great firewall of china

i can’t update here much now cos i’m in shanghai and yes, the great firewall of china has blocked wordpress and ebloggy, and amazingly not blogspot. i can still access wordpress and ebloggy by changing the proxy settings, but it’s troublesome and i doubt i’ll be blogging much at home cos there’s just so little time between getting back and sleeping to eat, nua, chat on msn/phone…and i don’t really wanna mess with the proxy settings for my office comp haha. (yes, i am damn slack in the office.) so i am temporarily on blogspot now at 3rdaugust.blogspot.com….i am a consistent and uncreative person!:P

one month left

so everything’s settled. i’m going after all. will be flying off on the 30th of jan…one month from today. i went berserk for a few days shopping for winter/office/cny clothes cos there were SALES SALES SALES everywhere!!! i have restrained myself with difficulty after buying 2 sets or so since i can get many more cheaply over there. omg!! the post christmas sales are absolutely incredible. i think most of my chinese new year and overseas shopping is done, hahah.anyway, back to topic…i can’t believe how final going to china feels now, after telling all my family and friends…a lot less painful though after finding (thanks to dear ssy!) nice housemates that go to work very near me…crossing my fingers that everything will work out. i was totally picturing myself adrift desperately seeking for housemates and being the odd one out that just can’t find anyone to stay with. and then ending up alone in shanghai with my social bar completely and permanently red and the social bunny coming to keep me company (been playing too much sims these few days thanks to screwed up internet). now i’m a little worried about being alone at jiaotong university (stupidly missed the deadline for applying fudan), but it seems very minor in comparison.

anyway. one month left. things i MUST accomplish before i leave…

1) pack room. just moved back from hostel yesterday and GOSH my room is in a mess.
2) start packing early cos i’m not sure if my mom can supply me with all the winter things i need. so i have time to go shopping for them.
3) attempt to learn to bake and decorate cny goodies in pretty little boxes! then i can give them out to friends before i leave. my mom wants me to do for her friends too (assuming it’s a success)
4) major mystery project!:P

that’s about all i can think of for now, but it’s going to be keeping me very busy for this last month… which is bound to just rush by at a ridiculous speed. time to treasure the last of the clean, smoke-free, english, friendly, etc environment here…

STOMP: citizen journalism, my foot

i’m quite disgusted by the rubbish that appears nowadays in the name of “citizen journalism”. seriously. exposing couples kissing on the mrt is considered journalism? people not giving up their seats on the bus? smokers at the zoo?

i read on a forum about a STOMP post that featured a couple sleeping on the train “as if it is their own home”, and a picture with their faces was there for everyone to see. the couple only took up two seats and were not like slobbering all over the place or anything. ok, i do love to complain a lot too. and i think some people deserve to be humiliated, like aunties who block train entrances to try to get a seat…and yes i hate smokers too. but it’s not really possible for anybody to decide who deserves to be “STOMPed”, and who doesn’t…for example, i don’t see anything wrong with couples kissing in public, though i draw the line at making out/groping around. but others might think that couples should not show any display of affection at all. therefore, this arbitrary public finger-pointing and humiliation should not even be allowed in the first place…or at least pixellate the faces! what is this man…big brother is watching you? total intrusion of privacy. nowadays, anybody can take a picture of you if they feel like it without you even knowing. and ST is actively encouraging this practice and providing a place for such ridiculousness to proliferate.

how ST handles the whole concept of citizen journalism and trying to make it look like the media is liberalising and adapting to the changing media landscape (ugh, COM401) has always disgusted me. just look at the STOMP website. it’s covered with bright colours and flashy headlines. people use it to talk about all kinds of trivial matters. citizen journalism is thus debased and turned into kpo-mania. in other democratic countries, citizen journalism is actually practiced to fact-find, discuss and examine issues that the mainstream media choose to ignore for various reasons…like how a bunch of conservative political bloggers in the US point out the problems and make noise about obama’s birth certificate, because they genuinely feel that the mainstream media is not doing so (i disagree with the bloggers, btw). another example would be that of people getting live footage of disasters as they unfold, before the journalists get on the scene. citizen journalism thus actively supplements traditional journalism to report news. in singapore, it seems like the other way round…STOMP harnesses the natural kpo and complaining instinct of humans to create a pseudo-news portal that caters to some of the worst elements of society…intolerant people, voyeurs, etc…

