home to a blogger formerly known as lost
in Singapore
Masks and tea
Jul 12th
- This statue of the courtesy lion, converted to encourage the wearing of face masks, really had me tickled. I love how his arms are still stretching out towards a warm friendly embrace, despite his obvious fear of transmitting/contracting a virus.
- I’ve been buying quite a lot of teh-c, and I finally decided that the ingredients were pretty cheap and I should just make my own. It turned out to be pretty enjoyable, actually, and since I’m too lazy to add sugar, my version might actually be more healthful than what they have in the shops!
The shouting man
Jul 9th
I was headed to the MRT station from school today when I heard a man shouting at a bunch of senior students from my school. Curious as to what exactly he was spouting (perhaps he was complaining about certain inconsiderate actions the students were guilty of), I stopped for a moment to listen to what he had to say.
It soon became clear, however, that his grievances had little to do with the students themselves. The man was angrily telling them that the whole lot of them were born with silver spoons in their mouths, that these evil elite institutions had no right to exist, that the students’ powerful gahmen parents had screwed up the way the country was being run real bad. I’m not sure what I would have done in the past – I’m ashamed to admit that I’d probably have done the Singaporean thing and just walked on by – but now that I was an employee of the school, I decided to intervene.
“Excuse me sir, could you please stop shouting at the students?” I asked. Perhaps not the best start, but I managed to deflect his attention from them (whom I signalled to walk away quickly). He continued shouting at me for awhile, and although initially irritated with him, I gradually came to sympathise with him. Clearly, the man must have been under a tremendous amount of stress. I started trying to talk to him instead, to enquire about the source of his pain, as we started walking towards the train station.
I never did find out what was bothering him so deeply in the few minutes that ensued, but by the time we reached the station his volume had gone down noticeably. I wasn’t able to help him in any concrete way during this brief encounter, but I do hope that my (rather minimal) show of concern and willingness to hear his thoughts helped him in his troubled state.
Ramping up
Jul 7th
It seems like I’ve got quite a bit on my plate this semester.
- 4x Sec3 English classes
- 2x Sec1 Oral Communication classes
- 2x DMP modules to plan (basically coming up with my own electives)
- 1x Research Education group (essentially a rebranded IRS/Project Work)
- 1x (co-)Form class
- 1x CCA
Happily, the workload hasn’t quite come full swing yet, since I’ve mainly been administering in-class assessments these 2 week (plus, the H1N1 issue has limited after-school activities).
Strangely enough, there’s a small (obviously insane) part of me that’s rather excited by it all. Let’s just hope that I’m up to the task and survive my first semester.
Another wiki
Jul 5th
My AdSense earnings have hit US$100 again, so I’ll be receiving my second AdSense cheque sometime in the next two months (I think). At the same time, I’ve recently started playing TYLER’s new Facebook game Mafia Empire (referral link gives me in-game benefits). I haven’t played any of the other Mafia-themed games on Facebook (and there are many – this seems a rather saturated segment of the market), so I can’t objectively give an opinion on it, but it’s fun enough that I’ve bothered to set up yet another game wiki – the Mafia Empire Wiki – for it.
Hopefully it’ll be able to bring in even more AdSense revenue! Heh heh.
Photos from the phone
Jul 5th
Just some random pictures I dug out of my phone today.
- I was at the Science Centre recently for an NIE-organised excursion, and found it surprisingly enjoyable. I haven’t actually been there in quite some time, so the quality of exhibits was really quite impressive to me. I was somewhat amused to find a giant version of Puff, M.D. there.
- Met up with some of the 2K guys awhile back at Cedele (Raffles City). The one on the third floor was less crowded (and a lot harder to find), so apparently they’d decided to decorate some pillars to help point the way. I’d somehow managed to miss it anyway, but when I did see it, I was thoroughly amused (it seems I might be a little too easily amused).
