A few days ago, I read DPM Wong’s speech in Parliament as quoted in Today with multiple question marks popping. Sidetrack a little: I think DPM Wong has a huge and diverse portfolio ranging from security to baby-making. He, together with Minister Khaw, is always in the limelight these days. Hot Seats!

And tonight I watched a rather awkward discussion on Talking Point, CNA. The 2 hosts, a male and female, age range from 40-60 years old, I reckon, have children of their own. One of them is going to see his grandchild for the first time in about 3 months. The guests are reporters from Today. Male, 29, single. Female, 32, engaged.

The rather short session was rather awkward. The elderly man, rather curtly, told the 32 year old that her clock was ticking, and questioned what the 29 year old did with his weekends if he claimed he didn't have time to date.

As if this was not bad enough, the session was made even more awkward by the lack of discourse. I guess it's because the situation is really quite plain. Everyone knows how helpless the situation is. I shall summarise the points by the guests here:

Female, 32 y.o., wants:

1. National policy changes (e.g. Paternity leave, tax incentives etc)
2. Corporate changes (e.g. childcare facilities at or near work, supportive culture etc)
   

In gist, she doesn't want to be penalised for having the baby. So, if the State and Employer are willing to chip in, she will consider having the baby. If her clock ticks out before these 2 parties make up their minds, she will consider adoption.

(I wonder why no one said anything about surrogacy and how similar that is to organ trading... Oh... I forget... Air time constraints... My bad... my bad...)

Male, 29 y.o., says:

1. No time for dating.
2. Not worried about the issue.
3. Suggest State-mandated dating/interaction opportunities for singles.

The elderly gentleman suggested pro-creation leave for couples to have time to make the babies.
.......................................................................

Ok, my turn...

I have something to say about this ‘Facilitate Baby-Making’ issue. A thought struck me after I read the abovementioned newspaper article. While feeding my cats and preparing to go to work, an imagery of Parenthood in Singapore emerged in my mind.

Who makes up the Singaporean Parent?

It seems the Singaporean Baby is gonna have a rather comprehensive set of Parents. The Singaporean Parent, regardless of will, consists of various actors such as the Birth Parents, the Extended Family (if any), the Maid (if any), the State, the Taxpayer, the Employer, the Colleague etc.

Now the latest message from the State is that all these actors ought to support the cause. That “it’s all in the mind”.

While I appreciate the calibrated announcement of this impending shift, I would like to highlight some obvious gaps in the situation.

Who wants the Baby?

While it seems all actors have to contribute towards facilitating the creation and bringing up of the Singaporean Baby, not all have equal or any rights to decide on whether to have the Singaporean Baby, or have more Singaporean Babies.

Those who clearly want the Singaporean Baby are namely:
the Birth Parents and the State.

As for the other actors in the Singaporean Parent, the desire for the Singaporean Baby is not so straightforward.

Who pays for the Baby?

Hence, this baby-making phenomenon creates a situation where the benefits and costs are distributed unevenly across all actors involved. Obviously, if the right of baby-making remains with only selected and minority of all actors involved, dissatisfaction will inevitably swell.

• If your colleague goes on maternity/paternity leave, who is going to cover her/his work?
• If your worker is not happy covering the work of another worker who just had a baby, what are you, the Employer, going to do about it?
• Etc
  

Some who subscribe to evolution may even argue that no call to shift mindset can offset thousands of years of human instincts, i.e. to protect your offsprings, not that of others.

The State seems to be making quite a few decisions on behalf of the birth parents to shift the costs of baby-making to the other actors intentionally or unintentionally. The Employer and the Colleague will have to bear the costs of baby-making without having much say in the process.

A Suggestion

Let’s see… in this situation, the main actors desiring the babies are the birth parents and the State. So, if the birth parents are said to be having a tough time coping with the existing costs of baby-making/rearing, perhaps the State can step in to help ameliorate the situation.