and at the same time, what of actual citizen journalism in singapore and the news they could be creating? it’s no secret that the media in singapore is very pro-government. but for those concerned about seeking out an alternative voice…where can they find it? think citizen journalism, and does the drivel on STOMP come to mind? (i can’t help thinking that this is SPH’s sneaky way to stamp out true citizen journalism…)

anyway i find this topic interesting because i did a paper a year ago on how newspaper companies are adapting to the use of new media. maybe i’m reading too much into this, but i thought it was quite significant how ST actually created 2 online portals…one for the so-called citizen journalism aka kpo-heaven, and the other a serious, prosaic news website. in this way, ST can show that it has harnessed the power of web 2.0 and facilitated lots of online discussions and citizen fact-finding, while at the same time distancing its professional journalism from the chaos and sensationalism at STOMP. in the meantime, the real discussions by informed, thoughtful citizens about issues in singapore that was bound to surface sometime with the advent of the internet age are sidelined.

also, like most of you i believe, this issue hits close to my heart too! i really hope to not end up on STOMP someday for some inane reason. (though i probably wouldn’t know about it cos i don’t read it.)

hell month

hell month is almost over! what a horrible month. first week spent agonising over 3 presentations, 2 term papers, and one essay. 2nd and 3rd week spent agonising over exams and gip matters. and being unable to study much. i think i’ve surfed every blog/news website i can think of almost everyday. even went onto viwawa for the first time since like june. come monday, finally a reprieve, where i can finally go do all the things i’ve been planning to do.

1) READ!! right after the exams i’m hitting jp library to collect all my reserved books. then after that’s done, i’m going to attack the twilight series, heard it’s good. actually, i read the first book in the series way way before all the hype, when i could easily find it in the library, but now the waiting list is probably hundreds of people long, so i might just buy it since borders is having 3 for the price of 2 sale. haven’t bought a book for ages.

2) open a facebook account. HAHA. finally jumping on the bandwagon. i steadfastly refused to join over the years despite being deluged with invites. was even asked to participate in a discussion of social networking sites in psychology and media last semester because i was one of the rare people not involved in them. but since i’m probably going to china next feb for half a year, maybe now is the time. can keep in contact with friends! (actually i just paiseh to admit that i wanna play word challenge wahahah)

speaking of word challenge, the way it has insidiously intruded into my life is quite scary. i was first drawn to the rearranging words thing, playing muddled on my brother’s iphone while we were in the hospital waiting for the doc after his dog bite. next thing i’m watching mk play word challenge during our study breaks. then i come back to school and veron’s playing it during class wahaha. and then yihui asks me about it on msn. it’s like fate, or divine intervention, haha.

3)SHOP!!! one of the things that excites me most about going china is the prospect of cold weather for quite a few months, which means i get to wear long sleeved tops everywhere! ok lah plenty of time for this since i’ll only be heading of in feb. if i go. okay, it seems like a foregone conclusion, but weird to just declare it here before everything’s confirmed.

one more day to torture myself with studying! and i MUST mug as hard as i can for my last paper because it’s my only hope. this is the worst exam cycle i’ve ever had. but no matter what it’ll still be over in 37 hours and i’ll be free!

blog stats

while looking through my blog stats i realised a couple of people who searched for my blog found it through typing “unicef is having a celebration….etc etc”. i’ve got an entry somewhere further down about how scammers are bloody stupid and can’t even make their scams look legitimate by spelling properly. i truly hope i have helped someone avoid being scammed *beams at having done a good deed*

another search i’ve been doing every now and then, and getting hits from now and then, is the search for “gip china”. updates from that side is coming slowwwly. though a couple of people, i hear, have gotten replies. i just got an email from the school, though, saying that i’ve gotten the temasek foundation award, which is about 6.4k, so if i do go it will be with money:D actually it’s very hard at this point to not go, but still…hmm…i seriously don’t know. hoping hard for some certainty to head our way soon. china companies, please hurry!!

