//beconfused

I just met a secondary school friend when having dinner. It feels really good to see old friends again. I saw her with her boyfriend. Both seemed friendly so we all talked for about 30 minutes while I’m feeding myself.

(Image of my secondary school with the uniform group members. Faces have undergone some sort of ‘bluration’ to ensure they aren’t recognizable.)

We talked about the times in our secondary school and also about some army stuff to her boyfriend. I realized that each guy I meet when I am wearing my green uniform would automatically drift into army talk. That is fine though, it’s quite interesting to know what the others are doing in another camp. It’s kinda a deja vu feeling since the last time I met Jaslyn and her boyfriend, her boyfriend and I had this army talk going too.

I realized that many people actually remembered me. People enquired about my wellbeing more than I thought. That really made me feel happy and blessed. Often I have the impression that my friends don’t remember me anyway. But perhaps all these impressions are a little er… overthought? [Okay, I think I just invented a word.]

Anyway they invited me to a birthday gathering. It’s really nice of them and I accepted it immediately. Then I thought for a while. Coming saturday, Jun Hong’s birthday. Next saturday, her birthday. I really need to shop for presents already.

This is a post I wrote to talk about folders, categories and tagging. I don’t know if you guys have noticed, but my blog isn’t really holding up very well in terms of categorizations and stuff. It is quite apparent that my categories are screwed up.

About folders

It all begins with folders and directories right? It’s the operating system way. It’s so important to store all your documents in a way that you can find it back easily and I don’t mean chunking all of them in your desktop or something.

Folders are probably invented to give people the feeling of their documents kept in a physical location like how they store their newspapers, magazines and tax invoices. When your April edition of Newsweek is in your book self, the same item cannot exist in your bag, the same item cannot be in your mom’s trashbin too.

When you store things like digital photos, haven’t you encounter times when you can’t decide which photo the image should go into?

I can have 3 folders:

* Buildings
* Singapore
* School

And I have 1 picture of my secondary school which is in Singapore. So should I put it in Buildings? Or Singapore? or School? Can’t it be all three?

About categories

So we have categories. That really saved the day. My problem is solved. Now I can assign categories to my picture. I assign it to 3 of the categories. And when I select a category to filter out – for example – Singapore, I can see my beautiful picture as one of the many images that is presented to me.

That is how WordPress does things by the way. It is more intelligent this way. For example, this post can go into Technology and Site related. It’ll make the post much easier to find for you guys.

About tagging (or labels or keywords)

But still, I have a problem. My picture could have been assigned with more categories. My picture is taken in Bukit Batok, in Singapore, and is of a School and that’s a Buildings. It’s taken at Night. My Friends and Teachers are in the picture. We are having Barbecue.

Now, that is a hell lot of categories already. The category structure has a major restriction – it has to be created before something is assigned into it. An analogy would be that you decide to buy 3 copies of Newsweek this time, one is left in your mom’s trashbin, one in your bookshelf and one in your bag. You can easily go to either of these places to fetch your Newsweek. You need to have a bag first before you put your magazine inside. You need your mom’s trashbin to be present first too.

Tagging is just a smarter way of categorizing. Basically, you assign all sorts of keywords you want to your document. My picture with us barbecuing can be assigned – Food, Barbecue, Teachers, Friends, Buildings, Singapore, Night, Bukit Batok and Gathering.

Another picture can be an image of my polytechnic in Dover, taken with my pals in a computer laboratory. That can be tagged with – Dover, Singapore, Polytechnic, Friends, Teachers, Computers, Lesson, Campus and Perl.

In a way, no categories exist. Instead, a lot list of tags are gathered distinctively and displayed in front of you. When you select the tag ‘Friends’, the page is generated and all the pictures containing the tag ‘Friends’ is fetched out and displayed.

Back to the analogy with my Newsweek magazine, it can be tagged with Bag, Mom’s Trashbin and Bookshelf. When I choose to go to the Bag, my Bag is generated so that I can get my Newsweek along with all the items tagged with the keyword Bag.

The advantage is you can assign as many tags as you want without worrying that the categories are no present prior to assigning. It’s easier to manage too.

