PinkDot! My Very First GLBT Event was a blast, I ran into people I knew, I met a whole bunch of people I hadn't known. I met up and had dinner with an old secondary school classmate whom I hadn't caught up with in years, and whom I just found out was gay today. That was awesome. Hung out or met up with ataraxistence, forochel, renovak, htenywg, glazzal, malyntine, the usual #awaresg folks (@missbossy, @ctham, @bruincoffee, @bionic_creative, @Wolfgang_, @wynlim, etc.), plus a whole lot of other friends-of-friends and assorted folks, including someone I'd hooked up with on OkCupid (hi Kai Er!)

In other words, it was awesome. A great day spent in the company of many like-minded, open-minded and/or openly gay folks. I can't really put the scope of it into words, so I will let my photos (and videos!) do the talking.



( PHOTOS, 20+ OF THEM )


And now, I will leave you with this. Due to my abominable videography skills, and the fact that I tried shooting all my videos by waving my camera above my head and hoping I would get something good, all the videos I took turned out disjointed, random, and worthy of Blair Witch-eqsue motion sickness fits. So I tried to salvage the scraps by snipping them together and pasting music over them. At 1AM. On iMovie. A program that I actually have no idea how to use.

I was tempted to use "Free" by the Lighthouse Family as a backing track, but the Glambert won out in the end.

My Flickr set for this event (with larger versions of all the photos here)
ETA!: The actual Pink Dot! Via Twitter
Son of ETA! Official PinkDot video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9gDazG4cC0 I'm in it @ 00:28 -- check out the stupid face I made!

Okay guys, THANK YOU so much for all the supremely helpful tips to my OMG JAPAN post, I promise I will get around to replying to all the comments there. This is just a flyby post to express my UTTER RAGE.

Background: Singapore's Nominated Members of Parliament are up for nomination again. These folks are not democratically elected, but rather, selected by the Parliament from various walks of life (not necessarily political), to sit alongside elected Members of Parliament and offer alternative opinions during parliamentary debate.

Current NMP Siew Kum Hong, who was the nifty guy who did his legal advice to the AWARE Old Guard (pro bono!) is up for renomination. Unfortunately, he appears to be the target of an astroturfing effort to smear his reputation and hurt his chances of re-nomination.

I got wind of this and left a comment supporting NMP Siew on the Government's online outreach board. It was a horribly phrased, terribly cliched little thing that sounded like a sixteen year-old wrote it for their O-level argumentative essay. Nevermind that. Half of the comments on that page were illogical, fear-mongering anti-gay screeds anyway.

Then I hit a particular stinker of a comment on that same page and totally lost my cool. I quote verbatim:

Jose Rodrigo
13 May 09 , 16:36 PM

Please stop demonising Christianity. Its not just Christian values, its Asian Values. One we grew up with in this country. Values that teach us love and family respect. Not everyone who oppose this evil are christians, we're decent, harworking, STRAIGHT Singaporeans who don't want to see our country corrupted by these buggers and see our children turned into sexual deviants.They're decent Muslims, Taoists, Buddhists, Hindus etec. They take a stand against this insidious evil called Homosexuality.
It is not intolerance, its right and wrong. We refuse to co-exist with these degenerates, just like a flock of sheep cannot co-exist with a wolf in the flock.

That said, an NMP who speaks for this alternate lifestyle cannot, and MUST NOT be supported.

WHAT. THE. FLYING-- WHAT. WHERE DO YOU EVEN BEGIN TO-- NO. NO.

Half a minute of finger-shaking rage later, I finally managed to compose myself enough to sit down and type out this reply:

JY Yang
13 May 09 , 17:08 PM

Dear Mr. Rodrigo,

Have you heard the words that are coming out of your (figurative) mouth? "Evil"? "Degenerates"? These are PEOPLE you are talking about, fellow human beings who just happened to have been born different from you. You are veering dangerously close to hate speech, my friend. Gay people are not going to eat your children, take away your job, or strip you of your right to marry. Why do you feel the need to persecute them so? If you want to talk about demonizing, I suggest you look in the mirror first.

Comments like yours perfectly exemplify why we need reasoned voices like NMP Siew's in Parliament, who speak up for those who would otherwise be dehumanized and stripped of their rights by the bigotry such as you are espousing.

I'm still angry. I'm still fuming, seriously. Asian values... Asian values my ASS. As @missbossy said on Twitter, ask him to go read Dream Of The Red Chamber and stop talking out of his ass. Or this bit in Wikipedia, particularly about early European explorers being shocked by the open acceptance of homosexuality in Asian cultures. Also, I'll note that Buddhism & Hinduism, both major Asian-origin religions here, do not consider homosexuality a sin. Unlike the Abrahamic religions imported from the West-- and even then there's not always consensus. Not even gonna touch the rest of the hate and the ignorance in that comment. Just--

FLAMES. ON THE SIDE OF MY FACE.


I'M GOING DOWN FOR PINKDOT COME HELL OR HIGH WATER

Last night I attended the first ever #awaresg_tweetup, which was also the first ever tweetup of its kind in Singapore. It even beat out the planned first-ever Singapore tweetup scheduled for next Thursday (sorry, guys, but we got there first, hah!)

As a tweetup should naturally be, this was a spontaneous event that was conceptualized and organized entirely on Twitter one night before (with its own hastag!) We met up at a beer place by the river, had laughs, beer, some food, more beer, some really good conversations, and then a little more beer. Topics of conversation ranged from MOE's suspension of Aware's CSE to our favorite #awaresg tweets from the EGM to how various American TV shows not just lost the plot and jumped the shark but also slaughtered it and made shark's fin soup with the results. Jokes about what a letdowns we all were, actually spending all our time talking to people instead of incessantly tweeting about the tweetup. A sudden inexplicable flurry of "PLEASE FONDLE MY BUM".

Did I already mention that there was a lot of beer?

Of course, it wasn't all beer and skittles, we discussed Important Stuff too. Stuff like migrating/transitioning the We Are Aware website post-EGM, now that it's no longer a Hub For A Revolution--and I will keep folks posted on that, as I have volunteered to helping out with it in my capacity. We are Serious People, about Serious Business (bum-fondling notwithstanding)!

Finally, as night marched towards next-day, we showed off our stunning math prowess by collecting so much excess money to foot bill that we ended up with a impromptu $70 donation to AWARE, as accepted by Martha, the exco member who joined us. ("Are you guys sure about this!?" "...er, yeah, we have no idea who's supposed to get that money back, so keep it, it'll help towards the $90,000 dollars.")

It was good times. It was really good times.

And here's the amazing thing about it. A month ago, even two weeks ago, I had no idea who any of these people were. I didn't even get to meet any of them during the EGM. All my interaction with them was through that baffling, delightful and often overwhelming you've-got-to-use-it-to-get-it phenomenon, Twitter. Yet within five minutes of meeting each other we were talking and throwing around jokes like old friends. We had so much in common, so much to talk about.

