harder than hard truth

You must be pretty naive to think that the recent heighten in "block parties" and "road shows" has nothing to do with election.

One day I was walking at the void deck when suddenly I saw a swarm of people wearing the same polo-tee coming in my direction. Some were trying to open up a path. One man was obviously different from the rest, cos he was the only one going around shaking hands. As the convoy engulfed me, that man took no notice of me, and vice versa. Our shoulders almost could collide if not for the invisible repulsion force of the bouncer-lookalikes. People looked at me with disbelief written on their face.

Wait, you mean I must bow and kowtow? Ok, I was rude then.

Let me just sidetrack... It doesn't matter whether the constituency is a proposition ward or opposition ward or class C ward. The people's representative please the people and not the other way round. I mean, aren't they supposed to make us happy? Do you know the word minister means servant in Latin?

Some servants certainly don't call their masters Sire.

traditionally placebo, not

First they are not allowed to call themselves specialist (even property agents can call themselves "Ang Mo Kio Specialist"), then they are being called "placebo treatment" by a senior writer of a local newspaper. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is getting poked left right centre like acupuncture needles.

First thing first, I believe in TCM. I drink herbal tea when I feel heaty. I massage with medicated oil when I get bruises. I use suction cups when my back feels tired. I'm an engineer, how unscientific that is. Some skeptics of TCM label TCM as unscientific. In secondary school we learned that science can be broadly classified as theoretical and empirical. If centuries old knowledge is not empirical science, then what is? You are unwell, you undergo the treatment, you recover, #proven.

I don't know how much people know about TCM. Is it limited to poking dozens of needles on the back, drinking bitter black liquid, that sort? Have they read Li Shizhen (李时珍)'s 本草纲目? The 本草纲目 records close to 2000 herbs, listing their medical properties, side effects, etc. So, if it is not written in English, it is not science?

The fact that Ministry of Health regulates TCM through the Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners Act shows that it is being recognised. You don't see loan sharks and robbers getting regulated, do you?

To put it crudely, some people shit sitting, others shit squatting. What works for you may not work for others, but that doesn't mean you should rule others out (ie, if you shit sitting, you don't say shit squatting is not shitting, do you?) As for me, both work for me. In China, they call it "river crab".

no time to decide

I was at my desk doing my work when I received a call on my mobile phone. It was definitely a male voice coming from the other end of the phone, albeit a very disgusting sissy voice. The caller asked if I am who I am (ie, he mentioned my name), and identified himself as calling on behalf of so-and-so bank. Firstly he thanked me for being a loyal customer to the bank (you're welcome.) and as a reward the bank was offering me some insurance package at whatever premium.

Normally I would have hung up on hearing the words "insurance" or "credit card", but since I have free incoming call and I happened to be able to multitask with the task on hand (that's rare occasion), I listened on. So the caller blah-ed for the whole 8 minutes, and said it was a limited offer over the phone. If I say yes over the phone, the insurance coverage would start from today. No signature required. Now, that sounds scary.

So I suggested, why not you send more information to my residential address so that I can take a look and decide. But the caller said it was a limited offer over the phone and once I say ok, then they will proceed to send me the details.

You see, as a consumer I would want to make informed decision. Rushing consumers to make decision there and then is a common method for some sales / marketing people, and in my opinion an unethical method. (think limited time offer or while stocks last. They are different but same same) It's like making you do a 2 hour exam paper in 10 minutes. Think? What think?

I hung up. There, you want a decision?

one-child policy

So who said only People's Republic of China has one-child policy?

I wonder if any uncle had tried squeezing onto the seat with a pretty lady (or vice versa, I mean auntie version) before the sticker was pasted.

Taken on a SBS Transit Scania bus.

escalating matter

I'm not sure if you agree with me that the primary function of an escalator is to transport people from one floor to another floor. To fulfil this role, the escalator just has to, well, ferry the people. But is it intended to let people walk on it like a flight of stairs while it is in operation? With some basic appreciation of physics and engineering, it is not difficult to realize that walking on an operating escalator will put extra load on the machine and, naturally, increase the likelihood of it malfunctioning. So blame who when you find the escalators at the MRT station out of service.

Having said that, there are times when I choose to take the fast lane and walk up/down the escalator, while other times I would just stand on the left, looking at silly people running after a runaway train. Whichever side we choose to take (and having said the malfunctioning crap), I still think that people shouldn't block up the right side. Not everyone feels comfortable "scuse-ing" others, and it's like running on the right lane at 40km/h. I've even seen smartarse from smart school (starts with R) blocking up the way.

We need to slap some fine.

the mechanical problem

Yesterday when I returned home, I couldn't boot up my computer. The fans were spinning, the LEDs on, but just no signal to the monitor and no beep.

