coffee

softballer_09 @ 2009-12-29T14:35:00

2009-12-29T14:35:32Z

omg i just had to resort to using pliers to open a dastardly tin of sainsbury's corned beef! ugh what the hell is up with the stupid key thing??

cheers! without the clinking

2009-11-04T18:39:50Z

i feel a tinge of annoyance whenever someone (esp non-westerners) say "Cheers" in place of "thank you" or "you're welcome". What's with cheers? It sounds half-hearted, ungrateful and condescending, made worse by the low and thoughtless tones it is uttered in. And if the non-westerners say it, it sounds even more forced and unnatural.

softballer_09 @ 2009-10-28T21:23:00

2009-10-28T21:28:00Z

finished my stats tutorial finally, whilst plodding through lecture slides and constantly referring to the notes! ~~omg first test is next week.~~ I am studiously avoiding doing any more work tonight. the weight of maths is crushing me (seriously, why did I do economics?) and i need to breathe by reading something literary for a change. Let's read The Three Musketeers.

softballer_09 @ 2009-09-14T18:39:00

2009-09-14T10:40:19Z

last week in singapore! feeling abit emo.

help Fairtrade go mainstream

2009-09-05T04:06:45Z

Ban Ki Moon just warned that the world is heading toward a climate 'abyss' if it continues to disregard, systemically, the dangers posed by global warming. Despite his choice of words, I don't think anything significant is gonna come out of Copenhagen.

But consumers do have power. Us normal people. The world economy in goods and services can effect change on the political level if we would think carefully and act in a responsible way.

The current real economy runs on overproduction. Artificial and forced downward pressure on costs and prices have resulted in overproduction and excess capacity that is fed only by consumeristic tendencies of us people in the richer world. Big companies become ever bigger for no good reason, except to reduce competition and narrow the market.

What we need to do is stop our consumeristic ways, buy only what we need and only what is of good quality, and send the message out to these companies that consumers will not be taken for a ride.

Only then will they be forced to streamline their operations to produce higher-quality, reasonably-priced goods. Reasonable in the sense that it pays the factory worker a reasonable wage, the middleman a reasonable cut, and is low enough for the average consumer. which means final profits should take a beating. Only so will the trend of increasing inequality be reversed.

When I see shops like FOS, with good quality tshirts made in the US going at prices as cheap as under 20, suffer, I doubt the ability of SIngaporean consumers to seriously discern what is good for their budget.

We need to force those pollutive China factories to close by significantly reducing demand for their poorly made goods, so that the labour can go into more meaningful occupations that help the local economy to sustain itself.

The new expensive stuff you wear only goes to feed your ego when you go out and people look at you. For people who really matter, will they be ultimately impressed by all of that unimportant stuff?

Gandhi once said, and I paraphrase, "whenever you are not sure of your next step, think of the poorest, hungriest face you can think of, and ask if the action you want to take will benefit him or her."

Our world has turned its attention on itself, neglecting more worthy pursuits like literature, scientific research, music, astronomy, and the rest of the arts for the sole purpose of furthering human knowledge. Today, all these things mainly take place under the umbrella of economic necessity. I find that a rather sad indictment of our world.

Support good quality and reasonable prices. Think humane.

microsoft seems better nowadays

2009-09-04T14:39:13Z

is there some problem with the latest versions of firefox or is it just my internet? been resorting to using IE more often these days... also, gmail's been acting up so thinking of using live mail permanently. ):

excepting my lost purple shirt

2009-09-02T07:39:11Z

freshers camp was fun, mostly. we had crazy capt's ball games with cabbage, peeled oranges and papayas. we threw water bombs at LSE, cursed the fat boy from the said school, and raced around in town area trying to find the prices of "Intenso 66%", take a picture in front of OMSQ and do gymnastics in the Esplanade underground.

8 months of holiday are coming to an end, and the next section of our lives is going to start soon. decisions were ever so hard to make because they will one day come true.

against consumerism

2009-08-23T10:06:02Z

The next time you want that bag, that miniskirt, that wallet, that pair of earrings, or anything else that is purely a want and not a need, I implore you to think again.

As intelligent people, we want to maximise our happiness and also keep spending within our budget (unless you're American, in which case I will lament the misinterpretation of the Declaration of Independence). How do you maximise your happiness? Not the consumerist way, which is essentially acquisition of needless property. Ads spur your desire to buy something. But does having it give you anything more than a fleeting sense of happiness? Does it provide self-fulfilment? Does it really make you smile even weeks down the road?