For example, the Employer can enjoy incentives (e.g. tax) for bearing (pardon the pun) with a birth parent (regardless male or female). He then transfers part of this benefit to the Colleague who has had to cover the duties of the birth parent during/for baby-making-related absence/issues, through an 'Extraordinary Bonus' or something like that. Or the Employer can use this incentive to buy more (human) resources to help cope with the work load.

Of course, it is possible that the Employer enjoys the incentive but does not pass any/enough benefits onto the Colleague. This problem can be minimized through transparency of Government/Baby-making related polices.

So, in concrete terms, If X is entitled to 3 months of maternity leave (entitlement) + takes 3 months of no pay leave (subject to approval). The State provides 3 months worth of salary to Employer. The Employer then transfers all/part of that to Colleague. As for the other 3 months, it’s the Employer’s call whether to compensate the Colleague.

Yes, it's a lot more work for everyone involved.
But hey... That's the cost of having the Singaporean Baby, yah?
No doubt, it's an expensive one.
And someone has got to pay for it.

'Good Fren' and I caught a good film on Saturday afternoon at Orchard Cineleisure. It has been a long while since I was last there. While going up and down the escalator, I kept thinking about the NS boy walking around in OC with a rifle in his bag, and how we as a society assume that physical age = some kind of credible indicator of maturity. Green light for adulthood. We forget to ask ourselves whether the maturity requirement in this current context has perhaps gotten more complex.

Back to the film, I must confess that I didn't expect the Dark Knight to be so enjoyable. I thought it was gonna be one of those 'boys' movies', i.e. loads of violence, loud noises, gore, breasts and, after all that, the good guys winning.

After 150 minutes (actually around the 100th minute), I fell in love with the villain.

Maybe it's because he wears makeup like Marilyn Manson.


What I am going to highlight next may give away crucial parts of the film, so if you haven't seen the movie, I am recommending that you do not read the rest of this entry.

Aesthetics & Contrast

The Dark Knight has casted the best-looking Batman and most charismatic Joker ever. In fact, they made sure that the key roles, including the goodies, looked somewhat dark. Best. This is then contrasted against a somewhat modern-, bright- and normal-looking Gotham City, as opposed to earlier gothic versions with loads of rain and lack of sunlight. I guess this is to prepare the audience mentally for the struggle between good and evil. Dark and White.

The Losing Good

The Joker is a terrorist. All baddies are. The goodies always have something to lose. Loved ones, Principles, Honour, Identity etc. All these 'good' things. Hence, the goodies always end up in a hostage situation. Can't be a true hero if you have too much to lose/protect. Drives you nuts. Even the Butler knew very clearly that some losses are too much for the depressed Dark Knight to bear.

After some thought, 'Good Fren' decided that the Joker had an Achilles' heel (Troy was showing on TV a few hours after we saw the Dark Knight). The Joker wanted something. He wanted to keep having fun with the goodies, e.g. Dark Knight. He wanted to rid Gotham City of its soul. So the story had to immortalise the Good. Erm... Ok... But it was so lame... They had to bend over backwards to do so... They lied to everyone. So much for honour.

The Good Loser

Somehow, the goodies are not as clever as the baddies.

Point #1: The Joker was a really good scenario planner and had many steps laid out in advance. The goodies kept playing catch up. In the process, the goodies lost a lot of what they started out to protect, i.e. hospitals, cars, lives etc. How silly and inefficient.

Point#2: The Joker, being the exploitative terrorist, sent some tapes to GCN (Gotham City News) to spread his message of fear and destruction.... And GCN aired it. Wow... I hope the story was trying to suggest how amoral the media really is. This is an interesting dilemma. "I have the right to know" vs "I am gonna panic after knowing".

The Joker's Truths

We walked away from the film agreeing with the Joker, and feeling as surprised as the Joker when no one pressed the damn button on the detonator. Of course, we must remind ourselves that this is fiction.

