Wanderings,Musings and Happenings from Ian on Singapore
{ Monthly Archives }
Youtube and video sharing sites have been wonderful for the Singapore film community. Now, we are starting to see people create their own videos and having the ability to share it with a wide audience. Not all of them is good but hey, can’t argue with the fact that seeing such a varied bunch of good creative videos done by Singaporeans would have been almost impossible just a few years ago.
I have created a page to try to keep track of the ones I find interesting here.
My camp is damn ‘ulu pandan’ so getting home today was a chore.
Anyway, while some of us were waiting at the bus stop, someone from the ICT pulled up in his car and asked if anyone wanted a ride to Ang Mo Kio. The amazing thing is that the people for this ICT were a motley bunch of people from different units so I was really surprised and couldn’t stop myself from getting a warm fuzzy feeling that there are still Singaporeans who are generous to other Singaporeans who weren’t friends.
I know there were many other cars that didn’t stop to offer a ride but that doesn’t take away the gloss of what happened
And to me, this incident reflects one of the positives of NS. Despite all its flaws, it provides Singaporean males a shared experience that bonds us in ways that I believe nothing else can. And I believe it was because of this bond that caused this guy to offer his help to get some other people out of ‘ulu pandan’. Now if only I stayed near AMK.
I don’t know but i don’t believe in coincidences.
I just had my ICT today. One day thing for range to familiarise myself with the SAR21. Now here is the thing. I have done this familiarity shoot 2 times prior to today. Yup. Today was the third time I was going for a familiarity shoot even though I had actually gone for more advanced live firing.
Why?
Because the Army lost my record for all my previous shoots. Yup. They lost the hard copy of the records and also somehow failed to enter the data into the computer system.
It is ok if you ask me back to train me for something I don’t know. It is also ok if you’re trying to make sure I don’t lose my shooting abilities and want to challenge me. But honestly, it is not ok to ask me to go back to camp so I can take part in a range with other first-timers just because you failed to manage the relevant data properly.
Yup. You wasted my time.
Yup. You wasted taxpayers money because you have to compensate my company. Actually, maybe not cos my company feels it is not worth the effort to claim though I think maybe its because they are unsure of the procedure (seeing that the HR people are all from India) so they don’t know its actually not a hassle to ‘penalise’ my government.
I can’t help but wonder if its all this little wastage that is accumulating into one big need to increase our defense budget.
I come home and I see Intelligent Singaporean has linked to posts about NS.
Well… well…well… coincidence? or providence?
Anyway, my take is this. Singaporean males start at 10m behind the starting line. Yup. We all get to take part in the race so no discrimination there. But we are definitely handicapped. Not because of the organisers. But because of our ‘coaches’ who sign us up and tell us to start from behind.
I support the concept of National Service. But please lah. There has to be a better way to do it. Can don’t waste my time? Sigh. I mean, training is training and I’ll gladly do it but for the right reasons and not because some clerk screwed up.
Sorry for the rant.
Finally debugged what was wrong with my usage of POI from Apache Jakarta. Sometimes I forget what a pain pointers can be when you’re not careful.
Aaron has two posts:
From Dictionary.com:
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| gay | |
| adjective | |
| 1. | bright and pleasant; promoting a feeling of cheer; “a cheery hello”; “a gay sunny room”; “a sunny smile” |
| 2. | full of or showing high-spirited merriment; “when hearts were young and gay”; “a poet could not but be gay, in such a jocund company”- Wordsworth; “the jolly crowd at the reunion”; “jolly old Saint Nick”; “a jovial old gentleman”; “have a merry Christmas”; “peals of merry laughter”; “a mirthful laugh” |
| 3. | given to social pleasures often including dissipation; “led a gay Bohemian life”; “a gay old rogue with an eye for the ladies” |
| 4. | brightly colored and showy; “girls decked out in brave new dresses”; “brave banners flying”; “‘braw’ is a Scottish word”; “a dress a bit too gay for her years”; “birds with gay plumage” |
| 5. | offering fun and gaiety; “a festive (or festal) occasion”; “gay and exciting night life”; “a merry evening” |
| 6. | homosexual or arousing homosexual desires |
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I find it interesting that while now we mostly use the word gay to refer to homosexual males, the dictionary indicates that its other meanings (in this case 4 out of 6) can be used to convey happiness when describing a person or an event.
I’m not sure how the word gay became a euphemism for homosexuality. But I think it is really apt considering how I have read that people who came out of the closet seem to be happier and leading more fulfilled lives as opposed to conforming to societal pressures and at times trying to be heterosexual.
I was wondering if the euphemism of ‘heterosexual’ is ’sad’? Well, I think it would be if it is used to described heterosexuals who aren’t able to accept gays as people who deserve the same rights as all of us and ‘heterosexuals’ who are actually gays but due to societal pressures have to deny who they are.
Let people choose how they want to live their lives as long as it does not infringe on the (unalienable) rights of others. The question is not so much about why be gay or why not be gay. The question is why deny others the chance to be happy. And why get your knickers in such a tangle like WBG is doing when other people are advocating not to brand homosexuals as abnormal and to treat them equally. I mean, why make yourself so unhappy?
Life is short. Why Not Be Happy?