My ex-colleague used to comment that Singaporeans like to engage in no-brainer activities that probably only give them 6/10 happiness. They do not look beyond the banal and ordinary, like watching movies, going shopping at the new mall, or downloading music in order to fill their spare time. Instead, 8/10 or even 9/10 happiness could be found, if one would only exercise independent judgement and think more creatively. For example, the same colleague used to do horse-riding competitively, and still follows up on events and how favourite horses are doing. It gives her great satisfaction thinking back on that part of her life. For others, it might be trying out Mediterranean recipes from the Net, or cosplaying. These activities still require money, and in some cases, a lot of it. But wouldnt it give you much more happiness and satisfaction than spending the money on stuff you don't need?

Constraining your consumerist tendencies makes sense economically and ethically. When the market is driven by consumerism, resources are diverted away from capital goods and goods that contribute to real development. You are enforcing, unwittingly, the market failure mechanism that is the 'dollar vote'. It's obviously not fair to poorer people in your country and in other countries, if you think about it seriously.

You might complain about the lack of freedoms that governments give their citizens. Yet you blindly obey the big corporations when they tell you that new bag is going to make you more sophisticated, or that new pair of shoes is going to get you noticed at the club. So what? The cloth you overpaid for might have been used to make cheap clothing for poor peasants in rural China. Or the slowdown in production due to the lack of demand on your side might have just saved the health or even lives of the poor farmers living around the factory.

You learnt economics for a reason. Think, folks.

softballer_09 @ 2009-08-15T21:51:00

2009-08-15T13:55:07Z

If you could choose, would you rather let the human brain have a short attention span and be able to handle several things at a time (i.e. mutltasking), or have it be more suited towards concentrating on one thing at a time, no interruptions pronto? Which would be more evolutionarily advantageous?

softballer_09 @ 2009-08-04T22:06:00

2009-08-04T14:08:30Z

In November (I)

The leafless forests slowly yield
     To the thick-driving snow. A little while
     And night shall darken down. In shouting file
The woodmen's carts go by me homeward-wheeled,
Past the thin fading stubbles, half concealed,
     Now golden-gray, sowed softly through with snow,
     Where the last ploughman follows still his row,
Turning black furrows through the whitening field.
Far off the village lamps begin to gleam,
     Fast drives the snow, and no man comes this way;
The hills grow wintry white, and bleak winds moan
About the naked uplands. I alone
     Am neither sad, nor shelterless, nor gray,
Wrapped round with thought, content to watch and dream.

archibald lampman

softballer_09 @ 2009-08-04T10:10:00

2009-08-04T02:15:56Z

have you ever felt irritated just looking at other ladies with obviously ill-fitting footwear? like puhleese, why would you wanna wear that when your last toe is being stubbed? or worse, the last toe has no space so its hanging out of the sandal. worst: this large-sized lady squeezing her feet into hot pink pvc slip-ons which straps only managed to hold down her toes and relegate all the fat to the side, making her foot look swollen on the top.

i seriously think many Singaporeans do not understand the power of the consumer vote. they buy according to their notion of prevailing fashions and hip-ness, and then complain that brands only go for style and not substance. if you dont approve, dont buy! if you bewail the loss of small neighbourhood shops, then for goodness sake buy from them.

softballer_09 @ 2009-07-20T22:44:00

2009-07-20T14:45:19Z

too many locks
too many cries
too many tears
too many lies

just too many barriers

softballer_09 @ 2009-06-29T10:44:00

2009-06-29T02:47:49Z

Mean World Syndrome

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Mean World Syndrome is a phenomenon where the violence-related content of mass media convinces viewers that the world is more dangerous than it actually is, and prompts a desire for more protection than is warranted by any actual threat.^[1] Mean World Syndrome is one of the main conclusions of cultivation theory. The term was coined by George Gerbner, a pioneer researcher on the effects of television on society, when he noted that people who watched a large amount of television tended to think of the world as an intimidating and unforgiving place. ^[2]

Individuals who watch television infrequently and adolescents who talk to their parents about reality are said to have a more accurate view of the real world than those who do not, and they are able to more accurately assess their vulnerability to violence. They also tend to have a wider variety of beliefs and attitudes.^[3]

I watch the telly almost zilch! I wave my hand proudly. Lol. This is very Fahrenheit 451. shudders involuntarily.

softballer_09 @ 2009-06-21T18:40:00

2009-06-21T10:49:06Z

I used to wonder why it was so much easier keeping the fat at bay in school. Helplessly watching my legs grow flabbier these 6 months of office life just intensified the wonder. Now, with my aching arms, thighs and feet as witnesses, I finally know the reason.

My face is lobster-red now, not a healthy pink. A slight jump of sorts from the fair pig I was up till this morning, 8 am. The first game killed me and my self-esteem, the second just killed me through and through.

dinner now.

softballer_09 @ 2009-06-02T14:49:00

2009-06-02T06:50:56Z

"Singularity is the term created to define the point at which machine intelligence surpasses that of human beings. Nasa and Google are funding a new institution, Singularity University, to explore this future. Salim Ismail, one of its leaders, says that we should re-engineer the human brain with computer-style upgrades. “The current system is flawed,” he says. “We need computer chips monitoring our neural networks. Evolution isn’t going to do this for us, so technology must do it.” "
(Times online)

this is really scary.

