Wednesday, October 15, 2008
*~A.A~*
AA - Attract Attention? Trying to bootlick? How about Art Appreciation and trying to keep a copy of the past and present of Singapore for the future?
Heartlands - Home and Nation in the art of Ong Kim Seng.
This book is a collaboration of my supervisor KBS and a renowned local artist who won numerous international awards. Was cordially invited to this book launch by KBS to celebrate the launch of this compilation of OKS's paintings of the evolution of housing in Singapore.
From attap houses to HDB (housing development board), OKS have witnessed the change in public housing in Singapore. Let me quote a paragraph of the introduction that touched me:
'I live and breathe, sense and feel, in an estate like so many other Singaporeans. I have had the chance to observe and live through the birth and development of housing estates in Singapore to date. I witnessed the dawn of the HDB, as I was living in a village of attap houses before my family was resettled to a one-room flat in Jalan Bukit Merah (formerly the area called Anson). I personally experienced landmark events including the Great Bukit Ho Swee Fire and the springing up of the first estate in Queenstown. There are a myriad of facets about life in HDB estates that can be discovered, and that deserve to be preserved for posterity.'
Having lived through the period of housing estate evolution, OKS' talented hands tell stories that even a storyteller couldn't describe. A picture speaks a thousand words. In this compilation, there are more than 50 paintings of different housing estates in Singapore - past and present. Who knows what will houses be like after another 30 years?? But one thing for sure is that it will never be the same again.
This book narrates a part of history that is so close to our hearts. In fact, I am blogging in one of the many units in this HDB block. One of the many in Singapore. 30 years ago, our grandparents don't even have a proper roof that don't leak during rainy days. Now, we not only have a proper shelter over our head, we also have proper sewage system, water system etc.
Such development, is it not something that we have to keep and remind the future generations of how much the country have changed??
SpilLeD by b|uE at 11:24:00 pm
Sunday, October 12, 2008
During Financial Crisis...
All that money you’ve lost – Where did it go?By ERIC CARVIN, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK - Trillions in stock market value _ gone. Trillions in retirement savings _ gone. A huge chunk of the money you paid for your house, the money you're saving for college, the money your boss needs to make payroll _ gone, gone, gone.
Whether you're a stock broker or Joe Six-pack, if you have a 401(k), a mutual fund or a college savings plan, tumbling stock markets and sagging home prices mean you've lost a whole lot of the money that was right there on your account statements just a few months ago.
But if you no longer have that money, who does? The fat cats on Wall Street? Some oil baron in Saudi Arabia? The government of China?
Or is it just _ gone?
If you're looking to track down your missing money _ figure out who has it now, maybe ask to have it back _ you might be disappointed to learn that is was never really money in the first place.
Robert Shiller, an economist at Yale, puts it bluntly: The notion that you lose a pile of money whenever the stock market tanks is a "fallacy." He says the price of a stock has never been the same thing as money _ it's simply the "best guess" of what the stock is worth.
"It's in people's minds," Shiller explains. "We're just recording a measure of what people think the stock market is worth. What the people who are willing to trade today _ who are very, very few people _ are actually trading at. So we're just extrapolating that and thinking, well, maybe that's what everyone thinks it's worth."
Shiller uses the example of an appraiser who values a house at $350,000, a week after saying it was worth $400,000.
"In a sense, $50,000 just disappeared when he said that," he said. "But it's all in the mind."
Though something, of course, is disappearing as markets and real estate values tumble. Even if a share of stock you own isn't a wad of bills in your wallet, even if the value of your home isn't something you can redeem at will, surely you can lose potential money _ that is, the money that would be yours to spend if you sold your house or emptied out your mutual funds right now.
And if you're a few months away from retirement, or hoping to sell your house and buy a smaller one to help pay for your kid's college tuition, this "potential money" is something you're counting on to get by. For people who need cash and need it now, this is as real as money gets, whether or not it meets the technical definition of the word.
Still, you run into trouble when you think of that potential money as being the same thing as the cash in your purse or your checking account.
"That's a big mistake," says Dale Jorgenson, an economics professor at Harvard.
There's a key distinction here: While the money in your pocket is unlikely to just vanish into thin air, the money you could have had, if only you'd sold your house or drained your stock-heavy mutual funds a year ago, most certainly can.
"You can't enjoy the benefits of your 401(k) if it's disappeared," Jorgenson explains. "If you had it all in financial stocks and they've all gone down by 80 percent _ sorry! That is a permanent loss because those folks aren't coming back. We're gonna have a huge shrinkage in the financial sector."
