I should never be allowed near people when I'm in the midst of PMS (-_-!)
The mood swings have been getting progressively stronger as I grow older for some reason. I don't know whether this is due to 1) Me eating less sugar than I did in school 2) My hormones going out of biological whack 3) My overactive imagination
It's nuts! I wake up in the morning, somewhat ok, a bit of running nose from a bout of cold, but ok. Then I walk out for breakfast, and I get depressed thinking about my life, my work, my relationship, and I swing the other way. As in down, down, down the other way.
If I meet a friend, or if I'm with someone, my moods stabilize, or I swing towards the upwards way. [reminiscient now of several very, very unsavoury jokes I cracked about someone when out with Candle and Yenn. hm, could've been due to that.]
And now I just chatted to DF online, and in a mood of crankiness typed out something to him [for privacy's sake, I'm not putting it out here, ya? You never know who's reading these days] He replied with something else, and I tried to explain, and he asked some more, and I ended the whole thing with "must be a miscomm" (-_-!)
And I dunno whether HE's cranky at me now, cos it almost 'read' like that on MSN, but I feel cranky at myself now, and his words almost look as if he's mad at me, for one stupid statement typed the wrong way, and I'm alternating between 'pissed' and 'upset' and I hate this biological cycle and I hate these swings, and my brother is hounding me for HIS turn on the PC and I'm now like "URGH!"
I need a nice, huge milkshake........................... preferably vanilla........................
With ice cream................................
Thursday, June 16, 2005
I'm baaaacccckkkkk.............
Yea, my 'break' from the com worked better this time. 2 whole days away from the Net! A new record! *breaks open the Johnnie walker* And how did I do it, without severe withdrawal symptoms and chaining the computer shut?
Er, a new anime DVD set. :p
Much obliged to Yenn who purchased the Twelve Kingdoms DVD set for me. O yay mi canto!!! :D :D :D In my last few obligation-free afternoons, I've been watching this fantastic series over again, filling in the blanks where I missed the episode on Arts Central.
The cast of the Twelve Kingdoms. Click here for more information on the series
So it's been a pretty, heh, uneventful time for me :p the highlight of the week being the sneak preview of Batman Begins I watched with Yenn last night. It's not a bad movie, but I'm prejudiced by the fan syndrome. Which means when I see parts that never happened in the original Batman mythology, I get a sense of fan-righteous indignation. And trust me, that happens quite a bit. :p [though not as bad as when I watched the X-men movie]
So lemme spice up my blog with something ordinary [and non-political. No more of those, ugh! Too many comments!]
I went to my tuition kid's place just the other day, hoping to receive my pay for the month. Instead, she tells me that she hadn't got the money, and that she'd pay me next week.
I wondered why, since this lesson was originally a postponement of a previous lesson last week, which means her parents must've given her the cash already.
This is the story she told me: :S
"I was sick that day, that's why I had to cancel tuition at the last minute [tuition with me, in which I was going to get paid] and I used the money to take a cab go to the doctor."
Me: "There're tons of doctors 5 minutes from your house."
"My dad insisted I go to his company doctor at Peninsula Plaza. (I wonder at some parents sometimes. Your kid is sick, and you ask her to go all the way to city to see doctor? And doesn't the savings on the doctor bill get wiped out by the cab fare she incurred while going there?) So I took a cab there with my brother.
So around 1/4 of the money went towards the cab fare, and the doctor's fees." [fair enough, I grudgingly grant you this, since you were sick]
"Then we went to Adam Road for dinner, and spent about $90."
KUSO KITANAI! [I didn't really blurt that out in front of her] How did you spend so much at a hawker centre of all places???
"We took a cab to Adam Road [by this time, the brother's girlfriend had also joined in] and we ordered a loooot of food. We ordered barbequed stingray, mee goreng, roti john, etc etc etc" The rest of the food were lost to my brain. 2 thoughts circled in my brain, mainly my money! and sick also can eat so much ah?
