A letter to my MP

This is a letter I wrote to Mr David Ong, the Member of Parliament for Jurong GRC which I sent today.

Mr David Ong (davidong@bukitbatok.sg)

Member of Parliament

Jurong GRC

Dear Mr Ong,

Re: Pavement cyclists and Pedestrian safety.

I am one of your constituents living at Blk 203 Bukit Batok.

I noticed that the Park Connector project from Bukit Batok to Jurong East is nearing its completion. The track is completed and signage has been mounted.

This will make travelling between the towns much more pleasant and perhaps safer for cyclists and pedestrians.

After mulling over the issue for some time, I would like to offer some of my personal feedback, not just specifically on the Park Connector (PCN) but on pedestrian safety and cyclists in general in Bukit Batok.

I do not own a car and neither do I cycle, so I am basically a pedestrian. Unless I take the bus or the train, I usually move about Bukit Batok on foot. The most difficult thing about walking in Bukit Batok is the danger posed by pavement cyclists. I must clarify that I am not against cyclists per se.

Unlike Tampines New Town where cycling on pavement is legal, cyclists in Bukit Batok technically still come under Rule 28 of the Road Traffic Rules (1981) where it is prohibited to ride on the pavement. 1^st time offenders can be fined $20 for the traffic offense.

Officially under the Road Traffic Act (Chap 276, Sec140), bicycles are considered as vehicles and are required to be ridden on the road abiding to all the relevant traffic rules and regulations.

But in reality, the majority of cyclists in Bukit Batok ride on the pavements. Many of them do this due to their fear of being on the road with other bigger vehicles, for their own personal safety, or simply due to the fact that they are ignorant of the cycling prohibition rule.

I have seen cyclists showing utter disregard for traffic lights, pedestrian crossings, riding along shop corridors and even taking their bicycles onto escalators. Then there are those who constantly ring their bell to impose their ‘right of way’ along pavements, never mind the safety of pedestrians.

With all disregards to etiquette and rules by cyclists, pedestrians like me are most vulnerable on the pavements.

Even waiting at a bus stop poses a great danger to commuters.

The way our road pavements are designed, the path leads right through the bus stop shelter.  Many years ago, a raised floor or bollards prevented bicycles from accidentally going through a bus stop but these were removed to make it more user-friendly for the physically challenged. 

The downside to this is that it became a boon for cyclists who now have an unhindered ride straight through without consideration for commuters’ safety.

The new PCN along Bukit Batok Ave 1 is a prime example.

Even though the PCN cycling section detours behind the bus stop shelter, cyclists routinely disregard this safety path and continue to cycle through the bus stop. Some even without slowing down at all despite signs that say “Dismount and Push” which are completely ignored.

Bukit Batok Ave 1 Park Connector

The other thing that I await in trepidation is that under the Jurong GRC 5-year plan, there is a proposal to build a new Bicycle Park at the Bukit Batok MRT station south end.

From the preliminary sketch plan, you can see that the exit from the Bicycle Park leads out onto, and connects directly to, the pedestrian pavement and not to the road.  This is an implicit open invitation to cyclists to ride on the pavement itself.

It seems it was designed to benefit cyclists without considering pedestrian safety. Something is not right here.

(Copyright Jurong GRC Town Council) - Scanned picture used for example.

Can I suggest that before you launch the PCN officially, and before you build the Bicycle Park, a bit more thought be given to the safety of pedestrians?

We need a more holistic approach to the whole matter.

Besides just building the infrastructure for better connectivity, we need to educate the public, the pedestrians, the cyclists, the motorists and other road users.

Once a suitable PR or education programme is completed, we should then enforce basic rules and regulations for its proper usage.

In the area of educating the public, we can start with some sort of awareness programme in schools, in commercial places and factories within Bukit Batok.

Many of the offenders are foreign workers who may not be aware of the pavement restriction.

For motorists driving through Bukit Batok town, consider signage to warn them about giving space to cyclists (who should be educated to ride on the road instead). It’s all about courtesy to each and every road user.

I am not suggesting that enforcement of Rule 28 be heightened immediately. This will only result in more accidents for cyclists if enforcement takes place without education and thus will serve no beneficial purpose.

Unlike the way Tampines estate is trying to resolve their problem, my opinion is that we should tackle the problem at its root, i.e. teach cyclists the correct manner of safe cycling on the roads. Make Bukit Batok town a bicycle friendly estate but we should tackle the problem head-on rather than spend money on creating parallel bicycle tracks. Bicycles belong on the road, thus cyclists and motorists should be made aware of this.  In the absence of a national awareness programme, let our constituency take the lead.

