Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Childish voices

I know I'm late, but take a look at this.

How childish!

And to think he added one more to his pockets yesterday.

Who does he think he is? Curse and it will come true? *shake head*

Max childish. >.<

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posted by QueenPig @ 10:41 PM 0 Comments

Saturday, March 07, 2009

Another death...

Here goes another Chinese guy from EEE who hanged himself dead.

I can't help but be reminded of what I learnt previously about Werther Effect. You can read more about it here.

To put it simply, Werther Effect predicts that following a highly publicised suicide in the media (the stabbing incident was front-page news!), there will be a shocking increase in similar suicides from people with similar backgrounds in the week that follows. The first peak is on the 7th day and the second peak on the 11th.

In this case, today is the 5th. Will we see more of these?

Responsibility, people.

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posted by QueenPig @ 3:30 PM 0 Comments

Friday, March 06, 2009

This is the reason why news reporters need to be extra responsible and ethical

With response to the stabbing-suicide incident, there has been a spike in debates on how transparent and responsible the media is in covering the story.

Apparently, an Indonesian friend of David stepped out and clarified (or make it more confused) the situation. In essence, there is a divergence in the story provided by his friend and the news media.

Usually, the stories in the news are seldom doubted by the readers. We place almost 100% trust in what the reports say. There is no room for guessing -- we expect 100% facts, no speculation whatsoever. After all, isn't the media supposed to be objective? Isn't the media supposed to be the watchdog which bites back on untruths? Isn't the media supposed to serve the readers?

The amount of trust the readers place upon news media should not and cannot be misplaced and abused. In the past, maybe, but not now. The once gullible, all-believing readers can now turn to other sources.

With the emergence of new media, it is now even harder to "cover the fire with paper". 纸是包不住火的。

And whether or not the trust relationship of the news media and the readers has been abused, only time will tell. This trust, if misplaced, is hard to rebuild. 

Media, beware!

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posted by QueenPig @ 11:40 AM 0 Comments

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

FYP stands for...

... Final Year Project.

But after the gruesome incident at NTU, it may jolly well mean Finish Your Professor (thanks to Dajie).

Others include Four Years Passed (finally!), Five Year Plan (retain another year!), Find Your Partner (marriage?), Find Your Professor (they went into hiding!), F*** Your Partner/Professor (sex for relief), For Your Pleasure (kinda sadistic here...) etc!

What does FYP mean to you?

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posted by QueenPig @ 3:25 PM 0 Comments

Monday, November 10, 2008

Euthanasia

Euthanasia, or mercy killing, is the painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable disease or in an irreversible coma.

There was quite a buzz on this topic in Singapore as Health Minister brought the topic of legalizing it into consideration. Euthanasia is illegal in Singapore and in most other countries.

The same debate, pro-life or pro-choice can arise for this topic (similar to abortion). But pro-choice can only be used as an argument if the patient choose to die.

However, even this is fundamentally flawed. For one very simple reason, it is based on the assumption that as individuals, we should be responsible for ourselves.

*Just a note before I continue, I admit that many times, I am rigid in terms of morals and ethics. A wrong is a wrong, regardless of the circumstances. But the wrongness of a wrong (what a mouthful) will vary, depending on the intention, means and other factors.*

Yes, I agree that we should be responsible for ourselves. However, responsibility does not entail the rights to take away lives. Not somebody's else's, and not the self. 

Why is this so? 

We all agree that taking somebody else's life (aka murder) is wrong. It can then be inferred simply that taking a life is wrong. Why would it even matter whether if that life is your own?

Truth to be said, if we are really responsible for our lives, we should live it to the fullest, be the most mindful that we can be, and constantly strive to be the best, even at the doors of death.

If we are really responsible for our lives, we should be courageous in facing it, and urge others around us to do the same.

If we are really responsible for our lives, we should not shrink away from it. Especially not by choosing the easy way out - death.

That said, quality of life can be enhanced even at the death bed. If one can talk, one can educate the others around him/her. If one can't even communicate (i.e. coma), then such education, if possible, should be done prior to the unfortunate long sleep. If it was an accident, then the role falls on others to polish and educate.

Every circumstance and situation is a chance and opportunity to be a better self, to discover the meaning to life. It should not be treated lightly and cast aside carelessly.

Yes, we talk about the patient leading a 'meaningless' life. We talk about the patient being a burden to society and those around him/her. But humans are not a mean to pleasure. Should we even treat ourselves purely as a pleasure-seeker?

To end off, if committing suicide is against the law in this country, I see absolutely no reasons why euthanasia should be legalised.

The real pro-choice, is to choose the right choices NOW. Lead a beautiful life!

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posted by QueenPig @ 1:24 AM 6 Comments

Thursday, November 06, 2008

The power of Obama

Yay! I'm so happy Obama won! I wanted to blog about this yesterday but was too busy.

And hey! Look at the power of Obama! The Asian stock market is on its highest in three weeks!

