Monday, February 13, 2006
I'm a goofus
My cousin got her 'O' level results this past Friday and so on Sunday, in a flurry of good-natured big-sisterness, I SMSed her: "Are you free for dinner sometime this week? Maybe Tuesday? On me."
She replied, "Tuesday prob cannot. How about Wed?" And I happily said, "Sure thing. What would you like? Conveyor belt sushi? Kenny Rogers? Fish & Co? Korean? Thai?"
I only realised today that I had tried to ask my 16-year-old cousin out for dinner on Valentine's Day. And this is the first time I'm meeting her outside of family obligations. Gracious me, I'm such a goofus. She must think I have no life! (She may be right, but still.)
Sunday, February 12, 2006
Silence, by Shusaku Endo
Silence, by Shusaku Endo, is based on the story of a real-life priest who goes to Japan in the midst of one of the worst persecution eras in Christian history. The history of Christianity in Japan is incredibly bitter. Can you believe this? When Francis Xavier landed in Japan in 1549, he actually called it the Asian country “most suited to Christianity,” “the delight of his heart.” Within a generation, there were 300,000 Japanese Christians!
Yet, just as quickly, the priests lost their favour with the Japanese governors. The officials grew tired of foreign intervention in domestic issues, and banned Christianity from the country, executing those who refused to apostatize. While the West has their rousing stories of “the blood the martyrs’ [being] the seed of Christianity”, in Japan, this era of torture practically killed the church. (See Philip Yancey’s review)
The Japanese Christians were hung upside down for days, beheaded, put on stakes in the ocean, thrown into the sea to sink, hung over pits of shit, made to step on the image of Jesus Christ. Today, the bronze trampled image of the Madonna and Child, known as the fumie, is displayed in the museum, and it was while entralled with this exhibit that Endo became inspired to write this book.
Silence — can you guess whose silence? Endo grapples with the silence of God in the midst of this horrific torture, and entertains thoughts that Christianity and Japanese are not suited for one another — Christianity, like a badly made suit — Japan, like a swamp that kills every young sapling, mutating it into a form where it isn’t even Christianity anymore, making all the Japanese Christians who died for their mutated unauthentic faith, a ludicrous absurdity.
Yet, the church survived, somehow. In Nagasaki, pockets of Christians known as the Kakure, or crypto-Christians, hide Christian relics in Buddhist altars and worship the God of the Christians. They use snatches of Latin in their prayers, observe the feast days, and call themselves Christians.
But you know what is ironic? When the atomic bomb fell in Nagasaki, ground zero was the largest Christian church in Japan. While Christians made up less than one percent of the entire population, Christians comprised ten percent of the victims of the bombing.
Ten percent. Read More!
Friday, February 10, 2006
On instant noodles
Korean instant noodles is to Singapore instant noodles, as Singapore instant noodles is to American Ramen.
I love the dried chives and spring onions that come in fancy instant noodles. A friend from Korea gave me a prawn flavoured pack of noodles and that pack even had dried shrimp (hei bi) in it! The soup was bright orange, every noodle with perfectly springy. A meal in a packet.
Though I have to admit it is not possible to have springy Korean instant noodles with its intense soup every day. Once in a while, you've just got to have a pack of good 'ole fashion curry-flavoured Maggi mee, or better, sesame-oil flavoured Chu Qian Yi Ding noodles. Maggi mee is like coke in the south (US) -- when I was there, this was a typical conversation:
(At a restaurant)
Them: "Want a coke?"
Me: "Sure thing!"
Them: "What do you want?"
Me: "Er... a coke?"
Them (oblivious): "Okay!"
Only later did I find out that for some people down South, coke refered to all soda drinks, whether or not it is actually coke. In the same way, a typical conversation regarding instant noodles in Singapore will be:
(At the supermarket aisle)
Me: I feel like eating Maggi mee leh. You want?
Friend: Sure. What kind you want? Korean? Indonesian? Cheapo onion flavour one?
Me: A pack of each for everyday of the week!
Okay, I exaggerate. They say that eating too much instant mee will make your hair drop. So far my hair count is the same.
Since I'm on the topic of confusing international conversations, here is another one I had in England.
(Evening time, about 5pm. Asian girl just arrived in England a few hours ago, after a long journey on a budget airline that serves no food. She is hungry.)
Them (stiff upper lip): Would you like some tea?
Me (thinking about dinner): No thank you. *smiles*
Then: Are you sure?
Me (very politely): Yes I'm sure. Thank you.
... 6pm
... 7pm
... 8pm
... 9pm
Me: I think I'll go to bed now. Quite tired from the journey. Thanks for your hospitality.
Them: Okay, good night.
(Asian girl scronges in her bag for scraps of food and goes to bed hungry and forever and ever remembers that "tea"="dinner" in the UK)
The last time I had Korean Instant noodles I titled the post in Spanish, ate Korean instant noodles, and wrote about an Indonesian game. I'm so international. *pat back* :)
Have ya'll had any confusing conversations? Read More!