There was a time when nobody had to wonder what happened to the money they used to have. Until paper money was developed in China around the ninth century, money was something solid that had actual value _ like a gold coin that was worth whatever that amount of gold was worth, according to Douglas Mudd, curator of the American Numismatic Association's Money Museum in Denver.
Back then, if the money you once had was suddenly gone, there was a simple reason _ you spent it, someone stole it, you dropped it in a field somewhere, or maybe a tornado or some other disaster struck wherever you last put it down.
But these days, a lot of things that have monetary value can't be held in your hand.
If you choose, you can pour most of your money into stocks and track their value in real time on a computer screen, confident that you'll get good money for them when you decide to sell. And you won't be alone _ staring at millions of computer screens are other investors who share your confidence that the value of their portfolios will hold up.
But that collective confidence, Jorgenson says, is gone. And when confidence is drained out of a financial system, a lot of investors will decide to sell at any price, and a big chunk of that money you thought your investments were worth simply goes away.
If you once thought your investment portfolio was as good as a suitcase full of twenties, you might suddenly suspect that it's not.
In the process, of course, you're losing wealth. But does that mean someone else must be gaining it? Does the world have some fixed amount of wealth that shifts between people, nations and institutions with the ebb and flow of the economy?
Jorgenson says no _ the amount of wealth in the world "simply decreases in a situation like this." And he cautions against assuming that your investment losses mean a gain for someone else _ like wealthy stock speculators who try to make money by betting that the market will drop.
"Those folks in general have been losing their shirts at a prodigious rate," he said. "They took a big risk and now they're suffering from the consequences."
"Of course, they had a great life, as long as it lasted."
SpilLeD by b|uE at 11:11:00 pm
Boredom...
credit: Getty Images
In a previous post, I mentioned that Singapore is a boring place.
Found this on The Straits Times, thought I should share this:
Bye bye, boredom
How does one cope with the mundane? By finding a different angle and applying curiosity By tan shzr ee, culture vulture
Recently, I met a friend, R, who grew up on the following mantra.
'Our parents never allowed us to be bored,' he says. 'It's like a taboo. Only boring people get bored. You have to find another angle.'
The son of two well-known anthropologists, R spent his boyhood in Turkey (picking up urchin language on the way), worked as a builder and cowboy in the United States, read history at Oxford, taught English in Poland, learnt five languages and has since, disgustingly, mastered 15 musical instruments - from the Chinese sheng (mouth organ) to jazz piano and the kazoo.
'You have to mine for meaning in every situation?' I ask.
'Yes,' he says. 'It's fundamentally existentialist. You have to find a new dimension that is interesting.'
Easy for him to say, growing up in such an enlightened environment that has also provided innumerable opportunities for travel and discovery.
But what does the suspension of boredom actually mean, in real terms?
I have been bored many times before. Heck, I have even written a column on why it is such a lovely thing to be a slacker, to be bored, to do nothing - and then rest afterwards.
But proscribing boredom - that is a new one. Forget being born into a family of globe-trotting hippies who promise ever-new adventures just when the current ones are peaking.
How does one cope with things more mundane: an interminable business meeting, a crappy film, waiting at the dentist's without your favourite Peter Carey book, a sullen wife, being trapped in a lift with farting accountants?
You find a different angle - so R says.
Right.
I have spent hours obsessing over different grains of wood on the backs of chairs (thus making me an expert on Ikea stains). I have tried counting the individual strands of hair on a lecturer's fantastic comb-over (lecture was on obscure Indian music).
I have walked out of the cinema (or is that a cop-out?) and lousy concerts (Michael Nyman). I keep a pocketbook of Indonesian phrases and Korean drumming patterns to memorise in my wallet (for lousy cocktail receptions).
I have sighed many sighs. And I have done that uber-surreal thing and attempted to philosophise, deconstruct and academise the bored state of my boredom.
Here it goes:
'So, I'm bored.'
'Is this what boredom means?'
'I am feeling boredom at this very moment, and living the all-human emotion/sensation of existentialist apathy.'
'But in conducting this very useless mobius-strip-type conversation in my head about boredom, I am actually making my state of boredom interesting for myself. Which has caused the transcending of my boredom into a different level of...'
'Curiosity,' R says.
'Curiosity is the antidote of boredom. Very important.'
There are many types of boredom and corresponding ways of beating them, he explains.
There is soporific boredom, which is sometimes a bad thing in my book (for example, the oppressive elevator slush of Richard Clayderman) and sometimes a good thing (for example, playing El Emigrante on transience.com).
This kind of boredom sucks you into an autopilot zone of constant, nonaccelerated movement - 'static speed' and inertia, if you like.
Then, there is boredom that actually co-exists paradoxically with its antidote: curiosity. This happens when your level of curiosity is mild - it is an itch to be scratched, usually combined with an act of denial or procrastination.
