Maiden trip out of Charlottesville

I just concluded an MSN chat with Renhua and Suraj, two ex-debaters (yes, ex-debaters, bitch all you want the two of you) who are absolutely in love with each other (go figure). Essentially they're both good kids but anyway, talking to them surprisingly made me realise how much fun debating was and the days of being a debater/trainer/chief-terrorist-sending-out-nasty-emails is surprisingly something I think I miss. It's possibly the only thing that brings out the human goodness in me - the desire to actually help others do well in life. Now and then, anyway.

The weather is starting to turn and freeze on me, which is kinda irritating. Autumn kicked in pretty dramatically last Saturday - at the Homecoming game. The best assurance of the fact that the weather has changed dramatically could be the fact that everyone around me is bitching about how cold it is...BEFORE I bitched about it. Cue fellow Singaporeans Jem and Clara (incidentally, it's 49F outside, which makes it a very cool 9 Celsius. KNN).

Random thought: watched the Champions League game of Pool vs Chelski yesterday in one of the suites where I stay. It's actually pretty nice to finally be able to get hold of some proper football. Match sucked, though - Chelski bore the hell out of everyone. As usual. Still, it's pretty nice to be able to get hold of something as simple as a sport that the real world actually watches - hey you Americanos, are you listening to me?!?!?!

I'm off to Washington DC this weekend, meaning no updates (potentially) for some time. Am too tired and uninspired to come up with a piece that makes any sense (or fun reading). Here's a picture of my delicious lunch - the cold weather is so going to make me fat.

PS - Anybody wants something from DC, drop me an SMS.



How much more can you stuff on a sub?

Los locos en Singapur tambíen

Turns out that it isn't just UVa receiving its fair share of nuts. Apparently these are the memories of Singapore I'm missing out on:

suraj says: dude
suraj says: this term
suraj says: all of us have been running into lots of weirdos here in spore man
Song says: like wot?
Song says: update ur blog, man
suraj says: u have no idea - ur country has some pretty scary characters
suraj says: i cant write bout it as interestingly as u manage it
suraj says: like one dude we met at newton food court at 4 AM in the morning
suraj says: this drunk singaporean indian
suraj says: who came and sat nex to yogi, chintan, ritwick, atish, ashish and me
suraj says: we were having supper after a party but none of us was drunk
suraj says: man this dude was crazy...he started talking loudly about indian history - with a british accent
Song says: haha
suraj says: he was talking bout india's war wid china
suraj says: and shit in our history which no one knows about
suraj says: then he has no money and wants a fag...so he asks the cigarette shop dude to give him a pack
suraj says: the shopkeeper refuses
suraj says: then this guy goes and abuses him like crazy
suraj says: and the WHOLE food court is looking at us
suraj says: and we dont know how to turn down this dude cos hes drunk
suraj says: u know possibly doped actually
suraj says: this was the first weirdo we met
suraj says: then yesterday
suraj says: chintan, yogi and i were coming out of kopitiam
suraj says: and we met undi and shivram
suraj says: and we were generally talking - opposite SESS bld
suraj says: now chintan wanted to smoke but he dint have a lighter
suraj says: so he went to these 2 european chics (very hot ones i might add) who were smoking
suraj says: and used their lighter
suraj says: now 2 tables next to those foreigners
suraj says: was sitting one old chinese dude
suraj says: who calls chintan and asks - "dont u have ur own lighter?"
suraj says: chintan explained to him tht he left his at home
suraj says: then this guy for no reason gets all aggressive and starts shouting - dont u have money...yada yada
suraj says: it became pretty confrontational...
suraj says: then we were more chaps so we stopped chintan and then we went to SESS
suraj says: this dude was eyeing us all over from the distance man
suraj says: every time wed look at the dude
suraj says: hed get up all ready to like - let me kick ur ass come down here u coward - kinda look
suraj says: and he was hanging aruond Kopitiam for like 2 hours after this happened
suraj says: WEIRD!!
suraj says: then this morning i was returning from my uncle's place...this is like 40 mins ago
suraj says: and at selegie street...nex to peace center
suraj says: there is this well-dressed chinese dude...possibly 24-26 yrs old...with a big purple gun which shoots out small balls
suraj says: and every passerby who crosses him...this dude takes aim as if hes gonna shoot u...and he keeps aiming at u till u walk away from him
Song says: wtf
suraj says: like hes a sniper and hes gonna jus shoot u
suraj says: he then did this to me also
Song says: u're seriously surrounded by blogworthy weirdos
suraj says: and tho its jus a ball
Song says: i'm stealing ur stories
Song says: and posting it on my blog
suraj says: its from a considerable distance
suraj says: hahaha do tht
suraj says: and ur always wondering
suraj says: when hes gonna fire
suraj says: its seriously spooky man
suraj says: and EVERYONE around u
suraj says: is looking at u
suraj says: everytime he takes aim
suraj says: everyone is looking at the sniper and the passerby
suraj says: wish i had a camera
suraj says: now i know the value of a fone camera!!
Song says: see!
Song says: this is why u need to invest in tech

You are all going to hell.

