Pseudo-intellectual Musings. This blog contains the author's musings on society, culture and tech, along with the odd foodspot review, just to lower the tone and keep her strength up.
Pretensions would like to wish all readers a Happy Halloween! We had a small pot-luck lunch celebration at work today. It also served as a nice office-warming as P moved to a new office space within the main office about 3 weeks ago. Everyone who participated took the trouble to make or buy specially ghoulish dishes.
I've presented the best of these below.
Skeleton Salad
Bloody Eyeball Meatballs (P made this!)
Sotong Masak Hitam (Squid in Black Ink)
Mummified Finger Sandwiches
Happy feasting all you ghouls, witches and spectres!
Pretensions would like to apologise for the long silence on her blog - she has been extremely busy with preparations for & then being on a business trip to Hong Kong and Taiwan over the last 1 1/2 weeks. She's hoping things will be a little quieter on the work front from now on as she has plenty to blog about:
Watch out for posts on:
Movie reviews - Burn After Reading, Mamma Mia and X-Files
Trek around Victoria Peak in Hong Kong
Street Food in Taiwan
Pictorial tour of Yangming mountain National Park
Funny English signs (Hong Kong and Taiwan)
Diamond discovery in Lesotho
P has loads of photos to process (she takes photos in RAW, which means they need development).
Pretensions also intends to visit the Swarovski Create Your own Jewellery event this weekend and has tickets for Avenue Q next week, so stay tuned folks!
Pretensions was greatly saddened to hear last Tuesday of the death of Mr JB Jeyaratnam, one of Singapore's most well-known opposition MPs and former secretary of the Workers Party. JBJ, as he was popularly known, had suffered from heart problems and died of heart failure at the age of 82.
JBJ was best-remembered as a true man of the people and one that stuck to his principles. He was the first opposition MP to be elected to Singapore's parliament in 1981, breaking the monopoly of the ruling People's Action Party. There he acted as an advocate for the working-class, engaging in numerous fiery debates with then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. His vocal opposition to the PAP resulted in a spate of crippling (and very expensive) defamation suits from senior PAP members.
This culminated in him being declared a bankrupt in 2001 and barred from practicing law (he was a trained lawyer). As a bankrupt, he was also prevented from taking part in future General Elections. This year, JBJ was finally discharged as a bankrupt and had just formed a new political party, the Reform Party, in July.
Pretensions has always admired JBJ's courage in the face of adversity. He was the first politician to stand in open opposition to the ruling party. Even when he was declared a bankrupt, he continued to peddle his book (outlining his platform) at train stations. JBJ's arguments also made sense, unlike some opposition politicians, who came across as all sound and fury and no content.
The funeral was held on Saturday 4th October at Saint Andrews Cathedral. Sadly P had a prearranged meeting on that day, but she understands that more than 1000 people attended. Singapore News Alternativehas lots of links to excellent coverage of the funeral, including videos of the service from the online citizen(which had mysteriously gone down when P tried to access it).
Amnesty International on Saturday described him as "an unflinching campaigner for the rule of law - and for the whole spectrum of human rights." and P believes that is how he would like to be remembered.
Pretensions is rather embarassed to note that she has not visited the National Museum of Singapore since its renovation was completed in December 2006. She was actually there for a meeting today, but was half an hour early and decided to trot through the latest exhibition - Weapons of Mass Desire or Design and Consumption in the Aftermath of WWII.
The exhibition's rather uhm, unique, name comes from a very original premise. How did the technologies developed for warfare during WWII influence daily life in the '60s? What consumer products came about as a result of modern warfare? Many of the most influential ones, as it turns out.
P decided to photoblog the exhibition using her mobile phone cam, so forgive the slightly grainy photos (or imagine they're there to add a genuine '60s feel).
Not part of the exhibition, but there was an amazing installation of 6-7 scarlet (mechanically) swinging chandeliers near the Canyon. The pattern of swing varies every 15 minutes.
At the Rotunda, P spotted this charming European lady with her young son, who was having great fun playing with the Imprint installation (think pin-art)
View of the Museum interior architecture from the Rotunda - the building is quite spectacular.
Side view of a Vespa. Vespas were created by the same Italian factory that turned out propellors and engines for wartime aircraft.
