I cut my hair yesterday so this picture does not portray an accurate representation of me

Last day of Greenpeace. Kinda happy, kinda sad. It was fun. I can't believe I came up with such a stupid title for this post.

More ramblings from behind the boring office desk

Now that my supervisors have left for a meeting, I'm free! Okay, there seems to be no progress in my quest for meaningful/interesting/useful work. They really don't care about me, and I don't intend to be disrespectful by being gung-ho and trooping around the office asking the higher-uppers to satiate my needs. At least I got something done this morning.

Blog-o-rama, man.

Yesterday we had chili night at one of the hosts' house. Very nice house in a very nice neighborhood. We had the company of several distinguished alums too. I met this alum named Mark London. He’s a lawyer, but he spends his free time writing books, and those books give him a chance to travel and to learn. His first book did very well, so Simon and Schuster asked him for a 2nd book. It was going to be on Cuba at first, but the Cubes didn’t allow it. So S&S said that they would accept any damn book, and Mark had not been to Asia very much. So the book’s on the four dragons of Asia, Singapore included. We had a nice chat about home.

The most distinguished alum was Judge William Webster '49. He did two years of school, then WWII broke out, so he went to fight in Europe. He came back to Amherst and he finished in 1949.. so, he’s old. He’s retired, and he’s a judge. Well, before that he was the director of the FBI and the CIA. No, not simultaneously. But that still is pretty damn good. And before he left last night, he said he had to make a move because he had a 45-page document to read about Government Romney (the governer of Massachusetts wants to wiretap everyone. Top list of suspects to watch include international students i.e. people like yp) and he had a meeting with John Ashcroft in the morning. And, before he left, he asked my friend where he was from, to which my friend answered Houston, Texas. To that, Judge said, oh, I had a dinner with a fella’ from Houston last night; his name is George Bush.

Yes, there is a future for Amherst graduates!

Dinner with a republican

Last night we had a Winternship event-a dinner with an alumni named Keith Davis, class of '79. Now, right from the start I thought that this event was quite fishy. Keith was going to treat us to this to dinner at a place called the Old Ebbit Grill, a fairly nice restaurant in the heart of D.C.

The reason behind all this suspicion was the description of him that was included in our Winternship manual:

Keith Davis is Chairman of Huckaby Davis Lisker (HDL) [I couldn't find any information about HDL online, besides the fact that HDL had made a small contribution to the Republican party in its election campaign. The horrors!] and has been involved in the field of Election Commission (FEC) compliance since 1979. HDL works with the Republican federal campaign and party committees, and business and trade political action committees, with respect to their accounting needs and thir compliance with the FEC (and state) reporting and recordkeeping requirements.

Keith was treasurerof the Phil Gramm for President Committee during the 96 election cycle, and Assistant Treasurer of both the 88 and 92 Bush-Quayle campaigns. He is Treasurer of Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander's campaign re-election committee. Through HDL, he served as the FEC compliance consultant for Bush-Cheney '04 and assisted the campaign in preparation for the mandatory FEC audit.

Keith was also Assistant Treasurer of the 92 Republican National Convention Committee, a consultant to the 96 and 00 conventions, and since 91 has served as the FEC compliance consultant to the National Republican Senatorial Committee. He has consulted with more than a dozen Republican presidential campaigns and more than 200 congressional campaigns, and has twice testified before the FEC concerning the impact of proposed regulatory revisions.


Wah. Hardcore republican, it seemed. And at this point of time, the image that was imprinted in my mind was that republicans were ultra-conservative, fuelled by old money, super-Christian and bordering on fundamentalist, anti LGBT, anti-abortion, dumb/stupid/challenged and from the South.

It didn't help that the week before we had a reception for Amherst alums and all the hosts/supervisors involved in the Winternship program, and that half the cost of the reception was sponsored by Keith. I didn't get to talk to him on the reception, but nevertheless, he seemed to fulfil the above-mentioned stereotype. Tsk tsk, where's all the money coming from.

It also didn't help that while waiting for Keith at the Old Ebbit grill, we met a friend of his whom he had invited to join us. Amherst grad of '04, now attending Divinity school at Princeton. Oh-oh, super-conservatives/religious unite.

It also didn't help that after we sat down, Keith came to the middle of the table and he said that we could order anything we wanted (and as much as we wanted), and that he really meant it.

For the first half of the dinner, he sat at the far end of the table, so us winterns at the other side didn't get to talk to him. But during desert, he came over to our side to talk to us.

