(From: http://www.jonathanvangieson.com/archives/2003_06.shtml)

Speaking of Friendster, after a couple of weeks of playing around with the service, I've discovered what it's best for: toying with the delicate psyches of your friends and acquaintances. Ah, the bitter joy. Ah, the delicious power.

Top Friendster Power Games:

The Pre-Rejection
You just signed up for Friendster, and you notice that I've been using it for a month, and didn't invite you. Perhaps we're just not as close as you thought we were.

The Delayed Approval
You can see by my profile that I was active yesterday. You sent me a "new friend request" three days ago. I haven't approved it. Maybe it's because I'm waiting to see if anyone worthwhile signs up to be your friend before I commit to having you on my friends list.

The Unreciprocated Testimonial
You wrote me a very nice testimonial three weeks ago, yet your page still displays the pathetic notice: "No testimonials yet. You can add the first!" Gosh, it looks like you're more interested in me than I am in you, doesn't it?

The Mexican Standoff
You're one of John Smith's friends. I'm one of John Smith's friends. We know each other, we can clearly see each other in the "John Smith's Friends" page, and yet neither of us has attempted to add the other as a friend. It's a battle for status, and the first person to send the new friend request will forever be the loser.

Friendster is my new Waste Of Time (TM) here at work. A more appropriate name for it should be Acquiantster or something. I'm just plugging emails in, just to see how many people I potentially know. :p It would be nice to get a date from that site, but really, what are the chances?

Saw Royston Tan's 15 yesterday, albeit the censored version. The cuts were pointless -- songs with gang names and a scene with a penis were deleted when the movie had an R(A) rating slapped on it anyway. Yah, like Singaporeans above the age of 21 would actually want to be like the kids in the movie. The pointless censorship makes me wonder: were the censors and the police rep who wanted the song change sitting on chairs or on thin metal poles?

Beyond the hype (the censorship, the fact that Tan's crew had to each contribute $20 to pay for the last roll of film 'cos he was that broke), the movie isn't great. Very good or excellent -- certainly. The best film since Eric Khoo's 12 Storeys -- maybe. But not the best since, I dunno, City of God or something.

Can't say anything about the acting since they were all amateurs and playing themselves, essentially. Erick Chun deserves special mention though. The film itself suffers a little from being a bit unfocused, imho, with no real direction to the selection of scenes (Was this the intended effect? Hmm). In addition, where are the females?

15 has plenty going for it, other than sheer chutzpah. The camera techniques are well-executed, the humour is deliciously morbid and off-kilter (the "looking for a place to die" sequence is brilliant!) and the songs add flavour and irony. Most importantly, Tan manages to make what could have easily degenerated into another episode of Crime Watch, into a sensitive but unsentimental study of troubled male youth in contemporary Singapore. Tan refocuses on the topic of troubled teens through the lens of interpersonal relationships instead of filtering it through the local "secret society" problem here, and he does it well. The result is an excellent local film with universal appeal.

Finished A Storm of Swords last night. Now I have to wait a year for Book 4. :/

Started playing the A Game Of Thrones CCG on Saturday. The people seem nice and most of them are adults. More mature than your usual MTG crowd, which is a good thing. I'm buying lots of singles since I have zip to trade and I won't buy boosters. Prices are ok, and I like getting what I want even if it turns out to be a bad purchase. I just don't like buying boosters -- never had the best of luck with those. The powerful (and of course ultra-rare) cards I will have to find online :/

The group here plays a lot. No lack of opportunities to play. Winning on the other hand will be far far more difficult. Need the cards for that.

I was really looking forward to getting my NSF Concession ezlink card, 'cos I thought I could get lower fares on public transport. That's what a "concession pass" is supposed to do, right? Turns out that I'm still charged normal adult fares whenever I use that card. In order to enjoy the "concession" I need to first purchase a "Concession stamp" and paste it onto the pass (or something like that).

The stamp for both MRT and bus costs S$111.00. I only spend about S$80 a month on public transport to and from camp, and I'm hardly going to rack up S$30 worth of transport fares elsewhere. So much for "concession". :/

I feel like I'm getting swindled a lot these days. Thought I'd start playing the A Game of Thrones CCG, so I went and got myself a House Targaryen starter (50 cards) and 4 boosters (11 cards each). After removing all the cards for other Houses, I still lack enough cards to make a standard deck (about 70 cards), let alone a good one. And I failed to get any of the good Targaryen rares from the 4 boosters of A Flight of Dragons (well I could always hope, couldn't I?). Suddenly dragons don't look so cool anymore. :(

S$41.00 gone, and I'm wondering how much more this CCG is gonna cost me. I wonder if I should have picked a different house? I wish I were still in the US, where I can order singles online or buy them off eBay -- here I have to rely more on trading. I hope the players here aren't bastards. If I have to buy boosters all the way I'm quitting. $6 a pack is too bloody much. Magic and Lord of the Rings boosters only cost S$4.00 each :(

Channel surfing last night -- what's this? Baz Luhrmann's 1996 adaptation of Romeo & Juliet.. How come there were no ads for this?

This is a great adaptation, and it disturbs me to think that someday not too long from now this movie will be comsidered "old". These things can't be helped, but I hope people remember it the way they do Casablanca rather than some random old film.

Man, Claire Danes was sooooooooooooo cute back then......

The Esplanade Theatres on the Bay will soon be a year old. I've always hated their appearance. The hideousness, I believe, speaks for itself. The ugliness is intensified when you consider how incongruous those spiky ovoids look against the Marina Bay skyline and against the Padang. And let's not get into the sheer costs of building and running the place......

Is this really how we want to hurl our arts scene into that nebulous, semantic realm of the "first-class"?

However, there are fantastic views of the bay. Particularly from the Library@Esplanade on the third floor. That library is a wonderful place to relax with a good book, or just to think, with a mug of coffee and the bay sprawled out beneath you.

A good way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Still reading. Done with at least 2/3 of A Clash of Kings. Time to start looking for a copy of the third book, A Storm of Swords, to borrow. I think I will take my time reading that one though -- the fourth isn't due until June 2004. Besides, I think I'm gonna literary indigestion from all that fantasy in such a short time.

Have sold off some of my MW Dark Age figures. Traded some others. The good pieces are going bit by bit and my small collection is even poorer now. I'm hardly earning profit, but cash in hand is better than plastic in boxes. I never play and if I can get a decent price for them, why not?

I should learn -- I've always had a fascination with games. But games are pointless when there's no one to play them with.

Hmm -- if life is a game, then...?

Am about 2/3 of the way through George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones. Good stuff. Interesting enough to make me grab the second book in the A Song of Fire and Ice series last night before it disappeared from the library. I had to rent Thrones :/

I found out about the series via the A Game of Thrones CCG. Saw some folks playing it one weekend at a comic store and my curiosity was piqued. I have no doubt that it's a money sucking device -- all CCGs are. But it does look interesting.

This past weekend has seen some interesting reading coming from the Commentary pages of the Straits Times. For instance:

Janadas Devan on Friday argued for a need to decrease Singaporeans' dependency on the ubiquitous foreign live-in maid. I agree wholeheartedly with his views, and his suggestion of a COE for maids would help but only if accompanied by solid measures to encourage day-care and domestic cleaning companies. And it wouldn't hurt for Singaporeans to do their own damn chores every now and then too.

Some interesting Economics articles as well:

On Saturday, Eddie Lee discussed the need to encourage growth in domestic consumption here.

On Sunday, Chua Lee Hoong's article on the pricing of Government-linked / provided services made me wonder if the problem is not just with the method of pricing, but rather with lousy implementation and problems inherent in the structure of the industries themselves. That one deserves further rumination...

I Am A: Chaotic Good Half-Elf Bard Ranger

Alignment:Chaotic Good characters are independent types with a strong belief in the value of goodness. They have little use for governments and other forces of order, and will generally do their own things, without heed to such groups.

Race:Half-Elves are a cross between a human and an elf. They are smaller, like their elven ancestors, but have a much shorter lifespan. They are sometimes looked down upon as half-breeds, but this is rare. They have both the curious drive of humans and the patience of elves.

Primary Class:Bards are the entertainers. They sing, dance, and play instruments to make other people happy, and, frequently, make money. They also tend to dabble in magic a bit.

Secondary Class:Rangers are the defenders of nature and the elements. They are in tune with the Earth, and work to keep it safe and healthy.

Deity:Hanali Cenanil is the Chaotic Good elven goddess of love, beauty, and art. She is also known as the Heart of Gold and Lady Goldheart. Her followers delight in creation and youth, and work to spread happiness, love, and beauty. Their preferred weapon is the dagger.

Find out What D&D Character Are You?, courtesy ofNeppyMan (e-mail)


(But I like swords and staves...)