The Vespa logo - after WWII, the Italians needed affordable transport and the Vespa fit the bill.
The father of the Rolleiflex camera, Heinz Waaske, was originally a precision mechanic. He was taken prisoner during WWII and it was then he was first introduced to camera technology.
Charles and Ray Eames were the first to develop molded plywood chairs for the mass market (they had a splint business in WWII). They also pioneered the use of fiberglass (previously used for radar domes) and other materials for home furnishings.
P can't remember how this fit into the exhibition.
George Nelson used the plastic and steel intended to prevent corrosion in battleships to create his iconic bubble lamps.
The Pfaff sewing machine company was one of the first to introduce portable consumer sewing machines in Germany, largely out of necessity after WWII.
Camouflage has gone from soldier's necessity to fashion material, with Jean Paul Gaultier bringing it back for his 2008 collection.
Does anyone remember pre-Philips Siera? Some attribute the post-war development of the transistor to the interest in military communications by radio during the war.
Christian Dior's designs dominated post-war fashion with his sculpted hourglass silhouette for women. P was actually wearing a Dior-shaped summer dress today - can you see her reflection?
Those who frequent the Straits Times online forum STOMP, will know that it has been running an online pollto find Singapore's favourite hawkers since the end of August. The results will be announced in the Straits Times on Sunday, but since the voting has been closed since September 30th, Pretensions has jumped the gun to announce the winners here.
For the uninitiated, Singapore has had a longtime tradition of street hawkers who began peddling their wares from pushcarts and even bicycles in the '50s and '60s. The food was always cheap and delicious, but not always hygienic, due to the itinerant nature of the hawkers (no licences then) and depending on their source of ingredients. In the late 70s and 80s, the Singapore government stepped in, requiring licences for continued operation and moving the hawkers to permanent hawkers centres (non-air conditioned) and food courts (air-conditioned). This enabled regular inspections for food cleanliness to be enforced and has overall, been a good thing; though some may complain about the relative blandness and homogeneity of today's hawkers.
The categories selected by the ST provide a good cross-sampling of Singapore's hawker cuisine, and in a testament to our food culture, there were several hundred votes cast! Please note that the photos shown below are merely generic representations of the kind of food and are not actual dishes from the winning hawker stalls. Nearly all the photos are courtesy of the Visual Guide to Singapore Food. The rest are credited in their descriptions.
Bak Kut Teh - Founder Rou Gu Cha Cafeteria, 347 Balestier Road
Char Kway Teow - Hill Street Fried Kway Teow - Block 16 Bedok South Road 01-187, Bedok South Road Market & Food Centre
Nasi Lemak - Selera Rasa Adam Road No. 1 - 2 Adam Road, Stall 2 Adam Road Food Centre
Oyster Omelette - Katong Oyster Omelette, Geylang Lorong 9, Xin Lai Lai
Prawn Mee - Beach Road Prawn Noodle House, 370 East Coast Road
Roti Prata - Thasevi Food Famous Jalan Kayu Prata Restaurant, 235-239 Jalan Kayu
Wonton Mee - Ji Ji Wanton Noodle Specialist, Block 531A Upper Cross Street, 02-49 Hong Lim Food Complex
Yong Tau Foo - Shun Li - Block 115 Bukit Merah View, 01-397 Bukit Merah View Market & Food Centre
P thinks they've left a couple categories out tho'. What about Rojak, the quintessential asian fruit salad? P's vote for that goes to Hoover Rojak at Whampoa Drive for their wicked chilli & Hae Koh (prawn paste) sauce and the use of jellyfish in the rojak. Right near Hoover is P's favourite Popiah stall in a coffee shop. Can't remember the name offhand, but it as 3 numbers in it... They've also left out satay, sigh.
Still, the full report (probably with hawker interviews) will be in this Sunday's Straits Times so watch for it!
Season 4 of Lostfinished screening in Singapore in August. Pretensions was out during the finale and finally got round to viewing the 2-parter a couple of weeks ago. She's decided that the show's title aptly describes the state of the average viewer as afterwards she felt a little like Desmond after his time-travel jaunts aka stunned and bleeding out her nose.
Where are the scriptwriters going with this?