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Eating out
I am quite a cheapo when it comes to eating out. My idea of a rockin' night out is dinner at Waraku Japanese Restaurant (about $20 per person). Their paper pot soup (beef, chicken or salmon), cold soba, tempura, sushi, potato mentai (potato with lovely melted cheese) is more than what is required to keep body and soul together. Their food makes me happy: the other day, the melt-in-mouth sushi and delectable udon in soup cheered me up from my grumpiness almost instantly. Yum... Waraku has a Valentine's Day Special for those looking for somewhere to bring their partners to next week.
Waraku is my bread-and-butter high-class eating place (what a contradictory statement!); I'm looking for something different this time round. Pink tutu's birthday is coming up and she has requested a buffet as her birthday present. She loves her Japanese food and so I've looked around and found a Japanese buffet at Hotel Miramar, and one called Hanabi at Bukit Timah Road. Have any of you tried these places? Any good?
Also searching for a pasta place that is more interesting than pasta mania. I hear that Pasta Fresca is not that great anymore, though their branch by the beach at East Coast is in one of the coolest locations around. The atmosphere is almost worth the not-that-great food.
Original Sin, located at Holland Village, serves
Restaurant Ember at Keong Saik Road is a trendy restaurant with "probably the best lamb loin in Singapore". It is one of debdew's favourite places to dine at. It looks sumptuous, but a little pricey at S$60 a person.
So many options, so little money, so few stomachs!
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Spiders and Such
Remember Shelob? I think she was a Batik Golden Web Spider!
Joseph Koh has a guide to common Singapore Spiders here on the web. He has also written a book. There are "orb web builders", "builders of three-dimensional webs", "spiders with three-clawed legs", and get this, "spiders with two pairs of book-lungs".
Don't rush to the library 'cos the copy there is mine!
Reeling
Every morning when I wake up, I find myself reeling from the dreams of the night. Getting out of bed requires pulling myself out from the quicksand of a crazy extreme world, where black is darkest black, red bleeds blood, and desire is worn on the sleeve with no shame. My dreams are mad with symbols: bright red handphone, iron grilles, two pixies cut through with a single arrow, sea cucumbers on the wall, a bicycle for two, a mirror on the wall.
Where do they come from, this pointed attack at reality? Who am I? The one who dreams, or the one who wakes?
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
A brotherhood of toy trucks
Boys will be boys, until they fall in love. Then they are conflicted and sentimental, at least until they get married -- then, they go back to being boys again.
Read More!Monday, February 06, 2006
Built to Last
Management books are so rah-rah. This is my first book on management principles I'm reading, and I have a feeling this may not be the last. This book argues that the best companies are visionary companies -- companies that have invested in their identity by setting apart a core set of values, aligned their practices according to these values, and been unrelentingly committed to progress, both by setting "big hairy audacious goals" and by changing everything that doesn't affect the core.
For example, Merck, a pharmaceutical company, is committed to the benefit of humanity through innovative contributions to medicine. It is this core ideology that influenced its decision to send streptomycin to Japan -- at no profit -- to stem an outbreak of tuberculocis after World War II. While it seems as if this goes against the agenda of a profit-orientated company, this book argues that if you remain true to the core, the profits will eventually come. For one reason or another, Merck is now the largest pharmaceutical company in Japan. Fluke or karma? Who knows. This is what the book calls "the tyranny of the `or'; the genius of the `and'".
In fact, this kind of thinking sounds like what Jesus himself said:
So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
One of the most interesting bits of this book is getting to read about the history of companies. Did you know that 3M (the post-it folks) started out as a failed mining company, and that 3M stands for "Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing"? Their commitment to innovation is seen in their 15-percent rule -- where employees can devote 15% of their time to pursuing projects of their interest. It was in this hodgepodge of experiments with weird adhesives that the first post-it notes were made, despite incredible amounts of literature explaining that "glues that don't glue" don't work.
On the other side of the world, in the period after World War II, the tag "Made in Japan" was synonymous with cheap, tacky products (perhaps like what "Made in China" is today). Sony, a small company that made small heating pads to stay afloat, wanted to change all that with high quality, high technology products. And they did. They introduced the world's first transistor radio, the first walkman, the first robotic dog, Aibo. I read in the news this weekend that they are pulling the plug on Aibo though.
So if you want to take these principles and run with them, what you need to do is:
- Figure out what is your company's core ideology.
- Ensure company practices are aligned with core values.
- Stimulate progress
- Don't become complacent
Only two or three at most. Core ideology has to be something that does not change no matter what, even if it affects profit.
That means, for example, if your company values team work, rewards and compensation should not benefit individual initiative.