Looking at it now, it was almost as though Twitter and its hashtags had magically drawn together a whole bunch of people who were alike in spirit, and plonked them together IRL. Like the Internet has been doing since the dawn of its creation, but on a much faster, 140-character sized scale. Instant community, for the instant gratification generation (not defined by age, but by mindset). Just add beer.

If we were ever to invent rainbow sparkles that magically bestow the power of telepathy to all in its radius, I imagine the result would looks something like the Twittersphere.

After all, we can all appreciate a bum-fondling joke or two, can't we?



From top to bottom, L to R: @Scubear, @hanifn, @bruincoffee, @ctham, Jac, @gtuckerkellogg. Then @missbossy [the ringleader], @bionic_creative, yours truly, @germaine, Yen & Martha. Had to put on the flash because poor lighting required much steadier hands than the poor waiter had (it takes a lot of practice to figure out my camera on no flash)


ETA: And just because I can! Aware-related linkdump!
Callan/@ctham's tweetup post
How to win an EOGM and win lotsa friends An old post, but still full of delicious, delicious lulz.
Aware saga on Reuters!
Aware saga on the Economist!
Our Feminist Mentos featured on RollOn Friday, a UK blog for lawyers Got to love droll British humor-- sorry, humour.
Dogemperor's post on the WayangParty site (P.S. dogemperor, you were mentioned at the tweetup! You're famous in Singapore now! Ha!)

I have decided that, come hell or high water, skipped Japanese lessons and what not, I will be going for PinkDot, the local Freedom To Love! LGBT support event that's happening next Saturday. It's not a protest, it's not a demonstration, it's just a gathering of people who want to show they believe that people should be free to love whomever they want, regardless of sexual orientation.



I want to do this, badly, and the reason is several-pronged. I suppose I can trace it back to the Aware saga, a large part of which became about homosexuality, and the acceptance thereof. I was heartened, really heartened, by the groundswell of support from people who came out to say that yes, there's nothing wrong with homosexuality, yes, we should be telling our kids in school that it's not a bad thing to be gay.

At the same time, I'm disheartened by the number of voices that I've heard saying that it's wrong to teach children about homosexuality, it's wrong to imply that it's not normal, it's wrong to even bring it up for discussion in the first place. It's not part of our accepted social fabric. Bringing it up will disturb the status quo.

That, at least, seems to be the line echoed by the establishment here. After the Aware EGM was over, after the ruckus has settled down a little, the Ministry of Education suspended all its external sexuality programmes, including the contentious Aware one that was accused of teaching "pro-gay" values. Its official reason, given in a letter to the press, was that part of it was inappropriate. In verbatim, I quote:

In particular, some suggested responses in the instructor guide are explicit and inappropriate, and convey messages which could promote homosexuality or suggest approval of premarital sex.

Promoting homosexuality. Just like promoting being Chinese, or being black. It's not a choice, but lots of people here don't get it. They think that by shielding their children from the fact that homosexuality exists, they will be able to protect them from catching the gay virus, or whatever they think it is causes people to be gay.

It's the sort of thing I can't stand. The misconceptions, the refusal to know all the facts, the "let's sweep this under the rug and not talk about it because it makes me uncomfortable". I cannot really blame the ministry for doing what they did, because that is the way a lot of people think.

But that is why I must go for this. To reaffirm to myself that there are lots of people here who aren't like that. To comfort myself with the knowledge that no matter how uphill the battle for acceptance seems to be, we are not alone. We will be taking steps. Baby steps.

I will be wearing this pink #awaresg shirt there, and will most probably be meeting up with a few others from the #awaresg Twitter hashtag-turned-channel-thingamajig. 4.30-6.00PM, Saturday, Hong Lim Park, FOC, all are welcome regardless of orientation. Can I convince any of you guys to come with me?

ETA: Some blogs.
From Catherine Lim, writer.
Open letter to MOE, written by a very eloquent student
Alvin shall not be ignorant about homosexuality anymore (click on the 'l' to read the post)

Back again! The shenanigans never come to an end on this journal.

First off, I have to link this lovely video that's been going around: a summation of Saturday (the events of which I'm still slowly getting over, btw). It captures a bit of the movie-ending feel I got when I was at the EGM myself, IMHO.



Thanks to everyone who left comments on my Aware-related posts-- I know I haven't gotten back to them, even though there weren't a lot of them. I fail that way! I'll reply to them when I can. In the meantime, though, the madness continues...

According to some links dug up by discerning local netizens, the crazy that is Thio Su Mien has apparently far greater than we've given her credit for, and I'm not even talking about her running a creepy basement church from which she apparently cures cancer or something. Forget "I'm on page 73", according our self-styled Feminist Mentor, the SARS virus was apparently divine punishment for the use of abortion. Taken from an article from The ElijahList, verbatim:

Last February, a USSPN Washington Regional Coordinator was present during a report given by an international lawyer from Singapore, Thio Su Mien (Su), who is gifted in prophetic intercession and healing. She shared about some of the things going on in the area of Indonesia before the tsunami.

She explained how the SARS virus hit Singapore a year prior to the earthquake/tsunami. The Lord alerted the intercessors and told them that if they did not get on their faces and repent on behalf of their nation's involvement in abortion as the contraceptive of choice, that the land would suffer from His hand of judgment.

Because they saw how devastating the SARS virus had been, the intercessors immediately took action to seek His mercy and forgiveness. Singapore was not touched by the earthquake disaster.

Hear that? THE FEMINIST MENTOR SAVED US FROM THE INDONESIAN TSUNAMI! And not, you know, the Indonesian peninsula or physical geography or anything! It's a miracle! Hallelujah praise the Lord!

This, however, perfectly explains why she could go on record at a press conference basically saying that gay women are gay because their daddies touched them when they were kids. It's not because she's a power-hungry fanatic trying to stir up fear and disgust, it's because she's plain BATSHIT INSANE!

Aren't you guys glad someone who thinks that the fucking SARS virus was a result of WOMEN HAVING ABORTIONS isn't in charge of the biggest women's rights group in this country? We dodged a fucking bullet there, my friends.

(Also, counting down until she starts saying that swine flu is the result of those OMG EVIL LESBIANS and their unrepentant supporters at Aware. Just you wait!)

Well, it could be worse, at any rate. She could be like this guy who openly admitted to fucking a mule on national television. And a watermelon. And thinks it's normal behavior for everybody who grew up on a farm. And... no wait one motherfucking second HOW THE FUCK DO YOU FUCK A WATERMELON JESUS TAPDANCING CHRIST. Oh screw it, forget, how, WHY WOULD ANYBODY EVEN WANT TO FUCK A WATERMELON?!





I got nothing, man, nothing.