P has been a faithful fan of Lost since the stellar first episode, but she's beginning to wonder if the show actually has a trajectory or has been conceived after smoking a stash of hash. So far, we have a movable/disappearing island, reappearing dead people, an incorporeal telekinetic Jacob, spooky bad luck numbers, summonable smoke monsters and weirdo experiments by the Dharma Intiative. We're assuming that JJ Abrams and Damon Lindeloff were actually trying to create something logical with all this but what if they're standing back and going "Cool man, let's make Claire appear to a sane character after we've seen her get killed off; that'll really fox the viewers and it might raise our ratings!". Ok, that's a little cynical and P wouldn't continue watching if she didn't like the show, but sometimes it's like watching very good actors improvise when given a dead cat and a polo mint.
Entertainment Weekly ran an article in 2006 listing the top 5 Lost theories. They are listed below with amendments in light of what we now know 2 seasons later.
1. Purgatory.
Everyone in Oceanic Flight 815 died in the crash. The island is Purgatory. This one doesn't hold up in Season 4, since we know the Oceanic 6 returned to the world; also the freighter was able to reach the island by some very mundane steering.
2.Hallucination
Only one of the characters is real and everything else (rest of the characters, animals, island etc) only exist in his or her mind. This one is still possible but doesn't really solve anything - it's equivalent to the "it's all a dream" scripwriter copout.
3. Mutant Hothouse
The Dharma Intiative created a group of telepathic superhumans (Jacob?) who are messing with our heroes' minds. Also possible
4. Apocalypse
Humanity has been wiped out - the island is an attempt to preserve the remainder of humanity. This one doesn't hold water in the light of season 4.
5. Lab Rats
The castways are lab rats brought to the island for experiments by mad scientists (Ben and the Others or pple we haven't met yet).
Plenty of other theories abound on the net. After season 4, if P had to pick a theory, she would go with the Time Loop theory. This one is brilliantly put forward by Jason Hunter at his page here.
6. Time Loop Theory
It's quite a long read, but essentially, the idea is that the Dharma Intiative's ancestors were on the Black Rock freighter which was shipwrecked on the island due to its unique magnetic properties. These people were the first to discover the island's pecularities, but they kept it to themselves and formed the Dharma as a secret society to discover more about the island. In the 1960s, the Dharma had a breakthrough and managed to create a functional time machine that could send individuals and the whole island back in time to when the machine was first created. Diseased and wounded individuals are cured when sent back in time to before they were wounded. The smoke monster is the physical manifestation of the timeline correcting itself. People alive in alternate timelines can actually appear to people who have seen them die in "their" timeline. See, the scriptwriters were giving us all a clue when Desmond starting have his flashbacks on the freighter!
The island was originally kept in a time-loop bubble set up by Ben to prevent anyone from reaching it. The machine with the button activated the time machine every 108 minutes to send it back in time by that period. This is why Oceanic 815 only crashed on the island when Desmond stopped pressing the button. However, the castways land on the island a decade before they took the flight. According to Hunter, it's 1996 on the island and 2004 outside it and crossing that time boundary does crazy things to navigational equipment (remember the helicopter's troubles)?
There are a few inconsistencies (like day and night appearing on an island that gets reset every 108 minutes), but the theory seems to have less holes than the other ones floating around at the moment.
Pretensions would like to wish all readers a Happy Halloween! We had a small pot-luck lunch celebration at work today. It also served as a nice office-warming as P moved to a new office space within the main office about 3 weeks ago. Everyone who participated took the trouble to make or buy specially ghoulish dishes.
Pretensions was greatly saddened to hear last Tuesday of the death of Mr 
The funeral was held on Saturday 4th October at Saint Andrews Cathedral. Sadly P had a prearranged meeting on that day, but she understands that more than 1000 people attended. 
For the uninitiated, Singapore has had a longtime tradition of street hawkers who began peddling their wares from pushcarts and even bicycles in the '50s and '60s. The food was always cheap and delicious, but not always hygienic, due to the itinerant nature of the hawkers (no licences then) and depending on their source of ingredients. In the late 70s and 80s, the Singapore government stepped in, requiring licences for continued operation and moving the hawkers to permanent hawkers centres (non-air conditioned) and food courts (air-conditioned). This enabled regular inspections for food cleanliness to be enforced and has overall, been a good thing; though some may complain about the relative blandness and homogeneity of today's hawkers.
Season 4 of 
