Richter Scale 7.8 Earthquake in China

An earthquake of scale 7.8 hit Wenchuan prefecture (汶川县) in China’s Sichuan province (四川省) at 14:28 today. According to the news services in China, the tremors are felt as far as Shanghai, Tianjin, Beijing, Nan-ning, Hanoi, Taipei and even Bangkok.

The current situation is unknown. I have tried to call the Singapore Consulate in Chengdu to no avail. Meantime, my mother is in that region and uncontactable because she did not bring her mobile. I hope she is safe as she should now be further away from Chengdu (成都) and more towards the Jiuzhaigou (九寨沟) region. I undertand that region is mountainous so I am quite concerned with the possibility of landslides.

Brothers- and sisters-in-Christ, please keep my mother, aunts and uncles who are in that area in prayer until they are safe. (I thank all of you, for sharing this burden with me.)

Will update when I get more information. A rough map of the epicenter here:

Double Misery…

Firstly, Reading will be relegated because of goal difference. Thanks for Portsmouth for conceding that goal to Fulham! But Readig player Number 13 will not weep. We watch you scored and tried your best in tears, as you put up a good fight against Derby. We hope to see you back the season after.

Next, Chelsea drew and didn’t win EPL. Didn’t even win their match to level in points. Hopefully they do better at Moscow.

‘Nuff said.

* This is a M18 program. String of vulgarities has been censored harmonized *

Nuff-Nazis… Sieg Heil! LOL!

This is quite amusing. Hot on the heels of blogger Limetouch’s ban, now blogger sisuahlai is banned for 2 weeks (or was it 2 months?) on Innit. At first, it seems like the nuffnang clowns have learnt a little from the previous bad publicity as a result of Limetouch’s ban and have made an attempt at a lighter touch this round. But I was wrong. Behind what I perceived as a lighter touch, was a threat to sue!!

Now I must say I felt Limetouch was lucky. And here’s the next best part: poor sisuahlai first a public reply on his blog, and then some anonymous coward citing some ‘rules on confidentiality’, seems to have scared him into removing it. Bleah!! [Update: The entry has now been reposted after he obtained ‘permission’ to do so.]

But the good news is… Shadoxfox [whom I called 邪道狐 in Chinese] has a screen capture of sisuahlai’s post here, so all of you can see sisuahlai’s reply in its full glory.

As I went through nuffnang’s letter, I find this the most amusing. I quote:

‘What you have said in your blog is misleading in nature and would cause uncertainties among the bloggers who are not as informed as others.’

Can I say I am LMAO [laughing my ass off] when I read this? Frankly, just who, other than the very people running, or perhaps working for, nuffnang are any the wiser when compared to the rest of the common bloggers? In other words, the condition that ‘bloggers who are not as informed as others’ does not exist – the simple reason being that everyone is about just as informed as the others, not!

If that condition exists, then why does sisuahlai seem less informed than the rest (since he’s been asking all those questions)? Why are there certain bloggers privy to matters which sisuahlai or other bloggers are not? Should not certain knowledge be common and made known to all bloggers on nuffnang’s corporate website to prevent such… uncertainties? * In Darth Vader’s Voice * “I find your lack of a public, corporate response… disturbing.”

Oh… I forgot, absofxxkinglutely no corporate announcement of that sort exists on nuffnang corporate website. It has appeared to me they have always preferred to selectively answer to only certain bloggers in the comment section as they deem fit. Now no wonder they can now brag about ‘bloggers who are not as informed as others’ !

It’s a condition that exists on their own making!

Well done, nuff-nazis [short for nuffnang nazis]! Is this where I do the straight arm salute and scream ‘Sieg Heil!’ ? And sing ’nuffnang, nuffnang ueber alles?’

Anyway, now that I have started raving, and I have put myself into a writing mood, I might as well also talk about some of the new things happening in Blogosphere, and the one I wanna talk about is sgping.com.

