– Lady Jessica Atreides, Children of Dune
Her full quote:
“One uses power by grasping it lightly. To grasp too strongly is to be taken over by power, and thus to become its victim.”
– Lady Jessica Atreides, Children of Dune
Her full quote:
“One uses power by grasping it lightly. To grasp too strongly is to be taken over by power, and thus to become its victim.”
Original article: Water purifier company reviewing ‘marketing procedures’ after criticism over ad about Singapore tap water (CNA)
My father shared this CNA article with me. As a father and son who have both served in the army, we immediately called bullshit on Sterra’s claims.
You don’t need to have a PhD in biology, you just need to have served your national service. Drinking water straight from a water tap was an everyday occurrence during Basic Military Training. I vividly remember my water parades during company fall-in — me and my platoon mates would queue up in front of the tap, quickly fill up our canteens, and then proceeded to drink up half of the contents of that canteen later during water parade.
All of us were fine, none of us were poisoned by Singapore’s “unsafe tap water.”
Some soldiers from newer generations might fill up their canteens from a jerry can or water dispenser instead. If your commanders were nice enough, they might even add some ice into the dispenser. Ah, nothing like refreshing ice-cold water to help you through your sweaty physical activity.
But guess where the water was originally obtained? You guessed it, straight from the water tap.
Why the hell would Sterra want to create such a deceptive marketing campaign? Did the marketing head-in-charge seriously believe that they could fool half of Singapore’s population and get away with it?
Sterra can claim all they want that “they take feedback from the authorities very seriously.” But the fact that you did it in the first place, speaks volumes about your principles and lack of understanding about Singapore society.
Would you want to purchase a product from a company with a history of false marketing practices (i.e BULLSHIT), and who are willing to insult your intelligence? I would not. In fact, I feel like drinking a glass of water straight from my water tap now, just to prove a point.
both via Lady Gaga’s YouTube
One of Lady Gaga’s best songs perfectly describes what is currently going on in my head. I’m on the verge of quitting something that I have committed myself to for the past 3 years — because of a hundred million reasons.
I’m still waiting for one good reason — a single, compelling argument — to convince me to stay. But if I can’t find it, then I will give up and walk away with no shame.
Because giving up does not lead to loss. We sometimes gain more by giving up.
– Dr. Gray Blackwell, Girls’ Frontline
This post contains spoilers.
I never knew how much of an ABBA nerd I was until I watched the Mamma Mia! musical for the first time last weekend. I recognised 95% of the songs, and I could even sing along to the lyrics from memory.
I’ve not seen any of the ABBA adaptations (i.e. the Mamma Mia! movies), so the musical was a blind experience for me. The story starts off with a great premise and clear stakes for the protagonist, Sophie: she’s about to get married, but she wants her father to walk her down the aisle. She has no idea who her father is, and has narrowed it down to three men who were friends with her mother, Donna. All three of them have been invited to the wedding.
Before a few minutes have elapsed, the musical numbers started flying. I was impressed at how the cast were able to take the lyrics of the ABBA discography, and weave it into the narrative to tell a cohesive story. Donna has spent the past two decades running an inn opposite a diving tourist attraction. Cue “Money, Money, Money.” Donna and her two best friends used to be a dancing trio. Well, cue the classic “Dancing Queen.”
I’ve blogged about it before in the past. Music has the power to tell stories. The heavy metal genre has been doing this for decades with concept albums. The opera and theatre genre have been doing it for hundreds of years.
My favourite ABBA song, “Chiquitita”, was sung by Donna’s friends in her bedroom. Sadly, this was an abridged version without the piano solo, but I was happy at its inclusion nonetheless. Act One ended with “Voulez-Vous”, accompanied by an entertaining dance number where Sophie’s groom and his male buddies were marching theatrically on stage in scuba diving gear.
The best was yet to come in Act Two, with Donna’s stirring rendition of “The Winner Takes it All”. Filled with passion, fury, and emotional angst, it was hands down the best singing performance of the entire musical.
Unfortunately, I have to deduct points for the musical’s ending. After going through all that effort to invite the three potential fathers to her wedding, Sophie suddenly decides not to get married anyway (????). The identity of the father is never revealed, and Sophie decides to leave it at that. It’s very inconsistent with Sophie’s character and what the story has built-up to that point. It felt like the writers of the musical had decided to take the easy way out by not committing to the resolution of the story’s main conflict and premise.
Overall, I still enjoyed the musical. I will dare say that this is one of the best theatrical plays I’ve ever watched. The creative use of ABBA’s greatest hits to tell a story, where both the male and female members of the cast are given their chance to shine, combined with the fun dance sequences and choreography, still hold up in spite of the weak conclusion.
Any person who grew up with ABBA should definitely enjoy Mamma Mia!.
This post contains a lot of swearing and F-bombs. You have been warned.
Continue ReadingI’m unemployed again. With so much free time for the first time in almost three years, I decided to take a walk early in the morning around my neighbourhood.
