On the last day of the year

I would like to thank Wifey for 4 years together.

Starbucks Parkway Parade

Holland Drive Hawker Centre

Westin Stamford Lobby Lounge

Toa Payoh MRT Station

915 Fried Chicken

IMM Loading Bay

Dragon View Park

Ikea Alexandra

St. Bernadette's Church

Rose Garden Eatery, Melbourne

Old Airport Hawker Centre

Thomson Medical Centre

FAITH!!

Wee First Infant Care

Kowloon

Mt Alvernia Hospital

JOY!!

National Library Board (??)

Geraldine, I love you

Y2K + 7

Had a thought-provoking chat with a friend who's making a successful second career out of career-counselling friends. She had a convincing case for me returning to a vocation that I abandoned some years back.

I remember the day I stepped into the formalin-impregnated hall with 149 other hopefuls. Taking an oath of respect with our ungloved hands on the cadavers.

I remember the night I gave up it all up along the quiet lonely corridor in the pre-war building at Kampong Java.


Photo credit: www.cebam.be

I hear your advice and will keep it for the future. Thanks.

TV Mobile

So I was on the public bus these past days for one reason or another. The car being out of commission until the weekend. What hit me while on the bus was not the sardine-like conditions but the incessant noise emanating from the TV Mobile console.

For those not familiar with TV Mobile. It's the brand name of a free-to-air TV station on most public buses in Singapore. Commuters get to watch news and re-runs of local TV programme while on the bus. Not a bad idea until you realise that the volume is perpetually turned up to drown out the engine noise. I suspect this is done so that the advertisements may be heard regardless of traffic and crowd conditions.


Photo credit: www.coverville.com

TV images I can ignore but it's really hard to even think properly when I have the equivalent of someone shouting into my ears for the entire journey. I don't need to know, for the 101st time, that MacDonald's is giving away $10,000 dollars in a lucky draw. And I certainly don't need the entire cast of Phua Chu Kang teaching me the finer points of Singlish.

There is absolutely no private space on public buses nowadays. Not even private space for personal thoughts. I'm very sure that there are laws against such things in enlightened countries.

God Jul och Gott Nytt

Peace and goodwill to all men


Image credit: www.hotlib.com

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christmas

Lest we forget

Humanity has the propensity to treat one another in the most depraved manner. Occasionally a spark of hope may shine through the darkness.


Photo credit: www.cartercenter.org

My wish this time of the year is for everyone to treat one another with respect and dignity.

Have a peaceful and silent night tonight. Wherever you are in the world.

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peace

Carcel de Caseros

One of the most notorious prison in Argentina has finally been demolished last week, according to a BCC report today. The Carcel de Caseros (Caseros Prison) was a place where dissendents of past regimes in Argentina were incarcerated and "disappeared."

The International Herald Tribune reported on August 7, 2007,

...The Cárcel de Caseros is considered to have been among Argentina's most inhumane prisons under Jorge Rafael Videla's brutal military dictatorship from 1976 to 1981.

What made Caseros worse than many other prisons was the lack of direct sunlight. Prisoners grew sickly from lack of vitamin D. Their skin turned green and flaked off, and their teeth, hair and eyesight deteriorated...

And instead of killings and physical tortures, the prison was constructed in such a way to exert psychological pressure on inmates. The walls were painted in garish colours and built in a way that disoriented the senses. Numerous prisoners committed suicide because of that.


Photo credit: fadwebsite.com

It is perhaps fitting that someone has made an art piece out of the deserted building. Using the broken glass of the facade windows to create a light illusion of faces staring out from the prison, Seth Wulsin won admiration from the Argentine public, some of them ex-detainees. The faces shimmered in the sunlight and, depending on where the observer was standing, not all were visible simultaneously. Some disappeared when the angle of the light changed with the passing hour.

It is an example of art that heals. All the more apt as, day by day, the building was demolished in stages, the faces disappeared forever. An ephemeral memorial to those who were "disappeared" and perhaps laying past ghosts to rest.

