The Story So Far ... From Flag to Flag

Needless to say there have been a lot that has happened since I last wrote on here. What was once an object of exhilaration, me finally making the shift back to an Android based phone; namely the HTC Incredible S from the dreaded iPhone 3GS, became but a footnote in the whole chronicle of my life when compared to other events of significantly greater importance. Namely that of my change in status.

And no, I have not joined the ranks of the living-impaired and am currently either writing this as a spectral entity or a necrotic fleshed zombie with gestating maggots ready to pop. Most definitely not a change in that status, at least I hope, not for the foreseeable future. You see, I just tied the knot. Just being the operative word, with the religious ceremony having transpired exactly 1 month and 24 days ago. Contrary to what most people have recounted prior to my marriage, things have been going rather well, and if I were to exaggerate, amazingly well. Sure there are a few hiccups here and there, most definitely differences in some aspects of our mindsets and approach towards the completion of certain things. However, these are the aspects that make it all so amazing. The fact that two people of dissimilar backgrounds, genetics, life experiences, goals, familial influences, socio-economic statuses could come into a union and strive towards making the union excel, not for the sole primary purpose of their own selves but in the hopes of being able to create a better life for a generation to-be of which all hopes are then placed upon. This is what makes such unions truly a fulfilling experience. Can't wait till I have my own next-generation to lead. And yes my dear, should you read this, that is definitely a hint. Then again, this may be just my wide-eyed, idealistic naivety at embarking on this new stage of my life.

This is not to say that being married frees up a lot of ones' time. Quite the contrary. In fact one could even say that this would be better termed as a challenge on ones time management and of prioritizing their goals for respective aspects of their lives. One that I honestly find to be quite a contest of discipline and self-regulation between my needs, my wants and the idle things that occasionally meander into my thoughts. Definitely a case for saying that marriage has the potential of turning delinquent young boys into responsible men. That is, given that the challenge would be met with a positive mindset and provided that National Service had not already achieved said result already. Though I do admit being in the line of work that I have been embarking on for more than half a decade that the social problems presented do attribute some of their causes to a dysfunctional family unit either born from an improper creation or through sheer neglect. Needless to say, having seen, heard and experienced some part if not the bulk of their stories, I am steadfast in both desiring to assist them in the alleviation of their issues as well as to prevent any such occurrences from transpiring in mine.

Time is such a precious, intangible and irreplaceable commodity of which the bulk is spent either sleeping or working. Both of those taking up at least 14 hours in a 24 hour-day. Not going to cite any studies here as I don't want to turn this into an academic paper. And to those who deem themselves fortunate enough to knock off work after spending 5 hours or less in the workplace, do note that the time you spend at home, cafe, libraries or anywhere else preparing or completing items related to work, counts as work too. I'd know, having worked in one such profession before. And if you're taking up higher education for the purposes of gaining competence and mastering of the subject matter, to challenge yourself beyond your normal scope of ability or simply for a chance at acquiring a more substantial income then you would realize that the first line of this paragraph is but a gross understatement of how valuable time would be to you. I sense this too. Given that I work the normal eight hours per week day with additional occasional weekend work hours and full day events, have new family life commitments, inclusive of setting up of my home and a coming reception and on the education front, I've got a survey to roll out and gather data for (pending approval and hoping to receive it at the soonest), a dissertation proposal to write up, a presentation on an aspect of Neuropsychology to do up as well as a written paper on that same topic and deadlines are coming fast for all them. Needless to say that I am feeling stressed but it's the good kind of stress, one which psychologists term as eustress. I would merely describe it as the good feeling you get attempting to surmount a challenge. And overcome them I definitely will.