on another note, my sleep cycle has gone full circle and now i’m awake and blogging at 7am. my sleep cycle is naturally screwed up. i like to sleep 10-12 hours, but i stay awake for about 16-18. that adds up to way more than 24 hours. but the only time i can indulge in this is during the exams, haha…will be back to normal after the 24th.

reality has a well-known liberal bias

i love wasting time man. unfortunately or fortunately, it’s a little harder to waste time than usual during another exam cycle because i haven’t found something to be addicted to (last semester, it was viwawa). so i’ve actually managed to finish studying genes r us 2 days before the paper!! and have time to focus on european lit which is on the same day…which i’ve already s/u-ed and kind of can’t bother to read. too many freaking texts. and i don’t even need the AUs. the question is whether i can bear to really go and U it even enough it doesn’t really matter even if i do so. but it’s just painful haha.

anyway, in the last couple of hours i’ve managed to find something to entertain myself with.

laughing at idiots!! hahah.

enter conservapedia.com. this website was set up as an alternative to wikipedia, which has a “liberal bias”. of course, it’s also very christian. not to say that all conservatives are christians or vice versa, this is just an isolated example of a group of christian conservative nuts. anyway, the funny part was when the founder of the website contacted a scientist who had published a study showing evolution in E.coli (which links to my genes r us content! so it’s not completely useless surfing). anyway, the conservapedia crackpots freaked out at evolution actually being supported scientifically, and sent letters to the scientist, Dr Lenski, demanding to see their data…namely the bacteria, so that they can perform “CSI techniques” (this is a direct quote!) to see if the data was faked. of course, the crackpots are not scientifically trained, only skimmed the journal article, and don’t have the facilities to store the bacteria, much less the expertise to handle it.

Dr Lenski’s brilliant, crushing reply here. they really asked for it. tis a satisfying read! http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/06/lenski_gives_conservapdia_a_le.php

the edited bit was censored by conservapedia because it linked to radicalwiki, a site which was set up for the purpose of laughing at conservapedia.  

also, conservapedia thinks that obama is a muslim and is convinced that he became president of the harvard law review because of affirmative action. if this is conservative reporting, then reality has a liberal bias. (i love this quote!)

while i’m not denigrating christians or their faith, i seriously feel that it’s better to wonder if i’m going to hell because i’m not a believer than to be convinced that i’m going to heaven despite being racist, ignorant, and obnoxious. the grey area in the middle, of course, will be to know that you’re going to heaven because you are a truly good christian, but i shall not talk about things that will only provoke and divide people. the purpose of this entry is to laugh at crazy people, not christianity. (however, i will suggest to the next person who tries to evangelise me that they should go clear up the problems in their own camp first rather than waste their time on peaceful non-believers like me.)

ignorant people exist everywhere. perhaps religion is only a contributing factor to this ignorance, because it provides such people with a dogma to adhere to, interpret, and throw around as they will. ultimately, it is education, open-mindedness, and tolerance that can save this conflict-ridden world we live in.

thinking out loud

recently i’ve been wasting a lot of time reading about the us election and obama’s victory (yay!) online…instead of doing my multitudes of work. yesterday i came across this article on how abortions has been, for once, a non-issue in the recent campaign, and how nuns and christians etc all over the country are now fearing for the millions more babies killed if a democratic president gets elected and supports “pro-choice” laws.

one thing i’ve always noted is the terminology “pro-choice”, as opposed to those “pro-life” on the other side of the issue. what is it about these people? being pro-choice doesn’t mean that you support abortion, or that you are anti-life. it only means that you don’t believe in outlawing it. why will pro-lifers insist on imposing their views on everyone else?

maybe it’s something about christianity as a whole which i’ve abhorred ever since i went into much closer contact with it in jc. (i refer to christianity because in articles, most pro-lifers referred to are christians. it’s just a generalisation of SOME pro-lifers) many christians have a very clear view of the world. they believe in what the bible tells them, what their pastor tells them, what their parents tell them. they believe in right and wrong. they believe that they are right, and that’s why they often seek to impose their views on people. i suppose we can’t really blame them for it. since christians believe that the information they get are facts, they seek to save the world by opening their eyes to them.