Freedom of speech brings about a lot of fun, if you're a tourist/exchange student. For example, a family of religious people came to the university yesterday to stage a demonstration of sorts. The banner they had said something along the following lines:

"YOU ARE ALL GOING TO HELL."

No, seriously.

This was, of course, captured by the university press, as seen by the link here. In fact, I was present when she started shouting, screaming something along the lines of how New Orleans was no accident of nature and how everyone is going to hell.

In a situation like this, what would be one's reaction? To join the protest? To argue with them? To alert people of this public nuisance and call the cops?

True to my Singaporean roots, I yanked out a camera.

Unfortunately, I soon discovered the disadvantages of not carrying your camera everywhere (interestingly, this after a weekend where I almost left my camera behind in Polo Ralph Lauren). So I did the next best thing. I yanked a Singaporean with a camera.

In any case, it was pretty insane, by any standards, and quite a sight. I'll get the picture up when I get it from the fellow Singaporean. In the meantime, here's a comic that I found kinda amusing, and very descriptive of the popularity of the McIntire School of Commerce within UVa.

Something almost funny

Just a lil' something for those of us who thought it might be fun to major in Philosophy...and for those taking Ethics back home.

Click here.

Intermittent blogging

I know the site is overdue for a series of pictorial updates but until the time comes, dear reader, you will have to put up with my philo-wank and whatever substitutes I can find discussing the chronicles of life in Charlottesville.

Like most weekend, this weekend was surprisingly event-filled. Friday commenced with a celebration of Jeremy turning 24, thus officially beginning his quarterlife crisis (his words, not mine). Surprisingly he did not get very drunk, which is quite something, since it is a well-known fact that Jeremy enjoys drinking at a rate faster than his liver can process. Anyway, happy birthday to Jeremy. Bloody pseudo-Italian bastards took forever to serve us the food for that night's dinner, so the evening had to be quickly forgotten with lots of drinking, with guest appearances from the British lasses. I use the word British carefully here, since out of the 3 representatives from the University of Bath, only about 1 is actually British. Picture to be shown shortly.

Saturday was Homecomings (yes, with an "s"), which apparently is a high school tradition which involves a football game and some form of a dance. Apparently, at college level, they basically screw the dance (unless you count those kinds at frat parties) and just have a football game. In order to ensure that the game goes well, what happens is that the homecoming game is scheduled against a crappy football team. Or so that's what I hear.

Actually I'm just too lazy to blog - too many random thoughts. Here's a little picture of what you can find in the daily newspaper at UVa...if you pay some attention.

Don't go to law school.

Have had the opportunity to attend another career presentation, this time by a top consulting firm. In fact, it's not the first presentation I've attended by this company and short of their bias (perceived or otherwise) towards recruitment processes,

First things first, the cream puffs were once again, excellent. The amount of chocolate was fantastic, and the cream just sufficient. This is on top of their fresh strawberries and a set of killer hazelnut/walnut brownies. Good God.

In terms of actual presentation, the lead presenter was very smooth, which was different from the presentation by the Financial Institution a week ago. It's so smooth that even I want to consider applying for it, despite my cynicism towards their recruitment of SMU graduates and my preference for an industry driven by finance.

Actually there really isn't much but I suppose there's hope yet when you see presenters like that coming down. Makes you almost want to work there just so you can be that smooth in future.

Finally, what really stood out for this company was how the presenter chose to end his presentation. In a nutshell, it went a lil' like this:


"If you had to summarise my presentation into 5 words, these would be my 5 words. Don't. Go. To. Law. School. That's right, don't go to law school when you graduate just because your parents and your friends thought it was a good idea and you didn't know what else to do. You may think that you're widening your options but in reality you're going down a path that's one of the most narrow in terms of career opportunities.

"Don't go to law school unless you know this is what you want. Don't go to investment banking unless you like finance, because that's what it's all about. If you don't like finance, don't join an investment bank. If you aren't sure about what you want out of life and want to take the opportunity to learn a bit about everything, than do go to consulting. That's my advice to you - join consulting if you're really keen on learning new things and doing different kinds of work everyday. So remember, 5 words - don't go to law school."

Random Monday musings.

These past few days have had me thinking about jobs, careers and the usual crap about graduation. It's sort of an indication that eventually, all of us are going to grow old and have responsibilities and not be able to sleep in when you feel like it (insert your own variation of bumming/stoning/sloth here).

Just a number of thoughts, and since they don't have so many links, a lil' numbering.

1. I attended a presentation by [Unnamed Global Financial Institution] in UVa. To put it quite mildly, I was mightily unimpressed. Yes, they brought down the artillery in terms of the seniority of people presenting - there were the usual HR people, the ex-UVa MD and of course the folks from the Investment Banking Department, which everyone is oh-so-keen on. Yet, it was unimpressive. There was no formal presentation on the opportunities, the departments that were recruiting, what distinguishes the firm from others. They put on a Vice-President that was with the firm for 8 years, and yet I could have done a better job presenting. In Singlish. The idea that America is really a wonderful place full of the most talented people across all levels is perhaps an idea we should all look at again and rethink.