The first thing that had surprised me was the way he spoke. No southern drawl, unfortunately. And he was extremely well-mannered and polite. Extremely. He shaked all of our hands, each time introducing himself as Keith. I would feel akward doing that, especially if I knew that everyone knew my name already-but that's just me and my lack of manners haha.

And he was extremely candid about it all. He said that we could ask him any question, and that nothing could offend him at all. He immediately cited how a former Wintern had once asked him how he could possibly work for those evil, money-minded, (insert string of not-very-nice adjectives)... republicans, and that was really the question that I had wanted to ask! He didn't tell us the answer he gave to that student, so I asked the question again later, to which I received a rather eloquent and well-thought-through answer.

The most striking thing that he said was that he was republican simply because he felt that the republican party had a better grasp on the issues that he thought were threatening America's interests (for example, he believed in people working for help, and not just sitting around waiting for handouts); and that he had disagreements with many right-wingers within the party.

Afterwards, my fellow winterns continued bitching about republicans and how his answers were just disguised. I decided to let the matter rest, because I knew that I actually didn't know much at all. Much later I realized that maybe his answer was a little ambiguous, but even then, I had to rethink the way I thought about all this American politics nonsense. All this republican-bashing merely seems to be part of a fad or a trend amongst youths.

This guy certainly didn't have old money-he went to high school and college on scholarships-neither was he stupid, biased or parochial. My first impression of him was that he was a really smart guy.

My supervisor handed me this letter just before he left the office. It reads:

GreenPeace
702 H St, NW, Suite 300
Washington DC 20001

31 Dec 2005

Dear GreenPeace,

This anonymous note is addressed to you, because I don't know what else to do about this matter.

It concerns a large offshore gas development project in the Gulf of Thailand; which is presently in the final design stage and initial construction phase. The main facilities are scheduled for offshore installation in 2007. The primary "player" is the Thailand national company "PTTEP". However; ChevronTexaco holds 16% of the "action", and some of their employees are directly involved in the project. ChevronTexaco acquired their share through the Unocal takeover. The project's primary function is to supply natural gas (via subsea pipeline) to power plants near Bangkok.

Arthit's gas (in the reservoir) contains approximately thirty percent carbon dioxide; which will be separated offshore, and discharged into the atmosphere. This CO2 discharge will be something like a hundred million standard cubic feet per day; which is why I'm writing to you. Now days (with the concern for "greenhouse gases") it is normal practice that CO2 emissions of this magnitude are reinjected, rather than being discharged into the atmosphere. However, to save money, Arthit Project is avoiding this "burden".

I would like to see some hard questions asked of ChevronTexaco as to why are they're involved in a porject that "dumps" this magnitude of CO2 into the atmosphere.

If you have any questions, you may email to ______________.ph.


The reason why he passed it to me is because, interestingly enough, the envelope which the letter came in had a Singapore stamp on it. Yeah, the letter came from Singapore and it was mailed out on the 31 of Dec 2005. Fishy.

My first thoughts were that the letter came from Shell or some rival of ChevronTexaco, haha. Well, one important lesson that I've taken away from this shitty, horrible, menial job of scanning documents (besides now knowing that I'd better know what I really really want to do during an internship) is that money fuels all sorts of lies and scams. I've seen the names of hundreds of so-called non-profit/independent/public groups that have been gradually exposed as front groups fuelled by greedy, evil capitalists. It's extreme.

I don't know, I shall wait for a reply from this anonymous party.

Musings from behind the desk

Sorry ah it's act-smart/intellectual time. Actually, I feel kinda bad writing now especially since my supervisor is back from Italy. But I asked him for more work, and in a nutshell, his reply really meant: "I don't know and I don't really have anything so go scan some more stuff." He said it in a rather friendly tone, though.

I went out to grab some lunch about two hours ago. It was crazy. There was a protest/campaign of sorts yesterday on the National Mall, the huge strip of greenery that lies in between the Capitol and the Washington Monument. It's called the March For Life, and it has to do with the anti-abortion/Right To Life movement. I don't know why, but there were hundreds and hundreds of people holding placards and banners crowding Chinatown today. Chinatown/Galleryplace is a good 7 or 8 blocks from the National Mall, but I guess it's the nearest place to the mall where there's reasonably-priced food (the Mall is a highly touristy-gimmicky area. Oh, besides all the chain restaurants, Chinese food is really cheap). The thing I don't get is the protest and the fact that almost all the people are kids/students. Sorry for being so PAP, but thinking about the march/protest/whatever, I was seething with cynicism. I'm not a democrat (I am, however, either liberal or apathetic), neither do I like the idea of killing. Maybe I was so cynical because there were about 50 protestors in the queue for the salad I wanted. Haha. Okay, but I am highly suspicious of these participants understanding the full ramifications/implications of their actions. I know no one will ever fully understand the implications lah, but the fact is, if not even the most erudite of scholars can, how can you expect these 9th graders (or however old they are) to make a choice? I am doubtful as to whether people even admit the fact that the choices they make can never be justified absolutely (which I think is the best thing we can do-admit that our choices are severly limited by the limited scope of our individual intellects). On any basis/grounds-economic, moral, political, how can one make a decision about such matters of grave importance? Okay, maybe political, can la. Bush can just go the way which attracts more supporters and votes. But even then, how would he extrapolate the events that are happening today and see how they might affect the electoral college? I don't think Karl Rove can do that leh.