I’m not deriding christianity, or saying that their information is wrong. this is something which we will probably never know, until perhaps after we die. but the black-and-white approach that many christians subscribe to (i am only generalising here, please don’t take offense) is what leads to so much of the wrongs of the world. people are unable to understand each other because of this fundamental difference of beliefs. in the case of christianity, people want to evangelise for the good of society. they cannot comprehend that someone else’s definition of the “good of society” is different from theirs, and even if they did, their strong beliefs would lead them to be convinced that other people are wrong, and they are unfailingly right. and there we have an impasse. they impose their beliefs on others–others resist. therefore, crusades, jihads, and whatnot. the pro-life and the pro-choice. the way to “save millions of innocent babies from being murdered” and the right to choose.

while doing research for an essay in jc i came across this fact that shocked me at first. did you know that in singapore, girls below 16 can get an abortion without informing their parents? the rationale is that some desperate teenage girls will go to lengths to get rid of the baby without their parents knowing. if forced by legislation to inform their parents, some teenage girls would throw themselves down stairs, poke sharp objects into their bodies, go for unsafe back-alley abortions and even commit suicide. they would find a way to get rid of the baby some how. what use, then, is the law? of course, under the current system, the girls are still made to go through counselling, etc. it’s a surprisingly liberal law in conservative singapore, and actually a pretty sensible one.

if strong pro-lifers had their way, abortions would be outlawed in the world. imagine what would then happen. people always find ways to get around laws, especially when they are desperate. millions of girls and women would die from unsafe abortions. and why force a baby upon parents who don’t want it, and are not ready to raise it? the child would likely grow up neglected, and even perpetuate the cycle. surely, some things are worse than death. or maybe not, in some cases. there are too many shades of grey. this is what extreme religious and right-wing fanatics fail to comprehend. sometimes, there is just no right or wrong, and you have to let people choose for themselves what suits them best rather than adhering to a one-size-fits-all mentality. (on a side note, i HATE free-size clothes.)

religious beliefs should never have a place in politics. morals, yes, but not religion.

i need to add, however, that i greatly admire women who choose to continue unplanned pregnancies even when they are young, unmarried, and face great censure from society. it is a difficult and noble choice to make. still, this should remain a choice, and not a forced event.

another thing about this election that irks me is the millions of stupid people who insist that obama is a socialist that will destroy america as he will raise taxes and allow bums to not work, etc. and now these people are forecasting gloom and doom for america. OMG! sometimes the stupidity of a significant portion of the world really makes me want to tear my hair out. if they actually read and understood obama’s tax plans, they would realise that most americans would be getting a tax cut under him, better than what mccain would offer for them.

i don’t really think the world would be very much different under obama or mccain. both, i believe, will follow pretty centrist policies. however, sarah palin is horrifyingly ignorant, attacking obama on a whole host of issues which she barely understands and completely misinterprets. cnn fact-checker writers must be sniggering at her comments. and the people who support her…omg. phew, am happy that obama won!

a rare serious post! haha. back to work.

sian diao

OMG!!!! i TOTALLY hate it when people just do my work for me again even though i’ve already done it/plan to do it. seriously, i hate groupmates who work too hard and distrust others. they are seriously much worse than the kind who don’t do anything at all…

hell week, day 1, begins. 3 presentations and 2 final papers to go…

a dramatic weekend

what a weekend…my grandpa passed away peacefully, in his sleep, on friday. we knew he was weakening, but it was quite sudden all the same. then on saturday, my brother got bitten by a dog and hospitalised and there was a quartet performance on sunday.

i wonder though, whether it’s disrespectful to talk about the other two events together with my grandpa’s passing. however, i believe that he’s had a good long satisfying life and is now happy and at peace. i’ve always thought that i wouldn’t want to live that long–but perhaps when we do reach the age where we feel now that we would be happy to go (for me it’s around 60-70), we don’t want to go after all. the pull of life, of family may be too strong. my grandpa got to see two great-grandchildren this year, at the ripe old age of 93…maybe it’s worth living so long just for that.

