Comments, opinions and an occasional ramble
Others
All good things must come to an end
Jul 7th
I think the title says it all: blogging activity will cease on this blog soon.
No, it’s not because I’m disillusioned with blogging, the state of Singapore’s blogosphere, the state of Singaporean netizens, or the government. Neither is it because I’ve been “asked” by _________ (fill in the blank with a government security organization) to cease blogging.
Lots of things have changed since I started this blog in 2006. I graduated with my first degree, started on and am about to complete my second degree, got a job, got a house, got married, developed new interests and most importantly, grew older. It’s not that I’m no longer interested in blogging. It’s just that this blog reflects a chapter of my life and I think it’s time to bring that chapter to an end.
Looking back, I’ve dealt with many topics and issues on this blog, and in a fairly disorganized way. It’s going to be a huge mess to reorganize everything on this blog considering how much content there is, so I’m just going to stop updating this blog and start anew.
Over the next few months, I’ll most likely roll out a series of specialized blogs based on personal interests. There are a few interests I’ve been pursuing and I would like to blog about them in separate, specialized blogs. If you haven’t realised, I’m not turning in my blogging badge but rather, I’m taking my blogging activity in another direction.
This blog will be preserved. There are entries that people still read and comment on, and I want to keep the conversation going. So, comments are still enabled on this blog, and the content will be available for as long as I can afford a web server, but for fresh content, you’ll need to look somewhere else. Once I’m done with reorganization, I’ll update this blog one last time with the locations of the new blogs.
It’s been a great ride since 2006, but it’s time for some fresh air.
Media Literacy in Asia: New Developments
May 17th
There will be an upcoming conference in June by the International Communication Association, and as part of the conference, there are a series of preconferences, of which this one about media literacy in Asia seems pretty interesting: http://www.icahdq.org/conferences/2010/preconference/cam.asp
Note that a registration fee is needed if you are interested to attend.
An update on future blog updates
Oct 28th
I will be updating this blog much less frequently for the next year ,as I will be preparing for my Chinese customary wedding and dinner banquet, which is scheduled for December 2010.
For long time readers, you should already know that I’ve been legally married more than two years ago, but my wife and I have held back our customary wedding because we weren’t financially ready to bear the high costs of a banquet back then. I wouldn’t say that I’m now completely financially comfortable, but at least it’s not so bad.
I’ll be updating a new blog I’ve set up specially for my Chinese customary wedding more frequently than this blog, so if you want to keep in touch with what’s happening in my life, head on over to the new blog, which primarily chronicles the steps towards holding a Chinese customary wedding, as well as the heartaches and happy moments that occur in between.
Just when I thought I was done ranting about ST
Aug 6th
I ranted about Straits Times a couple of days ago over the quality of their content, and today I just had to see something to make me rant again. This time, it’s not even about quality of content; it’s about their atrocious quality of writing and editing. Bad content, bad writing and editing. Can our flagship English newspaper sink any lower?
Here’s the problematic lead paragraph (original article here):
WHILE most offenders appeal in the hope of lowering their sentences, 18-year-old Danny Koh Jia Gui asked an appeal judge to be jailed and caned instead of having to undergo reformative training.
The confusing part is in bold. The sentence construction conveys the meaning that Koh had asked for the jailing and caning of the judge instead of asking for the judge to jail and cane Koh. The copy editor was obviously SLEEPING on the job. If I were the copy editor, I would have rewritten the lead paragraph as follows:
While most offenders appeal in the hope of lowering their sentences, 18-year-old Danny Koh Jia Gui asked an appeal judge to impose a jail sentence and caning instead of reformative training.
The rewritten paragraph has the same number of words with much greater clarity in meaning.
Sigh.
Update:
I just realised the Straits Time put up a rewritten story, and the original that I read was posted up yesterday, but a new version put up today. It seems like they have quality control problems, but as always, they try to secretly change the story and hope nobody notices instead of admitting they screwed up.
The first version I read:
The second version
The meaning of death
Jun 11th
I’m supposed to be working hard on my Masters thesis, but for the past week, I’ve been spending some time pondering the meaning of death because my wife’s co-supervisor at MIT, Professor David Schauer, suddenly passed away.
I’ve not had the chance to know him very well, but the few times I’ve met him and talked to him, it’s clear as day to me that he’s a wonderful person. He’s soft-spoken, patient, kind and caring towards people. He was due to spend a year in Singapore in a few months, and I was looking forward to knowing him better and showing him around Singapore.
His departure came as a shock to me, although I’m definitely not as badly affected as my wife and the other members of his lab. However, it did make me ponder the meaning of death, a topic in the deepest recesses of my mind in recent times. And, I think I’ve decided what death means to me.
Death is not the mourning of demise, but a celebration of having lived life.
When it’s my turn to leave, I hope people who still remember me will smile, and for those who have to shed tears, let it be tears of joy.
The way forward
Jun 8th
This blog has not been updated for a while, and I don’t know if I’ll continue to update it with the intensity of the past. It’s a combination of factors for the lack of updates but generally, I guess the fire in the belly has fizzled considerably, perhaps due to age, work, married life, new life interests and other factors that I’m unable to pinpoint.
I guess I’ll probably still write on this blog sporadically. There are many voices these days commenting on the gamut of socio-political-economic issues in Singapore society today that perhaps my views are perhaps unnecessary, except for a niche group of people who bother checking this blog every now and then. Nonetheless, I still want to document my views from time to time, and perhaps some years down the road when I do a proper content analysis of my blog I will be surprised to find out how I’ve changed through the years.
Till the next entry.
