Other than that.. Current listing of web resources held by Zim:
My blog, Bluez
animezim, about anime
My photo.net album
Thursday, September 09, 2004
Since it seems to work quite well, I guess I can go ahead.. Okay... I should note that I will be migrating my blog back to blogspot. Now that photos are in, I expect I will quickly use up my tripod webspace. It may take a while because of my unbearably busy schedule, what with Youth Inc starting up. But I'll update ASAP, so.. come back soon!
5:30 PM
Turns out flickr has some limitations, so trying hello instead! heh.. hope this works out!
5:24 PM
Monday, September 06, 2004
Okay, I'm definitely going to rework my blog! Make it nicer using all those cool tools on Blogger! May relocate the blog to blogspot again, and use this as a referral place.. But in the meantime, take a look at flickr.com! This is really cool!
8:22 PM
Sunday, September 05, 2004
Harold and Kumar go to White Castle: hilarious movie, really! M18, also, for nudity, foul language, probably, but still, it's funny! Recommended watch for movie who appreciate comedies that pull no punches. It's not totally inane, but actually does comment on racism... but without being self-righteous about it. Heh.. it probably applies in a weird way even here.. :>
Let's see. Wala-Wala Cub, and the Unexpected Band... Had a lot of fun, it's quite a nice place in Holland V. Guys, whoever you are reading this page, we should probably go there sometime!
11:06 AM
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
megagear.com !!! hahahahaha.....
10:23 PM
I promised to scan the THC photos in, so I've been trying to get the ol' scanner working. Downloading drivers, I first went to the Acer website, then to BenQ (Acer spun off its peripherals division)...
It was pretty decent. First identify myself as Singapore region, then search for driver, scanner, 310p. Great! Then... try to download the 7920kb file. The connection keeps dropping, at 612kb, or 1Mb (maximum) or, 233 kb. I'm about to fire off a question, but the whole thing about registration irks me. So, I try something else. I go back to the front, lclick in as a US customer, and voila! the file just completed, no problems.
The !@#$%^&* support... works for US site, not for Singapore.. why?!!!
Update at 10pm.
Of course, the blamed thing doesn't work at all...
6:14 PM
Saturday, August 21, 2004
I was at hdb hub today to meet kb, daniel, adrian, subbu and tian to discuss the Youth Inc program today. Mom drove me there and we were having lunch at the food court at the hub basement, and mom went to buy food while I looked after the table.
Space was at a real premium, like at most food courts during lunch time. At my table, it seemed my presence at the seat was enough to discourage people from trying to sit at the table, though I was only holding 2 of the 6 seats. A rather old-looking man shuffled over to table and took one of the seats without asking, carrying a place of half-eaten food. I was surprised; had he just moved over from another table?
He then proceeded to clear from the plate the fork and spoon, a discarded medicine pill bubble wrapper, and an empty egg shell, and then start eating from the plate. This was the point that I realised, belatedly, that he had taken someone else's half-eaten food, left at the table, and started eating. With slow, palsied motions and a vacant expression, he deliberately finished his meal, and left...
Does this happen? It was my first experience of something like this... Is it sadness or pity I feel? Or shame? What can we do for people like this? Should we do anything? I'm confused...
11:02 PM
Friday, August 20, 2004
if wired.com didn't do a feature, I wouldn't believe this website that gives away free i-pods.. come on, gota be a scam right? but it seems to work!
http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,64614-2,00.html?tw=wn_story_page_next1
10:35 PM
My arm is in a splint now. It's quite interesting how it's done. It's called EasyForm, and it's a board that looks like some kind of art material, with little holes arranged regularly through it. You know in those toolboards americans like to keep in their garages? With tools hanging from nails in them, blue color, and the nails are punched through this grid of holes in them? Yep, that's it.
So the hospital staff (an occupational therapist, I learned later), a nice lady called Gladys, measured my hand on the board (tracing with a blue pen), soaked it in hot water ( in a boiler that reminded me of a deep fry oven), wherupon it softened and she could cut it with a scissors and mold it around my arm.. wow... it's like art and craft!