The point is, I think, that America is an experiment in democracy, as much as Singapore is an experiment in..err..social democracy. Wah, I'm so pro-establishment.

Did I write about Vietnam and the voting age already? I met this guy who told me that the voting age in the U.S. was lowered from 21 to 18 because the U.S. was sending kids (our age) off to the war halfway round the world and these kids weren't even allowed to vote. Of course, the parallels between the U.S. army and the SAF are not so simple la.

Oh ya, I went to watch the Washington Wizards yesterday. It's a pretty big stadium, the MCI center. My friend says 21000 seats. The Washington Wizards lost, unfortunately, on their home ground. The funny thing was that yesterday was the Washington Post's Family and Kids Day, so during the many many TV breaks and extended timeouts the officials would start organizing really lame activities. For example, a baby race. Mats were laid out for the purpose of this ridiculous (and highly-amusing) farce, and the babies who crawled across to the other side (where one parent would wait) first would win. It was a farce la. When the starting bell went off, the parents plonked their cute little babies on the mats. And what did the babies do? They fa1 dai1-ed. They sat down, and stoned. It was rather cute, actually.

I think you could call it the first step I've taken in living the life I always thought that I wanted to live. Not that I have any regrets about the decisions I have made in life-it's just that the choice I made was perhaps one of the choices I perpetually think about. Sorry if you think I'm about to reveal some life-shattering revelation about sex or drugs or miscellaneous delinquencies-all I did was buy Tim O' Brien's The Things They Carried.

Now, the choice that I perpetually think about is not the choice that I made to buy the book, although I must admit that it was a mind-boggling decision all the same-to buy or not to buy? I can borrow the book from the library for free lor... and books are not cheap. But I bought it in the end because I realized that I wouldn't have time to read it when I get back to school. The choice was about what I wanted to study and what I wanted to do with my JC life. Sorry to bring this up again la, I know its very banal, and I hate to tread the emo-blog-entry line.

Well, The Things They Carried has been repeatedly touted to me by Xiangwei and Luke, amongst other friends. I'm currently riding on an insatiable hunger for books, and this desire for knowledge (or so I think haha) is being fuelled by an inevitable struggle to come to terms with the issue of national service. No la, I'm not absconding. Two things contributed to my obsession with national service: firstly, the fact that all my friends are fulfilling their duties and getting it over with; secondly, the fact that I was a really sucky soldier. How many times do I have to tell the wickedly humorous stories of myself being punished for a variety of often idiotic reasons? Haha. Dear mu guo Singapore has crafted, in me, a person who's ridiculously obsessed with success. And so I keep thinking about what went wrong and what (little) went right during the 6 months of national service.

They carried the common secret of cowardice barely restrained... They carried the soldier's greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing. Men killed, and died, because they were embarassed not to..

I wonder what my dear friends in AH felt when they read this book. I wonder if anyone has read the book again after entering the army. I will candidly admit that the lines above describe what I felt and what pushed me on. Seriously, nothing else would have pushed fat, unfit, out-of-shape yp into finishing that unprecedented chore of a run besides the fear of blushing. I wished that reading those lines would have invoked some sort of catharsis, but it didn't, too bad. But it's very true for me, and I don't know how true it is for everyone else. Maybe I just pai seh-ed myself for the whole wide world to see, maybe not, haha.

I went to Georgetown today to visit Juline. Georgetown is located in the west side of D.C., and it's one of the richer neighborhoods in town. Banana Republic, A&E, Zara, etc. are located there. I actually visited D.C. three years ago on that sham of a trip named GYLC, and on one of the first few days we went to Georgetown, although I don't remember that it was Georgetown. I remember eating at the food court which I saw again today-the mall hasn't changed; I remember the 2nd-hand book shop and I remember wearing my new G2000 suit, feeling very lonely (aww) and sitting down in the Starbucks I bought a coffee from today. I wrote, on a discarded sheet of paper, about how I loved the architecture of Georgetown, about how it was a nice lovely neighborhood. But today, we had kaya toast and pancakes, and it was lovely to meet Juline.