We can educate motorists to give space to cyclists by putting up signage like “Look out for cyclists”, “Give 1.5m space” “Cyclists ahead”, etc.

There are some motorists who actually believe that cyclists should be off the roads. They should be educated to share the roads in a safe manner within Bukit Batok.

We should educate cyclists to ride safely on the roads, keep left, observe traffic rules, use safety gear, etc. I know of many cyclists who are completely ignorant of the fact that pavements are off limits. This is partially due to the very lax enforcement by the authorities, which seem to have a live and let live attitude instead. But we are sending the wrong message with this attitude.

We should educate pedestrians too. Even to give way to recalcitrant cyclists, as there will always be those who will ride on pavement for their own selfish safety as against riding on the road. Though it’s wrong, they prefer to accept the risks without considering the danger to others.

I remember when I took my driving tests decades ago; the emphasis was always “Pedestrian First”.  Their safety is of utmost priority, even when they may be in the wrong like jaywalking or crossing against their favour. Flesh against metal is a no win situation.

I appreciate your time in reading my rather long feedback.  For everyone’s safety, I believe that sustained and persistent education, coupled with the proper facilities you have built, will result in a safer environment for all in Bukit Batok.

I remain,

Yours faithfully,

James Tann

I attached a sample video of a safe cycling programme.

Nyan Cat is meaningless?

You say you can't understand the Nyan Cat video in the last blog?
Just a waste of 3-1/2 minutes of your life? No purpose at all?

OK, maybe the best explanation comes from Molly from Rocketboom.
After she explains the Nyan Cat meme (and Vocaloid) to you perhaps you would care to listen to the latest vocaloid clip as well below. Enjoy.






I really like this vocaloid version of Honey with an all star cast of anime characters.
(Much better than the original Mandarin version by Cyndi Wang!)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Vocaloid (ボーカロイド Bōkaroido) is a singing synthesizer application, developed through a joint research project between the Pompeu Fabra University in Spain and Yamaha Corporation, who developed the software into the commercial product "Vocaloid".
The software enables users to synthesize singing by typing in lyrics and melody.

Vocaloid is becoming the de facto voice in robots being developed in Japan.

Chain email and parlor tricks

You've all probably received it once or many times before - Chain letters.
Except now, it's via email. 


Make x copies, forward it to xx people, put your name at the bottom... sent it within 3 days, 7 days, 2 hours...or else... accident,  bad luck, doom doom doom..... Do it and get God's blessing, fortune etc etc etc.
It's amazing how people fall for these things so easily.


I received an email in response to one of my earlier blogs. 
This was on how the mind perceives things. 
Can you read this?


Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a ttoal mses  and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istief but the wrod as a wlohe.


The above passage was an internet meme that went viral many years ago which was later debunked as nothing more than a parlor trick, much less as research from Cambridge. 


If it was true then you should be able to read this easily...
Bblaaesl pryleas pnmrrioefg sllaimy aeoulltsby dvrseee clbrpmaaoe tteenmrat.
See? Not so true right? If you still want to try, the first two words are 'baseball players"


The problem with the internet is that people tend to believe what they read, especially if it's from someone they know or with a big name attached as  the 'source'.


By the way, here's the latest meme making it way around the www. Enjoy.

Have your bloody steak and eat it

There's one local website which I visit only if I am totally bored or really scraping the bottom of the barrel.
This is the so called 'citizen journalist'  site called Stomp by The Straits Times.
I make cursory visits to this site as it's nothing more than another tabloid just like The New Paper, which I place in the same category.
Stomp seems to attract ridiculous and stupid postings more than anything else; and mostly by gripers and whiners with replies from readers tending to be downright rude or vindictive.


Anyway, recently there was a complaint by someone who apparently went to a neighborhood food court and ordered a medium-rare steak.
What he got, in his opinion, was a raw steak which the chef had refused to re-cook it for him.
Hence, complain to the world via Stomp. Details here if you want to know the whole boring story.


This was his serving as photographed by him (taken off the Stomp site)

How do you tell if your steak is cooked the way you want it?

I was taught a neat trick by a friend who worked as a cook in a restaurant some time ago.

Use this simple method which he said was used by the cooks themselves.  

1. Press the steak with your finger to gauge the firmness.
2. Compare the firmness by pressing the fleshy 
part of your palm just below the thumb.