Ah well. significant happenings. I watched susilo get thrashed, sadly. just after i was talking to key abt how this is the revenge of the foreign talent too.. You know, there's that bunch of irritating singaporeans who say, why use foreign talent for sports, why not use natives, anyway the foreign people are second-stringers in their own country, no chance of a medal, blah blah blah.... Someone told me that just before the Olympics kicked off, when I said the main hopes seemed to be badminton and table tennis...
(oh, btw, if you really feel this way, I don't find you irritating so much as your view... =p)
So when susilo whacked lin dan and suddenly became a hope, I'm like, YES!! That an underdog came to Singapore and bloomed... It's not our environment, it's the choices people make, basically... and so on! But it would have been nice to get a medal (and finally make the SNOC pay some part of the $1million bounty that they promised for an Olympic gold, less for silver and bronze..)
Well, jiawei is still in! So cheer her on, if you are Singaporean! So she's from China, and Susilo is from Indonesia.. who cares? My mom is from China too!! Who cares? If she's not ashamed to wear the Singaporean flag on her shirt, then I am not ashamed to cheer her on!
Going to miss the live telecast of the semifinal though... :<
going to meet kb and company tomorrow to discuss youth, inc.. hmm. kb. he's kind of a mover and shaker like daniel, but different... Two highly intelligent and successful chaps who are alike and different... dc, he has a super big heart, a little bumbling in the way he carries himself, kind of like a comic character. Sometimes I wonder how he came to be so successful ( and to be recognized as such a solid manager and worker) when he's, you know, like that. (Not that he's not qualified... he's zai (hokkien for steady, good, great!) but sometimes he just doesn't seem so.
kb, on the other hand... he's bumbling too, but not in that way. more like in revenge of the nerds way, though the comparison doesn't do him justice at all... Extremely sharp guy, but... gives me the creeps a little, cos his eyes and voice, to me, seem a little empty. Say, like one of WhiteWolf's World of Darkness vampires...
:> Not for serious consumption, anyway... hahahaha...
Well.. starting today, atlantic online is no longer available to non-subscribers. :<
10:25 PM
Tuesday, August 17, 2004
Gosh. Been out of hospital a couple of days. I'm recovering okay, not too much pain, but for a speed demon like me it's a real pain to type with one hand... it's so sloooow. Walking is like, 5 minutes to the front door. sigh.
Recap. I had a wrist fracture, left wrist (thank God! not right!) in April, which was only picked up in July because the initial xray showed no fracture. So for 3 months i continued to do my normal army duties, including heavy loads and stuff, with the caveat of a left hand sprain that effectively excused me one hand. I even visited the sinseh twice! Fast forward to July when MO gets worried abt my hand (frankly at this point I'm worried too) whereupon the specialist referral throws up a fractured scaphoid, non union. Further CT scan shows that it's quite serious, so a vascular bone graft (bone reduction, they call it) kiv hip, kiv wrist reconstruction for a misaligned lunate.
So i entered hospital on 12th, thursday. By 11th I'd handedover everything in my unit and they were happy to let me stay home 11th night. But on 12th morning I had to setup a meeting with Adrian Lim from The Youth Entrepreneur Mastery. My chat with Daniel had thrown up an opportunity for DA to be used in a mentoring context with out of school youth, and after consulting with Subbu I decided to go ahead.
120804, 10.30am
met up with adrian, and I've got good vibes. adrian himself is not the dynamic, energetic go getter, more quiet, but with a quiet sense of confidence and vision. He's tall, thin, maybe abt 35, definitely looks older than daniel, but that could just be his look. Friendly, but his personal space is kind of retracted, not amped up and in your face like most gregarious types are. He's got a strong, coherent vision for getting these youth somewhere, and I really hope to be part of it. He requests some files from me before the submission deadline, which I'll provide via others, as I'm on my way to hospital.
120804, 12nn.
Meeting over, I call up Daniel and then Subbu to see if they can do what's needed. It's a go! Off to lunch with Key and then check in. I later meet Dr Mark and Prof Pho, my consulting specialists. They haven't forgotten what I told them about DA... Key's around most of the day (love ya dear!) and both our moms drop by.
