Thursday, July 31, 2008

Notes on being a tutor

My second last time being a tutor. I thought this 'article' is pretty inspiring. My friend, Clement, is off to the States to pursue his journalism dreams. May he find a good dose of intellectual rigor there. I just feel like day dreaming most of the time...

Monday, July 28, 2008

Transport woes from proletariat living

I think in an urban city like Singapore, people have to spend money to enjoy quality quiet spaces - cafes and hidden restaurants tucked away from the means of motion between the nodes of metropolitan and sub-urban gatherings. From my limited experiences, I suppose it is quite unlike European cultures where motion stops at off-the-road spaces and transfer by foot is possible. In Singapore, you'll just suffocate in the tropical humidity; the car negotiates the trilateral conflict between auto-speed, human-flow and the unrelenting humidity by re-imagining the urban landscape through an imposition of its own idea of efficiency and social quality time. However, the state comes in to moderate the privileges of private transport through gantries, taxation and petrol price controls. The circulation of capital and the circulation of traffic becomes one, and I have to find new strategies of flow to redefine quiet quality time.

Just take MRT lah...

Gritty stuff



The foregrounding psychological battle between Batman and the Joker ventures into a gritty extremity that to a certain degree inflects the usual genres in superhero films - a hero turns into an anti-hero without an end, and a damsel caught in a twisted game theory, which subsequently provides the emotional arc for Two-Face to adjudicate justice through the binary flip of a coin. The subtext locates the potential anarchic collapse of modern (Gotham) urbanity as the result of a blind thrall - and faith - to public morality and social order, as Joker designs a prisoners' dilemma that pits the human will against the tyranny of the majority. Maybe Foucault's 'ship of fools' is not too far off the grid in Christopher Nolan's thematic build up. Darkness, revenge and madness - each is never concretized in the absence of the other. This perhaps explains Batman's eventual immolation into the shadows of Plato's philosophical cave, as means to preserve the imagined iconoclast of virtue, justice and incorruptibility in the unenlightened minds of Gotham metropolitans.

Watch it for Ledger. He's legendary stuff. Certainly my best movie of 2008 thus far.

We missed the 1st 5 minutes though. According to Wiki, it says: "The film begins with the Joker robbing a mob-owned bank with several other accomplices, whom he tricks into killing each other". I guess we didn't miss too much :)

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Miss it by a mega mile

I was checking my gmail account just now and realized that MFA re-offered me an internship in August that has to do with the SCP program. It is basically a program that allows Singapore to work with developmental agencies with its interested partners. Quite a good program that is consistent with the things that I've been learning from Pastor Ian in Laos and the mission trip in Phnom Penh too.

Problem is, I was supposed to reply them a month ago, which I have failed to do, cos I don't usually check my gmail. Besides, I was in Phnom Penh then, walking around with a divided self of spiritual rejuvenation and mild depression. The thought of checking emails was non-existent in my mind then.

I just replied to the dude that it is a sincere mistake on my part for the procrastinated reply. And told him a bit about how this internship will help me to get a better understanding of Singapore's role in regional developmental works.

He'll probably reply to me a month later that that won't be possible.

Just a bit upset that my exposure to developmental works is rendered incomplete by my own mistake.

Funny how when chances are up there for grabs, I'm just really slow to respond, in a silly unintentional manner? Story of my life perhaps...

Sunday, July 06, 2008

New Read

I bought a new book today at PageOne. It's titled "Doctor Faustus: The Life of the German Composer Adrian Leverkuhn as told by a friend" by Thomas Mann.

It sounds like a really awesome classical read as Mann plays with the coexistence of aesthetic brilliance and spiritual self-destruction within the protagonist's divided self. Sounds like German Romanticism and critical theory all at once. I need to finish some other books before I get started on this. Feels like I finally found a good book after a long while.

It was a good yesterday hanging around with s and talking about hobbies and intruding into the lives of HDB dwellers in Chinatown. Not much insights about the lift experience though. Feels nice to keep in touch with a good friend for so long.

I should really practise more self-discipline and work on my thesis. Less than a year to go.

Always wonder what I'll do after graduation. I guess it is reassuring to know that good friends (who can tolerate my morose ramblings) and family (even though they cannot understand the political streak in me) are the constants in my uncertain life.