Archive for the 'Musings' Category

Sweet Exchange

Picnic at Changi Beach

Sometimes Often, I read stuff in the papers that makes my eyes roll. On Saturday, I came across yet another example. (I’ve quoted the relevant bit.)

Making friends or making out?

In one game, female students were made to exchange sweets with male students using their mouths as they sat in a circle.

Oh no, the end of civilisation is near. This type of thing has never happened before. Now, our youths are going to become decadent degenerates.

Let’s take a step back and consider this:

If you have had a good upbringing, are such games going to unleash a torrent of horniness in you?

If the games can induce such behaviour, I suggest that it is the youths’ parents who are at fault.

Anyway, all this is not new. Maybe our parents, aunties or uncles might have played this game in their youth.

I don’t think they turned out for the worse.

Screenshot from Phillip Chew’s blog.

Similar Posts

I hate Math, but I am open to persuasion

Learning maths contextualize as a teenage girl's diary

If the lady above looks sort of familiar, she’s the actress who played Winnie Cooper in The Wonder Years.

I was aware she is some sort of maths whiz, but I didn’t know she had a book out.

The question is, who is going to buy her book? *scratch chin* Definitely not Singaporean students. “Fractions, decimals and percents”? Our primary school students eat those (unfortunately) for recess. Perhaps I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.

While I have no idea what’s in the book, maybe something like this would have gotten me interested in mathematics. Sine, cosine, tangent, what? Differentiation? Integration? Proving this equals that?

Could never see how it was applicable in my life, and I still wonder how knowing (or at least, trying to know) all that helped me. The exception was statistics, which was mildly intriguing and probably the only reason I didn’t fail both O and A Level Mathematics.

Thanks, Kevin - incidentally, the male lead character’s name in The Wonder Years - for this (reminder of Danica McKellar, not Mathematics) little blast from the past. =)

Original photo by Kevin Lim, from here, reproduced under a cc by-nc-sa 2.0 license.

Similar Posts

New customer service paradigm

I'm Chokin My X-Servrz Opr8rz (by libraryman)

On the bus this morning, I remembered reading about customer service in yesterday’s ST. The main thrust of the article was that Singaporeans love to bitch and moan about things in private, both online and offline. Not many want to make a stand by sending in an official complaint or take their grievances up to CASE.

Must a complaint be sent through official channels before it is acted upon?

No doubt most blog owners consider their blogs their own personal sphere. Those really paranoid about privacy will have totally private blogs. The rest are at least vaguely aware that anything they say there can be surfaced elsewhere. It’s probably a “it’ll never happen to my blog ‘cos I don’t say anything of public consequence” mentality. So, those who complain on their blogs never expect anything to be done about it.

This is an opportunity to surprise customers!

There are many tools to track mentions of your product/service(s). Google Alerts is a good place to start. Subscribe you your company’s name or some other relevant terms. Let the complaints and compliments - bloggers do give praise when its warranted - go straight to your inbox.

The rest, as SDU once (in)famously proclaimed, is up to you. =)

Do note, if your product/service name is too generic, trying to track online mentions might be tricky.

Photo by Michael Porter, from here,
reproduced under a CC by-nc-sa 2.0 licence.

Similar Posts

The Fugitive - Singapore Style

The Fugitive - Singapore Style

Ok, I know everyone is more up to date with their Prison Break/Toilet Break witticisms regarding one Mas Selamat Kastari. I have been quietly observing what’s gone on and reading what’s been written the past week. So far, it has been one cock-up after another.

Unlike some articles in the Straits Times and letters from the public to the same paper, I believe we can stop patting ourselves on the back for banding together during this calamitous period. We should also be questioning the actions being taken and the statements being made, right here, right now, rather than have this “let’s concentrate on what is important - bringing him back into custody - rather than apportioning blame at the moment” sentiment.

I’ve had this niggling suspicion that all is not right. You see, the incompetence and lack of urgency that led to MSK’s escape, is going to help him stay on the loose. Today, I read in the papers what I think is the final straw.

Assistant Commissioner (AC) Wong said it was not made public earlier as the authorities needed to ascertain what Mas Selamat had with him when he fled.

Also, they did not want the public to have the ‘fixation’ with a particular attire as the fugitive could have already changed his clothes.

‘We believe he had all these items with him…but by now, he would be able to change into any attire,’ he said.

So, let’s recap:

  • Four hours before alerting the public when early information could have helped. (We still have not been told how long it was between his escape and the time the staff at the detention centre realised he escaped.)
  • A day or two before a proper description was available. (Flyers with his photo were pasted all over the place but did not have information about height and build.*)
  • And after a few more days, a clarification that his supposed limp is only visible when he is walking fast or running.
  • Finally, after a week, we know what he was wearing. Was being the operative word.

Does one week strike anyone as being an extremely long time to be absolutely sure about what he was wearing when he escaped? Doesn’t this detention centre have CCTVs? Don’t the guards have their eyes peeled?

If I am being unreasonable or nonsensical, please let me know because I am not anonymous, nor do I think I have crossed the line of morality and decency.

Blogging louts: BLOGGERS are having a field day. What is despicable is that some bloggers who take refuge under the cloak of anonymity or pseudonymity have crossed the line of morality and decency - Lionel De Souza in yesterday’s ST Forum.

The reason we are having a ‘field day’ is that there are so many questions and so few answers. The people want some real accountability. Not some petty claptrap argument alluding that pseudonymous criticism should be invalid.

UPDATE *Spotted new flyers during lunch, stating his height in bold. Older flyers with the limp information (pun intended) in bold are still to be found around though.

Similar Posts

Leadership by example

It is not a pay cut.

It may not have any real impact on the economy.

It might just be a token move to score points with the people.

But at least Australian PM Kevin Rudd isn’t trying to justify ever-increasing world-leading remuneration for him and his colleagues in parliament while telling people to cut costs by buying no-frills home brand stuff in the face of increasing costs of everything under the sun.

We just want a small iota to indicate that our gahmen cares about its people. That they are not just serving their own needs. Then again, whatever they do, it will never be enough.

That’s the irony of our country. We have been thoroughly drilled with the idea that what we have is never enough. It is our prime motivation. It is what keeps our economy ticking. The obssession with money and economic prosperity is what made Singapore the country it is today, for better or worse.

Similar Posts