Monthly Archive for July, 2007Page 2 of 3

Pet peeves

Published
by
acroamatic
on Friday, 13 July 2007
in Singaporeana
. 8 Comments

Revert

Revert is not a synonym for reply. It means to go back to the previous state.

I suspect this word became fashionable in the Civil Service because someone high up started using it erroneously. It trickled down the ranks and spread far and wide to the point that almost every civil servant I know uses it.

Irregardless

Unlike flammable and inflammable, irregardless and regardless should not be used interchangeably. Although the word exists, its use is generally discouraged. The wikipedia entry claims that it “seems to be moving in the direction of standardization” but no citation was given for that assertion.

Double confirm

To confirm is to confirm. You can’t double confirm something. What you can do is to double-check (or double check).

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I Do

Published
by
acroamatic
on Tuesday, 10 July 2007
in Learning and Personal
. 2 Comments

Do you?

How do you use ‘do’?

I’ve been wondering about this for a long time. When is it acceptable to use ‘do’?

For example, what’s the difference between: “I appreciate it” and “I do appreciate it”?

Emphasis?

Hmmm…

I’m not sure. Sometimes, it sounds wrong. Sometimes it sounds right. I can’t seem to tell when.

English experts… please help!

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Red Dot Design Museum and Singapore City Gallery

Published
by
acroamatic
on Saturday, 7 July 2007
in Review
. 0 Comments

This afternoon, I dropped by MAAD at the Red Dot Design Museum. MAAD is an art market which takes place every first weekend of the month. There were a few stalls which I had seen at the recent Fort Canning Art Market. Still, there weren’t too many repeats, as it were. A number of stalls which were not at Fort Canning were at MAAD.

It’s nice to see these art markets flourishing. I’m not sure how much money the artists/designers make from weekends like these but from what I observed, some are doing quite well. Knotty Biscie definitely has a fan in my friend, Ee!

I enjoyed having a look at what was on offer. After looking at the wares on sale, Ee and I chilled out at the Pacific Coffee joint at the museum. Her coffee was strong, and my Hot Chocolate was thick. Excellent stuff. The place was not crowded. It’s a nice place to lounge around on a weekend afternoon. Oh, and there’s free wireless too.

We were going to meet Mala for dinner but there was time to kill. The Singapore City Gallery is near Red Dot, so I suggested that we check it out.

Despite having been there twice before, I hadn’t realised that what I saw of the gallery was just a fraction of the whole area. The City Gallery is spread over three floors. The highlight is the huge model of Singapore. Most of the HDB flats in Singapore are depicted in the model, so it’s quite fun to try and spot where your flat is in the model. It’s a challenge because the flats are really small. There is also a model of the city area which features life-like representations of the buildings in the city, all relatively to scale.

The parts that I hadn’t explored were on the third floor. There was lots to learn about land use. A section concentrated on shophouses, showing how they have changed over time and pointing out their significance in our landscape and heritage.

I thoroughly enjoyed going round the gallery. It warrants a repeat visit.

If you’re a geography/heritage/map geek or if you just enjoy looking at things in perspective, you’ll have fun at the Singapore City Gallery!

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Penrod Dean, the True Survivor

Published
by
acroamatic
on Thursday, 5 July 2007
in Heritage and Review
. 6 Comments

Singapore SamuraiSiva loaned me his treasured copy of Singapore Samurai last week. If you manage to get hold of this book - it’s out of print - you must read it.

In a nutshell, the book is about an exceptional Australian soldier during World War II. His first hand account read like a fast-moving tv series. Penrod Dean, who passed away last year, wastes no time in plunging straight into the action. In part, it is his breezy writing style. Being thrust to the battlefront of retreating forces created a sense of urgency barely a chapter into the book. The pace relented only after the Japanese surrendered. Even then, his amazing story continued.

(Spoiler alert: This review is more of a book summary. I’m so amazed by Penrod V. Dean’s journey that I had to share it. But I think you’ll probably want to read his book even more after reading this!)

Dean was an officer with the 2/4th Machine Gun Battalion, Australian Imperial Force. He arrived in Singapore almost at the same time the Japanese began their attack on the island. Forced straight into action, he soon lost contact with his battalion, which had retreated without him.

While looking for his battalion, he stumbled upon the Malay Regiment and joined them in the defence of the Pasir Panjang/Buona Vista (he spelt it ‘Buena’) area. He found them to be good soldiers, which is lofty praise as he was highly critical of most other individuals and groups - fellow countrymen and allies included - throughout the story. Dean used the words “stupid” and “stupidity” quite often.

Continue reading ‘Penrod Dean, the True Survivor’

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One man’s trash is another man’s artifact - Invisible City previewed

Published
by
acroamatic
on Wednesday, 4 July 2007
in Heritage and Singaporeana
. 1 Comment

Invisible City eFlyer

Last night, Coleman previewed Invisible City, a documentary by Tan Pin Pin. He writes about… rubbish! Well, he wasn’t saying the film was rubbish, far from it! He was reflecting about how the film made him think about what we consider to be trash:

What do we do with rubbish? We discard it… But fast forward a millennium or two, the rubbish we try so hard to discard may become a treasure for some in that generation. Just ask the archaeologists.

I can’t help but consider how some of us view mundane self-exhibitionistic blogger-diarists who blog about mundane happenings in their life… Maybe it’s digital rubbish to us today. But a century from now, it might become an important digital archaeological site to help future generations to understand this generation.

Or that Yeo Hiap Seng bottle that the naughty schoolboy conveniently discarded into the bushes in 1959 - that might turn out to be a notable find for an archaeologist today in Singapore. Which I learnt to be true today, while watching Tan Pin Pin’s new documentary, Invisible City.

Or Ivan Polunin’s colour footage of the streets and markets of Singapore in the 50s, also shown in Invisible City. Those scenes would have been boring if you were to watch it 50 years ago, but there I was a just now, staring intently and soaking in those fascinating mundane scenes: a lady at the market choosing an egg, a man pushing a cart of food, the colourful pillars of the shophouses…

I’m definitely going to enjoy this when it opens! Oh, just found Yawning Bread’s review in my feeds too.

Screening Information
Invisible City will run at The Arts House (Old Parliament),
from 22 July to 12 August 2007.
Tickets at $8 for adults and $6 for students (with ID).

There will be three preview screenings prior to those dates. Free admission is by registration only:

  • 19 July 2007, 8pm at the University Cultural Centre, NUS
    (What’s this pop up to tell me to use IE?? Grrr…)
    For registration, email cfaregister [at] nus [d0t] edu [d0t] sg or call 6516 4229.
  • 20 July 2007,8pm at 72-13
    For registration, email tworks [at] singnet [d0t] com [d0t] sg or call 6737 7213.
  • 21 July 2007, 8pm at The Substation.
    For registration, email movingimages [at] substation [d0t] org or call 6337 7535.
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