Who would have that juxtaposing the life of a castrated court official and famous traveller with the lives of modern urban citizens would result in meditations on the things we have given up and the things we have gained and � well, was it all worth it? Plenty of possibilities inhabit the liminal spaces in between the life of Admiral Zheng He (Cheng Ho) and the lives of the archetypical urbanites that play out their struggles to come to grips with their psychological distances from themselves and from each other.

Although the director Poo Hong Chen claimed in the post-production discussion that he had wanted to end his interpretation on a more optimistic note, it was a little difficult to see that given the anguished but dynamic performances of the cast. The end monologue by the Zheng He-like character describing in graphic detail the gradual process by which a boy�s testicles would have been massaged into pulp by a seemingly benign �nanny� didn�t quite help.

It was all very thought provoking, and what I took away from it all was a striking cautionary tale on the dangers of losing some innate spark, some undefinable element of the human spirit, by having it slowly crushed out of you while you wallow in material pleasure.

Perhaps things would have been slightly different if I had watched the Malay version, translated and adapted by well-known rising local poet and playwright Alfian Bin Sa�at. While the Chinese version focused more on urban anomie, the Malay version promises to highlight questions of Malay-Muslim identity, using Zheng He�s Muslim credentials as a springboard. The Malay version seems to be more political � perhaps linked to issues of globalisation and management of ethnic relations by the state? I wonder if I should go see it?

I saw the production with Justin. Here are his thoughts.

Finished reading Ihara Saikaku's Life Of An Amorous Man on Sunday. I have Life Of An Amorous Woman waiting to be read too, but after the Kinokuniya book sale this past weekend I have more substantial reading to sink my teeth into...

And where are my thoughts on Descendants of the Eunuch Admiral? Akan datang lah...

Visited Half a Century of Chinese Woodblock Prints at the Tyler Art Institute yesterday. A fascinating exhibition of a form of Chinese art often neglected outside China. Woodblock printing after 1949 was used mostly for Communist propaganda, but this does not detract from the technical brilliance of the works and the adaptations of other forms like Chinese Landscape painting.

Of particular interest are the nianhua -- auspicious prints made to usher in the new year � whose bourgeois motifs of gods and spirits were replaced with PLA soldiers and other icons of the CCP. One particular nianhua has a large PLA soldier looming protectively over playing children, assuming the role of a particular guardian deity, incongruously still with the deity�s flags (used to denote ancient Chinese generals) behind his back.

Talk about being alarmist, but there's some truth in this article. Probably not too relevant to us here in Singapore though. The important points, I suppose, are to expose what corporations are doing behind the public's back and to not be a slave to technology.

High-tech Heroin by Robert Forno.

The Govt is seeking public donations for a new school in SM Lee's honour and for a new documentary on Singapore's history. Still missing -- S$15 million.

In SM's Honour

Why should the public pay for a new documentary (dare I say, propaganda)?What's wrong with The Singapore Story? Why should the public pay for a new school in NUS, when its lack of reputation for research and academic discussion is hardly conducive to the study of Government and Public Policy?

S$15 million's a lot of money. In these times of need, couldn't it be better spent by the public on themselves?

Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew turns 80 soon and he's still going strong :) Francis Seow must be having a fit.

Naturally, the Straits Times ran a feature on SM Lee in yesterday's paper. The usual articles praising him, examining how the generations after his view him and the great things he and his trusted lieutenants accomplished in those chaotic, poverty-ridden days to make Singapore what it is today.

His life is the stuff of movies. For instance, his marriage. His wife was his academic rival. They went to Cambridge, fell in love there and even married there in secret. By all accounts they are still happily married, and have immensely successful progeny too.

Interestingly enough, in the same paper is a article by verteran ST writer Asad Latif on Chin Peng's new biography. Chin Peng became the head of the Malaya Communist Party after World War II and led it against the British during the Emergency. To this day he remains strong-willed and independent. Unrepentant and unashamed about his actions and beliefs, but never fanatical.

He will turn 79 soon.

Two years on, the identity of the Falling Man remains a mystery. But perhaps his identity isn't so important as what he has come to symbolise.

"Do you remember this photograph? In the United States, people have taken pains to banish it from the record of September 11, 2001. The story behind it, though, and the search for the man pictured in it, are our most intimate connection to the horror of that day."

And some salient mysteries:

Why don't we have answers to these 9/11 questions?

It's 9/11, but this year the traditional Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival just happens to fall on this day too. Hopefully the worst that will happen today are several cases of indigestion from too many mooncakes.

Lies, lies and damned lies. I thought Bowling For Columbine was biased, but I didn't expect it to be outright fraudulent.

Bowling For Columbine -- Documentary or Fiction?

Oh, and Osama's probably still alive. At least he was this past April/May when this video was made. Talk about a tight slap in the face for Bush.

Speaking of which, the guy probably needs a real one.

Pirates of the Caribbean is great fun! :) Probably more fun than the Disneyland ride, and you don't have to spend hundreds of dollars or wait in long lines for 2 hours or worry about getting killed.

Oh well. I never really thought much of Disneyland, even as a child. Still don't think Disney's all that great, actually. As far as I'm concerned the only good thing they did was bring Miyazaki Hayao's movies over to the US without any snipping.

Finally out of the Stone Age -- got my handphone yesterday :) Time to annoy the people around me by keying in my own ringtones from various anime.

Eh, where's the built-in lunar calendar?

Now if only someone would just call or SMS me... :/

Also, Millennium Actress (Sennen Joyu) is slated for a Sept 12 release in the US. Looks like it's subtitled too -- which is always a good thing.

I first wrote about this movie on 13 March after watching it on a large TV, thanks to the efforts of a grad student in Japanese Studies who had pre-ordered the DVD release all the way from Japan. So it's not that new (Kon Satoshi's latest is Tokyo Godfathers, which premiered at the Big Apple Anime Fest earlier this year.) but it's still an excellent film.

I wonder when the movie will reach our shores again? I definitely want to see it on the big screen this time round.

Just got back from watching The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Not bad -- a pretty good action flick. As with all action flicks, don't think too hard -- just sit back and enjoy. Liberal use of CG but done reasonably well, with some memorable sets. Action scenes were nice. Thought the shape of the Nautilus looked horrible, but it's for plot reasons so that's forgivable. :)

Sean Connery was, well, Sean Connery. Let down by some cliched lines but ok performance. Heck, being Sean Connery was Allan Quartermain's special talent ;)

imho, the coolest character was Captain Nemo (well filled by Indian film veteran Naseeruddin Shah). He's got martial arts moves, sabre skillz and commands his own state-of-the-art submarine!

Hmm... must try and borrow the original graphic novel to read now.

Life! 25th Aug 2003

Love's a matter of Balance

by Tan Shzr Ee
------------------------------------

When Balance opens to a crowd in a scented nursery sown with plastic flowers, a woman (Emma Yong) in a flimsy dress scuttles across the room.

It is the first of many delicate whiffs � of gesture, sound and silence � to traverse the play.

The ephemeral strokes are anchored by a text recycled in five incarnations. A man (Gerald Chew) reviews his life choices, replaying alternative memories of a time spent with a lover. He searches the what-ifs for catharsis.

The work marks the second collaboration between director Low Kee Hong and playwrights Paul Rae and Kaylene Tan this year.

Pulse in April expounded on women�s dark neuroses. Balance is touted as the mellow sequel charting the emotional landscape of a man trapped in postmodern love.

Once, this was pursued � and escaped � via the sex game; or bypassed by couples fearing misplaced promise. Here, couplehood has been gracefully sublimated into a precious, if over-comfortable, relationship between Yong and Chew.

They wear out the promise of love into a state of uber-absorbed emotional intimacy. They dare their practised co-dependency into territories playfully teasing breaking point. Love morphs into longing, absorption and jealousy.

Tan and Rae turn virtuosic poetry, masquerading as He Said/She Said dialogue, into quivers of insouciance, tenderness and disaffection.

Yong is pitch-perfect. She upstages Chew, as if sent in just to temper her subtle mood shifts. For a play recorded from Man�s point of view, it is Woman who holds � or withholds � the answers.

�Did you hear that?�

���

�Turn off the TV.�

The sentences are clipped. Unsaid words are buoyed by synapses of mutual mind-reading.

Man and woman fumble in a build-up of sexual desire, the waning of which poises on a split-second of eternity when no condoms can be found. The dithering over who should rouse to prepare a midnight snack is negotiated gingerly with immaculate second-guessing.

The stories stack up in space, time and movement, interlocking with three film insertions by Ben Slater unveiling different facets of the same sequence.

Balance is not a game a la Sliding Doors. Neither is it stability gained through facing off upheavals of passions.

Instead, it manages a finely calibrated equilibrium by treading on love�s liminal spaces.

When the interplay of these possibilities and inevitabilities spiral into a dawn so bright and loud, it is suddenly deafening.