So, by now, everybody who's been following the Aware issue is already I don't think there's anything more I can contribute to the Aware reports that aren't already out there. There are excellent transcripts from Wayang Party, videos and coverage from The Online Citizen, blog posts from everyone, and tons and tons of videos, photos and tweets all flying around the Internet. I can't possibly add anything more useful to that.

What I can do, however, is write a long-winded, hyperbolic, needlessly-dramatic and certainly very backwards-looking-rose-tinted photoessay-cum-personal-account of my day at the EOGM, complete with photos randomly taken in black-and-white because I was having too much fun with my camera's color filters.

So have at it!

THE LONG ROAD IN
I met thurisaz83 sometime around 12.30PM, half an hour after registration had opened. By that time the queue had already snaked its way through the fourth floor of the Suntec convention center, folded itself into crenulations, spilled down the stairs and crept across the third floor. Hundreds had shown up to join the queue hours before the counters were open-- typical of Singaporeans!


The queue just got longer and longer as it got closer to 2PM. In the end, the EGM was pushed back to 2.30 just so that everybody could be seated. All in all, the estimate was that some 3,000 or so people turned up. It was a massive, massive event. Supporters of the Josie Lau's exco were in red shirts, while volunteers from We Are Aware were wearing white shirts, and handing out signs, flowers, and bottles of water.

There was a separate, shorter line for people who wanted to sign up on the spot and then join the EGM, a route which htenywg took. Not sure how many new members Aware got that day but I figure it must have been a few hundred folks at least.

We managed to get into the hall somewhere around 1PM. By then the front third had already filled up, and there were still hundreds more to be seated. The non-voting associate members--men, non-Singaporean/PR women and girls between 15-18--were separated from the voting members on the far side of the conference hall, and given hard white plastic chairs to sit on (instead of the plush green ones that we got). We thought it was rather unkind, and one of the first things the old guard did after declaring Josie Lau's exco ousted was to invite the associate members over--to enthusiastic cheering on both sides.

( INSIDE THE HALLS )

( PUSHING FOR THE VOTE )

( THE LONG WAIT )

( VICTORY! )

ETA: Forgot to add, and perhaps am too late with this, but bigger versions of each photo are available @ my Flickr photostream. Enjoy!

It came, it went, and things will never be the same again. In other words, it was epic. EPIC.

For those who are not in Singapore and wasn't following the news, here's a quick summary of what happened:

• The EGM drew a couple thousand people and lasted about six hours!
• The new exco were voted out 1414 to 761(ish)! And the old guard was nominated in to take their place.
• Many, many awesome people--both women and men--stood up and made their intelligent and passionate viewpoints heard.
• #awaresg made a #1 trending topic on Twitter :D :D :D It even beat out #swineflu and X-Men: Origins!

Personally, I had a great time. I was there with thurisaz83 and htenywg, and I ran into people I have not seen in years, it was amazing. It's days like these when I have to go "God damn but it's really a small world here in Singapore!" (I think the high turnout of young graduate women helped a lot. Lots and lots of NUS alumni there.)

I have never been prouder to be a Singaporean woman than this day and this night.

Photos, videos (maybe), and a more in-depth account of it tomorrow. For now though, I will retire to bed to rest my aching eyes and head, glad and proud that justice, civic society and common sense have prevailed.

The Aware saga continues with MORE shenanigans. Fantastique!

First, earlier this week members got an email announcing that the venue for the Extraordinary General Meeting had been changed from the First Choice Auditorium in Toa Payoh to Hall 2 for the Singapore Expo. Fair enough, a crazy number of people have signed up in the past couple of weeks, and they need a big fat venue. Not much of a bigger fatter venue than a hall at the Singapore Expo, except maybe the National Stadium, and that's under construction.

But then it turns out that the new EGM venue is right smack beside a giant Christian convention comprising of 40+ churches, co-organized by Church Of Our Savior. The COOS have been actively encouraging their flock to sign up for this convention AND join Aware.

It doesn't take a genius to add two and two together, just saying.

If you think your blood pressure isn't high enough by this point, here's a PDF being circulated by the new exco detailing the pro-gay agenda of the old Aware, and how they're all OMG EVIL and doing all these EVIL, HORRIBLE THINGS. Somewhere perhaps, Karl Rove is sitting in a high-backed chair, his fingers steepled, as he intones "you have learned well, my disciples".

You know what I honestly think? The COOS' strongarm tactics are going to backfire against them. Even if they survive the vote of no confidence by sheer minion numbers overwhelming that of the concerned public (which is looking more and more likely by the day), I think they have ultimately doomed themselves.

It's no secret that the S'porean Govt has a very vested interest in keeping Singapore secular to all appearances (*cough* couldn't be a thorn in the side of our big and racially/culturally different neighbors now could we *cough*). If they won't even let non-religious opposition parties gain power in the country, what do you think they would think of ambitious, politically-powerful church groups? They are, without a doubt, monitoring this coup of a secular rights advocacy group very, very closely. And say what you want about our establishment, but dumb they are not. I think the COOS is starting to tread on thin ice.

For one, it's clear that the new exco are not gaining favor with the establishment here. Although the official statement from The Govt. was "Private matter, we will not interfere", and the real big-wigs have remained mum on their opinions, there have been encouraging signs: Minister of Community Development, Youth & Sport  Dr Vivian Balakrishnan urged for inclusiveness and a "rainbow coalition", Senior Minister of State for Education S. Iswaran defended the school sex-ed programmes that have come under fire from the new exco, and the Ministry of Education put out a glorious, glorious letter that was essentially a huge "fuck you" to Dr. Thio, insinuating that she was making shit up and would you please pony up with some fact to support the bullshit. (Seriously, verbatim: "MOE has contacted Dr Thio Su Mien to seek clarifications and facts to substantiate her claims." BURRRRRN)

Not exactly glowing endorsements.

Singapore, I think, is becoming increasingly less traditionally conservative, especially as the rest of the world progresses towards acceptance of gay rights. While it may be 20, 30 years before we even think about legalizing gay marriage, homophobia is pretty much falling out of vogue, especially with the establishment. Organizations such as the COOS will be finding their radical views less and less accepted by the man on the street, particularly as the current generation of Web 2.0, information-saavy kids grow up and come into their own. Which is something that gives me hope, despite all the gloom and doom.

It'll be interesting to see how this develops. Definitely interesting.

(Also, I am LOLing heartily over Dr Vivian B's co-opting of "rainbow coalition", as I approve of anything that reminds me of NOM and their ridiculous, blatantly fake "OMG THE GAY STORM IS COMING" ads. Particularly Stephen Colbert's winning parody.)

One more before I go. A lovely video from the old guard:


Love that they've gotten people from all races to participate in this one. Sign up. Turn up. And vote. ♥

ETA: EGM venue changed yet again! Now in Suntec! My inner skeptic and egotist? Is telling me that this was done after WayangParty's exposé blew the new exco's cover open all over Twitter and the blogosphere. How will this affect events? I have no idea, man. I shall consult my Magic 8 ball... "cannot say now"? BAH, FLAKER.