Rare

3. Make an 'O' ring with your finger

Medium Rare

Medium

Medium-Well

Well done.

This is not a foolproof method, so take it with a pinch of salt.

The cooks' experience counts for a lot.

And please, don't go fingering your dinner in front of your guests.

BLOODY STEAKS?

Some people get queasy when they slice into their beef and see blood oozing from the meat.

Well, surprise, surprise!  

The red juice that's oozing from the meat is NOT blood.

The liquid is actually mostly water containing a purplish colored protein that's found in meat tissue called myoglobin. When exposed to air, it turns bright red. 

That's why meat has a reddish colour. 

It's not from the blood which is only in the veins or arteries and is usually darker in colour.

But as it looks like blood, most people assume it to be.

Bon Appetit

Led down the garden path

Led down the garden path is an idiom, meaning deceived someone by giving him or her the wrong information.

In the English Language, there are some phrases or sentences that are also known as garden path sentences. It’s not actually used to deceive anyone but that the way it is written makes the person THINK in a certain way which will lead up to a dead end initially.

The horse raced past the barn fell, which I wrote in my previous blog, is one such garden path sentence.

The reason for the confusion is that our minds think logically when we read and we put together words as they form.

In other words, we are conditioned to think in a structured manner.

When we come across a garden path sentence, we get stumped because it does not make sense as we build the image in our heads.

Try this for example,

The cotton clothing is made of grows in the USA.

Doesn’t make sense the first time, right? 

Read it again……
still doesn’t make sense?

That’s because your mind is reading it as ‘cotton clothing’.

Now try reading it again as ‘The cotton’ instead. Get it?

As in...The cotton (clothing is made of) grows in the USA.

You were just led down the garden path!

I first learned about this language quirk when I was reading a Charlie Brown Snoopy cartoon. The cartoonist Charles Schultz quoted a Bible verse from the Book of Jobs: “Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards”.  I couldn’t understand it at all for a long time and when I finally did, it appeared so simple that I kicked myself for my own lacking.

So don't feel bad if you can’t figure out The horse raced past the barn fell.

Here’s something else you can try to see if your mind fools you every time, or if you believe you are as smart as you think.

Read this….

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDIES AND THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS.

How many letter ‘F’ can you find in the above sentence. Count them and compare the results below… No peeking till after you count. Ok? It’s not a trick.

How many Fs did you find?

If you found 2 - you need your eyes checked. Use the above chart.

If you found 3 – you are just average and normal.

If you found 4 – you are above average.

If you found 5 – you are good.

If you found 6 – you are a genius.

The answer is 6.
If you didn't get 6, go back and re-count.
There are really 6 Fs in plain sight and this time you'll laugh at yourself.

Here are some more garden path sentences that will make you read twice (at least)

• 1. The old man the boat.
• 2. The girl told the story cried. 
• 3. After the student moved the chair broke.
• 4. Fat people eat accumulates. 
• 5. The complex houses married and single soldiers and their families.
  
• 6. The florist sent the flowers was pleased.
• 7.  The man whistling tunes pianos.
• 8.  I convinced her children are noisy.

The horse raced past the barn fell.

Youth is one of those awkward words in the English language, especially the plural form.
Is it youth or youths?

I was raised in the old school where we were taught that collective nouns are always without the s in the plural, e.g. children, but I accept that language evolves.

The word youth has morphed from my time to todays' internet era.
Youths is readily used nowadays, especially in newspaper reports.
I guess because of a new generation of reporters and journalists.

Though it sounds awful, youths is a correct form of the plural. It really depends on how it's used.

However, 1 group or a person is still youth and you don't say a group of youths.
If there are 2 or more groups, then you can refer to them as youths. e.g. the youth of Singapore and the youth of Malaysia but the youths of Singapore and Malaysia.

Awkward, right? ha ha.
Never mind, just use whatever you think is right.
The easiest way to differentiate is to see whether the persons/group can be counted (youths) or not (youth).

Still don't get it?  The sadistic me is enjoying this!
Wait till you get to garden path phrases like The horse raced past the barn fell or The army push bottles up the enemy.
Then you'll really be scratching your head.

.

Catholic Tradition or Epic Fail ?

Following my previous blog about St Theresa's Convent, my sister text'd me to say that another venerable Catholic school, St Joseph's Institution, also has the same anomaly.

That got me wondering and so I looked up the Catholic Directory for Singapore.
Guess what I found?

