I was quite a bad start to the Chinese New Year. Over the weekend, I got rear ended by a taxi at a set of lights. No, I did not brake abruptly, in fact, we were all stationery. While waiting for the lights to turn green, I felt a huge impact and a loud bump. The taxi behind me surged forward and hit my car from the rear.
What transpired next was exchange of particulars, and of course, the endless paperwork, trips to the panel beaters, police reports, doctor's appointments, insurer. All that hassle and fuss.
If only the driver of the other vehicle could pay attention to the road and drive properly. This is my 2nd accident with a taxi. The last time, the taxi driver cut across 3 lanes ala Valentino Rossi while negotiating a bend and took out the front right of my car (about 3 years ago).
I believe that driver fatigue has a part to play in accidents. The reason that a lot of taxis are involved in the statistics point to driver fatigue (this guy was driving for 6 hours of his shift already), increase in car numbers and poor road courtesy. If only taxis has some sort of intelligent device to "force" drivers to rest for 20 minutes every 2 hours, I think we can have safer roads.
(A scene from the Hollywood movie, Anger Management starring Jack Nicolson and Ben Stiller)
Many people around in Asia celebrated the Lunar New year over the last weekend. My own celebratory spirit was somewhat dampened by the "ugly Singaporean" syndrome. Let's call it the USS.
As a small island nation, Singapore has grown from a sleepy village, to a town and now a city country boasting almost 5 million people and bursting at its seams already. You can also see that the attitudes of people today is different from that of days gone by.
I commute to work everyday covering long distances (make about 28,000km per year) and I can attest that car drivers' attitudes have changed. When people get into their cars, it becomes a battle arena on the roads. Even in the public areas, common people jot for pole position when queing for services at the bank or post offices.
In the run up to the Lunar New Year, just a few days ago, I witnessed the USS spirit while at a carpark. A driver in his Toyota Wish was waiting for a carpark lot and when it became available, out from nowhere, a black BMW 318iA dashed into the lot head-in. The drivers had a small argument but the driver BMW would not give way. Quietly, the driver of the Toyota went back to his car.
I too had an encounter of the USS as I was driving to visit my parents over the weekend. On the way to their house, I have to negotiate a narrow private road where normally there are rows of cars parked on both sides of it. Halfway, I came face to face with a Honda Oddysey, and with a smile, I gestured to the other driver to veer left into a small opening and we both could squeeze through. However, the other driver refused to move and instead signalled to me to reverse all the way out of the lane!!! I couldn't believe the man. Not wanting to waste time, I did it, and guess what, instead of thanking me for giving way, he simply shook his head in "dis-believe" at me for not giving way to him. I almost fainted in disgust! What right had he?
Well, this is the day and age we live in. People in Singapore are so caught up with the rat race and are enjoying so much success (they think they can thumb everyone down) that they have lost the fundamental basics; they have lost their heart and soul. As an educator, I feel so sorry for society at large and the kids in my class who have to face the "competition". I hope my students take away with them the spirit of fairness that I try to impart in class to their daily lives.
This chinese character stands for "prosperity". Yes, it is the time of the year again where the Chinese people celebrate the Lunar New Year characterised by the welcoming of the new dominant animal sign, The Boar. In some cases, it would be the pig, and if previous Lunar New Years gone by are judged, this would be one where I will be left reeling in all forms of discomfort,
indisgestion, etc., etc.
It will be long again before I regain my "old" self. Just the other day, I was visiting my regular family doctor and he advised me to take it easy, but said that I could take a break from my strict diet regime! Hahaha. What a thought. A day off from my diet to feast! Thanks, doc. Hopefully, that this new year will indeeed be prosperous to me to reflect the growth in the girth. Hahaha.
Over the last week, throngs of school leavers made their way to the institutions of higher learning in Singapore to find out more about their life's prospects post main stream school. Countless hours were spent talking to them and the strain it must be on the vocal cords.
In the end, all this must translate to numbers, the need to fill the enrolment numbers in all our individual courses. For me, like any other year, it has always been an uphill task, as Engineering and Technology courses no longer draws the crowds. School leavers are just shoppers in this whole maze of further education. Young, and impressionable, a lot of kids simply sign up for courses that sound fanciful, and glamorous, and they always totally forget that the old English saying, "All that glitters is not gold."
That saying is one that my friend knows all too well. She took up a glamorous sounding course in the 80s' and now, she regrets that decision as it has not led to any high flying career with the big bucks that they were led to believe all those years ago.
Computing work must be quite boring, judging from this shot taken with my mobilephone.
This semester, I have the dubious honour of supervising a student who spends all his time sleeping in my lab. He comes to work at 9am and sleeps till it's time to go home, whatever time that is . . . I have been keeping a nice library of the various positions that he maintains in his sleep.
A few semesters ago, I taught this student who managed to sleep in a machine lab whilst in a standing position. It was not till I made my rounds checking on the students' progress did I realise that he was asleep. The sound levels in the machine lab was very high (about 95dBA) so I couldn't hear him snore, but I bet he did.
Standing sleep? Guess if you could sleep walk, you could sleep while standing. Now, that takes the cake doesn't it? Goofing off in class is no longer cool. Coolest must being able to doze off anytime, anywhere.
Caution: These stunts are carried out by Professionals. DO NOT try this at work, you can get fired! DO NOT try this while waiting for the train, you can get killed!
