Friday, April 17, 2009
Books I Miss -vvv

The bus that I was on stopped at a traffic light along Stamford Road. I felt a little nostalgic seeing how much the area has changed. I remembered sitting on a bench in Bras Basah Park during morning peak hour, some 17 years ago. The park was an island of tranquility amidst the sea of traffic. The canopy formed by the large rain trees covered the entire park. That area is now a massive concrete block also known as SMU School of Economics / Social Sciences.

I looked at a car in the neighboring lane. The driver and its 3 passengers were studying a street directory (amusing that it takes 4 people to read a map). Ah, wouldn't it be nice if I had a cartographic record of what this place was like?

My family used to own an old edition of the street directory (I think it was a 60s edition). It showed that there were hardly any roads in my housing estate. I believe it was mostly dirt tracks back then. My mother threw that book away. A pity.

My thoughts moved to some other books I miss. My sister and I had a set of storybooks on famous Chinese mythical tales such as the creation of the World from the Cosmic Egg, Nuwa's creation of Man and patching up the hole in the sky, the Ten Suns, etc. The illustrations were beautifully drawn. I can't find those books any more. We suspect my parents gave them away to some friend's kids who probably sold them to the karang guni man.

Then there was this old Tai Chi book that I read in secondary school. It was rather old and had a musty smell. I never finished that book because it was confiscated by the Chinese teacher when I read it during class. Funny, I thought Chinese teachers were supposed to encourage interest in Chinese culture. Oh well, at least now I'm learning Tai Chi for real instead of just reading about it.

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Yiheng made 9:16 PM

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Sunday, April 12, 2009
I Love To Singa -vwv

Here's an old cartoon from 1936 titled I Love To Singa. I found it in the bonus features of my Happy Feet DVD. It's really cute and has a catchy song which I keep hearing in my head over the weekend. They sure don't make cartoons like they used to.

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Yiheng made 10:06 PM

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Tuesday, April 07, 2009
Free Performance -vvz

For the music lovers who can not afford hefty ticket prices (or are just plain cheapskate), here's the line-up for SPH Gift of Music 2009. Free musical performances throughout the year.

I have already attended the SSO at Toa Payoh Central last month and The Jazz Nuts Big Band at Paragon last week. I will probably go for the Summertime Big Band coming Sunday. Maybe there'll be dancing again, whoohoo!

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Yiheng made 9:40 PM

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Sunday, April 05, 2009
Earth Hour -vvw

Earth Hour - Cities and large corporations around the world switch off non-essential lights for an hour.

Maybe it's just me being cynical but does this actually make any difference? Something smells fishy here. This looks exactly like the kind of half-hearted effort (or perhaps even downright hypocrisy in some cases) we often see from many companies and governments when it comes to saving the environment. I bet the resources spent to publicize the event probably outweighed the energy saved.

You don't have to look far to see what I mean. While the Building & Construction Authority promotes energy efficient building designs with the Green Mark Scheme, the Urban Redevelopment Authority plans to 'light up our city'. Ok, I'll give BCA some credit for the green initiatives. But when you read about such contradictions, you can't help but think - WTF?!

Just the other evening, I was walking along Clarke Quay when I noticed some kind of boat (those ducktours crafts I think) with small pieces of solar panels on its roof. Printed beside that, in large friendly letters, were the words "Save The Planet". And right in the background, was the Singapore River, brightly lit in hideous red and green, all along its banks and under the bridges too. So much for saving the planet.

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Yiheng made 9:58 PM

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See if you can find Geoff Mulgan's The Ideals and Betrayal's of Government. It is basically a discourse of the structure and existence of govenrment. There are often different branches within the govt that represent the interests of different stakeholders (supposedly) and hence pursue differently if not contradicting objectives. Economic growth at-all-costs vs environmental protection. Foreign immi policy vs national cohesion. Productivity vs work-life balance.
By  Soqcrates, at 11:53 PM  

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