In real life, someone will press the damn button with much gusto. Just look at how self-righteous everyone is. I dun even think we can even get to laugh at the voting process, even though it was a brilliant touch. Nobody wants to be the bad guy and it's so convenient to hide behind an anonymous vote. Collective wisdom and decision, they call it. Share the blame, just in case.

A Note

Somewhere early in the film, the Joker said something like,


And the subtitles read something as follows,


We had a hard time trying to muffle our incontrollable laughter for like 1 minute. WTF did the translation for that bit of the subtitles?!!

I was having lunch with a former colleague on Friday. It has been years since we last chatted along the corridor. We were not Government Scholars. Merely Government Farmers who have left to stretch ourselves and seek our livelihoods elsewhere.

We concluded that the public agencies are stuffed with bullock carts full of smart people, i.e. people with well-equipped, or in some cases superhuman, mental faculties. Having smart people around must be a fail-proof solution to any problems which may possibly arise. And it was quite a joy working with some of those smart people because one gets to learn from them.

However, it seems smart people have their problems too. And many have become unhappy smart people.








Does we really need a Chemistry Olympiad Gold Medalist to be taking minutes of meeting? Does it make sense to expect this Chemistry genius to be really good at taking minutes of meeting? What is this Chemistry genius good at/for?

Many have read Weber well at the best institutions possible on this planet, but it doesn't seem that anyone has attempted to better the Iron Cage.

Mr Philip Yeo announced in an interview that he favours poorer students for A*Star scholarships.

Answering a question at the Pioneers Series dialogue, he said: 'I did it that way because, in my view...I can uplift the one from the lower economic base. If the other candidate lives in a bungalow, his parents can afford to send him off to study.'

He offered an interesting statistic: 70per cent of A*Star scholarships go to those who live in HDB flats, while 'a majority' of those on scholarships from the Public Service Commission live in landed property.
.........................................................

Rich Dad, Poor Dad

I applaud his attempt at helping those from less well-to-do families. But here is where I must point out a huge assumption in his argument. As highlighted in yellow, Mr Yeo assumes that the kid with the richer dad is gonna send him off to study, presumably in some expensive institution abroad. This, my friends, is a huge assumption. Perhaps that is what Mr Yeo would do without hesitation for his own children, but what evidence is there that all other well-to-do parents are going to the same?


A v P

Also, it is curious that Mr Yeo compares the family backgrounds of A*Star scholarship holders to that of PSC scholarship holders. These 2 baskets of scholarships are meant for grooming rather different outcomes, and they probably do not fight for the exact same pool of people to begin with. So, what then is the point of this comparison? That the A*Star scholarship is more 'background-friendly'? If so, what does it mean?

What is 'Bond'?

If we were to come from the truly 'socialist' pov, then perhaps these financial aid ought to be bond-free, i.e. bursaries. Or perhaps the definition of a 'bond' can be modified and broaden to require the scholarship holder to contribute (e.g. work in Singapore or in Singapore-linked/owned firm) to Singapore within X years upon graduation.

If the bond is in fact designed as a tool for the sponsor to be comforted that the scholarship will bear fruits for the organisation, then it must be essential to study how effective this tool has been for the past decades, e.g. the rate and reason for bond-breaking.

I wonder if anyone has studied this comprehensively in the same way other forms of 'union' such as marriages (including its disintegration e.g. divorce and related problems e.g. distrust, lack of communication, infidelity, spousal abuse etc) have been publicly scrutinised.

FWAH... Fertile grounds for more PhD explorations...
More scholarships required! =P

Affording One's Education

From a more moderated pov, if a Singaporean wants to pursue an education overseas, he ought to be allowed to help himself through the use his CPF savings. If one is allowed to invest his CPF funds in stocks and shares in an attempt to better the returns on these savings, surely one can be allowed to 'invest' his own CPF funds in himself, e.g. through education, in a attempt to better his life chances?

Hmmm... I still do not get what Mr Yeo is trying to achieve through that interview.