How da fish could 3 people have eaten so much bloody food and spent so much money at a hawker centre, for pete's sake?? Even when my family of 4 go out to eat, we don't even spend more than $50 at most, food and drinks! [and those who've seen my family know that we are no small eaters] And all out of MY PAY?????
The story continues "Then we had to send my brother's girlfriend home, and she lived in Depot road." And again, the brother's girlfriend's cab fare came out of MY PAY. KNS. "And then we made our way back home."
Excuse my French, but I feel very xiaxue-ish right about now. KNS! Take my money and then spend until like that! Brother's girlfriend cabfare also paid by ME! And because of that I have to go back to her house on another day to get the cash! (-_-!) If she even remembered to get it from her parents!
This is ridiculous expenditure man. $90 just to eat at a hawker centre? And then got to send the girlfriend back home somemore? Doesn't the brother have his own money at all???
I'm not pissed that she used the money to go to the doctor. I'm even ok with her using it to take cab there, since I know how sucky it can be to take a bus when you're sick. What I'm pissed about is that she and her brother seems to have freely spent my hard-earned money, and also her parents' hard earned money, to just buy anything they want and of all things, to send girlfriend back home!
And I'm extra pissed because I need the cash, being short of cash this June holidays. I still owe Yenn and my brother money, and I need the cash to pay them back, [at least partially, anyway] and also for my own expenditure. I'm already short and needy of cash this period, and this girl and her brother just freely spent my pay like nobody's business, and just nonchalantly think that they can just postpone my payment.
KUSO. Blardy irritating students.......
Ok, ok, to calm down, here's something for all of you to play with.
Typedrawing is an online drawing pad, that allows you to do text-based drawings. As an example, this is one that I did. Click to go see.
Cute eh? The site even allows you to upload your work, and display to everyone. :D
To try it out, go here
Yea, my 'break' from the com worked better this time. 2 whole days away from the Net! A new record! *breaks open the Johnnie walker* And how did I do it, without severe withdrawal symptoms and chaining the computer shut?
Er, a new anime DVD set. :p
Much obliged to Yenn who purchased the Twelve Kingdoms DVD set for me. O yay mi canto!!! :D :D :D In my last few obligation-free afternoons, I've been watching this fantastic series over again, filling in the blanks where I missed the episode on Arts Central.
The cast of the Twelve Kingdoms. Click here for more information on the series
So it's been a pretty, heh, uneventful time for me :p the highlight of the week being the sneak preview of Batman Begins I watched with Yenn last night. It's not a bad movie, but I'm prejudiced by the fan syndrome. Which means when I see parts that never happened in the original Batman mythology, I get a sense of fan-righteous indignation. And trust me, that happens quite a bit. :p [though not as bad as when I watched the X-men movie]
So lemme spice up my blog with something ordinary [and non-political. No more of those, ugh! Too many comments!]
I went to my tuition kid's place just the other day, hoping to receive my pay for the month. Instead, she tells me that she hadn't got the money, and that she'd pay me next week.
I wondered why, since this lesson was originally a postponement of a previous lesson last week, which means her parents must've given her the cash already.
This is the story she told me: :S
"I was sick that day, that's why I had to cancel tuition at the last minute [tuition with me, in which I was going to get paid] and I used the money to take a cab go to the doctor."
Me: "There're tons of doctors 5 minutes from your house."
"My dad insisted I go to his company doctor at Peninsula Plaza. (I wonder at some parents sometimes. Your kid is sick, and you ask her to go all the way to city to see doctor? And doesn't the savings on the doctor bill get wiped out by the cab fare she incurred while going there?) So I took a cab there with my brother.
So around 1/4 of the money went towards the cab fare, and the doctor's fees." [fair enough, I grudgingly grant you this, since you were sick]
"Then we went to Adam Road for dinner, and spent about $90."