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art

Winter solstice

So once again we are at the turning point of the year. The northern hemisphere is experiencing its longest night. The winter solstice falls on the thirteenth day of the eleventh month of the Chinese calendar (十一月十三日) this year.

It's strange that I should remember and mark this astronomical event every year. The quietness of a dark night appeals to me more than the noise and light of other occasions like Christmas or Chinese New Year. I can imagine a family reunited for dinner on the longest night of the year.


Image credit: baidu.com

Of course, it's quite nonsensical to talk about a long, dark winter's night while I live right smack on the Equator where the climate is perpetually hot and humid. Maybe that's why I find it mind-numbingly stifling here. The weather is a metaphor of the mindset here in 1984-ville. Every where I turn to, people go to the same malls for leisure. Everyone lives in perpetual fear of losing their jobs, or of not getting their yearly bonus. The conversation topics revolve around property prices, public and private transport taxes. The weather is hot, humid and nothing else. We wear the same kinds of clothes the whole year round. And every household overworks its System 4 Inverters.

Nobody looks up at the sky anymore. We are losing our individual and collective souls. When was the last time you saw a shooting star? Really...

Pause and think about what it means to be in-sync with your inner soul as you go about completing the last-minute shopping. What is it to be human?

I wish you peace.

Lasik (Part 4), or The Baggage from My Past

I live in a place with the highst rate of myopia in the world. Myo-what? That's the medical term for short-sightedness. Most of my friends will agree with me that it is very annoying to have a pair of spectacles perching on your nose, without which you'd have to grope carefully in order not to trip over things while walking. Being myopic is more of a psychological scar than an everyday inconvenience for me. The reason I say this is because of the circumstance that made me short-sighted.

I was born to parents who did not need to wear glasses. My mum is not myopic now although she is beginning to develop long-sightedness due to old age. This condition results in her not being able to see things clearly at a close range. Think of it as the opposite of myopia. But I am digressing.


Photo credit: www.freephoto1.com

After a tempestuous relationship, my parents separated when I was barely learning how to control my piss. Anyway, I was put under the care of my maternal grandmother. Now, as it turns out, my mum was an adopted child so there isn't any blood relation between her and granny. This is an important point, as we shall see later. The other significant thing to note is that my granny's biological sons are all severely myopic.

Effectively, I was put into an environment where short-sightedness was the norm. I was also made to read textbooks over long hours under a dim fluorescent light bulb. The first sign of failing eye-sight appeared when I turned 10 years of age. I found that I couldn't read the service numbers of public buses until they came right up to the bus stop. I remember a funny experience with a friend of mine who also had problems with his eyesight. We had missed a bus because we couldn't read the number until it was too late to flag. Yes, bus drivers were and still are an impatient lot. So we devised a plan. You know how it is with 10-year-old boys, they come up with the most ingenious of plots. My friend stationed himself about 50 metres ahead of the bus stop and he did the number spotting, waving to me when the right bus approached. I then had ample time to flag the bus while he would make a mad dash back to the bus stop.

So that was my first step into the world of myopia. I was definitely coerced into it. I remember the physical abuse that I received if I did not do well in school. One of my uncle even set his own test papers for me on a weekly basis, giving me a good thrashing when I got any mistake. Once he returned from work while I was watching TV. He promptly interrogated me on why I was not studying. I got another beating with the warning to "make sure that you are studying when I return home." All that abuse was witnessed by other members of the household. No one intervened.

There is only so much that a yound child can take before he breaks and does one of two things: run away or allow his will to be broken. For good or bad, I chose to conform to expectations, putting in countless hours of revision and reading. All the while under unsuitable lighting conditions.

My short-sightedness hangs like a ghost from the past, a reminder of the unhappy days and how I was robbed of my birthright. I have no genetic pre-disposition towards myopia but I was forced to abuse my eyes to point of failure.

Now that I'm a father of two beautiful daughters, I pray desperately everyday that they will not have to wear glasses when they start going to school. Because when I put on my glasses every morning, I am reminded of the emotional baggage that flawed care-givers placed on me so many years ago.