I am surprised at the number of comments the earlier entry has managed to attract.

Fundamentally, getting married is a complex decision. It's definitely more than just a simple list of things to buy and the attendant costs. Yeah... so far... the list seems to consist of things to buy. The dinner package, the gown, the home, the fridge, the freaking ring and roasted pig...

And precisely because marriage is more than a list of "to-buys" and is complex, if someone cannot even figure out the costs on his/her own, this someone ought to think about whether he/she is ready for marriage. Not to mention having children etc.

I wonder when more people will realise that being married and being parents in today's context are highly complex activities, and stop giving the "it's only natural" excuse.

Society and the State's expectations of the family unit's responsibilities and capacity to cope have increased steadily over the years. But I wonder whether adequate thought has been given to how prepared the family unit actually is. Does it have the required knowledge and resources to do a decent job?

What is marriage? What is family?
How many people have asked these questions and concluded based on examples they have seen at home and on TV? Do these conclusions actually work? What does 'actually work' mean? Is it enough that I try my best oredi?

大家有的 我也要
大家借的 我也照跟
大家生的 我也来一两个

大家做的 我想只要依样画葫芦 也不可能错到哪里去

Having said the above,

也有一些人 一心以为自己很特别
大家有的 我偏偏不要 特别得不得了

=))))

Someone left a comment in the previous entry:

Hi Blinkymummy,

I've got a few questions to ask you.

Recently my friend has got this idea of POPPING the QUESTION to his gf... What are the things to take note... For your own case, how much in total was spent on the wedding and for house, what kind of flat are u staying in and how much was the price?

Thank you for helping me...

PS. Most important of all - the engagement ring, was it diamond?

Love BeL

Wednesday, July 23, 2008 5:21:00 PM

............................................................

Eh? How come it's all about costs?

Eh... You people help her leh!!

Incidentally, separate conversations with 2 male friends in the recent days hover about the topic of sweet love.

A is married with kids and in his early 40s. The chick is not his wife and 20 years his junior, i.e. early 20s. B is single and in his mid 30s. The chick is also in her early 20s.

Regardless of beauty, there is just something about youth that is attractive.

Perhaps it is Mother Nature's programming. You know, the reproductive explanation... Males just wanna sow their seeds... A young female = promise of fertility etc... And that sweet sweet love... the first touch... the first kiss... the silly phonecalls and smses... the rush of happy chemicals in the brain...

But I prefer a more stoic explanation, i.e. youth evokes that familiar feeling of hope. And hope is inversely proportional to age as one grapples with the issues of life, its meaning (or lack of), its disappointments etc. Hence, being near to/associated with a young person = proximity to hope?


Just like how I am told that I shouldn't be critical about chicks wearing high heels because I am not short and will never understand it properly, perhaps I should not be able to be conclusive about this couple of friends and their young chicklets.

I just hope that my friends, in their search for hope, will not be taken for a painful ride. If this is so, I hope they have the strength to snap out of it... soon...

Remember the Conference Bike entry earlier?

Check it out in motion!
I like the video. Makes something as ridiculous as this look really wonderful.


I realised that SMRT has recently started a foldable bike scheme, i.e. you can bring your foldable bike on board the train provided it's within certain dimensions.

Erm... Are we jumping the gun here?
They haven't even sorted out the whole road safety issue. And here we are discussing whether the allowable foldable bike dimensions ought to be more flexible.


Different Roads, Different Rules

Someone (I shall not name) thinks that the "biking on public roads" debate is really about xenophobia, because most of the cyclists are not locals.

I dunno about that. But I just know that for cyclists and vehiclists to be using the same roads, both ought to achieve some kind of common understanding. And traditionally, this is done through licensing for vehiclists. Road users without licence ought to stick to the pedestrian pathways, and not go onto the roads.

Now, if you weave in the suggestion that majority of cyclists are not locals and/or are transients, then using public education to help reach a common road user understanding really isn't gonna be effective.

