mouldy_fart

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1925029

the girl in this video is really cute! esp. at 3:00 lol. the museum curator haha, nothing beats someone who likes art !

( School Stuff, still fun though )

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/features/archive/news/2009/01/20090126p2a00m0na020000c.html 

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/06/05/japan.herbivore.men/index.html


my tutor posted these articles on the class forum, 

and i think its a pretty snug depiction of where i am/who i am right now !

i'd thought it'll be almost impossible to label it, but now realize other people share such a quality too !

The Herbivorous Man: Generally uninterested in traditional gender roles, and romance as a whole. 

Herbivore as opposed to Carnivore (those interested in "flesh")

Its good to know that the carnivorous perspective: that it is natural for an individual after a certain age, to want to find a mate, is not being bought by some; other than myself of course. 

Its not that i don't believe it doesn't exist. I just think its not as compulsive/coercive/dominant as most carnivores make it out to be. 

I'm just not that exposed to the whole romantic love propaganda too. More than 80% perhaps, of music i listen to is not about romantic love, but about basically anything else. 

its a pity that the intro to political science class i am doing do not touch on at all about the methodology of political science.

that enquiry into the issues of politics should be in accordance with the scientific method. 

This also means being value-free. Not making moral judgements. And that explanation of phenomena is prized much higher than persuasive rhetoric. And such rhetoric is usually about how things should be, rather than about how things are.

my (as well as the mainstream political science establishment) belief in positivism has led me to be

personally, morally bankrupt, where political issues are concerned. 

I don't flinch when i hear about entire peoples getting slaughtered, or about brutal repression by a particular dictator. 

it does not mean i do not believe in a higher purpose. 

In fact, i believe that research is a noble pursuit, that the gathering of knowledge can only lead to an improvement in the human condition (a very liberal idea i know, not very in sync with the stereotype from my political moral bankruptness).

But at the same time, i believe in the limits of human intuition (and this is a statement which cannot be verified in any positive, scientific way). And that it should never guide the course of discovery. This includes our moral intuition (i dont know whats the philosphical take on intuition and human morality). 

Theorists, scientists and researchers should discover in as unbiased a way as they can and not contort the research process if it does not in any way fit in with their normative conceptions on how the (political) world should be. (this is a normative statement though)

Let the practitioners (statespeople, organizations etc.) make sense of it and apply it in any way they deem fit.

i just had a one week holidays and i tried to study, but couldn't.

just had to do anything but study haha. 

did get some work done though. 

i thought i've lost it man, like, oh shit, fire's gone !

but yea, now that school has started, and its back ahhaaha. 

i just stayed in school working on my term paper till 9 odd. Productive and fun day !

with respect to my not so standard ideas of fun.

haha, i was watching the colbert report, and saw the trailer for "the invention of lying", i thought the actress was kinda hot there. so i went and found out who was it,

yea, it's jennifer garner.  

y'noe i dont usually, (more like never) like female celebrities n stuff, but she's quite cute ahaha.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UKeMxT1yk0

Marx saw religion as instrumental in building the "false consciousness" of the working class. Providing an outlet for their miserable existence, stymieing a revolution.   

Modern day Marxists would probably attribute it to consumer culture rather than religion. Soaking up the incomes of the proletariat, preventing them from converting it into meaningful capital. 

At least for Singapore, 

Don't the creation of a nuclear family unit fulfill a similar function? Children soak up massive amounts of income. And it doesn't make rational sense to have children anymore today. 

If children do support their elderly parents when they retire, the amount of money would probably be lesser than the total amount spent on the child. Food for say, 20 years, diapers, utility bills etc. 

What about contemporary adolescent fascination with romantic love and its relentless portrayal in popular media? Is it building this myth of the ideal nuclear family which is due to siphon away much of their energies and income? 

Does it de-politicize the youth, traditionally prone to activism.

Because it does not make rational sense anymore, the establishment sees a need to appeal to the base, irrational feelings inside human beings: that evolutionary desire to procreate. 