Catholic schools and churches with the following names:
St Theresa's Convent
St Joseph's Convent
St Anthony's Convent
St Magdalene's Convent
St Patrick's School
St Anne's Church
St Joseph's Church
St Gabriel's School
Holy Innocent Girls' School
St Stephen's....et cetra..

Wow, what happened?
Most of the above names are schools where English is the language of instruction.

Maybe, it is a Catholic tradition to give possession of the school to its patron saint? I don't know.
Though I was born and raised a catholic, I didn't go to a catholic school so I wouldn't know if that's a school tradition, or an error perpetuated since the 1st Catholic school, St Joseph's, opened in 1852.

Anyway, not to dwell on this anomaly as I really don't know the background to it, I'd rather comment on the proper use of the 's in English grammer.

The best example for the proper placement of the apostrophe comes from the great poet Kingsley Amis when he was asked to demonstrate with a single sentence. He gave this....

• Those things over there are my husband's. (Those things over there belong to my husband.)
• Those things over there are my husbands'. (Those things over there belong to several husbands of mine.)
• Those things over there are my husbands. (I'm married to those men over there.)

Is it mine or yours? St Theresa's or St Mary's

I have this thing that's actually been bugging me for years and years.
I am sure it is wrong and yet I have not been able to get out of my malaise long enough to find out more, much less correct it or manage to do anything about it.
So I have been living with this irritation in the back of my mind all my life.

And what is this? It is St Theresa's Convent.

No, nothing personal against the school or the staff or her alumnae.
It is just the use of the name. Or should I say mis-use?

Even when I was a schoolboy passing the institution at Telok Blangah I have had this nagging thought that the name is wrong. After all these years, whenever I pass it now I still have that same feeling. Of all places, a school should not be called St Theresa's Convent!

And why not, you ask?   Well, it's simply incorrect, plain and simple.
Don't they have English language teachers who should have known that it is incorrect all these years?

Shouldn't it be rightly called St Theresa Convent?

Putting the 's behind St Theresa makes it the possessive of the proper noun, i.e. the convent belongs to St Theresa. But this cannot be as St Theresa died long before the convent was built and I am sure she didn't have possession of it at any time.

I searched their website but could not find any reason why the convent belongs to St Theresa. Often in the past, I had the thought of dropping them an inquiry to this effect but again never got around to that. haiz

So presumably, the convent was named after that humble nun, St Theresa. Therefore, it should be called St Theresa Convent and not St Theresa's Convent.

We honour famous people by naming  buildings, streets, places or even convents after them but it surely would be as a proper noun and not in the possessive syntax. It's like calling the Fullerton Building Fullerton's Building, or even horrors, as one Straits Times reader recently suggested renaming Singapore Changi Airport to Lee Kuan Yew Airport, it might then become Lee Kuan Yew's Airport instead!  
*(Lee Kuan Yew, the former prime minister of Singapore)

I hope to find some closure after all these years by speaking it out.
Any Theresians or English teachers reading this?

Closer at heart, I attend a catholic church called St Mary of the Angels. There, the welcoming ministers a.k.a the wardens, wear a sash proudly emblazoned with the words St Mary's.
I always wonder if that is also incorrect but I'll let that pass as they may associate their group as belonging to the Church, rather than being the name of the church, which then would be more or less correct. Guess it depends on how you see it.


Disclaimer: No Theresians were harmed in the writing of this piece. Any similarity to saints, persons or alumnae dead or alive is purely coincidental.

Don't say CUM !

I presume many will read this blog as a curious response to the word Cum in the header.

Wikipedia defines cum as:
A sexual term, meaning to orgasm

• Semen or vaginal fluid, produced in ejaculation
• A Latin word, which can be either the preposition with or a conjunction meaning when, because, or although.

I am actually going to blog about the 2nd definition (bummer, u say. haha)

Following my previous writeup on the difference between day off & off day, I just wanted to add to the growing list of mis-used words and phrases that are so often taken for granted here.

The latin word cum means with, but so often people here take it to mean And or Includes, which is wrong. Locally, you often see the word cum in the classified advertisements. 

e.g. Looking for Secretary cum typist, or people saying "I am having my breakfast cum lunch"

When you graduate cum laude, it says that you graduated with great praises (an honour) such as magna cum laude or summa cum laude. These are about the only latin references that uses cum nowadays.

So if you are placing an advert for a Secretary, you would phrase it as "secretarial duties cum typing".