This is a continuation of my post from yesterday, about the ongoing power struggle in Aware, which has very quickly turned into a raging Christian-fundies-versus-sane-people movement online. I spent a large part of yesterday reading links, posting to Facebook/Twitter and talking to people about this subject. Here's a quick summary of online-things I found yesterday which I think an important read.

A bunch of spotlights on the shenanigans of the new guard: stir thy outrage!

• An excellent post by dogemperor, on the truth behind the Church Of Our Savior: Steeplejack of AWARE (women's org) in Singapore by Joel's Army church
• Particularly rage-inducing email also linked in above post, in which a pastor from CooS urges his flock to join Aware: COOS Pastor Shawn Tay rallying troops to support new exco at EGM in the name of “Singapore” (this email made me gag in particular. "Responsible females"? Could you use language that is any more offensive?)
• New exco attempts to lock old guard out of Aware office: Showdown at AWARE office over lock change by new exco
• Aware's centre managed fired for "insubordination", replaced by CooS member: Aware's public education officer quits ("quits"? She was FIRED, there wasn't any choice in it)

In interviews with the Straits Times (Singaporean context: largest, oldest and most respected English daily paper), the new exco have denied that their power grab was planned beforehand, and vehemently denied that their church had got anything to do with it at all. Yes, I'll believe that. Nope, no significance to the fact that six of the new exco are all members of the same church, none at all. After all, they didn't know each other from before! And the fact that new center manager they appointed is also a member of the church? Nyet, also must be coincidink. Next thing we know, they'll be selling us title deeds to the Benjamin Sheares bridge for fundraising!

Links that, at least, give a glimmer of hope:

• Insightful op-ed from Straits Times: Aware Saga: A new militancy emerges (a must-read!)
  
• Sign the petition! Even if you can't go for the EOGM, even if you're not Singaporean, you can show your support for the old guard by joining the 1300+ signatures here: Save AWARE! Gender equality for all!
• Online drive to cancel DBS credit cards in protest against new Aware president Josie Lau, who heads the marketing team for said credit cards: Mr Wang Says So: AWARE - And Why You Should Cancel Your DBS Credit Cards
  Note that I don't condone this: as a form of protest, I think it hits the wrong people (DBS, who had nothing to do with this and in fact protested--first privately, and then very publically-- Josie Lau's intention to head Aware). And I honestly don't think it's right to jeopardize Josie Lau's job just because we don't agree with something she's done. My take on it is that it runs counter to everything this protest is about! OTOH, it's good to know what other people are doing in protest. At the very least, it shows just how passionate folks are about this issue. And that's not entirely a bad thing.
• Fresh from the Internets! No! Don't cancel your DBS credit card! This surfaced on Twitter while I was typing out this post, and agrees that canceling cards is not really the sort of protest we want to go for. Good.
  

So what did I take away from all this? It's not all that easy to sum up. I can say that the bottom line is this: the words and the actions of the new exco, particularly the juicy tidbits that came to light yesterday, have completely destroyed any chance for their redemption in my eyes. It's not even a Christian-fundies-vs-gay-rights issue anymore. At this point, I wouldn't care if these women hailed from the Church Of The Flying Spaghetti Monster or the Communist Party of North Korea: what they have done is sleazy, sleazy, sleazy. I care about the rights of women, and these power-grabbing, lock-changing, despotic closed-door shenanigans are most emphatically not the actions of a group that hold the best interests of all women at heart.

The fight for gender equality is still very much relevant in these supposedly-enlightened days where women can vote and a black man can sit in the White House. In a poll published in the Straits Times today, 48% of respondents said that the Aware issue was "women fighting amongst themselves". Women fighting amongst themselves, is that it? If the situation were different and it were one group of men snatching power from another, would people on the street dismiss it as "men fighting amongst themselves"? Hint: just pick a history book, any history book, and look inside. How many of those male-instigated and male-led conflicts are described as "men fighting amongst themselves"? You got it right, none. I quote, from the ST article, a certain bank consultant Lim Boon Heng (aged 42) who was interviewed: "I think this issue is about women who are overzealous about a certain issue. They are trying to use their existing network to influence the public." Whoah nelly. Psssst Mr Lim, I don't know if anyone's told you yet, but your MCP is showing. You don't have to thank me.

The madness needs to stop. Aware still has a long ways to go in fighting for gender equality here, and the underhanded actions of the new exco have not just thrown suspicion upon their intentions; they have tainted the good name and standing of a 25-year-old organization that has been doing important and excellent work. Allowing them to get away with this would be to the detriment of women all over Singapore.

If you want to find out more, or find out how you can take part in the vote of no confidence against the new exco next Saturday (2nd May!), Save Aware is an excellent resource! A couple of my friends have actually expressed concern over joining Aware--as one of them said, "What happens if the vote fails? I don't want my money supporting the new exco". And I agree that this is an issue (one I didn't even think of!), and it's a veritable large-scale Prisoner's Dilemma: if you join the organization and the vote fails, the money will be in the hands of the new exco. Yet the vote is more likely to fail if like-minded people don't show up in large numbers and vote. So what to do? Ultimately, it's up to the individual to decide. Myself, I'm banking on sanity prevailing, and the vote succeeding. I've already thrown my lot in with Aware, at any rate, and even if the vote doesn't go through I will continue to fight, and rally people to fight, in whatever ways I can.

It was khaosworks who first brought this to my attention via a Facebook link, and I've spent the day being rather upset by it. I've posted it to ontd_political already, but I feel I must post it here as well.

Okay. Let's start with some background, first, for those who are not Singaporeans. About a month ago, the local (Singaporean) chapter of AWARE, an advocacy group for women's rights, had its AGM. A whole slew of new members turned up, overwhelmed the old guard by sheer numbers, and voted an almost-entirely new executive committee into power.

The new exco began by cutting out older and more experienced members from leadership and subcommittee positions. They weren't being open on what their agenda was, and what it was they were planning to do with the organization. Keen-eyed local bloggers noted that the new exco had previously published anti-homosexual opinions in public forums, there was a lot of speculation that the new exco was trying to subvert the purpose of AWARE by turning it into an anti-gay group.

Now? They've come clean with their intentions. In a press conference, the organizer of the coup, senior layer Thio Su Mien, explicitly stated that she was "disturbed by what she saw as signs that [Aware] was promoting lesbianism and homosexuality", and was moved to take action against "Aware's attempts to redefine marriage and families".