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Technorati: myopia, health, lasik

The quirks of urban living

Before I go to the story I must state on record that I'm NOT bored with life and the most serious vandalism I ever did was missing my aim at the men's room while half-drunk with 40% Bacardi.

Whatever...

Earlier this evening, a friend told me that the buttons in the lifts of HDB blocks could be "re-booted", much like pressing Ctr-Alt-Del on a Windows OS. Apparently what happened was that punks had been jabbing all the buttons, resulting in much annoyance to the next person taking a ride. Imagine visiting every floor before you reach your destination.

Anyway, this friend of mine found out that, at least in the lifts serving the block he lives in, he could cancel all the activated buttons by simultaneously pressing three buttons. Neat little Easter egg for defeating all those punks.

Well anyway, as you can see from the time stamp of this blog post, I am feeling insomniac. Guess what's the best way to kill time in the middle of a dark and silent night, besides blogging? Of course, it's to conduct scientific tests. Heh.



So, I went into the lift at my place and randomly pressed a few buttons. It turned out that if I pressed more than three buttons, not necessarily simultaneously, the activated buttons would be de-activated, reverting back to stand-by mode.

A pretty interesting Easter egg. It prevents itchy-fingered kids from doing their stuff but the lift cannot serve more than three floors at a time.

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urban guide

Stress

We experience mental stress generally when we perceive that the demands of aspects of our lives overwhelm our capabilities to handle such demands. All of us have experienced some form of stress in our lives, some are better able to handle it, others need external intervention.


Hallucination is a symptom of extreme stress
Photo credit: www.cattlerange.com

We are probably familiar with the general stages of stress. They are, in order of severity:

1. Awareness. This happens when we become aware of the threat to our well-being and this is usually associated with a sudden increase in pulse rate. In most people, this is the shortest stage of stress and they eventually move on to next stage.

2. Coping. The typical response after we become aware of the threat to our well-being is, of course, to try to get rid of the problem or to find ways of living with the problem such that it does as little damage as possible. We know that coping mechanisms cannot function indefinitely as it depletes our resources. When the threat eventually outlasts our coping mechanisms, we move on to the third and most serious stage.

3. Exhaustion. When our coping mechanisms are overwhelmed, our body can no longer maintain normal functions. This results in our organ systems not performing the right things. For example, improper organ functioning may be manifested as stomach ulcers, heart attacks or insomnia. The most serious consquence is, of course, death from these manifestations.

There is considerable overlap among the three general stages. For example, a person may experience insomnia while successfully resolving the problem. My experience with the stages of stress is typical. I remember experiencing frequent diarrhoea during the school examinations, especially before and after tough papers.

The most insidious way by which stress levels build up in most working class city-dwellers is presenteeism. We ignore stress signals to carry on working, always striving for one more hour, one more page or one more deal. Employees & employers alike are equally guilty of promoting such health-destroying behaviour because going on sick leave is generally frowned upon. The subconscious message is that a person who fails to cope with stress has a lesser moral character or questionable work ethic.

There is always a choice to walk away from work when the alarm bells go off. Workers need to be empowered not just with legislative protection but also with knowledge of how to recognise stress levels and the available resources to help them cope.

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stress health

Lasik (Part 3), or The Second Skin

The best non-medical invention that came along, in terms of myopia correction, is the contact lens. They fit on the cornea like a second skin, providing clear vision in the entire field-of-view, unlike spectacles where there's always a blind-zone outside of the frame.


Photo credit: Bryan Tong Minh

I got into the act quite late, having worn my first pair only at 18. This came about after running too many competitive cross-country races stumbling over roots and shrub without the benefit of wearing my 500-degree glasses. The only time I did wear glasses while competing, I ended having them flung off my nose while trying to catch up with the guy in front of me during the last leg.

The trick to wearing contact lenses is to keep them on short and keep them clean. Cleanliness is paramount. It was something that I took for granted and ended up with two bouts of conjunctivitis. Simple rules apply. Always wash hands before handling, never wash lenses with tap water.