On a funnier note, if you did graduate cum laude and if you don't seem to be getting responses to your online resumes for jobs, the reason is that most filtering computer servers will take the 1st definition of cum and mark your resume as pornography. ha ha.

Here's a clip from 'The Noose'. Listen to Babarella using the correct meaning of cum.

Rule of 78s - the pitfall of credit rebates.

I get the monthly Lifestyle magazine courtesy of the NTUC, which I hardly ever take out of its plastic wrapping.  It's supposed to be Singapore's Largest Circulating Magazine, whatever that means. I always know it as a booklet full of adverts instead of being a serious 'lifestyle' periodical.

But once in a while I do rip the packaging and flip through the pages. Something caught my eye in this month's issue. An article called "Small weekly payments" in their MoneySENSE feature.

In the article, the author was relating his experience of buying a HD TV on credit installments. The TV cost $6,500 but was being offered at $5,200, (saving $1,300!). To avoid the heavy upfront outlay, the writer opted for the installment plan of paying only $44.90 a week. With a tinge of regret and in hindsight, the writer later calculated that in the end he would be paying $8,620 which was 33% more than the usual price or 66% more than the offer price.

I took an interest in the article because I previously worked for a major retailer who did precisely this kind of transaction, offering credit installments on purchases.

One thing that most customers don't realise, or are not informed of, is that the repayment scheme is based on what is called the Rule of 78s.  This is what most car loan companies, banks and finance companies use in calculating interest rebates.
I will not even try to explain it to you!

You'll probably be lost within the 1st sentence of the complicated formula. Look up Rule of 78s in Wikipedia if you really want a background on calculating your loan payments. 

In a very simplistic nutshell explanation, it means that you pay the interest on your loan before your payments start reducing the principal amount.   That's why you always lose out when you decide to foreclose the loan earlier than the term allows. There is hardly any interest rebate left to take back. What's left of your outstanding loan is most of the principal sum because you have only been repaying the interest portion of your loan first.

A simple example is your credit card bills. If you just pay the minimum monthly sum each month, you will realise that you are just paying interest for that month and there is hardly a reduction of the credit amount used.

Caveat emptor.

Father of modern Singapore

As I write this, my country is in the midst of a General Election. The populace will elect or re-elect a government in a few days time according to their vote.

In the press, on the Net and in the coffee shops, arguments and counter-arguments, points and counterpoints, insinuations, mudslingings and the usual campaign gimmicks are all the talk of the day.

One particular piece of writing on the Net caught my eye. This person described the venerable Mr Lee Kuan Yew as the founder of modern Singapore. Hmmm, I was wondering. Is this what is being taught in schools now? I don't know.

From my own pathetic knowledge of local history, I thought that modern Singapore was founded by Sir Stamford Raffles back in 1819?  Was I wrong? 
Then again, when I took History of S.E.Asia as an A Level subject, it was way back in 1972, but I still can recall certain facts vividly because of my interest in local history at that time. Or has history been re-written since then?

From my aging memory, I recalled something like this....

The region around us then (i.e. S E Asia) was divided and controlled by both the Dutch and British, who were bitter enemies at that time.
Stamford Raffles, the British lieutenant-governor of Bencoolen in Western Sumatra, wanted to impress his bosses, the East India Company. He sought permission from his superior, Lord Hastings in India, to try and establish a greater presence right in the middle of the Dutch territories. (very garang! especially because the EIC Court of Directors were against this idea, but he went ahead anyway)


Raffles considered places like Bangka, Karimon, Bintan and Lingga before finally settling on an island called Singapura.  All these places were within the domain of the Rhio Sultanate, now know as Riau, Indonesia.  (Trivia- his initial preferences were actually Bangka or Bintan.)


The Sultan of the Rhio Sultanate, Sultan Mahmud, had recently died and his throne, based at Lingga under the Dutch, was usurped by the younger son Abdul Rahman instead of going to the rightful elder son Hussein Long.

Through political intrigues, Raffles brought the elder Hussein Long to Tumesek and installed him as the Sultan to be recognised by the British, in exchange for trading and administrative rights over the newly founded trading port (Singapura). The date was 6 February 1819.


Mr Lee Kuan Yew was not the founder of modern Singapore. He happened to be the incumbent prime minister of the island when Singapore was kicked out of the Federation of Malaysia on 9 August 1965. By default, he became the head of the government of a newly independent country.

Full credit must go to him and his team of people in the immediate period following Singapore's independence as a soveriegn country and the most difficult task of continuing to govern without much resources.