KUSO KITANAI! [I didn't really blurt that out in front of her] How did you spend so much at a hawker centre of all places???
"We took a cab to Adam Road [by this time, the brother's girlfriend had also joined in] and we ordered a loooot of food. We ordered barbequed stingray, mee goreng, roti john, etc etc etc" The rest of the food were lost to my brain. 2 thoughts circled in my brain, mainly my money! and sick also can eat so much ah?
How da fish could 3 people have eaten so much bloody food and spent so much money at a hawker centre, for pete's sake?? Even when my family of 4 go out to eat, we don't even spend more than $50 at most, food and drinks! [and those who've seen my family know that we are no small eaters] And all out of MY PAY?????
The story continues "Then we had to send my brother's girlfriend home, and she lived in Depot road." And again, the brother's girlfriend's cab fare came out of MY PAY. KNS. "And then we made our way back home."
Excuse my French, but I feel very xiaxue-ish right about now. KNS! Take my money and then spend until like that! Brother's girlfriend cabfare also paid by ME! And because of that I have to go back to her house on another day to get the cash! (-_-!) If she even remembered to get it from her parents!
This is ridiculous expenditure man. $90 just to eat at a hawker centre? And then got to send the girlfriend back home somemore? Doesn't the brother have his own money at all???
I'm not pissed that she used the money to go to the doctor. I'm even ok with her using it to take cab there, since I know how sucky it can be to take a bus when you're sick. What I'm pissed about is that she and her brother seems to have freely spent my hard-earned money, and also her parents' hard earned money, to just buy anything they want and of all things, to send girlfriend back home!
And I'm extra pissed because I need the cash, being short of cash this June holidays. I still owe Yenn and my brother money, and I need the cash to pay them back, [at least partially, anyway] and also for my own expenditure. I'm already short and needy of cash this period, and this girl and her brother just freely spent my pay like nobody's business, and just nonchalantly think that they can just postpone my payment.
KUSO. Blardy irritating students.......
Ok, ok, to calm down, here's something for all of you to play with.
Typedrawing is an online drawing pad, that allows you to do text-based drawings. As an example, this is one that I did. Click to go see.
Cute eh? The site even allows you to upload your work, and display to everyone. :D
To try it out, go here
Monday, June 13, 2005
Heh, I couldn't resist this one from Kennysia:
Sadly enough, I don't even read her blog... :p But I like the sharpened claw part. Speak softly and carry a big stick, is what I like to say... :p
Congratulations boredslacker, you are...
Finicky Feline of finickyfeline.liquidblade.com
You may seem sweet on the outside but behind you hide a sharpened claw. You have the observation skills of a forensic detective and can see right through people easily. You attract attention, both good and bad, but more bad than good. You've seen more assholes in life than a proctologist. The bad ones tries to screw you over but quickly learnt that its a bad move because you enjoy screwing them back accordingly.
Sadly enough, I don't even read her blog... :p But I like the sharpened claw part. Speak softly and carry a big stick, is what I like to say... :p
I switch on computer, as usual.
I open Firefox, as usual.
I go to gmail, as usual.
I open my account, and see...... 12 new comments on my blog.
NOT as usual!
So apparently, my post on the 2 homeless siblings got tomorrow-ed, and a whole bunch of people went to my site as usual. (^^!) What was more unusual in this case was the number of comments this post generated. [Usually people just read, and then promptly forget it the next day, I think :p]
[People just love to rant about the gahmen in Singapore. Tip for making blog famous: Write potentially incendiary rant about gahmen in Singapore and then tip off a few websites about your blog. Warning: May result in lawsuits if post is TOO fiery. :p]
Some of the comments, and my thoughts on them:
- Jesse wrote:
"What about the thousands who are able and going for job interviews week in week out, and eventually forced to look for/settle on jobs paying far less because of cheaper foreign alternatives."..."A voice should be put first and foremost to this group of people. The perk of certain governments is to place an onus on MNCs and local companies to provide a decent wage as well as job security."..."Usually what is allowed to happen in sg are rampant job cuts and then re-employing when the economy picks up. Why should employees pay for the sins of bad management and capitalism?"