When the news broke, I was wondering what uzyn’s response will be. But after awhile, I realized that it probably doesn’t matter to uzyn at all. After all, Uzyn has been rather passive when innit came up, so why would uzyn give a flying fxxk to sgping.com? From what I gathered, uzyn mentioned at the ping party last year he put ping.sg together because he simply wanted to be able to read blog posts of people in Singapore. So, putting up ads on ping.sg – i.e. using ping.sg as a means of income – appeared to me to be an after-thought, unlike sgping.com which made it clear they are going to share the earnings with bloggers.

Anyway, many bloggers registered at ping for no other purpose other than an avenue to publicise their blogs. That ping.sg turned into an avenue for some to make new friends was almost a side effect. In other words, there is no conflict between ping.sg and sgping.com.

While elements within ping.sg users have talked about the lack of loyalty among pingsters who publicised sgping.com thru ping.sg, I beg to differ. (There maybe an element of ‘politics’ behind some did what they did, but I would prefer not to talk about them in public nor to get involved.)

First of all, there was never a question of loyalty. It has been clear to me that many bloggers have no loyalty other than to themselves and / or to the few bucks they can earn from monetising their blog. In other words, signing up to both sgping.com and ping.sg would give them the best of both worlds.

sgping.com can serve as an indirect means of monetizing one’s blog, while ping.sg continues to serve your purposes. Unless sgping.com moves more aggressively to make itself a virtual social activity outlet, at this point of time I don’t see a conflict between the two.

Now that I have get this off my chest, I believe some may consider I am making a sales pitch for sgping.com. As I have said before, some may even consider this a seditious and subversive posts and probably call for my head.

Whatever the case is, I do hope that the people running ping.sg are way more enlightened than the nuff-nazis, since ping.sg and nuffnang are pretty different. But if they turned into ping-nazis, there’s nothing much I can do about that anyway. All I can say is this:

Relax… you have a life beyond ping.sg. Don’t be too uptight about such small stuff.

Give up, Hillary!

Why does Hillary Hilarious Clinton still hang on? She is not only destroying the best chance for the Democrats to win the White House, but wasting everyone’s time.

It is very obvious that Barack Obama is the Democrat Party’s choice for Presidential Candidate. First of all he has won more states with large margins over Hilarious. Next, has also won all but one of the party caucuses so far – and party caucuses are a party affair which means not any Tom, Cheney and Harry can vote in it. In other words, for all the big states which Hilarious has won, who can tell if it wasn’t a certain number of Republicans turning up in droves to vote for her because they would prefer a Hilarious vs McCain showdown?

Now, did I also mention that the Kennedy family, Jimmy Carter and even previous Presidential Canddate John Kerry, is rooting for Obama? Or is she waiting for Al Gore to come out and say something before she finally gives up?

Not convinced that Obama is the Presidential Candidate for the Democrat Party? See below:


[Source]

Caucuses Results
State Obama
Delegates (% votes)
Hilarious
Delegates (% votes)
Others
Delegates (% votes)
Iowa 24 (38%) 14 (29%) 7 (33%)
Nevada 13 (45%) 12 (51%) 0 (4%)
Alaska 9 (75%) 4 (25%) — (0%)
Colorado 36 (67%) 19 (32%) — (1%)
Idaho 15 (79%) 3 (17%) — (4%)
Kansas 23 (74%) 9 (26%) — (0%)
Minnesota 48 (66%) 24 (32%) — (2%)
N. Dakota 8 (61%) 5 (37%) — (2%)
Nebraska 16 (68%) 8 (32%) — (0%)
Washington 54 (68%) 25 (31%) — (1%)
Maine 15 (59%) 9 (40%) — (1%)
Hawaii 14 (76%) 6 (24%) — (0%)
Texas 38 (56%) 20 (44%) — (0%)
Wyoming 7 (61%) 5 (38%) — (1%)
[Source: CNN]

Definition: The primary elections are run by state and local governments, while caucuses are private events run by the political parties. [Source]

To laugh or to cry? (II) 之 不识字

The following is the transcript of a conversation on an instant messenger between my friend and I some time last week. He recounted the events which transpired when his uncle tried to get some assistance from his MP during the weekly ‘Meet the People’ session.

