Pattern Many Many

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I have all along been interested in sociology, especially observing how special our society is from other societies... here I illustrate some Singaporeans who somehow amaze me (with the help of some Chew On It comics)...

Rank 5: The "Plan-Ahead" Singaporean

Source: http://www.chewonit.net/pages/unique.html

Great foresight! Would admit that I always lack such foresight because by the time I come to realize that there are like possibility for long weekends, others would have beaten me to the game and would have applied for leave. Sighhh, similarly, I didn't know about this week's 2 holidays until someone told me a few days ago.

Rank 4: The "Queue-Up" Singaporean

Source: http://www.chewonit.net/pages/spore.html

Years of public education has paid off and Singaporeans are always very orderly when it comes to queueing up for condos, schools, tickets, freebies etc

Rank 3: The Inconsiderate @&!^@$%!^@* Singaporeans


Took this at Junction 8, like the poster as it looks intimidating enough... so many eyes looking at you...

This category of people really amazes me and irkes me as well... how can they even bear to be such a public nuisance e.g. using their handphones in movies when everyone is so engrossed in the plot only to be disrupted by irritating ringtones and some bugger talking loudly on the phone... or people who somehow feel that just because they pay taxes, they have the right to take 2 seats on public transport; one for themselves, one for their bags / stuff etc.

Recently met this person who sat opposite to me on the green type of bus seat (i.e. those which you should give up when there are elderly or pregnant ladies aboard the bus) and she had put her paper bag next to her on the seat. Eventually, an old auntie came on board and had nowhere else to sit but yet she refused to remove her bag!

The old auntie soon sat herself down on the seat (with the lady's bag taking up almost half of the aunite's seat). Can see the old auntie was quite fed up so she intentionally pushed the paper bag with her back towards the lady (yes! that would teach the lady a lesson). Alas, she did not budge and just left the bag there... (argggghhh!). After a bit of "pushing", she got the picture and removed her bag...

Some people just have such low EQ. Now, I personally don't find the actions of the old auntie nice but then putting it in context, this lady just needs to be taught a lesson.

Rank 2: Die-Hard Good Deals Fans

Source: http://www.chewonit.net/pages/spore.html

Despite being known for being orderly (look at Singaporeans ranked 4th), the orderliness can also turn ugly especially when people are just so easily irritated after a whole night of queueing up and someone comes along to step on their toes. Remember the fights for hello kitty, free textbooks, cheap bread etc?

Rank 1: The Picky Donor

Source: http://www.chewonit.net/pages/unique.html

Here's the top one that is worth mentioning... something that has been puzzling me. When disasters happen overseas, you see lots and lots of donations being poured out... not the case when it comes to helping fellow needy Singaporeans... amazing indeed! Having done flag-selling, I have also come to notice all the tactics that Singaporeans use when trying to avoid donating... there is the:

• "parting-of-the-red-sea" tactic: crowds will somehow mysteriously part where someone stands with a donation tin or bag...
• "pretend-that-I-am-looking-for-coins" tactic: used by some when they are being approached by flag sellers. The moment they find the opportunity to run away (because the flag seller is engaged with other donors), they will do just that
• "I-didn't-see-you" tactic: some Singaporeans will look everywhere (the watch, the sky, the floor) except at the flag seller...
• "I-have-donated-but-somehow-lost-my-sticker" tactic: self explanatory but OK if they smile
  
• "I-am-in-a-hurry" and/or "don't-come-near-me-or-I-will-kill-you" tactic

among many other creative tactics devised by our very own Singaporeans. It is a very humbling experience selling flag.

Of course I have also seen a fair share of Singaporeans who are generous enough to want to donate... some would give the money to their children and ask their children to donate, some would, without hesitation, take out all their coins or even some dollar notes and donate, some will donate again despite having donated and some would always do it with a smile.

To Help or Not to Help
Again, putting things into context, Singaporean's patience with charities and requests for donations maybe thinning since there is always flags being sold every saturday and some charities even fund-raise on normal weekdays. Throw in a number of charity challenges and variety shows (note: some even had the funds to throw not 1 but 2 or even 3 shows), it is no wonder Singaporean's patience are thinning. And finally, the recent scandals of supposedly "not-for-profit" organizations mismanaging public funds just upset the balance all together. It is almost with doubt that some Singaporean's confidence in charities in Singapore has dipped, even maybe to an all time low.