I went to see TheatreWorks's latest production Balance yesterday afternoon. Tan Shzr Ee's review in Life is miles above whatever drivel I churn out. Unfortunately there's no online copy (Her unfavourable review of The Wedding Banquet on the same print page gets the web treatment though. Eh.). Also why not drop by Justin's blog to see what he thinks? Watched the play with him.

I wish I could've taken home one of the moving flowers. Creepy and surreal.

The performance reminded me of a scene from The Hours, where Meryl Streep's character recounts the moment when she realises what happiness is. That scene showed the fragility of the/a/some "moment" -- that ephemeral confluence of emotion, action and environment that cannot be adequately defined outside of the liminality it inhabits. Words are insufficient -- how can they be when experience is insufficient to reproduce the "moment"?

One can, I believe, develop an appreciation for the "moment". To recognise it, but also to mourn it. Reading Heian-era Japanese Literature, effused with aware is one way, for instance. In fact, part of the appreciation is the ability to mourn the passing of the "moment".

The problem, I suppose, comes when the mourning is too great; when one can't let go and let the "moment" pass. Instead, there is a chase and a quest to relive it that leaves many dissatisfied and frustrated.

Was this an element of the "imbalance" in the male actor? Perhaps I am mining my experiences and the last lines of the production for too much meaning:

We will not stay like this forever. We will unclasp, and let some meaning in. Until then though, it is enough to let the forgetting take its course. We will know when it is done. It is not so easy to relinquish the things that make us kind.

Wired 11.09: PowerPoint Is Evil

Part of the dumbing-down of modern society? Hmm. Powerpoint in and of itself doesn't make presentations any more interesting or informative. I suppose it's so prevalent because no-one wants to risk losing out by not using it.

Malaysia Hits Back

Oh, very smart. You don't like other people maligning your country and then you go label people from someone else's. If Singapore had done this we'd hear no end of it from the Malaysian press and certain Malaysian rabblerousing ministers.

Oh man... not another worm?!?

W32.Welchia.Worm. The joke is, even though it attempts to get rid of the highly annoying W32.Blaster.Worm that just appeared last week, it's really a variant of the damn thing since it exploits the same vulnerability (and another one) that Blaster did. Like an antibiotic on a rampage.

My PC hasn't been infected (yet), but dammit my 56k dialup connection is already slow enough as it is! >_<

More on 32.Welchia.Worm from The Register .

While you're looking at that fine website, why not peruse this article about how security whistleblowers aren't rewarded for pointing out security flaws but punished instead. Sucks to be a good guy in the US.

Am reading Mark Kurlansky's The Basque History of The World. Entertaining and fascinating. His writing style is a bit dry but clear. The content is presented in themed sections rather than in strict chronological order, which makes it more accessible to the lay reader -- an academic book it isn't. A leisurely introduction to the Basques that puts the mostly modern negative press about them in perspective.

I bought the book for a dollar back in Chicago, during the Annual Printer's Row Book Fair. This is the third largest annual book fair in the US, it seems. From there, it got packed into one of the boxes of books I sent over here by bulk mail. I was quite worried when only one box turned up but more arrived a week later. Now I have just one box left.

Clearly, I have no lack of books to read for quite a while.

Watched Jack Neo's latest movie Homerun (Pao Ba Hai Zi) earlier this evening. A good adaptation of Majid Majidi's 1997 film Children of Heaven with some smart localisations, but piles on allegories of the troubled Singapore-Malaysia relationship. The human drama takes a back seat a little too often in my opinion. This film seems to be have a more focused narrative than Jack Neo's previous I Not Stupid (Xiao Hai Bu Ben). That's not to say that that wasn't a good movie either. With its unprecedented and blatant jibes at government policies, it was a clever work that managed to establish rapport with its audience because it was so familiar.

Finally finished Tanizaki Jun'ichiro's The Makioka Sisters (Sasameyuki)... Can't imagine reading it in Japanese. :p

One of the things about the book I found interesting was the constant psychological guessing and second-guessing Sachiko kept putting herself through. Building all these mental scenarios like a chess game because you can't just go out and ask someone what they really think. Hence the tendency of the narrative to be bogged down in what seem to be mundane details (and why I took so long to finish it), but they do they serve to construct the life of the Makiokas in much colour.

What is most interesting to me is that Sachiko's sisters never seem to be who she thinks they are. They remain inscrutable because so much of the narrative and so many of the opinions are from Sachiko's perspective. So it's up to the reader to infer people's true personalities and motives from their speech and behaviour. Can't take everything at face value.

Toy collecting is the new fad in business here, from what I gather. I believe it's driven mostly by the young adult population. Single or not married long i.e. few financial obligations but with spending power -- what else should they spend their money on but figures and toys from series they enjoyed in their '80's childhood? Correlated with this is the renaissance of '80's series like Transformers (in the form of Transformers Armada, beginning in Japan, then catching on in the US and now here). Established brands like Star Wars and Gundam continue to profit from their respective home markets in the US and Japan.

It's a bit strange to think that my Transformers are worth some cash now. I look in the display cases -- most rented by individuals from the stores and the shop takes a cut of the sales and/or collects rent -- and wish I'd bought a few more when I was a kid and kept them mint in their boxes (Where did all my toys go anyway???). I see some others that I have and wonder if mine can really fetch the kind of sums on the price labels.

It really looks tempting -- the prospect of so much $$$ for mere plastic, paint and metal bits... I suppose that's what's driving the increase in the number of stores (online and offline) dedicated to toy collecting. Profit margins can be large, but someone has to buy the toy first and sales in the toy store industry seem to me to be inconsistent. Moreover the market's becoming saturated, the economy's not in the best of shape and toys are by their nature faddish. It's not easy to run a business anyway. Will all that in mind, I imagine only those who got in early, who provide good service and who are dedicated owners will survive. Like any other industry.

Hey! It's National Day already. Happy 38th Birthday Singapore!

Here's one about iTunes.

Fast Company | Digital Squared: Living in an iTunes World

The writer claims that its success is showing that "the digital acquisition of digital products is a new megamarket". Well, duh. The writer implies in the article that services like iTunes didn't take off earlier mostly because the penetration rate of broadband wasn't high enough. I find that very difficult to believe given the sheer amount of MP3 downloading that's been going on for the last couple of years.

The second part is a little better. In my opinion the reluctance of record companies to change business models instead of suing the pants off anyone who threatens the existing CD and music video centred model, is the real reason why we had to wait so long for iTunes. However, maybe they were buying time for a secure (enough) format for distribution.

Went looking for a display cabinet for my figures and model kits at Ikea. Found a suitable one, only to discover that it was out of stock. When will new stock come in? October?!?!? >_<

20% store-wide discount at all Kinokuniya stores beginning today and ending 10th August, to coincide with National Day, like last year. ^_^

Being at Kinokuniya really puts me in a reading mood for some reason. Perhaps it's the bright lights and air-conditioning, and the fact that I'm surrounded by books. But I don't feel like listening to music whenever I wander into a music store, and I know listening stations are souped up to bring out the best sound quality on CDs. Is something like that happening at Kinokuniya? Every book I pick up has its attractiveness notched up a little. Then when I finally succumb and the book ends up sitting on my desk, the lustre fades somewhat.

Well, did my bit for the local economy today. PM Goh says we'll see 0 to 1% growth this year.

It seems to me that the level of academic discourse here is still dismal compared to, say, the US or the UK. The recent dispute by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and two NTU economists over claims the latter made in their paper, is a case in point. The economists may have been sensationalist, but with a finding that 3 out of 4 jobs created in recent years went to foreigners it�s a little difficult to be sedate. The economists later retracted their findings and admitted using the wrong data, but this doesn�t mean that the issue is over (and it�s easy to suspect that the economists came under pressure). For one thing, the Ministry of Manpower�s counter-claim that 9 out of 10 jobs created in the same time period went to Singaporeans sounds too good to be true as well. I wonder if the government will announce how they came up with their figures? Based on MOM�s own data that allegedly can�t be released to the public, and which certainly wasn�t available to the NTU profs.

Not that the profs are political martyrs. Their refusal to release their paper for public scrutiny hardly helped their case, and goes against academic ideals. Were they hiding something?

At the same time, MOM�s knee-jerk reaction was far out of proportion. The criticisms levelled at the NTU professors were very close to personal attacks, essentially accusing them of incompetence. Not a good thing to do if you want to encourage academic discussion and research in the social sciences.

