The beauty of the newspaper.

I don't know why, but I always enjoy reading the Straits Times, maybe it's because it is always amusing to read some articles, and then laugh as you read the facts.

Due to the recent Prima Deli food crisis, when cakes were poisoned due to poor hygine, one reader decided to write in to express her view that 40% of tertiary students do not wash their hands after heading to the loo.

Facts are as such: She is assisting during exams and she had to escort students to the bathroom during, presumably, an exam.

Read: Exams.

Firstly, the fact that she said 40% is an interesting statistic. Unless she stood at the bathroom during a recess break, how could she conclude that 40% of the students she escorted can be said to be that of the nation's population? Moreover, you do not see heaps of students heading to the bathroom during an exam, where time is of the essence. During an exam, it would be surprising to see more than 10 head to the bathroom during a one and a half hour paper, because exam papers are usually structured in a way that you have just sufficient time to finish it, with maybe 2 minutes to check everything.

Anyone who studied statistics would know that if your sample size n is small, then your results would be extremely skewed and very likely to not be that of the population. Moreover, as the writer is female, maybe it is only the females who are the ones who are unhygienic (*runs*), because unless she goes to the gents as well, she cannot say the same for the guys.

Assuming that she is assisting the exam at a tertiary institution where all the students have an extremely weak bladder and heaps of them go to the toilet during the exam, again, time is of the essence. Do you seriously expect students to fully wash their hands with soap and water and allow it to run for over a minute? Most, including me, will simply wet our hands due to practice, before running back to their seat to continue working on the paper. It is simply understandable that, under such time constraints, one would put hygiene at a lower priority, if one can prioritize correctly.

I wouldn't mind anyone saying that us students are unhygienic if she was a teacher who makes random observations at her school's toilet, but seriously, get a better example if you are writing to the nation's newspaper, or you risk getting ridiculed.

Maybe I should write a response to the forum....

Service: Just how hard is it?

After working in this very unrewarding industry only best known as the service industry, I know how much crap people have to take, and could almost understand their absurdly foul faces when I see them.

So, seeing that we are all comrades, I actually do my best to lighten the day. I know that a smile and a small word of hi will improve the mood of any cashier/waiter considerably.

At least, that was the case back in Australia.

But back at home in Singapore....

That, sadly, isn't the case.

To at least 20 supermarket cashiers whom I've said hi to, only 1 has replied me. The rest ignored me and continued scanning, or showed some signs of life by moving their head slightly to look at me, as if I've said something uncharacteristic (it probably is in Singapore), before heading back in their zombie-state of scanning items.

Kudos to you, that uncle at Cold Storage Bugis.

Just how hard is service? I'm not asking you to bow on my way out, or thank me loudly when I leave the store. All I ask is a more skillful eye, a slight smile, no matter how forced, and an overall pleasant attitude.

Just how hard is it?

Take, for example, a recent visit to Sakae Sushi at Marina Square with Sean and Ron. By sheer stupidity, I spilled the miso soup. While we were all laughing and making a general rackus, I simply cannot believe my eyes when I saw staff simply walking past and not offering any assistance. We may not need any, but even a slight question and giving us some tissues would be nice. Instead, we have to use the hand towels provided and I ended up with a pair of fairly hot wet pants.

So much for that meal.

So much for attention to awareness.

So much for eating at Sakae Sushi at Marina Square for the next year.

Pubs.

They're evil.

The first pub experience I had is not one I'll remember.

Maybe I just am not suited for such things after all. LoooL.

Random questions, answered!

On request:

A.被點到名字的要在自己的博客裏寫下自己的答案，然後去掉一個你最不喜歡的問題再加上一個你的問題，仍然組成20個問題，傳給其他8個人，列出其他8個需要回答問題的人的名字，還要到這8個人的博客裏留言通知對方----你被點名了，被點名者不得拒絕回答問題，完成遊戲的人將會永遠得到大家的祝福。

B.這8個人要在自己的博客裏註明是從哪裏接到的，並且再傳給其他8個人，讓遊戲繼續下去，不得囘傳。被點到名字的人將會得到大家的祝福，並且所有美好的願望都會在不久的將來實現

(Random blah. Does not read, maybe some part of A is read)


1. 愿意平淡活到70岁死去（毫无任何作为和影响）还是在30岁最鼎盛时期死去，为什么？

Live till 70. Because dying young is so not fun.


2. 你最不能容忍你最亲的人对你做什么事情给你造成怎样程度的伤害?

Betrayal. Lies. etc.

3.如果被喜欢的人拒绝,怎么办?

World comes to an en-... I mean, accept it and move on.

4.如果还有一天就是世界末日了，你会和谁在一起，做什么？

Be with my Gillian for the entire day.

Silly question.

5.最受不了自己哪個缺點？

I have no weak-...

I mean, I hate myself for being an ass, careless, and wanting everything to go exactly my way.


6.如果有不開心的事情，你會怎麽辦?

Shower.

7.最害怕失去的东西？

My brain.

8.五年内比较现实的目标是什么？

Make a million dollars. In any currency possible.


9.遇到喜歡的人，你是勇敢表白還是默默關注？

The former, although I have been known to muck around and do the latter.

10. 如果你被朋友讨厌了，你会怎样办? (Changed as per rule a)
Ask what's wrong. Failing that, fight fire with fire. Idiots who refuse to say why they dislike you should be kept at arm's length.


11.你最想(愿意)为点你名的人做什么?

Hug them.

12.喜欢什么类型的人？

Fun, outgoing people.

13.你對你的近況滿意嗎？有什麽需要改變?

Not bad. Nothing.

14.如果以后我们再也不可能见到，你最想和点名者一起做什么或说什么？

Still hug them.

15.会姐弟恋吗?

Incest is like, hot.

I surf too much 4chan. Seriously.


17.如果能让你实现一愿望，是什么？

I'll have 3 more wishes.

18.喜欢平淡的二人世界生活还是多姿多彩但是孤身一人的生活？

The former. A cold bed is cold.

19.你最想去哪个地方？为什么？

Outer space, because that's the best place to view this piece of rock known as earth

20.為你點名的人說一句話

I love you.

That took, 15 minutes, But quite a bit of soul searching, more than I've done in the past 3 years.

People to name:

No one.

*an advocate of anti-spam mail*

Sorry.

MapleStory server going down makes it into the news

On Friday, I was rather surprised when I went to the back pages of the Straits Times and saw a report on Maplestory servers going down due to a hard disc failure, resulting in the loss of "XP" and the in-game gold gained by the players.

Obviously, my first reaction was to laugh at the poor suckers who may have realised that the 2 hours could be better spent (playing other games) other than to grind at MapleStory. How they don't get bored, is beyond me. In fact, MMORPGs is getting boring, after the bubble burst around 2 years ago. FPS is the in-thing again, at least the good ones with an actual storyline or something which has a special feature about it (Open endedness is one of the big plus in games these days).

My second reaction was amusement at how it actually got a fairly big mention on the newspaper, even though it was on the back. You don't see DOTA getting mentioned when a new patch (which takes it even further downhill every time). Why the sudden mention? There's plenty of things in Singapore to talk about, especially in the wake of the Dragonboat accident, or the doggie incident. Moreover, that spot could have been sold to some company to advertise their products, such a critical thing now that we are heading into the Christmas period. Even though MapleStory is popular in Singapore, to see it getting mentioned is amusing and ridiculous.

Then again, I never really bothered when ST comes to games. Who knew that Blizzard created DOTA?

LoooL