Schnapps

On Postmodernism

2008-07-22T00:24:00.000+08:00

On Postmodernism

During a discussion.

[�??人] says:
i think it's more of a warning against overzealously embracing the marvels of science and it's objectivity to the point that it transcends boundaries into domains such as art and history et.c where it is arguable whether it does more good than harm, as well as conveying a fear of neglecting the soul and such, which has undoubtedly carried us through thousands of years of human history, as opposed to the relatively short 200-300 years that science has reigned supreme.
[�??人] says:
what it really means? I think artists and writers and people who make a living out of one subjective trade or another are damn jealous of objectivity's fame, but they can't match the competition with anything better, so their best pitch is that hey maybe mystery isn't soo bad, maybe life would be boring if everything is in 1s and 0s. which is not to say that they're wrong. It's just that they can't prove shit. (Which, funny enough, they think is ok, since they don't believe in proofs anyway)

Quikquotes Quill

2008-02-12T23:23:00.000+08:00

"Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If i quit, however, it lasts forever."
-Lance Armstrong

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2007-11-22T11:10:00.000+08:00

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Small Things

2007-11-07T17:41:00.000+08:00

"What a profound significance small things assume when the woman we love conceals them from us."

-- Marcel Proust

Eh. Please La.

2006-12-13T00:22:00.000+08:00

Eh. Please La.

In reply to "Finally, There Is Benefit To Being A Singaporean", recently posted on Tomorrow.com

I'm a PR below the age of 18, and I will have to serve national service after I graduate from junior college next year.

I hope people will stop thinking of me and other young men and women in my plight as "children of PRs", as if we are chattel objects, as if it "doesn't count" that we do serve NS. My father did not have to serve national service because Singapore wants to maintain a young citizen army. He was too old to serve in the army.

I am fully willing to serve in the SAF, to learn to protect the country I grew up in. This in spite of the fact that I NEVER enjoyed the most important benefits that current articles say PRs enjoy. I had to pay up to ten times the school fees of what the majority of my peers pay because PRs are not considered for The Edusave Entrance Scholarships for Independent Schools (EESIS). Also, I do not have an edusave account, the credits from which could have helped pay for many wonderful educational experiences.

I do not know why there are people who say PRs enjoy the same benefits as citizens but don't pay the price. We paid the price of leaving behind all that we knew off, all that we owned so that we could come live in Singapore. Native Singaporeans were simply born here. Who paid a greater price?

Yes, I concede that the majority of immigrants who become PRs are above the stipulated age for enlistment for the SAF. But only because the SAF wants young men. Military defense aside, the contributions that immigrants make, towards economic growth, towards social cohesion, towards civil and psychological defense are immeasurable and ultimately invaluable towards Singapore's existence and sustained growth.

I think what I'm trying to say is this: Please do not punish us for what we did not do. Damn if we all have to serve NS to gain citizen/PR-ship, the old and the young, men and women, fine. We'll do it. But don't skimp on benefits like Education and Heath care that goes to innocent children and the ill.

Huang.

The Tantric Master

2006-12-10T23:46:00.000+08:00

2006_0428jazzconcert0086

2006-07-09T02:23:00.000+08:00

2006_0428jazzconcert0086
Originally uploaded by hsoloman.

2006_0428jazzconcert0019

2006-07-09T02:22:00.000+08:00

2006_0428jazzconcert0019
Originally uploaded by hsoloman.

NIE

2006-07-09T02:21:00.001+08:00

47b6d806b3127cce98548c8a4b9400000017108EctGTVsxcc
Originally uploaded by hsoloman.

NIE

2006-07-09T02:21:00.000+08:00

47b6d806b3127cce98548d740bf200000017108EctGTVsxcc
Originally uploaded by hsoloman.

Wikihumor

2005-12-28T20:37:00.000+08:00

Wikihumor

A full gainer is an acrobatic move, typically performed from a diving board into water. A full gainer is a full backflip that is completed while moving forwards... Unlike full gainers, half gainers are only performed by divers, as landing on one's head on solid ground can be fatal.