Am reading at the moment Sim Wong Hoo's Chaotic Thoughts From The Old Millennium Instead of your run-of-the-mill autobiographies, where you get the standard "I did this I didn't do that and got to where I am today", the CEO of Creative Technologies chose to compile a random collection of personal thoughts, observations and experiences -- including little magic tricks for kids (his reasons for this are that getting along with children is the best way to improve your EQ and besides, it's his book after all. The result was published before the year 2000 -- in fact Sim wrote the whole thing in 8 weeks -- in a ring binder. The point of the book was to be not a book -- you can start and end anywhere you like and to that effect each entry begins with a list of "links" to other, related entries. Interesting concept. For cost reasons, the ring binder was dropped for the 2nd reprint but this does not detract much from the frank, entertaining and conversation-like nature of the work. Fun to read, enlightening in some respects and just plain random in some others. Perhaps the section on Sim's self-coined "NUTS" or No U-Turn Syndrome is the most well-known of all, but there're some other interesting bits.

Had a haircut yesterday at one of those places that purport to give you a professional haircut in 10 minutes. Their words, not mine. Anyway, thought I'd give it a go. The end result was OK I suppose, but that's not saying much since my idea of a good haircut for my head is a couple of centimeters longer than the standard NS recruit haircut. What can I say? I like my hair short and can't imagine keeping long hair. I'd probably end up scratching my hair out in a day or two from the irritation of accumulated sweat and dandruff.

Nonetheless getting what must seem to you a simple haircut has, for a long time, been a little complex for me. Mainly this was because the hairdressers I went to in Chicago had no idea what a recruit cut looks like. Eventually I figured out that the safest thing to do was to ask for "the same style but shorter", and squint to see if something got shaved off that shouldn't have.

I did the same thing yestersay, although on hindsight I should have just told her to cut it until it was a few centimeters away from a recruit's hairstyle. Would have saved me the trouble of asking what exactly a "high slope" was, asking her to thin my hair and trim a little more off the top and generally facing more of the icy demeanor the hairdresser gave me.

Well, I can't say I was expecting all smiles and politeness when I sat down in the barber's chair there. Perhaps I was spoiled in the US, where even though I may not have engaged in conversation with the person wielding the shaver and the scissors, the staff were always approachable and were ready to smile. They weren't sycophantic. they may not have given a rat's tail about how my day was, but the important thing was that they still made you feel welcome -- like they wanted your business and meant it.

I didn't get that feeling yesterday. The business-like tone of voice, the close-to-freezing-point expressions and the soulless "thank you"... She wasn't even trying. Then again, I supppose that's due to the nature of that particular business, with its emphasis on an above average haircut delivered with speed. She probably isn't being paid that much, and the temptation to look at me as just another head of hair, close to the level of a common widget, is probably overwhelming.

So I got my cut. I'm ok with it, but the experience was.... lacking. Maybe I'll just go to the neighbourhood barber next time. It's not like the chain of barber shops will miss my business. Perhaps that's why the staff don't bother with pleasanteries, 'cos their ricebowl doesn't depend on that aspect of service. I wonder if it's a sign of the times that personal service, once associated strongly with a haircut, is no longer linked with that ritual of personal hygiene and physical appearance. Don't people want to build relationships with the ones who are responsible for making them look good anymore?

So after failing to stop the file-swopping services, they're now targeting individuals. The Recording Industry Association of America is planning to sue individuals for alleged copyright infringement, and have obtained close to 1000 such subpoenas demanding the names of file-swoppers. ISPs handed them over without complaint (except Verizon who is bravely challenging the subpoena in court). Quixotic? Maybe, but there will be some of the intended effect. Parents will punish their kids (true, not many tech-savvy parents but I think that will change if the parents think they're in danger of lossing thousands of dollars) and universities will crack down on their students even though the schools will try to shrug off the subpoenas. Just thinking about going to court costs lots of $$$.

Not that I condone the RIAA. In fact with the vast majority of its critics I think it's a very short-sighted move. I also believe that file-swopping as it exists now is truly illegal, and that musicians have a right to a decent living. However, copyright law is simply too convoluted and counter-intuitive to grasp for most ordinary people. Hence all these myths about downloading MP3s like : "It's OK if you get rid them within 24 hours (who does anyway?)."

In my opinion, the record companies are to blame for all this. The current business model employed -- charging incredible amounts for CDs and producing lots of trashy expensive music videos to go with the overpriced CDs -- is probably responsible for the current glut of substandard acts. Popular music these days is awful. Teenage pretty boys and scantily-clad pre-teens who release a few forgettable albums and then fade into obscurity.

The artistes are criticising the wrong people. They should be rising up against the record companies for screwing them in unfair contracts instead of accusing the fans of depriving them of a decent living.

The Internet is making the existing business models that record labels and their executives got fat on, obsolete. The industry has been chosen to be blinkered. It took Apple -- a computer company and a great one at that! -- to show that selling music on the net was workable where so many others failed.

Perhaps these lawsuits are mostly useful as the stick to the carrot of online music services that are actually workable. I hope for a massive backlash against the industry. Will we see an industry where artistes have freedom to distribute their work online and to earn a fair amount from their songs instead of having a disproportionate amount siphoned off to music videos, paying industry executives and other costs? Will people be able to pick and buy the songs they want instead of buying CDs at more than 15 times their cost of production? Will the market be allowed to weed out good talent from one-hit wonders?

I'm not too optimistic, but let's see. The RIAA has lots of enemies, but also friends in high places.

For those interested in this subject, I heartily recommend Jessica Litman's Digital Copyright, for starters.

Am in the middle of watching Gundam SEED. This is the latest incarnation of the long-running Gundam franchise, of which I am an ardent fan. The criticisms of long-time Gundam veterans are valid to some extent -- SEED is the original Mobile Suit Gundam all over again, it presents nothing new, the mecha designs look lousy (why in @#! are there Zoids?), no original characters and *another* Char clone?!?

Well, I don't think it ranks up there as one of the great anime series of all time, but the series is decent to watch. The animation could be better, considering how famous the series is (maybe all the budget was spent on generating hype). Perhaps it's best to think of it as a retelling of the original Universal Century timeline with Gundam Fangirl-esque elements. An update to fit the tastes of today's Japanese youth and appeal to the Americans.

Speaking of Gundam, I was trying to get people back home interested in the Gundam War card game. While popular in Japan and in Taiwan (thanks to a licensed Chinese edition), interest here is virtually nil. The main reasons are cost, availibility and language. The cards are sold here with at least a 50% markup, and with the Japanese yen gaining against the Singapore dollar of late, these are some admittedly damn expensive cards. The Japanese department stores that once carried boosters and starters apparently no longer do so, so no-one knows where to find a steady supply. Lastly, the game is wholly in Japanese.

Well, so much for that idea :( Looks like I'll be alone in enjoying and collecting (when I can) the cool cards from this game. All new mecha art and high-quality screen captures, but no-one's keen on them.

Feels really nice to be typing this on a new computer :) Replaced my antique 350Mhz one yesterday. It's a great feeling to have everything work like you expect it to, for once. Not having to worry about crashing your PC everytime you open a second window, not having to wonder why Word crashed, not having to wrench your CD-ROM open to extricate a disc... Now if I can just get broadband I'll be all set :)

If the changes I made to my blog settings "have [already] been saved", then why don't they show up? Maybe I need to post something :p

[on Tokyo]

Since this was my second time there, I didn't visit any of the many sights in the city. This doesn't mean that there's nothing to see in Tokyo. For one thing, it's not all steel, glass, concrete and asphalt. If you look upon the city from the free observation deck in the Metropolitan Government No 1 Building, you'll see scattered splotches of green around the city, like little cancerous growths of moss. Nature's last, carefully tended bastions.

Tokyo is every bit as expensive as Germany and Austria. I had the chance to relearn that little fact. Still, it's not impossible to dine well. The finest of convenience store foods -- a tasty and possibly marginally carcinogenic mind-boggling array of noodles, rice, sandwiches -- are accessible to all so long as you don't mind eating standing up. It's a good way to learn how to balance everything *very* quickly.

No regrets though. For anime fans, Tokyo is the Promised Land, and the Holiest of Holies is Akihabara. This is the place to go for cheap(er) electronic goods (They say Singapore and Hong Kong are cheaper still). Otakudom knows no bounds and so some of the largest anime/manga/anime and manga related goods chains have strong presences in Akihabara. The Gamers main store is 6 levels of fandom goodness. Yellow Submarine caters to your hobby, role-playing and card gaming needs with five stores scattered round the area. You can't miss the Toranoana store, unless you've somehow become oblivious to a large bright orange building with a giant manga comic strip painted on the facade. And when your feet hurt, your mouth is dry and you think you've run up a deficit the size of the US's -- hey! It's time to hop in and out of the little shops that specialise in games, more cards, more manga, more DVDs......

(And if you go to Osaka, you can do all this again at Den-Den Town! Yay!)

Fresh sushi at Tsukiji Fish Market, after the wheeling and dealing of the early morning is over. Avoid getting being run over by bicycles and the diesel-powered platforms on wheels (you'll see when you get there), and feast on fresh sushi! Fatty tuna soooooooo good it melts in your mouth...

