximum amount possible. He often pays up to 400% of the original worth.

Getting back to the thing about spices, sometimes there are special customers. They are introduced progressively throughout the game. These special customers wish for a certain spice added to any of their ingredients. (One dish consists of three or four steps generally.) There's no penalty if you don't add it but they pay the normal amount. Adding the correct one gets you around 50% more money but adding the wrong one may see them walking out and not paying at all.

These special customers are actually not picky on the exact kind of spice, they just want the correct category. So it's not that hard remembering who wants what. However if you forget, there's a small spot on the recipe where you can click to remind you. Subsequent clicks do get chargeable though, especially in late restaurants where you are expected to remember.

The game uses silver and gold coins. Gold coins are given to you rarely once you get achievements, or unless you buy them using real money. Silver coins is the main currency that people pay you in. Almost every purchase you make can be paid in either silver or gold coins, so there's a choice there. It's of course more worth it to pay in silver coins, because there is no fixed exchange rate and sometimes 1 gold coin = 40 silver ones but other times 1 = 100.

Each restaurant you own (there are five in total) will have a Yelp score. It's like a rating system based on 10 aspects. Most of the time you would easily begin with 50+ points already and it's not difficult increasing the score. Once you reach around 75 points you get a gold star on the Yelp score screen.

Also, do be careful of your restaurant's cleanliness. After around 4 or 5 days without cleaning the restaurant, you may be visited by a health inspector. He would demand you to scrub clean 7 plates within 50 seconds. It is doable, but your finger may be very heated after it all cos you're really rubbing the screen furiously. Not a good thing to do, so rather clean your restaurant frequently.

The restaurant can be cleaned through the newspaper, which is dropped in front of the restaurant every day. There's a section where you can choose cleaning services, and also upgrade your equipment. There's another section that employs helpers, but I don't think you'll need it. Besides, the real good ones require gold coins.

I've been playing this game since 2 months ago or longer. Previously because I was having O Levels, I only played one 'day' per day. Depending on which stage of the restaurant you are in, one 'day' may take 10 minutes to half an hour. This is because the number of guests increase per number of dishes available, so if you have all 20 be prepared for 30+ guests.

A warning though, this game is rather battery-seeping. A 20 minutes game (average one) would take around 10% of your iPhone battery. However, there are impressive graphics to compensate. I especially like to part where the chef (you) walks in every time there's a new restaurant. It is done as if it's a TV show and they're filming some cooking show.

The characters inside do speak too, so that's kind of a titbit for players. However after a while what they say gets repeated so I sometimes mute the voices. There is also another downside which is the frequent showing of ads. They show a 30-second clip when you switch between restaurants and also feature a banner advertisement when you're cooking. This makes it difficult to move left and right and sometimes I click on the ad and burn my dishes.

However, because this game is completely free (including purchasing new restaurants; payable in silver coins) I personally don't mind it. You get to skip the video ads after around 5 seconds. As for the banner ads, it disappears after a while so not a big problem.

The game just had an update two days ago, and they are planning on having another restaurant I think. I'm certainly looking forward to it. I'm currently on the third restaurant (Italian cuisine) and it's similar to Western cuisine, so I'm having a nice time. The second restaurant serving Mexican cuisine was a bit sian cos I don't really know Mexican culture anyway. Seems distant to me, but it's a US game so hey.

There are many more tips and tricks but I'm not telling all. I think I've said so much already above. If you play the game you'll realise more along the way, so no fret. Also, this game is the kind where you can make it big if you 腳踏實地 earn money, so there's no need to cheat or buy gold coins.

I would certainly buy the Wii or PlayStation versions, but I have neither Wii nor PlayStation. Never mind, I'm contented with the iPhone version. I'm very impressed with the game, because it has continuity while not being boring.

Tiny Tower was something like this too, but after a while clicking to stock and order was a bit boring. Here, the dishes are always different so there's a different set of actions. And this makes it not boring for people like me, and I think you would feel so too.

Go try it if you haven't, it's really a snatch for a free iPhone game. I think if they had to price it, $3.98 wouldn't be too expensive. In conclusion, 96 / 100 would be my score for it.

TTFN.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, although I know normally reviews include them. It's difficult for me to screen-capture on my iPhone and transfer it over, so yeah I ain't putting any pictures. However the link at the iOS store does include some pictures there.


13 December 2012:

Some random musings III.

1. I was browsing Google's Zeitgeist when I saw the most searched 'why' term: 'почему обама кактус'. Why is Obama a cactus?

According to some search results, there was a survey done in America (I think few years back). 20% of respondents thought that Obama was the name of a cactus. Others even thought it was some kind of wheat. One comment I saw was 'Американцы знают толк.' ('Americans know a lot.')

2. I started Russian lesson 2 just now, but I couldn't really maintain. I couldn't even complete the first lesson properly. The tough thing about Russian is that there is a lot to learn for grammar, but in compensation spelling and pronunciation is so much easier.

However, I am indeed having problems with grammar. Each word can either be masculine, feminine or neuter. I understand that many other languages have this too, but having learnt English and Chinese where there's no such thing, this is difficult for me to remember. Also, vocabulary is also not very easy to pick up as there may be gender-specific words (something like 'lion' and 'lioness', but for many more). (Also what intrigues me is that the Russian word for 'father' is feminine.)