Those who know me know of my passion in writing and of the challenges I face in recapturing that habit. As the loss in time I have to pursue such an act of attaining or at the very least progressing towards competence and mastery has really affected my performance in all aspects of my life. This is the other aspect of stress that I'm sure most people would be familiar with. The bad kind. One which psychologists would term as distress and what I would describe as a god awful shitty feeling. In a bid to overcome this, I had created a travel blog and another blog with the purpose of commentating on socio-political happenings in my nation. The former I would expect to update on a more occasional basis as I do not foresee myself going for travels that often, whilst the latter appears to bring with it a tendency of being saturated with potential things to write about. Especially given that my country's General Elections have just officially begun and the hustings well underway with the Polling Day set on 7th May 2001. Though temptations may make we wish to act the part of a citizen journalist and post updates on thoughts and sentiments be it from myself or from the public, I'm afraid that the current constraint on my time and the importance of other matters may, most likely, lead me to not placate this particular want. Though I am determined to continue to write in whatever way, shape or form. Still these are avenues in which I'd hope to, at the very least, lead to experiencing a sense of competence and mastery of something which I professedly love to do.

PS: I started writing this short piece on the 29th April 2011 at around 3:00 pm, admittedly with frequent interruptions and only ended it on 30th April 2011 at 1:24 pm whilst I'm manning the station for the Handicaps Welfare Association's Flag Day. It shows that there's still a thick crust of rust for me getting my thoughts out into writing.

PPS: Oh and if you see the Handicaps Welfare Association's donation tins going around - Do not vote for us but please give generously!

I really do need to come back ...

Without doubt a lot of time has passed since I've wrote anything on here almost to the point of being an unforgivable sin. Especially when it should be noted of the many times wherein I've posted my intent to restart my writing. However due to the seemingly innumerable occurrences that seemed to have tsunami-ed itself into my life over the past several months, my intent on reawakening the severely malnourished literary muse that has laid dormant within myself.

Maybe it was the dreaded sense of creeping emptiness, a soul-sucking void in me not being able to express myself through this medium of alphabet sequencing and arrangement, perhaps it was the acquisition of a new status in my life and all the expectations, exhilaration, adaptations and juggling that came with it, the overbearing anxiety over having to repeat a module of Applied Psychology that I should have aced or maybe it was just a sense of discontentment at not being to express myself the way I want to that is impairing me being able to express myself.

Regardless, I am back and I intend to remain here to write, for without it, I am but a shadow of my once vibrant self.

Flagging The Day

It most definitely has been some time since I’ve written anything on here.And it’s definitely not due to the lack of things to write about what with all the occurrences that keep popping up either globally or locally on a seemingly hourly basis, thanks to the various means of instant information sharing that the internet provides. This is more due to the author’s, ergo my need to filter these at times overloading streams of issues, ideas and the various opinions and related facts with regards to them to ascertain the most salient of them all.

And at this point in time, there is nothing more prominent than fund raising events and activities that act as much needed financial stimulus for the daily operations of the majority if not all of the voluntary welfare organizations in Singapore. One of the more popular or rather well known of such events are these uniquely Singapore Flag Days. Most countries would have a particular day marked in their calendar to commemorate or celebrate either the adoption or first flying of their national flag while a Flag Day in Singapore would mean a day on a weekend allocated to a particular Voluntary Welfare Organization (VWO), which are a fancy if somewhat technical term used to refer to non-profitable and charitable organizations in this island nation, specifically for the soliciting of donations from the general public. These VWOs would need to apply for a Flag Day slot for the coming year through the National Council of Social Service (NCSS) the pseudo national governing body for VWO activities in Singapore.

To those who are non-Singaporean residents or those generally unfamiliar with the culture of this island city that may happen upon this blog entry and find it intriguing enough to read, Flag Day in Singapore to a casual observer could simply be described as a group of people carrying marked tins and going around in an attempt to solicit donations from the general public be it in terms of coins or notes nearly every weekend. Those who would be kind enough to part with their spare change would be given a sticker bearing the mark of the organization that said particular Flag Day event belongs to as is shown in the following set of pictures:

The individuals tasked with the above are usually employees and/ or members of the organization and volunteers which may include students attempting to fill up their Community Involvement Programme (CIP) hours.