And WordPress 2.0.2 (latest version) doesn’t support tagging natively. Major Web 2.0 implementation such as Flickr does tagging. It’s fun, non-restrictive and quick. I just hope that more softwares would be implemented in this way. Hopefully WordPress would support it in their next release. It’d be really cool.

Windows Vista, the successor of Windows XP, will allow users to assign keywords to files. It’s a similar to tagging but we really have to see how Microsoft implement it in the end. Keywords are implemented more for search than categorization purposes.

Sorry if the whole post is a total bore to you. I kinda enjoy writing these stuff, hahaa…

We often regard charities as good things to do. I have no objection in the people following the light side (idea stolen from Star Wars). Many time, I feel encouraged that Singaporeans cared much for their neighbors when I read articles in The New Paper which – by the way – I only read when I am really really bored; I don’t like The New Paper.

Sometimes while embracing the light side, the non-profitable organization (Jedi Council) in Singapore may go overboard by recruiting too much volunteers (Jedis) from secondary schools – whatever the hell the reason is.

*Seduction to the light side*
A portion of the light side is seemingly more beautiful than the rest. I recalled my secondary school friends looking for the prettiest girl to give the donation to. They want to donate money, but they also want to donate to a cute girl.

I have no idea if any of them successfully gotten a girl through this methods but the key here is that the prettiest girl gets the most donations. And of course, while my friends are donating, they chat up with the girl. It’s usually teasings and stuff. Nothing dirty, nothing hurtful.

*Temptation to the light side*
I have discussed this before about an overly-commercialized (at least in my opinion) charity called National Kidney Foundation (Singapore). The light side can be rather tempting. They offer great prizes that you stand a chance of winning if you donate – a condominium, a car, cash prizes, the list is never-ending. My girlfriend got a dollar off at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaves which is great – I love their Ice Blended(R).

Many people would unknowingly succumb to the light side and just pick up the phone and call a donation line and then hope to win some prizes. Charity should not be made to seem rewarding in material sense.

*Obligation to the light side*
This is the bloody reason I blogged this entry so it’s going to be slightly longer than the above 2 sections (disobeying what my English teacher taught me).

All the shops are closed and I was around Singapore Visitors Centre at Orchard in the morning. There are a couple of girls wearing yellow shirts holding a trademark tin cans for donations. I knew it’s a donation box but I don’t have any loose change to give. It’s a 10 dollar note and I wish to keep it. The same situation is at Novena, those people are guarding the exit of the train stations.

Then I left Orchard and went to Bukit Gombak area. Some other girls were there holding metal cans for God-knows-what charity organization. I looked up the skys, pretending not to notice their extra bright yellow T-shirts as they come towards me. I glanced and noticed their bored looks and I know they are persuaded into doing charities. These secondary students aren’t volunteers exactly, of course some would be, but I would say few are. Most are just there because there school forced them to.

Here’s how to game works. You just plant these volunteers everywhere. Everywhere! I returned home and when at Bukit Batok area, they are more of these people around. They’re at the train station, they’re in the park and in the void decks. It becomes somewhat an annoyance when the students, one after another, ask for donations. And at one time, you’ll most probably just surrender and think, “Okay, fine, I’ll donate to get a sticker flag with the charity logo so they won’t pester me again.” If you did that before, you have fallen into the light side.

But then again, looking at the bright side, at least this ain’t the dark side. Today, I successful strengthen myself to counter the seducations, temptations and obligations to the tin-can-people. And I still don’t know what charity is that.

In secondary schools, there are tons of rules to follow. It is a real bother if you think about it. I never understood what has good hair got to do with good school results and I probably will never.

I am from Bukit Batok Secondary School (Singapore), I am not sure about the other schools but mine has these strange rules about hair for male students:

* Hair must not touch the eyebrow.
* Hair must not touch the shirt collar.
* Hair must not touch the ear.
* Student cannot have sideburns.

Why those rules. I can understand that if the hair touches the eyebrows, it is probably obstructing vision. I don’t see how good a student can become without hair touching the ear or the shirt collar!