I am thinking of creating some poster where I can paste around my room to remind me of Russian grammar. There are some online but it's payable. Or I should start flashcards soon, to help in my vocabulary.

Also, Russian cursive is not as easy to remember. Some lower-case letters are totally different when in cursive. So sometimes I myself get confused when writing. My Russian handwriting looks horrible; hopefully it'll get better as time goes.

Declension drives me crazy as well. It's a little like adding '-s' or '-ing', but there are many more rules to remember and there are primary and secondary procedures. Ugh no.

I know ... I'm complaning on and on about Russian, when it's my interest to study it. So yes, I would still continue (not going to waste $60) and press on. Hopefully I'm having a hard time now cos there's a steep learning curve so that after that I would be fine.

3. If you may, do ask me questions at my Formspring. I've been answering machine-generated questions, and it gets boring after a while. Or you could comment on the posts here on that site too!

Anything's fine.

TTFN.

Oh and tomorrow or the day after I shall review a game that I've been playing on my iPhone for at least two months already. Best of all, it's free!


12 December 2012:

I went out to meet my girlfriend today.

Nah, I wish. That was what I told JQ when she asked me. She saw me while travelling on the bus. And she naively innocently believed me hahah.

I went out with I, CW, V and T. Today was a bad travel day for me. Firstly in the morning, I missed a bus. There was a distance from the traffic light and the bus stop, so at first I ran cos I saw a bus waiting at the red light.

After running a distance, I thought it was alright if I just resumed walking cos the bus wouldn't take so fast to reach. 沒想到, the bus zoomed past and I became like an idiot. I had to wait for another 10 minutes or so for it.

Then, I alighted at Parkway Parade cos I said she was there. I was crossing over to PP when she told me the cab she was in had left. She thought I was joking when I told her I would meet her there. When I recounted to her what happened when we met, everyone 'called my bluff' cos I said 'promenade', so they thought I was faking her. But no okay, I truly alighted.

I had to wait for another bus which took around 10 minutes again. Really ah then I was quite cross. Wait for nothing leh.

I finally met them at around 1110, 10 minutes late. V was slightly later so yay guilt -1. We went to eat MOS Burger. I wanted to eat McDonald's but again more wanted to eat MOS Burger. I think I really can't eat the McChicken BLT anymore. ):

We stayed there for around 2 hours. We talked and talked and I got bored after a while. I went into stoning mode. After that we went walking around.

I forgot why, but we then regarded I as a ghost and tried to shake her off. So we went up till the arcade. Then we walked in it and left when I was engrossed with some game. She noticed after that and tried to chase us but we disappeared into a gifts shop. Then I really went missing.

The four of us waited at our previous location in the arcade for a while. But I still didn't return, so CW and T went to look for her. After 10 or 20 minutes they found her and brought her back. She was so cross but then again she laughed throughout so you can't tell.

We headed to Starbucks next. But it was so crowded so we went to Tea Dot opposite, which was so much emptier. A glass of tea costs at least $5 there, so expensive. I didn't dare order anything. We talked till 3, when V had to meet someone.

Being kaypohs concerned friends, we tried to tail along and see. (We already knew who it was, by the way.) But I and CW suddenly went into hiding at the gifts shop. I was peeking my head out and V shouted at the corridor that she said everything already. Haiyo plan failed.

Then we went to the arcade and played some games. They were rather expensive, one token being $1 instead of $0.50. And most required two tokens each time. I played racing games with them, ended up in last place always. Tsk.

I went home after that; don't know what CW, T and I continued to do.

~


Thanks a lot to readers. Another nice number, 16161. Yesterday my post got feedback from three people. It's indeed a nice feeling cos (1) you know someone's reading it and (2) there is discourse. I would want to set up a comments section as well but I don't know how to code for it. I'm not using Blogger's default template so you can't just click to select. I also can't use xHTML. My code uses special codes given by Blogger at some help site for custom templates (as they call it), and it doesn't give me one for comments. So I guess no comments till something can be done.

TTFN.


11 December 2012:

Some random musings II.

(This is part two but there's no relation to part one on 19 April 2012.)

1. On Saturday, Manny Pacquiao lost in a boxing match. In case you don't know him, he's almost like a national hero in Philippines, where he's from. My two previous domestic helpers truly idolise him; they are very excited whenever he wins. Previously Pacquiao was very impressive and did win lots. So Saturday's loss was a surprise.

From what I heard, he was knocked out (KO) cold, the first in 13 years. Look what Justin Bieber had to post on his Instagram:


I'm not a big fan of Pacquiao, but even I felt hurt and upset by that. His caption was 'Pacquiao doing the lean with MJ .. Classic moment'. Can you imagine how Filipinos would have felt?

Soon after people started attacking him. Especially his haters, who pounced on this opportunity. His Beliebers then defended him saying it's his own opinion. These people can't differentiate from opinion and mockery, I suppose.

For example, Stefanie Sun and Tanya Chua are vying for an award. My opinion would be that 'I prefer Stefanie Sun'. The moment I make remarks like 'Tanya Chua sucks' then I'm insulting and hurting her. As for this case, Bieber is mocking Pacquiao just because he supports Mayweather, Pacquiao's opponent.

I found that really uncalled for. Furthermore, Bieber then posted another photo:


His caption was 'Dad wake up'. Pacquiao here was knocked out cold. He could have been unconscious, comatose or even dead. And Bieber chose to poke fun at that? Losing was bad enough. But here Pacquiao's health was unknown at that instant. And Bieber chose to poke fun at that?