130804, 7.15am
I'm off to the op. Op begins timely at 8am, I remember breathing the oxygen in, then, hmm, what's that smell? must be the anaesthetic(sp?), breathe in, out, in, out, in, out, in, out, how come I'm still awake?
and then i wake up to see key's face over my bed like an angel.. rest of the day is just a haze...
130804, 6pm
finally awake enough for dinner. It's slow going, eat one mouthful, fight the nausea, burp out some of the stinky anaesthetic gas... movement's a real pain, left hand is embalmed, hip hurts bad. Snow, xp, nekki and chuipz drop by, as do andy and poon. and of coz key! and our moms. and brian, angela, and their parents.
Snow is wearing contacts regularly now. Part of the corporate look I guess, or maybe it's just change. xp's complexion is so much better now, very pretty! hee. Key agrees too! Nekki; somehow you just don'tseem to change much, still the sad smile that hints either at now sadness that clouds you or a portent of the future... Adrian asked me, during our chat, why would you want to know the future? If there's one thing I'd like to see change in you old pal, it's this... that you find a happiness that you believe, even foolishly, will last. Chuipz seems very tired compared to before.. where did the sunshine go? Or maybe, I just never saw deeper before...
140804, 5am
I slept b4 10pm the previous night, and I paid the price, waking up at 1.30 am to hear the patients and leaves rustling. Later in the morning, I would be staring out the window at the trees and thinking to myself that the view is so old SBC channel 5. really! colors are kind of dull, faded out, even the hospital walls and the now-familiar cork ceilings.
The Prof dropped by to say that the op went well and he expects a full recovery. A good sign, cos before the op he refused to commit himself and was very surprised why I was so willing togo ahead. I guess my head and heart agreed on this. It felt right, heart, spirit, soul, mind, and body... (though my hip might have been quaking in fear :P)
140804 12nn
Adrian calls me near noon to wonder where the DA files are... So I call Subbu, who tells me he's working on it. I inform Adrian that he'll get it by evening...
With Dr Mark's assurance that the bone section taken was not functionally critical (ie, you can walk, with pain) I venture out for short distance, long duration, high-pain, walks to the toilet... Maybe I'm fundamentally masochistic, but I'd rather walk there then be wheeled over.
Key, both our moms, and sis, Jerm and Erin make up the guest list. My favorite niece seems afraid of the Big Hand, haha... "scared scared" she says. Gary, Daniel and Joanna drop by too. As is inevitable, talk turns to "work"... THC matters. I discovered with Sabby in the past, we almost end up talking about THC matters when we met up. Hurts the friendship somewhat... :<
140804 930pm
I'm almost asleep when Elaine drops by. The nurses have switched off all the lights, so she's hard to recognize, but at least my specs are on. Switch on the lights, and we talk... Curiously, THC things barely mentioned. She's getting married! And also just promoted.. but she also looks tired... problems at work, and it also seems that the promotion has taken her further away from the close contact with youth she valued... :< I guess i HAVE to lend her Randy Komisar's book. Elaine... I value her friendship, and think she values mine, and we can certainly chat... She's is really one of those at-heart good peoople that you'd have to emotionally blind to hate. And she's good friends with sugarcreampuff after housing together in london during her year there. Somehow though, some level of disconnect, a recognition that our interests, personalities are fundamentally different, that close friends is forever a world away. Maybe I haven't grown up yet, but I still feel like playing, workhard and playhard, for the rest of my life, peterpan wrestling with hook for my soul. And i'm beginning to realise, that i work better with the hooks and live better with the pans...
150804 2pm
finally checking out. at 8am dr says i can go, so i call mom. she drags zeal down, but we end up waiting hour after hour while they process us. awful service... totally! rest of the day is zeal and marie's bday bbq. key is here as well, and we watched just married on cable with sis. hope our honeymoon isn't like that! :>
reading the newspapers, I'm quite excited by the new mcds (i'm going to call it that even if they keep reporting mcys!) initiative... Let's all create our future together! I know so many people with ideas, energy, who say the govt don't listen. don't wait and see anymore! they say they're listening now, and if they don't, it's their loss right? I don't care much for politics, but this is a chance to insert ideas from the top instead of always working from the bottom up!