_(So what if a guy actually has a really long neck?)_

I often question myself, what if a boy has a longer neck. Does it mean that he can grow his hair longer than other people? The rule itself is so lousy. Dear teacher, I don’t mean to break your rules, but I just merely own a shorter neck. My shoulders are too high you see. And also, my hair grows really fast.

I have to cut my hair every 3 weeks or so which is ridiculous. I hate the barber. He presses my hair down that I think he hates me equally. And each visit would cost 7 or 8 bucks. You know what, this must have been a conspiracy. I suspect my bloody secondary school had talks with all the neighborhood barbers and work out a whole contract you know.

So my mother would always drag me to the barber and force me to cut my hair. I don’t want to cut my hair. I think I look like a fool when my hair is short. Look like those drug addict in jail. I don’t like it. [By the way, my mother loves my hair really short.] There was this once when my mother commanded me to go to the barber I so hated due to my hair touching my collar, and I defiantly suggested her to cut of my collar for it would solve a major part of my hair problem.

As for the ear, I daren’t suggest her to cut off my ears of course. But let me point out that it is stupid rule to set. It really depends on where your hair is at the top of your ear. Mine is so close to the ear, it sure will touch the ear after 3 weeks. It’s not that I want it to touch my ear. Even if it did, I still did my Chemistry homework, I still did my Chinese homework. It’s not like once my hair touch my ear I’ll just be defiant and not do your homework.

Look, I am not the most perfect student, but I’ll most certainly not commit a crime when I have a sideburn. I just have sideburns and when I cut it, it just grows out too fast. Please consult my forefathers for more information. Their graves are in China. Sideburns aren’t bad you know. You got to admit Elvis was good.

So, what do you guys want. Oh, I know, Singapore probably likes to have all students undergo some sort of martial law thing. And then the best hair cut would be a bald one…

…Not. I don’t understand why the school is so particular about the hair. One day, a couple of boys came to school clean-shaven. The principal got them into his office. And it seems that even with no hair can one pissed the principal. The principal does not like that style. The boys are suspected to be involved in gangs! I mean those boys certainly aren’t good boys but it is kinda funny that such a ironical event occurred.

Like I say four years ago in Singlish, “wah lau, got hair cannot, no hair also cannot.”

Having spent the first quarter of my life studying, I almost wanted to just stop and just join the workforce. A series of events than led me to enrol myself in Singapore Institute of Management where I now have to study for 3 years.

If all goes well – it better do – I’ll obtain a Bachelors of Computing and Information System. Had I not been in the computing field, I probably be at marketing or some sociology course. When free, I do enjoy racket games, fiddling with the laser part of the computer mouse and people watching.

(Size of Singapore as compared to West Malaysia which is right above.)

I’m 20 plus, reside in Singapore, and am a program analyst at a local web startup where I do Flash ActionScript 3.0, PHP and pencil sharpening. I’m a Christian though not that a faithful one.

I have a Diploma of Biotechnology (Bioinformatics) lying somewhere in my house. My previous schools are Singapore Polytechnic, Bukit Batok Secondary School and Yuhua Primary School.

I like Food Hunting, Skipping Breakfast, Cycling, Meeting People, Slacking, Web Designing, Train Riding, Acting Nerdy, Reading, Making Friends, Window Shopping, Internet Browsing and Blogging.

Really dislike Java, snobbish people, conspiracy theorists, spam and Mondays.

If anything, just talk to me. Even if it’s just for a chat, I’m always looking for new people to talk to.

Selling drinks has always been a great business. You go every where, you see drink stalls. They’re pretty profitable I heard.

Couple of years back, during the time when I was studying in Bukit Batok Secondary School (5 years back?), there is something called the ‘bubble tea’ that arrived to Singapore. I’ll try to describe what this ‘bubble tea’ is.

Bubble tea is not traditional tea. The smart people thought, “duh, we need a new drink, a new concept, frizzy drinks are getting boring.” So the idea of placing round chewy balls into tea came up. These round chewy balls comes in a variety of colors (usually black) and tastes, no bigger than a marble and you need a larger straw to suck out those round chewy balls. These balls are called ‘pearls’.