I believe the lion's paws were deliberate positioned at Pacquiao bottom. This is really too much. He is teaching his fans that it's alright to poke fun at losers and mock them. Can you imagine how Pacquiao's kids and wife would have felt when they saw him KO-ed? I just read on BBC that his wife has tearfully pleaded him to stop boxing in concern of his health.

Maybe I have a shallow sense of humour, but to me this is mockery and not humour. The worst thing is that most of his Beliebers are stoutly defending him and scolding and hating on the rest. They are treating him as a semi-god, in my opinion. That's just disgusting. All his fans are behaving irrationally and simply support whatever he says or does. Maybe if he tells people to jump from buildings his most hardcore Beliebers would follow suit because 'Justin told me to'.

Bieber posted another photo regarding the backlash from his haters or neutral non-fans:


His caption? 'If they were Beliebers I know they wouldn't leave my side over an Boxing opinion I have'. As said above, this is no more an opinion, it's mocking the other party who has lost, and whose life is held uncertain at some points. In all it was a distasteful and insensitive thing to do.

On his comments there are still Beliebers who proudly swear their allegiance to him going 'I love you Justin' and all that. However I did see another comment that I agreed with. Whatever he did now, karma would come back for payback time.

Maybe what he did is perfectly alright, I and the rest are simply over-reacting. In that case karma would treat him well. But if he really over-did it, then karma would surely deal him nasty things.

From the bottom of my heart, I hope that Pacquiao is alright. I hope that he is able to make wise decisions about where he should head from now on. I also believe that the Republic of Philippines would support his decision and continue to regard him as a national hero.

(By the way, if you can't see the pictures, it means that Bieber has removed them. As of post time it is still here. I don't think he plans to remove them anyway. He obviously thinks he's right.)

2. I still think British comedy is the best, no matter what others say.


When I posted this yesterday on Facebook, LK commented saying that the part where the two guys kissed was 'horrible'. Well I can't and won't change his opinion, but I think that would have been hurtful to LGBTs. (Although in this case the characters' roles are not meant to be LGBTs.)

More needs to be done towards understanding and acceptance of them LGBTs. Haiz. People need to stop being homophobic.

3. I'm so drowned in Youtube videos recently. There are so many wonderful Youtubers I subscribe to like dicasp, JacksGap and NigaHiga. I also subscribe to Terencetch, a Youtuber from Dunman High (that just finished his A Levels). His videos are amateurish still but I can tell his efforts in making it, so kudos to him.

4. If you haven't, you should update iTunes to version 11. It's really a good improvement from version 10, a radical makeover. Some buttons and controls have shifted here and there, so you'd have to get used to it though.

5. I don't know what to do for the rest of today, watch audition videos from Campus Superstar or continue learning Russian. Maybe I'll do both.

6. Owl City's lead singer has a real distinctive voice. I was listening to radio and they were playing a Christmas song. Immediately I could tell it was Owl City. Furthermore you should know that my knowledge of English singers and songs are horrible so yes to me that's a feat. (I previously couldn't even list 20 singers or bands.)

7. I don't see what's the big fuss over Christmas, by the way. I understand that it's a Christian festival, but seeing the way things are now it doesn't seem so. Christmas became so commercialised and businesses everywhere are simply selling you their stuff. I also don't like when groups organise Christmas parties cos then I'm obliged to buy gifts to trade.

8. I also don't know why people are so crazed over December 21. The movie 2012 last year simply made it worse, I tell you. People in Chengdu are buying candles cos there's a rumour that after the world ends, there'll be 3 days and nights of darkness. Hello?! If the world ends, you end with it. Buy candles for what? Everyone would be dead, lah. Americans say we Asians are superstitious but hey look at them too, believing all this stuff.

TTFN.


10 December 2012:

Give me all your love.


(The title sounds like some romantic girly thing eh.) Anyway, holiday mode's no more. It was a short affair, thankfully for it.

I would say I enjoyed myself, but as usual there were quarrels and arguments and all that. Quite expected though, nothing much out of the blue.

I actually don't have mood to talk about it, though. However I would like to mention the concert on Day 1. The theme was 'British Invasion'. I'm a major Anglophile so it was spectacular there.

I was unfamiliar with most of the songs cos they were decades old, but some were recognisable like Bond theme songs. Too bad they didn't do new ones like One Direction, that would have brought cheers from fangirls in the audience.

In fact through the concert I found out more singers that were British. Some I previously thought was American.

~

To YM: Well thanks for your advice. Actually I don't do this for fame, viewership or money, so I don't really care about what demographics thing. In fact my previous posts regarding politics or current affairs were carried by some websites and they brought much more traffic than posts about my life. So I don't really bother about those. (Okay I sound very haolian right, oops.)



TTFN.

By the way I realised that many classic TV programmes were actually originally British. Then scumbag US took over. Such as Who Wants to be a Millionaire and Whose Line is it Anyway. By anyhow, British comedy is truly the best.


5 December 2012:

(Untitled.)

On Facebook I have seen many happy posts: 'leaving SG, don't miss me!' and etc. I'm leaving soon too, but I don't feel the least bit happy.

In fact I'm rather depressed. Not because I miss Singapore or anything, but because I am not ready and not confident of this trip. I am unsure whether there would be any conflict during the four days.