2. That being overseas at this point in time is perhaps likely to result in a number of missed opportunities - a big risk, perhaps. Based on the recruiting calendar, financial institutions are having a field day at SMU. Ranging from Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, GE, Barclays Capital to Goldman Sachs, it's refreshing to see that graduands of the university back home are in demand. It would, of course, be nice to be among that group, though. But this sorta leads me to point 3.

3. Surprisingly, being away from Singapore and being exposed to more cultures than I'm traditionally used to, it's been a really pleasant experience having the opportunities to gain insight, either via reading, talking or just watching movies about other people. Sometimes I think that it might be nice to pursue a life of academia, sit still and travel the world for a reasonable pay. It kinda beats waitering (especially with that mountain of debt awaiting me after this exchange trip) but having the right amount of intelligence to do internships and the right amount of intelligence to pursue a life of academia are 2 very different things. It's interesting how as time progresses, I get less and less assured of what I want out of life. Hmmm.

Of drunkards and frat parties

I know that I've sworn off frat parties since the disaster that was my last frat party but today was a celebration of Joon turning 20 and quite frankly, it would have been kinda rude to not go. So anyway, that was the frat party.

As a precursor, I'd like to add that we've been shopping at an area known as Fashion Square. Not too far is a place known as Marshall's - amazing stuff at amazing prices. DKNY/Tommy Hilfiger ties @ US$10-$13, lots of wallets for about US$10++ and trousers from brands like cK costing up to US$20. I would have gone trigger happy but unfortunately they didn't have sizes or clothes that I needed. Jeremy and Liying, however, were 2 very contented people. In fact, Jeremy shopped to the point where Joon and I wondered where he crossed the threshold of being straight. That's how much the boy shops. Serious.

So anyway a bunch of us went to Joon's place and headed off to the frat party. Now, judging from a former frat party, you'll know that these events tend to be boring mating fests. However, one of our beloved members of our party got sufficiently high/drunk to spout out some rather nice gems (name withheld to protect identity). Unfortunately, since yours truly had to be sober to take care of the drunken kids, yours truly does not remember the gems of wisdom that were spouted. Perhaps in a day's time - in the meantime, your war correspondent here has got to take a break.

(Yeah it's a lousy entry but it's 4am in the morning and I've been hauling drunks. Spare me!)

F**ked up cereals

Whoever invented sugar-free cereals should be shot. They taste goddamn awful.

Shopping Spree

Added a lil' somethings to my collection.

*Yawn*

A tad irritated as of now, since my beloved Spyware Doctor decided to close all my windows as it went about deleting spyware from my computer. Gotta rewrite random thoughts but I think these are what I want to talk about:

1. Having had the opportunity to get to know one's neighbours a bit more is kinda refreshing. Specifically, in the space of the last 2-3 days, I've had the chance to talk to about 3 of my neighbours and all of them have certainly provided me with some food for thought.

My next door neighbour, like most Indians, is a really friendly guy who's invited me over to watch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He's really up to date on current affairs and like most liberal arts students, somewhat left-leaning. We've had discussions about politics and things like that and so far we've clicked pretty well, which is pretty nice. Oh, and he's supposed to bring me out for garlic naan, which would be a welcome break from the usual burgers and pizzas.

Living in one of the suites on the ground floor is another lady who leans on a diferent end of the political spectrum. She's pretty interesting - her concentrations are in Economics and Political Studies with a minor in Systems Engineering (yeah, I know). People who are from these fields of concentrations (the liberal arts) tend to fall on the left end of the political spectrum but she considers herself a conservative, although she also considers politicians "criminal" (her words - I personally prefer "scum of the earth"). We talked about polarities in political views and she mentioned how during Election Year (2004), people were pretty polarised and it was hard to find grounds for people to agree to disagree. Bush is not rated particularly highly amongst college kids so her leaning in that direction certainly got her into some interesting debates. Incidentally, she's a Southern girl, so that might put some light on political leanings (I don't know what the link is but some folks claim Southerners tend to vote Republican).

2. Since we mentioned burgers and pizzas, I've gotten so fed up of the diet that when I was invited to a free lunch by [Unnamed generous Singaporean], with it being a buffet (that's how the meal plan here works - you eat as much as you can for a prepaid fee), I actually took 2 bowls of salad. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I'm officially eating grass. And enjoying it. Oh the horror of the American diet.

3. Got a surprise guest on my blog today and it's kinda nice to be in contact with someone whom you've not met since JC days, effectively. It's actually pretty nice to also find other Singaporeans who've studied Spanish, although I doubt any of them feel my pain now. Yes, E, you actually get a mention in my blog, so don't you renege on that cheesesteak you promised me.

Memories of the first ever Americano football game.

The Chief Photographer taking a break from it all. The main attraction: Joon Lee.

The stunning turnout for a home football game. Against the lowest-ranked team no less.

The burger-mashing legend: Alex Goodenough.