The fact remains: there are still a lot of needy Singaporeans out there and equally there are also social service agencies which has remained true to its cause from day one, it is just not fair to penalize them because of all that has happened. We live in a fairly affluent society and although we do not see fellow Singaporeans who are living below the poverty line, as a social worker, I can testify that such Singaporeans do exist and live lives that we cannot imagine given current living standards. Similarly, I have seen social service agencies which has remained faithful to their cause from day one but are now struggling because the public are relatively more skeptical of request for donations and help.

Singapore is a non-welfare state (believing that welfarism will foster unnecessary reliance on state resources and an unequal distribution of income) and the government adopts a "many-helping-hands" approach to helping to support the needy i.e. everyone from the public, private and people sectors all have a part to play. With public confidence in social services dipping and nothing done about it, this system might just fail... in the end, the needy suffer.

Chew-ed On It!

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At 1am this morning, I was shocked to find this spreaded over the "Chew On It" blog...

I'M DONE!

Okay, people: it had been a fun two months and you guys, well, 98% of you guys anyway, have been great. Unfortunately, things have gotten out of hand and I am really too tired to deal with the mayhem. (I am okay with criticisms; but the comments I received were bordering on the line of personal attack.) As such, I have decided to sign off this blog for good.

Thank you very much for your time.

Goodbye. :)

I could have sworn that I was still reading his blog a few hours ago and a few hours later, kapeesh! gone! sayonara! I had only recently found his blog and was greatly entertained by his comics and his unique perspective and ingenious perspective of things but now it is gone, thanks to blog commenters who fail to recognize his creativity and ingenuity and choose to express criticisms of his blog and his work (while remaining anonymous throughout the whole time). I do not know Mr. "Chew On It" personally (his character and such) except through his comics in the local papers but I appreciate how he aptly captures the essence of what is happening today in the Singapore society with 2-3 pictures, now that's ingenuity.

Now we have to mourn the demise of a valuable blog from the local blogsphere community... all because people take his comics too serious; there are always more than one interpretation to things (as in Art) and things have to be taken into context.

Fortunately, his website still exists at http://www.chewonit.net/.

I am just blessed to have gotten a last glimpse of the blog before it was pronounced *sob* gone *sob*.

R.I.P.

Naughty Crow

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Hmm, feel prey to the naughty crow... remember my colleagues shared with me sometime back that there is always this crow which would sit and wait on the tree for its "victim" to appear, then it would fly towards the victim, making lots of "yakking" noise, sweeping past your head...

Well... I fell prey today; 6 times... 6 times the STUPID crow flew over my head... irritating crow... pleasure at the expense of others... Next time must bring an umbrella, see if it dares to "attack" me again.

Black feathers by Morrhigan
Would love to see this happen:
Yak.. Yak.. PLONK! hahaha...

Irritating idiot... did the same thing again on my way home... this time, it had a fellow crow and both continuously made noise and flew past my head like some daredevil planes doing some stunt flyovers in a aeroshow. Some birds are just so irritating!

That's it! I am no longer taking that route!

Wish List

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Think I will start a wish list to keep track of things that I am working towards... everyone has a wish list and here's mine:

• Relationships - I hope to be able to salvage relationships that have soured or at least to have good closures
• Relationships - I hope to be more sociable and not always so shy when among people... always so uptight.
• Physical - I would want to continue to be disciplined and continue with my exercise regime so that I can be healthier and be less fat
• Spiritual - I want to be more disciplined and get down to reading the bible and understanding God's word and applying it to life
• Spiritual - I want to be more Christ-like and sin lesser and lesser
• Spiritual - To continue to give thanks for every single day and all the blessings I have received
• Mental - Prevent myself from being too self-absorbed and care more for friends and family who are important to me
  