I'm looking forward to more good news! As Obama said, "We'll get there!"

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posted by QueenPig @ 6:04 AM 0 Comments

Friday, September 19, 2008

What do you wish to see?

Referring to this case, the subject in question, Gopalan Nair was sentenced to 3 months in prison. For more, click here.

We learnt in Media Law class defamation and their defences.

I have absolutely no doubt that Justice Belinda Ang Saw Ean's reputation was hurt when Nair commented that she was 'prostituting' herself in court. Of course, he didn't mean it as real prostitution, but any 'right-thinking member of the society' would have linked her with some sort of relationship with the Lees.

So there's defamation, but are there any defences?

Truth? It's almost impossible to determine if what he said was true (or false). But given the legal and political system set up, the basic assumption is that the court will uphold justice and therefore, Nair's comment is fundamentlly false without evidence.

Fair comment? I don't think so. Neither do I think that there's any privilege, both absolute and qualified, in this situation.

Law aside, Nair said he'll appeal and that he had no regrets (although he said he could have "moderated" his language). This particularly, struck me as jarring.

The maximum sentence was a year with a fine. Is three months enough for him? What then do you think should be a sufficient enough punishment, not considering the fact that he is now a US citizen and Singapore might need to maintain healthy relations?

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posted by QueenPig @ 7:18 AM 0 Comments

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Exchange no more!

Yay!

I just realised that I no longer multiply by 5 everytime I buy something in Singapore! No more comparison between China RMB and Singapore Dollar!

Then again, I also realised that it's almost 1st September, two months after my return. Am I lagging or what? :/

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posted by QueenPig @ 8:24 AM 0 Comments

Friday, August 01, 2008

MINT Museum of Toys

In a small corner in Singapore, there's a private museum called "MINT Museum of Toys". MINT stands for Moment of Imagination and Nostalgia with Toys, and is the "world's first purpose-built museum for toys.




Situated at 26 Seah Street, it's convenient and easy to spot with it's eye-catching exterior.

But that's not all! The array of vintage toys and childhood memorabilia is bound to spellbound you and lead you back into the memories of your childhood days!

Here's the old Wall-E...

This is some big cartoon which name I cannot remember. But I was trying to imitate him. Look like?

Popeye was so popular back then, he was a character on the carousel!


Popeye evolution!

That Woodstock really loves to stand out! :D

This is a Popeye hot water bottle. It's so old it looks like Popeye's skin just peeled after a terrible case of sun burn!

Check out the Joker! Looks the same...


Who says Batman must be in black with a black car?

They used to be blue too...

I always thought Astroboy is a pretty recent thing with weird hair... Apparently not. His hair were not that spikey then!

So sweeeeet!

Do you remember Felix the cat? Didn't know he have kids!


More little Felixes... Some of them bear resemblance to the Batman!

Who still loves Mickey?

Mickey looking a little... erm.. worn.

Nigger Boys! Discrimination?

That's my relatives and me!


Another well-known fairy tale... but where's Snow White?

Betty Boop used to be in green!

And black!

And now, red!

See-through transparent floor! Don't step on it if you're wearing a skirt or dress!


China dolls that are a little freaking, in my opinion...

This can't be worse.

Why so serious?

Chucky?

Barbie and Ken in the past, before plastic surgery was popular.


Can you spot me? They were made when tin was popular.

I wasn't faking okay~ I was reading about tin and monkies!

This is a different kind of suntanning! There's a big duckie, live! :D

A radio peacock.

Are you afraid of the dark...

If you look closely, the panda and ducks are made of these round balls of fur! I use to make these dolls in primary school!

The classic 100-grids snake-and-ladders!

Marbles that I never played with. But I did own a similar skipping rope in primary school!

More scary tin toys!

Do you know them?

The Monkees!


And here's the Beatles!

Why they name bands after animals/insects?

Wanna fish? :D

Donald Ducks! Comes in yellow or orange feet and beaks.

Slightly more-recognisable Mickeys. (Or should it be Mickies?)

There's a nice cafe at the basement. A $5 off discount card was given when I bought tickets to the museum and I used it at the cafe! It's not very expensive, almost similar to the prices of cafes outside.

I love this corner where they have this 老夫子 and 大番薯 playing chess!

A jubilant Mickey!

Can someone tell me who he is? Is he the guy chasing Popeye?

The admission charges for adults and children/senior citizen are $15 and $7.50 respectively. Students are eligible to a 50% discount. There're other discounts too, like PASSION card holders, SAFRA card holders and Friends of Ikea, just to name a few.

The museum is open from 0930 to 1830 daily. Visit www.emint.com for more details!

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posted by QueenPig @ 11:59 PM 1 Comments

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

I AM BACK!

YOHOZ PIGGIES!

I AM HOME HOME HOME!!

P.S. I LOVE BLUE SKIES! ^^

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posted by QueenPig @ 11:11 PM 0 Comments

Friday, June 06, 2008

Press Freedom?