And people believe in that, whole-heartedly. 

i just went to audition for my school's jazz band today.

yea, didnt really practice, actually wasn't that keen to join too a few days ago,

but when i went there, just felt like, ehh, this is my kinda place haha. and there's something going on when i heard "straight no chaser" playing by the previous audition group.

yeaaa, and the audition was a relaxed kinda thing too, quite fun, haha and managed to come up with a decent solo ! okk, may or may not get in, but doesn't really matter. 

this 2 weeks is gonna be madness !!!

i've got a test on international relations tmr, yea, even though i've spent quite abit of time and effort on that, pored through the readings in depth n stuff, but somehow feel its never enough.

3 more midterms coming up next week ! and then again, still feel that there's so much more i can do. 

and a project proposal due on monday. 

good thing im quitting my job soon haha

i've never had such an over-achiever's complex in so long. (not to say that the results i get would be one of an overachiever lol.) going the extra mile to understand the material in greater depth n stuff. 

but yea, even if i dont make it, it should not be that i've not worked hard enough. 

i just had my first tutorial for International Relations and my tutor is fucking amazing haha.

he's 55, is an American but grew up in Argentina.

They had some civil war thing going on, so he joined some communist guerrilla group, shooting stuff up, blowing up police stations. He said he's got involved in something like 6 wars or something? seen people die n stuff.

Went to advice the department of defence in the US, CIA n all that after that phase in his life lol.
 

 

School

i'm doing a japanese studies module and its more boring than i thought ! the first major stuff happened round 700-800 AD, thats FRICKING SLOW, its like just a few years before facebook was invented. 

i can't believe it. its so peaceful there. not like Europe, where people had so much fun killing each other. states liked to stab each other in the back too. 

and and, we have to read texts which have funny and ancient grammar. ok, to be fair, the rest of the other modules too, so im just being biased. 

another module i'm doing is on international relations though, and i love it haha. European history too, cos there's just so much killing. Learning about wars is a sure way to keep me awake. 


Politics


I realized relationships in school are much more political than i would have them out to be. 


Cos I've just had my first tutorial (Japanese studies, unfortunately) and there was a stronggggg politicky  vibe. If Yoda was there, it would have fucked up with his force. 


strongggg especially when project groups were forming, it was like whoa, fucking UN conference man. Uganda striking a deal with Honduras over fur subsidies in 25 seconds. Suddenly, blocs were forming,  and I, being the noob delegate, unused to how the UN actually works was caught by surprise !


it might be a good thing as the group i'm in now seem like a nice bunch, and also, without act smart tendencies which plague the  students of NUS.

It might also be a good thing i've not made any friends thus far. 


Ok, i did actually, but its last semester, with a bunch of engineering guys. Cos they were mainly an unpretentious and pretty humorous lot, unlike many others i've seen.

I've been reading about the French revolution, as i will be doing a module on modern European history next semester. and i realized that its a pretty romantic (but bloody) movement. the whole idea of a citizen uprising n stuff, and the formation of one of the first citizen army to fight almost every major european power.


the french national anthemn, reading the lyrics in context with the events that happened then, makes it more meaningful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K1q9Ntcr5g

pretty romantic anthemn. 

together with oscar, grover's now my favourite character too !!!

http://www.sesamestreet.org/video_player?p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_id=videoPlayer_WAR_sesameportlets4369&p_p_uid=6b2c626b-27f7-4949-afd5-4eaf196f50f3

*i like how at 2:51 his nose sticks out at the top of the screen !!!

so hows school been like.

its pretty good actually, learnt alot. I got back the previous exam result, the one where i did government and politics of Singapore, and got a B+. its not too bad actually, not as in the grade itself but i felt that it was deserving considering the quality of the answers i gave. cos it was pretty much a rush, the exam, and didnt have much time to organize and articulate my points in a convincing, coherent manner.