This time things are a little bit different and I am totally unprepared. The past two years I went on school trips where there were clear plans and proposals. This time I really don't know what to do. The joke of all? It's a family trip, where communication is supposed to be much easier and better amongst its members.

Quite the opposite, I would say. Anyway, I can't not go for the trip anymore. As mentioned previously, the only remaining option is to stay positive and hope for the best. May no emergencies pop up during this four days and let me enjoy it.

The official website for the tour is being a bloody prick. I have never been so upset at a website before. I'm impatient but this is really too much. Clicking on a link takes 2.5 minutes for the target page to load. I'm not expecting it in nano-seconds but 2.5 min is too much. Also because I'm searching for information, I click on many links, which means many 2.5 minutes wasted. If content-heavy pages like Facebook can load within 15 seconds or less, there is no reason for this website (which doesn't even use Flash, just pictures and text) to take 90% more time. Ugh.

~

I have never resorted to 含沙射影, but I don't give a damn this time:

I do not understand why you are so uptight about that comment I made about your post. I further do not understand why you need to be sad just because I do not compliment your blog. If you are so desperate for a similar recommendation well I could write one too.

Why I highly regard her blog is because it suits my blogging style so to me that is worth reading. As I mentioned in the endnote previously, 'If you like my blogging style I think you would like hers as well.' In no way would I mean that your style or your blog is inferior to her, or that I don't enjoy reading it.

Also, I don't know why you are so affected by the one and only comment I made. In fact, that comment was made with reference only to that one post. That was because it's the only post I was clueless after reading the whole thing. I had no intention of meaning that every post of yours is bad to read.

Your style and her style is different. Your posts mostly don't have a title, you include lots of pictures and sometimes comment on them pictures as part of your post. She has a title, includes only one or two pictures per post and doesn't use the picture for the content of her post. I just happen to fancy her style of words more than pictures. It doesn't mean I'm disapproving your style or that I'm not happy with your style.

Also, you mentioned it: I'm a grammar Nazi. So all the more, why are you so upset by my comments then? You really could have threw it away. After all I'm not some critic that the whole world relies on as a measure of goodness of blogs. According to you, your readers averaged 200 - 300 previously. Well apparently this would mean your other readers like your style a lot, so why fret so much about one grammar Nazi's opinion?

If you regard this as demoralising, wouldn't Xiaxue and other famous bloggers be drowning in sorrow now? They would surely have received hundreds of hate comments, most would be more hurtful and malicious than mine. Those commenters would have roped in figure, looks and even political affiliations, as in the case of Xiaxue; these aspects are totally irrelevant. What I did was only (sarcastically) comment that I could not understand one particular post.

Simply put: (1) Just because I say that I enjoy reading 'every one of' her posts, that doesn't mean I do not enjoy reading your posts. (She has less than ten posts anyway.) I just prefer her blogging style to yours. (2) You really shouldn't be that upset by what I say because ultimately you could treat it as bollocks if you feel it doesn't (or wouldn't) apply to you. No one's forcing you to agree with me or even change what you do to suit my style.

~

I do hope the e-mail doesn't arrive when I'm overseas. Otherwise they would probably think I'm not interested any more and let someone else do the recording. Good luck to LJ for his recording though. His standard had better maintain, then I can spot him on TV next year. I'm entering holiday mode, so there will be no more posts till a week or so later.

TTFN.


4 December 2012:

靈不靈不靈靈不靈不靈


No that was not some curse or something, the title. It's just a fun part of 水手怕水 above that I like.

~

As said yesterday, the karaoke session was postponed till today. And yes, I have returned from the session. It was very enjoyable; I hope I don't get a sore throat tomorrow. Things seem fine as of now.

I first met SY at 11, our stipulated meeting time. LJ, LY and YJ were all late. She reached much earlier and LJ was messaging me before that to meet her since I'm almost reaching. I called SY when I was there and we were discussing where to meet. It was a little confusing at first but turns out that the moment we hung up, we saw each other.

So I brought SY to outside the place. We then talked for a while, waiting for the rest to come. I was telling her about my (hopefully) job, and she told me that I may have to wait much longer. True, it's been almost three days and still no reply. I check my e-mail every half an hour in anticipation, but nothing.

Anyway, LJ and LY arrived at around 1120. We booked a room and went in to sing first. YJ reached half an hour later. Because the rate was $10 / person / 3 hours, so YJ had till 1500 to sing while we had to leave at 1430.

I don't remember which songs we sang already, but many were favourites. I know that I kept singing even when the song wasn't 'mine', so paiseh. But okay lah there were two mics so the other person could sing as well. Actually ah LJ was even worse in the snatching so yay I'm not the only one.

Surprisingly this time I didn't zaosia that much. There were parts that I could go down / up but most were alright. Instead it was LJ who zaosia-ed quite many times. He's gonna record 孤獨患者 either tomorrow or day after, his voice better be alright then.

There was this song, 王妃, that almost all of us sang. However, the song was so difficult, especially the chorus that almost everyone ended up shouting. SY was the only one who could handle it, but that's cos she was using the 純情 method to sing such a rock song. Haiyo.