As a result of those two bouts of infecton, I could no longer put on contact lenses without getting sore eyes after 2 hours of wearing. And my eyes would ache for a few days after that. So ended my tryst with the contact lens.

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lasik contact lens

The 25k project (Part 2)

It costs quite a sum to apply for Canadian Permanent Resident visas for a family of four. In Canadian dollars (CAD), it’s 550 each for Wifey and me, CAD150 each for Faith and Joy. That makes a grand total of CAD1400 or SGD1900-plus with current forex rates.


Sunset in Vancouver
Photo credit: Matt Jones Photography

The Canadian visa section in Singapore charges SGD2192 if we’re paying in Singapore dollars. That’s quite a hefty premium. It’s less costly if we get an international bank draft in Canadian dollars. It’ll cost under SGD2000 with the service fee added in

With knowledge, there’s empowerment (and savings).

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emigration vancouver

Photography

By the way, yawningbread has an excellent article on DIY self-portraits. For all of us who don't believe in paying some guy 20 bucks for a grouchy passport photo...

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photography

Lasik (Part 2), or The Curse of The Snellen Chart

It was in 1984 when I was first pronounced myopic by a government nurse performing routine medical examination on students enrolled in state-run elementary schools. That diagnosis was made through the use of a Snellen chart. There was neither follow-up at a specialized opthalmological facility nor examination by an optometrist. I was simply given a written note of the declared diagnosis and the estimated unaided visual acuity (like 20/60 or some other numbers), with a stern advice to get a pair of glasses if I wanted to continue doing well in class.



My mum, proud as hell that I'd gained the status symbol of a studious boy, promptly took me to an optometry shop in Chinatown, where I was prescribed with a pair of spectacles. I remember they were around 100+ diopters (or "degrees") for each eye.

Looking back, that was about the most arbitrary process I have been medically subjected to. I became a myopic person all because of the Snellen Chart.

And so began my love-hate relationship with the eyeglass. I hate my dependence on them for all the usual reasons. Uncomfortable, slides off with perspiration, gets broken easily etc. There was only one reason for me to love them. They acted as a shield to my inner world. People say the eyes are the windows to the soul. I treated my glasses as a privacy screen. I used them as social camouflage, hiding emotions and ignorance. It is very easy to assume an intellectual, know-it-all air when you wear glasses. Answer this question: who's the geek, Bill or Steve? Must be the glasses giving one of them the geeky image.

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lasik

Lasik (Part 1)

My glasses were nearly cracked while playing tickles with Faith. She's reached the age where every piece of furniture (and dad lying on the sofa) is a mountain to be conquered. Did I mention that she converted my previous pair of spectacles into two monocles?

Wearing glasses is quite an impediment.

The gossip of the day is that one of my ex-classmate is now performing laser surgery for short-sighted patients. It's good to have contacts in such places.

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lasik

A new look

My apologies for the unfamiliar layout. Yes, you'd typed the address correctly and/or that link you clicked still works. I figured that the 3-year-plus blog facade needed a facelift. Please take a look around, maybe you might find the theme that connects the four Easter eggs ;-)

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My favourite fruit

The newest incarnation of the iPod nano looks very delectable, never mind the iPhone. Too bad I need all the cash I can hoard at the moment for my $25k project. Must resist! Vancouver here I come!

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music

Communication

You know, much of the conflict around the world arise from a lack of clear communication. Who was it who came up with a model of how ideas get perverted in transmission? He must have had too much time on his hands be a genius. The steps go:

1. Sender forms idea
2. Idea is coded into an expletive about someone's parents a message output
3. Output is picked up by receiver
4. Receiver decodes message
5. Receiver translates decoded message into idea
6. Blood feud begins

or some sh*t like that. Should've paid attention in school.

Anyway, the original idea gets changed four times when the receiver eventually forms his own ideas about the idea. No wonder we all behave like deers without eyes.

Think I'll brush up English speech & grammar (yeah, all that SVO crap) and then maybe get a TESOL or CELTA certification before unleashing all my corrupting powers on unsuspecting fools helping poor kids learn English.

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education, language