when you stare at the abyss, the abyss stares back at you
social.therapy.mirror.search.random.space.Archive for February, 2008
3 lessons I learnt from observing my fish
Lesson one: A fish will grow to an appropriate size to fit the tank it is in.
This means that the size of a tank is a factor in the growth and therefore final size of a fish, as long as all factors are kept constant i.e.food, water quality, filtration, temperature etc.
Much like humans, small fishes in big ponds survive longer and grow bigger than big fishes in small ponds.
Lesson two: Fish are particular about the type of food that they are used to.
Fish have shown that they will ignore food they are not used to or dislike until the survival instinct kicks in and they willeat for subsistence. But my fish have shown me that if I toss both types of food into the tank, they will let the disliked brand feed the algae growth at the bottom of the tank.
Again, like humans, we work for a range of reasons but given optimal conditions, we will ignore perceived benefits that we do not like and will tolerate a certain degree of discomfort in order to get what we want.
Lesson three: Fish like plants, they like being able to shelter amongst the leaves, providing them with some measure of security and safety from currents, tides and other omnivorous fish.
Plants represent a safe haven for most fishes, especially those new to the tank or to those that are smaller in size. Plants demarcate a safe place where they are able to hide, eat or lay eggs.
Humans have the tendency to seek shelter, figuratively, in places that provide them with safety, with benefits (e.g. money, stability) and where we are able to form communal groups. Like in companies where enough small fish can form a representative voice through departments or through committees.
IF you are still wondering what’s the point of this post, don’t let it bother you. My past month has been about finding a tank and making an educated guess on the aquatic environment, hoping that it is stable and encourages growth.
In KL for a day…
Tks to the girls who are here for a Jay Chou concert, I am here for an evening, to relax and meet up with a friend.
Got a Traders Club room at corporate rates tks to Sam. Here’s the view from the Traders Lounge, their version of an executive floor.
View of KLCC and the park next to Trader’s Hotel, KL
Been here less than an hour and we are already into sushi, champagne, and Wagyu Beef burgers. It’s more food galore later today with Hokkien mee and Ramly burgers on my list amongst others. *drool*
Singapore Airshow was good, however service quality showed distinct lack of planning
Got trade tickets to catch the Singapore Airshow, courtesy of W.H. Tks for the tickets!
The exhibition was quite well done, from the scale as well as design of the booths, definitely eye-catching. The static air craft display outside was just as awesome, judging from both the number of aircrafts as well as the types that were available for viewing. Had a great time, tks to G.G, viewing the Air Show itself, with good seats on the balcony level of one big exhibitor. Definitely beats standing on the ground level in the blazing sun, trying to stare skywards.
Check out some of the photos – the rest can be found at my Flickr site at http://flickr.com/photos/inspirethereal/.
Lotsa country flags adorn the main entrance
One of ST Engineering’s booth displays – very nice!
Black Knights soaring into the sky
Have to comment about the scripts the commentators were using though, especially for the Black Knights. Someone needs to train the guy not to read the script literally. That means, when there is a comma or a period, the commentator does not need to literally pause, take a breath and continue reading. It really takes the emotion out of the words. Also, it does not help describing an act that the jets are doing, say…”that was a double barrel over the top flip executed..”, and drone it out monotonously like he is making a sandwich or something equally mundane. Excite the audience, they are paying a minimum of $10 to get to blardy Changi South anyway, let them feel they are getting the thrill of the day.
Back to my gripe on why the service sucked, it really wasn’t until I was literally leaving the place that I felt upset. On the whole, the show experience was actually quite good. BUT, the problem comes when you have any number between 200-500 people leaving the place at the same time, heading to the same shuttle/taxi/limousine/carpark area and you find that there are maybe 3-4 ushers (I actually only saw 1) and perhaps 1-2 Cisco officers around trying to manage the crowd.
Gripe #1
Usher is trying his best to control taxi queue. Begins to move and open poles that were previously closed. No sense of informing the crowd, in the end, people cut into the queue because he wasn’t clear with instructions. Tells the people whose queue got cut, “sorry, I can’t do anything.”. So those who got cut had to wait for another maybe 10 cabs before it got to their turn when they were initially waiting only for 1-2 cabs. I was one of them, I asked the usher to tell the queue cutters off, but he didn’t.
My take is that his instructions were not to engage in conversation with anyone, IN CASE, he really makes a mistake and someone blows up. Well, someone did blow up and he ignored me. He is an authority figure at the taxi queue. If he doesn’t tell the queue cutters off, does he expect ME to do it instead? Lack of planning for this scenario leads to exhibition visitors getting upset. Regardless of the good time I had at the exhibition, I don’t think so much of it now that my close to final memory of the place is negative.
Gripe #2
Got into the cab, and the cab is heading towards the exit. Big jam occurs. Murphy’s law you think? Actually, not Murphy, more bad planning in action.
The Airbus 380 is taxing down the exit road! Wow! How good can the planning get? I am in a cab where I am already paying a $8 location surcharge and the meter is jumping 20cents every other minute and they have a 380 slowly making it’s way past us. Look, let me be honest here. I am a paying customer, but I do not like getting suckered by another $4 when planning could have made this incident not happen.
Wondering what’s happening, why the jam?
Ah, it’s the A380 blocking the exit
An exit by virtue of function will be heavily utilised. Why punish those who are paying for cabs or the limousines by not using alternative landing spots? Okay maybe that was the only route the 380 could take, logistics, weight etc. Why not plan for the taxi exit to be someplace else, maybe drive through the private carpark to reach an area not affected by the A380 movement?
Looking back at the Airshow experience, I am of the impression that it was a good effort but not enough to make me feel it was anything special, especially since central coordinated planning seemed to be a majorly lacking. Perhaps once the visitor has left the grounds, it means that they are no longer important?
This is one visitor that will rather take the chance on HK hosting a better Airshow than all these Singaporean chaps with no brains.
2 things that made gave me a lump in the throat…
In Saturday’s Straits Times, the one paragraph in the article by Ms. Chua Lee Hoong, Political Editor, “There was one evening at the neighbourhood Shop N Save when an elderly woman in her 60s asked me to look at the price tag on a 50g bottle of Nescafe. I looked and told her the price. It was now dearer by almost a dollar. She sighed, and put the bottle back on the shelf. I would have bought the bottle for her if I could be sure she wouldn’t be offended, but I chickened out.”
That paragraph made me choke. Why I cannot explain in words, just a shared feeling with the journalist, that had it been me at Shop N Save that evening, and watching her reaction, I wouldn’t have known what to do either.
At the karaoke last night, I watched Avril Lavigne’s MTV “When You’re Gone” again for probably the fifth or sixth time since the song launched. That part of the MTV where the old man touches the sheets where his wife used to sleep; when he pours himself a glass of champagne and dons his best suit; and when he breaks down at his wife’s tombstone, those scenes always bring a big lump to my throat.
The visual scene brings such an empathetic reaction that again I cannot verbalise but I am sure we all think and feel at some point on some day.
Here’s the video.
