The biggest writer's block comes

School has been quite crazy, and the scheduling really sucks at times. My mid-terms and assignment deadlines often fall together, and sometimes Chronicle production week falls into it too.

I have been too busy to update my blog, a big contrast from the active blogger I used to be in the past. I was even too busy to read newspapers everyday. My friends also commented that I looked very sleep-deprived and stressed. Some of my juniors have commented that I hardly ever left CS.

Anyway, there were no major disasters and any crisis in my personal and work life yet. Not yet, although the situation is very testing. I am not doing very well in my studies. Not as well as I am supposed to. Although its still far from being the worst, so I should be thankful. But nonetheless, I guess I must learn to loook at the long-term and improve slowly. I cannot expect any magic solutions or breakthroughs for the time being.

Check out that awesome front page of the latest issue man!
Anyway, my term in Chronicle is ending. I won't say I am a very good editor, but I think I tried my best. Given how little I knew when I first started out, I think the Chronicle sports section has done okay, although it can do better. One of the things I regret was being unable to cover varsity sports enough. They are the ones that deserve a voice, much more than the BPL or glamorous drivers at the F1 scene. I hope my successors Eve and Ronald can cover the January IVP with more depth.

So far, I think that issue 15-10 is the best. It has 4 pages of good quality, controversal write-ins, sports trend story. Still, 15-10 wasn't fantastic, and I hope the very last one I do, 16-5, will be the final breakthrough, provided if I have enough energy to do so. I have fallen behind in my schoolwork really badly already.

I hope my brain can start working so I can give Hedwig some good quality work for 221. It would be a big shame if I screw it up. A big shame. I wouldn't even think I deserve to be an editor, or go Missouri.

Amid Chaos, Dreams of Missouri, thoughts about Chronicle

Out of curiousity, I went to google images for "Missouri School of Journalism" and I found this:


OMG LOOK AT THE SEA OF MACS. What a familiar scene to me too. Ha. I am seriously excited about Missouri, and I really hope to be able to learn loads at a full-fledged J-school that is connected to the birth of communication studies. It will make up for the lack of a full journalism school in CS, and allow me to experience American media first hand. More importantly, I hope to become more independent and learn to take care of myself overseas.

School has just begun but its terribly hectic, even worse than the past 2 semesters even though I am only taking five modules worth 18AUs. I tried very hard to take one more module but it seems that STARS is jammed with suffocatingly high demand. There are INSTEP matters, Chronicle matters and mugging matters. Deary. Each of them gives me a mixture of angst but also satisfaction deep within. It also generates quite a fair bit of opinion within me, but I seldom have time to type it out.

I personally feel that the Chronicle editors have worked very hard and deserve a break sometimes. Many times editors have sacrificed hours rewriting stories submitted in by writers who don't take their article seriously. Furthermore, it is not as if we don't have our crazy readings and projects to deal with.

After a tiring production, sometimes I try to step back and put myself in the writer's shoes instead of thinking as an editor. Maybe sometimes writers can't blamed. Afterall, why do they have to write to the Chronicle? What obligation do they have apart from some passion or persuasion from editors? Nothing much really, apart from some portfolio.

Personally, I feel that writers should be given the best opportunities to learn from mistakes and feel proud about their work. The motivation behind writing stories has been weak in Chronicle, and I hope that they could revive the Journalism Awards that was held every year in the past. When writers feel that writing for the Chronicle rewards them intellectually and emotionally, they will be prepared to go the extra mile and make the paper shine.

And as editors, who are their fellow students, will feel happy about that too.

Happy 44th to Singapore

The winning entry of the MyPledge.com competition for open category. It is an emotionally stirring video.

I wish Singapore a happy 44th birthday. Imperfect as this country might be, it has given me a safe environment to grow up and have an intact family. It is also a place where I received good education and enable me to find my place in this world.

