The savage beasts of the orient

Thursday, March 29, 2007
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Sunny

My guide abandoned me last night. He did not wake me to stand watch for my shift and by the time I awoke, it was well into the morning. I should have foreseen this eventuality for as the days wore on, my guide – Chitupaka, had become increasingly nervous and shifty. The natives fear entering the borders of my destination in the worry that they might be possessed by the evil spirits that inhabit the land. No matter. He will not be paid and I sense that I near my destination. The vegetation around me is changing and the tropical flora, that I have gotten so used to from the early leg of my journey, are no longer in sight. Replacing them are trees of cypress and hemlock that stand tall and proud, home to many a squirrel and the famous red-chested ruffle sparrow.

All of a sudden, breaking through the vegetation I stumbled into a clearing. The sight astounded me and took my breath away. I had to will myself to move for so still I stood that I think none of them noticed my presence. The silent beasts of the orient were prostrate over their objects of worship, all of them single minded in their task. So deep in were they in their concentration that when I began to move amongst them, nary a single one noticed me. I had found them… hidden away in this corner of the SMU Library, the Chinamen of SMU.

I’ve always thought that my school had a small PRC population but today I realized my folly. For when I entered an area of the library that I have almost never traveled to, I found the point of congregation of my school’s PRC population. They lived in near squalor and the stench of the study area overwhelmed me. It is obvious that they too have assumed ownership over this part of the library by the way the mark their territory. They leave pieces of paper or books and a half-finished Evian on the table and expect the spot to be reserved for them for hours on end.

I was not impressed. I saw a spot I liked and my friend removed their possessions and I commandeered the seat. As I huddled into my corner to study, I was overwhelmed by the vile odor of a PRC’s stinky foot that persisted all through the 6 painful hours that I had resided in the library. Such was the potent chemical weaponry of the rising economy of Asia. Hours later, a Chinawoman asked if I had seen her books which had been left at where I sat. I replied in the negative though it had been my friend who had ‘relocated’ her books. Alas, the story would have been beautiful if it had ended here though the realities of life are oft harsh. A companion of mine, Debbie was critically injured in this encounter. When we disposed of the possessions, the foolish girl had spotted a hair clip and, childish as she is, decided to steal the shiny bauble. She has proudly pinned up her hair with her newest accessory. When the China woman asked if anyone had seen her clip, a cold wave of realization passed over us as we realized that Debbie was using the clip. We desperately tried to remove the clip though by this time... it is almost too hard to describe… but the clip had burnt into her scalp and caused a festering for the clip was so tainted that only the disease resistant scalp of a PRC would have been able to withstand such an assault of dirt, grime and germs.

Though Debbie paid the price, all of us lost a bit of our souls today.

Things on my mind:
Exams
PRC
Smelly Feet
Boobs


Sprouting Nonsense Since 1984 {10:38 pm}


Sweet Dreams Are Made of These

Monday, March 19, 2007
Have you ever had a dream that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world?

Actually Morpheus said that. I unfortunately was able to wake up from my dream and I definitely knew the difference between the dream world and the real world.

Last Friday (Yes last Friday. I still remember the dream and I've been too busy to blog about it) I had a dream. A beautiful dream. I dreamt that I had won a lottery and hit a Jackpot of US$6 billion dollars. SIX billion dollars. Obviously a dream considering the world record for winning a jackpot is something just over 360 million dollars. ARGH. Can you imagine how sad I was to wake up and have to go for a project meeting? I was planning to save 5 and spend 1 billion dollars. I remember I had the money put into 5 Louis Vuitton bags with $120million a bag in cash wads.

5 bags. How did I carry them? Well Donald Trump was walking with me. You figured I should have realised that I was dreaming by now right, but I rationalized that it was all possible. So Donald Trump was walking beside me helping me carry my $6billion dollars and we were chatting. And he asked if I would like to intern with him. When we reached my penthouse suite I woke up.

I still remember my reaction when I woke up. I was like... oh hell. Fuck. $6billion dollars. Reality blows


Sprouting Nonsense Since 1984 {12:32 am}


Stupid Kopitiam

Wednesday, March 14, 2007
I am boycotting the stupid duck rice store in my school. Previously they sold this Happy Duck Rice Set meal that has duck rice, braised peanuts, 1/2 a 'TauGua' and 1/2 an egg. This sold for $4 and after student's discount it became $3.20 which is not a bad price and so I eat it from time to time.

Today however, when I ordered the same duck rice, it came without the peanuts, taugua and egg. Assuming that he had made a mistake, I clarified my order, "Uncle, I wanted the set meal." To which he replied that they no longer served the set meal. Alright, fair enough and so I asked, "Oh, then how much is this?"

$3.00
.
.
.
.

What the PHUCK?! You reduce the side dishes by so much and you only charge $0.20 cheaper? What the hell is wrong with you!! KNNBCCB. The worse thing is the duck meat he served wasn't even enough to finish the rice with! Eh, something is seriously wrong with the stallholders in SMU. Do they think its justified for them to charge high prices simply because they operate in a foodcourt? The amount of duck meat I got was barely even 3/4 of what I would normally get if I paid $2 for a packet that I buy from Bedok.