*1 minute of silence*

anyway, my brother got bitten quite deeply on the hand by captain, and was yelling fit to kill in the kitchen. fortunately we were on our way out at the time so i could rush him to hospital right away. it turned out that he had to have an operation to clean the wound and stay in the hospital for 2 nights. “overkill”, was his comment. it seems that the cure was worse than the disease because his hand is still bandaged up and it hurts for him to even move his fingers. i suppose it’s better in the long run. anyway it’s all for free thanks to NS, haha. fortunately for captain, after some initial sian diao-ness, my brother is still going to try to rehabilitate his aggressiveness since he has a bit of time at home. on the other hand, i am going to stay far far away from him….he’s nice to look at from a distance. heh.

the quartet performance on sunday was lots of fun despite the bad timing. between shou ye-ing the funeral and my brother’s hospitalisation (guess who’s the one bringing him food and entertainment?) i was damn exhausted already and worrying that we hadn’t rehearsed enough. but this quartet is the most fun i’ve ever played with (even though i’m the lousiest player in it) and the people we played for were incredibly nice. they actually applauded us in between songs and later came to us just to tell us how much they enjoyed our playing. and it was lucky that they made requests for songs we just happened to have, and could play well.

it was a cocktail event, so there were waiters and waitresses walking around with trays of finger food. and the food was amazing. among the spread were prawn wonton on a spoon you could just pick up form the tray and eat in one bite, fantastic fish and chips in a little box, and the highlight of the night which i sneakily took a photo of… soba with crab meat and roe. faint!

not to mention that the host family kept offering us food…they’re that nice. and the dad insisted on offering us alcohol too. the red wine was so strong that i didn’t dare to actually drink it, my alcohol intolerance is ridiculous. i was convinced that the few sips i did take went straight to my head, to the spot between my eyes. was seriously considering pouring it into my cranberry juice so that i would look like i drank it. but it was fun anyway, haha.

the ntuso quartet! taken with timer and i couldn't get into position on time haha

balloons on the ceiling where we performed

 one of my last quartet opportunities ever…since i may be going overseas next semester, and anyway it’s time for me to grit my teeth and let the new cellists have a chance to play too. i’ve had my fun and should quit being selfish!

and only a little more than a week to the end of the semester. next week i have THREE presentations in 4 days. and 2 final papers due. ugh…less than one more month to suffer before the holidays!

random stupidity

“Dear Donation Beneficiary,

Unicef organisation world wide,is celebrating its 50th anniversary programme in
conjuction with prestigious bodies like,United nations(UN),European union(EU),Ecowas and Barcelona fc.

we are glad to notify you that you have been chosen by the board as one of the final recipients of
cash Grant/Donation of £200,000 GBP (Two hundreed thousand pounds) Among other 100 lucky recipipients
to receive the award for child development programme in accordance with the enabling act of Parliament.

Please endeavor to send the information below and remember to quote
your Qualification numbers (UCF/UN/EU/008) Ticket pin 21438700001 in all discussions,when
sending your claims inquiries to the Financial Officer.

1. Full Names: 2. Full Address 3.City 4.State 5. Zip 6.Country
7.Sex 8.Age 9.Occupation 10.Telephone Number

CONTACT PERSON
DR ADAMS WILLY
Executive Secretary,
UNICEF WEST AFRICA
Email: claims_unicef@hotmail.com
Tel;+2347035064732
+2348075260799

All information is strictly confidential and will only be used for the
purpose to which it is been requested.

On behalf of the Board, kindly accept our warmest congratulations. Pls
note that this is not a Hoax/Lottery of any Kind.We hope you use this grant toward
children development because they are the future leaders.

Regards.
Mrs.jennifer woody
Donation cordinator”

OMG! i seriously wonder how stupid someone must be in to actually be taken in by this scam. i am sure that unicef people can proofread their letters, spell and at the very least remember where to capitalise stuff. and unicef people will not use hotmail accounts. if their scam works, i can be a scammer too and earn lots of money with my university education.

lately i’ve been feeling extremely strongly about stupid people and their senseless doings. i curse rapists, wife-beaters, and old-people-cheaters who get away scot-free to burn in hell. man, i really hope that hell exists just for people like them.