We also tried 別找我麻煩 and 假動作, which were inside the list of 20 songs. I 切歌 the former cos I simply couldn't get the 慵懶 feel and kept going out-of-tune, and no one else could replace to sing. The latter song was real enjoyment when both LJ and I were singing it. But LJ didn't know from the second verse, especially the bridge, so I sang the ending part. That was a real challenge, going up at least two or three notes. I could feel my throat tightening. But yeah that was fun, cos ultimately I did do a not-bad rendition of it.

It seemed very fast and we finished three hours of singing. By right YJ had extra half an hour but the system auto-shut down, so we left. Then SY wanted to get something, so we accompanied her to Bugis Street. We originally said to eat then shop, but she said that it was fast so alright. In the end we took more than an hour.

At Bugis Street, the things there were rather cheap. Dresses were at $10 each, and there were other things like iPhone covers. YJ wanted one cover, so we spilt from the girls and went round looking. In the end, the girls bought what they wanted (and more) while YJ and LJ couldn't get any cover.

I remember some stall owners with such a black face and lousy attitude. (Incidentally they were all 中國人.) Ugh really ah, the face so black, who feels like shopping there? Not say that's the only shop in the country, or even the area.

On our way out, YJ and LJ found what they wanted. This is a perfect example of 踏破鐵鞋無覓處,得來全不費工夫. It was almost 4 when we finally exited Bugis Street. I was starving much cos I didn't even have breakfast. (I really should have eaten a chocolate biscuit or two before leaving home.)

I really wanted to go to McDonald's to eat, but they said that YJ had to treat, so he said to go food court to eat. In the end we went to this Japanese restaurant. Things there were so expensive that a plate of curry + rice cost $6.90.

Things would be so much more worth it at McDonald's lorh. I ordered this chicken udon (with three pieces of chicken only) for $8.90. After GST and service charge, it became $11. I really could have eaten more at McDonald's, and I wanted to try out McChicken BLT before it disappears.

The rest ordered some set meal, the most expensive being $16.90. Maybe I very scrimpy lah, but hey spending almost $20 on lunch to me is too much. I feel very 心痛 already for that $11 udon. It was really just fat noodles, miso soup and three pieces of chicken. It was nice, but I'm sure there were cheaper things.

Nevertheless, I'm glad that we finished eating; I was so starved before that. After that we decided to go home. The rest took bus while LY and I took MRT. I really understand now how come people are so angry at our Transport Minister (Tuck Yew!), especially during last year's GE period. The train really was packed.

I'm thankful that I didn't encounter any smelly armpits. It really was very packed, though. I wasn't that afraid of falling even though I wasn't holding anything, because we were like particles in liquid state. I got off after four stops, good luck to those sitting from one end to the other.

When I was at the Paya Lebar bus-stop, there was this PRC who was giving out Epoch Times. At first, I thought she was giving out 人民日報, which was the propaganda newspaper of China. (Like our Straits Times.) In Fudan I used to see it often, they even pasted public copies on notice boards everywhere so that everyone could 'read the word'. Anyway, because of that I initially shunned her.

Then I noticed that it was Epoch Times, which is not as propaganda-ish. So I went over and asked for one. She seemed happy to hand me, maybe cos she has one less to give out now. I roughly browsed through it, not bad news at all. Got juicy details about 薄熙來 and 王立軍, definitely not state-controlled else can't have such things.

I didn't read the articles in the bus, it was too packed. I brought the paper home, and maybe I'll read it later or tomorrow.

~

On the bus today I suddenly thought of something. The universe is made up of yin and yang. Electrons and protons. For every up quark, there's a down quark. Even the Principle of Conservation of Energy states that energy is transferred and neither created nor destroyed.

Then what about our souls? You see, when a person dies, his body is either cremated or buried. During cremation, heat is used to break up flesh and organs into carbon compounds and other stuff. Bones which are too hardy remain in their calcium compound state and they are placed into urns that are sealed in lots.

The energy conversion takes place at the heating part. No problem. As for burials, the body decomposes. Nutrients are used by plants or decomposers or etc. Also, energy is converted, no problem. Then what about our souls?

Without a soul, a human body would not have life, or even animals actually. Do our souls consist of energy? Else what is it made up of? Matter composes of energy. Therefore if our souls have energy, it is matter. However matter must occupy mass, but till now no one can measure a soul's mass.

If then our soul does not consist of energy and is not matter, what is it? Could it be anti-matter? This could be why our souls 'tie-up' with our bodies, because they attract each other. Our bodies, its organs and parts, are made up of matter. So there is a possibility that our soul is a complement, which is anti-matter. Of course, physicists would call this bollocks, because matter + anti-matter = annihilation, which also means jibaboom for the whole world.

I don't know why I was so philosophical suddenly. I guess it's because I'm reading Angels and Demons by Dan Brown now. It's a nice book, so far. It talks about how science and faith is (or rather is not) balanced in this world. Also, the concept of anti-matter is explored. That's why there is CERN, which tries to solve life's mysteries of how did the universe originate and etc.

Along the way comes religious obstruction. (This also explains why I wrote that previous post about what religions shouldn't do, in my opinion.) Also, there's a message in the book about American arrogance. Indeed, in terms of science and technology the Americans think they've done it all.

Actually, lots of things were invented by the British or Europeans? THE INTERNET WAS CREATED BY A BRITISH MAN AND HIS COLLEAGUES. Just to clear that up. It was never an American thing, so in a way it's 'unfair' that America dominates this British-made thing and trumps about as if it's all theirs. The Industrial Revolution (which sadly made people think of communism as a solution to exploitation of workers) was started by the British.