And when you're sick of the giant video screens and the endless rivers of neon, tired of wandering through the massive department stores and all 7 floors of HMV Shibuya and Tower Records and the endless throng of humans, why not take a day trip out? You could go to Kamakura like I did (went to Nikko the last time). The Daibutsu (Great Buddha) looks asleep. Not a bad idea given how warm and sunny it was. Popped into a few of the many Zen temples in the area as well. But if you really want temples, you should go to Kyoto and Nara and overdose on them.

Otherwise, I spent most of my time rummaging through used CDs for Pizzicato Five and other Shibuya-kei bands. Gawked at shelves and shelves and more shelves of cheap, used manga at Mandarake. Spent hours listening to CDs in HMV Shibuya. Tromped around Shibuya, Akihabara and Harajuku in the intermittent rain. Ate cannonball-yaki (size of a baseball, cooked and served like takoyaki but filled with all sorts of artery-hardening goodies like quail's eggs and sausage and mushrooms and peas and maize). Wished my Japanese was good enough so that I would have an excuse to browse in used bookstores and waste some more time. Wondered why high school girls hitched their skirts up almost to butt-level but wore knee-high socks. Discovered how expensive it is to be fashionable. Ate lots of beef bowls (cheapest hot food around).

Can anyone really define Tokyo? Pick a moment that captures the essence of this urban agglomeration?

Every Sunday, fans of visual-kei (lit. visual style. A term used to describe the fantasy Goth-like, androgynous look adopted by many Japanese hard rock bands who look like they routinely bite heads off of bats but are really nice kids who listen to their mums sometimes and want nice Japanese girlfriends) gather. They're dressed in sometimes outrageous outfits, some with painted faces, all just wanting to hang out. Among them weave curious tourists who snap photos. maybe they have no idea what's going on, or want evidence of further Japanese weirdness to show their friends back home and laugh with over a beer.

I wonder how many of the tourists notice that these youths meet regularly right outside the Meiji Shrine, where the spirit of the Meiji Emperor and his consort are supposed to reside, watching over the nation and the hordes of tourists that visit the grounds every year. This is a traditional Shinto shrine, surrounded by a large sprawling park like Shinto shrines are supposed to be.

To finish this Sunday tableau, a group of Christians singing hymns to the mostly black-clad crowd. They're really into their praise and worship, with electronic organ and songsheets and the choreographed hand movements. When they finished, they set about handing out bibles to whoever looked interested.

So you have inhabiting the same 100 metres: the entrance to a Shinto shrine, youths dressed like Goths but with bleached hair and *actual* style, and earnest believers evangelising a Western faith to them and all passersby.

I don't know if that is the Tokyo moment, but it probably comes pretty close.

Well, unpacked what's come in so far. Am still expecting 5 boxes of books by mail. Wonder what's taking them so long to get here.

One thing that struck me while packing, was how unnecessary the vast majority of my book purchases were. I developed a love for reading from childhood, but it was not until recently that I managed to divorce that from a love of hoarding books. Those are related, but really separate things altogether. In my case, I ended up buying just about everything I wanted to read without thinking much about whether I would reread it. With the exception of a handful of works, I generally can't be bothered to reread books. Once bought however, books these days have horrid resale value and they take up precious space in little rooms like mine.

I have resolved to use my neighbourhood library more. Heck, Singapore's so small and public transport's so good - I don't mind travelling to Changi to get a book I want if I have to. Which I probably won't 'cos the library system here has been modernised to an amazing degree. No more stodgy dusty spaces crammed with bookshelves. Instead, bright colourful decors, helpful staff with proper uniforms and a collection that meticulously updated, with videos, CDs and software. True, you still have to wait a long time to get the books you want, but usually it's not a big deal. Indeed, I feel ashamed to not have used the system more.

Am back in Singapore, so this post is really late. Still, bear with me, ok?

/clears throat

To Germans and Austrians, it's Wien ('cos they pronounce W as V and a 12th century English scribe in a fit of ignorance wrote it as it was pronounced and so we have been left with the horrifying legacy of the "weener").

To English speakers, it's Vienna.

To me, it's expensive and arty. Like Prague's sister who likes to go shopping a lot. With the Habsburgs who provided the money, some of the results are sumptuous, sprawling palaces, beautiful museums that still struggle to match their contents. The Kunsthistorisches Museum (which somehow translates into "Fine Arts Museum") is perhaps the pinnacle, with a mind-boggling collection of fine and famous Western art. If you're a fan of Bruegel (the Elder), Reubens or plush purple couches that are more comfortable than your hostel foam mattress, this is the place. For behold! The couches are aplenty and the audioguide is included in the ticket price.

Alas! Alack! I missed opera season. Instead I found purveyors of "The Classical Top 40", attired in Baroque court clothes with wigs and all instead of the 20th century garb their contemporaries in Prague wore. Eh.

Wiener Schnitzel? The city's namesake dish should be tried but only in the same way you're nice to your bratty cousins at a family wedding - 'cos you're there. It's a very large breaded thin pork cutlet. An extra large tonkatsu if you will, but served with salad and sauerkraut instead of wheat noodles. Not saying it's bad. It's just only as good as a deep-fried chunk of meat is.

Not all of Vienna's stuck in the past. As part of summer festivities, the city authorities have set up a giant screen in front of the Rathaus. The grounds right in front of the City Hall were filled with food stalls selling beer and food (not snacks but real, meal kind of food). Tables and benches formed a large dining area that was packed when I was there. And on the giant screen? Films every day. Well, not really films but recorded concerts and dance performances but the important thing is that there was a giant screen in front of City Hall and you could go watch a something arty every single day for two months. Now we just need someone to convince the Austrians that Playstation 2s are artistic.

The most memorable part of my stay in Vienna is courtesy of two Australians (Hey Peter! Jeremy!) whom I had the fine fortune to meet at the hostel. One night we tried to get into a club. So we went there, found out that we had an hour to spare and naturally we went to a neighbouring caf� and drank for two. We returned to the club, only to be told by the burly folk at the door that we had to be on the "guest list". So we left, unhappily, while one of the Aussies questioned whether the list dated from the Third Reich. On our way we came across an Austrian karaoke pub.

Did you know that there's a song called "I am from Austria"?

The pub was packed - we discovered (how did we do that?) later than we'd crashed a personal birthday party. No one spoke English, and being model tourists we couldn't speak any German. But a fat Goth male, with a bald head and a large beard to match his girth, wearing occult symbols around his neck, was the friendliest towards us. He seemed to be a dominant figure and I'd like to think that was why we survived the night. We were mostly ignored, and so the Australians and I murdered the German language endlessly that night.

But we really enjoyed� umm� hanging out with the locals. We like to think of ourselves as having made, tentatively perhaps, in our own little individual drop-in-the-mightly-ocean way, a small step towards international friendship, world peace and the end of global poverty. Peace through inferior singing!

THE HILLS ARE ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!

With the sound of tourists. Salzburg is full of them. They come for the Mozart and The Sound of Music movie. The Sound of Music tour was shamelessly advertised everywhere in my hostel and the endorsement by the original Maria von Trapp is kind of pathetic. But I can't blame them - whoring cultural icons for tourists is everywhere. It's much worse for poor Wolfie. He's got his own chocolate with competing brands. Do you want the mass-produced one? Or the (allegedly) original Mozartkugel? Or the one that noone's ever heard of? There are Mozart liqueurs, Mozart scarves, Mozart ties, Mozart silverware and even Mozart cologne and perfume. How ironic that the genius died depressed, overworked and dirt-poor. He was buried in an unmarked grave and the memorial you see in the Vienna graveyard in which he was not buried, was put together by gravediggers from gravestone scraps.

It's so strange. The Mozarts sold all their furniture. The reconstructions you see in Salzburg, they're all from contemporary accounts or from details dropped here and there in family letters (wouldn't sell I'd bet). To see a cardboard cutout of Mozart holding a modern box of chocolates and smiling outside a shop, is an incredibly unnerving experience.

That said, I managed to catch a performance of Mozart's Requiem in a church. The performers included the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra so there was some kind of standard. That, my friends, was the high point of my stay in Salzburg. Even the stupid girl (I shan't name her country of origin) next to me on a school trip doodling noisily with her ballpoint pen until I asked her to stop, couldn't spoil it for me.

Oh, and the silver-wrapped Mozartkugels taste better than the mass-produced gold Mirabell ones. Remember that when you go :)

Next: Tokyo wa yoru no shichi ji!

Am now in Tokyo, where i have been reacquainted with the meaning of humid. It rains pretty often here and when it's not the sun's nice and bright. But the humidity is more or less always here.