"For he's a jolly good fella!" Our very own pre-match hoedown.

On quotable quotes

"People have vices not because they feel bad but because they feel good."

-Source: Roommate

2 Bloggers Charged With Seditions Act

Dude, like, WTF?!?!

The link.

An alcohol-fuelled weekend

The title says it all.

Friday: Lots of beers in celebration of Alex's birthday. The poor drunkard was counting his steps as he walked to the bathroom. That's how drunk he was.

Saturday: Lots of mixers, but generically these 3 categories: Vodka-Midori Melon Liqueur, Vodka-Peach Schnapps and Peach Schnapps-Coffee Liqueur. Poor [Names changed to protect the innocent] (one of our fellow Singaporeans who is unbelievably generous with food but also potentially very violent) threw up. The kids stayed over, I walked back. Nothing beats sleeping in your own bed.

Today: Peace and quiet and more Spanish homework. Gah.

On careers

I got a call from [Unnamed Financial Institution] at 7:00 this morning, informing me that I had been shortlisted and pencilled in for a psychometrics test next Thursday. Under most circumstances, this would have been a wonderful thing. Unfortunately, I'm also overseas on exchange, which makes it nigh impossible to do this test (I am not fucking fly back for an unnamed financial institution).

I'm taking a massive risk being overseas for the key recruiting season for top financial institutions in Singapore but what can one do now that one is overseas? I prolly should attend more of those career sessions here though and see if it's possible to gain some interview practice. Somehow I'm just not in the mood to overly slack off.

On Finance things

2 short notes

1. Our trading class yesterday had the good fortune of hearing Jerry Parker speak for about 1 hour 15 minutes. For the uninformed (including myself prior to Jerry Parker's arrival), this Parker dude was part of a team of "Turtle Traders" - a program started by a successful trader Richard Dennis to show that traders are not born but made. Considering that this guy has billions under management (he's the Chief at Chesapeake Management), the fact that he just decided to take an afternoon off to speak to guys at the McIntire School of Commerce at UVa is pretty amazing (despite the fact that he is an alum). The ability of UVa to tap on resources like this is something that has really stood out - I wish SMU had the ability to tap on such resources at times, though.

2. Today's Money and Banking class had the professor spouting some words of wisdom re the American attitude to bankruptcy.

"In Japan, bankruptcy is viewed as a badge of shame. But bankruptcy is a good thing. It simply means that the net worth of the common stock is zero. With bankruptcy, the company has a 2nd chance at a lease of life."

The positive attitude towards bankruptcy is certainly something I think we all need to adopt. Why are we so ashamed of bankruptcy and treat it as a failure? Crazy Asians and their concept of "saving face".

FEMA

This is a copy of what was written by FEMA Director Michael Brown to his Homeland Security boss. Commentary below.

Office of The Under Secretary
U.S. Department of Homeland Security 500 C Street SW
Washington DC 20472
FEMA
August 29, 2005

MEMORANDUM TO: Michael Chertoff
Secretary of Homeland Security

FROM: Michael D. Brown
Under Secretary

SUBJECT: DHS Response to Katrina

We are requesting your assistance to make available DHS employees willing to deploy as soon as possible for a two-week minimum field assignment to serve in a variety of positions. We anticipate needing at least 1000 additional DHS employees within 48 hours and 2000 within 7 days. Attached is a list of requirements that employees will have to meet before deploying.

It is beneficial to use DHS employees as it allows us to be more efficient responding to the needs of this disaster and it reinforces the Department's All-Hazard's Capabilities. Also, DHS employees already have background investigations, travel cards and badges, all items that normally delay filling our surge workforce. FEMA Response and Recovery operations are a top priority of the Department and as we know, one of yours.

We will also want to identify staff with specialized skills such as bilingual capabilities,

Commercial Driver's License (CDL), and logistics capabilities.

Thank you for your consideration in helping us meet our responsibilities in this near catastrophic event.

Attachment

cc: Michael P. Jackson
Deputy Secretary

Janet Hale
Under Secretary for Management

Attachment

Requirements (for personnel):

You must have your supervisor's approval.

Contact your Human Resource Office to follow-up with FEMA Human Resource Office

You must be physically able to work in a disaster area without refrigeration for medications and have the ability to work in the outdoors all day.

Must be willing to work long hours under arduous conditions.

Role of Assigned Personnel:

Establish and maintain positive working relationships with disaster affected communities and the citizens of those communities.

Collect and disseminate information and make referrals for appropriate assistance. Identification of potential issues within the community and reporting to appropriate personnel.

Convey a positive image of disaster operations to government officials, community organizations and the general public.

Perform outreach with community leaders on available Federal disaster assistance. Training will be provided.

A roster of available personnel will be developed and made available as components identify personnel for deployment.

Selected personnel from the roster will be given training in Emmitsburg, Md., Atlanta, Ga., and Orlando, Fla., before you are deployed to the field. You will be expected to use goverranent credit cards (in good standing) for transportation, lodging, meals and other incidentals.

Contact your agency financial officer for information on obtaining government credit card (if you do not hold one).