Hm. This left me a little uncomfortable, frankly. My view is that cheaper labour arises as a result of market differences. Labour in China IS cheaper that labour from US because of differences in their labour markets. [size being the most obvious factor, and obviously, I speak of workers with the same skill level, for eg, construction workers in China and US]
And from a purely economic point of view, if you can get the same amount of labour for a cheaper price, you should, in order to lower costs all around for the end consumer. If you can get groceries at Johor for a much cheaper price than in Singapore, why not go to Johor? (^^!) Malaysia has a comparative advantage in providing cheaper consumer goods than Singapore. Hence Singaporeans will flock to Malaysia to buy their groceries.
And of course, when I put it that way, economics becomes much more palatable to the average consumer, but when put in terms of jobs, everyone gets protective. (^^!) Though I understand the rationale behind it, I feel, you can't really have your cake and eat it too.
And also, for the government to "place the onus on MNCs and local companies to provide a decent wage as well as job security" actually smacks of some protectionism to me. Which in the end is never good for any economy in the long run.
Karpace has written a blog entry in response to mine, at his blog. His main stand is that we have a right to demand more from the gahmen, given all the taxes that we give to them. [you really have to read the full thing to get an idea though]
And my stand is: So why aren't we doing more? We write to the newspapers, we rant on websites like Sintercom and Tomorrow, and we rant to our kakis at the kopitiam over cups of teh. But these are not constructive actions. These are not going to get us positive results, other than a momentary publicity on the Internet.
If we really feel that we deserve more from the gahmen, then why aren't we demanding it from them? Why aren't we doing more than we are currently doing right now?
Maybe in a sense, we are actually too comfortable with the situation to want it to change. It's like, you live in a flat, and the roof drips when it rains. It irritates you at first, but then, decent housing at this price is hard to find, and so you continue staying in that flat and just remember to take out the buckets everytime it starts to pour.
Maybe we just got used to the dripping.
- Then comes this interesting little exchange:
At 7:11 PM, June 12, 2005, jseng said...And after a while, it's enough to make you gasp in exasperation and make you wonder why no one ever says something like "We should come together, and do something about this." "We should write a petition" "We should organize some rallys"Got. that's why we took things into our own hands and started tomorrow.sg
And some Anonymous Someone replied with:
Wow. Mr Seng, so are you admitting that wanting and acting to do something about how life is supposedly hard in Singapore, instead of just whining and ranting is a reason why Tomorrow.sg was started? Isn't that what the article is really about? I wasn't under the impression that Tomorrow wrote petitions, organised rallies or engaged in pro-active civil activism or reform in this country to improve your own lives. I thought it was just a meta- blog without an agenda. What are you trying to say? I try not to take you too seriously all the time, but this latest blurb of seng-ism is hard to ignore. Go ahead and make a joke of this.
And then jseng replied:
Yo Mr Anonymous. You have to try harder to troll me haha. I am pretty much immune to all these sort o insults.ps: Sorry bringing the troll here at your site.
And Anonymous said:
I ask you a legitimate question and you accuse me of trolling. What more can I say? Have a good day, James.
And I think: Am I missing something here? Er, if you got something against someone, or Tomorrow.sg, can you please do it somewhere else? It's kinda beside the point in this blog, and for this topic.
Seriously. Sheesh.
Adinahaes had a more compassionate view:
"heyjust wanted to say that not all poor/destitute people are like that pair of siblings. For every one person like that, there will be others out there who are genuinely in a fix. I have friends who are social workers and they've met families in dire need of cash but who had their water/electricity cut off because PUB refused to grant them a grace period.Some of them did not even have the money to take a bus to find a job.There will always be people looking for a handout, but lets not lump them together with the truly unfortunate."