In 8 years time in 2019, Singapore will celebrate its bicentennial of its modern founding and its 54th year as an independent country. We should celebrate our modern founding with as big a bang as we can.
200 years of Singapore!

I hope I will still be around then.

Photo by hjtann

A day off without having an off day.

Without wanting to sound too presumptuous, I just need to get it ‘off’ me. 
Every time I hear that phrase 'off day',  it makes me cringe a bit. 
It has become so much a part of our norm here that I am not sure if they really mean what they say or maybe it's just bad grammer?

I was just reading a friend's post on Facebook and she said, "off to work for Ipad 2 launch....even on off day :)"

Presumably she is going to work as she's  'off to work',  but she's also having an  "off day".

If you live in Singapore you would have no difficulty understanding what she just wrote, if we think singlish, i.e. she's going to work on her day off.

But having a day off  is completely different from having an off day.

A Day Off is when you get a break from work.

You don’t need to work, you don’t need to go to work.

Having an Off Day means you are not feeling well, feeling a bit under the weather, or just not at ease with yourself.

You are a bit ‘off”,  like in saying ‘the food is a bit off’, meaning it’s stale or getting bad, or at least not in the best of states.

So, if you have an Off Day, you are not doing too good, but having an Day Off may do wonders for you!

Having an off day? take a day off.

Fined for walking in SG

My sister Jen emigrated to USA more than 2 decades ago and I usually chat with her via MSN.

Last Saturday, with tongue in cheek, I told her I was fined coming back from the NTUC store located across the road from my house.  Fined? for what? she asked. For walking, I said.
Jaywalking? No, I had to pay a tax just for walking along the road.

I said that the government had authorized a number of organisations to collect tax from people who walk specially near the bus terminals, train stations or shopping malls every Saturday.

Last Saturday, the Ren Ci Hospital were out collecting money from pedestrians. hee hee hee.

Hmmm, I wonder if the registered charities do have to pay tax to the government for the donations that they collect?  If that really is the case, then we are taxed for walking along the streets on Saturdays!

Peek Poke Meme Fail ?

I got my very first Personal Computer  around 1980s.
That's way back in the the 20th century, so long ago that I can't even remember when it was.

It was a Commodore VIC20, a watered down version of the then mouthwatering Commodore 64.
It had 4Kb of RAM memory (wow) and a cassette tape drive!
You plug it to your TV and get glorious 8bit colors, and it could run Space Invaders and Donkey Kong (double wow!) 

You had to LOAD each and every program that you wanted to use and then RUN the program. Only 1 program at a time. Multitasking was still something for the future.  But it was a real computer and not a game console like the Atari.

Top of the line personal computers like the IBM PC (& later the XT) were then only being used by corporations as these were way too expensive for home use.

I was feeling nostalgic while I was browsing the internet and realised I was now reading new words like meme and fail, being used so commonly today.
I recalled that even back then, when the PC was just starting to become more than just a household gadget, we were already learning new words coming into a new new world.

How many of you can remember using commands like peek, poke, RUN, LOAD, if..then,  else go ?

Of course that was a long, long time ago and all these words are now hidden under the user interface and so intuitive now that we don't need to know these anymore when using our mouse, iphones and ipads.

If you still don't know what meme and fail means today, you got a lot more catching up to do than me!

Stand up for your rights!

Today somebody said to me,  Go to all that trouble?, it's only 4 cents!
(referring to my earlier blog)


Sigh.

The sad part about making these claims appear to make me look like a cheapskate.
But I am claiming it on grounds of principles and not because of the money.

Of the 6 vouchers, I have actually not used, or did not intend to use, the last 3 pieces.
These are now expired and cannot be used.
I am keeping them as souvenirs of my stand against the injustice.

My expired vouchers.

You are entitled to your opinion, but to me, it's just another sad indication of our mollycoddly attitude which was socially engineered over the past few decades and now so pervasive in our society.
We don't stand up and question wrongs, even when we feel outraged.

If you don't bother to stand up for your own rights. who will stand up for you?

The bus companies are still taking your money!

Despite the bus companies' claims that the overcharging problem had been fixed, I've had 2 further instances where I was still overcharged for my trips.

If you had read my earlier blog on the overcharging issue, you'll know that the trip from Bukit Batok Interchange to my office at Andrew Road is supposedly $1.33. I have been regularly charged $1.37 for the trip.

Today I collected my 6th refund for overcharging, so I know it's still happening. This is confirmed by the fact that my requests for the 4cents refund have always been approved.