Okay time to watch Band of Brothers hahaha.

When I have my own room (or when I have my own apartment in the future), I want to have jazz posters, a stereo that pipes satellite radio through speakers wired in the ceiling, a nice coffee machine, and a mini-music studio. Not much la, haha.

At the office

Ooo post number sixty. Walking past other cubicles, I often see people checking their emails and doing stuff that doesn't really look like work. The nice thing about Greenpeace is that they don't clock your hours; you just tick the attendance sheet everytime you come in and everytime you go out. I would say that the office kicks into action at 9 (I'm guessing because the earliest I've come to work is at 9.30, on the first day) and most people come in at about 9.45 to 10. I don't know how meetings and all are scheduled, but I get the feeling that you are at liberty to leave anytime. Logging into blogspot, a pop-down list appears listing 5 or 6 previous users who have logged in at some time in the past. In addition to all this, I see and hear people laughing, playing darts, talking, etc.

Of course I don't doubt the ability of an organization like Greenpeace to achieve results, and its workers probably know that they can take liberties with formal codes of conduct as long as they put in their best, hit each target and get the job done.

Well I never thought that working 9 to 5 (okay, about 9.45 to 4.30/5-ish for me; minus procrastinating time, I actually don't work that much) would sap so much energy. It probably doesn't help that my work is absolutely mundane (not that I'm complaining, I'm happy taking it slow), but one very obvious thing that has surfaced is that you've got to find a job that you want to do. Of course this is an ideal view of things, and maybe money (and the pressure of bills) can make the most mundane of things seem more interesting.

Downstairs in one of the cubicles there's a t-shirt that hanging on the partition which proclaims a bushism that never fails to crack me up: I know the human being and fish can co-exist peacefully. Oh my god... hahahaha. For a complete list of bushisms go to slate.com-it has links to videos as well.

I don't really know whether I should laugh, cry, be happy or do all three at the same time. I bought a copy of Newsweek yesterday and I was reading all about the Abramoff hearing. Lobbying is so damned complex in the States; it moves billions of dollars; and it involves the most powerful people in D.C. Of course, the Abramoff hearing has shown how dirty lobbying can be, and it really is very dirty. The fact of the matter is, however, that it is a giant web of deception. Here in Singapore, however, we have down-to-earth lobbyists lobbying for the opening of Buangkok MRT. Not to be snooty or anything. Well, at least we're honest and down-to-earth. At least the MRT in Singapore is dirt cheap compared to D.C., New York or London.

FARE gates at the S$80 million Buangkok MRT station opened to passengers for the first time on Sunday, ending 2 1/2 years of intense lobbying by residents and grassroots leaders.

Buangkok MRT station finally open
Fittingly, hundreds of them shared the limelight with guest-of-honour, Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean, and his parliamentary colleagues from the Pasir Ris Punggol GRC, as they too had a hand in cutting a 240m-long red ribbon encircling the station.

The fare gates opened at 12.55 pm and the first train pulled alongside the platform at 1pm.

The station would have opened only in 2008, when there would be 2,000 to 3,000 housing units within 400m of a station to justify opening it.

But in November last year, it was announced that the opening would be brought forward to better serve residents of new housing developments nearby.

In his speech on Sunday, Mr Teo praised grassroots leaders for their enthusiasm and creativity in making their case to open Buangkok.

When asked if the opening was timed as an election sweetener, he said: 'All decisions have to be on the merits of the case... but of course, if residents are happy, that's very good too.

Adventures at Work Part 2: The Food!!!!

I am going to gain so much weight, man.

Before I divulge my exploits in the gastronomical world, I forgot something that I wanted to say in the earlier post. I chalked up about 400 to 500 names of those bullshit evil capitalist-funded organizations so far. Let's take that number 400. Let's say each firm has 25 people (which is definitely plausible since some of these organizations are HUGE. Some are divisions of the capitalist bastard firms themselves, like Enron or ExxonMobil. VISIT EXXONSECRETS.ORG! So these firms are HUGE and 25 per firm is definitely possible). 400x25=10000. Let's say each organization spends $10000 per annum. That's US$100000000 of propoganda a year. That's $100 million of work that good-doers like Greenpeace or whatever organization have to combat. There are many ways of looking at this issue:

1.) $100 million a year could go into doing a lot of good.
2.) 'Real' NGOs would have to spend a lot of money combating these propoganda efforts. The net result is a neutralization (assuming that the work cancels out each other without producing any other useful by-product [okay lets ignore the increased awareness of this issue as a benefit]), that leads to a lot of money just disappearing. Talk about waste and evil capitalists.
3.) People who contribute to 'good' NGOs are probably unconciously supporting evil capitalists at the same time. For if the evil capitalists were to adopt carbon emission standards, for example, Mr. Greenpeace financial supporter might be without a job. Or perhaps, unknowingly, he is buying a certain product and that sale contributes to the profits of evil capitalist firm A. In this case of misinformation, how can anyone take a moral standpoint on the issue?

Okay the presentation of the points I wanted to make are as usual very convoluted and unclear but whatever.

So last night we had an ice cream social at my hosts' house. Hahaha the other interns had to come over from wherever over they stayed while me and Alex just stayed put. Ice cream.. phwoar. Basically, I will have desert for the next three weeks. I just ate a chocolate and vanilla sundae (with butterscotch sauce and chocolate sauce). I don't think it really helped that the ice cream were the 'light' varieties.

The best part was really the fact this ice cream sundae came after an equally unhealthy dinner. PHILIP I DIDN'T KNOW THAT THERE WAS A LES HALLE RESTAURANT IN WASHINGTON D.C.!!!! Okay I did not eat at Les Halle for dinner. But for those who don't know, Philip introduced me to these very interesting books, A Cook's Tour and Kitchen Confidential. I've probably raved about them enough already. Ash/Charm: did you know that Anthony Bourdain went to Vassar for a year or two? Anyway, Anthony Bourdain is the chef at Les Halle in NY. And I was damn psyched up to find out that there was a Les Halle in D.C.

Anyway, what I really had for dinner was the perfect burger. I was walking from Chinatown (my workplace is right next to the Metro stop, right in heart of Chinatown. How convenient) to Barnes and Noble, which is 7 or 8 blocks away. About 5 minutes into my walk, I saw this sign in a store 'The Willy Wonka of Burgercraft'. I was already tempted to eat a nice greasy dinner (I had a relatively healthy lunch of shui gao mian tang at a nearby Chinese place. My supervisor treated me there the first place and we had Singapore Fried Noodles. Quite nice leh!!) and so I was tempted to check the burger place out. I don't know why but I moved on, determined to get my Washington D.C. guidebook before doing anything else. Stupid me.

After spending about half an hour browsing through the store I finally found the most appropriate D.C. guidebook. It was in that guidebook that I saw a map with a Les Halle restaurant review, so with much gusto and reverie I chionged to Les Halle. I didn't go into Les Halle, though, because I thought I was underdressed. Hello, jeans, sneakers and bomber jacket? Backpack?? I don't think so. Les Halle was dimly lit and all, the kind of place perfect for a date. Sigh. I was alone with my D.C. guidebook, and dressed like that, I felt uncomfortable. Oh ya, Marilyn So, the 'eating alone is undignified' comment resounded very clearly.

It was at this momen that I decided that I HAD to eat the burger at that shop I passed by just now. WAH like White Castle, man. The thing is, I forgot where the shop was. In the end I managed to find it by retracing my route back to Chinatown, taking a few wrong turns on the way. The burger shop is called Five Guys. Wah. The burger comes with any or all of the following condiments: mayo, ketchup, mustard, lettuce, peppers, jalapeno peppers, onions, lettuce, sauteed mushrooms... can't remember what else. The bun was so fluffy... the beef was so tasty... (100% beef, no fillers, apparantly) wah.. (I FEEL LIKE AN AMERICAN! I FEEL LIKE DAXSON YAP CHIN TECK TOO! Did I spell your Chinese name correctly?)

Mind you, Five Guys isn't some posh restaurant. It's some dirt cheap fast-food place. They have two stickers on the door saying "We serve lots of peanuts in open containers", showing how they don't really have to cater to special needs to do business. There are peanut shells all over the floor. The peanuts are like those kind you eat at CNY, you know that kind which youo have to crack open? Except that the peanuts at Five Guys were HUGE. They were like testosterone-overloaded, steroid-pumped versions of our lousy FARMER BRAND PEANUTS. THEY WERE HUGGEEEEEEE!

So the burger was exceptionally good, man. Made all the better by the sudden craving I had tonight for a greasy meal, the fact that I was actually tempted to go eat there before going to Barnes and Nobles, the decision to postpone Les Halle and the fact that I got lost on the way back to Five Guys.