Cycling as a Sport Only

Better still, in our context, bicycling ought to be categorised as a sport, i.e. to be carried out for recreational purposes and in designated areas only, e.g. at the park, bicycle stadium etc.

This is similar to the principle of car-racing. Your aspirations to car-race can be fulfilled, but you cannot race your zhng-ed Subaru on the public roads. When there are enough of you, someone will build a car-racing complex for you to do so in Tuas where you will only disturb very very few people and get dedicated attention from like-minded enthusiasts and screaming audience.

I was telling Angry how unsuccessful our attempt at drawing some blood from Blinky and Tiger at the Vet's was on Saturday. We only managed to get past the shaving stage. Vet drew like 2ml of blood from Tiger, and nothing from Blinky. Vet said we only made it with Tiger for like 25% of the journey. =_=

Tamade... I dun really wanna sedate them for blood drawing.

Here you see Tiger sulking and resting after the ordeal.


Then as usual, Angry went into his dry doctor humor mode.

Angry: Imagine if you had brought a hamster in for blood test, I think the Vet look at the thing and say,"Ah Bo buy a new one lah!"

Size does matter, doesn't it?

=_=

I read the "Sell A Kidney? In Iran, it's called 'sharing'" article with interest. It says this:


Key Points:

• Non-related donors
• Donor gets USD1,200 (average Iranian annual salary) + free health insurance from Govt
  
• Donor gets gift from Recipient
  
• Donors are not to advertise
  
• Process executed by voluntary and non-govt organisation made up of kidney patients.
  

This Iranian example will be raised in Parliament tomorrow to urge Singov to explore this issue further.

My main questions are:

1. Iran has a population of more than 70 million. This would definitely help to provide a large (and perhaps more uniform) base of donors. Does Singapore have that kind of critical mass?
   
2. Hence, as with all our problems pertaining to 'limited resources', the best way may be for us to outsource. But is there a country in the world that is a willing partner?
3. Other issues, which I shall not attempt to elaborate on my blog, such as religion, referee, compensation mechanism, unintended consequences of this foot in the door etc.

I dunno how many of you have read and understood the earlier Chinese entry. Someone even thought 'Good Fren' and I must be going through a problematic patch.

Nah... That entry was inspired by someone else's story.

There is a social inquiry and qualitative method called the Life Story Method, where the inquirer gets the subject to tell his story in any way he wants, then the inquirer interprets the narrative. I was introduced to it by Dr Eric Thompson in the course of my masters program. Of course, this method is highly subjective and is dependent on the skills of the inquirer.

I shall not attempt to argue its validity or how some prefer to hide behind qualitative methods, not because these methods are more valid in context, but because these 'some' are insecure about their knowledge and/or mastery of the quantitative. When ego gets in the way of the search of knowledge, instead of triggering it, the search becomes futile and destructive.

The point is... In the past few days/weeks, I've put someone through an extended interview. He is currently being hounded by a problem of his. An affair he has had recently. A problematic marriage, career etc.

Through that, I have applied the aesthetics of language to part of his story and translated an episode into a blog entry in Chinese. Subsequently, an anonymous reader (whom I suspect, in fact, is my mother) gave some compliments and tips on 'spelling' errors and structure.