I get back at them by requesting for a 'complimentary' voucher for a free ride instead of a cash refund. In this way, I actually end up ahead of them. Serves them right for their unintentional (?) mistakes.

So commuters beware, be aware of the actual cost of your trip and check that you are not overcharged by them.

I hate my iphone!

Or rather, I can't stand the auto-correction feature in its messaging, email or Notes apps!

It not only corrects your spelling but changes entire words for you.
It has a mind all of its own, and it's evil and a pervert to boot !

So, just turn it off, right?
Yeah, I did that, and you know what?

It's worst than before.

The keyboard is so small and sensitive that  you make more mistakes!

So, I guess until Mr. Jobs comes up with something better, I am stuck with all the perverted and sick messages IT wants to send to all my friends.

For those of you using auto correct on the iphone, you know what I am talking about.

For those of you who don't use the iphone for messaging, here's a bit of what we have to go through....

To have a great laugh at the expense of iphone users, go to this great website... it'll leave you in stitches the whole day.

http://www.damnyouautocorrect.com

Stupid is as stupid does

Today, I was waiting for the lift at my apartment block when this youngish lady in her twenties also came to wait. I  know her to be one of my neighbours somewhere up on the higher floors.

She was on the phone yakking away with her friend while tossing & juggling her house keys with the other hand. I don't like to stereotype people but this slovenly dressed ah lian gave you the feeling she was a walking disaster.

True enough, when the lift doors opened, she fumbled her keys and it dropped right into the crack between the landing and the lift floor.

"Dammit, shit!" she screamed into her phone to her friend, "this is the 3rd time my keys got into the gap!"
"Damned idiots, why did they have to make the gap so big?!!"


Duh?

Error! Error! That does not compute!

I get peeved when those fast food servers behind the counter rattle off their scripts like robots instead of using their heads.

For example, if you say "I'd like to takeaway a cheeseburger...", they'll go through the whole rigamarole again... "burger? fries? upsize?" etc, and finally ask you "will that be dine in or takeaway?"


Today, I bullied the girl crew at Subway Westmall.
After getting my greens, she asked, "... and your dressing?"
Me: "Mustard"
Crew: "Yellow Mustard?"
Me: "what other colors do you have???"


She didn't get it.

(Link) View more Robot Sound Clips and Lost In Space Sound Clips

Hot under the collar

I took a bus to work yesterday in the sweltering heat. SBStransit #182 from Boon Lay bus interchange towards  Customs Checkpoint at Tuas 2nd Link.

The bus was exceedingly warm inside as it left the terminal. I tolerated it, assuming it had been out in the sun, and it would take a while to cool the ambient air inside.

However, after a kilometer or so, the air was still not cooled, and what's worse, it got very stifling.
Other pax'es on board were starting to get vocal amongst themselves, but as usual with most Singaporeans, they grumbled about the situation but did not have the courage to stand up and do something about it. (Guess it's one consequence of living in a closeted environment?)

When the sweat broke out on my brow, I couldn't bear it much more and went forward to the lady driver/bus captain to enquire if she could at least turn up the blower fan speed. She replied that the air con was already turned on and that the blower speed was fixed.

At this point, another Malay passenger came forward and started berating the bus captain over the faulty aircon system. A little to my embarrassment as it felt I was the one who started the incident.

She radioed her control station and they suggested all passengers disembark and board the next bus. A refund and a complimentary ride would be given for the journey onwards, as compensation for the inconvenience. There were about 20 of us on board, mainly foreign workers heading for the factories at Tuas.

This goes to show that if we want something rectified, we gotta stand up and be counted.

Blue skies at night

I recently learnt of a phenomenon that occurs almost every day though most people are unaware of it. 

For the briefest moment each evening, the sky turns a deep blue before becoming ink black. And photographs taken during these few minutes can produce quite spectacular results.

Below are some trial pictures I took this evening between 7.40pm and 7.50pm when the blue period occurred. Pictures were taken from the 22nd floor of my apartment building showing Westmall and Bukit Batok MRT station (on the right). This was my very first attempt at capturing the blue night sky. I'll be trying again to get better pictures. They will be posted to my photo blog in the future.

By the way, these photos are un-retouched or photoshopped. 

I probably will do a bit of adjustment and post it to my photo blog later.

The pictures on my photo blog are much larger, though you can click on the pictures below to see more details.

 

At 7.42pm. Olympus EPL-1 with 14mm lens. F11@50s

At 7.45pm. F6.3@50s. Overexposed, sigh.