The best Jobs Credit analysis
Feb 10th
The Kway Teow Man has posted, in my opinion, the best analysis of the Jobs Credit scheme. He is all for Jobs Credit (as I am), and he explains in a very easy to understand way why Jobs Credit is a viable scheme. It’s something extremely worth reading, although it is insanely long.
If you have already made up your mind that the Jobs Credit is a piece of thrash, then don’t bother reading because you won’t be able to appreciate the arguments. The PAP doesn’t get things right all the time, but the Jobs Credit Scheme is a pretty decent piece of policy in my opinion, and it doesn’t deserve the brickbats that have been hurled at it.
And if your instinct is to call me a PAP Youth member after reading this entry, please save your time. You are not the first, and you won’t be the last, and I don’t care. I don’t live in pigeon holes, unlike you.
Brands’ Singapore-Malaysia blogger challenge
Dec 3rd
As part of my new year resolution (I know it’s not 2009 yet but I’m trying to keep the momentum), I’m going to make a second post in a single day.
Some of you might know that Brands, most famous for their chicken essence, organised a Singapore-Malaysia blogger challenge today, the first of its kind (or at least, it’s the first I know of). Basically, it’s a competition between a team of 5 Singaporean bloggers and 5 Malaysian bloggers. Representing Singapore were Eastcoastlife, Mr Endoh, Wilfrid Wong, Sheylara and myself. Malaysia was represented by Red Mummy, Sultan Mufazzar, KY, Suanie and Capt’n Hook, who was standing in for Babe in the City – KL.
I got the invitation from Brands because Eastcoastlife recommended me. Prior to this, I’ve not been in contact with her and I was kinda wondering why she recommended me, especially when this blog has been in graveyard status for a while. I kinda put the thing on the back burner due to more pressing deadlines as a student and teacher but eventually, I said yes because I was assured it wasn’t anything too onerous (thankfully, they didn’t bluff me on this count).
So, I had been drinking a bottle of chicken essence every day for the past two weeks as part of the preparation for the challenge, along with trying out the set of puzzles Brands gave to the bloggers who were to take part in the challenge. I realised I suck at certain types of mental challenges, which thankfully my team mates today more than made up for. I was a little disappointed that logic type of questions weren’t featured, though. I guess those questions typically take much more time to solve so the organisers probably decided to go for questions involving memory, concentration and simple arithmetic.
In the end, Team Singapore won the challenge, but not by much. The final score was 47-54. I remarked to Endoh and Eastcoastlife’s husband (who was there with us) that it looked like a great 4D number. Let’s see if the number will be today’s 4D draw’s top prize. It certainly felt good to win the challenge but what was even better was to meet fellow bloggers and get to know more of the actual person behind the blog. I had a really great time chatting with Eastcoastlife, Endoh, Wilfrid and Sheylara. They are extremely easy-going, friendly, and more importantly, funny and humourous folks. I’m certainly glad to have the chance to meet them in person today.
It was also really cool to chat with the Malaysian bloggers too. Socio-political stuff is one of the things I dabble in on this blog so it was an eye-opener to hear from some of the Malaysian bloggers the situation for Malaysian bloggers who choose to dabble in socio-political topics in Malaysia. Of course, these bloggers are not exactly a good representation of Malaysian bloggers by academic standards but after talking to some of them, I get the sense that Singaporean socio-political bloggers have it really good compared to them.
I don’t have pictures because I didn’t bring a camera (it’s half-way round the globe in Massachusetts with my wife). Wilfrid, however, had this ultra professional digital SLR which he was constantly snapping pictures with, so I guess he’ll probably put up more pictures on his site once he gets the chance to sit down and download them from his SLR so check his site for pictures.
It’s now time for me to get back to work and I’ll try and post an entry on my thoughts about the Bangkok crisis in a couple of days. I consider myself to be a liberal in terms of my political views but what’s happening in Bangkok has made me revise my position a little, which I’ll talk about in my next entry.
Albert Einstein’s thoughts on society
Aug 22nd
Albert Einstein is famous for being a physicist but it seems that he has plenty to say outside of physics. He has many interesting thoughts on society and here are some quotes taken from his book, “The World As I See It” (1949), which I think is worth pondering.
Two quotes on political systems:
“My political ideal is democracy. Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized. It is an irony of fate that I myself have been the recipient of excessive admiration and reverence from my fellow-beings, through no fault, and no merit, of my own. The cause of this may well be the desire, unattainable for many, to understand the few ideas to which I have with my feeble powers attained through ceaseless struggle. I am quite aware that for any organization to reach its goals, one man must do the thinking and directing and generally bear the responsibility. But the led must not be coerced, they must be able to choose their leader.”
An autocratic system of coercion, in my opinion, soon degenerates. For force always attracts men of low morality, and I believe it to be an invariable rule that tyrants of genius are succeeded by scoundrels. For this reason I have always been passionately opposed to systems such as we see in Italy and Russia to-day.
On the need for a military:
He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. This disgrace to civilisation should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, deplorable love-of-country stance, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.
I have plenty of food for thought for the rest of the week.
Survey Participants Needed
May 9th
No, I am not doing a survey but rather, someone contacted me and requested help in getting survey participants. If you are kind enough to assist, please help her out. The details of the survey are as follows:
A NTU Masters student is conducting an Internet survey on “Internet Users’ Perceptions of Socio-Political Blog Credibility in Singapore”. The survey comprises of 19 questions and will take approximately 10 minutes to complete. This survey will run throughout May 2008 and respondents stand a chance of winning $200 cash.
If interested, please click here.
Recent Comments