Modern physics wonders such as electromagnetism were largely discovered by Europeans and British people. Then Americans came and 'took over' during the last century and suddenly they're known for so many things that they didn't really take part in. Sorry for my Anglophile rage.

TTFN.

By the way I would like to highlight YM's blog. If you like my blogging style I think you would like hers as well. She writes rather long posts, some probably longer than mine. Currently she's doing '30 confessions', and she's till No. 5 or 6 now. I have so far enjoyed every one of them because it's really entertaining and engaging to read. Although (with reference to the anime post) I am not yet convinced enough to start watching them, I still was kept interested throughout the post. Of course if you want to be anal, the posts are imperfect due to some spelling mistakes and style errors, but that's just me. It's really a good read, and since she doesn't do boring topics like politics (unless you find it interesting like me) then you would probably be hooked as well. YM is currently working tirelessly (I sound like some propaganda department spurning glorious deeds) so her posts won't come as often as mine. Nevertheless, I still think most would enjoy YM's blog.


3 December 2012:

The world is such a nice place.

Today I was supposed to go for a karaoke session, but it got postponed to tomorrow cos LY was too tired. For the past week, she worked for at least 11 hours a day, maximum of 14 hours even. So yeah she was too tired and wanted to use today to rest, before enjoying karaoke tomorrow.

Therefore, I am bored at home. However, I found something to do. There is this cyber-war going on between Dee Kosh, Sofia Dendroff and Kaylubbbb. Being the kaypoh inquisitive person I am, I went to find out more.

Firstly, let's introduce the man at the centre of it all: Kalebh, whose username almost everywhere is kaylubbbb. For example, his Formspring and his Twitter. His Twitter used to be private, but surprisingly it's now 'unlocked' after this episode.

Next, Kalebh's ex-best friend: Dee Kosh. I don't think he needs much introduction, since he's been featured on newspapers a few times and he is pretty famous throughout Singapore's cyberspace. Nevertheless, to be fair, here's his Formspring, his Twitter and his Youtube channel (which mainly brought him fame).

Finally, it's the girl in this whole thing: Sofia Dendroff. She used to be Kalebh's girlfriend, broke up not long ago. As usual, her Formspring, her blog and her Twitter. If I'm not wrong she's moderately popular as well cos she's a famous blogger (I think) and she's a model.

~

I don't exactly know how the whole thing started, but it sort of started when Kalebh broke up with Sofia. On his Formspring, Kalebh was saying that it was an amicable break-up. They even went on a final date to put a full stop to things.

Suddenly, an argument broke out between Sofia and Dee Kosh. In fact, it's more like a cyber war. All of a sudden, Kalebh loses an ex-girlfriend (whom he intended to have as a friend) and a best friend. In other words he is actually the ultimate victim and loser.

It seems like Dee Kosh was scolding Sofia that she was a 'pretentious hoe' that came between him and Kalebh. Angered, she threatens to sue, and possibly ropes in her dad. I say so because Dee Kosh mentions something about her dad and 'Mr Dendroff'.

As usual, when cyber wars break up between two famous people, each has their camp of supporters. Some are more controlled and perhaps just retweet the person they support, to show solidarity and support. Others are more hiong and openly criticise the other party.

On Dee Kosh's Formspring he gives the impression that it was Kalebh who called it quits between the both of them. But from seeing Kalebh's other pages, it really doesn't seem so. Already there are some who criticise Dee Kosh for using his fame to threaten others.

The latest instalment in this whole affair is that Dee Kosh has apologised for starting the whole thing. Sofia retweeted his apology, so I take it that she's telling her followers to chill and end it as well.

~

The thing may have ended, however I do have certain thoughts about it.

Firstly, what a kaypoh person I am. I can't believe I spent an hour or more scrolling through posts by three individuals. That took me more than an hour. In my defence, I was bored, hahah.

Secondly, I do not have a good impression of Dee Kosh and this made it worse. His admission to starting the whole thing makes him look bad already. He is a famous personality yet he called people a 'pretentious hoe'. I really don't think that's what a famous person should do.

Thirdly, Dee Kosh was being rather condescending on his Formspring. People genuinely sent their questions there for him to provide his viewpoints on certain things, yet he insulted them in one way or another by 'funny' responses. He mentioned that these questions should not even be asked because they could be solved with logic. From what I understand, relationship problems should be solved through talking with friends and/or family, not by single-handedly applying logic. I wonder if he decides who to date by using logic charts and all.

As mentioned above, Kalebh is the sandwiched victim. Both supporters of Dee Kosh and Sofia Dendroff would blame him. The former blames him for not wanting Dee Kosh as a friend (since that was how Dee Kosh portrays it) and the latter blames him for ending the relationship with Sofia. Then there are allegations of how Sofia was actually mistreating Kalebh all the while, and Dee Kosh was being indignant.

Kalebh denied such allegations and tries to stay neutral. He has to but it's hard; I'm sure he is angrier at one party than another. Worst of all, his birthday is coming soon, possibly his 18th as well. Never mind what age, having such a massive conflict near your birthday is not a real good way to anticipate it.

*update* Yes as 'confirmed' by Sofia's tweet way back, (knowing there's a chance of bias), Dee Kosh first started by dissing people who followed her. He even told those who did so to unfollow him. And yes, 'pretentious bitch' was somewhere in there.