160804 10.45am
Got a call from adrian. da files not done yet. call subbu, and no, it's not done. end of day? But adrian has to make the submission by 5pm in hardcopy! Oh, okay,he'll mail me sthg we did last time.
Okay, don't blow up. constructive, do the work first. rush a submission, draft and type a docu with one ******* hand. Honestly, I'm pissed, and I should be calling subbu to say so. I think I will, but it's my blog, and I'm going to rant if i want to, even though i know it's not fair to him. but the least he could have told me was, I don't feel like, or i'm busy, or I don't know. right? or even, it's not fair, you keep throwing work to me. But no? just don't do. It's face, it's a sense of lost trust....
But i do it too right? though i always tell myself that's different... and if others can find it in their hearts to let it pass, i should to... golden rule, christian principles, managerial textbooks and eq thingys.
But damn, I was hopping mad... :<
Can I do a pan? I want my holiday back... Maybe key's way is better... take responsibility over small manageable chunks. 1 kid in africa, ten dollars a month. 1 wish on a star. Leave the responsibility to others...
7:47 AM
Friday, August 06, 2004
I had a long dinner with Daniel and Joanna today at Trader's Hotel... It was to discuss THC stuff and just generally to catch up... Nice buffet dinner, I could probably have sat there and kept eating forever. 25 a head, roughly, so not too bad.
hm. As a sidenote, an interesting topic came up. If I were to get married, would I move in with my mom or move out into a new apartment. When Joanna asked me about that (as a side topic to questions about Key), I shared that dilemma I have, on the one hand filial duty, and on the other hand that need for a large amount of private space. And Daniel made two interesting observations..
1) It's probably better for family harmony not to stay with parents for the earliest years of marriage, because you'll be getting used to each other which is already quite a challenge, not to mention if she has to get used to my mom too. Later on, we can see, once the foundations of marraige have been firmly built.
2) James Lye was having lunch with them the other day and he mentioned that in order to manage impressions well, he bought an apartment before he got married and moved out, and some time later, got married, so that his mom would not associate his wife with snatching her precious son away...
:>
The main reason for the dinner was to talk about THC stuff. True Hearts Connection is a mentoring and befriending scheme that I work with, pairing mentors from junior colleges and mentees from neighborhood secondary schools. Daniel founded the program, and it's very much his baby. He's a very driven kind of person, successful in all the measures that I'd use to measure success, and that includes family and God. Like any person, he has his weaknesses, but the defining characteristic I would use to describe him is "optimistic stubborness". Perhaps from his background, he reacts to obstacles by grinding away at them with an awful persistence. He smiles, and says, "How about... ?"
Joanna, on the other hand, I would use "assertive". Not that Daniel isn't, but she is very strong on beliefs and conviction, which maybe sometimes can rub people the wrong way, but at the same time reassures us that what she says, is in fact, what she means.
So we talked about where the program was going, future needs for growth, that kind of thing. and two main things came out of it in the end. Simpler one first, there's some possibilities for reaching out to "Out-of-School youth" and we were thinking about a mentoring service model to be applied, and the Decision Education Foundation's work in prisons popped into my head. So I guess this is an opportunity to get DA out onto the street...
Second, he asked me which post i would be interested in going forward. We talked about a more focused exco structure with different legs for the different functions, Liaison, Programmes, Executive and now I'm supposed to take a leg. I have my reservations about whether THC will finally be the place for me, after all I have those other ideas about social entrepreneurship, about changeSg, about BrainTrust, but.. at the same time, I know some of the things I would like to change about THC programmes to make it more effective and more the kind of thing I would want to do. So... I guess I've made that commitment to change THC into what I want it to be like. Not that it precludes all the other ideas. But sometimes it's much easier to do something than to think about possibilities that may never be...
12:25 AM
Wednesday, August 04, 2004
On the way down to the Ministry of Manpower Open House today, I was passing through the Apollo Centre when I was tempted into a cafe called "Thistle Toby". I say tempted, because I'm currently in a budget squeeze and am supposed to spend something like $2 on lunch on a daily basis. Thistle's set lunch was $7.50, so...