First of all, that is such utter BULLSHIT. Aware is a women's rights group, which campaigns for the welfare of all women, including--you guessed it! LESBIAN WOMEN! Just because Aware is accepting of gay women--a group of women who face more discrimination than heterosexual women-- does not mean that they are ...what was it? "Promoting lesbianism". What the fuck does that even mean? Promoting being gay? That's like saying they're promoting being black. Or being Indian. People don't just wake up and decide that they're gay, FFS. Get a clue, we aren't living in the 1950s any longer!

IN ADDITION. The way she says it, it's like helping out lesbian women is the only thing Aware does. WRONG, TRY AGAIN. Aware is a secular group that aims to help all women--whether in school, the workplace or at home. I wasn't even a member until last week and I know this. That these people have decided to co-opt a women's rights group to push their decided bigoted agenda is both horrifying and infuriating.

Yeah, I haven't hit the bottom of the barrel of stupidity yet. I'll let the soundbites speak for themselves. Presenting: the opinions of Dr. Thio:


ON AWARE'S SEXUALITY PROGRAMME



AN ENTIRE GENERATION OF LESBIANS?


REFOCUSING ON ORIGINAL PURPOSE OF AWARE



There are so many things that are wrong with her statements that I don't even know where to begin. Her comments are such a black hole of close-minded bigotry and "I DO NOT THINK YOU KNOW WHAT THAT WORD MEANS", approaching them with any semblance of logic will cause instant collapse. Bad analogy, I know, but I'm so angry I don't quite care.

Here, have some links!

The Original Source
Sidebar (speech nuggets of WTFery!)
More background on the entire incident
Post I made to ONTD_P, full of incoherent rage!
It's been Boinged too! Interesting take on it from an outsider's perspective



The existing members of Aware, however, are not just sitting by and idly doing nothing. There's going to be an extraordinary General Meeting on the 2nd of May where there will be a petition for a vote of no confidence in the new exco. All female members, old or new, are welcome! Membership for Aware is SG$40 for a year, $25 if you're a student. You can sign up at their website or at their offices.

I joined Aware last week and I will definitely be going for the EOGM. So, Singaporean sisters! If equality for all women matters to you, and you have the time and money to spare, do consider joining Aware and making your voice heard at the EOGM! I'll be there, at the very least. Join me!

Some backstory. I RP Ribbons Almark on the #g00tweets Gundam00 Twitter RP. We get to talking about skittles a lot. Not the candy, the Innovators. Sometime during one of our exchanges I was suddenly compelled to go to Skittles.com and check them out. Which was when I discovered that the Skittles.com homepage had been transformed into the Twitter search page for the word "Skittles" and that ALL OUR SKITTLE-RELATED TWEETS WERE SHOWING UP ON IT.**

Several hours of clicking on links and pictures later, I had developed a horrifying craving for Skittles. (GOD DAMN BUT THOSE INSIDIOUS MARKETING TACTICS WORK.)

So before I headed for Japanese class this week I went Skittles-hunting in town. I managed to corner a packet of the damn things in a 7-11 and made away with them. As we walked into a narrow, crowded underpass roped into half to manage the traffic flow, I giggled to my sister, "Who needs food when you have Skittles?"

And just then, as we were crammed into the crowd at the barrier's edge, next to the stream of folks going in the opposite direction...


A RANDOM SETSUNA WALKED PAST ME.


... ..."WTF?!?!?!"

It was a random group of cosplayers; aside from the Setsuna in the red scarf and the mad spiky hair, there was at least one character from Bleach amongst their number. Walking around the heart of town in full costume. I have no idea what they were doing, but I very much regret that the crowds were moving too fast in either direction for me to go up to the Setsuna cosplayer and intone, "SETSUNA F. SEIEI". Or, as my sister suggested, "INNOVATOR". Before running away giggling like the madwoman that I am.

Missed chances, missed chances!

But at least I didn't miss the chance to do a Skittle and gunpla/gashapon photoshoot after I got home.





In case you're asking: yes, I nommed all the Skittles in those pictures after that. No, I obviously don't give a flying fuck about poisoning from lead in paints. IT IS CRIMINAL TO HAVE SKITTLES AND NOT EAT THEM, OKAY?


**(Screencaps of Skittles.com or it didn't happen!)

I've had a smashingly radical couple of weeks out here, with a bucketful of photos to show for it.

But rather than overwhelm my already straining bandwidth by posting them all, I'm going to post my lovely ECUs of food. FOOD SPAM AHOY!

Photos here were taken from:

• My sister's 21st birthday gig with relatives @ Sakura restaurant(20090221)
• The first Singapore Writers' meetup I attended (20090224)
• Dinner w/friends @ Sushi Tei (20090227)
• Healthy Potluck! @ the office (20090302)
• Dinner w/colleagues @ Kuishinbo (20090304)
• Karen's wedding lunch (20090307)
• Amazing (AMAAAAZING) swing session + dinner with thurisaz83 and her friend and her friend's friends (20090307)

Plus there's a random photo of a huge chocolate bar.

Ready to set your mouth watering....?




Waistline is going to pay for all that PIGGING OUT. Weeks and weeks of monster workouts in the gym, here I come!

I've had my 3G-enabled iPhone for about half a year now, and I've gotten used to having the Internet in my pocket: instant access to email, IM, Twitter and LJ no matter where I am in the country, even sixteen feet underground on a moving subway train. Nifty? You bet. I've sent work emails while on the bus to the train station, browsed ontd_political on the cycle machine at the gym for breaking news during the election season, even carried out 2 IM conversations while jaywalking across a busy 6-lane traffic junction. I've done lots of neat stuff.

But it was today that I realized the iPhone's true, gobsmacking potential for awesome.

The backstory: in the morning my boss pounced on me and announced, out of the blue, "Around four-ish today we're going to our partner studio to discuss the project we'll be working on, you and I." Fine and well. I'd been there before, not a big deal. 'Cept for the part where I had exactly six hours to jazz up the project pitch I'd written a week before so that it would be presentable.

But I pulled it off. Skin of my teeth. Sent the final document to print at four on the dot. Breathed a sigh of relief, started packing my stuff in order to hit the road.

Then Bossman came up to me and said, "Alright, you'll be joining us at the studio for a short while to pitch your story. After that, you'll be taking this to meet my wife at Dempsey Road for another project meeting." And he handed me a mockup sample of a book we wanted to put into printing.

Meet her what where?

He explained in the cab on the way to the studio. Botanical Gardens, British embassy, Gleneagles Hospital... somewhere in that vicinity. I nodded. I knew the general area. Big fucking wilderness somewhere in between a nature reserve and downtown. I have a hard enough time navigating urban areas with right-angle roads and plenty of landmarks, much less remote suburbs with road layouts like birds' intestines. Just great. I got the bosses' wife's number, figuring that I could call her in the very likely event I got lost on the way.

We met up with the studio guys, I pitched my thing, it all went well. 5.30 my boss said, "I think you'd better go. You know the place, right? It's at Dempsey Hill... some place called Jones The Grocer."

