Sunday, July 31, 2005
It's now the month of August and this seems to be a period that we all start with a new phase. The gals have matriculated, ready to start their new lifes as an undergraduate. I ever wonder how it is like from a girl's perspective when it comes to things like matriculation. Matriculation is an ardous process. I can even say that it's like a ritual into adulthood! Getting your matriculation card, taking the oath, moving your things into your rooms and learning to readapt.... The nannies of both the junior college and the military are gone, putting you into true independence. You've endless camps to choose whether you can participate. You yourself now dictate how your life in university will be. Now I wonder how my female friends in 33/03 are coping. I wonder if they're even free for a message, let alone a gathering with the guys.
I've going blog-hopping again. For the first time I felt quite sympathetic for
Xiaxue. That was one of the most barbarous acts of blogoterrorism. I wonder what would fall under the scope of blogoterrorism other than hacking per se. What about flames in tags? Maybe. I guess we're all victims of readers who don't like our content. Well of course, that's the reality of life in the Fourth Estate (Now the Americans want to call the blogging world the Fifth Estate). On the other hand, can we be guareenteed fame and publicity like
Dwayne Tan, where thanks to his relative, he ended getting the title of one of Singapore's hunkiest bloggers. Thank goodness he doesn't flash his body in his blog. At list he's not as naive as Sarong Party Girl. However, he better be careful when he goes to Sentosa or the swimming pool cos' there're spies everywhere. Thankfully we do not have a TJCian/an ex-TJCian being part of the high-profile blogging club. (I hope I'm not in that category even though few would disagree that I was high-profile back in TJ.)
And I find my mind being attracted by the humble yet intriguing writings of
Aaron Wee, where vivid self-reflection about his life and his girlfriend would make our minds ticking about how challenging it is to maintain a relationship with your boy/girl friend. Very few bloggers comment about their relationships online, let alone offline. It'd be a pity if he shut down his blog. Please! A blog is like a media, a member of the Fourth Estate! Let me ask you. Just because some people attack your blog, do you just shut it down? Or just because there's poor readership? A blog is like a newspaper. Since one chooses to publish his thoughts online, he must ensures that his readers will have a sustained interest in his blog!
Now I find myself biting my words. I've the strong feeling that there's this big brother spying on me. Is it the MSD or ISD or whatever, I don't know. Anyway, I wonder if my fellow friends have such a similar experience as me. Remember my previous article on
Racism? I think I should break the silence about this article. A week after I published this article, a group of Malay Commandos actually went up to Headquarters Commando (where I work in)one night to entered the ops room, in the hope that they could speak to me. Unfortunately, they didn't get the chance to cos' I wasn't on duty that night! Well they sort of frightened the duty personnel with their visit. Luckily, the duty officer happened to be one of my immediate superiors and was able to settle it for me. According to my officer, they wanted to 'clarify' things with regards to my blog. I wonder why they didn't leave a tag or comment on my blog; just like what some angry Indians did last year when they accused me of describing them as bitchy? That was the time that I nearly wanted to shut this blog down. People were telling me to be cautious with my words. However, I told myself why we have blogs. Ask any member of the Fourth Estate. Running their media is an immense responsbility. They're accountable to the state and the Third Estate! Nevertheless, I still feel fearful. When a group of 15-year olds declared Hitler as their model leader, resulting in a string of condemnations from Singaporans of all walks of life, I held my tongue shut. My faithful readers knows that I've made myself clear about this
long, long ago and commenting about it will be opening a Pandora's box.
I wonder if the relative scarce number of tags and comments in my blog is more of a silent killer. I wonder if it's a grim, telling me one day something will happen one day. I wonder what
kind of people reading my blog. Who could it be? My mother? My civics tutor? My army buddy? The Chief Commando Officer? My MP?? Who knows?? It can be very freaky when some fellow just come to you and say hey dude. I read your blog. In the first place, I don't give out my blog address to my friends. Rather, I let them
find it. Perhaps, that can be dangerous.
Anyway, I think I've said enough about this. As much as I enjoyed reading those above-mentioned blogs, sometimes I wonder if these bloggers (other than Xiaxue) enjoy our presence. This can significantly affect the way a blogger writes because he is aware that he nows has a different viewership, and hence need to adjust to their needs. That's how bloggers like Xiaxue are able to sustain the high ratings for her blog!