At 7.50pm. The blue period had passed. The sky began to turn black.

Connexions - sandals and superglue

My favorite pair of sandals came to grief this rainy morning.
I been wearing them for 2 years now and  it is the most comfortable pair I have ever worn.
I bought them 2 years ago in Thailand, a local Thai brand called Calvin.
This morning, the rubber sole cracked while I was walking to the market.

Despite its age, it is still in excellent condition and it will really sadden me to dispose them.
So the next best thing - Repair. With superglue!

While doing the repairs, an amusing thought ran through my mind.
It's so surprising that  many people  do not know how to use superglue. 
I know this for a fact because I have seen people, including many of my colleagues, applying globs of superglue on stuff and they still say that it doesn't work or stick properly!

Superglue does not work straight out of the tube! Surprise surprise!
If it did, you would never be able to get the cap off, being stuck to the tube by the glue itself.
Yet, the cap never sticks to the tube. Why is this so?
If superglue is so strong, it stands to reason that the cap will be permanently glued to the tube, right?

The simple reason is that superglue needs another agent or catalyst to start its super bonding process.
By itself, superglue is inert but add a little moisture and the bonding reaction immediately takes place.

So, in order to use superglue, add water! or rather just wet the surface so that some moisture is available to kick start the bonding. That's the same reason why superglue sticks on your skin! Your skin is full of moisture and we all know how difficult it is to get rid of superglue from our fingers!

My sandals have just been repaired with the moisture coming from the rain soaked soles. The bond set within a minute and now I hope that sandals can last me another 6 months before I need to replace them. Ah ha! another good reason to travel to Thailand!

Getting it back from the bus companies.

How often do you look at the fare card reader on disembarking? Like most commuters, I rarely give it a glance. As long as I hear the beep, I assume that the fare has been correctly deducted from my EZ-Link stored value card.


How much was the fare and how much was deducted are not in my mind. I usually glance at the readout for the balance left in the card in that fleeting moment that the details are flashed.


We have become so complacent that we actually never bother to find out the cost of our bus or train trips. As long as we have enough value in our cards, we simply proceed with our journey.


When the bus and train companies implemented the new distance related fare structure in July, I still had not changed my habits. But I did note that the bus trip to my office would now cost $1.33.


Then about 2 months back, I noticed that on some trips the meter would read $1.37 instead of $1.33. At that time, I simply put it as technical glitch and though just a bit irritated over the excess didn't bother about the additional 4 cts charged.


Then it started to snowball, and that made me a bit suspicious that something might be happening with the bus fares. Were the bus companies knowingly overcharging and making an extra dollar without the commuter being the wiser? 


Mentally I worked out that at 4 cts a trip, I would have paid an additional $30 extra a year just to get to my office. This was unjustified! Imagine multiplying this by the number of passengers taking the bus each day! The amount would be a staggering scandal.


So I decided to fight back and claim for that tiny amount of 4 cents on a matter of principles. The bus company is not entitled to charge me extra for the journey, so why should I give them the 4 cents?
On the contrary, if I had underpaid by 4 cents, they have the 'right' to impose a penalty of $20 on me according to their regulations. So what right have they to take extra from me and get way with it?!


On the Transitlink website I found a Refund Claim Form and sent it off.  Refunds once approved would be made either by direct inter-bank transfer, by cash, by cheques or by vouchers. I opted to take a voucher.
Within 2 days I had a reply from the bus company.

I had expected to get a voucher for 4 cents but what I got was a 'complimentary' voucher for a free bus trip. Truth is, it wasn't totally complimentary as it had cost me 4 cents, but at least I could use it for a journey beyond 4 cents distance with their compliments, ha ha.

As of today, I have claimed a total of 4 vouchers from the bus company. Not a bad reward for getting back at them for overcharging.

VINDICATION !

The bus companies yesterday (Nov 23, 2010) were reported by the media as admitting to having overcharged commuters to the tune of $300,000 since implementing the new fare structures. They are now trying to work out a scheme to refund all the excess back to commuters, but I really doubt if most would bother, as admittedly most passengers were overcharged 4 cents.

Dividing $300k by an average of 4 cents means almost 7.5 million rides were overcharged and the media had reported that only 180 commuters had made claims for overcharging! Talk about apathy! But I am very sure that 99% are unaware that they were overcharged.

Here is the full newspaper report from Straits Times of 23 Nov 2010  if you wish to read the article.

http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20101123-248610.html