Work hard! Try everything! Change anything and everything that doesn't go against the core ideology!
Never get the mentality that you have reached, even after you've become number one.
Gracious me. This post is as rah-rah as the book. I'm appalled with myself. Read More!
Friday, February 03, 2006
Lead us not into temptation
Lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil.
It is very difficult to find a "Christian answer" in times of tribulation. In Nazi Germany, leaders of the Protestant and Catholic churches remained largely silent as the atrocities against the Jews escalated. A few Christian leaders published papers defending the Jews, but even fewer had the courage to protest.
Prior to World War I, the church in the US advocated negotiation and arbitration rather than armed conflict. Yet, when 1917 rolled by and the US formally entered the war, the Methodists supported the war cause along with the other mainline churches and published this poster. Would you have been able to find a viable peaceful alternative?
In Japan, during one of the most successful extermination attempt in church history, Christians who agreed to step on the fumie--an icon of the Madonna and Child--were pronounced apostate and set free. Those who refused were hunted down and killed.
The future is scary. What if it came to a point where it is possible to cheat death and cure cancer if we used the DNA from a live embryo, thus destroying it? Would you do it? What if there was a famine and there isn't enough food to go around, can you love your neighbour then? What if there is a pandemic, will we be courageous and do the difficult, or succumb to fear?
Lead us not into times of war, pandemic, tribulation,
because we are weak.
My Tabletop
You know you have procrastinated for too long when after cleaning out your desk, you find the words of a postcard you wrote to a friend in Austria permanently imprinted on your table top.
Quiz of the day:
1. What is the friend's name?
Winner gets a pack of instant Ipoh 3-in-1 hazelnut white coffee. (I've given up on hand drawn postcards as a prize.)
-----
Update: CLUE
Higher resolution, rotated 180 degrees, and flipped horizontal for yr viewing pleasure.
Update: I'm drinking the Ipoh coffee myself
Thanks for all the effort! :)
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Catchin' the bloggin' wave
My friends have all started blogging en masse late last year. Popped by one of their sites and saw on her tag board:
"let's get (insert my real nickname) and so-and-so and so-and-so to start blogging too! how fun! :)"
Err. Okay. That is very scary to me.. Very very scary.
Spat between the kids
Don't be fooled, this article may sound like a spoof, but it is real news from the ever-reliable BBC.
Malaysia plans `crooked' bridgeRead More!
Malaysia says it will go ahead with controversial plans to build a crooked bridge across half the strait it shares with Singapore.
It took the decision unilaterally after talks about replacing an existing causeway failed to produce agreement.
The plan for the bizarre bridge was first put forward by Malaysia's former leader Mahatir Mohammad.
The bridge is one of many issues to strain ties between Malaysia and Singapore since their union ended.
The Malaysians want to replace the causeway that links it to the island state with a bridge.
The causeway hampers access to ports on the Malaysian side, benefiting Singapore whose economy relies heavily on its port.
So the Malaysians now say they will simply replace their half of the causeway.
But because the span is short and the bridge will need to gain height to allow shipping to pass beneath it, it will have to be crooked.
The Malaysians are calling it the "scenic bridge", but say if the Singaporeans want it to be straight and less scenic they will have to come back to the table and agree to replace the whole causeway with a single span.
One Malaysian politician told the Star newspaper that the shape of the bridge would be a reflection of relations between the two countries.
Singaporean sources told the BBC that this statement implies the Singaporeans are straight while the Malaysians are crooked.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
midnight musings
Just going with the words on this blog, would you say that I am:
a. happy-go-lucky
b. melancholic
c. simple
d. religious
e. philosophical
f. pragmatic
g. idealistic
h. geeky
i. soft hearted
j. suicidal
k. gay
l. submissive
m. filial
n. passive
o. shy
p. funny
q. smart aleck
r. drop dead gorgeous
s. nerd
t. obsessive
u. gentle
v. vulgar
w. affected
x. proud
y. secretive, or simply
z. schizophrenic?
Running to the sand
Well, the public holiday has come and gone, leaving me rather shell-shocked.
If anything, one of the better things that came out of this new year period, apart from the money collected, is that I've started running again. I woke up early Monday morning with a craving to lie in the sun and feel the sand between my toes, so I gulped down some coffee and Jacob's breakfast biscuits, and ran to Sentosa.
It was tiring, typically, considering I am so out of shape, but the route was lovely, especially the view of the south coast of Singapore from the "Mythology cycling trail". The Mythology trail is one of the truly awful stretches in Sentosa though. It is full of "artefacts" put along the trail in the early 90s. How much more artificial can it get?
At the last red dot at the bottom of the map, I took off my running shoes, dug my toes in the warm sand, and read 9 chapters of Matthew. I practically had the beach to myself. What a lovely start to the day. Am seriously considering becoming an islander and making this a habit.
It was only 8km but it is a start.
Category: Running
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