Hear Ye! Hear Ye!
Comments, opinions and an occasional ramble
Bangkok, here I come!
May 4th
I’ll be leaving for Bangkok tomorrow. Taking the 8.15am flight, so got to be at the airport at the unearthly hour of 6am! Oh well, it’s a once in a year trip so I’m not going to bitch about the time.
It’s been a good 5 years since I was last in Bangkok. I do wonder how much change has there been. I don’t suppose that cheap food and shopping has changed, and that’s the most important! Shop shop shop shop shop shop!!!!! I need new clothes badly, and I shall go shop a year’s supply this trip. I’m bringing an almost empty luggage case along, and I’m expecting it to be filled up when I’m back 
Thankfully, I don’t have to vote because my GRC is a walkover. However, I wish I got the chance to vote. More on that in my next post, after the elections are over. I don’t want to risk defying the ban on Internet political discussion. More on that later.
The exams are O.V.E.R.
Apr 27th
Yeah, it’s finally over for the semester! The end of semester was quite a nightmare really, trying to get everything over and done with. As usual, I survive without much of a scratch, although I must say that it’s the toughest semester to date in terms of the number of projects to do.
Now, it’s time to look forward to Bangkok and then my internship at IMH!!! And of course not forgetting the newspaper that will put the ST to shame!
Would you like a copy of LaVoz?
Apr 11th
I just came back from hearing a proposal to start a campus newspaper, and the name of the newspaper is “LaVoz”.
I did not make the name up. In fact, I don’t think I will ever think of such a name for a newspaper that purports independent news reporting and first class journalism. I don’t know what kind of publication would the name “LaVoz” be suitable for. A Spanish version of FHM?
I was so glad that someone raised a very important question. The person was thoroughly confused as to how can the paper be independent in news coverage and reporting when funding is being sought from NUS. Those guys tried to explain it away saying it’s temporary, and that they will go independent after breaking even.
Yeah, even if it’s temporary, that means that your content will be constrained until you go independent. Period. So much for independent news reporting. It is a fact of life that if I am having you only my payroll, you jolly well do what I say or else you are out. Seems to me that those people don’t even understand this basic point. I don’t know what world they are living in, but I’m quite sure it’s not the Earth.
Looking at their business plan, they aim to break even after 10 issues. Wow. A free newspaper printing bi-weekly with a target circulation of more than 20,000 copies per issue is aiming to break even after ten issues. Let me see, Streats and Today had a few hundred thousand copies circulating daily, and they bled right to the end, until SPH and Mediacorp decided that it’s stupid to bleed red ink and merged the two papers. Looks like they need to read newspapers to get themselves updated with news before they start thinking about publishing an actual newspaper.
Looking at what they called “a close approximation” of their actual product, I wonder who would read it. I’ve never seen a newspaper the size of the New Paper having 5-6 narrow columns of text. Each column is about the width of your index and middle finger put together. Would you read such a paper? Not to mention, pages 1-4 has serif font size 11, pages 5 – 7 has serif font size 10 and then pages 8-10 has sans serif fonts. According to someone from the audience, there were free copies of the Financial Times being circulated and the canteen aunties took some of it to wrap fish. I’m betting to my last dollar that the canteen aunties can have unlimited supply of LaVoz to wrap their fish because no one will bother to read such an appallingly designed newspaper.
Well, I suppose all the grouses that I have up to now would be acceptable if the content is good, but unfortunately, content is the horror of horrors. No news sense, writing like they are writing academic papers or worse, compositions. I have no idea how their professor could say that the content is good. As much as I dislike the New Paper for its contents, I have to say that in comparison, the New Paper is 1000000000000000 times better.
My conclusion? It’s just like how I concluded my previous post. Thrash will always be thrash. Period.
David versus Goliath
Apr 11th
Clement gave me 2 missed calls and an sms asking me to call him back, saying that it’s urgent.
Turned out that another group of students he talked to about starting a campus wide newspaper had secured a huge amount of funding. He was worried that our group would be “squashed like ants”.
Well, he certainly had a point. Money is important, for without it, how are you going to get things done these days? Having said that, money is not everything. I was appalled to hear that group of student asking Clement how much money he wanted if he were to work under them.
It certainly seems to me that those students are primarily thinking of the campuswide newspaper as a business rather than a real newspaper. Sorry to disappoint but journalists don’t write to be paid big bucks. If I don’t believe that your newspaper is in the public interest, even if you pay me ten thousand a month to write, I won’t join you (then again, I might consider joining because if you are stupid enough to let me rip you off, I will not be stupid and WILL rip you off).
The core group of us believe in bringing timely, well-written and independent news and viewpoints for the campus community. The campus publications we have now are lacking in both bite and taste, and it sends shudders down all of our necks to read them. Frankly, to achieve our aim of bringing timely, well-written and independent news, we don’t really care if we get any money out of it or not.
If there is going to be a clash between us and them, I look forward to having a rival. In terms of financial muscle, my group’s David and the other group Goliath. However, we all know how the story ended. My team will deliver quality, quite simply because we have all the best writers there are on campus. Undergraduates are a picky bunch; if you don’t have quality, your paper is going into the thrash can. And, no amount of marketing or window dressing can beautify thrash.
Thrash will always be thrash. Period.
A really cool Servant
Apr 11th
Well, I didn’t have a very good opinion about Servant Archer at the start of the Fate/Stay Night series. However, episode 14 changed my mind, so much so that even the header image has been changed to him!
Here’s a screenshot of Servant Archer versus Servant Berserker, which unfortunately, Archer lost and he’s gone. =(
How to solo Roshan: Last Installment
Apr 8th
No Divine Rapier, no double damage runes, and best of all, no Aegis of the Immortal or Satanic.
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