• Possession - Laptop backup power pack: (my laptop battery cannot make it liaoz, now it just last for some 20 minutes especially when I switch on my wireless LAN... like my friends always say, I always "boot up my laptop to shut down". Guess I need to buy a backup battery pack so I can use my laptop outside)
• Possession - Camera Handphone: I am now so into blogging and photo-blogging that I became so reliant on my handphone to take photos... dun wanna "lug" a camera around just to take photos but guess this is not on my list of "priorities-to-have"
• Possession - Portable Harddisk (Accomplished 13/11/2005): Had always wanted to get a portable harddisk so I can do video editing on my laptop since I would need some 40gb of diskspace each time I do a video editing project; there is just not enough diskspace on my laptop now. Anyway, the harddisk will also be a good backup disk... since my laptop also not very stable now
  
• Possession - Briefcase
• Possession - Camera bag for my video and digital cameras
  

At least writing down my wishlist is a good start so that I will know what I am working towards. Will try my best and also pray for support especially for relationship, spiritual and mental aspects. Of course I remember goals will have to be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achieveable, Realistic and Time-limited). GANBADE!

Evening by the River

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Today is Deepavali! Happy Deepavali! This also means that it is a... PUBLIC HOLIDAY!!!

Got to sleep in and woke up later (anyway, was out with my friends till late night yesterday). First half of the day was basically quite eventless... had initially wanted to go cycling with my friend (some healthy lifestyle) but guess lethargy got the better of me. Only managed to make plans to meet up with a friend in Clarke Quay area at 5pm.

Bad Taxi Experience
Took a cab to meet her but somehow had a feeling that he took me the long way... not only that, I mentioned that I want to go to Clarke Quay MRT but in the end he brought me to Clarke Quay itself... spent some $10 just for taxi fare... anyway serve me right for not planning my time properly, so much so had to take a cab to meet my friend.

Down the River of Memories
First stop, Singapore History Museum at Riverside Point. It is open house today and since it is free admission, I guess why not go pay the museum a visit since I hadn't the chance to visit it since it moved here. Saw many old artifacts there but guess the most unique artifact we saw was an old iron... Quite an ingenius design... from far looks like a cleaver but actually it is an iron where you the fabric in between the 2 metal plates and just pull it to iron it... this way you can iron both sides at the same time.

A torture contraptions? Nope, an iron (top)
and an illustration on how it is used (bottom)


Have always loved miniture stuff; had wanted to be an architect
in the past so I can make models. This is a model in the musuem depicting
living conditions in a coolies' quarters. Notice the details? Mini pots and pans etc

They were also selling some toys from the past which we used to play with during our childhood e.g. styrofoam plane, card games such as "happy family", "donkey", "snap", pick-up sticks, marbles etc. Simple toys but bring back good memories. Later, my friend brought me to a shop in the nearby Hong Lim complex which she said sold those toys but it was closed :(

The iconic sculpture outside the museum

Raffles' Place; Mine! Mine! All Mine!

Cheap Fish & Chips
We later went to "Fishermen's Wharf" where we had some cheap fish and chips... we had quite a big serving of fish and chips and root beer for $8.50... you can ask for their curry mayo dip also... A place with simple decor but good cheap fosh and cheap worth every cent. Although I am OK now but then everytime I swallow something, I feel this burning sensation in my throat, almost like I am swallowing something very hot... my friend told me that I may have throat infection. Guess will have to get some medical advice soon, doesn't help when I have ulcers in my mouth as well... eating now becomes such a horrible affair.

Fishermen's Wharf and my Fish 'n' Chips

Chill-Out by Singapore River
Lastly, we chilled out at TCC by Singapore River after my friend's boyfriend came to join us. This is an interesting concept-cafe, set in an art gallery setting with nice music and low tables, bean bags to spend some quiet time with your friends or loved ones.

TCC @ Boat Quay

Finally got to play the SWAP! game we bought yesterday. Haha quite a fun game... everytime I have only 1 card left and was almost winning, someone will always throw out a SWAP card and swap their hand with me *WAILING* The whole game, you keep seeing our hands being changed again and again... one moment, you may think you are winning, the next moment, you get a hand with 10 cards... arggghhhh!! Also played UNO... hahaha seems like a card game night... The trick seems to be (i) lose the coloured cards with the most number first, (ii) lose slap cards first to prevent people from winning and (iii) try not to keep more than 1 swap card or else others will use the swap card to swap hand with you when you do so with them; back to square one.

