what's news?

Thursday, 28th February 2008 – 2:55pm Singapore time

I try to watch the news on Channel 5 every evening at 9:30pm and if you also watch the news, you’d know that they have subtitles in order to make the programme ‘friendlier’ to those who have hearing difficulties…

I applaud this gesture of course, as it is something which is nice and inclusive… However, I do take issue with them sometimes paraphrasing or correcting the speech of the interviewees or the people being featured in the programme… I think that it is not in the spirit of good journalism if you misquote or amend the words of someone, even if it’s in the name of good grammar… I am all for good grammar of course, but I think that there should be some measure of authenticity here as well…

Ok, so here’s why I’m writing this entry… Yesterday’s news was extra funny cos the person who did the subtitles tried to ‘act smart’ and tried to make everything grammatical, but ended up committing not one, but *two* faux pas(es?)…

The first one was during a clip of a British man who was describing his experience of the earthquake which had hit London recently… He spoke of his dog who had jumped onto his bed in the middle of the night and he casually mentioned that his dog is a ‘shih tzu’… But of course, the smart subtitler didn’t get it and called the man’s dog a ‘shiatsu’ instead… So the British man had a ‘shiatsu’ jumping on his bed last night… I wonder how that works… ;p

The second one was the mangling of Singapore’s Senior Minister’s speech no less… Goh Chok Tong was commenting about the people’s reactions to the recent budget announcement and I wasn’t sure what he was talking about (who is anyway) but he said “assess the situation” and smart subtitler decided to put it as “access the situation”…

So yeah, in short, I just wanna say that the subtitler should be more careful next time and maybe not overdo it too much… Haha… I am starting to get lame, so I will end this entry now…

PS: The picture of Anderson Cooper is used just to be in tune with the “news” theme I have for this blog entry… The contents of the entry has nothing to do with him…

PPS: Matthew Black just told me that he’s voyeuristic but not an exhibitionist… Such a dangerous (and creepy) combination! Haha… Kidding, Matt! But make sure you know what 'desired transgressions' mean before you graduate, ok? =)

apple of my eye...

Tuesday, 26th February 2008 - 10:12pm Singapore time

Why is it so damn bloody hard just to get plain apple juice at the supermarket these days? I spent like 5 whole minutes staring at the shelves of hybrid fruit juices like cranberry-promengenate la, apple-aloe vera la, grape-veggie juice la... And so on! Like wtf? Life is already so frittered with details... Simplify! Ugh...

Anyway, I spent the whole damn day in school today and I am absolutely exhausted! Think it'll be a very early night for me... Still have to go to school tomorrow for more project work and presentation preparation! *cringe*

hooray!

Singapore has won the bid to host the inaugural Youth Olympic Games! =)

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/330241/1/.html

die!

I am attending a career fair on Friday and I have the HUGEST, MOST DISGUSTING, HUMUNGOUS and GROSS pimple on my forehead *ever*!! And it's smack in the middle of my eyebrows, as if I have a bindi gone wrong...

HOW?!!!

on death and other things...

Thursday, 14th February 2008 – 11:44am Singapore time

I was speaking to my Khai who’s a physiotherapist specialised in geriatric issues… He told me that the market is opening up right now, due to the ageing population of course…

And then I told him that I hope to die by the time I turn 50… He was a little taken aback and asked me why…

Well, I basically think that it’s not much of a point to live beyond 50 as you start getting wrinkled and ugly, you develop health problems and your memory gets whacked… Socially, people get annoyed at you easily; think you’re not so useful anymore and that you’re just taking up unnecessary space… Before I proceed, I would like to post a disclaimer and say that these opinions are personal and they’re what I think people would think of ME or what would happen to ME if *I* live beyond 50… Not applicable or referring to anyone else, dead or alive… Can? ;p

Right, so my Khai was saying that health problems could be tackled with a good lifestyle… I agree of course but how many of us can actually do this and be rewarded with good health?

I think that ‘naturally’ we’re all not made to live that long… I mean in the past, people didn’t live as long as the people who do now… That’s because they couldn’t heal themselves when they were afflicted with serious, chronic diseases…. Nowadays, we have managed to exploit medical technology so much that we are able to prolong our lives ‘unnaturally’… It’s amazing that we keep battling these diseases so hard just to keep ourselves alive when we could have been ‘genetically predisposed’ to die earlier… Some people I’m sure, have the genes to allow them to live really long, like 95 or something, but for the rest of us, I think that we’re just made to succumb to some disease at a specified age and die…

We shouldn’t try so hard to fight what’s inevitable… Sure, there are so many things in this world to be achieved, and could be done… But what’s the point? Can we *honestly* do everything and really, really die without regrets? The people who usually die without regrets are those who die young and already know they’re dying… And what’s the point of travelling the world when you have to pack an entire cabinet of pills and life-resuscitating equipment?

Based on all this, I do not wish to live for too long and will be happy to live till I am 50… Even if I were to die today, I’ll be happy… :) I would like to reiterate at this point that all these opinions are *personal*; I do not expect you to accept my views or agree with me… Everyone’s entitled to their own thoughts and these just happen to be mine…

Right, so on that note, Happy Valentine’s y’all!

beng-ah-boys...

Monday, 11th February 2008 – 7:44pm Singapore time

UGH! It’s Monday! And it’s not just any other Monday, it’s the Monday after a superbly yummy long weekend! *groan*

I’m thankful that I only have one class today, and it’s not a boring one at that… The long weekend was a nice break for me… I had a good time on CNY, meeting with cousins, uncles and aunties from the maternal family… Being half-Chinese has its perks, especially when it comes to those little red things they call the hong bao… hehe…

I also managed to catch up with some schoolwork and also miscellaneous café and NTUC-related work… And lots of dragonboating too! Coach Nasi introduced a new stroke to the team and this new technique is nothing short of pure pain!! It’s gonna take me quite awhile to get used to it and even though Coach says I am doing it right (after a million times correcting me), I think it’ll be a few more weeks at least before I can really feel comfortable with it…

Was at the café earlier today to help with the VDay decorations, and played the "ah beng CD" which my manager Clarence had put in our player… Some of these ah beng anthems are really nice! And danceable… Which now explains why I have a picture of the Vengaboys in this entry… The "ah beng CD" has songs by them! And the nice songs too! Hehehe… I love Vengaboys songs… And right now, I am listening to Kiss like a million times on youtube ==> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxdHE7FXtdM

Damn, now I feel like dancing… ;p

when the cats go home, the RATS come out to play! ;p

Happy Lunar New Year everyone!

May you be blessed with good health, good fortune and lots of good ol' lurrrve always! =)

you, are...

a constant reminder of my failure...

on another note: 600 letters in 8 weeks... can i do it? :s