- Spotted some newfangled flavours of Pringles potato chips at NTUC recently – I got a tube of the Buffalo wings one, but it was disappointingly lacklustre (merely tasting like tobasco sauce on chips). I suspect that I won’t really be enjoying any product as much as the fantastic Thai Sweet Chilli crisps anymore – anyone knows if I can get them in Singapore? Hmm, I wonder if there’s money to be made importing cereal and potato chips…
The Shack
Jul 5th
Mack once told me that he used to speak his mind more freely in his younger years, but he admitted that most of such talk was a survival mechanism to cover his hurts; he often ended up spewing his pain on everyone around him. He says that he had a way of pointing out people’s faults and humiliating them while maintaining his own sense of false power and control. Not too endearing.
(From The Shack – this description’s perhaps a little too painfully familiar.)
I’ve been curious about the book for the longest time, but only got down to reading it today. While the premise seemed interesting enough, the writing style was just too dreary for me to endure. I attempted to quickly flip to the conversations between God and the protagonist, but even that was pretty much filled with simplistic un-biblical theology.
Not that I’ve really got anything against un-biblical theology, just that it wasn’t anything particularly impressive – if I’d wanted personally-crafted versions of the Christian theology, I’ve got plenty already.
All in all, I pretty much agree with John’s review of the book. Though there were some good bits, it was overall (from what I read) dull and rather lacklustre – I don’t quite understand how it’s achieved its tremendous sales figures. Although I suppose anything that gets people thinking about their faith (whatever they decide) is probably a good thing. I guess.
Serious cereal
Jul 1st
I actually really enjoy having cereal for breakfast. It’s quick, pretty tasty, and provides a boost of dietary fibre to my not-too-green eating habits (I do eat my veggies, but usually only what’s on my plate).
So I’ve really missed Jordans Country Crisp (Four Nut Crunch), which was my favourite breakfast cereal back when I was in the UK. I was really happy to find that Meidi-Ya (of all places!) in Singapore stocked it, but a recent trip there showed that they no longer do so. Anyone knows where else I might be able to find it?
On my recent trip to Japan, Ailin introduced me to a Japanese cereal (Calbee granola) which I’d really enjoyed. The best part is that it’s (apparently) got no added sugar, opting to get the flavour from the dried fruit bits, but it still manages to taste pretty good without that cloying sweet taste that many commercial cereals have.
I managed to find something similar in Singapore in a Japanese import store near my place, but since it’s selling it at S$15 for 360g (about triple the price of the Calbee equivalent in Japan), I don’t think it’ll become my breakfast staple. Looks like I’ll be sticking to Post Banana Nut Crunch for awhile.
Upgrade time!
Jun 22nd
(Yes, the camera-Nazis can proceed to laugh at me now.)
Frustrated by the lack of (cheap) fast prime lenses for the D40, I’ve just upgraded to a D90. Bought it second-hand (again) together with one such prime lens, at just S$20 above my budgeted price – since there’s still more than half a year on the warranty, I figured that was a price worth paying. I’m currently quite behind on the savings schedule, but since that’s all I’m really planning to spend for awhile, I guess I should be catching up in the months ahead.
Happily, I was able to sell my D40 at no loss to myself – amazingly, through the magic of the second hand market, I was able to try out DSLR photography for a month at absolutely no monetary cost to myself. How cool is that?
The new camera has quite a few more knobs and buttons, and while I can safely ignore them for basic usage, I’d better figure out what exactly everything does sometime soon!
New Japan pictures
Jun 14th
Haven’t added anything to my travel album in some time – haven’t really been taking that many photos in my recent trips to Japan. I brought my new camera this time round, though, and managed to take more shots.
(Also visited a Ninja park over there, which was really fun, even if it’s decidedly targeted at children.)
Supper in Singapore
Jun 8th
…is oddly similar to the Singaporean breakfast, it seems (though this one was from the more famous Casuarina Curry). A foreign reader of my blog might assume we eat nothing else.
Somehow fried dough doesn’t make for a very impressive photograph, does it? I’m still getting hungry looking at it, though.
