Funny things

I was watching some of the speeches given by election candidates live earlier, after they submitted their papers on Nomination Day. Was quite funny when some of the PAP candidates were jeered at while they were making their speech. When one was stating emphatically that for the past x years the party has never failed to deliver, had always kept their promises, etc, he was nearly drowned out by the jeering. When another said, as a closing remark, "We are the best party for Singapore!" and pumped his fist in the air, he was met with a large wave of boos.

This is no reliable indicator of who's going to win. Nonetheless, it was still pretty funny.

Politics isn't entertainment, young man

I look forward to reading the newspapers these days because it's entertaining to watch the PAP and the Opposition grapple with each other. The PAP and the WP in particular have traded blows over Chen Show Mao, the WP's concept of a First World Parliament, and various economic suggestions. I particularly like it when one party goes on the offensive, and the other party responds by going on the counter-offensive. When the PAP pressed the WP to give an example of a First World Parliament, the WP responded by pointing out that our electoral system has no precedent. When the PAP pointed out that 1 of the WP's proposal would be equivalent to "raiding" the government reserves, the WP responded by pointing out that using the same reasoning the Grow and Share package the PAP is handing out can be considered a raid on government reserves too.

We can imagine an armada of space ships launching an attack on a distant galaxy. The attack is repelled, and the aggressors now find themselves in hostile territory with weaker nunmbers. The defenders go on the counter-offensive, pushing them back to their homeland, where this time it is their time now to be outnumbered. And this will go on indefinitely. It will escalate. Both parties will get desperate, as their resources get lower and lower and the prospect of losing greater and greater. This is ideal. This is ideal because it leads to a climatic battle and a satisfying resolution. Unfortunately, because of the nature of politics where there is a large number of issues to grapple with, of which parties will never admit they are wrong in any one of them anyway, and because the PAP seem fond of disregarding the moves made by their opponents, we can't have that. Instead we have a series of fights which don't escalate and don't achieve satisfying closure.

Nonetheless, I haven't been so entertained since the Aware saga in 2009.

The Office

There's this particularly hilarious scene from The Office Season 2 Episode 4 that I wanted to present here, but I couldn't find it online. It would have given you an idea of one of the things that make me laugh uncontrollably.

My favourite character? I'm still in Season 2 where not all characters are fleshed out well. Jan's attractive though, Jim and Pam are conventional but endearing, and Michael Scott...Michael Scott's just great.

Hmmm

I met the Head of the Philosophy department a few days ago to seek the department's assistance on a problem I faced. The problem was that all 4 of Honours-level modules offered next semester were not interesting to me.

I said hi and said the following to her. I will first briefly state the problem. I will then lay out 5 options available to me. Some of those options require the department's assistance. Of those that don't, I will explain why they are undesirable options to me. I will then flesh the problem out further by replying to two replies one can make to my position. She laughed when I said that last bit.

I didn't get to do that however. When I got to option 4 she had already agreed to help me.

There are some people you meet in life who exude an aura of calm and steadiness. When they say things like "I will look into the matter", you immediately feel at ease. You feel secure. The Head was one such person. I guess the aura her many chinese philosophy books exuded contributed to the feelings I felt too. They made me feel I was in the company of a sage.

I recently found out a peer of mine lives in the block I used to live in, is a philosophy major, is a female, and plays computer games too. How cool is that? Why exactly is this cool? Of the people I know, few are philosophy majors. Of the few philosophy peers I know, few play games. Of the females I know, few play games. Basically, it's just a remarkable convergence of descriptions. Plus that feeling you get when you know, oh all this time you've been neighbours. A pity she only plays role-playing games. I've always wanted to belong to or form a stable community of people who plays the same games as I do. I will explain why that is so, and reveal more of my other ideals, some other time.