她走着走着 是累了
虽然微风吹开了烦躁的心情
肩上的包袱 却比平常重了许多许多å
她很想停下来 却又怕会蹉跎太多个日子 好不矛盾

就这天 她双腿发麻 再也支持不下去了
好想放弃啊 神啊 请赐予我多一点力量
我必须走完我先前选的路

就这时 她静疲力竭 倒下了
靠着一只莫名的支柱 合上眼 睡着了

睡眼惺忪的她 模模糊糊地瞧见了披头散发的他
他的眼神 带着性感的犹豫
他的手指 抹着香烟的潇洒

莫名的他 给了她扶持
可能 冥冥中 真的就是有了一种安排
就是这样地浪漫 就非要像故事一样 叫人羡慕
就是要上天肯定 咱们俩有受宠的特权

牵手 初吻
头晕目眩 是不在话下
沐浴在难以形容的幸福中
偷笑 是难免的

有一天 她突然觉得 因为歇息太久 而又累了
也又顿时想起 自己要走的那条路
究竟是还没完全告一段落

又那么一天 她将沉重的包袱往肩上推
再次重踏自己的旅程

他的倔强 不明白 也不能接受 心里将再次空虚的事实
失落 犹豫 毫不留情地涌了过来
他不甘愿 他不是小站 她也不是过客
一毫克的浪漫 将以一公升的悲痛偿还

就在这时 路旁的微风又吹起了熟悉的旋律
好像 一切的一切 都没发生过似的
嘲笑着 怜惜着 抵著的愚昧

Angry Doc and I had a discussion on many issues over the weekend, especially the on-going debate on organ trading.

I personally believe that there is no good reason to prevent organ trading, provided the transaction is carried out within a well-defined framework. Why should anyone die on the waiting list because his family and friends are not equipped with a compatible kidney? Reduced family size in such cases drastically decreases the odds of finding a match. And facebook friends ain't all kidney-donating potential, if you know what I mean...

On top of willing buyer and seller, these 2 parties ought to be fully informed of the risks involved. And the best party to be playing referee is the State. Because it is highly efficient and good at rationalising the necessary. MOH can set up a whole new statutory board for this. Or should this be under MTI?

I hate to use the term 'hub', but we might just become the world's first legitimate organ replacement hub. 0_O
First Mover Advantage.

Will we draw flak from human right activists?
Yes.

If their kidneys fail, will they come get their body parts replaced here?
Yes.

Will we save lives?
Yes.

I hear that 1 out of 10 kidney recipients will need a new one in 5 years. Just think about the recurrent demand.

A catalyst for our biotech dream.
No need to try to discover the next big thing.

Angry was saying... If so, he's gonna set up the KTF.
Kidney Transplant Foundation.
To ensure that the not-so-well-off can also have access to a replacement kidney.

I know this is very intuitive, but if you cut out the noise, it is really counter-intuitive.

You know the CNA people started their blogs recently, right? Probably their best efforts to emulate more progressive media and to jump onto the New Media bandwagon. Regardless, that is not my main concern.

What is telling about the CNA blog-reading audience is that Maria Siow has put up 3 rather informative and insightful entries on her experience in China, and she gets zero comments. While Glenda Chong has only 2 entries and she has had more than 50 comments. 30+ for her 1st entry. She was merely blogging about herself in a summarised manner. 0_O

No meaning.

If blog page views is what they are after, they should get Cheryl Fox and that "married angel with devil's bod chick with loads of lip gloss and who doesn't newscast anymore" to blog. And they must do the Karen Cheng coz the blog audience loves it.

*snores*

Last Wed evening, 2 Jul 08, I went online to apply for a new passport. This APPLES website may look outdated and using 'apples' as an acronym doesn't strike any immigration chords, but I have highlight that the application process was really simple and hassle-free.

Apart from internet connection, all you need is as follows:

1. Your NRIC
2. Your current passport (if any)
3. A credit/debit card
4. A softcopy of your headshot picture

On the next day, I received an email from ICA confirming the date of collection of my new passport for Mon, 7 Jul 08.

FWAH... So fast meh?!
They took only 2 working days to process my passport. I only needed to wait for less than 5 days to get my new passport!

It was so efficient that I had to change the passport collection appointment because I have a prior appointment on Monday. And I found out that the appointment could be changed online!

So, I went down to ICA on the new appointment date to collect my passport. I kept thinking that the appointment was gonna screw up coz you never know how these online systems work with real life!

Within 15 minutes, I was out of the building with my spanking new red biometric passport.

