Einstein is Marilyn!



Take 10 steps back. Ditto.

Labels: Sightings

Facing Embaressment

They say the best way to handle embaressment is to face it. And so I present, "one of the suckiest essay ever". It's amazing how I even achieved a paltry B3 and still think that I could have gotten an A2 'on a good day'. Oh well, youth is obnoxious, I say.

Teacher's comments in []. Though I doubt that it'd be marked by my GP tutor R. Thia because of its lively comments.

Subject: General Paper
Reg. No: 98S1508
Date: 29/6/98
Title: Sports has always been more popular among men than women. Is that still true today?

This July, principals of most junior colleges all over S*ngapore will not be in a happy mood. Statically, [sp] the mid-year examinations (held in early July) results of the male population will be under expectations. All these speculations are based on the belief that sport has always been more popular among men than women. [Expln why, lah! (in your intro, I mean)]

Now, how can sports be of any relationship to examination results? [how does this part answer the qn??] A lot, I must say, for the average sports enthusiast (men, in short). For the whole of June, it has basically been a sports festival, starting with the National Basketball Association (NBA) Championships in America, and ending with the major soccer event of the year, World Cup '98, together with major tennis 'Grand Slam' events scheduled in between or running concurrently (like the French Open). With men being avid sports fans, male students will naturally neglect their studies, leading to their decline in results. No doubt, this is only a speculation, but it will only be a matter of time before this is proven. Teachers marking the boys' examination scripts will also notice a decline in the quality of answers in respective subjects). [I hope not; in any case, prioritising is necessary in life]

Let's take a look at asports itself then. Categorised into mens's and women's sports, it is not hard to tell that men's sports outnumber women's sport greatly, in terms of the frequency played. Soccer for example is a men's sport. how often can you find a women's version of the 'S-league' or the female's Carling Premiership? Other than being introduced recently in the Asian Games - which is held only once every four years, female soccer is virtually non-existent and relatyively undeveloped. [a fact but reasons for this?] On the other hand, almost every other sport, if played by both sexes havea well structured league or regular activity for sportsmen (or women) to participate in, and many a time, the female's event came about only after the men's event has been around for a while, like the NBA. The NBA has a rich history, from a league of less than ten participating teams to the present number of almost one in every state of America and even some parts of Canada. Today, it has become a multyimillion dollar association, and owns some of the greatest basketball athletes of all time; for example Michael Jordan. In fact, the player was recently voted most influential sports athelete by a certain magazine. With such a strong historical and financial backing, it is only now that the NBA is considering forming a league for women - the WNBA, which is barely two years old! There mere fact that sports is played more widely in men than women shows that it is more popular in men than women [ok... but why has sport been played widely among men?? (& not women)]

[Why??]The key to this issue is "sports" and not "sportsmen". Not many people is blessed wityh the talent or potential to becoming great atheletes. Thus, we can only watch and admire the people in action. Men watch sports for the action, being more concerned on the activities on the pitch of a soccerfield rather than off it. For women, it is the exact opposite. They can tell you Michael Owen's height, weight, or even favourite colour but may not even be able to tell the difference between when the referee blows the whistle for an offside and blowing for halftime in soccer terms. Thus, for the small proportion of women watch the sport, most are more concerned with the players rather than the ball. Thus, sport has always been more popular among men, while sportsmen have been equally, if not more popular among women and men.

[HZ, you give evidence, not reasons explaing why this is so] At home, how often can you find mothers waking up in the middle of the night watching a live telecast of the World Cup? Men, on the other hand, stay glued to their television screens throughout the night; as long as the matches continues playing, they will keep watching. Thus, this fascination of sport among men is not a mere fashion of the younger generation. It has been so for our fathers, and our fathers' fathers and so on, and will continue to be so for the rest of time. [Why - explain?!!]

Sports has always been in the blood of men [biological reason??], waiting to be brought out in us, and subsequent years after this, a new batch of male students will continue to do badly in their studies whenever the sports season is on.

[HZ, your essay is full of evidence + facts + egs tt show high male participtn / interest in sports.
H/w, what we're lookg for is Reasons (NOT evidence) to explain this phenomenon.
Essay content is inadequate + needs to answer the qn.
C-11/30 L-12/20]

Ok. I'm throwing away the hardcopy after all this typing. Nobody should be put through such a torture reading this ever again. Although I still don't exactly see how the essay failed to answer the question, other than probably being pragmatically inappropriate academically.

