The Early Years (2002-2005)

Cross-disciplinary influences always intrigue me: for instance, I love that Murray Gell-Mann named the Eightfold Way in particle physics after the Noble Eightfold Path of Buddhism. And in that regard I felt Steve Jobs’ commencement speech at Stanford this year was very inspiring. Particularly this part, where he talked about the influence of auditing a calligraphy course at Reed College:

Because of the publicity over his inadvertent fake Parents magazine cover hoax, I’ve discovered Andrew Hearst’s website, which is really filled with interesting takes on design - I really like his mockup of Us magazine as Harper’s. Anyone read Educating Eve, the anti-nativist response to Stephen Pinker’s The Language Instinct? Inquiring linguists want to know. Lynn Barber visits the Venice Biennale. Funny quote about Tracey Emin making peace with Gilbert and George: “She accused them of always calling her the Slag, but they assured her that they only ever called her the Super Slag and she was appeased.” Homemade airconditioning. Making wine, prison style. Except without the ‘going to prison’ bit. Technorati Tags: design, linguistics, art, innovation

How funny is the idea that W. Mark Felt aka Deep Throat was assigned to lead investigations into Deep Throat? (My thanks to old friend Neil for the link.) The plot twists keep coming in - this one almost has a sort of Infernal Affairs feel to it.

Some site admin: I gave in and installed Feedburner, although this site, being a Blogger blog, already has an Atom feed. So if you’re using My Yahoo! or Bloglines or some RSS reader and want to subscribe to this site, here is my Feedburner feed. (The old Atom feed still works, of course.) I also took away the Bloglet subscription box because my habit of copyediting my own text on the fly (as it were) wouldn’t reflect in the e-mails Bloglet sends out.

Oh man. Oh man. I got so caught up the new job I totally forgot Bloomsday had passed. (Last year on 16 June I did a series of Bloomsday-related posts, which were a lot of fun.) Here’s Stunned.org’s tribute to the day: the first chapter of Ulysses all Technorati-tagged. Here’s to Joyce, belatedly.

Look, y’all pervs. If you type “singapore blog girl” into Google, the first hit is probably the one you’re looking for. Not my baseball or my arts review blogs, even if they’re among the first few hits you get…

Ah, it’s finally confirmed. Bloggers.SG, Singapore’s first ever blog convention will happen. It will be held on 16 July 2005, in the afternoon. It’s all very new to those of us involved in the planning, and the scale of this thing has exploded, so just one favour: tell us if you’ll be there. It’s just a poll - no need to say who you are, your IC number, or any of that sort of thing.

So, besides Paris Hilton getting engaged to Paris Latsis, Lauren Bush (daughter of Jeb Neil) is apparently dating David Lauren (son of Ralph). (I know, I know, I’m behind on the celebrity news.) Which means there’s a chance that if they get married and she takes his last name (you know, coming from a traditional family and all that) she could become Lauren Lauren. Weird. The only predecessor I can think of is Sirhan Sirhan, and that’s hardly an association you want with a political family.

I’m a bit fussy about getting lyrics right, but I’ll admit that I once thought the lines “I give in to sin / Because you have to make this life liveable” in Depeche Mode’s “Strangelove” were “I give in to sin / Because you have to make this like Liverpool”. Hey, Liverpool didn’t have that great a rep back in the day…

The Boston Globe writes up an article on changeable copy signs. Finally I know what those signs are called. Love them.

The BBC is going to do a programme on the origins of words (maybe they’ll have a bit on the Malay origins of “ketchup” and “compound”), and they’re looking for the earliest dated “sightings” of a few nifty words and phrases, since the OED is equally stumped. Among the list are “back to square one”, “handbags at dawn”, “on the pull”, and “nutmeg” (in the football/soccer sense)

Since there’s been much talk about blogging properly, here’s my easy guide for n00bies on blogging etiquette: Always bow before you blog. When you blog, do remember that the knife goes in the right hand, and the fork in the left. Always end your posts with “thank you, it’s been wonderful talking to all of you. Godspeed.” Polite bloggers NEVER use the words “asshat” or “aardvark”. Whether “sexy motherf***er” can be said in polite company remains a matter of much contention. Particularly on the question of how to pronounce asterisks. The proper way to end a first blog is with a little kiss. No tongue. And, especially, no tongue down there. Remember, if you forget which keys to use, a simple little memory trick is that you should start from the outside and work your way inside. Hence, posts like “poiuy!” are the height of decorum. When someone visits your blog, be sure to offer drinks. If you are a male blogger and said visitor is female, please remember to raise your hat when the visitor enters your blog. Yes, you must have a hat. Thank you. It’s been wonderful talking to all of you. Godspeed.

I know they use the Smiths’ “How Soon Is Now” as the theme song for “Charmed” mostly because it has that “I am human and I need to be loved” line running through the chorus, but wow, what a spectacularly miserable song - in the best of ways, of course.

Quick thought since “Take Me Out” and “The Dark of the Matinee” popped onto my Winamp playlist: Franz Ferdinand do tempo shifts really well. I love their fast/slow song constructions - reminds me of the way the Pixies and Nirvana used to play with dynamics and use soft/loud oppositions…

Oh, I really should have mentioned this earlier: congratulations to my friend Lindley and the team from NUS on reaching the top of Everest! NUS Everest Team blog

I spent a good part of yesterday cleaning up the room, and so it’s clear to me that I’m a pack rat - but this is on a scale far, far beyond anything I’ve ever done.

This post on Tomorrow.sg (little side project for some Singaporean bloggers) made me think, one of my pet peeves is when people talk about “young people these days” and then launch into a tirade about a decline of moral values, as though it were a self-evident thing. I frankly don’t think young people are any more or less immoral than in any past - at least, not at the levels that suggest moral cataclysm. Oh well, people seem to like harkening back to some prelapsarian past when all young people did was sit around and make quilts, or something equally staid.

Two nights ago, I had the most surreal dream. I was being forced by jackbooted thugs to watch executions. Of fruit. First came the tomato. Guillotined. Then the banana. Similarly guillotined, lengthwise. And I remember feeling horrified in the dream. And that’s about all I remember.

New album from the White Stripes! Get Behind Me Satan. Previewed (via Real Player) “Take, Take, Take”, one of the songs. Hmmm. Mildly catchy, but it sounds pretty much like a lot of their tunes from De Stijl. Is that a good or bad thing? I love De Stijl.

Thanks to stumbling upon fleng’s blog, I’ve discovered Straits Records, an indie record store in Singapore. Yeah, I’ve been so swamped in the new job that I’ve been a bit out of the loop - did I really miss this? Anyway, the list of LPs newly in the store is definitely intriguing enough - the Arcade Fire’s Funeral, Gregory Isaac’s Night Nurse (nice reggae selection) - that it looks to be on the list for a weekend excursion…