Agreed. For the record, my post was more about those who couldn't help themselves, rather than those who truly were in a fix over external circumstances. Some lines from the post:
"for some people, I don't really know whether they deserve the help or not. Because from what I see, they aren't doing enough to help themselves."
"If you had lost everything you had due to some external circumstances, say tsunami, or economic crisis, I'm inclined to give you my pity. It's not entirely your fault this happened to you, and I can see why you might need that leg up.
But the extra leg up is just that, an extra leg up. It's not something to support you forever, like a chair. It's meant to give you that one boost so that you can start climbing out of this shithole on your own."
I feel sorry for people who are in such destitute states. I don't believe that anyone should have to live like that. But if I help you, it's with the intention of helping you stand on your own two feet.
Let's use another analogy here. If one of my tuition students was weak in Maths, from a natural inability to comprehend numbers, then I understand that you need the additional help from outside, since you will not be able to pass Maths on your own.
But I will NOT do your homework for you all year around. The purpose of my tuition lesson is to enable you to be able to eventually pass Maths on your own. And this is what you should gain out of my lesson.
My post targets those people who expect help to be given to them all the time, because of their circumstances. My opinion is: You cannot expect to rely on people's goodwill forever. Better learn to take care of yourself.
Anyway, from Sunday's papers, I read that the Wongs have moved back into their flat, and will be moving into the 2nd flat after selling this one off to HDB. Hopefully, they will be able to make something of their lives after that.
I open Firefox, as usual.
I go to gmail, as usual.
I open my account, and see...... 12 new comments on my blog.
NOT as usual!
So apparently, my post on the 2 homeless siblings got tomorrow-ed, and a whole bunch of people went to my site as usual. (^^!) What was more unusual in this case was the number of comments this post generated. [Usually people just read, and then promptly forget it the next day, I think :p]
[People just love to rant about the gahmen in Singapore. Tip for making blog famous: Write potentially incendiary rant about gahmen in Singapore and then tip off a few websites about your blog. Warning: May result in lawsuits if post is TOO fiery. :p]
Some of the comments, and my thoughts on them:
- Jesse wrote:
"What about the thousands who are able and going for job interviews week in week out, and eventually forced to look for/settle on jobs paying far less because of cheaper foreign alternatives."..."A voice should be put first and foremost to this group of people. The perk of certain governments is to place an onus on MNCs and local companies to provide a decent wage as well as job security."..."Usually what is allowed to happen in sg are rampant job cuts and then re-employing when the economy picks up. Why should employees pay for the sins of bad management and capitalism?"
Hm. This left me a little uncomfortable, frankly. My view is that cheaper labour arises as a result of market differences. Labour in China IS cheaper that labour from US because of differences in their labour markets. [size being the most obvious factor, and obviously, I speak of workers with the same skill level, for eg, construction workers in China and US]
And from a purely economic point of view, if you can get the same amount of labour for a cheaper price, you should, in order to lower costs all around for the end consumer. If you can get groceries at Johor for a much cheaper price than in Singapore, why not go to Johor? (^^!) Malaysia has a comparative advantage in providing cheaper consumer goods than Singapore. Hence Singaporeans will flock to Malaysia to buy their groceries.
And of course, when I put it that way, economics becomes much more palatable to the average consumer, but when put in terms of jobs, everyone gets protective. (^^!) Though I understand the rationale behind it, I feel, you can't really have your cake and eat it too.
And also, for the government to "place the onus on MNCs and local companies to provide a decent wage as well as job security" actually smacks of some protectionism to me. Which in the end is never good for any economy in the long run.
Karpace has written a blog entry in response to mine, at his blog. His main stand is that we have a right to demand more from the gahmen, given all the taxes that we give to them. [you really have to read the full thing to get an idea though]
And my stand is: So why aren't we doing more? We write to the newspapers, we rant on websites like Sintercom and Tomorrow, and we rant to our kakis at the kopitiam over cups of teh. But these are not constructive actions. These are not going to get us positive results, other than a momentary publicity on the Internet.
