On being perturbed
There are some things out here that are really disturbing me.
There's someone out here who gets really annoying at times. I don't like it when people tell me how to lead my life, particularly when I'm not seeking that person's advice. You might be here to have fun and that's something I'm sure we can all live with. But telling others they aren't living their lives to the fullest because they aren't doing the same activities as you is, in my books, amongst the most fucked-up things you can do. It simply displays a total lack of respect for others and their beliefs. Maybe, some of us actually enjoy the learning process, instead of happily getting intoxicated or participating in all the group activities or whatever. Go lead your own life and I'll lead mine.
The other thing that perturbs me sometimes is how people lead others on. As in the relationship kinda thing. I'm really old-school when it comes to these things but I just find it amazing how people can be in relationships and behave in a manner that certainly suggests to others that something can happen. Sure, whatever happens in another land stays in another land but one should consider the fact you're fucking around with someone's else's feelings, which isn't exactly cool now, issit? But people have their own lives to lead, who am I to preach?
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/165384/1/.html
When the fuck did Singaporeans become so brave? Haha. This one's a classic
At the start of his visit, Dr Balakrishnan got to see how Punggol South, which used to be a fishing village, has grown to become an urban, modern town.
Sungei Serangoon, formerly the lifeline of fishermen here, now sees more water sports such as canoeing and kayaking.
Then it was off to four more stops where the minister got to meet residents.
But along the way was an unexpected sight -- eight white cardboard elephants in various poses lined the road that leads to Buangkok MRT station.
And the message was not lost on the minister.
Of Careers & Charity
So, as one draws to the end of yet another internship, the usual mating dance begins as yet a million and one organisations strive to recruit the best of whatever young talent we have coming out of the universities while the creme de la creme aspire to dream jobs with fast-tracked positions and glorious amounts of ka-ching, peppered with the obligatory weekend getaways with copious amounts of booze.
But I get distracted.
Anyway, I've been trying to get myself into a few of these chi-chi getaways - figure it can never hurt to get away from the office for some free food and an opportunity for people to make you feel wanted (however much they may be wanting to spit on you deep down inside).
So currently the list of invites procured include one local bank and one consulting firm. Looking for another one from another consulting firm and not following up with one from a certain branch of the military (gee, I wonder why...)
Speaking of careers, here's a place one should consider applying to: the NKF. It's all over the news about how the CEO makes about 600,000 smackeroos a year. That's 25,000 smackeroos a month, and a 12-month performance bonus for the last 2 years (you hear that, miserly military chaps with your 1.5month bonus?). Did I mention the first class travel - I'm sorry, I meant the business class entitlement but used to purchase first class, the personal Mercedes Benz and a whole fleet of 8 drivers for NKF and of course, that $990 tap (with shower facilities!).
Anybody hear that noise? That's my stomach churning.
It's one of those rare weekends where I don't have to go back to work on Sunday (well, looking like it anyway), and I can't get to sleep so I thought I'll drop in on my oft-neglected blog and see what the hell I can blog about. Which, being tied up in an investment bank, isn't much, given how I have absolutely no idea about what's happening in the world.
Since blogs are about observations and self-indulgent behaviour and fantasies (and expecting others to read on), I thought I'd comment on a hypothetical situation proposed by a friend:
"What if a disease wipes out all the males on this planet less you?"
So, presenting, the Top 5 Good and Bad things about having all other males wiped out.
Top 5 Great Things about being the only male left on the planet
5. All the women you ever wanted could be yours by virtue of elimination (most literally).
4. The death of women rolling their eyes into the air and going "men"!
3. Gawking openly might just become socially acceptable.
2. Proliferation of lezzie porn.
1. World peace.
Top 5 Crap Things about being the only male left on the planet
5. PMS
4. Very much less incentive for women to be dolled up.
3. Death of football.
2. Having to learn the foreign language that is woman.
1. Female drivers ad infinitum.
ST Pg 11
Well, well, well, did anyone read today's paper? Amazing stuff.
Some quotable quotes:
"It's a pointed statement. It pinpoints whining Singapore boys, not all Singaporean males. Most boys grow up to be men. Between male wimps and mature women, I prefer mature female scholars. Mature male scholars are also welcome!"No shit, Einstein. Of course I would rather have a mature female/male scholar than a wimp. The more relevant question should be "why?". This comment doesn't appear to answer the question, does it?
"People start complaining when they don't understand it's a privilege - that they don't automatically deserve a scholarship."I disagree. Just because you complain doesn't indicate you don't understand it's a privilege. Should people always be grateful that they've received a scholarship and thus shut up? What are the nature of the complaints, anyway?
There's this rather pervasive attitude around that people who receive scholarships should be eternally grateful for this privilege that's been accorded and all those who break bonds are scum of the earth who should be chastised and driven out of the country. It's a bit of a short-termist view, really. People inevitably WILL break bonds because they'll realise that their options aren't just a civil service career when they're at the Harvards and the Whartons, so deal with it. Given that they're probably off to make tons of money, maybe we should be devoting our energies to finding ways to make sure those tons of (usually) American money flows back to Singapore. Not such a bad idea, innit?