The chicken rice store also owned by one joker. He actually had the freaking cheek to complain to the newspapers that his business in SMU is terrible and complain that the students don't buy from him enough. Erm, maybe he should eat some of this own chicken rice. I've never tasted such crappy chicken rice before and definitely not at the price he's asking. So I have also boycotted the chicken rice store.

The stupid Indian store also another comedian. Do you know I get diarrhea every time I eat their Briyani? The CaiFan is the most decent but even then the prices force me to eat two vegetables and one meat so that I can keep the price at $3.20. Seriously! Do I look like a person who eats TWO vegetables in a given meal? No! I have 2 meats, rice and some carbo in the form of potatoes. Any vegetables I happen to eat should happen to come with any of the meats. And even then, the rice is the only damn thing that is hot. Every thing else is cold- like leftover food left to sit in the air-conditioned dining room for 2 hours- cold.

I seriously hate eating in school, there are so little stalls have provide some value for money and even then only some items in the menu satisfy the criteria. So what happens to me? I'm glad to report that I'm losing weight and this is probably the only good thing coming out of the shitty food in my school.

PS: Do you know that when you buy drinks in the SMU Kopitiam, the more you buy at one shot the more expensive it becomes because the round off the percentage discount. So if you buy 1 drink its $1. 2 drinks = $2.10, 4 drinks = $4.20. I think that that's just plain stupid. I sincerely hope they the management will be punished in hell for all this nonsense.


Sprouting Nonsense Since 1984 {10:15 pm}


On the News Today

Thursday, March 01, 2007
I read this on the Today newspaper, get this.

The Price of Delay - Postponement killed dreams of liver transplant patient

The article talks about how a crane operater Mr Sim Tee Hua was pronounced brain-dead and how his family asked to postpone the organ harvest by 24 hours and thus caused liver transplant patients to lose a liver because it had become unsuitable for transplant.

Now read the headline again. POSTPONEMENT KILLED dreams of liver transplant patient. Why do I get that the family members of Mr Sim are being villianized for hanging on to hope? Is it that bad that they need a bit more time to grieve that it has to be published on the newpaper that "in spite of a ruckus created by his family members..." A ruckus??? Since when has bereavement become creating a ruckus. I know that if right now, my loved ones were brain-dead, I'd be reluctant to pull the plug. There is a difference between brain-dead and dead-dead and that is breathing. Some people need time to come to terms with it. I strongly believe that Mr Sim's family need not have their struggle with the loss of their family member labelled as the killer of the transplant patients' dreams.

Now let me state for the record that I am not saying "well too bad" to the transplant patients. I am truly sorry that they were unable to get their new livers. No, what I am saying is it is criminally insensitive for the writer of the article, Tan Hui Leng, to frame the issue in such a manner that people might be led to think that the family of the deceased were villians in the whole episode. They are victims too. They have lost a family member and are greaving. Price in delay? Then what about the family's own emotional closure. Should that be discarded then? What is the price of they emotional stress and who pays it?

Of course Minister Khaw Boon Wan brought it up in front of parliament yesterday. Here's a quote: "I'm sure he was fully aware of Hota (Human Organ Transplant Act) and the fact that if he did not opt out, that would mean he wanted to save lives in the event of a sudden death. So we should respect his wishes." He was of course implying that his family was not respecting the wishes of the deceased. So now the family members have become people who postponed respecting the wishes of a dead man and thus the people who has dashed the dreams of transplant patients. They are OBVIOUSLY not people who have lost family and thus deserving of our sympathy.

The fact that he did not opt out isn't an indication of his desire to save lives. The entire opt-out is designed to get the most number of organs, which is not a bad thing. But please try not to pretend that its otherwise. First of all, by making it opt-out, you're making it harder for people to not want to donate their organs and thus you get the organs of the people who are a bit lazy. Second, if some people are undecided about such and important decision, they push it aside until they think about it next time... which is never. Out of sight, out of mind. Third, you are able to increase the numbers some more by playing on the guilt factor. If they opt-out, they are taking active steps in depriving someone of a chance at life rather than taking active steps to give someone a chance at life. Terribly different psychologically and you get more organs yet again.

I am not discounting that many do sincerely want to save lives but at the same time, let's not pretend to be naive and say that everyone who didn't opt out did so because of a desire to save lives. It's a lie. You know it. I know it. We all know it. I get that the ends are desirable and the motives are altruistic so I applaude the use of methods which are suspect to achieve the ends. It is undoubtedly effective. But try not to insult our collective intelligence by making fallacious statements like "if he did not opt out, that would mean..." Don't just make statements like that simply because they support your case. It makes for a weak argument.

Next time I'll get started on Estate Duties.

Things on my mind:
Ritz-Carlton
GeForce 8800
AngPao
Texas Hold`em
Boobs


Sprouting Nonsense Since 1984 {11:56 pm}


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Vincent Fu
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