Tell me, what constitutes upgrades for the human being? wider neural pathways? bigger skulls? what? scientists who predict and work towards a future of human 'improvement' through the wonders of genomics and technology are emitting rather large amounts of hubris.

softballer_09 @ 2009-05-29T12:19:00

2009-05-29T04:22:17Z

i thought that PCK and Irene Ang were masquerading as blackheads.

softballer_09 @ 2009-05-08T11:01:00

2009-05-08T03:01:43Z

everyone download Firefox personas now!!!

:)

loves Mozilla Labs.

softballer_09 @ 2009-05-07T11:16:00

2009-05-07T03:21:14Z

A rare laugh on the way to work today: NTU is advertising its joint MBA programme with Shanghai Jiao Tong University in trains, and the huge banner slogan read "Asia's Premier MBA Programme". Below, in the bottom right hand corner, was the email address: mba-sjtu@ntu.egu.sg

The hilarious thing was, the chinese version of the banner had the address exactly correct. Maybe it was a ploy to only hire people who could do Chinese. Secretly discriminatory, I say happily.

softballer_09 @ 2009-04-29T13:05:00

2009-04-29T05:21:44Z

i hate disposable cutlery. the chopsticks either smell sour, or like bleached wood (which is what they are) and give me splinters.

softballer_09 @ 2009-04-26T22:27:00

2009-04-26T14:28:24Z

I had a little bird,
Its name was Enza,
I opened the window,
And in-flew-enza.
-American Skipping Rhyme circa 1918

softballer_09 @ 2009-04-14T14:34:00

2009-04-14T06:43:06Z

I've just read an opinion article by tom friedman on Costa Rica, and am very impressed by the country! It vowed two years ago to become carbon neutral by 2021, and is actually moving towards that goal - impressive by any standards.

The way it does it is to merge the energy and the environment ministries under one minister, so that there is no longer the traditional view that the minister of the environment only wants to hold back development and not add value. on the ohter hand this also prevents the energy minister from wanting all-out growth through exploitation of energy resources. With this framework the country has managed to take a long-term view on sustainable development more effectively than probably any other country in the world.

And, the most amazing fact is, it has twice the amount of forest it used to have 20 years ago. It actually pays the indigenous peoples to keep the forests intact, and imposes a 3 plus percent carbon tax on emissions. that's brilliant economics.

I do hope other countries with significant energy resources to use for growth pay attention to how costa rica has done it.

softballer_09 @ 2009-04-04T11:05:00

2009-04-04T03:07:56Z

early ripe, early rot, but so mortifying to our pride is the base suspicion of ignorance

US toxic assets plan

2009-03-24T09:56:49Z

I finally got around to reading about the Obama administration's plan for mopping up the toxic assets in the US economy this morning. And while I was digesting it, I thought that it would have really been much better if they stuck to the old way of nationalising and guaranteeing debts instead of this "partnership" thing. And now it appears Paul Krugman agrees with me. (:

Well, the reason why I think so is because, politics or economics-wise, the old way makes sense. Politically, it shows the government is ready to deal firmly with the market when there is a need to, if it nationalises banks and then recapitalises the non-toxic parts of them. This will boost its standing in the eyes of the electorate, and Obama doesn't have all the political capital to spend in the world. On the economics front, the government stepping in to guarantee the debts will allow confidence to slowly restore as the market's players (not just the very few who are willing to step into the public limelight to 'partner' with the govt to buy up the toxic assets, which they will probably value at a low price) go hunting for good deals and then buy them at a price closer to the real value, knowing that the govt will back the debts up. That is more like how the free market operates. Though there is some moral hazard involved, it is significantly much less than what is going to happen with the Tim Geithner plan, I feel.

Sometimes trying to be new and innovative while simultaneously invoking the aphorisms of free-market economics does not get you anywhere. This is no time to be innovative, Obama. This time, perhaps, time-honoured wisdom is the best way to go, even if it sounds vaguely Republican.

softballer_09 @ 2009-03-17T19:50:00

2009-03-17T11:56:24Z

http://theonlinecitizen.com/2009/03/singapore-to-name-orchid-after-burmese-junta-leader/comment-page-1/

go read it!! the comments are really hilarious.

Writer's Block: Passing Time

2009-03-11T03:53:40Z

When you're stuck in a boring class or meeting, what's your favorite way to keep yourself entertained (or at least from falling asleep)?

View 500 Answers

Open my eyes wide and look at the boring person in question very beseechingly.