At least I can make myself understood here. Czech looks difficult to pronounce with all those consonants and far too many accents on the letters. The net effect is that when I say something and a Czech speaker repeats it to me, the two words sound like chalk and Roquefort. For instance, thank you is written dekuji (insert accents at your own discretion) and is pronounced something like yeh-ku-ii. Many can speak a bit of anglicky though, so smile a lot and give it a go. :)

For the sake of continuity, there is also an extremely ugly TV Tower in Prague. This one looks like concrete blocks haphazardly stacked on top of one another by a giant toddler. Franz Kafka has his grave in a cemetery under that thing. I wonder if that's somehow ironic? But Kafka's not dead -- how can you be when you're advertising the Prague Marathon?

By the way, I was informed that Shanghai's building an ugly TV tower too. Maybe it's an ex-Communist thing. Y'know, in denial of all those wasted years or something like that.

Yeeeeees... the legacy of Marx is bad architecture and 80's music. Everywhere I went in Prague there was 80's music on the radio. Sure I heard Czech pop. But more often that not Bananarama or early Madonna or A-Ha or Duran Duran would greet me in the shops. If I was lucky I'd get early 90's Annie Lennox. Is this Prague's way of compensating for all those lost years?

Not that it has to. The city is as beautiful as everyone says it is, even if they haven't been there. Baroque, Renaissance and Art Nouveau architecture everywhere and walking around the city is really the only way to savour the sights. But really -- would you expect less of the former capital of the Holy Roman Empire?

Is that where all the statues came from? I wasn't prepared for the profusion of statues in every nook and cranny of the churches. They even put 30 of them on the Charles Bridge, flanking the endless swarm of tourists, starving artists and pickpockets. One of the statues, of St. Jan of Nepomuk who was caught in a power struggle between the King and the Church and thrown off the bridge for refusing to reveal what the Queen confessed (probably to having had too many cupcakes at dinner), has two bronze plaques. Legend goes that if you rub the plaques you'll return to Prague someday, so as you might guess they're rather shiny. Which lends credence to my theory that it was a rumour begun by lazy cleaners.

Maybe they had thousands of tourists way back when too. I'm sure someone must have wanted to come see the original Golem. Rudolf II was a huge fan of alchemy, inviting alchemists and scholars from all over Europe (Kind of what the Singapore government's trying to do with it's biological sciences industry) but the Golem - aha! - was locally made by Rabbi Loew from the mud of the Vltava river to help people (You can see one outside a tourist agency in Josefov helping to hold pamphlets). There are a gazillion variations of this story. Some say the Rabbi realised that his creation would be used for evil more often than for good and destroyed it. Some say that the Golem is still alive, able to change its features at will and is really disguised as Cher.

Best of all to my dear Singaporean heart and wallet, is that Prague is inexpensive. One US dollar gets you about 25 koruna these days. Klobasa with mustard and a slice of rye? 23 Kr. 1.5 litre bottle of drinking water? 7Kr. 500ml bottle of beer? (and good Czech Pilsen beer at that). If you're paying 30Kr or more you must be a tourist.

Alas, got caught in the rain on my first day while avoiding Hare Krishnas and came down with a cold, so no absinthe for me. I shall meet the Green Faerie some day when I'm not drowning myself in orange juice.

Even for the non-alcoholics, there's plenty to see. Charles Bridge, the mechanically-cool Astronomical Clock in Old Town Square, the spawling Castle, the churches... Vienna's better if you like music, in my opinion. True, Prague has chamber concerts galore every day in this church or that hall. The problem is that they're small chamber groups who probably meet every weekend to drink Gambrinus beer and decide on a common repertoire. You don't need to be a psychic to predict that, for an average of 300Kr, on a random flyer for a musical performance handed to you there will be one or more of the following:

Bach - Air
Vivaldi - one or more of the Four Seasons
Mozart - Guess. Hint: initials are ELN
Dvorak - Slavonic dances
(Runner-up) Pachelbel - Guess which one? Rhymes with Ganon
The best of Broadway musicals (Not a joke).

Prague is also famous for Art Nouveau and Czech Cubism. Apparently you can only find Cubist Architecture here (I'm not surprised it didn't catch on. Multiple dimensions, prolific right angles and opposing perspectives make building things to live in a bit tricky). I really like Mucha's works, so it was a happy situation for me. I now own far too many Mucha postcards, but I love them all :)

My second day in Prague is coming to an end. I haven't written anything about Berlin yet, have I?

Berlin isn't really my kind of city, even though I don't regret going there. I don't go to clubs, I hate techno, I can't tell my Bach from my Beethoven and I don't like beer that much. But I love their public transport and Berlin has great museums and churches.

Dom zu Berlin cathedral is wonderful (in an area called Lustgarten), and the Pergamon Museum is a must-visit. The latter is so named for the Pergamon Altar (from - well you can guess) with it's 113m long frieze depicting the Greek Gods laying the smackdown on the Giants. Zeus takes on three of 'em (including their leader) and special mention is given to Athena. Too bad some of it was being restored. The restored Reichstag is majestic but there are always hordes of people queueing to get into the observation decks. Most of them came from the nearby Brandenburg Gate; all it welcomes these days are tour buses.

One of the first things you notice is the Fernsehturm or TV Tower. although I suspect in German it really means "Big Eyesore". The tallest structure in Berlin is visible from every d*** where. So while you can get nice views from on top, everywhere else it's annoying. Like the aunt who insists on appearing in every photo you take during family reunions. Imagine a large concrete golf ball tee. Cut it in half, stick a disco ball (appropriately sized) in the gap, paint the tee above the ball orange and let it be the antenna and there you have it. It's irritating. Like having Max Palevsky appear in every photo you take at the UofC.

This past weekend, the Christopher St. Parade happened -- largest gay pride parade in Germany and I missed it. I thought it was on Sunday when it was on Saturday. So while the parade was happening I was watching the Swatch-FIVB beach volleyball Women's finals. I stumbled onto them by accident, honest. USA vs. Brazil -- Brazil won. they had better supporters anyway. What's odd is that Berlin is nowhere near a beach. In fact the playing area (with tons of beach sand trucked in) is next to the ruins of a palace. And there was also a sand sculpture exhibition somewhere in Berlin, nowhere near any ocean.

My hostel was in the former East Germany, and it looked appropriately run-down. I did go round looking for remnants of the Cold War period. Checkpoint Charlie no longer exists, but a 300m long section of the Wall still stands covered in all it's graffiti-ed glory. Also found out that while the Wall was up, the West German trains (S-Bahn) had to pass some stations in East Germany on their routes and those had to be walled up and guarded for years. Soldiers in ghost stations watching forbidden trains speed by.

Beer is cheap and good - which it is neither in the US. And the names sound cooler too. You could lean over the counter and ask for a timid-sounding "Bud" (which is a poor version of the real, better Czech Budvar) or a mundane "Miller", but over there you can demand a FRANZISKANER! Or a WARSTEINER! Nothing like German to make alcohol sound cool (dare I say, macho?), even if sometimes you wonder if they're not just replacing c's with k's and spelling things differently to irritate the English.

Beware when crossing the roads -- there are usually two traffic lights at crossings . One in the middle of the road and one opposite you. The catch is that the middle one and the far one don't always match. One can be green and the other red. Those nefarious little red and green midgets, immortalised in souvenirs all over Berlin! Nearly got run over near the Siegessaule (Victory Column). You have been warned.

Just arrived in Berlin today, after a night in London.

Travelling, so I won't be able to log regularly (well... not like I have been doing so to begin with but...). Am in New York City right now, and wishing to the depths of my soul that I came here for university and not @#! Chicago. And while we're at it -- I wished I'd finished my NS too before starting uni.

Ah well.

Also, I am now much much more reluctant than I was before to travel together with my parents.

If you would like to know, I should be done with roaming after July 15th. Ciao.

Convocation was this morning. I am no longer a college student.

Just a bit more packing and I can leave tomorrow. I'm still having difficulty coming to grips with the idea that I am leaving the university and all the people that I have come to know during my time here, and am not coming back for years. A decade or two, maybe never.

I'm scared of these kind of changes, because I'm terrified that I have to face them alone.

How do you say goodbye?

You can, I suppose, tell someone whom you've greeted, chatted with, debated with, shared opinions with, laughed with, seen around all the time that you won't be there when they come back after the summer's over. But what is this sense of loss settling into a quiet niche within me?

I'm sad that I have to go. It's impossible to stay of course, but I feel sad all the same. Because for those whom I've had the fine fortune to know here, I don't know when we'll meet again.