No, I didn't know the place, and I had no idea why there would be a meeting in a grocer's place, either. Fantastic. Full of misgivings, I hailed a cab from the street. "I'm going to Dempsey Hill," I told the driver. "Someplace called Joe The Grocer, I think."

He frowned at me. "Dempsey Road?"

"No, Dempsey Hill. Er, it's near the Botanical Gardens, I think."

"Oh. Okay."

I got in, clutching the book mockup, and he drove off.

Half an hour later, as the taxi idled in a snarl of traffic just off the Botanical Gardens, the driver said to me, pointing out the windscreen: "Look, it's all jammed up down here, all the cars trying to turn into Dempsey Road. It might take another half-hour just to get all the way in. Why don't I drop you here, and you can walk right up? Dempsey Road is just up that hill, and you'll get there faster walking." And he waved his hand in the direction of the window, where a path by the road led up a slope crested by a car park.

I got out of the taxi. See, the thing was, I did recognize the place. I had been there once, when we had a joint company dinner at some fancy Indian restaurant with the folks from Animax over the LaMB project. At that time, I had been in a producer's car, and he had known where we were going. And we had gotten lost on Dempsey Hill, because the area was a labyrinth of tiny curving interconnecting roads all labeled "DEMPSEY RD", peppered with dozens upon dozens of chi-chi little eateries and specialty shops snuggled against each other. Finding the hill was not an issue. Finding the exact spot we were supposed to go on the hill itself? Not so easy.

I dialed my bosses' wife. No answer. I remembered what my boss said: she would be starting the meeting without me, because of my pitch. She wouldn't be picking up the phone.

So. There I was. Alone, standing in the middle of the road with my book mockup and my lousy sense of direction and not even a clue as to whether I was to meet them in a cafe cleverly named Joe The Grocer's or an actual grocer's shop. Fuck. It looked like I was screwed. Dead. Done for.

And then I thought: Hang on, doesn't my iPhone come with a Maps application? The one I thought I'd never get to use?

I slid the app panels over and tapped on the Maps icon. Splash screen came up: "Maps would like to make use of your current location." Another tap: ALLOW.

A target icon flashed up for a few minutes, and then: a big blue dot on a satellite picture of the big fucking wilderness. Why hello there GoogleMaps. I switched to pure Map view, and here I was, on an unlabelled road parallel to Holland Road, and there it was, the fabled tangled multi-tongued self-consuming ouroboros of Dempsey Road, not a hundred meters ahead.

I began walking, and as I walked, the big blue dot started to move. In the direction away from Dempsey Road.

"This thing," I said to myself in wonder, "live updates itself! Holy crap!"

I reoriented the map in my mind, and started walking the right way, towards Dempsey Road. iPhone before me as I tracked my progress, I felt like an extra on the set of a Star Trek film, holding up my tricorder as scanned the vicinity for Joe The Grocer's.

Up the main fork of Dempsey road. A welcome fountain, with dozens of little signs pointing the way to various eateries. A tiny blue one read: JONES THE GROCER. Fine, Jones the Grocer, not Joe. I had remembered the name wrongly, with a hearty "fuck you" in the direction of Joe The Plumber. The blue sign had a little arrow that seemed to be pointing in no particular direction at all, so I continued down the road in hopes that Jones The Grocer would eventually show up.

Five hundred meters later and coming to a curve in the road that vanished somewhere in the horizon, I realized that with the dozens of shops in the area, I might take hours on foot to comb the hill and find the one I wanted. There was no-one around to ask for directions, except for the occasional passing car. And even if they knew what I was talking about, I was lousy with remembering directions.

I looked down at my iPhone screen, and saw a big blue button labelled "Directions". And thought, ah, fuck it. What have I got to lose?

I dropped a pin on my current location, fired up Directions, and in the "To:" field, filled up JONES THE GROCER. Not even an address. Just a painfully generic name. With a shrug I hit ENTER and sent my request flying out to the wide world with its million places that might be associated with "JONES" and "GROCER". My wild shot in the dark.

The map came back. A red pin appeared. A thick purple line, down the roads. And the words: "408 m 1 minute".


Follow the purple brick road! [1]

I realized at that moment that my iPhone, like Jack Sparrow's magic compass or Sophie's ring in Howl's Moving Castle, was showing me, live, a guide from where I was to the place I wanted. Every single step of the way.

I started walking. My blue dot started moving down the purple path. Down, down, down, until I came to a very Frostian fork in the road. I started down the one on the left, and I watched as the blue dot wandered off the purple path and into the grey unmarked wilderness-- a side road so insignificant it didn't even merit showing on a street directory. I went back, took the road not travelled, and the blue dot resumed its journey down the Road To Jones The Grocer.

"Holy fuck," I said, lost for all words save sacred profanity. "Holy flying fuck."


Lay on, MacPhone!

The walk, in fact, took me five minutes, as the instructions given had actually been meant for a car. Tapping on the pedestrian symbol gave you the exact same thing, except that the route was labelled "408m 4 minutes". 1 minute for photography. No separate paths for pedestrians-- everyone was expected to drive in. Too crazy to make it in on foot. Apparently.

Jones The Grocer turned out to be a fancy affair that sold both light meals and provisions, situated in a cluster of outlets at one of Dempsey's many stump ends. I walked in, triumphant, to find the bosses' wife in animated conversation. She seemed to delighted to see me. "Oh, you managed to find your way in here!"

"I did! I followed my iPhone's instructions!"

"I didn't know it could do that."

"Well, neither did I. I'm really impressed."

And I truly was.

You can only imagine what this discovery means for a geographically-challenged halfwit like myself. I don't have to go crazy finding places that are hard to get to anymore. Like middle-of-fucking-nowhere industrial complex offices. Or thurisaz83's house, one semi-detached in a labyrinthine estate of hundreds, fondly nicknamed "Longkang (rural storm drain) Land" for its refusal to be easily navigated. I've memorized the way in now, but the first time I tried finding the way myself I only remembered the first half of the route correctly, and spent half an hour wandering the inroads of the estate in a daze of confusion before thurisaz83 managed to rescue me.

Had I had my iPhone then, I might have saved everyone the trouble. Drop location pin. Type in 33 [ADDRESS REDACTED]. Follow purple line. Reach destination.

I thought that with my background as a science major, fully trained to work in a research lab, I would cease to be amazed by technological advancements. Nothing would be too wondrous for me, I would have seen it all, cloning and molecular histochemistry and nanotech.

And then things like these happen.

Of course, if I were a real child of the Web 2.0 I would have been firing up my Twitter client and live-updating everyone with my progress as I made my discovery. As it were, unfortunately, I was too busy squeeing "OMG OMG I'M NOT GOING TO GET LOST OMG!!!!!1!!!!oneoneone!!!" to remember. Darn!