The whole idea probably originates from Taiwan – land of President Ah Bian. Virtually no one in Singapore would expect it to be such a hot idea from it arrives to our land – land of Lee family.

You have a choice of green tea or red tea. Choose either and they’ll dump the pearls into your tea and – tadah – you get the drink. Of course, that would seem too plain. The people added milk and it becomes ‘pearl milk tea’. That’s not enough still – add flavors. Peppermint, grape, chocolate, lychee – you name it.

The components of the bubble tea is rather simple.
* Green or red tea
* Pearls (Optional)
* Milk (Optional)
* Flavorings (Optional)

The damn thing is so customizable that it spawns like a hundred different type of bubble tea. The styles of blending differs too. There are things like ice blend, snow blend and whatever. Basically, it’s strange adjectives describing the amount of time spent on blending.

And after doing all those, a drink can sell up to SG$3.50! And you wonder who would buy it? How about – half of my secondary school classmates. Some even skip lunches just to get that bubble tea.

It’s a silly drink. I refused to buy it and drink it because it’s just too expensive.

One by one, the bubble tea stalls popped up everywhere. Soon, my area has 3 or 4 and some of which are facing each other directly. Stall owners resort to dirty tricks to gain customers. They got teenagers to stand in the counters to portray the young-and-cool theme of the bubble tea. That’s not all. A stall owner got bikini-claded models to sell bubble tea to attract customers. This method worked, it attracted the young and the old. Wives complained, the government stops the whole bikini thing – much to the husbands dismay.

The stalls still popped up happily, jumping onto the quick profit opportunity. Unfortunately, the market is too saturated and the whole bubble tea industry begin to cannibalize each other’s business. The bubble tea bubble bursts – reminds me of the dot-com boom in 1997 or so.

The bubble tea stalls are closing rapidly. Some stalls opened for just a month and is gone quickly [By the way, one of the brands of bubble tea is called 'Quickly' I recall]. The price fell greatly. Bubble tea can be found priced at SG$1.50 even.

But they are closing. Oh no! I mean, I haven’t really tried them except a couple of sips stolen from others.

One fine day, I walked to the bubble tea stall at the Bukit Batok MRT Station area. There was a bubble tea stall. I bought myself a cup of bubble tea of which flavoring I pretty much chosen by random. It tastes pretty good. My first full cup of bubble tea that I tried.

That cost me a dollar.

[By the way, bubble tea is still popular in Taiwan I think. They call it '�??�? 奶�?�' which is literally translated to 'pearl milk tea'. I heard the first to come to Singapore is Taiwan's CoolStation and it's brought over by a Taiwanese singer whose name I can't seem to remember.]

I don’t remember going to a school charity carnival before this day. I was at Assumption English School. Quite a notorious school I have to say. I don’t hear much good things about that school and the only good part of that school is probably that fact that that’s where my girlfriend graduated from.

Big school. Pink in color. I don’t fancy pink color, but when I take a look at Bukit Batok Secondary School’s ugly pale apple green color on the walls, I much prefer Assumption’s. However, school aren’t just about colors, there’re about people. It’s the people who made up the school, not the four walls, a floor and a ceiling. My girlfriend understands that more than me I believe.

She took this chance to visit her secondary school teachers too. I doubt it brings her much joy though.

Her keen eyes spotted the chemistry teacher and she walks towards her and called the teacher’s name.

Teacher: _- seemingly excitedly -_ Oh, hello!
My girlfriend: Hi, you remember me?

_pauses_

Teacher: Which year do you graduate from?
My girlfriend: You don’t remember me! My name is
Teacher: _- apologetic -_ I don’t remember you in my class.
My girlfriend: You don’t remember me!
Teacher: Which year do you graduate from?
My girlfriend: I am from your Chemistry class.
Teacher: Oh, I remember your face but don’t remember your name.
Me: So do you remember me?
Teacher: No, sorry, I don’t remember too.
Me: Oh, that’s because I ain’t from this school.

After the teacher left apologetically, my girlfriend turned to me and concluded, “She doesn’t remember me at all!”