Also, there's a screenshot of Dee Kosh's private account. One of it has a tweet that's contentious: it could be interpreted as him looking down on ITE students, or otherwise it could be interpreted as gibberish crap. (Kalebh's from ITE.) I'm quite certain that's him, although he says that he got hacked, because of the tweeting style. Dee Kosh uses dashes instead of commas or full stops.

Kalebh has been a camp instructor before. I'm sure he knows a thing or two in handling people and managing relations. However this episode would have caused much exhaustion to him and possibly fatigue. I really pity him for having such a thing.

~

Which made me think of that phrase: 世間無常. Previously Kalebh and Sofia were really happy together, and he was enjoying his friendship with Dee Kosh. Suddenly both are at loggerheads and he's suffering.

I'm sure Kalebh doesn't want all these, but what can he do? Well I do hope that Kalebh can ignore the both of them and move on with his life (and his birthday). It's funny how some on Formspring told him not to cut his wrist because of this.

There were columns in newspapers recently about how we are getting nastier with all these technology. I have to say I believe in it now. While we do not and have not degenerated into barbarians, technology makes us easier to hurl abuse at each other. Just like how some fans of Dee Kosh and Sofia Dendroff would attack each other. And as usual Kalebh is standing in middle ground (almost losing his balance) trying to calm everyone down. He did scold one annoying Dee Kosh fan who flamed Sofia though, good one that one.

By the way, I don't personally know any of them, and I probably don't know the full 100% of the story. So don't say that I'm trying to act close or anything, if ever you may have this thought.

TTFN.

By the way, that Kalebh guy quite hansum eh.


2 December 2012:

If gahmen can do so much for AIDS, why not for LGBTs?

Yesterday was World AIDS Day. If you have been watching TV, listening to radio or reading newspapers recently, you would notice that the government is suddenly asking people not to discriminate those who suffer from AIDS. On TV there is that ad which has Chen Hanwei recounting that his favourite character over the years was the one who was an AIDS patient. On radio, I have heard segments where activists dispel myths about AIDS. Today's newspaper featured news of Aids Walk 2012.

Btw, some terminology first before any confusion ensues. AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. A related acronym would be HIV, or Human Immunodeficiency Virus. People are infected by HIV, then they develop AIDS. Therefore, a person doesn't 'suffer from HIV' but from AIDS instead.

Alright, hope that clears any confusion over the terms used. Back to what I was saying. Yes, the government has been pushing for the removal of any stigma linked to AIDS. It hopes to make people less wary of those with AIDS. It also aims to let people know that AIDS cannot be transferred through sharing drinking water and other myths.

All these remind me of the government's stance over Section 377A of our Penal Code in 2007. This section makes any man who has sex with another man a criminal. (Actually, both would be criminals.) Basically, the government maintained that society was not ready for such a change. The only 'consolation' was that the government and police would not proactively seek out offenders.

Recently, there was another appeal to the courts that this section of the Penal Code is unconstitutional. The judge pointed out that it only criminalises sex between men, so technically lesbians can have sex and are not criminals. But I digress.

The government always claims that it would change policies when society progresses and etc. However, this AIDS thing proves that sometimes it itself starts some exercise without society 'progressing'. Singapore's society is still not as accepting and open about AIDS as other societies. Therefore, the government is taking steps to change this.

Why can't the same thing be done for LGBTs? Why can't the government simply remove Section 377A. These, I believe, lies in obstruction from religion and myths.

I understand that some religions are strongly against homosexuality. They think of it as immoral or sinful. However, I do not think that religion should be allowed to intervene in this. In a society, not everyone is from that religion. Some are even atheists. Therefore, it doesn't really make sense that protests from certain religions cause this section to be retained.

Let's say there's a religion known as Chongism. It is strongly against homosexuality and feels that all LGBTs are sinners. Then there's another religion called Limism. The religion is alright with homosexuality and has no comment on it. If all the LGBTs happen to be Limists, have they sinned?

Such a question is not easy to answer. Therefore, I do not feel that religion should really sway opinion regarding such a law. Also, our society is a secular one.

Another factor which influences the retaining of this law is myths. There have been various myths that are spread everywhere about LGBTs. Some say that it is a disease that can be spread from one person to another. Others say that this is just a choice that people make, so as to stay fashionable or rebellious against the mainstream.

There was also one I've heard about how most paedophiles are gays. Not exactly true. Not all gays have sick minds and want little kids. I'm sure statistics would prove otherwise too; straight men are equally likely to deviate and become paedophiles.

I heard an LGBT respond to the myth over it being a choice. She said something like 'the discrimination, hurt and pain that we LGBTs go through is so much. Do you really think we would deliberately choose to let others hate on us?'

Sounds quite valid eh? Why would someone choose to be discriminated? Besides, no one's going 'wow he's gay and it's cool'. People are either accepting or strongly against it, calling all kinds of nasty names.

The other myth about it spreading is completely false as well. There are claims of how straight people were 'bent', right? Well, that's because that person is not a 100% straight. Try bending a steel stick. Try bending a rubber stick. That 'converted' person is rubber, never really actually straight in the first place.

There are many myths haunting LGBTs, causing people to misunderstand them. The same lies with AIDS, except this is more medical in that sense. Some include 'I would catch HIV if I kiss him / her'. Not true, unless your partner (or fling hahah) has open wounds in the buccal cavity.