With screwdriver in hand, I dragged myself to do the usual troubleshooting. No luck. That's the thing I feel about electronics, it is so abstract and unpredictable that I'll prefer mechanical problem to electronics ones anytime. My computer is close to a decade old, with one history of overhaul. I thought, maybe its time is due.

This morning I checked again. The reset button was stuck depressed. Definitely a stupid mechanical problem. Now, which troubleshooting guide would have highlighted that?

ang moh use chopsticks

The other day I was at this tourist attraction. I saw this Caucasian eating his nasi bryani with chopsticks, while his Chinese female companion was eating Hainanese chicken rice with fork and spoon. The rice for the nasi briyani was in a plate while the rice for the chicken rice set was in a bowl.

I don't know if they were playing with the eating utensils, or that the Chinese woman didnot know how to use chopsticks, so the Caucasian had to use the chopsticks instead. Of course, it is open to many different ways to decipher it. The ang moh may not know how to use fork and spoon. hurhurhur.

A thought ran through my mind. If we don't preserve our traditions and cultures, the Westerners will be better at being Chinese than the Chinese.

quote of the day

时势造英雄!
-- hj

(translate: time makes hero. Erm, ok... or rather, something like seizing the moment)

Met up with a few university mechanical engineering coursemates yesterday for dinner. It was great knowing that everyone is doing well, a few working at MNCs, a few with oversea postings, and all knowing what they want (not only in terms of ordering food, but career also).

I used to feel quite self-pitiful and sour cos it seemed like every coursemate of mine is doing more interesting work, and I used to be more appreciative of their work, such as CAD or production, just hardcore engineering. Used to, but now the feeling is somewhat gone with the year-end spring-cleaning (I didn't do any spring-cleaning, shhhhh).

Maybe it's like finding a comfortable seat on the bus. You won't want to leave the seat as long as the bus is taking you to where you want to go. Of course, seizing the moment means hopping onto the right bus at the right time, and knowing to jump off when you know you are on the wrong bus.

happy CNY!

It's the first day of the Chinese New Year, so Happy CNY to all! This year is the year of rabbit according to the Lunar calendar, the coolest rabbit I can think of is definitely Tuzki, thus the image.

I remember one year ago during this time, I was busily involved in some event at work. I was then merely one month plus into the job but I was already in the spotlight, rubbing shoulder with (and indeed, being saviour to) the biggest bosses in the organization. Had I been an opportunist, that could helped in my career advancement.

Now in my current job, I do fear that I am showing up too often in the bosses' radar. I wish I can take a bit more time to build up my capability before people start testing my ability...

Why am I talking about work when it's the New Year? (wow, I review the year according to Lunar calendar, well done) In fact I screwed the original thought of bringing my work laptop home this long weekend.

Let's hope it will be smooth sailing ahead for this year.

slurping coffee

Attended the All About Coffee seminar conducted by Starbucks last week at the Asian Civilisations Museum.

I am not exactly a diehard coffee fan, I drink anything from 3-in-1 coffee to hawker centre coffee. But I just thought it doesn't harm to learn more about something that I drink down almost everyday, even if it is just a close cousin.

Indeed I learned a great deal from the session. The coffee-tasting was something like what we think of wine-tasting. You don't just gulp it down, but neither do you rinse it in your mouth as in wine-tasting. You slurp in the hot coffee (although it looked unglam), let it tingle in your mouth, feel the body and the acidity of the dark liquid. Then you try it with some food that actually compliments the coffee. I was surprised that eating chocolate walnut cake with Mexican coffee totally changed the taste of the coffee. We also tried a Kenyan and Sumatran coffee.


The 2 Coffee Masters (should they be Mistress?) did a great job in delivering the session. Good slides, good elaboration, wealth of personal experience and insights (and preference). See? Baristas can be trainers too!

You can read mintea's take on the event.

academic performance-based or work performance-based

Some people find it unethical to talk about salary among employees, while the other camp thinks that salary should be transparent. Anyway for what I'm going to talk about, let's take it as gossip.

A colleague was telling me that his junior, a fresh grad with second upper honours, is getting higher pay than him, who has 2 years of working experience but a second lower honours. Then he continued to bitch about the workload and all.

It seems like the equation is, 1 jump in the class of honours is equivalent to 2 years of working experience. I don't know how you feel about it, but it seems like this further proves that the society values paper more than experience, and elitism is at work again.

While it is important for organizations to find ways to attract talents, such as by attractive pay packages, but are they performing proportional standard of work? (I hope so). Then putting aside the issue of ethic, are organizations doing enough to make the experienced hands happy?

What I can say about it is that the phenomena further underlines studying hard as a lifelong investment. You get good grades, then you get good starting pay. Better still, you get your career path all planned out nicely. You have yourself to blame for playing throughout your university life.

As for me, I just happened to be a blockhead, so I don't really mind others getting more pay than me (actually I do). Hey at least I got a job!