Many Singaporeans don't really care about their country though. Not because they don't want to, but more of because, they don't see and understand its potential and strengths. It is also partly because they have been denied political participation through the extensive walkovers in general elections. It is also partly religious fundamentalism has caused them to place their religious identities above their national obligations.

The combined force of political apathy and religious fundamentalism will tear our country apart in the long run and bring about the end to Singapore. I hope this will change, and if it does, I want to be in the front of it, watching it happen. Just like how you want to watch the fireworks live on NDP. :)

Two different songs, one closer to my heart

I didn't take much notice of NDP this year. Afterall, it had been 2 years since I marched in the guard-of-honour for the RSAF for Singapore as we hold our first celebration on the floating platform. However, the songs composed this year caught my eye (or rather, my ears)

This is the official one, very american style, and also a radical break from the happy happy songs of the past. I guess it is more reflective of the younger westernised generation and the gloomy economic outlook.

There was another "unofficial" NDP song though, composed by Ann Hussein. It was a hit with Singaporeans and people are now campaigning to make it official at NDP 2009. To be honest, I liked the second song better too. ^^


But to give credit to the official NDP song, it was a refreshing break from the old style. I am also glad they paid tribute to me: SEE THE MOON AND THE STARS ^^. Yes yes, thanks for paying tribute to Mr Moon but then I don't think I love the STARS system in NTU. :P

CS FOC 09

Some snapshots from FOC 09:



It was quite a fun-filled 5 days at the CS orientation camp. Generally, I managed to accomplish what I set out to do, that is to make new friends, interact with the juniors, practice my photography and also enjoy school life before the next semester starts.

It was generally a relaxed role for me. While I was busy with the Chronicle I didn't want to stretch out my energy and take heavy roles in the FOC. However, as the FOC organisers, many of them my good friends in school, were seriously shorthanded I began to chip in more towards the camp, from helping to organise games, deliver packages and eventually become one of the FOC photographers.

For a long time, I generally liked writing and never saw myself as a photographer but after trying out the DSLR for Chronicle and FOC I must admit that I have learnt to like and appreciate the art of photography. FOC had been a valuable practice opportunity for me and now its up to myself to advance further from where I am.

I am now considering exchange at Missouri at their famous journalism school. As competition heats up, its time to anchor yourself in a niche. What shall mine be?

FOC beckons

Had a busy 2nd half of June.

I tried out court reporting at the David's Widjaja coroner's inquiry, spending many days in court and mingling with professional reporters. It was a really valuable learning experience, and a rare opportunity where I can report a legal case which is close to my school and people of my age. I sent my articles to the online citizen which you can find out from here in my Winter Lion blog.

H1N1 is also becoming really full blown in Singapore, but luckily most of the cases are mild. However, it has already forced an NUS camp to stop recently. To me, it would be really sad if a camp which the seniors have spent so much effort for to stop. It would also deprive the juniors of the last real school orientation of their life.

The upcoming FOC for the my faculty is gonna be really fun. For my part, I am going to be a programmer, an FOC photographer cum senior attached to the OG where Janie, Eldon and Zhiyuan are part of, and lastly, a ghost character in fright night. Also a unusual thing for FOC this year is the sheer number of guys (for CS standard). My OG has, for the record, 12 guys to 16 girls.




We also had a fun-filled OG outing on 29th June where we went Kallang to ice skate. Then we went over the Jesslyn's house to play wii!

Lastly, I would like to congratulate the four leading Hong Kong scientists who took the initiative to expose creationist attempts to include intelligent design into HK classrooms. I wrote an article to summarise my feelings towards the stand-off. I worry for the day when it might happen in Singapore.

That's all for now as I look forward to FOC!

NUS biological sciences 60th anniversary

“Darwin, Wallace, and Evolution:
Celebrating a major paradigm shift in science”

Monday, 22nd June 2009: 6:30pm

Lecture Theatre 31
Science Drive 1
Faculty of Science NUS

A buffet dinner will be served at 8.30pm.