It's interesting to see how, at 17yrs of age, i) I'm a sexist, ii) I'm an extremist, and iii) I'd prolly have made a lousy debater with all that weak arguments. I don't remember ever being so off tangent in my whole life. This is probably the only time when I wrote off-topic about something (and became paranoid about being out of point for the rest of my life after that).

Food of the day? The humble pie of yesteryears.

Labels: Sightings, Updates

Luxury Needs

Damn you Vista! I'm finally ready for your barbaric requests for a 1G RAM! (Even though I really don't forsee myself converting in at least the next 1 year or so). So other than the peripherals like casing, speakers, keyboard and floppy diskette drive (gasp! what's that! I've never even heard of it! - in 50 years' time), I have essentially gotten myself a 2007-year old computer. The latest addition to this arsenal of affordable gadgetry is... *drumroll* - 19 inch black-rimmed Philips LCD monitor! I don't even what dimensions to configure my desktop settings. For those interested, the market price is $319 (cos that's how much I paid for it). Don't pay more for it!

Despite the clash of colours with my 90s beigey colour scheme of computer hardware, the screen looks and feels guuuuuuuuud!

I probably REALLY should go learn and pick up some photoshop skills to make use of the new found RAM and excess desktop space! Video-quality-streaming soccer never looked so good!

Labels: Updates

From the outside looking in

Goes to show how new media will be forever 'new' locally. The last time I found local news from the foreign media was about some space travel project proposed to be based here (check archives), but at least that was reported in Today online.

Or maybe because the news involves free publicity for certain companies in question, hence simply put - 'no money no talk'. I can't reiterate enough that having an online national paper that requires paid subscription sucks big time.

Either I haven't been reading the papers enough recently, or local news just can't be bothered with architectural marvels if they're not already replicated - for example in the shape of a really big ferris wheel.



OMA designs Residential Tower in Singapore
Far East Organization, Singapore’s largest private development company, has commissioned the Office for Metropolitan Architecture for OMA’s first architectural project in Singapore – a 36-storey residential high-rise. The 153 meter tall tower will be located at the intersection of Scotts Road and Cairnhill Road, in close proximity to Orchard Road, Singapore’s famous shopping and lifestyle street. With 20,000m² of built floor area, the building will provide 68 high-end apartment units with panoramic views. The design strategically maneuvers within the highly regulated building environment to maximize the full potential of the site: Four individual apartment towers are vertically offset from one another and suspended from a central core. The skyline of floating towers directly relates to the surrounding building volumes and explores the most attractive views towards the city center and an extensive green zone to the north. The lifted apartment towers reduce the building’s footprint to a minimum; the liberated ground level provides communal leisure activities embedded in the tropical landscape. “We are thrilled with the opportunity to create an outstanding project in partnership with OMA. The design reflects the new vibrancy and vitality of Orchard Road and Singapore. OMA with its extensive international experience will certainly bring a new perspective to luxury urban living and add to the cosmopolitan flavor of our development,” says Far East Organization Chief Operating Officer, Property Sales, Chia Boon Kuah. “The collaboration with the Far East Organization is an exciting opportunity to further engage Asia,” says Ole Scheeren, Partner of OMA. "The design vertically redistributes the floor area in four alternating towers to create a skyscraper in which architectural and urbanistic concerns merge with mechanisms that create added value. The architecture, in this sense, goes beyond form and generates symbiotic qualities”.

Stop Press
Clarification from OMA - The Singapore tower is a design by OMA Partner Ole Scheeren. Unlike most architecture firms we are a collaborative office which works as a Partnership, Singapore Scotts Towers is by Ole Scheeren.

Labels: Sightings

Pretty World

"We'll hang a little sign that just says Paradise
Population two"

Somehow this line blew me away.

And I like the little jingle-like interlude line just before it that just keeps recurring to make the song so cute and cuddly. As if the song's not sappy enough already.

If you've haven't had enough of the song already, there's always a little youtube for everyone. Maybe if i've heard the judith durham version I like the song less, lisa is so classy, you know?

I think all primary school students should be made to learn this song in music class or something. Just change the breakfast and love to something else. ..."breakfast with love or something". I dunno.

Labels: Sightings