You are slow and un-informed, don't blame others

In my last post, I blasted some poor soul for a poor translation job on the chinese name of Seoul, capital of Korea. Well, it turns out that I am that lousy, un-informed, mountain-tortise who should be doing some fact checking before judging on others.

It appears that around late January this year, Seoul decided to rename their city's chinese name from 汉城 to 首尔, for the reasons of 'avoiding confusion'. Apparently, they think that others might mistake it to be a 'Chinese city' in China. Talk around the internet seems to say that Koreans felt that the name 'Han City' is derogatory. Wow... that's heavy man...

While I don't know the origin of the name 汉城; some said it was so named because the city was built along the Han river (汉江). Honestly, I felt that it is a nicer name than a cold, purely-phonetic translation of 首尔.

不过话说回来, 城市是人家的. 名称人家要怎么翻译,怎么称呼, 都是人家的自由. 翻译本身其实是一项不容易的学问. 很多时候照着发音而翻译往往只是一种go through motion的运动, 其原意和精髓能不能保留下来似乎已不重要了.

"临汉江而建的城市" -- 汉城--怎样都比硬梆梆的"首尔"好听, 有意思.

Take me for a [cheap] ride...

Lion City does it again! Another "notable" record of proving, once again, our world-class transport system is very affordable.

A Land-transport system research team in the NU of S published a report (12 June 2005), suggesting that after a comparison across 10 Asian cities, the taxi fares in here are 'very cheap' and 'there maybe room for a fare increase'.

To substantiate their findings, they released the following statistics:




While I haven't been to all 10 cities listed, I am no stranger to KL; and I find it hard to believe that a 10km journey in KL city would cost USD6.00! If I remember correctly, a cab ride from Jalan Petaling to Batu Caves (about 10km) costs about RM14.00, which is roughly USD3.70.

If you look at the second table that lists the average monthly family income, did you notice that a Singapore couple could take home, on the average, USD3088 a month or S$5175! I seriously question the validity of this figure. It seems unrealistically high! Is this the total disposable income after CPF deductions? I would assume it is since the study was trying to estimate what portion of the monthly salary is spent on taxi fares. For a combined take home pay of 5K a month, considering present job market conditions, the couple are most probably at least degree holders with 2-3 years experience (I may be overly optimistic here). Now does this mean that the average workforce in Lion City are degree holders?

Statistics like these are most often misleading than informative. Especially when it comes to using averages. Average salary may seem to be a fair estimator of wealth but few people realise that a couple of super-high income earners included in the survey would skew the entire data set and shift the average abnormally high. Without including other vital information (like max, min or median), the reader is definitely taken for a ride.

Afterall, there is wisdom in the phrase 'Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive. What they conceal is vital.'

By the way, another weird observation in the above table. Did you notice there's an Asian city by the chinese name of '首尔'? I cannot seem to recall which city could this be, that has an average income of USD2.8K? Until I tried to pronounce the word in English; I could not believe there are such idiotic, worse-than-half-past-six translation skills - Did they mean SEOUL??????

是那个猪头那么没水准? 可怜贵为亚洲四小龙之一的韩国首都-汉城-竟被这种三脚猫和半咸不淡翻译功夫糟蹋! 奇怪的是怎么没把东京译成'都鸡油' (Tokyo)?

I don't deserve...

Date: Friday, the 10th day of June, year two thousand and five
Time : between the hours of 7pm and 8pm
Place: NUS rock gym

While resting from a problem on a sweat-chalk covered mattress, a bunch of finger-sored geckos heard the un-imaginable over radio: "... ... ... give us a call and tell us why you deserved to be in the ARMY ... ... ..."

I think and think until my pen has no ink.
I laugh and laugh until ... WTF???????

Unfortunately, we didn't managed to hear the words of wisdom of the callers, IF there were any. So sad. I might have found enlightenment that night.

Life after graduation

It is the time of year where a new batch graduates from Kent Ridge/Jalan Bahar and enters the Matrix... to be another clog in the giant economic wheel of Lion City, to be another battery in keeping the gleam and shine of this Little Red Dot.

Must life upon graduation always like that? Or maybe you should wait. Maybe you should take that different path. Break the norm. Do that something you have always wanted to do but might never have the chance again once you are part of the Matrix, until you unplug yourself.

A fellow gecko - SL - is now at this crossroads of life. Should he find a job or should he go 'see/climb the world'.

Choices. There are always choices. Life is not always a one-way street, even in Lion City.

CY, who recently unplugged himself afer 5 years, and is about to embark on his 6-week rampage admist the boulders of Fontainbleu, offer this piece of advice: find a short term job that pays well, work your ass off, quit and go. You will never regret it, he claims.

I say that sound like a good plan.

Phase A: if you didn't 打包 too many times, you would be 24 or 25 (earlier if you are female) upon graduation. Work hard and get the cash. Take off and go see the world for 2/3/4 years/till you are broke/till you are sick of it, and then return to settle down.

Phase B: Assuming your surname is not Hilton, and eventually will have to work like all the rest of us, you are at most 30, can still join the typical cycle of life here - i.e. find a job, contribute to CPF, find a partner, apply HDB, marry and pay loans for the rest of your life. Oh, don't forget your national duty to mate and reproduce.

And about that mating part. While it can happen anytime, it is in your best interest that it happens within Phase B. Getting pregnant or getting someone pregnant in Phase A can have serious implications to the plan. Your hard-earned moolahs might end up in pampers and milk powder from Carrefour, instead of lattes and capuccinos in Paris or Rome. But since our gahmen is trying to get this country to reproduce, avoiding unwanted babies does not seem to be a major diffculty for most.

So what are you waiting for?

Words of Wisdom

Read this from the Reader's Digest June 2005.

It's much better to be apart and wish you were together than to be together and wish you were apart.

Indeed.

Poolside Chill Out

When it comes to celebrating holidays, I think the Americans know best. If you don't already notice, American holidays tends to fall on a specific weekday of the week, rather than a specific date of the calendar. Example, Memorial Day - traditionally observed on the last Monday of May. Labour Day - first Monday in September. Martin Luther King Day - third Monday of January. And finally Thanksgiving Day - fourth Thursday in November and the friday is also a holiday. Need I say more?

Long weekends in the US of A are celebrated in traditional fashion - with a mattress sale! Not kidding, there's always a mattress sale around holidays. But of course, sales are everywhere if you look hard enough.

However, in the sunny state of California, instead of trawling the factory outlets for deals like bazillion others, I decided that an afternoon of grilled cheese burgers by a poolside is a way better idea.

Good friend at HP - Bill, invited me to his beautiful home in El Cajon for a chill out session. We had some good cheese burgers, home-made salsa with chips, tiramisu from Trader Joes and serious fun in his great pool. Ah... such a good life...


look at that pool!


lazing by the pool with cheeseburgers off the grill


home made salsa by bill