As ususal, my blog has always been a platform for me to make some comments about some stuff. I can remember some people making a big ruckus in the ST forum over the standards of the SAF Medical Corps. Well... I shall reserve my comments for the near future. Now, allow me to take a break so that I can ponder upon how to phrase my words; or else hours after I write that; all the big fucks in the Army will be convening an emergency meeting thanks to me. Good night.
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zeligdhilee breaking the MUSIC.
23:30
Thursday, July 21, 2005
The Half-Blood Prince --- a review
Harry Potter has been one of my most favourite novels. What makes the series such an exhilarating and thrilling read is that Rowling has been able to blend in both the light-hearted and serious stuff very well in the story. The latest book is one of the best reads among the six books. To be frank, book five took up alot of my time and was very sadistic. In comparison to book six, this book was very intriguing in terms of its content. Despite the grim fact that the second war against the Dark forces has been intensifying, we do not see so much teenage rage in this book unlike the previous one.
I'm so glad to see so many questions being answered in the Half-Blood prince. We get to know about the origins of Lord Voldemort, and how he managed to deceive his teachers. The simple question about Horcruxes that was answered by Horace Slughorn was enough to tell us the great ambition about Tom Riddle. It made us realise how selfish and self-clinging humans can be, and how it can easily turn into a nasty and terrifying crusade against the muggle world. The fact that he was campaigning for the purebloods and its irony behind his family background shows how Tom Riddle trying to prise himself into an elite group, yet haunted by his past. Seven Horcruxes shows how desparate yet vulnerable the Dark Lord is. The fact that two Horcruxes have been destroyed, having been left astray; do leave us a clue that how Harry is going to defeat the Dark Lord will be very unorthodox. After all, Dumbledore said in book five that death isn't the worst defeat ever. I'm not going a single flash of green light to end this story.
This story also tells us a very important message that was well shown in Dumbledore. It was really a shock to realise that even someone with the greatest amount of wisdom and knowledge could suffer a terrible downfall thanks to one being deceived. Dumbledore's folly was one that cost his life. No doubt his calculations and analysis about Voldemort's Horcruxes were right, but it shows how the power of simple magic can easily fool the greatest wizard. Now that Harry is in an extremely vulnerable position especially after he comes of age, he symbolises the typical teenager in global society. Lost and searching for direction; being romance, academic, carreers and so on, Harry Potter is the teenager of today. A teenager surrounded by the global reality of terrorism, bewildered by the pressures of the demands of the outside world; that is how makes this book an intriguing read. What I like about Rowling is that she has been able to turn this story from that of a children's read to that of a teenager's read. The links that she makes to today's Muggle world to the imaginary wizarding world indeed is remarkable.
The identity of the Half Blood Prince was really surprising to me. It was the identity of the Half Blood Prince, and how it was revealed shows how similar this book is to the Chamber of Secrets. I never expected the Half Blood Prince to be a Slytherin, let alone a death eater. It shows how lethal a book was. If I was to compare this to Lord of the Rings, it was as though Voldemort compared to Sauron and Snape compared to Saruman. A Tolkien fan would know how Saruman was once a great wizard, and then played around with the Dark Forces while trying to paint up a feint in front of Gandalf about Mordor's rise before he finally reveals himself in the Fellowship of the Ring. It was Occlumency that made Snape able to weather fifteen years of dormant peace into one gruesome murder. I wonder what made Snape possess a level of hatred comparable to that of Voldemort. I hope Rowling will reveal more about Snape in the final book. At least we have the question about Snape's loyalty answered.
I really enjoyed reading the Half-Blood Prince. It's really short and sharp, and it's a good warm-up for the final book. With Trelawney's prohecy and Harry's vulnerability in mind, the story in the next book will be the climax of the Harry Potter series. As usual, we've to wait again, and this time it'll be the movie based on the Goblet of Fire coming this November. Ciao!
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zeligdhilee breaking the MUSIC.
20:00
Saturday, July 16, 2005
I just finished reading the latest Harry Potter book. Yep. I had it delivered to my home via Singpost.
And it's a book without the typical ending you'd expect in the past five books.
And this book will reduce many children to tears......
Love, drama and war at a new level never seen before...
I shall not say more or I'd leaking too many spoilers....
I'm going out now... back to reality....
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zeligdhilee breaking the MUSIC.
17:22
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Some random thoughts
I'm back! Well sorry for the rather long hiatus cos' I just upgraded my computer. Yep. Now everything just seem faster for me at this moment. How cool Windows XP is. But it shows how lagging I am in terms of computer knowledge... As usual, there's so many things to talk about, yet so little time......