Growing fat already...

Adventures at Work Part 1

Two days of work since my last post.

Well, my first day of work was rather interesting. I arrived at 10 a.m. to be pleasantly surprised that my actual supervisor wasn't in the office yet, so after a quick tour of the Greenpeace Washington D.C. office I was told to come back at 11 a.m. How nice. Anyway, the tabletops in Greenpeace are made out of recycled yoghurt containers, certain parts of the floor out of recycled tyres, etc. The yoghurt containers part was the most interesting-you could see the tin foil tops of the yoghurt cups.

So I actually had time to walk around the area before I even started my first day of work. I saw the first strike in my life, some protest against some firm named Sierra or something. I actually had the time to go into the National Archives and check it out for a bit. The Archives are the place where the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and so on and so forth are kept. Decided to indulge myself in Starbucks after that, and then went back to work.

After two days, I still don't know what to make out of my supervisor. He's from Hampshire College, and this should tell you enough if you're from Amherst. Amherst is part of a five-college consortium and Hampshire is one of the colleges. Hamphsire is reknowned across the nation for being absolutely wacko. I would associate the word Hampshire with any or all of the following: druggies, trippy, psychadelic, funky, weird, wacko, etc. etc. Anyway Hampshire is a school which does not have grades. It's basically a very interesting academic/intellectual experiment. And my supervisor tells me, in response to my telling him that my bassist in the Catfish is this ultra-funky chick from Hampshire, 'the guys in my generation were saying that the people at Hampshire now are getting soft' or something.

So I don't really know what to make out of my supervisor haha. He's at least a foot taller than me, bald and has beady, shifty eyes that left me the initial impression that he was in some state of psychadelica. He is an interesting guy, though, who probably knows his stuff. He is the director of research, so he backs up all the campaigns with the nitty-gritty stuff, the facts. He says he's interested in how policy and science interact, and he doesn't seem to be the kind that fibbs about anything (nor does he seem like the kind that like buttkissing).

My first day was incredibly slack, partly because he had just come back from three weeks of holiday and needed to clear up his own junk and email. But he set the tone when he implied that I should come in when I feel like it (I have decided that 9.30 a.m. is a good time), I can go anytime I want ("After all, you're working for free anyway." He laughed at that point, and whenever he laughs, it seems to betray the unemotional, spaced-out demeanor that he normally carries), and I can take however long I want for lunch break. And my project instructions weren't very clear, because I think he wasn't too sure himself.

Today was more tougher, though. I began working on the project he assigned me, which is basically sai kang although I wouldn't like to admit that I was more than just a sai kang warrior. Admittedly, it is sai kang that actually requires brains, so I suppose I shouldn't feel like I'm being used. Anyway I don't have anything particular in mind so I guess I don't mind working on this project.

Basically, in the last few years of the 20th century, when it was increasingly apparent that global warming was a threat and environmentalists were a pain in businesses' asses, businesses and industries started coming together and they forged an anti-environmentalist/anti-global warming campaign. They created and fuelled (often with dirty oil money) P.R. firms with names as innocuous as "Frontiers of Freedom", "American Council for Science and Health", etc. The names of these organizations sound very proper and one might think, without knowing the truth, that these organizations were official, state-sanctioned creations. But the truth is, it's all bullshit that's funded by greedy capitalist bastards. My supervisor's take on the American Council for Science and Health: salt is good for you! Eat more meat!

These capitalist assholes basically pay people to set up elaborate schemes to say that global warming isn't happening, that we should use objective science and not be swayed by emotions, that global warming isn't a product of mankind but nature (hereby contradicting other P.R. firms that say that global warming isn't happening at all), that we should get our facts right. This anti-global warming effort has expanded itself to include the anti-environmentalism movement. Today I saw this flyer saying that animals didn't have the same rights as humans. It was one of those organizations pushing for animals to be used as resources.

Speaking about the anti-environmentalism movement, my supervisor would chuckle at me: "They don't even have an environmental movement in Singapore, let alone an anti-environmental one, eh?" My supervisor knows a lot about Singapore and the repressive goverment that resides there. In fact, he knows it's not in China and he's actually visited the place (on a tour of the pacific regions). He said he came in from Malaysia by train, and at the customs gate the officials had a fan placed at one's side and dogs placed on the other side. "The dogs bark, and you're dead." He gave me a pamphlet on the illegal logging trade in Singapore, which was produced in 2003. I was pretty amazed by the pamphlet. According to the little booklet, Singapore is known for illegal timber and wildlife trade, and the booklet says something about the implications of the US-FTA on illegal timber trade. It really is quite interesting, and it doesn't look like some shoddy, cheap, parochial publication. It actually seems credible.