Haven't updated my blog for so long because of various graduation-related tasks that I've had to get done. All the things that have to be packed up and shipped out are mostly on their way -- but it was maddening in every sense of the word. For some reason I always end up reinventing the wheel and this time it was no different. Had no idea where to begin and no idea who to ask and so seized on FedEx initially. But shipping with them costs a @#! bomb. Then I discovered that the U.S. Postal Service has a book rate for shipping overseas, and thanks to the help of my fantastic parents I managed to ship the books that I didn't give/throw away before the post office on campus closed. Thanks also to God for not letting me flip out, for having the support of my parents, and for letting me be the last guy to get in to the post office before it closed. :)

I gave away a lot of my books. As I was throwing volume after volume out of the boxes it struck me how futile having my own personal book collection was. I rarely reread my books after all -- perhaps I should utilise libraries better and think very carefully about my furture books purchases. How hard that was over here and that was just with a smattering of book fairs throughout the year and visits to Powell's on 57th. A greedy urge to buy buy buy while the self-restraint that usually reins the consumerist impulse is suppressed by some strange moral belief that reading is good for you. Maybe it's better that I wasn't in London or New York...

Well well, what d'ya know. I did find a copy of The Trial of Henry Kissinger at the book fair. True -- it's not fair to single him out for all the abominable things the U.S. did during the Nixon and Ford Administrations, but it's a start to uncovering the reasons why hatred of the U.S. runs so high in many parts of the world. Wish more Americans -- particularly in the current Administration -- would pay attention.

On a side note, it seems that the author Hitchens has become a yes-man for the Dubya Admin. I know next to nothing about the guy of course, but I hope he hasn't made such a hypocritical choice.

I think I'll start on the book after I finish Murakami Haruki's latest collection of short stories After the Quake. Picked up the new softcover edition while shopping on Fri evening, before the movie. Excellent stuff ^_^

At last -- done with classes. My last final for while ended at 12 noon Fri. Time to turn my attentions to preparing for my exit from Chicago.

Feels strange to have absolutely nothing to study for, for once.

Watched The Trials of Henry Kissinger this evening at Doc. Fascinating documentary. I'm compelled now to read Christopher Hitchen's book of a similar name, which inspired the BBC film. Perhaps I'll find it at the 19th Annual Printer's Row Book Fair this weekend.

What to make of the most famous American diplomat ever? I'm inclined to agree that he was as duplicitous and amoral as the film presented him as. The evidence is compelling, but more importantly I agree because in my opinion those qualities were what made him such an effective statesman for the times he lived in. His America was one that saw no end to the Cold War, was paranoid about the Communists taking over the world and so did everything possible to avoid appearing weak in front of other countries.

Hey, maybe things haven't changed that much since HK fell out of the public limelight. Now that's a disturbing thought.

City Trees

I have seen city trees
fight for air --
elbow each other
with their crooked arms
for a gulp of sky.

Even their spring
is hard won --
the pyrrhic victory
of scant leaf
from blackened branch.

I admire their slant on things --
the way they spire above
the small irony of fences
and tulips at their feet --
the way they stare down
the envy of windows --
the traffic of windblown faces.

They remind me
of what is not concrete,
what is in spite of what is.

-- Linda Opyr

Ugh -- I am sick and tired of thinking and writing.

No energy, no understanding, no love, no community, no confidence -- no happiness.

Ah! Nostalgia! Relieve those days of fine Squaresoft 8-bit RPGs that kept you indoors while the sun shone outside and your childhood passed you by! 8-Bit Theater

Or maybe not.

Anyone remember Secret of Mana?

Secret of Mana Theater

And why bother sitting through all 26 episodes of Anno Hideaki's animated opus, Neon Genesis Evangelion? Not when you have the Evangelion Thumbnail Theater.

I saw The Hours. Pretty good. Not a great film though. Philip Glass's piano tinkling is omnipresent and gets irritating quickly (Heard the piano playing on the official movie site? That's basically it for the whole movie). Julianne Moore's and Nicole Kidman's bits were... lacking in the complexity found in Meryl Streep's section.

Still, the film raises the intriguing possibility of people getting stuck in other people's happiness. I suppose as an intellectual or literary device it makes sense -- not everyone has the same idea of happiness. Yet on a more personal level I find it difficult to believe that in a two person relationship, you either force-fit yourself into the other person's idea of happiness or you end up bitter, broken and having to choose between suicide and "life". Relationships aren't that static, are they? Don't people adapt their behaviours to each other to some extent? Takes both people to work for happiness, right? Or is that kind of "happiness" by compromise (for lack of a less suggestive term) a less-adequate happiness than if you found the "perfect" person?

Well... even within that framework couples still break up I guess. I suppose when one party feels that he/she will be happier elsewhere, what is the other party to say? What is she/he to do? I have no answers for that. All I know is that it sucks to be the one left behind, dealing with the fact that the happiness wasn't as -- well -- happy as once believed. The intellectual solution is of course, to analyse and correct. Letting go of someone however, isn't something you can reason out on your own even if you know it was something between the inevitable and the right thing to do.

I wonder how other couples do it? Break up and join up with someone else together so easily like some folk dance. Man, am I missing something here?

Came back and watched Krzysztof Kieslowski's Red, part of his famous Three Colours trilogy. A better movie, I think. I liked the way the movie generated its own self-enclosed logic, its own sense of destiny. The film also deals heavily with human communication, particularly by telephone. A disembodied voice that separates more than it links. But the movie is never ponderous. Slow-moving perhaps, but the plot development is delightful to those who stay awake.

Betcha didn't know what Gundam actually stands for:

General
Unilateal
Neuro-link
Dispersive
Autoromic
Maneuver

No, I did not just make that up. But the folks at Sunrise probably did.

The New York Times
May 23, 2003
Senators Sharply Criticize Iraq Rebuilding Efforts
By ERIC SCHMITT

[W] ASHINGTON, May 22 � Democratic senators assailed the Bush administration's postwar reconstruction effort in Iraq today, peppering Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz with complaints about the planning and execution of the strategy. Even Republicans joined in, offering pointed criticisms of the administration's performance.

Lawmakers have been stewing for weeks over the administration's failure to consult in depth with Congress about the costs, methods and goals of rebuilding Iraq, and some of those frustrations boiled over at a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The concerns from lawmakers underscored the challenges facing the administration not only in Iraq, but also in maintaining support in Congress, allied capitals and among the American public for the difficult and dangerous postwar mission.

"I am concerned that the administration's initial stabilization and reconstruction efforts have been inadequate," said Senator Richard G. Lugar, an Indiana Republican who heads the committee. "The planning for peace was much less developed than the planning for war." Mr. Lugar said the physical and political reconstruction of Iraq could take at least five years.

In a particularly testy exchange, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, the panel's senior Democrat, berated Mr. Wolfowitz for the administration's failure to acknowledge publicly that the postwar efforts would cost billions of dollars, require years of involvement and get the United States bogged down just as it is in the Balkans.

"When is the president going to tell the American people that we're likely to be in the country of Iraq for three, four, five, six, eight, 10 years, with thousands of forces and spending billions of dollars? Because it's not been told to them yet." Mr. Biden said. "I don't know about you, but home constituency doesn't understand that. They think Johnny and Jane are going to come marching home pretty soon."

Mr. Wolfowitz said the pace of reconstruction was hard to pre- dict. "It's possible that things will go faster," he said.

When he tried to discuss Iraq's resources for rebuilding the country � notably its enormous oil fields � Mr. Biden cut him off.

"What are the resources?" Mr. Biden demanded. "For us just to get to the point where we're talking about increasing to 1 million barrels per day export, there's going to be a need for a $5 billion investment in the oil fields to get to that point."

In his opening statement, Mr. Wolfowitz acknowledged that security, especially in Baghdad, was still a problem, but he said that media reports of looting, lawlessness and violence in the Iraqi capital overlooked improving conditions there and in other Iraqi cities.

He reaffirmed the administration's long-term commitment to rebuilding Iraq, and ticked off a list of initial successes, from the availability of electricity in Basra all day long for the first time in 12 years, to the reopening of primary schools throughout Iraq.

"We cannot afford to fail," Mr. Wolfowitz told the senators. "We cannot afford to allow Iraq to revert to the remnants of the Baathist regime that now ranges throughout Iraq in their desperate bid for influence and power."

But even as he sought understanding for the difficulties confronting a monumental rebuilding task that has been under way for only a month or so, Mr. Wolfowitz was greeted with skepticism from many senators.

Senator Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican, said in a statement that "we may have underestimated or mischaracterized the challenges of establishing security and rebuilding Iraq."

Democrats were far more punishing in their assessments.

"It is very hard to fathom what the administration's strategy is with respect to the immediate stabilization of the situation, let alone the longer-term reconstruction of Iraq," Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, said in a statement.

Senator Russell D. Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, accused the administration of squandering a well executed military campaign with "a half-baked plan for reconstruction."

"Answers from the administration about the scope of the job, and the likely requirements in terms of U.S. manpower, resources and time, remain vague at best," he said in a statement.