Point of Contact to accept and process your assignment:

Human Resource Operations Branch, 202-646-4040

You will be walked through the system for further processing and deployment.

Deployment Information:

Selected personnel will either go to Atlanta, Ga. for Community Relations Training or Orlando, Fla., for all other Training and assignments. After which they will be deployed to a disaster Joint Field Office (FCO) when conditions are safe. Some organizational clothing and equipment will be supplied.

Type of personal supplies you should bring:

Sunscreen
Sun hat
Sun Glasses
Walking shoes
Mosquito repellant
Medication (both over the counter and prescriptions)
Valid driver's license
Government ID
Cash (ATMs may not be working)
Government equipment (cell phones, computers, blackberries, etc)
Appropriate clothing (walking shorts acceptable)
Rain gear

In the words of an editorial:

"Say what?
A roster of available personnel will be provided?
Stop by Atlanta, Ga., for community relations training?
Convey a positive image of disaster operations?
Don't forget your sunscreen and walking shoes?
Bring appropriate clothing, walking shorts, of course, being acceptable?
What planet was Mr. Brown on when he wrote this, as the storm raged?
Why is he still in office?"

2 days' worth of thoughts...or not.

So much has happened over the 2 days but sometimes all I can think about is the insanity of all that's happening with Katrina. I'm probably much slower than most of the world in seeing some of the really horrendous stuff out there.

Life, however, goes on. Since this is in effect an alternative to a journal tracking what happens over the days, I'd just have to continue listing what I do here.

Today, I ran. Not for my life, but actual physical exercise. This is extremely shocking because I am, in general, a lazy bastard and rather prone to bouts of non-physical exercise. In fact, it was quite refreshing to run in the cool of the dawning Fall chill. The weather is just about right - short of the humidity that grips you in Singapore while providing sufficient cool such that you break a very small sweat. Which is actually nice if you have the fitness to run a longer distance.

On another note, the Astronomical Observation Lab session yesterday went pretty well. I am now able to identify the Vega star, the Cassiopeia constellation, the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper, and also randomly point to the sky and pretend that it's a dragon named Draco. I'm not sure I can get away with randomly pointing to the sky but we'll find out in due time. However, it still doesn't change the fact that it's pretty cool to have a class where u're just standing there watching the skies and leaning your head so far back that you might just snap your neck and become the resident freakshow.

I wish I had a picture of the night sky now.

Comments

Amigos,

I'm sorry I've had to turn on comment verification but the bloody spam bastards have gotten to my blog already. Wankers.

Tears for Katrina

These 2 vids are just too heartbreaking.

Waiting for the Cavalry

Shepard Smith & Geraldo Rivera Unleashed

The grand prize! Jason Mraz 'live' in Charlottesville! (Don't you just love the enthusiasm in these captions?)

The happy campers in our queue. From left: Jem, Joon, L'ing, Michelle (from the University of Bath).

More of the queue for Mr Mraz.

The beginning of snaking queues for Jason Mraz this morning at 9am.

People say all sort of shit about how messed up the government is in Singapore but between our government and the lunacy of the system and administration here coordinating the Katrina efforts, I'd rather settle for our government any day.

What I love about this country (Stars and Stripes) is that it gives me the belief that public discourse matters but what I also hate about this country is the level of political sophistication and bickering. Democrat politicians sniping non-stop at the Bush administration instead of trying to help, while Republican politicians focus on converting the Supreme Court to the right-wing instead of trying to help. It's amazing that we needed a comedian to go on Crossfire and point out that all this partisan bickering does jack for everyone.

One day it'll be my name on the SMU equivalent! I wish...

The impressive Capital Markets Room (or something like that). This room, as you can see, simulates a trading room (complete with software like Telerate), Dow Jones tickers and was donated by ex-students of Julian Robertson, fund manager of Tiger Management.

Katrina

This has got to be the most shocking thing ever. Check out this picture to see what I mean.


"Mr. Bush flew south on Friday and proved (as if more proof were needed) that he didn't get it. Instead of urgently focusing on the people who were stranded, hungry, sick and dying, he engaged in small talk, reminiscing at one point about the days when he used to party in New Orleans, and mentioning that Trent Lott had lost one of his houses but that it would be replaced with "a fantastic house - and I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch."
- Bob Herbert for The New York Times

"But a president who flew from Crawford to Washington in a heartbeat to intervene in the medical case of a single patient, Terri Schiavo, has no business lecturing anyone about playing politics with tragedy. Eventually we're going to have to examine the administration's behavior before, during and after this storm as closely as its history before, during and after 9/11. We're going to have to ask if troops and matériel of all kinds could have arrived faster without the drain of national resources into a quagmire. We're going to have to ask why it took almost two days of people being without food, shelter and water for Mr. Bush to get back to Washington."
- Frank Rich for The New York Times

"Michael Brown, the blithering idiot in charge of FEMA - a job he trained for by running something called the International Arabian Horse Association - admitted he didn't know until Thursday that there were 15,000 desperate, dehydrated, hungry, angry, dying victims of Katrina in the New Orleans Convention Center.