You know what? I just realised that I'm actually a University Scholar. NUS sent the offer letter to my old address, hence the reason why I only know about this recently when my mother went back to clear the old letters. My very first thought was not of the typical "hallelujah", but instead, it was....
KNN!!!I called back NUS USP immediately cos' I was one month overdue of replying to them. Thankfully, I still can be admitted into the USP since I only matriculate in the year 2007...
Heng, ah.Now I have the tough decison of how I want my university life to be. Should I stay in a hall like anyone else (can my female friends pls enlighten me), or stay in the rather remote PGP residences, where 3 blocks have been specially reserved for USP people. Even so, I wonder whether I can be the versatile Zelig. Tough thinking man.....
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Squeezed in the train, oblivious to the intimacies and conspiracies being plotted in the carriages, your dearest Zelig was shocked to see people walking round with red berets. You know, your dearest commando clerk thought that it was someone from his own brethen, probably from some XXX or YYY group. Out of the train, he realise that these red berets were actually Police Special Forces. They look so damn intimidating, but I feel safe on the other hand. Life still has to go on as well...
I really feel very sad for these Londoners. One day they were celebrating, one day they were mourning. It just tells us how complacent and imperfect we are. London just seem so well secured, as we all assume that the attacks in Madrid would be the one and only one. I think we just have to hope that such thing doesn't happen in Singapore. Singapore is even more fragile than any other state. It's easier for us to slide into racial and economic turmoil should such a disaster happens. Comparing to New York, London and Madrid. They have a strong hinterland ready to support them but what about us? Can we recover like them?
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Anyway, the NKF scandal has just caught my eye. Thousands of youths like me have slogged very valiantly for their cause, being flag-days or donation cards or volunteerism. We just couldn't care how the money would be used for, cos' we were more concerned about the CIP points, and how it held our CCA records hostage. I wonder if my fellow youths are aware about how our money is being used. I hope that this incident would make the apathetic youth wake up. I hope they know how cruel, corrupt and scheming the corporate world is. This scandal is really a simple example of the harsh realities of the working world. When I join the working class, I wonder how clean my company would be. Not just office politics, but the dirty money flowing around. I don't wish to work in fear of getting into trouble with the law. I wish to work in optimism, where I can dream of allowing me and my company to soar.
For the sake of the underpriviledged kidney patients, I'll continue to donate to the NKF. To be frank, I feel that the NKF should learn a little virtue called honesty. They need to make their patrons feel that their annual reports are authentic. (My mother receives a copy yearly. She didn't ask for it in the first place.) The auditors must also learn this virtue as well. In addition, I feel that NKF should stop behaving like a corporate company. It should stop behaving like a monopoly. As they start to create funds such as the Children's Medical Fund and more recently, the Cancer Fund, the NKF gives me the impression that they want to be the charities of charities. They want to take away funds from the specialist organisations (like the Children's Society and the Cancer Society). If you ask me, they're defiling the face of charity in Singapore. While the NKF has millions in their reserves, several other charities can barely afford to function as a simple small organizations, hence putting their beneficiaries at risk.
That reminds me of the project I did back in JC entitled 'Media Hope'. My project was aimed at ending the then media rivalry between MediaCorp and SPH in the name of charity. My group members were irked by the fact that thanks to MediaCorp's endorsement of NKF, several charities were marginallised. Even the President is brought down on his knees when you compare the Star Charity with NKF's Charity Shows in terms of viewership and takings. Now, the state of charity in Singapore is taking on a new phase. It's simply the 大鱼吃小鱼 mentality. It is something where it has unfortunately invaded our charities in this country. The NKF needs to be less hawkish. It needs to give other charities a chance to develop and maintain their foothold in their specialist tasks. On the other hand, it is the responsibility of the Fourth Estate to help these marginallised charities. Give them as much airtime just as they've given so much to NKF, Renci and the Community Chest. The NKF should just focus on dealing with kidney patients. If they want to recover from this crisis, they must prove to the public that they're NOT behaving like a hawkish company. It must return to its basic roots of being a charity organization. There is no such thing as competition in the charity.
I think TT Dorai's ordeal is far from over. I'm hoping that CPIB is investigating him even when the case is over. May justice be upon him, and if it's so, I hope that the NKF does not perish with him.
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zeligdhilee breaking the MUSIC.
21:00
