iphoting's Sink

On our way to Church this morning, the skies smiled brightly as we looked up. What coincidence that I don’t have a proper camera along with me then. Still, handphone cameras have some use at critical moments. Rest assured, the real view is magnitudes more majestic that what 300k pixles can capture.

It truly is beautiful. No photoshop nor any tweaking.

The Wee-Wee Saga has been amusing to say the least. In fact, it’s a loud and clear wake up call (for a U-Turn in policy) to those holding multi-million dollar jobs involved in policy making. Now, before I say anything more, please get yourself acquainted with the Wee-Wee saga details by referring to the comprehensive write-up linked above.

After that, here’s a nice documentary by Frontline, A Class Divided.

Classification is only useful to a small extent. Being obsessed with one’s labelling and belittling others with an “uncaring elite face” speaks volumes over what these labels tend to reinforce. To me, this is certainly not the way for national unity. “Quitters”, or so they call them, probably have grasped it in some way. Such character and mentality is usually built from the environment the said subject is in. After all, I quote, “Mr Wee Siew Kim said he stood by his daughter’s ‘basic point’, but added: ‘As a parent, I may not have inculcated the appropriate level of sensitivity, but she has learnt a lesson.” Emphasis mine.

What’s THE basic point? We are a bunch of uncaring elites? You can read the post collection again to sieve for yourselves.

And no, that’s not my main point I want to drive at. It’s the quarter-hearted apology which drives me mad. It’s one thing to apologise. It’s another to NOT apologise. To do so in between is the worst.

Then, you might become confused and ask, how can an apology not be an apology? Well, this way. I can’t see how much more insincere anyone can get; it’s worst than patronage. Check out the wordings too.

That’s why I say, walk-overs are disasters waiting to happen.

Mr Wang has something to say too.

There’s another point I want to highlight. That is to do with ‘labels’, and is very pronounced within the school if you’ve noticed. But well, maybe next time.

OCS. A place of excellence, or so the PR attempts to portray. It’s just another process which might be useful in dealing with people from all walks of life.

On our way to dinner, we inevitably have to use the self declared world class public transport system. It is so world class that we have to wait over 20 minutes for a bus to appear. To our amazement, the double-decker bus was leaking, thanks to the heavy downpour an hour or so ago. Essentially, all seats were wet to some extent. Seriously, it’s not like the bus companies are making a major loss in any way. In fact, the last I’d heard, they are earning a handsome profit! By the way, Taxis aren’t considered public transport by my wallet; private-hired transport more likely.

Improving this situation is quite simple. Instead of having LTA assign all bus routes, create a government (world class right?) owned/run trunk route bus services. Make sure all the most unpopular and non-economical routes are covered. Then, allow market forces to dictate other routes. Free market! Allow small private bus companies to run small time and specialised routes. Allow implementation of mini-bus services found in Hong Kong here so that more places and be flexibly covered. Aim to allow anyone to travel from anywhere to any destination within the country with not more than 2 bus rides, not exceeding 1.5 hours.

Seriously, having to take 2 buses and train ride to get anywhere isn’t exactly what I call world-class, and not to mention the long 15 minute per journey leg wait times. Don’t get me started on the fares, it’s certainly not cheap when added up and when time is factored in.

Trivial rants. It’ll be cool if the transport ministar takes the public transport himself and makes sure the PTC members do so too. Another nice thing they can do is to have a hotline where members of public can call in to report safety,comfort, and capacity violations.

Bah... what a lousy post.

Now that everything is slowly grinding to a halt, other things are now starting to move. The school term and year has once again moved to a close; last minute administrative and homework related work is being hurried on. School these days is really boring. Card game can only entertain up to certain hours. Anything more would require a lot more attention span and concentration which I’ve yet to muster.

I’m getting bored. I need to dabble in stuff which I’d once avoided due to school work commitments. Music? Programming? Thinking? Sleeping? Shopping?

Went to the Converse warehouse sale and bought 2 pairs of shoes, white and black. Spotted a few more funky and nice ones but they went out of stock for sizes I want. Being lazy, as I’m always, I won’t go hunting for them in the boutiques.

The RSF has once again released the annual Press Freedom Index and I’m thoroughly disappointed. After so much work by the government, Singapore Press has only been ranked 146th. It’s barely 150th, not to mention North Korea’s 168th ranking. Looks like they need to put in more effort in order for the Press here to hit 150th position. Year 2010 might be a good year.

I’ll talk about the self-proclaimed world class public transport next.

What a great day this day stands for. Over the past week, we’ve been playing the ‘spot-the-sun’ game early morning right before assembly.

Here’s something that quite fascinates me. The simple animation together with the sounds produced, encompasses much Physics and Sound Theory.

Today’s sermon was on Finding Your Purpose; In the World, not Church. It’s quite amusing.

A 3 hour long Chemistry lecture is certainly some new heights we’ve gained in timetabling and work planning. Not to mention, the duration even exceeds most Universities’. At least, I’m glad that the notes are printed double-sided, one page a side, but the amusing thing was that there were no chemical models large enough to be seen throughout the whole LT. I suggest selling excessive brooms and dustpans to purchase a set of models for better visualisation during lectures.

Singlish is an acceptable language, you know?

Surely, God’s grace is truly sufficient and with joy I say this, I’ve hit my target of 34 points this final years no matter how unlikely it seemed (considering that I got 28 or something for MYE). To top it all off, my Chemistry was the 3rd highest scoring subject (out of 6) for me - 70%. grin The most disappointing subject unfortunately is Business and Management; it’s time for me to fix that subject properly. On the other hand, I’m glad that my English A1 is safe from concentration camp. That aside, I must get a 7 again for Chinese B for the IBDP examination this November; and 37 points for the next examination.

Here’s Chris Tomlin’s Indescribable.

“God and the Church is becoming increasingly irrelevant in today’s society”. Wow wow, what a statement to make. Perfectly affirms what my pastor has been talking about for the past many many years - a Church should be without walls, bringing the anointing of God out into the market place. Only then would the statement be irrelevant.

How amusing. The year book, or the school magazine as it’s so fondly called, has a new style of photography that, in my tasteless self, fail to appreciate. Pictures available are on both sides of the scale - too bright or too dark. The former is intentional I guess (but I don’t like it) and the latter is unintentional (I hope). Just look at the group photos taken in front of the stage in the auditorium. I’m sure it can be done better. Maybe out-of-focus pictures is the trendy thing these days? The overall impression I get from the year book is that all these achievements are produced under pressure and pain. There’s no true joy and appreciation through all these bronze, film and pixels.