For those who are following the news, Nair is now currently on bail.

Compare and contrast the stories: CNA and Yahoo!

I can only say that, if Nair has any evidence or concrete proof that Justice Belinda Ang Saw Ean "was throughout prostituting herself during the entire proceedings, by being nothing more than an employee of Mr Lee Kuan Yew and his son and carrying out their orders", there'll be no charges against him.

Unfortunately, a man as old as him is certainly not as wise. (Do I even need to support this? If he is wise, he wouldn't have said such baseless accusations.) What's more, he was a Singaporean, and he was a former Workers' Party candidate!

If the Singapore's opposition party members continue to act in this manner, it's little wonder why people doesn't vote for them (albeit there's an increase). The aunties and uncles may not know what press freedom etc we're talking about, but seeing the kind of 'claims', for lack of a better word, made by the opposition is enough to be a turn-off. For me, at least.

That said, I think the US-based press freedom watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)'s concern over this case is more 'unwarranted' than Singapore's detention of Gopalan Nair.

1. I wouldn't consider Nair a journalist. If he is one, that is really an insult to all the journalists in the word. Where's the research and objectivity? Enough said.

2. CPJ said, "Freedom to criticise the judiciary is fundamental to a modern society. This case illustrates the Singapore government's ongoing commitment to silencing opposition voices both in print and online."

Once again, freedom to criticise the judiciary is one thing, it's another issue altogether when one attempts to link the judiciary to the party in office, makes personal attacks of the integrity of the judge, both on baseless grounds.

Furthermore, the link made between the judiciary to whatever the government do, true or not, to "silence opposition voices" is weak. It's so faint and ridiculous that I believe any critical reader will be able to point out that CPJ seems to already have made their own 'judgement' to the case. Who are they, judges?

The case here is not for them to judge if we have press freedom or not. They will probably have a stronger stand if they are fighting for freedom of speech instead. If the press is to be made up of bloggers, who are 101% prone to their own biased opinions and incomplete information, I'll be pretty disappointed. (I'm not saying all bloggers are biased and have incomplete information. I'm just saying MOST of us are. Maybe you can go do a survey on how many bloggers search thoroughly for information. I bet most write based on their own experience, supported by their own experience of, e.g., good and bad service.)

And I'm not spared from this either. So, if you have read thus far, do be warned that the above is my own opinions of the issue.

Be a smart reader.

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posted by QueenPig @ 9:42 AM 0 Comments

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

You know Shanghai doesn't really have beaches like Singapore? Think of East Coast Park or Pasir Ris Park where we can barbecue by the sea - Shanghai doesn't have them.

So what to do when you are craving for self-barbecued food?

Head down to the 烤肉店!

This shop is somewhere near my house, and is reasonably cheap, I think. There are other similar places which sell the stuff at a higher price.


Here's the BBQ stove! The put in the black charcoal, mixed a little of the burning charcoal and covered it up with the torture-looking-instrument. :X

In the background you can see several silver cans. They are chilli powder, pepper and salt, for seasoning your food before/after BBQ-ing! This is a little like how the 士林鸡排 people do it! Everything is DIY!

There's a wide variety of stuff for you to choose from. From the picture, you can see we have banana, Taiwan sausage, mushrooms, prawns, sotong, cuttlefish and mutton.

We did ordered more, but I forgot to take a picture of them. The second batch included 馒头, more sotong and mutton, my 黄鱼 (which is AMAZINGLY NICE) and garlic (which is good too).

The yellow thingy you see on the food is oil. Okay, it's a little oily, but who cares right? It's China and it's impossible to find healthy food at cheap prices!

Hee... BBQ-ing. Left to right: mushroom, cuttlefish, cuttlefish, mutton, sotong.

Chicken drumstick!

The Chinese very smart lor! Poke the drumstick like a tent, so that you can cook both side of the chicken evenly.

Tee Rong is tired from waiting for the food to be cooked! But I assure you that the wait is worth it!

Hee... can you see the banana being roasted? ^^


And of course... what is Chinese BBQ without the Chinese Tsing Tao Beer? (Dang, I'm so going to miss my beer when I return!)

Yummy right? Guess the bill?

It's 86RMB for two of us. Pretty steep by China's standards, but we were really famished (after doing some strenuous volunteer activity from 9a.m. to 4 p.m.)! We were super full after the meal, plus, we ordered all those expensive stuff like fish and chicken drumstick lor!

That said, it's still less than 19SGD for two of us. I remember we used to pay at least $10 for a BBQ, and we didn't even have sotong, fish or cuttlefish! >.<

Drooling already? ^^

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posted by QueenPig @ 10:18 AM 0 Comments

About Me

Name:
Location: Singapore

QueenPig. The ruler of the kingdom. One of its kind. Legend has it that she will be exceptionally XXX. The rest is up to your imgaination.