The case with AIDS is almost similar to LGBTs. Both groups of people are discriminated, public generally lack understanding of both and both are not living well. (Although of course AIDS patients have it worse because they have physical torment from the disease.) Both also have various myths surrounding them.

Therefore, I would question the government's stance when it says 'society is not ready'. Society is similarly not ready to accept AIDS patients, but aren't you helping them? Of course, for AIDS there is less intervention from religion, and it is a researched illness.

I do hope something is done regarding Section 377A, especially when there's a chance now cos there are two appeals against the law on the basis that it's unconstitutional. (Even LKY thinks it's alright to be gay, really! It's somewhere in his Hard Truths book.)

And of course, I do hope as well that the AIDS situation can improve. One benefit of repealing 377A is that more LGBTs would go for AIDS tests, and hopefully more can be detected and treated. Although the papers recently stated that more LGBTs are detected than heterosexuals, I still think there's more who are afraid to go for checks, and are affected.

TTFN.

Oh and even if you don't like LGBTs, there's no reason for you to mock at them or hate on them. The world has enough of judgemental people already. 

Disclaimer: 'Chongism' and 'Limism' are obviously fake names of religions, I'm just using them as examples. 'Chong' and 'Lim' are two common Chinese surnames, so don't think too much there's really no hidden message.


1 December 2012:

Regardless of race, language or religion.

This is one of the messages in our National Pledge, which students recite till at least secondary school. It would have been deeply imprinted in our heads by now, and most would come to accept such a thing.

However, personally, I still have issues. I still have issues against a certain religion. I do know how sensitive and 'dangerous' posting religious-themed posts are, but I will exercise due caution. Hopefully.

Firstly I would say that I respect all religions. I believe that they share a common goal of making people do good and improve themselves. This is definitely morally upright and good. But from what I know that's where things differ.

~

I oppose any religion that obstructs the development and progress of science, especially through persecution and propaganda. Personally I feel that it is alright to be atheist or agnostic, but everyone should believe in science. Because unlike religion, science requires cold, hard logic. Also, science is less disputable than religion.

I also do not like anyone that proselytises. In fact, I am absolutely repelled by it. That simply makes me dislike the religion further. I too would be upset if I see someone proselytising Buddhism, which I believe in. To me no one should do such a thing.

It is alright if people ask for explanations themselves. They are curious; you explain; it's alright. But not by trying to grab every opportunity to present how fabulous your religion is. Chances are, if your religion really helps, naturally there'll be people who would convert or join. There's no need to force people to join through proselytising.

Besides that, I dislike any religion whom people try to get in the way of politics and education. That is absolutely despicable, I find. This should be decided by the government of the day. Of course if the government is from a majority religion then chances are it'll be the same but at least the religion doesn't butt in technically.

The teaching of subjects other than religion or religious studies should be regularised throughout a country. It is not correct for someone to learn one set of things while someone from another part of the country learns something different, all because of religious intervention. If that country isn't secular, at least teach both sides and let the students choose. They'll understand as they grow older.

As mentioned above, not everyone has a religion. However, everyone has to receive education (it is stated somewhere I think). Therefore, there is no logic that religion obstructs the transfer of knowledge via education. To me this is nonsense.

I am very thankful that Singapore doesn't have such situations. I understand that some places teach religious studies but they are not to be used as an O Level subject in consideration of points. The curriculum is standardised by SEAB and its guidelines are shown to all. All religions also do not butt into politics or running of Singapore.

~

Although I've said that I dislike certain religions, I certainly am not extreme and would not hate or condemn anyone because of their religion. To me so long as they do not do the above, I really am fine with anyone. That applies to Buddhists; if they do the above I too won't be pleased.

I truly appreciate the racial and religious harmony Singapore has enjoyed. I know it's not easy, and I would play a part in maintaining it. However, this is just my sharing of what I feel about religions in general. Most of the things here that I listed as 'conditions for my dislike' are general, which means they apply to any religion. I believe that is fair; I am not discriminating anyone or any religion. If you may blame, you may say my ethics or principles are not right, but I am not against any particular religion and certainly not discriminating them.

TTFN.

Edit: I found a relevant comic from the Oatmeal, a cartoon site that I rather like.

Oh by the way, it's not right for anyone of any religion to make fun of other religions. Just had to mention this cos some people don't get it. Maybe our beliefs differ from yours and are ridiculous to you, but hey if you want to pick, I'm sure every religion has beliefs that are ridiculous to others.

I understand why some people give up religion and turn to atheism now.



aboutme.

From Singapore. 20 years of age. Blogs as and when inspiration comes, in British English (and Singlish), Traditional Chinese and (hopefully) Russian. Not a lifestyle blogger, expect posts to be serious, dull or even obscure. I enjoy comedy, in particular British humour.



interests.

[more or less in order] medicine | forensics | theatre | modern world history | typography (including style and grammar) | visual design | Taiji | Chinese language and literature | Mandarin pop (and singing) | Apple products.



typography.

PT Serif for main text and links. Ubuntu Condensed for dates, post titles and sidebar headings. Both fonts from Google Web Fonts.



credits.

singzeon. by Sing Zeon is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence. Pictures used here either come from my Instagram (instagram.com/singzeon) or Google image search. For the latter, I do not own those pictures.



quote.

Hard to love. 認真你就輸了。