In conclusion: Google + iPhone == EPIC LEGENDARY WIN. I was having a pretty awesome day already, but this? Made it a million times better.




[1] The blue dot looks like it's off the road, but it's really because I was under the foliage at the side of the road, so that sunlight wouldn't mess with the iPod screen for photographing. Sensitive GPS is sensitive. Also, if you'll notice, the entire clusterfuck of roads there constitutes the existence of Dempsey Road in all its plurality. Excellent stuff.

[2] Also Relevant: Lyrics to Immaculate Machine's Dear Confessor, where I got the title from. Refer also to this post, I have the song for D/L. It's fucking awesome.

Man, I had a shitton of stuff to post over the weekend, but I spent practically the whole of Saturday clearing random shit out of my room, so now my scheduling is all screwed up and I have to work and visit relatives tomorrow. Fuck that.

But at least I managed to make this! Lame as it is! The idea had been in my head for weeks but I only got the time to start on it yesterday.

It's kind of lame, but ehhhhhh. I do not have any more time left to fix it.


I'll be perfectly frank, the only reason why I actually went on and did this, despite time constraints and shit, was so that I could mail it to my friends and colleagues and break my producer's brain. I'll have to go into further details in a separate post.

But yes! Here's wishing you a happy Lunar New Year if you celebrate it, and a great day at work/school if you don't. 恭喜发财，万事如意！♥

I have to thank pigtail78 for pointing this out to me and spicing up an otherwise dreary day.

Hint: the source for this is not The Onion. Emphasis mine:

Policemen Beat A Retreat

KUALA LUMPUR: A police beat base located in the Chow Kit area of downtown Kuala Lumpur has been shut down because the “presence of criminals could make it unsafe” for police officers.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said the beat base was located in a dirty area where police faced the possibility of being exposed to contagious diseases.

The presence of criminals also posed a threat to the safety of police officers.

He said this in a written reply to Dr Lo’ Lo’ Mohamad Ghazali (PAS - Titiwangsa).

Dr Lo’ Lo’ had asked why the beat base along Jalan Haji Taib was closed considering that vice activities were high in the area.

She also wanted to know what kind of action had been taken by the police to curb vice activities in the Chow Kit area.

Syed Hamid said police were in the midst of finding a new location for the beat base.

In an immediate response, City Chief Police Officer Deputy Comm Datuk Mohd Sabtu Osman said the beat base was not shut down but relocated to bigger premises near Jalan Raja Bot.

“We moved there to provide better service as we have increased our manpower and need more space,” he said.

Dr Lo’ Lo’s question was the 30th in the Order Paper and hence did not get a mention in the House during the daily one-hour Question Time.

However, Dr Mohd Hatta Ramli (PAS - Kuala Krai) managed to raise the matter when he interjected during Azmin Ali’s (PKR - Gombak) speech during the debate on Budget 2009.

Dr Mohd Hatta said that if the police themselves felt unsafe in a beat base, it would be even worse for the public.

“Maybe it would be better to put the beat base in the army barracks.”

Dr Mohd Hatta then managed to raise the issue again during his own debate on Budget 2009 saying that Syed Hamid’s response was irrational and hoped he would clarify his written answer as this was not the kind of police the people wanted.

“The police are there to make a place safe. If they themselves are scared and run away, how can we hope for others to want to be there?” he asked.

Dr Mohd Hatta said if the place was dirty, it was up to the police to organise gotong-royong** activities to clean it up.

He added the only kind of contagious disease in the area was sexually transmitted, adding that getting infected was a matter of choice.

Source

**gotong-royong: a community clean-up effort where people get together to clean up a place, according to pigtail78

I DON'T EVEN HAVE TO ADD ANYTHING TO THAT, THE STUPID SPEAKS FOR ITSELF.

I know Malaysian politicians can say some really daft things sometimes, but man oh man, this has got to take the cake. As pointed out by pigtail78 the Malaysian bloggers are having a field day with this; although I do hope this does not end with tears and arrests.

But it's really not fair, Malaysians get to have fun with all their lulzy politics while here in Singapore our political scene is about as interesting as paint drying on the wall of a lecture theater in the Department of Mathematics. It's a sad fact that all our mainstream politicians are too well-vetted and trained to say such daft things on record, and the nutjobs tend to get themselves sued into oblivion. What we have, essentially, is a one party system that works perfunctorily, but is also boring as all hale.

Then again, I suppose there's a reason "may you live in interesting times" is hurled as a curse, and not a blessing.

still doesn't get us a "get out of jail free" card when the US economy tanks though

Just one more thing before I go. I use Macs, and I run the Word Of The Day screensaver on them, seeing that since I'm a writer and all I should really actively try to expand my vocabulary, you know?

Well. According to my Mac at work, here, apart from "magneto", is the Word Of The Day:



Thank you and good night!

HEY EVERYBODY, GUESS WHAT?






Okay, okay, I kid, i actually 'shopped it. Apple's cool, but they're not that cool. STILL:



Dad and I picked up our 3G iPhones from the Commcenter today, the day they were launched -- I had to take a half day off because our appointment was in the middle of the freaking day on a workday (a Friday, but still a workday nonetheless).

On the other hand, we got on the Priority List because Dad's a sales director in an Apple distributor, meaning that the moment I arrived at the Commcenter I was whisked upstairs to pick up my order right away, bypassing the crenulated coil of suckers who had to wait in line.

Later we went back downstairs and walked alll the way down past the line huddled in shelter from the rain, our little black bags declaring I'VE GOT iPHONE, NEENER NEENER WE'VE GOT OURS AND YOU DON'T.

It was fucking evil.

(And also, glorious. Because it was evil.)

I got the black 16GB version. And I named it Virtue. Just because.






There it is with it's er, lock on. SEE, IT SEZ "SLIDE TO UNLOCK". I've got to stroke it to wake it up every time it goes into sleep mode, I swear.




What's awesome about Virtue? It calls people. It sends text messages. It plays music. It plays video. It takes photographs. It checks my mail--both for work and fandom shit. It surfs the Internet. It updates Twitter. I've already got it hooked up to AIM. All I have to do is to throw in a GN drive and a sekrit girlyGundam, and it could probably eradicate war by armed intervention as well.

Plus, it rings with Yoko Kanno's Tank! How much more awesome can it get? (Thank you, GarageBand! Thank you, iTunes!)

I get 1GB of GPRS data free with the plan that I've signed up for; I'll have to see how much mail-checking/websurfing/IMing I can get out of it. I'll figure I'll mostly be using it to watch videos and check my email on the ride home, though. If only Wireless@SG worked on moving trains! If only.

(Just you wait-- just as buses now come equipped with televisions playing the TVMobile channel, it won't be long before every public transportation vehicle comes equipped with its own wireless router).