Mr. Wolfowitz acknowledged that the administration misjudged how quickly qualified Iraqi police officers could be trained and assigned to duty and that Pentagon officials erred by not having Jay Garner, the first civilian administrator, brief lawmakers more fully before leaving for the Persian Gulf in March. Otherwise, Mr. Wolfowitz gave a spirited defense of the Pentagon's planning for the war's aftermath.

He said he stood by his criticism of Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, the Army chief of staff, who suggested in February that it could take "something on the order of several hundred thousand soldiers" to stabilize Iraq. Mr. Wolfowitz said he interpreted that to mean 300,000 troops or more, and the Pentagon did not envision needing that many.

Gen. Peter Pace, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who joined Mr. Wolfowitz, said there were 145,000 American troops in Iraq with 18,000 more from the Army's First Armored Division on the way. Beyond that, General Pace said, there are no plans to increase American force levels. There are also about 20,000 British troops in Iraq.

Mr. Wolfowitz also defended a decision by L. Paul Bremer III, the new civilian administrator, to delay the selection of an interim civilian Iraqi authority until security improved and American officials took more time to vet Iraqi representatives.

"If the situation in Iraq is somewhat messy now," he said, "it's likely to seem even messier as Iraqis sort out their political process."

The Dante's Inferno Test has sent you to the First Level of Hell - Limbo!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	High
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	High
Level 2 (Lustful)	Moderate
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Moderate
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Low
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very Low
Level 7 (Violent)	High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Moderate
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Very Low

Take the Dante's Divine Comedy Inferno Test

But I knew that already -- I'm at the place where fun comes to die right?

Returned from Anime Central on Sunday evening. I'd love to write a report of what happened, but I have a 10 pg Korean Civ paper due later this Tues morning. On page 5 right now, and struggling to write something that isn't plaglarism...

Bought stuff. Didn't get to do all the things I wanted due to lack of sleep and skit preparations (related -- was out helping make props until 5am Friday morning, on top of mad BA paper writing in the week preceding the convention). We were runner-up for Best Group Skit. Oh well. I suspect our winning awards two years in a row might have tipped the scales against us. In any case lots of people came up to us after the Masquerade and told us how cool our skit was. Our Kikkoman was immensely popular. Of course, no one cared about my crappy Amon.

Well, with the end of ACen my duties as President of the Anime Club have mostly been discharged. I don't quite feel so much fulfilled as... relieved... I'm glad things went ok. Can sleep in peace now -- once I finish that damn Civ paper.

One of the things that amazes me about the U.S. is how often pro-industry legislation (more often than not at the expense of the common person) is justified using xenophobia and patriotism. Take for instance, then Commissioner for Patents and Trademarks Bruce Lehman's statement at a 1997 hearing regarding H.R. 2281 a.k.a. the WIPO Copyright Treaties Implementation Act.

"To the extent that we wait in implementing the [1996 World Intellectual Property Organisation] treaties; to the extent that we fall behind other countries in implementing them, we will be abrogating that leadership role that appropriately belongs to us. And so I encourage you to move expeditiously on these matters; they are very important to our national economy [...] We have to keep in mind that in other countries people will be looking to us for a signal. Many developing countries around the world -- and we do not want to give them a loophole to be able to steal our intellectual property."

H.R. 2281 is, of course, better known by the title that the Senate gave it: the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

South Korean industrialization was far more difficult and problematic, from both an economic and political standpoint, than those who celebrate it are willing to admit. More specifically, in addition to rapid growth, [Park Chung Hee's] economic strategy also produced an unbalanced and unstable economy. Moreover, because of the oppressive nature of the growth process, Park's strategy generated its own political opposition. Growth itself thus created the need for ever greater state repression.

--- Martin Hart-Landsberg, The Rush To Development: Economic Change and Political Struggle in South Korea (USA: Monthly Review Press, 1993), 164

My BA just hit 30 pgs.

:)

Lots of paper writing to do. 5-7 pager for Monday. Korean Civ 10 pager *and* BA both due Friday.

I'm so screwed.

To entertain you while I'm gone -- Shibuya-kei!

"Shibuya-kei is the world seen from Tokyo." (Don't let the Italian throw you off)

"Whereas Britpop was a movement based on the premise that bands signed in Camden had relevance worldwide, and was marketed by an export drive marked by copious use of the union jack, Shibuya-kei (taking place in the same time period in Japan) was all about import. The young Keigo Oyamada of Cornelius, the young Kenji Takimi of Crue-L Records, were CD and vinyl junkies. With no weekly music press exerting the straightjacket pressure of peer group conformity, Keigo and Kenji simply bought whatever records they could afford, disregarding category, period, country of origin and critical endorsement. They bought records with cool sleeves, in languages they couldn't understand." -- Momus

Talk about a testament to modern Japanese consumerism. The rest of the article is here.

Once you've read that, you'd know that an important part of Shibuya-kei is the album design.

Ah... ScavHunt is here once more. I have to admit that I'm not too fired up about this year's ScavHunt. Looked at the list -- nothing really interests me unlike last year's "Manga of Job". As usual, no anime/manga items, except for one "Virgin hentai, virgin mai tai" which has as much to do with anime as ice-cream has to do with the crude oil from which the bowl in which the ice cream is served in was made. Eh, previous years' lists were better constructed. Well, not that I understood the items in previous years' lists any better, but this year's one seems particularly arcane and inaccessible to me.

Anyway, after last year's ScavHunt experience... well... that was my first time and I guess it's not my kind of thing. I'm not that masochistic. Besides, I need to graduate this time round.

12 year-old boy gets full scholarship to the University of Chicago Medical School

Wow - Prodigy with a capital P!

It's easy to accuse his parents of milking him for fame, or to say that he's gonna miss out on his childhood and what not. Bah -- childhood is overrated and over-romanticised, usually abused for comparison with some cynical idea of the present. In any case, although I think his folks are strict with him and his sister it looks like the decisions to go through college and med school at such a young age were voluntarily made by the kid. As long as he wants to, why not?

There was no point in telling him when the Gembun Period was, or in citing the Mirror of the East or the Tale of the Heike on the life of Lady Shizuka. The master of the house believed it all implicitly. And the lady that he imagined was not necessarily the same Shizuka who danced before Yoritomo at the Tsurugaoka Shrine. For him she was a noblewoman who symbolized the days of his distant ancestors, the cherished past. The phantom aristocrat called "Lady Shizuka" was the focus of his reverence and devotion for "ancestors," "lord," and "antiquity." There was no need to question whether the noble lady had actually sought lodging in this house and lived here in loneliness. It was best to leave him with the beliefs that were so important to him.

-- Tanizaki Jun'ichiro, Arrowroot

Went to see X2 . The second X-Men movie is fantastic! Good plot, cool lines and very cool special effects and action scenes. Highly recommended :)

Fed the corporate machine that is Virgin Megastore yesterday evening before the movie was due to start, with purchases of a Pizzicato Five and a Fantastic Plastic Machine CD. I thought I could splurge a little on music that I like. I know all the songs are probably available through Kazaa and the like, but 1) I only have a 4GB hard drive (stop sniggering -- my laptop's old) with no CD burner (and no girlfriend to burn CDs for me anymore) and 2) there's just something about cracking a new CD album open, admiring the shiny piece o' circular plastic within, poring over the liner notes... I just wish the experience didn't tend to be so costly :p

If I could find all the music I want online and burn it and (most importantly) not get caught, I'd do it. But if CDs actually were more reasonably (i.e. realistically) priced like say, $8 or $9 an album I'd much rather buy those. That's something the music industry doesn't get, I'm afraid.

Story of My Life

Annual Allocations for my student organisations --> behind schedule. BAD.
Skit preparations for Anime Central --> just there. Maybe.
Public Policy BA --> waaaaaaay behind schedule
Reading for Korean Civ --> waaaay behind schedule.
10 pg paper due 7th week for Korean Civ --> behind schedule
Reading for Modern Jpnse Lit --> just there
Final paper for Modern Jpnse Lit --> behind schedule
Japanese --> just there
Love life --> non-existent
Any kind of life --> non-existent
Sleep --> barely functioning

Crap.

Steven Levitt, great Prof here at the UofC, has won the John Bates Clark Medal.

I had the good fortune to take his Economics of Crime class in spring quarter, 2nd year. I kind of wish I'd kept more in touch with him after the class. Then again, I can't say that studying crime really appealed to me then. Still doesn't.

I enjoyed the class though, and Levitt's got a rather unconventional Econs CV. I really admire his ability to apply economic reasoning to social problems. His ability to find naturally occurring variations in social data that can be used to provide insights into social problems, is nothing short of uncanny...

Caffeine overload!

/whoooooooooooooooooo!

I feel my mind run all over the place. It is a good feeling.