So in essence, there are no flags involved in any way, shape or form and most definitely no celebrations or commemorative trinkets issued out on the day. That is unless one would consider the stickers as such trinkets in which case I would, in turn need to consider said person’s state of mind. As such the reasons as to why these events are known as Flag Days seeing as no flags are involved, escape me. And doing searches on the web in an effort to decipher this particular mystery did not also yield any insight. Though I do admit that I did not go into full research mode and unearth the paper printed annals of this nation’s past quadruple decades to make clear the ambiguity, I do at the same time also feel that it should not require such an effort given how widespread the understanding of what a Flag Day in Singapore entails in the first place.

This particular vehicle of soliciting for donations though seemingly simple enough is anything but that as most of those who have been “tin can bearers” would attest to. The amount of planning and coordination in terms of acquiring of permits, registration of participants and their allocation of location and the logistics in the allocation and collection of tins and stickers as well as other related materials, which would include permits for solicitation, mobility aids, banners and tags for the respective centres is, for a lack of a better word, challenging. Also taken into account would be the same coordination and planning for the sensitive nature of the storage of funds acquired and the counting of them. This is clearly evident from the way my colleagues and I have been metaphorically dashing to and fro and most times in a roundabout fashion to ensure that everything that needs to be arranged has been arranged prior to the event itself. A coordination of such massive scale that I’ve only experienced during my term in National Service (NS) when major exercises were being run by various military specialist units on Pulau Tekong. Such an endeavour though an excellent experience that I would recommend for all to experience at least once in their life, does not sit well my ideas and concepts of how VWOs should primarily acquire their funding.

Personally, I have always been an advocate of a more hands on governing of the funding for VWO’s. In other words, it is my strong belief that such organizations should be fully funded by the government directly, if not a majority of their operating cost. And yes this does sound like and would operate much like socialism, whereby the nationalization of social services would be inherent within such an approach. I mean part of the reason why we are paying taxes is so that such services which addresses the needs of the society would be available and could remain available for the foreseeable future and hopefully beyond. At the same time however, I do agree with the Singapore government’s policy and approach towards having the community itself bring about the creation of VWOs for the purposes of addressing the needs within the community, either generally and specifically. However, what I do not agree is the limitation of funding for community created VWOs that have already established its services that addresses those needs. Such limitations however are inherent possibly due to, and I am only basing this on heuristics as I’ve not actually done any actual studies, the huge number of duplicated, if not replicated services and VWOs which if left unchecked in some way, would lead to a strain of the national budget for social services. As such a regulating body for these VWOs be able to identify such duplicated services and streamline or merge them, perhaps such a socialistic approach would be possible. And before any naysayers would point out on the deficiencies of such a nationalized system, I would as easily point out Singapore’s successful implementation of its nationalized mainstream education, military and police force. There would of course still be some fund raising activities on the part of these VWOs, but it would not seem as if the very survival of these organizations would primarily depend on such means of monetary acquisition given a more focused, if not also intrusive, method of regulation. Given the reduction in corporate tax by as much as 9% from 2000 to 2010, one would expect a correlation between the reduction in tax to a reduction in overall corporate donations and ultimately a tooth and nail battle between VWOs to acquiring the remainder of these corporate monies.

However, till the time when such a system is implemented fund raising activities as the one mentioned above, of which I would be involved in this 2^nd of October would remain the norm and a constant sight on nearly every weekend.

Note: Edited to remove some weirdly concocted phrases and sentences as well as to include some ideas and facts that were missed out. Serves me right for writing this out in the middle of the night while being half asleep.

Mobile Dilemma

So here's the thing. Due to some poor care of my HTC Hero as seen here (yes, I got the bronze one):

It started to display sentient-like abilities in calling my girlfriend every few seconds on its own, literally. This could be due to the numerous times it has been soaked in various forms of liquid substances, not excluding soy milk and certain well-known brands of instant coffee. Now I do realize that the Android 1.5 (Donut) operating system was, at least a year ago, in a league of it's own for mobile phones but I did not quite think that it would go the way of Skynet. Though it did at that point in time feel that way.

And so I needed another smartphone to take it's place, with the Hero being sent for repair (thank goodness for warranties), which may mean weeks with me having to make do with an old Nokia. Having scoured what available cellular concoctions at the time -which was roughly two months ago - I did not feel all at ease with what was on offer. Sure Motorola's Milestone was pleasant looking phone running on an Android 2.0 but the in your face presentation of the first generation MotoBlur really put me off it. Besides, I was never a fan of slide phones with QWERTYs.