I look back at this incident, and wonder about the efficiency of my passport/earlier NRIC issuance experiences and the recent incident of father using son's passport at Changi.

It is clear that being fast-responding is a characteristic of ICA. It has to be because this organisation deals with thousands of 'customers' everyday. Furthermore, their customers are not uniform, i.e. they deal with different types of customers. Different languages, different cultures, different ages, different expectations etc. Anyone who has worked in customer service lines will realise that the front line is always scrapping themselves psychologically and physically to do so.

While certain mistakes are unfathomable, when assessing an organisation, it is important to look at all facets, and not just the problematic ones. I am not sure whether any other country in the world can issue passports and/or identity cards with such convenience, speed and accuracy.

Having said that, being the top of the class is not always enough. Because someone will have to be #1, even in a crappy pool. So, I guess the key lies in the fanning the flame of excellence. Always wanting to be better. Not merely better than others, but better than oneself. To be able to do that effectively, takes courage and honesty.

Remember how my Cousin and Cousin-in-Law (CiL) ROMed on Tioman Island last year?

Their traditional wedding is coming up this year. This evening, CiL invited me to join her for the wedding gown fitting at Vaughn Tan along Jalan Klapa.


My job is to take pics. But I have been told I cannot put up pics of her gown(s). Orh...

Btw, Vaughn is an NTU grad with a Bachelors in Materials Engineering, ok!

I introduce him to you, but please do not disturb Vaughn too much before their wedding (mid Sep 08) hor... =))

Btw, the great Frederick Lee is just across the street.

I've been tasked to write a 5,000-word essay on Knowledge Management and Blogging. Or is it Blogging as a KM tool?

FWAH... Supposed to put up a 150-word synopsis by this week. Jialat oredi...

Oi... Help leh... Any thoughts?

Milk is my second favourite drink. Alcohol takes first place, while I cannot decide between Pocari Sweat and not from concentrate Orange Juice for the third place.



I must have blogged about this before. Regardless, here it goes again.

As a child, I didn't like fresh milk. Couldn't stand the smell of it. But I had loads of powdered milk. I think the choice was affected by the consumption method. Fresh milk is usually cold and served in a glass, while powdered milk is served as a warm bottle of powdered milk suspension. The latter is usually an odourless method. It's pure bliss. Warm bottle in hand + watch TV/read a book in bed. FWAH... So happy... I liked it so much that I was on the bottle till I was in Primary 6. =))

In secondary school, I discovered the joy of fresh milk. Cold beverages felt better on the way home, especially under the hot sun. I used to buy the small packets of Magnolia from 7-11. Not those skimmed/less fat ones. The full fresh milk. Somehow, the smell stopped getting to me as much. My sense of smell was probably dulled with age.

I think the comforting factor of milk consumption is derived from the saturated fats in the heavenly white suspension. YUM YUM...

And now, I have developed (in my books) new ways of milk consumption as follows:

1. I like milk with tea, i.e. there is more milk than tea in the same cup. Tea-flavoured milk, anyone?
2. Milk with honey. Dissolve some honey in a little hot water, then add loads of milk in the glass. This helps me to sleep. Can add some crushed apricot kernels at the hot water stage, if you like that almond-ish taste and crunchy texture. But I read that apricot kernels when consumed in large quantities can be toxic. Oooohhhh... Dangerous milk drink.
   
3. Diluted Milk, i.e. Milk with some water. Yeah... Like Cognac with Water. Same theory.

So, go grab a packet of fresh milk today... Figure out which is your favourite way of consumption.

But remember, like our grannies say, do not add orange juice to milk. And of course, I've done it. It looks quite gross. I wouldn't drink that curdling potion. But hor... I must admit that I've had milk, then orange juice and vice versa... Nothing extraordinary happened. Perhaps the key is not to look at the potion. HAHA...

Since I'm getting like more than 10,000 page views today (yeah... no joke... ), I may as well leverage on it and spread some goodness.