But anyway, back to my boring job. Yeah, so I brought my Mac today and I catalogued about 2/3 of all the documents. Mundane and tiring. But I'm almost done with this first part of the project so I'm quite happy about that. My supervisor was still checking emails and stuff today (after coming back from a TV interview). I don't know if he's still clearing up old emails or if he's just slack. Slack would be another word I'd associate with Hampshire College, though, so I wouldn't be surprised.

First work day

I'm going to leave in 12 minutes time for my first day of work, so I guess I won't have time to write much. I'll write more tonight. Strangely, my supervisor asked me to report at 10 a.m. today, which is kinda late, right? Of course, not that I'm complaining. Or maybe it's just the first day haha. My housemate went off to work about 20 minutes ago, and my hosts left slightly earlier, so I'm all alone in the house with the two dogs. I just had breakfast, and it would have been a really healthy breakfast (toast with FAT FREE cream cheese and coffee) if not for the handful of kettle chips I scarfed down while waiting for my third slice of toast to be err, toasted. Sigh, fatty-bear-yp.

Okay, in case anyone thinks I have a serious spelling problem (which I think I might have, actually, since coming to the states and not having had to write a single word. Eh, William? :p), Daxson Yap, I'm going to watch a Wizards game on the 22nd of Jan. The plan is, we are going to buy an el cheapo $10 ticket and move down to the front, since, according to my NBA-fan of a friend, the games don't sell out. Especially Wizards' games. Yah. Haha sorry Dax...

Another correction: there weren't 2400 contestants-there were 2400 audience members. All of them had to dress up in drag though (the audience members, I mean). And my host won four years ago, not last year. Well, last night's dinner conversation (we had Chinese take-in with another gay couple from behind the street) revolved around the politics, history and intricacies of the drag queen contest that has been going on for 18 years now. So funny. It started as a halloween party for four people who decided to dress up, and soon enough, they were asking people to come and watch. They made it a contest, more people came, the whole get-up expanded till they had to find the largest ballroom in D.C. to accomodate the event. The contest now features 12 contestants who have to dress up in a parade (representing their states), put up a musical number, etc. etc. It is so damn elaborate its actually really overwhelming. And these guys are into it, man. One of our guests said that he spent 6 weeks preparing one of the costumes or something.

Okay enough blabbering for now, time to go save the environment! Haha.

First night

I'm in D.C. now. Had a rather interesting night last night and I thought I'd write about it but I rather not divulge haha. Anyway I arrived in D.C. and got out of customs at about 4 p.m. Bad start to the trip-too many pieces of luggage to haul around, hardly any reception in the damned airport (if you remember I washed my phone so I was really worried that I screwed the sim card permanently), no where to sit where I could get reception on my phone, having to haul all my crap all around the place just to get a signal on the phone, my host busy and uncontactable (I could hardly make out what the receptionist was saying). I finally had to resort to paying $5 to check my mail (what the hell, 5 dollars? I was extremely reluctant, I tell you) because I had asked my host to email me back and tell me how we should meet up. I finally got some relief after that $5, because thankfully, my host replied. Urgh. I felt really homesick, knowing that my pampered ass (err, no pun intended) would be very well taken off at home, and I think I knew how Charles felt. Sigh.

But I made my way to the Metro Station and took a train down to my host's office. I had a very interesting dinner with my host, his partner and his gay friends (okay so I am writing about it). They are the first gay people I know, and they are very funny and interesting. One of my host's friend won a hell lot of money at poker and was treating us (even though he didn't know who I was) at this nice restaurant.

When we walked into the restaurant and I saw the menu, I was quite psyched-up. Now, I'd just finished reading A Cook's Tour and Kitchen Confidential (they probably are the books that I've finished the fastest) by Anthony Bourdain, and I was all excited about what happened inside and outside the kitchen. The place was some Thai/Asian fusion cuisine place, there were two bars, one on the ground floor and one on the mezzanine (if I remember correctly, a mosaic of mainly white tiles peppered throughout with black ones); several tables each enclosed by a structure resembling a cross between a large, golden bird cage and a pavillion, tucked away at various corners, and a main dining room on the third floor, the walls draped with red velvet curtains. The tables were rectangular, made of shiny steel, the chairs had metre-long backrests made out of err.. charred, carved wood? Urgh anyway I'm a failure with words and I don't know what image I've conjured, but the place was exotic la.