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_gainer

The Balance Beam is an artistic gymnastics apparatus. It is only used by female gymnasts. It is not used by the male gymnasts because they have external genitals.

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnastics_balance_beam

Shutruk Nahunte

2005-12-24T00:05:00.000+08:00

Shutruk Nahunte

I am Shutruk Nahunte, King of Anshand and Sussa, Sovereign of the land of Elam. I destroyed Sippar, took the stele of Niran-Sin, and brought it back to Elam, where I erected it as an offering to my god. Shutruk Nahunte - 1158 B.C.

utorrent

2005-12-13T22:06:00.000+08:00

utorrent

Like... Awsomest win32 Bittorrent client. Only 118kb installation. Azureus doens't count cause its Java.

Peek-a-boo, Guess who!

2005-11-28T23:36:00.000+08:00

Peek-a-boo, Guess who!

Whoopteedoo!

2005-11-27T12:51:00.000+08:00

Whoopteedoo!

I turned MSN Messenger 7.5.0311 into a fancy E-mail alert.

Bananamufu!

2005-11-26T11:37:00.000+08:00

Bananamufu!

Solid Timber Legs!

2005-11-18T22:06:00.000+08:00

Solid Timber Legs!

Smith Power!

2005-11-18T22:00:00.000+08:00

Smith Power!

Signature, Sarah Smith, November 2nd 2005, RJC Bishan campus LT2, "Threesome", "The Road Runners".

Days of Our Lives

2005-11-10T02:37:00.000+08:00

Days of Our Lives

In the days after graduating from Raffles Institution, I couldn't help but feel miserable and crestfallen. I believe these peculiar emotions arise from the sordid realization that I no longer have anything worth associating and identifying myself with, and from a certain sense of, shall I say "occupationlessness". The large vacuum left behind by the alma mater, I tried to fill with any kind of work, some sort of contribution to the economy. But nobody's hiring much anymore. As some economists put it, what goes around comes around. The more you spend to stimulate the economy, the better the economy will be, and more work opportunities and pay packages for everybody. I'm stingy as hell, I can't find work, and I'm miserable.

It is a collective psyche of the RI/RGS graduating batch of 2005, that RJC will never really measure up to our secondary education in the spiritual context. Some of us see it as just a place for us to work hard to earn those As. And that may well be right, with added pressure for the pioneer Raffles Program batch to do well in the scholastic capacity. It would not give us the same character, thought and moral development, or measure up either in breadth or depth. Some say that RJC is about the people you meet and identify with. And that comes from the courses your chose, from the co-curricular activities you are going to take, from the student council for some, and maybe even from romance for a few. You have to know the right people to pull the right strings, to have life run a lot smoother; you have to study with the suitable crowd to get your grades; you have to make the right friends to get support, encouragement and that kick to get you started; you might need a special girl or boy to remind you of the good, beautiful things in life worth struggling for. Meeting the right people falls on the choices you make, and sometimes into the hands of lady luck. Meeting people, right or wrong, forms perhaps the most spiritually substantial bit of life in Raffles Junior College. And before we are even bona fide students of The College, the people we have met already helped flesh out The College that exists in our minds.

The following, I drafted at a table in the large group of tables on the ground floor of the library in Raffles Junior College. I was then studying for my GCE O'Level Higher Chinese Exam, to be administered by the SEAB, Singapore Examination and Assessment Board, and which now has already passed.

"
RJC might be a new experience for most, but it is a place I have familiarized myself with, through many different experiences over the past years. People I have met at the Toy Inventor's Challenge, at the Ghim Moh campus (defunct.), the week I spent exploring the new campus at Bishan, discovering the little secrets of the architecture, the time I got cornered in the dance studio, by two girls who were probably just as clueless as I was as to what was where, people I have known from the honorable Singapore Science and Engineering Fair, from ORA Walkajogathon, 15 hour cramming sessions in the monolithic glass-and-steel library. RJC has been a collection of memories before I have ever attended my first lecture.