And as usual you never get to really meet out ‘elite talents’ from the Tali-PAP in any of those sessions. Who his uncle met was just one of those people giving their time to ‘serve the people party’ .

Friend said: tell u update of my uncle’s meet mp story. after going to ask for aid on Monday, they post out a letter dated 22 Apr, ask him come for appt with long list of document on 24 Apr. 2 day! of coz miss then i call back yesterday, ask for postpone i told them he 不识字*, so wait till i visit him then see the letter she reply “but i got attached chinese version wat” now then i know … know chinese is also call 不识字

Me says (18:06): I just read the 2nd part of your uncle meet MP story this morning. KNN now I then know “know chinese” is NOT 不识字 lol

Friend says (18:06): ya lor.

Friend says (18:07): or the other way

Me says (18:07): Oh.. sorry.. I mean 不识字 = cannot read English only. LOL

Friend says (18:07): only know chinese is also 不识字

Me says (18:07): what was the whole story about your uncle again? I cannot remember leow.

Friend says (18:08): he out of job… so my mum bring him to go to his MP wish to get aid… so when he was there… the officer (where got really see MP?) ask: so? wat u wan me to do?

Friend says (18:09): my mother say “help us write to 福利部… then he ask “write wat” hahha

Me says (18:09): -.-“

Friend says (18:09): anyway they were then on 21st evening…

[— This Part Has Been Harmonized 此部分已被和谐 —]

Friend says (18:09): so they VERY efficient… they write to him on 22nd … tell him got appointment for interview on the 24th

[— This Part Has Been Harmonized 此部分已被和谐 —]

Friend says (18:10): then in the letter dated 22nd, the appointment is 24th 3pm… so efficient

Friend says (18:11): then the letter also indicate can call us in need at xxxxxxx, if u dun turn up means u dun nid the assistance liao. but i only got to read the letter on 26 mah. so i call up on 27 ask for change appt…

Friend says (18:12): i say he 不识字… then she reply “but got chinese version attachment mah
Me says (18:12): DIEW… fxxking idiots.

Friend says (18:13): then i say “also 不识 chinese 字 ” hahah

Me says (18:13): I will blog abt this u know? I just won’t mention which MP or which constituency and will NOT give the info to anyone else who asked.

Friend says (18:13): then she say “huh? got such thing hahaha

Me says (18:13): -.-“

Friend says (18:16): then anyway i request to change to this friday lor…

Me says (18:16): She doesn’t understand what is TOTALLY illiterate… sigh

Friend says (18:16): then she still “oh… so u still need? ok lor hahha damn buay tahan. y ai also never say dun understand english

* 不识字 – literal meaning: ‘do not understanding writing’. But generally means that one is illiterate. This is not exactly the same as 没读书, which literal meaning is ‘never read books’. Generally used to convey the meaning that one is not educated (没受过教育).


Yet another example which left me perplexed. I don’t know to laugh or cry when my friend recounted this on IM.

It is of no wonder to me why the Chinese standards in Singapore is generally dismal. I have always considered calling a Northern Chinese dialect (Mandarin) our mother tongue one of the main reasons why we find no attachment to the language. After all, I define mother tongue as this: the tongue in my mother’s mouth, and the language she teaches me to speak – in my case, Cantonese.

Now I know the other reason: the lowly opinion some people have of the Chinese language being a language spoken and read by the illiterate. (Though I was under the impression that been illiterate would mean a complete lack of education.)

Anyway, I have censored harmonized the portion where I asked which MP and which GRC this is. It is not the MPs fault, since the fellow also doesn’t know. But after all being said, all these MPs should look into the attitude and the standard of the people they use to stand in their place. After all, they are serving in the MPs capacity and the people elected MPs to serve them. But these people are apparently doing the exact opposite!

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