It was an expensive dinner, alright. Not uber-expensive, but expensive. I had a mojito (Ron cleverly gave me his drink and ordered another one, and then we swapped) and champagne, malu-ed myself by picking bread off the waiters plate with my hands when the waiter used tongs to serve everyone else (the waiter came to me first, blurted out the choices of bread, leaving me clueless as to what to do next), and then had the real food.

I must say, I couldn't really appreciate the food even though everyone else was complimenting that it was good. I had seared sea scallops on a bed of some green mushy thing which seemed to contain peppers and shallots and a soggy wanton skin. Guacamole? I dunno. It came on a plate, grilled, grated coconut scattered all around my two plump scallops.

For my entree I had the Wasabi crusted Ahi Tuna. Very exotic. For one, however, it was almost cold, just like the scallops. Wasabi was very light, and the tuna was medium-rare. Whatever Tony said about grade one and grade two tuna, I have no idea. I was clueless, and the meat got more and more red towards the center. Almost like sashimi.

I was stuffed, but my companions urged me to eat desert. "Don't worry, you're young, your metabolism rate is so much higher!" So I was compelled to order the vanilla bean ice cream, which was so-so. After forcing one scoop down my throat I stopped, not feeling good anymore. Head was throbbing from the drinks, and I had too much to eat.

Urgh I feel like Daxon, talking about all the food. But the point I really wanted to make was that it was an expensive dinner and I had 5 very interesting, funny companions. One was a navy officer who served for 10 years, having spent time in Okinawa. My hosts work in non-profits. I'm not sure about the other two. One of them gave me money to stuff into the belly dancers skirt, and to my further embarassment, the belly dancer got me up from my chair and asked me to dance. Thank god no one else was watching.

I came back and crashed in my bed. My hosts' house is really nice-three floors, and I have the top-the top constituting a nice bedroom and a bathroom. Once again, words fail me, so I'll show you the video I took if I ever get the chance to see you. I'm in the kitchen now, sitting one a turqoise and white leather chair that looks like it was plucked out from an ang-mor-ican diner. On the wall hang four Andy Warhol-ish prints.

"That's Brian (one of my hosts) in drag."

"Are you kidding me?"

"No, he won some drag contest in D.C. last year. There were 2400 contestants."

My hosts are really nice and interesting people.

the end (of this trip) has come, a new journey tommorow

Feels like resolution time. Who invented this resolution business anyway? I'll think about it on the plane. But I want to finally learn to live life without regrets and be happy and get rid of that I wish I could that person/do that thing/be like that feeling.

I finally finished packing my large suitcase-oh my god it was such a nightmare. I'm using one of those vacuum bags that scrunges up and saves you space, and i had to pack it and unpack it several times until I could get it into a nice square-shaped bag that fit the dimensions of my suitcase. When I finally managed to get the damned bag into the suitcase, I heard a "pfttt".

Oh oh.

I patched the bag up with scotch tape, but I don't think I will hold forever. When I get to D.C. I'm going to start shipping some of the useless things I brought along with me. Travel light, dammit! I always overpacked, so quite some time ago I decided that travellng light was best. But it seems that I always travelled too light, so now I'm back to being kiasu again. Packing so much shit into my suitcase was the mistake of my life. All those clothes, all those books...

So I'm taking a short breather from packing the rest of my stuff into my backpack. The others are playing mahjong downstairs. Zhihong left Heathrow 3 hours ago and she'll be back in sunny Singapore in approximately 9 hours time. Lucky her. I counted: 134 days more to May 20th, the last day of the spring semester!! Can't wait. I can already see the future: my first meal will be orh lua; the first thing I'll do the morning after will be going to Pan Pacific for a haircut (I pray I can maintain my hair until then).

This trip's coming to an end, and for a short period I wasn't really looking forward to having to go to D.C. to intern. Sure, it'll look good on my CV and it's something that I want to do sooner or later, but I was feeling sian of the prospect of having to socialize with more Americans. Not to be xenophobic or anything, but it does take effort to bridge the cultural divide-one factor contributing to the burden being the fact that I will have to start speaking properly again (after speaking Singlish for the last 17 days).

A couple of hours ago, however, I felt a little excited at the prospect of a new journey. Well, packing my damned suitcase dampened my spirits quite a big, but now that I've gotten that stupid piece of luggage out of my mind for a while, that excitement is arising yet again.

I just counted... 135 days more to go!

Well this trip is coming to an end. We are waiting for hong to pack her bags and then we will go to Heathrow to see her off. In fact we are going now so I will write more later.