Was he sacked instantly? No, our tone-deaf president hailed him in Mobile, Ala., yesterday: "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

It would be one thing if President Bush and his inner circle - Dick Cheney was vacationing in Wyoming; Condi Rice was shoe shopping at Ferragamo's on Fifth Avenue and attended "Spamalot" before bloggers chased her back to Washington; and Andy Card was off in Maine - lacked empathy but could get the job done. But it is a chilling lack of empathy combined with a stunning lack of efficiency that could make this administration implode"
- Maureen Dowd for The New York Times

"George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday, especially given the level of national distress and the need for words of consolation and wisdom. In what seems to be a ritual in this administration, the president appeared a day later than he was needed. He then read an address of a quality more appropriate for an Arbor Day celebration: a long laundry list of pounds of ice, generators and blankets delivered to the stricken Gulf Coast. He advised the public that anybody who wanted to help should send cash, grinned, and promised that everything would work out in the end."
- The New York Times

"We've got a lot of rebuilding to do. First, we're going to save lives and stabilize the situation. And then we're going to help these communities rebuild. The good news is -- and it's hard for some to see it now -- that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before. Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott's house -- he's lost his entire house -- there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch. (Laughter.)...

...Again, I want to thank you all for -- and, Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job. The FEMA Director is working 24 -- (applause) -- they're working 24 hours a day.

Again, my attitude is, if it's not going exactly right, we're going to make it go exactly right. If there's problems, we're going to address the problems. And that's what I've come down to assure people of. And again, I want to thank everybody."
- George W. Bush

An All-American Weekend Part 2

My first American football game resulted in my deciding that American football is actually bloody boring.

Basically, American football is a form of bastardised rugby (either that or rugby is bastardised American football - you decide whichever one you like). The idea of the game is to race to the opposing side and score a touchdown, which is just crossing the touchdown line. You get 4 attempts to move the ball 10 yards, and everytime you move the ball 10 yards, you reset the play and the same game repeats itself until you either fail to move the ball past 10 yards (which results in play going over to your opponent, where they'll try to do the same shit to you) or until you score a touchdown. That, in a nutshell, summarises the game.

It doesn't sound so bad but every time the play stops, there's a series of ridiculous interventions, tactics, switch of players and whatnots. Tonight's game, which had 4 quarters of 15 minutes, took over 3 hours to complete. That's right, 1 hour of game time but 3 hours of real time. Unless you're used to 5-day cricket matches, this is perhaps the least dynamic game EVER.

Collegiate football, however, is also striking in the amount of commercialism that goes into it. A standard ticket to the game costs US$40 (UVa students get in free). That's right, an inter-college game costs US$40, and the stadium is packed. According to Pepsi, the official attendance for today was 61,134. Pepsi sponsored the Game Stats for today's game but this is advertising at its least relevant. What does making a bottle of soft drinks gotta do with counting people in a stadium?

Oh, you get video replays too on the big screen here. It's all sponsored by just about every other company that wants to sell junk to UVa kids and the nearby community (which is actually a lot of companies - UVa is a relatively rich school). You know those plastic foam hands you use to gesticulate your support? Those are sponsored by Alltel (I ought to get myself one of those). The level of commercialism to this whole setup is mind-boggling, but you start to get an idea why it is possible to pay a football coach over a million a year and to build a stadium that's 70,000 in size. Cripes.

The evening ended with a screening of "All the President's Men", the story of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein reporting on the Watergate scandal, which subsequently led to the impeachment and resignation of Nixon. It's actually a highly riveting film, with the exception of it having the most anti-climatic ending sequence in the history of cinema. The movie reaches its peak about 2 hours and 15 minutes into the show and ends about 2 hours 16 minutes into it. WTF.

But on a more contemplative note, the whole movie really set me thinking. There are often times when a lot of us Singaporeans mock the way America can be (inefficient, stupid alcohol laws, amazingly obese and unhealthy food, hot lasses wearing too many clothes) but perhaps one of the great things about America is the independence of the press and the 4th estate in general. There are days when I wish Singapore had the same kind of journalistic maturity, where members of the mass media did not have any pressure to act as an extension of the people, and as a "bridge" between people and government. Certainly the government of the people in SG is doing a decent job (all things considered) but I don't believe in the system of self-checks. In all honesty, when you look at the political landscape in Singapore, how much check and balance do the people really hold in terms of being able to hold the government to task? Short of the elections (where over 40% of the people don't actually get to vote) (and also in a system with marked cards - serial numbers on your voting cards!), there really isn't an avenue to which we institute the checks and balances that's necessary for a strong democracy. Certainly not all in America is admirable but when it comes to the ideal of the freedom of press, that was perhaps one of the best Amendments ever made to a Constitution.

An All-American Weekend Part 1

As far as weekends go, I've had the opportunity to experience the closest thing one can expect from a weekend that can only be best described as, well, Americano. Allow me to explain.