CHER (as in teacher...) recommended this 2006 book to me last week, and I have been reading it.

Good Stuff.

Richard Sennett is a genius. A brilliant story-teller. I think to be successful in life, one needs to be persuasive. And so, story-telling skills are precious.

And he is married to Saskia Sassen. I cannot help but to wonder about such high-(brain)powered relationships. He quotes her in his book. It's like linking her blog to his. =))

Plus I like the way he summarises and enumerates.

For example, he believes that the present conditions are fragmentary and unstable. In order to prosper under such conditions, this 'ideal person' needs to address the following challenges:

1. How to manage short term relationships as one changes job scope/job type more often than before.
   
2. How to develop new skills as the demands change ever so often.
3. How to surrender the past, i.e. because past service no longer guarantees a position in the organisation.
   

Though I must say this 'ideal person' can only begin to prosper when the market is mature enough to recognise him as such. Or perhaps... These abilities are meant to be invisible... a secret... Because the relativity of one's ability creates the groove for one to leverage upon.

I'm not done with the book. Yet, I am greedily looking forward to getting hold of a copy of his latest book, The Craftsman. But it's like hardcover and SGD75 from Kino. Maybe I should get it online.

By the way, today is the 8th anniversary of my work life.
Happy Work Anniversary to me!

Oh... While I was having shiteloads of alcohol with my colleagues, Mooiness smsed me from Perth and informed me that Xiaxue and Dawn Yang are having like this huge argument.

Seriously, regardless whether Dawn Yang is plastic, there is no need to wrestle with XX. XX is just in it for the attention and she doesn't care how she gets it. Dawn is ah siah by birth, hence her search is merely for attention, not money. But XX needs the money coz blogging is her job! Her income!!

Seriously... this is fucking hilarious...

Do these pple realise what this means in a couple of years? NOTHING?!!

My advice to Dawn... Fuck it... You are smart and privileged... No need to wrestle in crap... Yeah... this may sound damn elitist, but this is reality. While you are still young, do go expand yourself beyond the superficial... Dun waste your talent.

Because 'Good Fren's colleagues and brother just had or are having babies like really soon, we ordered 3 of these Pupsik baby pouches for them. I think they make great gifts because they are useful and funky. Form + Function = Winner.


So apparently, 'Good Fren' brought one of them to the office today to pass it to his colleague who is a first-time dad and is fondly known as PORNSTAR amongst his friends because of his chiseled macho face and porn-worthy body.

When guys get awkward, they are really farnee...

GF: *walks into office* Erm... Eh... This is for you... *passes the colourfully-wrapped pouch with ribbon and small cards dangling to PORNSTAR (PS) ... You know... Just in case we are not around when your baby is due... *awkward laughter*

PS: *Package crumples in his huge tanned porn hands* Erm... Thanks... *awkward silence pause pause pause* Erm... ... Pass me the lan... *GF oredi passing it* ... cable... Erm... Thanks...

Pornstar later admitted that the lan cable passing request was a 'defensive reaction' to compensate for the awkwardness... HAHAHAAHHA!!! So cute hor??!!! =)))

PORNSTAR also admitted over Facebook that baby gift, being the first, made him feel very different suddenly. Coz it's like a third party acknowledged his fatherhood mah! Kawaii!!

Then hor... When he got home... He realised his wife oredi bought a Pupsik pouch earlier! Same size but different colour! Wah lau... So popular meh?!! He explains that this pouch is well-designed because, unlike other slings, this one distributes the baby's weight evenly. So hor... they are gonna keep the one we bought for them, and exchange their own for a Size 4 so that PORNSTAR can wear the baby!!
OOORRRRRHHHHH!!! SO KAWAII!!!

Eh wait... the picture is a little... salah... Porn Star grinning away with a Pupsik pouch and struggling baby. I wish I could post his pic here... Coz the picture would speak a thousand words!! He said he would send some pics once the kid is out... *rubs blogging hands gleefully* =)))