If we really feel that we deserve more from the gahmen, then why aren't we demanding it from them? Why aren't we doing more than we are currently doing right now?
Maybe in a sense, we are actually too comfortable with the situation to want it to change. It's like, you live in a flat, and the roof drips when it rains. It irritates you at first, but then, decent housing at this price is hard to find, and so you continue staying in that flat and just remember to take out the buckets everytime it starts to pour.
Maybe we just got used to the dripping.
- Then comes this interesting little exchange:
At 7:11 PM, June 12, 2005, jseng said...And after a while, it's enough to make you gasp in exasperation and make you wonder why no one ever says something like "We should come together, and do something about this." "We should write a petition" "We should organize some rallys"Got. that's why we took things into our own hands and started tomorrow.sg
And some Anonymous Someone replied with:
Wow. Mr Seng, so are you admitting that wanting and acting to do something about how life is supposedly hard in Singapore, instead of just whining and ranting is a reason why Tomorrow.sg was started? Isn't that what the article is really about? I wasn't under the impression that Tomorrow wrote petitions, organised rallies or engaged in pro-active civil activism or reform in this country to improve your own lives. I thought it was just a meta- blog without an agenda. What are you trying to say? I try not to take you too seriously all the time, but this latest blurb of seng-ism is hard to ignore. Go ahead and make a joke of this.
And then jseng replied:
Yo Mr Anonymous. You have to try harder to troll me haha. I am pretty much immune to all these sort o insults.ps: Sorry bringing the troll here at your site.
And Anonymous said:
I ask you a legitimate question and you accuse me of trolling. What more can I say? Have a good day, James.
And I think: Am I missing something here? Er, if you got something against someone, or Tomorrow.sg, can you please do it somewhere else? It's kinda beside the point in this blog, and for this topic.
Seriously. Sheesh.
Adinahaes had a more compassionate view:
"heyjust wanted to say that not all poor/destitute people are like that pair of siblings. For every one person like that, there will be others out there who are genuinely in a fix. I have friends who are social workers and they've met families in dire need of cash but who had their water/electricity cut off because PUB refused to grant them a grace period.Some of them did not even have the money to take a bus to find a job.There will always be people looking for a handout, but lets not lump them together with the truly unfortunate."
Agreed. For the record, my post was more about those who couldn't help themselves, rather than those who truly were in a fix over external circumstances. Some lines from the post:
"for some people, I don't really know whether they deserve the help or not. Because from what I see, they aren't doing enough to help themselves."
"If you had lost everything you had due to some external circumstances, say tsunami, or economic crisis, I'm inclined to give you my pity. It's not entirely your fault this happened to you, and I can see why you might need that leg up.
But the extra leg up is just that, an extra leg up. It's not something to support you forever, like a chair. It's meant to give you that one boost so that you can start climbing out of this shithole on your own."
I feel sorry for people who are in such destitute states. I don't believe that anyone should have to live like that. But if I help you, it's with the intention of helping you stand on your own two feet.
Let's use another analogy here. If one of my tuition students was weak in Maths, from a natural inability to comprehend numbers, then I understand that you need the additional help from outside, since you will not be able to pass Maths on your own.
But I will NOT do your homework for you all year around. The purpose of my tuition lesson is to enable you to be able to eventually pass Maths on your own. And this is what you should gain out of my lesson.
My post targets those people who expect help to be given to them all the time, because of their circumstances. My opinion is: You cannot expect to rely on people's goodwill forever. Better learn to take care of yourself.
Anyway, from Sunday's papers, I read that the Wongs have moved back into their flat, and will be moving into the 2nd flat after selling this one off to HDB. Hopefully, they will be able to make something of their lives after that.
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