Registration is open:
Sign up at darwinwallace-reg.rafflesmuseum.net
More information can be found at their webpage.

.....................................................

“Darwin and Wallace 150 years on,” by John van Wyhe

About the talk – The theories of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace have changed science, and the world, forever. Yet much of what is often written about these two men, their similarities and differences, and their debts to one another, is wrong. It has recently been claimed, for example, that Darwin stole many of his ideas from Wallace. For many years it has also been claimed that if Wallace had not sent his essay on evolution to Darwin in 1858 that Darwin never would have published his theory. This presentation will revisit the true story of Darwin and Wallace and rebut several common myths.

About the speaker – John van Wyhe is a historian of science, currently based at the University of Cambridge. He is the founder and Director of Darwin Online, a website that presents the complete works of Charles Darwin with more than 90 million views since 2006. A Bye-Fellow of Christ’s College (Darwin’s own college), he is also a member of the British Society for the History of Science and author of “Charles Darwin: The Story of the Man and His Theories of Evolution” (2008). Van Wyhe led the restoration of Darwin’s Christ’s College rooms and contributing to a proposed iconography of Darwin.

His recent research has challenged “Darwin’s delay” – the long-held view that Darwin held back or kept his theory secret for 20 years. In 2009, he publishes three books and numerous shorter items on Darwin. Committed to sharing Darwin’s work, scholarship and the history of science with the wider public, Van Whye lectures and broadcasts on Darwin, evolution and the history of science around the world and has written for The Guardian, New Scientist, USA Today and The Independent.

“From Darwin to DNA: Evolution of blue butterflies and ants,” by By Naomi Pierce

About the talk - Modern evolutionary research is still thriving on Darwin’s seminal ideas about adaptation, natural selection, and the Tree of Life. Blue butterflies in the family Lycaenidae provide a model system for understanding how adaptation and natural selection have shaped organisms and generated the biodiversity we see today. This talk will focus on the complex life histories of Lycaenidae, a group whose caterpillars associate symbiotically with ants, and whose feeding preferences range from herbivory to highly specialized forms of carnivory. Reconstruction of the evolutionary history of the family using characters from both morphology and DNA reveals how interactions with ants have shaped the diversification of this group.


About the speaker – Naomi Pierce is one of the most prominent living evolutionary biologists and is an expert in the ecology and evolution of species interactions. Her research has ranged from field studies measuring the costs and benefits of symbioses between ants and other organisms, to genetic analyses of biochemical signaling pathways underlying interactions between plants, pathogens and insects. She has also been involved in reconstructing the evolutionary “Tree of life” of insects such as ants, bees, and butterflies, and in using molecular phylogenies to make comparative studies of life history evolution and biogeographical distributions.

Pierce was awarded a Macarthur Fellowship for her research on insect/ plant interactions, and has held positions at Griffith University in Australia, Oxford University in the UK, and Princeton University in the US. She is currently the Hessel Professor of Biology in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, and Curator of Lepidoptera in the Museum of Comparative Zoology. She lives in Cambridge with her husband and their two daughters.

Obama's speech in Cairo

A valiant attempt by Obama to close the gap of mistrust between the United States and the Islamic world. It doesn't take much thinking to realise that he is trying to cross a divide centuries old, made wider for the past century, and one that cannot be bridged given his 8 years of presidency (most optimistic scenerio), and unpredictable mood swings of the American electorate.

The best that Obama can hope for is keep things a little more stable during his presidency, long enough for US to pull enough troops out of Iraq to finish up some matters in Afghanistan. Despite US's great economic and military power, there is nothing much he can do to bring peace within the diverse Islamic world or reform its political structure.

But there are definitely many things he can do to help humanity in general. Guard America's secular state against the religious right, nurture scientific research and education, and take the lead in protecting the environment. With the economy of US still recovering, the best thing Obama can do during his presidency is also revive the American market and get the world economy going again.