To do: set up a Flickr client and (maybe) a Facebook one. And see about getting other IM services installed. Maybe an English-Japanese dictionary. No games. Games are a timesuck. I neeeeeed time




Finally! After months and months of waiting! My very own iPhone to love! ♥

In less than 24 hours I will be a quarter of a century old.

And look at what I'm doin' in the office!

Building cheapo bootleg Gundam models with my colleagues (we actually had to carve into the parts with penknives to get the pieces to fit!) and then making them do awful things to my Meister figurines!


(courtesy of my iMac's webcam)

AHAHAHAHHA

I also have a 1/144 Deathscythe Hell lording over my iMac with its outstretched wings and its plastic snap-on scythe.

I'm never going to grow up, ever!

YAY!



ETA: UPON COMING HOME, MASSIVE EDIT OF DOOM.

So on the way home I walked into Popular at the local mall to buy a harmonica.

Now, Popular is a large chain of stores in Singapore that style themselves as "the people's bookstore". Except that they aren't so much a bookstore as they are a work-and-educational-supplies-store. What do people buy from Popular? They buy pens and notepaper. They buy textbooks and assessment books for their kids. They buy ring files and organizers. If they're lucky and the store has a CD section attached to it, they buy the latest Britney Spears album. Popular is the place you go to the week before school reopens to make sure you've got everything. It's the place you go to before exams to make sure you have enough pens and spare calculators to get you through the ordeal. It's the place I went to when I needed Teach Your Kids Phonics!! reference materials for a preschool show we were trying to develop.

It's the epitomy of banality and Neccessary Evil, if anything.

So, as I said, I was looking for a harmonica. The one I have is small and doesn't things in minor key. I wanted a bigger, chromatic harmonica. I knew the larger stores sold them, along with cheap plastic soprano recorders, for schoolchildren. The one in the mall near my place had recently moved into a bigger unit and was now much larger, so there was a good chance they might sell harmonicas. I, however, couldn't figure out where "cheap China-made musical instruments" lay on the map between "paper supplies" and "GCE 'O' Level Assessment texts". So I wandered the aisles.

Then, I turned a corner, round a shelf of office supplies and self-inking date stamps, and saw...



Gunpla? In freakin' Popular? The hell?

I stood there and blinked at it for a very long period of time. I was almost convinced I'd walked into a space-time rift and had ended up in the comic-and-toy store one floor up, because that was the only reason why there was a freakin WALL OF B00BIES MERCHANDISE in the middle of all the mock examination papers and stapler refills.

And then of course I got my harmonica. Because where else would a dozen cheap plastic musical instruments belong other than right beside the gunpla section of your stationery shop?

The thing that kills me is this: when I opened the harmonica box I realized IT WAS NOT A CHROMATIC AND IT STILL CAN'T PLAY SONGS IN MINOR KEY BECAUSE IT CAN'T PLAY SHARPS OR FLATS AND I STILL CAN'T PLAY AIMO ON IT BECAUSE IT IS FULL OF SHARPS AND FLATS.

ON THE OTHER HAND, I HAS A NADLEEH NOW SO NOT ALL IS LOST.


...and since I'm at home and can hook my phone up to my laptop:



It's said F*CKING PWNED since the time I did the H/Alle/Tieria photoshoot, but the fact that you have Kira's SD Gundam declaring triumph over the rapidly cooling SD corpses of our Meisters just adds layers of delicious subtlety to the epic. (No, I still haven't managed to get further than 1 ep into SEED. Wing, on the other hand... Wing I am lapping up like a cat over a saucer of milk. WING FUCKING ROCKS. HELL YEAH!)

Rick Astley will be performing at SingFest 08.

AHAHAHAHAHAA--

I'd go, if not for the fact that tickets are TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS EACH for just Sunday, when Rick Astley is performing. Along with the likes of Jason Mraz--Jason Mraz! Live!--and a bunch of others, a ten-hour outdoor concert in all.

Still: TWO. HUNDRED. DOLLARS. I won't pay that much to see Jason Mraz live, much less get RICKROLLED IN THE FLESH.

Pshaw.

IN OTHER NEWS, I tried arting on my tablet today.


I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I AM DOING SEND HELP

I suuuuuuhuck at drawing on computer. Especially hair. I don't have enough tablet pen discipline to get the ends of curves to join up nicely, so that's a huge issue since I always like to do little flyaway curlets with my hair. D:

At least I'm better at coloring on computer than I am with coloring with Copics. OTL

Okay. So. Vitas. Fucken amazing Latvian-born Russian pop opera singer. Attempting to sing his Opera #2 is how I discovered that I have a separate head range in the whistle register that upsets my dogs when I sing it. This is a dude who can reach notes that sound like dolphins would use them to echolate, or as I said when I first watched the linked video: "My god, that man is a a walking, piano-playing whistling kettle".

Anyway, as pigtail87 and I were discussing Allelujah's combined Russian/Chinese heritage the other day, I confessed that ever since I decided that Sergei was Alle's father somewhere early season 1, I've been wanting to do fanart of Alle in a hat and a scarf, standing one of the domes of St. Basil's Cathedral, singing Opera #2 (because in my head, Alle is a Russian countertenor who can totally sing operatic notes that would shatter glass in a hundred-foot radius).

Several digs on YouTube later, she found this amazing, hilarious video and showed it to me: a Taiwanese professional singer covering Opera #2 by dubbing it in a mixture of gibberish, Chinese, and Hokkien:



I COULD NOT STOP LAUGHING. Especially when he started singing "OMG cannot hear lyrics" in Hokkien.

(See, if you want to make a Singaporean laugh until their sides ache, all you'd have to do is to dub over everything in Hokkien. I found this out after thurisaz83 and I were discussing Gundam dubbed in Cantonese, and I said, "Screw Cantonese, I want to hear b00bies dubbed in Hokkien." And then we tried translating a few choice phrases into Hokkien *coughIAMGUNDAMcough*. We took several minutes to catch our breaths after that.)

Anyway, fucking amazing video, as I said. I am incredibly impressed that he not only managed to hit every single note on key, he managed to do so while playing the acoustic guitar accompaniment. Fuck. Watch it and be wowed too.

While we're at it, here's the original live performance of Opera #2 that introduced me to the wonder that is Vitas back in 2006. This time with Russian and Chinese subs (not the nuclear sort).

The Chinese subs aren't all that accurate, though. I was under the impression that "Plachet opyat nado mnoy" means "it cries once again about me", and not "I cry once again", Jesus Christ, cases, people, cases.

Also: Il dolce suono. You know the opera song featured in the Fifth Element, one of my favorite cinematic sequences ever? Yes. That song. He covered it, which is something I only discovered the day before. Although the techno arrangement is different and sounds a bit like something Sarah Brightman would do. (I still prefer the version in the Fifth Element, though. The sopranista had a lot better control of her voice.)


...aaaaand that's your dose of utter randomness from yours truly for today.