The post-hynoptist program was a frat party at a house best known as Sigma Chi. In an attempt to resemble sentience and display shades of intelligence, fraternity houses all over the US name themselves after Greek letters (e.g. Alpha Beta Gamma, Sigma Chi, Pi R Square). Unfortunately, this is ineffective, because nobody in the world really speaks Greek any more (hence the expression "You're speaking Greek to me"). Nevertheless, it is a reasonable system to distinguish one frat from another - to all intents and purposes they are otherwise carbon copies of each other. All frats are characterised by a bunch of guys who get drunk and impress their juniors by the fact that they are able to access alcohol even though they're below 21. This approach works because it also attracts the chicks below 21 who can't get access to alcohol and hence are willing to settle for the piss that is served at frat parties.

Having had the oh-so-wonderful luck to be brought along to a frat party (along with the folks from Bath University attached to the Commerce school), we made our way down to the Sigma Chi party, which can best be summarised by the paragraph above. In a nutshell, it was bloody boring. But in all fairness, this is the kind of thing you would expect of 18 year olds who have not been allowed to drink. So a frat party will end up with all the lasses wearing their best clubbing gear (there are no real clubs in Charlottesville anyway), all the lads trying to grab their hands on beer and some lass' ass (I like the way that rhymes) and people pairing up and having a good time making out. In fact, if you get lucky (or speak with a British twang), there's a reasonable possibility of you switching a number of partners in the same night. Yes, everything you've heard about lasses being impressed by British accents is true. No, seriously.

So being 24 and actually being able to understand that having a nice bottle of wine to share and a group of friends to chill is something to appreciate in life, is essentially, reason enough for me to never attend any more frat parties. While the flesh parade is most entertaining (visually, if nothing else), there's only so much boredom one can take.

The All-American weekend continued on Saturday with the first American football game of the season. American football often comes with a tradition called "tailgating" (actually I'm not sure if it's specific to the game or to Charlottesville or wot). Unlike the $#@!ing Singaporean taxi-drivers, tailgating in a fairly specific context refers to the practice of parking your car head in (everyone parks their car head in here), opening up your boot, setting up a table and just picnic-ing. This is the only activity that justifies having those ridiculous SUVs that you see everywhere on the roads. That, and trips to discount joints like Cosco to stock up on cartons and cartons and cartons of beer (that's actually not a joke - people really do this shit here, I swear).

Anyway, we did the bastardised version of tailgating today. With a game scheduled at 6, the 5 of us (Jem, Andrew, Alex, Jun and myself - I would explain who the hell they are but essentially, just 5 blokes preparing for an Americano football game is what you need to know) decided to head down at 4 to stock up on beer and food. This is when we got to know that Alex is an excessive-compulsive freak. Which begs the 2 questions: who the f**k is Alex and what makes him an excessive-compulsive freak?

Alex is a British bloke who's pretty much Americanised except for his accent. And if you've been to a frat party, you know that keeping that accent is a good idea. He goes by the last name Goodenough (no, seriously) and was Andrew's former roommate.

So what makes Alex excessive-compulsive?

Our first trip to the supermarket ended up with us trying to decide on beers. We eventually settled on getting 12 Corona's and trying this Boston brew called Samuel Adams (12 of those too). It's at this point that Alex goes, "Hey, we only have about 2 bottles for everyone, let's get some more". He merrily proceeds to get a 24-can box of Budweisers.

Now take a break and do the math. That's right, 24 divided by 5 isn't 2. Alex does realise this but does not return the beer. We end up with about 10 bottles/cans of beer for everyone.

Our second trip ends up at 5 Guys. This is a burger joint that's rated one of the best in the whole country. They have amazing burgers (pictures to come) - 2 patties with bacon and with ingredients from just about everything, based on your idea. This is Hamburger Heaven or Hell, depending on whether you're a fitness freak (like Jun) or a regular guy (like everybody else).

Since this entry is running a little long, what Alex did can be summarised in a nutshell as: he took an order that didn't belong to him (yes, thieving lil' bastard), went off with it, went back to Jem's place to eat the burgers, found out he had another one, and proceeded to finish his original burger and the additional one. All in 5 minutes.

Yes folks, HE FINISHED THE FUCKING BURGERS IN 5 MINUTES! (I could seriously use a picture at this point).

I'm gonna blog about American football and the rest of the All-American weekend separately, because this entry is rambling too much. Plus I seriously need to put down a picture of that burger for effect.

Friday nights are about having fun.

This is, naturally, an obvious statement. In fact, it belongs to the "stating the blinding obvious" category so much so that it would categorise as what members of the Singapore Armed Forces deem a "motherhood" statement. This makes absolutely no sense, which is very ironic, given that we are talking about something very obvious.

In any case, what makes Friday nights different between life back home and here at UVa is the means by which we celebrate Friday nights. For example, while Friday nights in Singapore may be clubbing night for a number of students (and in all fairness, the likely locations are also pretty well known), the amount of mass activities conducted for all at UVa on Friday nights is, well, pretty interesting.
Take, for example, the fact that Jason Mraz will be performing in Charlottesville in about 5-6 weeks, on a Friday. Or the hynoptism performance tonight by Tom DeLuca.