But it was a very interesting set-up. It's inside the building, with a space inside the regular shop area, and also an addditonal eating area set up in the central atrium of the building. Al-fresco style, the little round tables, small chairs, and umbrellas sticking out of the tables, almost as if it were outdoor. The building itself has a glass roof, so sunlight falls down into the central atrium, bathing it in warm natural light. I picked a seat without really thinking much, placed my order... and then the sun came out in earnest to bake me... :> But it was a fantastic feeling, air conditioned coolness and warm sunlight, kind of like being back in UK or US during summer, out in the sun...
The food itself was decent not fantastic.. Swedish meatballs have a nice, bouncy structure, delicious taste. Ever since Key introduced Ikea swedish meatballs to me I think I've fallen in love with them. But the rest of the meal was not fantastic. Carrot soup was the soup of the day. When the manager told me that, I must have made a face, because she hurriedly assured me that it went well with bread.. Well I'm a sucker for bread. But as it turns out, the meal came wihout bread, because it comes with soup, not soup of the day... oh well. I guess I could have asked for bread. But my impression of carrot soup is not fantastic now. The taste is just a bit out of my enjoyable envelope, it's basically carrot puree. I wonder how carrot juice tastes like? Yech.
Finishing lunch, I continued to the Ministry of Manpower, and was struck by several factors.
1) It's 1.30 pm and there's a loooooooooong line of taxi's queueing at the building exit waiting for customers. In my experience cabbies are normally very good at predicting demand and I guess that means that there are a lot of customers...
2) Going in, the building is so busy! It's a lot of people moving around, doing things, etc. Combined with point 1, it makes me suspect that they work very heavily during lunch too. Sigh. Later on they confirm it by saying that their typical work day is 12 hours...
3) The toilet has 2 urinals and 5 cubicles. I didn't really notice before, but isn't the ratio kind of skewed? Always thought that there were abotu equal numbers, or maybe more urinals, in most male toilets. Wonder, wonder...
8:08 PM
Sunday, August 01, 2004
Well. somehow the blog entry that I remember putting down is not there.. But my operation is delayed until 13 August, which kind of explains why I'm stil ltyping away at my blog... It's kind of what i wanted, so I could attend the career fairs.. but at the same time I'm kind of scared that my arm will fester and drop off or I'll suffer irreparable damage in the meantime.
On a side note, it turns out I DO have a Paypal account. Even though I don't remember. hmm... Got an email from PayPal saying I'm entitled to a class action settlement amount. But anyway... I guess since they didn't rip me off yet, I think, I won't pursue...
11:11 AM
http://andrewwright.blogspot.com/
Gosh. Reading Andrew's blog I feel two things..
1) I never had this much fun growing up... guess I never seized the opportunities...
2) either, Singaporeans are not as interesting as Georgians, or, i need to really really APPRECIATE people more, and write about it too...
haha.. think I'll do that more!
10:51 AM
oh. and I've finished Da Vinci Code. Now reading Getting to Yes, handbook about negotiation.
Can understand some of the hoopla around Da Vinci Code.. if you interpret it not as fiction but as a conspiracy theorist. I think Dan Brown does imply clearly (oxymoron) at the start that he's writing this NOT AS FACT. But I do wonder if some of the points he made about the artworks and leonardo da vinci are true. Have to go and look at the artworks I guess. Maybe I'll google it. Or maybe I'll read the counter books.
Thing is, taken as fact, or a statement of his belief, it can be quite offensive to Christians I guess. If i took it like really seriously, rather than as a backdrop for him to talk about PHI and have cool cryptex puzzles with silly 5 letter answers. He probably realizes this, and holds out little olive branches by saying things like, oh, Christian leaders DO believe in what they believe in, (as opposed to being cynical b*****ds), and many Christians are aware of the bloody and unglamourous history of the church, and do not condone it... ( i guess as Protestants and formerly being "oppressed" by the Roman Catholic Church we should understand this? haha..) Thing is, taken seriously, his book's points are a statement of Christian actions (in the past) seen from a sociopolitical point of view. Of power plays, wars of symbology, and oppressing the feminine... But this is always the problem, isn't it? People of faith attribute an element of the divine. People of the world don't, they see it through non-divine lens... that Jesus was just a great man and not the Son of God. Even Christians who udnerstand this so well would do it, against say Muslims, taking their actions as a desperate attempt to hold on to power in their "backward" nations, rather than as their belief...
