the day i went to orchard road to take a few photos..

Today I took the digicam around and walked around Orchard Road taking photos.

I took mostly about buildings, thought it would be great if I could just walk down Orchard Road, take photos of the shopping malls post them here, and write about it. Well, here I am, writing, having looked at the photos, and realised that there's really no point writing if there isn't any real subject of human interest. But for the sake of mnstr, I shall try...

The above, my friend, I'm sure we can all recognise the glass cone, is Wheelock Place, with one of my favourite bookshops (because it gives great discounts and all) - Borders!

Anyway, right on top is the panoramic view of Ngee Ann City. We walk past it everyday that we don't usually realise that its really... space-taking.

Anyway, here's the thing about taking photos of all these buildings. The Trees. They are everywhere, and they keep blocking the view. Yet they are still absolutely necessary. Did I ever mention that the urban planners in Singapore did a darn good job with the trees?

28th january 2008

Today I did something kinda special. I help brought a cat to SPCA. should have taken a photo of it, but then, it was nothing really special... but then, the cat had its front paw injured and couldn't move for like 3 days. and the cat might have died there so I thought that SPCA should come in.. and take care of the cat.

what will happen to the cat i don't know, but i hope it'll be better than staying at the staircase landing with no food or water...

it was a stray, with orange and black smears as its fur colour. oh well.

today was the start of the chiong for pangea day thingy. shaun and i would go to a cafe and sit there the whole day until something is done...

and today, i told shaun of the bigger picture that i had, about why i do the things i do... and it was great fun. and shaun came up with some ideas too. the funny thing was, we were talking about the singapore's future, and the MND was just opposite us, so it was kinda... ironic.

and an IDEA CAFE!!! now that would be great! a place where people could talk freely about their ideas, get together and discuss them, and maybe even come up with something...

forgot to add that the Ideas Cafe will be different, because when people are discussing, they will decide whether they want people to just come in and contribute to a discussion... and then hopefully, this will allow different people to meet each other and come up with immense synergy they can take to... whatever their dreams take them...???

then we can set up a community, where people can continue their discussions online and further develop their ideas into full-blown projects of potential social change - all these for changing the social landscape of singapore into something really more dynamic than what i have here.

It does not need a new cafe, any cafe today can implement these things if they want to...

27th january 2008

not much happened today. all i did was to help my mum clean up the house a bit. yeah! got a digicam! when i'm really free, i'm gonna carry it around me like wherever i go, so i'll be able to take photos of whats cool, nice and special, put it on my blog, let mnstr trample on my views and... wow! its going to be so cool!

on a more private side, it'll be rather exciting, but will be full of fear and trepidation if it turns out pangea day and syinc are actually converging with the church's plans of a social and spiritual transformation by 2015 - singapore 50th year of independence.

IF.

25th january 2008

I was at the out-camp run at bishan park yesterday and this thought suddenly just came to me. That hey, even the green spaces in Singapore are artificial... I mean... can they be improved?

That line of thought took me to another project i might want to do.. that is, to chronicle the spaces of Singapore and the cool buildings, and then using this as a resource, look at how Singapore might be able to develop to become a real Bright Green City.

23rd jan 2008... brainwave

stupidly waited at city hall for about an hour waiting for the shuttle bus to go Great World City. In the end, took an SBS bus instead. couldn't stand the wait. Went to Great World City, bough Gattaca and Saving Private Ryan, in addition to the CDs that I bought. That CD Shop is a decent place...

had some brainwave.
short film or documentary about whether citizenship is worth NS

is it possible to have adaptive software programmes interacting with one another in the general hardware environment for better overall fitness/performance.

will take both issues to ed-leading-edge...

looks like the whole experience ain't that waste of time after all..

20th january 2008 and the end of the day...

yeah! finished the last training. one more duty, another medical, a few more fridays, and its goodbye to the days in green. well, since i haven't really finished my army, i'm not going to... do the full reflection yet. i won't do it, until that day has come and gone. meanwhile, finally got the second blog up, and all my more serious stuff will be there. its ed-leading-edge.blogspot.com ... haha, and the first post is already there. anyway, the training left me with some horrifying looking acne on my chest and back. hope camomile lotion will work its wonders... finally... can't wait for everything to be over, at long last. ORD loh!

need work. need time. need space. and most importantly, need God.

13th Jan... 2008! now i remember what i wanted to say

Nothing much happened over the weekend. Had a lunch, had another long conversation, and the rest of the time was burnt celebrating family events. I was thinking about... a family is a family because it is centred on love. Not that kind of mushy lovey-dovey love, but, love and affection and concern. Without it, a family is just a collection of individuals.

Anyway, got my article, and to be honest, my english isn't that powderful. It ain't great. i looked at the article that got published, and it was. massively. edited. I need to read. a lot more. still.

and i watched that TED presentation by the precocious 19year old who researching at the leading edge of cancer research. woah. totally mindblowing. what about my own chemistry research? thats something I should look at. Start reading about the literature about the exciting areas of chem research, and try to connect the dots into the future of the direction of chem research... man, i feel so old... watching that 19 year old presenting...

innovate. ideas. inspire. integrate....

talked to shaun about the bigger ideas. hopefully can work on something......

anyway, remembered something that bothers me a lot, something that i had actually blogged about before. Its the fact that parents are tech illiterate, and their children, meaning us, are their only guides in this world, that without us, they will be lost. It would be wrong to think of them as burdens, but it feels like it. That what we do is constrained by their need s and wants. which can be very frustrating especially when they need you when you are in the midst of something personally important. which doesn't rock.

no matter the TED ideas, or any other mindblowing idea, ultimately, you still have to go home, chill with parents and all.

6th january 2008 the grind of boredom

I have to bring my frisbee, definitely, or else boredom will just overtake me and cause me to... backslide? I guess thats the best fit that matches my situation now. Got so bored, that I started to become depressed a little. Add to the fact that we are like old shirts being shitted on before being thrown away - that doesn't help at all. In addition, the fact that commanders have their balls being squeezed - doesn't do any good. And its sad, a testament to the fact that in Singapore, the people don't matter at all.

Which brings me to my pet peeve, about the fact that there is disgruntlement, about disillusionment, of life in Singapore, that small wonder people want to emigrate out of here all the time. That, despite the pretty high standard of living, despite the material comfort that we enjoy - Singapore is the living proof that material standards of living don't matter at all. There is more to life than having more of something. Its about living fulfilling lives and Singapore is a joke at it.

So far, no word from School of Thought regarding TED. But I hope I'll still get writing assignments. I need the money! Aargh! Hope to be able to work on OLPC someday.

A distant dream: to present at TED? haha.

As for church and stuff... well, I never really knew how deep the rabbit hole went, and now that it's going so deep, I'm a little scared, to say the least. The whole church worldwide is kinda messed up, and... well... that really sucks. I don't know. Sometimes... its just seems tiring to have to commit so much of your life. Obviously you don't become a one-dimensional church person, but it's just taking up so much of your own time... oh well. Thats too darn bad, ain't it?