I walked across the road to my previous HDB block. The mama shop is still there, but operated by a different owner. The amount of provisions on sale is also much lesser than what I remembered. I don’t know how long these neighbourhood shops on the void deck are going to survive any longer with rising inflation and food costs. Long ago, you would head to a mama shop to purchase your newspaper tabloids like The New Paper, and maybe grab a few snacks or drinks. Now in 2023, The New Paper has long ceased publication.
Walking even further down, past an old basketball court, I eventually reached the site of my old school: Zhonghua Secondary. Well, it’s now occupied by Pei Cai Secondary. I tried to peak into some of the classroom windows from afar, and I could see some students sitting and studying, no doubt preparing for their Final Year Examinations and O Levels.
I made a U-turn and walked back to my block. Just like that, thirty minutes had gone by during a morning stroll. Tomorrow I think I’ll take a longer walk to Upper Serangoon Road.
I wrote this short piece of play-by-post roleplaying for an online Pathfinder 1E campaign that I’m currently participating in. I thought that I’d post it here for fun and posterity.
Some context: Wizards in Pathfinder / Dungeons and Dragons are normally not supposed to be near the frontlines, which is why I’m playing a multi-classed Wizard 5 / Fighter 1. She is learning how to combine spellcasting with martial combat on the battlefield. My party member, a monk, just died, forcing me to fight at close range.
==========
(Somewhere near the Elsir River)
It happened so quickly. One moment Pippity was standing beside Annetta. In the blink of an eye, he was gone. Headless corpse, arterial blood all over her robes.
I feel sick. So much blood everywhere. I might die today. I feel sick.
The wizard gathers all of her inner resolve to stay composed. In her mind, Annetta begins reciting the Litany Against Fear, an Iroran mantra to steel oneself against panic.
“Fear is the mind killer.”
“When the mind dies, the body follows.”
She summons five mirror images to buy herself some time.
“I must not fear. I will face my fear.”
“I will permit it to pass over me and through me.”
I need an ally. Think! What creature would help me now in melee combat? A cheetah, yes! Felines have sharp teeth and two claws.
“When the fear is gone there will be nothing.”
“Only I will remain.”
The wizard connects with her magical short sword. Drained of strength by one of the Ghostlord’s minions, she still manages to land a clean hit. And another.
“I AM SKILLED IN MORE THAN JUST MAGIC!!”
The wizard’s shout was no mere battle cry. Mind and body in unison, she has just defeated a deadly opponent all by herself the Irori way: with knowledge, discipline, and spirit.
I am skilled in more than just magic.
==========
If you’re a Dune fan, you will immediately spot the reference. The Litany Against Fear was used by Lady Jessica very early in the book. In the movie adaptation, Dune: Part I, she uses it at around the midpoint of the film, during Paul Atreides’s test of the gom jabbar. I used an abridged version of the Litany and added a different line, “When the mind dies, the body follows.”
During my reservist last month, I had this conversation with one of my platoon mates while we were walking back to camp from dinner.
Me: “What mobile games are you playing currently?
Friend: “Aw man, I don’t want to spend more money on a new game.”
He quickly explained how he was struggling to pay his bills every month — his insurance, subscriptions, utilities, etc. — while still giving his parents allowance. Even an expenditure of S$10 on a mobile game could seriously affect his financials.
I was originally going to ask him if he was playing Honkai: Star Rail, one of the best F2P games of 2023 that requires absolutely zero money to progress. But I didn’t probe him further. Instead, it got me thinking:
I know some friends and acquaintances who willingly took on massive debts (one even did it multiple times), without any proper foresight and plan on how they were going to pay it back. I don’t know how they are doing now.
How much of your adult life do you want to spend constantly living in debt?
This post contains some mild spoilers for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
One of my biggest disappointments with Phase 4 to 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is just how meaningless and devoid of conflict it feels. The Scarlet Witch has the ability to alter the fabric of reality itself. She can create and destroy memories and wipe out entire timelines. On paper, she is a far more deadlier threat than Thanos — Thanos needs the Infinity Stones to accomplish his goals. Wanda Maximoff, just by existing, is a danger to the entire multiverse.
And yet, Doctor Strange is the only hero in the MCU who is actively trying to stop her. There is a glaring dissonance between what the writers have presented to us on paper, and how the conflict eventually gets resolved.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse finally shows us how a proper multiverse saga should be handled. I don’t want to spoil too much, but the film quickly establishes one of the principles of time-travel fiction: the Butterfly Effect. Actions, even if they are noble, can lead to serious consequences in the future. Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy are faced with a conflict that affects not just their personal lives, but the entire multiverse itself. Will Miles do the right thing in the end for the greater good? Or will he sacrifice everything just to save one person?
This is one of the fatal flaws of Quantumania: Kang’s personal conflict is never shown to the viewer. There isn’t even any hint or subtext in the narrative — WHY does Kang want to destroy all of his multiverse incarnations? What catastrophe is he trying to avert?? It’s impossible for the viewer to feel any tension or take Kang seriously as an antagonist.
Spider-Man is one of the oldest and most popular comic book superheroes. We’ve seen his story and character arc played out so many times already across different media. Spider-Verse 2 ups the ante by raising the question: what if Spider-Man’s greatest enemy is himself? What if every version of himself in the multiverse is his enemy?