So... what's the big deal? By giving it so much attention, we're creating a big hoo-ha. Mel Gibson had the Passion for us, Michael Moore had Fahrenheit for the Democrats, and Dan Brown now has Da Vinci for him.
Poon said that the book might be a tipping factor for people on the edge. But... if people really are interested, they can search for it... and in searching for the truth, they might just find Truth, no?
10:27 AM
I've started playing this kewl game, City of Heroes... it's quite fun, you play a super hero, basically, MMORPG, and go around kicking villains and solving quests. No pkill at all, which really rocks... heh. Basically Andy and Poon jio-ed me into it.
Yah, poon's back from Virginia, going to teach at SMU for a while, and then... hahaha.. never thought that anyone i knew would become a Professor in Philosophy.. that's so.. existential! Haha.. we had a great dinner discussion, then a mad rush around funan trying to look for a Games shop that was open so Andy could buy CoH. Thing is, we were so late that all the shops were closed. all the way to the top floor, including challenger. And then, turns out, one store is lighted but closed, and Andy could see CoH inside, so we knocked on the door, put on our most pleading faces, and begged the proprietor to open up... hahaha... And then, since we'd put in so much effort, I went ahead and got one too.
It's quite fun so far, major distraction from my preparation for interviews.. oops.. hahaha...
I'm quite looking forward to seeing snow's new website.. wonder when it'll be up...
10:17 AM
Sunday, July 25, 2004
taking up a new online reading regimen... that includes Wired.com and Slate.com
haha. Increase my reading! yeah. well, if i have time. mostly i think i'll have to pull it out of sunday mornings. But today's interesting read is http://www.typophile.com/smallerpicture/
haha.. try it, looks fun!
9:40 AM
Saturday, July 24, 2004
11:49 PM
Sunday, July 18, 2004
oh wow.
i was just about to sign up for PayPal to get something for Key, but then I googled toget the paypal website and came up with some other stuff instead. PayPalSucks.com
It's scary! Think I'm definitely not getting an account now.
11:18 PM
Saturday, July 10, 2004
So.. I haven't had my operation yet! turns out, after a CT scan, that the bone fracture is larger than they expected.. so a routine, 2 hour operation they could do on the fly has become a 5 hour one that they must "plan for", cos it's "quite complicated". 30th July, 2004.
Ah well. it did mean that among other things, I got to see Kenneth and Matthew in camp, will likely get to write my injury report in camp, got to know Qiu Bin better on the train ride back home today, and..
oh yah, bumped into Aaron Shahril Yusof Maniam too! haha.. quite a surprise for both of us.. have to catch up with him...
1:57 PM
Thursday, July 08, 2004
Had a big fight with my mom yesterday. well, i dunno if it was a fight,but an argument at least.
I guess I'm on my own quite stressed about this operation, jut that I try not to say it out. Hide it behind the bluster and rush of going for the op, changing duties, and cheerfully telling people that I've been walking around with a fractured wrist for 3 months. I don't really even want to think about what could go wrong. All I know is I am basically living a cripple's life right now, and even though I get by, using just my right hand for anything more complicated than buttoning a shirt, the hand will get worse if not treated. So it would take pretty bad odds on the operation to scare me OUT of it.
And to me, this seems like a pretty routine operation. The fracture happens a lot and it's the most common treatment. So, yes, GA is risky, and operating is risky, but what kind of medical operation doesn't carry risks? There's no need to pressure me into getting a second opinion by this roundabout method of saying, oh there might be some risks, doctor hasn't told you about, so on, so forth.
In the end it boils down to this: I trust the doctor. I've never met him before this appointment. And I have to admit what Jerm said, he DID NOT tell me what the risks are, etc. But I trust that intuition ( MBTI agrees too!) and I think, he's telling me what he would do in my position. It's not like he's a used car salesman.
I don't need them to tell me, oh, maybe this is off. More like encouragement, a hug, a prayer, you know?
9:03 AM