foreword

I was intending to go out and grab a latte from the nearby Starbucks about a half hour ago, but I’m still here.

Why?

Soy is bad for you and milk is bad for you, and I really can’t stomach coffee without any form of milk.

So I’m definitely getting my latte, but the problem is I’m trying to find out which is the better choice of the two.

I don’t think they offer goat’s milk.

Edit: I think I’ve found the answer. Off to get my drink!

Exercise will make you healthier, but won’t make you thin.

That explains why I stuff myself with food after I exercise. But then again, I do that whether or not I exercise. Hmm.

No Matter Who Is President of Iran, They Would Stone Me

For the women out there who think that life hasn’t been exactly fair for them.

Photos taken at AWARE EGM on 2nd May. I need to upgrade to a digital camera – for these kind of events where the setting is dark and I’m just an amateur film really isn’t the way to go!

Here’re a few audio clips that I was able to record from the AWARE EGM on 2nd May, some are pretty amusing to hear. I regret not being able to capture Constance Singam’s “Where Were You” speech though. Oh well. Enjoy.

1. Josie’s Open Door Policy

2. Point of Order Back Atcha

3. A Legal Counsellor’s Rebuttal Against Gregory Vijayendra on the Legal Power of No Confidence Vote

4. Paranoid Androids

5. Inefficiencies, with AWARE and with the sound system

1414 against 761, that is Singapore’s stand against people who establish coups over quarter-century-old organizations that they cannot even begin to call theirs, or have any relation to previously.

That is Singapore’s stand against using the pulpit as an influential tool to aid in forcing one-sided religious views upon others – much worse a secular organization.

That is how we stand against using religion recklessly as a political tool, and involving it with events that would definitely be elevated up to such a a controversial scale.

We could do better, but for now that is good enough. Alas, the matter resulting from the core of selfish- and childishness has been settled, and we all go back to our daily lives again. Hopefully those who were all riled up at the EGM today will also be just as involved in AWARE’s upcoming activities, although fund-raising probably wouldn’t be that big an issue with the 2,700 or more new memberships over the last week – the $90,000(seriously.) definitely shouldn’t be their problem as well.

That was a hell of an experience – I wish I’d stayed on longer.

2nd May, my friends. Do something about it before it’s too late.

I have been living in high-rise apartments my whole life, and I think I can say that the winds have never been so strong before.

And for once, I can almost actually understand what people from other parts of the world feel before disaster strikes. Rocky’s scared out of his wits because of all the air roaring through the slits of my windows, and the weird neighbours living in the floor above are mine seem to be hammering something. In this weather, the only thing the hammering can be for is maybe making sure the furniture doesn’t get blown away.

This is quite freaky, and I am glad I’m not totally sober; still I think of the consequences of global warming a couple of decades down the road, where we may just experience the real thing right here.

There’s an insect on the table and it bugs me bad. For moments in our lives that seem ever-fleeting, this is not one of them. Its literal form is harmless, but its connotations immense – a shadow in the glowing sunset. It instigates fear at the back of your neck, the insecurity of something unknown, the dial tone at the other end of the line saying ‘please try again later’; it’s monotone, it’s epidemicity. It’s crisis without warning or prevention – it’s terror sent in by God. For all the horrors we hear about human terrorists, we shake our heads to it while blatantly denying playing a part in its existence. But what about the other sort – the extent of the screams of pain, mourning, fear, or just of knowing nothing at all – that Man has had to endure periodically over centuries?

There’s an insect on the table just minding its own business, and it bugs me real bad.

Heard about the intended increments in the ERP rates? As a non-driver who has nothing better to do, I was looking at some articles on Yahoo news and came up with a list of some people’s sentiments about it. Take a read, it’s pretty interesting.

Cons

• National University of Singapore’s Associate Professor Chin Hoong Chor said: “If we say that the 85th percentile (speed) drops, then you raise the charge on BKE (Bukit Timah Expressway) so as to bring the 85th percentile speed again, what happens then is that there will be less traffic on the BKE and they will go on to the parallel road which is the Upper Bukit Timah Road. “And what happens if the (85th percentile) speed on Upper Bukit Timah Road… (drops) below the threshold, you will raise the charge on Upper Bukit Timah Road again. So it seems like you (are) going to keep (increasing) the rate just to adjust to the 85th percentile speed.”
• What all this means is that someone driving from Ang Mo Kio to the city via the Central Expressway between 8.30am and 9am could soon be paying $10 in ERP fees should traffic conditions worsen and warrant a $1 hike.
• However, ERP hikes and extensions have, in the past, raised a chorus of complaints from drivers about having to pay more, yet still experiencing congestion or “stop—start” traffic on those priced roads. Transport Minister Raymond Lim acknowledged as much yesterday.
• “We often hear feedback that the ERP has not helped to ease congestion on the highest demand roads like the Central Expressway beyond a temporary respite; that the ERP rate increases have little impact on travel behaviour,” he said. “There is some truth in this.”
• Bigger rate increments. Mr Lim noted feedback that the current 50—cent increment has “only a temporary impact on driving behaviour”. There were nine rate changes in 2006, but 25 were needed last year.
• Still, National University of Singapore transport researcher Han Songguang wondered how steep ERP rates would have to get before drivers consider switching to public transport. “I don’t think drivers would pay $70,000 for a car and then want to leave it at home.”
• Sales manager Felix Lim, 31, who uses his car to meet his clients, said: “I don’t think I am going to stop using my car or avoid travelling on priced roads as I do not really have a choice.”
• There are also suggestions for an Internet portal that can provide real time information to commuters on alternative routes at any given time.

Pros

• “Motorists that keep driving at peak times on these roads will pay more for higher, more reliable speeds than now, and more places will qualify for gantries sooner. But at least it should become much less common for traffic to slow down or stop on the roads that have ERP,” said the assistant professor.
• The bitter pill of more ERP was accompanied by some sweeteners, such as a permanent 15% cut in road tax for all vehicles and a multi—billion dollar improvement programme for expressways.
• “Remember, it makes no sense to drive everyone out of the highways. Otherwise, what’s the point of building the highways? So, that’s not the purpose. So we’re looking at only a small marginal change.”
• But accountant G T Kee, 54, who travels into the Central Business District several times a week for work, thought the changes fair as it would “deter those not essentially in need of that route and get them to use another route instead”.