Having just watched the show about 15 minutes ago, I'm naturally unable to collect my thoughts and think about what happened, except for the fact that it was bloody hilarious. Here's a number of party tricks/suggestions if you wanna carry out a mock hynoptism act (based on actual performances today).


"On the count of 3, every time you answer a question, it'll be with a pick-up line."

"On the count of 3, you're gonna forget the number 6. It's been erased. There's no number between 5 & 7"
*snap* "Okay, now count your fingers."

"On the count of 3, you're going to say 'Who's your Daddy' everytime you hear the word 'Connecticut'"
(insert gung-ho person who's willing to perform a pseudo-skanky performance - at least that was what happened in real life)

"On the count of 3, when you hear the words 'We're having too much fun', you're going to come in and act as the Chief of the Fun Police."

"On the count of 3, when you hear the word (insert university name), you're going to act as the #1 Cheerleader in the (university)."

"On the count of 3, you're going to forget what the university mascot is."
*snap* "Alright, you blue and orange....RATS! R-A-T-S! Yeah, (rival university), you're going down! It'll be the bubonic plague all over again!"

"On the count of 3, you're going to realise that fruits have feelings."
*snap* *proceed to munch on apple*

Me muerto de los deberes del español

The one time I actually finish my Spanish homework before the evening it's due, I'm saddled with an e-mail from my Spanish instructor which goes along the following lines (translated):

"Hello all
I just wanted to remind you all that tomorrow that you have to submit the homework "Antes de leer" from the first lecture. If you don't have it yet, you can find it in the webpage for your class.

Also, don't forget to read "Reading in a Foreign Language"

Until tomorrow!
[Instructor name]"

3 words: Hijo de...

On squirrels and Spanish

There are squirrels which live outside my house and I'm dying to catch pictures of them on my digital camera. Unfortunately, like most squirrels, they're nimbler than the speed at which I take pictures, and these furry little buggers run pretty damn fast. This is also why you never see a dead squirrel in the middle of the road, despite their tendency to lurk in the middle of those damn roads. In fact, if there was one way I would describe squirrels, I suppose "Born to play Frogger" would be a pretty good description.

Elsewhere, my Spanish homework continues to drive me mad. However, I'm safe in the knowledge that I'm being graded for completion - and not accuracy. I'm actually feeling pretty torn about my approach to the class. On the one hand, I want to get my Spanish in order and actually speak it properly by the time I go back, but on the other hand, all that time could be devoted to World of Warcraft. If only life were easier.

On a somewhat more serious and sombre note, I'm totally addicted to Juanes' "A Dios Le Pido". This song was actually introduced during one of my Spanish classes (yes finally something worth not cribbing about). There's a certain poeticness (is there even such a word?) to the lyrics which I personally find a fantastic combination of romantic, haunting and yet succint, from a socio-political commentary point of view. As a background, Juanes (or Juan Esteban) hails from Colombia and he lived through a period where his best friend was shot dead in a club, while his father died of cancer.


Que mis ojos se despierten
con la luz de tu mirada
yo a Dios le pido...

Que mi madre no se muera
y que mi padre me recuerde
a Dios le pido
Que te quedes a mi lado
y que más nunca te me vayas mi vida
a Dios le pido
que mi alma no descanse
cuando de amarte se trate mi cielo
a Dios le pido...

Por los días que me quedan
y las noches que aun no llegan
yo a Dios le pido
por los hijos de mis hijos
y los hijos de tus hijos
a Dios le pido...

Que mi pueblo no derrame tanta sangre
y se levante mi gente
a Dios le pido
que mi alma no descanse
cuando de amarte se trate mi cielo
a Dios le pido...

Un segundo mas de vida para darte
y mi corazón entero entregarte
un segundo mas de vida para darte
y a tu lado para siempre yo quedarme
un segundo mas de vida
yo a Dios le pido...

Que si me muero sea de amor
y si me enamoro sea de vos

y que de tu voz sea este corazón
todos los días a Dios le pido
que si me muero sea de amor
y si me enamoro sea de vos
y que de tu voz sea este corazón
todos los días a Dios le pido
a Dios le pido.


That my eyes awake with the light of your life
I ask of God

That my mother doesn't die
And that my father remembers me
I ask of God
That you stay by my side
And that you never leave my life
I ask of God
That my soul doesn't relax
When my love for you is like the sky
I ask of God...

For the days that I stay
And the nights that I don't arrive
I ask of God
For the children of my children
And the children of your children
I ask of God...

That my home doesn't shed more blood
And my people arose
I ask of God
That my soul doesn't relax
When my love for you is like the sky
I ask of God...

A second more of life to give you
And deliver my entire heart to you
A second more of life to give you
And forever I'll stay by your side
A second more of life
I ask of God...

If I die, it's for love
And if I love, it's for you

And that this heart would be of your voice
Everyday I ask of God
That if I die, it's for love
And if I love, it's for you
And that this heart would be of your voice
Everyday I ask of God
I ask of God.