Playing SWAP!
Source: http://www.patchproducts.com/letsplay/swap.asp

Parted for the day at 10pm and all made our way home since we have to work tomorrow.

Weekend of Indulgence

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Even though I am still sick, I found myself eating some real unhealthy food... just can't stand it anymore... my fever and flu is gone now but I still have sore throat (my throat hurts whenever I swallow food) and I have ulcers (ouch!). To top that, I have been popping so many pills over the last few days and have been eating so many blend, soup-based food, I just feel so sick...

Sick Food... I really mean sick food...

Finally got to eat at Din Tai Fung @ Tampines yesterday... wow nice, especially the xiao long bao... my favourite :). Then today, me and 3 other friends went to East Coast Food Centre to buy food: popiah, curry puff, rojak, roti john and we had a feast on my friend's van in Changi Airport. Later, adjourned to play Cluedo in the arrival hall (we invited much curious look from people, including the police and army personnel patrolling the terminals, so paisay :))... haha but quite a unique experience. Bought a new card game... SWAP! but didn't have the chance to play :(

Feast @ Din Tai Fung

Here I am to Worship

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Here's another favourite worship song that I learnt this weekend at service: Here I am to Worship.

This song means a lot to me. As I sang this song, I am constantly reminded of God's glory and give thanks for all the wonderful things that has happened to me thus far, from the bottom of my heart.

As I look back, it is without doubt that I am much a happier person now... I have also learnt a lot from the Word of God every week during sermon; it always seem so timely that whenever I have a struggle, that week's sermon just seem to deliver a lesson that help addresses that struggle. It is almost like God is speaking to me... telling me how I should go forth... I really cannot explain this but then I really have this deep appreciation deep down in my heart of God's guidance and support all these while...

Take for example: I blogged about how I was so angry with my ex-acting head for being so inconsistent but today's sermon was on power and authority. We are reminded that God has given both power (ability to do something consistently) and authority (ability to use power) to his disciples to drive out demons, cure diseases, preach the kingdom and heal the sick (Luke 9:1). Just as he had done so, so has he appointed leaders to rule over His people; shepherds to watch over the flocks. He has given civil, social, family and church authority to leaders.

The key idea here is: fearing God by honouring the king (1 Peter 2:17). As such, we should always honour the leaders and "honouring the leader" does not necessarily mean that he/she is right but that we are giving respect and honour to those who have been appointed by God, even harsh, unfair tyrant leaders (unless it goes contrary to the scripture, is illegal or immoral). By doing so, we are helped in developing our character in being Christ-like and will be blessed.

As such, I have decided not to speak against this ex-acting head and respect her authority despite not seeing eye-to-eye with her management style.

Here I am to Worship

Light of the World
You stepped down into darkness
Opened my eyes
Let me see
Beauty that made
This heart adore You
Hope of a life
Spent with You

Chorus:
Here I am to worship
Here I am to bow down
Here I am to say that You're my God
You're altogether lovely
Altogether worthy
Altogether wonderful to me

King of all days
Oh, so highly exalted
Glorious in Heaven above
Humbly You came
To the earth You created
All for love's sake became poor

Chorus...

I'll never know how much it cost
To see my sin upon that cross
I'll never know how much it cost
To see my sin upon that cross

Chorus X2

This weekend is also a happy weekend for me because I got to witness 3 of my cell-group mates and my friends being baptised. It is a happy occasion and when my 3 friends came forth to be baptised, my whole cell-group stood up and started cheering... so fun... So happy for them!

This reminded me of the time I was being baptised when I was 12 years old... I remember the baptism very clearly because it is an experience that I am not able to explain even up to today (maybe there just isn't a need to explain it). I remember coming out from the baptism pool feeling like a renewed person, fresh and free of past baggage... almost like a rebirth... it was a good experience.

Anyway, read my friend's testimony which she had printed on cards and distributed to her friends. Seems like she has been through a difficult period and was also guided and supported along by God... As I read on, I felt myself saying deep inside me: Praise the Lord!

There is another song I heard during the baptism service that I find nice but somehow can't find the lyrics... It is the hokkien song "牵我的手". I had even sang a worship song in berhasa melayu :)

My Friend's Testimony