haha, but i felt i did what i could pre-exam, and didn't exactly fall short in my preparations, so it was a pretty fair grade.

i'm now doing introductions in psycology and sociology now. its pretty busy now, considering that i have 2 modules to do now. and one thing, i most probably wouldn't major in psychology ! haha, that's because in doing it, i realize that its a pretty hard (as opposed to soft, not meaning difficult) kind of arts, in fact, psycology, in some universities is in the science faculty, some in arts. yea, i dont feel i'll be interested and do well with such a hard subject (unlike soci and other softer arts, where its application can be very very broad).

i just had a psychology midterm test too !! and had an ass remembering all the parts of the brain, eyes, ears etc. lol. dam glad its over, haha, hope i'll do ok.

well, just kinda worried about my exam, hope i'll manage the paper well and do better this time round. its not that bad taking 2 modules though, get to switch between each, giving the brain a rest while you do the other one. both are quite different, so i guess different mental faculties are used haha.

well well, things have been quiet on the music front lately, but not including the audition at ai qing hai haha,

the first 2 rounds went pretty good, cos it mostly tested on technique, first round, you pick any song, second round, they posted 2 audition songs on the website like 2 weeks before the audition, but the third round was killer !! haha, they gave us a list of 8 songs, right at the moment you went up on stage, and gotta play there and then !!! haha, it was the worst gig ever !! i only heard like 2 of the songs, and had to hamtam the chords, my ear aint that good too !! so yea, i didnt make it to the 4th round haha, but edwin did though, which isnt too surprising haha.

yeyaeyeaaa, but everything's quiet since then, would wanna focus on my 2 modules as my exam is coming in 3 weeks time, i'm now in special term (like summer school), and we have to learn content comparable to the normal term, but in half the time ! arghh, good thing after this the normal term starts lol.ents here.

the man on the right is Eugene Kang, he's born in 84 and is the president's assistant, et al. dam amazing haha. only 4 years older than i am ! y'noe like, in the music scene when you see people young and making it, its not really such a big deal. but in politics, its a different thing. dont know how important his job is though, he was obama's phoneman during the campaign period.

they're just damn amazing, if there's a one band which has both groove and harmony its them, amazing that they've been around for around 40 years lol. on top of that, they're able to make marketable music with credible musicianship.

drummer and bassist is amazing too !


song song 20 years later,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7skdIMzVJPw

i went to parliament on monday lol, as our lecturer encouraged all of us to do so.

i realized that Chiam See Tong is really old and frail, especially since his stroke, hunched back, really slow movements etc. you almost feel that this man, looking like any ah-pek on the street, is still sitting in parliament representing the opposition not just because of passion  but because the opposition might lose Potong Pasir if he gives it up and a by-election is called.

while the other PAP MPs chatted among themselves, you dont see anyone talking to Chiam. cant help but feel sad for this man.

I dont know, but i could sense a slight bias, in the instance where Low Thia Kiang was speaking. he spoke in pretty heavy teochew-accented chinese, and i had to use the earpiece from time to time (someone was translating),

I couldnt help but notice the more confrontational tone of voice used,

i used it before when the previous PAP MP was speaking as he spoke in malay, and noticed that the tone of voice was nowhere near the tone used to interpret Low's speech.

I have thought of opposition figures in parliament as vociferous critics of the current government (like Jeya) but i was surprised when i heard LTK speak, he acknowledged the sound economic governance of the PAP, and never once did he raise his voice.

He talked about foreign talent (as did other PAP MPs), and the opposition's chances at elections, the latter issue was also raised by Siew Kum Hong (AWARE's legal counsel), so its heartening to see opposition MPs not alone in advancing their cause for fairer elections.

as a result of doing my current module on government and politics in singapore, i can't help but ponder about the very popular question about Singapore's democratization.

its easy to label those promoting democracy in Singapore as idealists, bourgeois western liberals or just ingrates taking Singapore's stability and economic achievement for granted.

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