These memories form the basis of my hopes, that I may experience and feel what those before me have experienced and felt within the College, the "Gateway to the Ivy League". These hopes pushed me through the darkest times. It became a fixation on my subconscious to prove my worth, to earn my way. But that was not to be. Maybe RP has stolen our pride. Without the GCEs, the quantification of my worth lies on the whispering wind. Willing or otherwise, I have to thank the Raffles Program for the education, handed to me on almost a silver platter. Would I have gotten in on my own, or would my place have accommodated one of deeper thirst? The point is I will never know.

For the path of academic excellence and continuity, we have forsaken the confidence and self-appraisal of RJC students, the sterling qualities that got the College where it stands today. Irony to say the least. Bitter irony if my batch were to fail. I will leave that train of thought to the powers that be.

As for my memories, they are still there, mocking me maybe. For now, at least, there is no way to tell if I'm good enough, if I measure up, if I deserve the life that answers my hopes, if I am worthy of the memories that gave birth to hopes.

The other side of the coin, not very shiny, semi-existent like a specter, a poltergeist, tells me I might redeem my pride two years from today. Let us hope self-doubt is strong enough, to push me hard onto the first step of life, on the way of the Ivies.

There is time for all that. There is time for thinking and for the future. But there isn't enough time for me to appreciate the small things in life, to hold on to the memories that gave me hope.

And sitting here in the beautiful College library, with the failing light of the sun filtering through the glass, salvaging my last hopes for the Chinese exam, I cannot help but find my eyes running all over Nicholas Tan's sister (Editor's note: Nic.. don't kill me.), a stunningly pretty girl I'm afraid I'll never see much of in the future again.

If there is time, we aught to appreciate memories before they fade, to work hard before teenage hopes grow old and die.
"

My Blog Very Ex

2005-10-29T09:05:00.000+08:00

My Blog Very Ex

My blog is worth $2,822.70.
How much is your blog worth?

Girls

2005-10-28T00:11:00.000+08:00

Girls

We were having a private discussion in class about girls the other day.

Me: But whats wrong with liking gep girls. I like smart girls. Its fun talking to them.

Chongzhi: You're weird.

James: So smart got what use. Talk what talk, just screw can already what.

Shawn: *smiles.

Chongzhi: SCREW OFF SHAWN.

Shawn: *smiles bigger.

Me: But seriously. Its damn irritating talking to girls who go "Huh? Grinzxx." every five seconds.

Shawn: *large evil horny smile.

But James sexy what! Can anyhow screw people. Chongzhi so manly, can anyhow screw people by force. Shawn so .....Shawn. Can anyhow screw people without their knowledge.

But I'm talentless! So I can only talk to girls. Then obviously must talk to smarter girls right? Furthermore gep girls are not set apart so much as by the quality which they have but rather by the lack of it in their express counterparts. So when you guys just think I'm weird, I'm full fledged Quasimodo to the express girls, only taller.

And who say gep girls cannot screw?
Shawn: *smile.

"the adventures of the MAD CHINAMAN"

2005-10-10T03:33:00.000+08:00

"the adventures of the MAD CHINAMAN"

"I selected Olga, an attractive Eurasian girl who was related to our school principal, and went out with her for a year or so. We made a remarkable pair due to the extreme differences in our heights (I was five feet eight and she was... shorter), and doing the 'clutch' dance was quite difficult as I had to practically double over to grab her waist."

Wahlao eh. Don't you think last time people had more fun.

Picture and exerpt from Dick Lee's "the adventures of the MAD CHINAMAN"
ISBN 981 232 602 2

Test Say I Am Not MM Lee

2005-10-09T21:21:00.000+08:00

Test Say I Am Not MM Lee

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Sorry la. No time to write rubbish before exams. This would have to do. I did this wonderful test in good faith, with no cheating.

Pneumonia Sucks

2005-10-07T00:54:00.000+08:00

Pneumonia Sucks

Missed school for two weeks. Common tests start in exactly seven day's time.

Vice City

2005-09-17T05:01:00.000+08:00

Vice City

Shit la. Marlboros do a hell of a good job waking me up at 4am, so that I can continue with that last minute report. But still, I'm not a smoker ok. I drink a lot more.