And then there was the HTC Legend. The supposed continuation of the Hero's legacy. However, apart from the unibody construction, updated HTC Sense UI and the Android 2.1 (Eclair), there was nothing in terms of computing power or memory that places this as the next logical step up from where I was before. The Legend was basically a Hero-refit, if you will, with an updated operating system, which does not necessarily translate to it running any more smoother or being more capable than the Hero itself. It did look good though and very familiar as well.

Bear in mind too that my options were limited given that I was still contracted to my local mobile service provider and could not quite jump off to another provider without incurring further delays. And thus I did the unthinkable.

I got myself a 16GB iPhone 3GS, without contract. Yes it did cost me a bundle and no, you may not ask me how big a bundle it was. I figured, it's a good enough phone with a relatively high trade-in value should I decide to revert back to an Android phone (which was more than likely) considering that a recontract was due in roughly 8 months from that time. And even though it had just a 600 MHz ARM processor, there was no multitasking ability, so it should run quite smoothly.

I have to admit the experience of using this was good, to say the least. No multitasking meant no overloading of the CPU and very minimal lag. Getting full access to the App Store and all it's contents, paid or otherwise is also refreshing considering that users in Singapore only have access to the free content in the Android Market if one were to use an Android phone, without any special procedures. However, it's the user interface that I find somewhat lacking. Rows of icons spread over several pages doesn't necessarily inspire me to feel as though this contraption is in any way of form, representative of me. I know that sounds a bit absurd, considering that it's just a phone but that was the feeling I get from being able to customize with HTC's Sense UI.

And so I waited for a worthy enough Android phone to make it's way here. What with the Google Nexus One and the HTC Desire already out in the world somewhere. The only downside with Google's first foray into the handset market is that it was, at that point in time a web-purchase only for the rest of the world, which was quite costly in itself and was only tied with certain telcos in the United States. And so I remained hopeful for the Desire.

There were some Android based phones that seemed to make tiny ripples in the mobile world. The Acer Liquid, the Samsung Galaxy series, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, X10 mini and the X8. However, apart from Sony Ericsson's customized layout of Android 2.1, both Acer and Samsung's offerings were more to vanilla Android 2.1. And having said that, Sony Ericsson's own modifications of Android 2.1 did not quite, at least to me, do the operating software justice.

And so I waited. Though it pleased me to know that HTC had in fact released two mobiles of the highest quality in the Droid Incredible and the Evo 4G, I was at the same time saddened to know that these were telco-specific phones for Verizon and Sprint respectively. Still, I was especially impressed with the Evo 4G, touted to be the only phone able to match up to the now announced, soon to be released iPhone 4. Just have a look at the Evo 4G's promo video. Not to mention that it has been placed head to head with the iPhone 4 as it's only real competitor over numerous websites, with this being one of them.

Nevertheless I waited and hoped and was glad to know that the Desire was finally released in Singapore and picked up by the telco that I'm contracted with. So it should be a simple trade and upgrade, right? Not quite. I've kind of grown to like this iPhone 3Gs of mine. And what with all the accessories I've bought for it (solar charger included) it kind of makes it difficult for me to part with this piece of retro-junk. Yet at the same time I would dearly wish to own the one

handphone that I've waited for nearly a year now. And seeing that my contract will only truly end in November, god knows what other HTC-Android gadgets might pop up to temp me. Especially now with the release of Android 2.2 (Froyo) and the rumours of a certain HTC Scorpion sporting both the mentioned operating software and a 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.

Oh well, guess I'll just keep watching videos of the HTC Desire over these few months while I make up my mind.

!Hiatus

The period of time since I last posted here was filled with......... changes. Alterations in perspectives of things that once were thought permanent.

Earthquakes, sessions, studies, tech,social agendas......... and most importantly writing. Something I need to do more often.

Besides, I've been neglecting my blog for way too long.