73 hours thus far and counting.
Updates re Acidflask
Since my impatient lil' friend asked for it, here are the links on the AcidFlask saga.
CNA ReportsAcidFlask replies
IB - the real world
I've clocked 64 hours this week at work and am going back on Saturday to prepare something for a Sunday meeting. So for all those who think that IB is a lot of glam and blah blah blah - well, all the shit you hear about ridiculous hours, it's true. Oh hurrah.
I guess it's hard to feel enthusiastic when it's Saturday.
Elsewhere, the big AcidFlask saga seems to be over but it appears to not have left a very pleasant taste in the blogging community (to put it most mildly). Have been trawling some blogs recently and the range of reactions has been largely that of horror, a few protests and I'm most certain lots of swearing at the Organisation and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named (for legal reasons). Just 2 quick comments before I haul my ass to the office.
1. I'm of the opinion that some organisations don't think enough about certain options. Behaviour like this will be perceived as vindictive, particularly to those who are getting sued/named/etc. It just reminds me so much of the scholarship bond-breaking naming saga. What does it really do? Strike fear into everyone, thus preventing anyone from
ever breaking bonds and instead, be really happy and productive workers in all our ministries? Or does it make people think about how vindictive certain organisations are? Let's face it, people WILL break bonds whether you like it or not. You can either find out why they do it and see if it's a real problem (and y'know, like, try to solve it so in future people don't, like, break bonds. Like, duh), or you can wish them well and agree that you may have differences in opinion about the organisation but you respect it and you hope you can work together again in future (assuming this chap is worth working with, which I think is mostly the case, since scholarship selection criteria is rather stringent and hey, these amigos did graduate from top schools). The 'naming and shaming' environment just simply reaffirms the chap's belief that the organisation is fucked up and that there's no point of ever returning to a country where the brightest of young talent are handled like this. It's really sad.
2. To the folks who lament the lack of freedom of speech and want to protest this all they want: get a grip. This is Singapore. In this area, it's always going to be 2 step forwards, 1.99 steps back. All that pseudo-intellectual wank about freedom of speech and finer points of legality - you guys don't get it. This isn't about drawing the line between what's fair comment and whether one should be responsible for what's posted on the blog, etc. Look at the big picture - we're not going to move very much forward in terms of this kind of policy view with regards to opinions, not until something REALLY drastic happens. Good thing I have no political ambitions - money is a good substitute for power.
Dont Panic
I got surfing and I got bored. So to follow up on yesterdays entry, a list of release dates.
Star Wars 3: 19 May
Sin City: 26 May
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy: 2 June
Batman Begins: 16 June
Fantastic Four: 7 July
#@$#@%@$@
On a totally separate note from the other entries, what the hell is with the fucking weather these days?!?!?!
The Paranoid Android
2 weeks have passed since the end of the examinations. Effectively that's 2 weeks of holidays, and quite honestly, I have never quite have had as much fun in the 1st 2 weeks of holidays, or so I think.
On the movie front, there has been a fair bit of catching up. In the time period of 1 week, the list of movies clocked include
The Interpreter (good),
Millions (good),
Hitch (average),
Coach Carter (good) and
Summer Storm (good). It's a pity that this isn't the best time of the season for movies, but there are loads to look forward to this year.
Star Wars 3,
Batman Begins,
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,
Fantastic 4 and
Sin City are just the fillers for the, erm, fanboys (most unfortunately, including your resident geek boy here), while there's the big stuff like
War of the Worlds,
Mr & Mrs Smith,
Madagascar,
Kingdom of Heaven,
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (yes, I think it belongs on the list of movies that we should look forward to - Tim Burton, Johnny Depp & Roald Dahl are geniuses of their times).
Sin City looks the most promising to me, but as usual, I'm keeping my expectations low for the rest, if adaptations and sequels are anything to go by.
Interestingly enough,
Coach Carter has been the show that has gotten yours truly thinking. What do we fear most in life? Fear is quite often, the greatest of motivators - it drives you to make (or not to make) choices in life that affect who we are. I think fear inadvertently screws our lives over in a way that we don't really control but when you're being introspective, you tend to ask - what is one's greatest fear?
Often, I think my deepest fears in life include rejection, death, failure, running out of toilet paper while in the toilet and then some (yes, how generic, I know). But when I think of what really motivates me amongst these fears (oddly enough, toilet paper ranked 2nd), the life of this blog's author can be quite simply boiled down to being run with the failure of not reaching greatness. How does one qualify greatness? In a nutshell, not stretching oneself, reaching one's potential and simply fading into oblivion as a nobody. I don't think greatness is necessary measured in terms of achievement per se. But certainly, I do live with the fear that when my time is up, I would have nothing to look back upon and then having to live with the self-doubt of "What if?" That, in fact, combines the fear of turning into an absolute failure with the fear of living a life full of regrets.
Okay, that was rambly and terribly-written. Yes, dear reader, I know effectively the entry is saying that I live by my ego, but humour me, please - it is, after all, 4:34 in the morning on May Day.
And now, off to get back to the chronicles of Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect. Have a nice day.
