apr - nov 2001

[020401] While waiting for e internal shuttle bus on e steps of e overhead bridge, spotted an abandoned bird nest in e tree above & black-naped orioles (why do my friends ALWAYS think of oreo cookies when I mention this?!) darting amongst e trees =) e last 'memorable' nest I spotted was back in Stanford, along Serra Street, with a bunch of noisy nestlings being fed by a parent.

[080901] finally got down to creating a link to one of my favourite sports. NO I do not play the game.... started watching matches back in 1995 during e World Cup (won by e Springboks) while doing A Maths homework & got hooked - far more gratifying to watch than soccer, which now seems sedentary by comparison.

[170901] Max Planck Society combines 2 of my loves - great Science (including entire institutes of e society devoted to 'esoteric' fields like 'Study of Societies', 'Collective Goods', Extraterrestrial Physics & Iron Research) + great Architecture (of some of e various institutes' facilities)

[051101] http://www.wildsingapore.com/chekjawa/

198?-1991:
used to spend Saturday nights at a prawn farm on Pulau Ubin, but stopped going there when I was about 12. 10 years have passed but can still remember the boat rides through the mangroves of Ketam channel and the snakes and giant millipedes in the sea below the toilet (a small hut at the jetty with a large gap in the wooden floorboards). can't remember the exact location of e farm, but if you walked straight out, Yihua quarry would be to e left. on e right would be a giant quarry pool with conveyor belts that loaded rocks onto barges, a house surrounded by mangrove trees, and further on would be a bridge over Sungei Puaka. e house was a wooden one, not unlike e type that my maternal grandpa built in Yio Chu Kang, except tt it was much smaller. this place was e closest thing to e old kampung at Yio Chu Kang that I could find.

1998:
returned to Ubin after 7 years, this time for fieldwork (GE2220), studying hillslope erosion processes: rilling, gullying, earth movements, soil creep, slope angles, vegetation cover, drip tips, drainage etc. e roads are PAVED?! e Ubin of my childhood's gone =|

2001:
returned to Ubin again with mixed feelings. wanted to see Tanjung Chek Jawa with friends, but after 1998, would rather remember Ubin as it was in e '80s than shock myself further. glad I made e 300901 trip in e end. went there in e late afternoon, found plenty of e same plants that grew wild in e old kampung at Yio Chu Kang, plenty of cats, a few flattened ex-frogs & one ex-flying dragon (Draco volans, & caught a fat toad (Bufo sp.) while waiting for friends at e jetty. walked to house no. 1 in e moonlight & slept on e front porch while waiting for e 4am low tide (0.6m). we waded in barefoot & explored e chek jawa mudflats by torch - there were tonnes & tonnes of sea stars piled up on e sandbank, plenty of tiny fish & shrimp playing hide & seek with us in e seagrass, ball sea cucumbers, sponges, carpet anemones and crabs. enough to make me return again on 201001 & in Nov & Dec 2001 despite e mad rampage.

[ filed under: nature1 + 9_lives_2001 ]

feb-mar 2001

[140201] got frog #9 & #10 today =) makes it a total of 8 stuffed & 2 plastic frogs, including 3 from San Francisco & 1 from Melbourne.

[210301] "Observe the cormorant...Why is it that of all the different vertebrates the cormorant has been chosen to slave away day & night for the fisherman? Were the bird not greedy for fish, or not efficient at catching it, or not readily trained, would society have created an industry to exploit the bird? Would the ingenious device of a ring around its neck, and the simple procedure of squeezing the bird's neck to force it to regurgitate the fish have been devised? Of course not"
- Siu, R.G.H.

"We too are prime candidates to be exploited to serve someone else's ends if we are talented, have the ability to learn...& are greedy. Ironically, these are precisely the qualities that our schools, professions, & employers strive to instil in us. Without self-awareness and a clear sense of self-identity, these same qualities will gradually but surely put us on the path to becoming a cormorant, not the path with a heart."

- Hall, D.T. & Mirvis, P.H. (1996) The Career Is Dead - Long Live the Career. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. p22

[210301] just found out that there is a 1704m tall Mt. Huaying in a red karst area of the Sichuan Basin, Sichuan province, China.

[250301] (left) e scrunchie & hairpin holder (fish) & (right) e cat that got e fish!



Thanks to Kuan for taking these pics =)

[290301] "A little chicken sitting comfortably in e henhouse without a care in e world was startled by e appearance of a man & ran away. When it came back e man was gone but there was some corn lying on e ground. Having a degree of scientific curiosity e chicken began to watch & it soon noticed that when the man appeared e corn appeared. It did not want to commit itself to any theory in a hurry & watched e sequence 999 times. There were no exceptions to e rule that e appearance of e man meant food, so it swallowed its skepticism & decided that there must be a necessary connection between e man & e corn. In e language of casuality this meant that whenever e man appeared e corn must appear. On e basis of this conclusion it went out to meet e man on his 1000th appearance to thank him for his kindness & had its neck wrung."

- Marcus Long

[290301] "Those who rely upon e arc, e line, e compass & e square to make correct forms injure e natural constitution of things. Those who seek to satisfy e mind of man by hampering it with ceremonies & music & affecting humanity & justice have lost e original nature of man. There is an original nature in things. Things in their original nature are curved without the help of arcs, straight without lines, round without compasses, & rectangular without squares; they are joined together without glue & held together without cords. In this manner all things grow with abundant life, without knowing how they do so. They all have a place in the scheme of things & ... [e scheme] may not be tampered with."

- transl. by Lin Yutang

[ filed under: thewonderingstraycat + 9_lives_2001 + art1 ]

KE7 wushu

[041102] KEVII wushu team on 041098 at Circuit Road:



first ever performance for 98/99 batch freshmen, a month-plus after we started learning.

[250301] KEVII wushu @ 3rd National Wushu Display 1999 at Singapore Indoor Stadium:


[ photos from Boy ]




[ scanned by Pig-pig ]

[160702 update] KEVII wushu exhibition Feb 2000 at Far East Square:



[050403 update] KEVII wushu CNY performance at Parco Bugis Junction on 260103:



[260803 update] members from 6 out of e 10 batches of KEVII wushu, from 97/98 batch all e way to e current 03/04 batch, at Bayshore on 090503:



& in KEVII lounge on 140803:



[221005 update] KE7 wushu in 2005

[ filed under: 9_lives_1998 + 9_lives_1999 + 9_lives_2000 + 9_lives_2003 ]