A good example can be found in compulsive Internet surfing (of which I am a proud black-belt holder). You are bored. Your attention span is marginal.
But that niggling sense of wanting instant gratification and just that little bit more (in small, accumulating and deceptively harmless doses) pushes your fingers to click-click-click ever-sprawling links and hyperlinks into oblivion.
This particular genus of curiosity-boredom, which functions in an yin-yang sense, is a different blend from the earlier example of boredomtranscendence (turning your boredom on its head and transforming it into something interesting).
I ask R: 'Is it like trying to find boring people interesting - when you look at them as if they were anthropological specimens?'
'Figure out why they have come to be boring?'
'Would that be horribly clinical and inhuman?'
But R is, surely, by this time, dangerously close to breaking his taboo of boredom resistance while valiantly entertaining my existentialist non-conversations about that very subject.
I suddenly have a horrible fear of being trapped in a lift with six farting accountants.
But then, I remind myself, I could always philosophise over the dynamics of squirmy looks and their corresponding un-uttered speech bubbles ('that was you, not me'/ 'rats, I have to pee'/ 'what is the square root of 2.789?'/ 'is she sleeping with XXX?')
Failing which, there is always my little pocket guide to elementary Indonesian and that oh-god-where-did-I- tuck-it-away scrap of Korean drumming patterns to memorise, immortalised on the back of a receipt in my not-so-boring wallet.
Taken from The Straits Times
SpilLeD by b|uE at 2:25:00 pm
i am blessed..
Credit: Getty Images
I have to say that I agree with you xw, that when you lose something, you'll gain something else.
I have indeed gain something. I believe these things will help shape a better me.
Friendship -
Friends. My emotional support. You guys provide me with perspectives that I can never see in this enclosed mind of mine. You guys open me up to the better world. The words that you gave, as realistic as it is, shone new light on me. Thank you.
Sec-school friend. This particular one. Your timely presence provided me with timely advice. You said you suddenly thought of me in your shower. Perhaps it's a sign that you are to shower me with courage to look forward and move on. Thank you.
Colleagues. The two new interns sitting beside me. Your level of maturity, analytical skills, openness and cheerfulness provided me with examples of how to be better. Your presence provided me an opportunity to know how to be better. Of course these are your personalities that I will not steal, but through you, I see how I can be better in my own way. I think you two are angels sent to guide me. Thank you.
Mentorship -
Professional from The PR film. Consistently, you point out my flaws and where should I change. Things that I would not have otherwise noticed. You spent time giving me advice. It is not within your job scope, but you did it anyway. Thank you.
Professor from The University. Consistently, pointing out my mistakes in my writing and kindly agreed to review my corrections. It must have been very time-consuming, but you did it anyway. You said it's your job to, but I believe another in your position might not have done the same. Thank you.
After losing something that seemed to be everything to me, I've gained some much more that would make everything of me so much better. I am blessed.
I want to, under your guidance, (all of you), be better. Be my very best.
SpilLeD by b|uE at 1:52:00 pm
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Welcome to my life...
Friends, soulmates, my loved ones,Lend me your ears.
I come to bury my hatchet, not to relive them
The evil that love brought unto me,
shall be verbally undone.
I am ready.
If you are willing to listen, i will say.
If I am unclear with details, you can ask.
However, I hereby seek your cooperation in the conditions below:
1. You will not to be judgemental
2. You will not unfriend me thereafter
3. You will give your unbias opinion
4. You will still be my friend
SpilLeD by b|uE at 10:54:00 pm
Monday, October 06, 2008
utopia
land of promisesabundance of opportunities
sea of hope
freeflow of ideals
this is what i am crafting
this is what i am portraying
this is what i am hoping
practicality as soil
cruelty as water
elitism as roots
fortune as the fruits
this is what i see. i hope these are illusions.
SpilLeD by b|uE at 11:47:00 pm
Lost...
Initially, i wanted to write about my lost love... but after reading somebody's blog, i feel that there is more important things to look for. my lost self. something that i have always been looking, searching, finding...for the past 3 years, i thought i have found it, in him... now, i am starting to see that it is a stupid thing to do. logically, of course, everyone will say 'how can you found yourself in another?' but seriously, if you put on your emo-cap. is it really not possible? i had that thought for 3 years.
however, that was the past 3 years. i have many more 3 years to go. in no hurry, i will find myself. not really a pro in treasure hunt. but this is not an excuse that i can give in finding myself.
the real question is how can i find myself? in spiritual growth? in confidence boost? in independent enhancement? all i need is a first step - creating a likable mask on my face...
みんなさま, あたしに"頑張って"と言いました！
