re·bar·ba·tive (ree-BAR-buh-tiv)
adj.
Tending to irritate; repellent:
It is rebarbative that our government raised the goods and services tax claiming that the state needs the increase in tax revenue and then a few weeks later announce an increase to Ministerial salaries by from S$1.2m to S$2.2m per year.
-Taken from Reckless.

What a fabulous word that is. Thanks, Reckless. I learn something new everyday.

Geez. Last evening, a cop gets shot 7 blocks from where I live…then at 440am, this building just 4 blocks from where I live gets engulfed in flames.

I love my neighbourhood (I really do, aside from these one-off events).

In case you are wondering, it does work. It’s almost like an urban legend (only true): taking Pepcid AC (famotidine) an hour before drinking alcohol prevents you from flushing bright red, if you flush bright red from alcohol.

We tried it once on Nique, and it worked significantly for her that night, we could tell. Adamant about being able to hold at least one drink with my colleagues, I tried it last weekend, and it worked so well I was able to down 3 drinks with no problem (BIG achievement for me), with barely a blush on my face other than make-up blush.

On Friday, I was too confident and went for 4 drinks (over about 8 hours, mind you). Coupled with two bites of a bad hotdog bought on the street while in a cab and stuck in traffic and being very susceptible to motion sickness, I promptly went home and threw up and suffered my first hangover the next morning in almost FIVE years. Oh well, it was good while it lasted; I just can’t take alcohol. Boo…I liked telling people that I don’t drink alcohol cos I’m alcoholic (”I’ve been sober for FIVE years!”); in America, everyone believes me. Now I’m back to sober for “days”.

How much do I love the secondary market in America? Not only can I get great books delivered to my door at insanely cheap prices, I can go on Craigslist to get pretty much anything I want.

I just got a beautiful dining table which we need for half price off the original price. Then I called the movers that I used before in our initial move, hopped in the van with them to take my table home. Given the dearth of our dear Andy beng with the big lorry, these services are invaluable in a city where few people have cars.

On a sadder note, on the way home, Flatbush & 5th Ave was entirely blocked off by cops. Sirens are ceaseless in this city, so even with huge barricades, dozens of cop cars and helicopters flying above, no one even bats an eye and just cuss out about the inconvenience. Apparently a cop was shot just about an hour before we got there. Bah. I hate guns. Especially in my neighbourhood.

On a happier note, temperature rose to 78F today!!! Whooooo!!! SPRINGTIME!! I had lunch at Bryant Park with my colleagues…it was as if everyone had the same idea cos the park was packed. I guess it won’t be New York otherwise. I was actually sweating in a tanktop (had to take the work shirt off…too hot!). What insanely awesome weather. It’s gonna dip down to mid-40s-50s through this week…but it’s still wonderful weather. Loving this city more and more, for sure!

Alot of people think The Economist comprise a bunch of conservative pro-big corporation writers. But they sound like they could be a bunch of pot-smoking liberals. At times.

Their articles have been leaning to the pro-marijuana, anti-tobacco faction. Their recent book review of The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product that Defined America by Allan M. Brandt entitled ‘The Evil Weed‘ is case in point.

What I found fascinating was the way the tobacco industry tied in the state government’s interest to theirs by a settlement stretching 25 years. Ingenious!

The industry’s shrewdest move was to defuse a barrage of cases brought by individual states, aiming to reclaim the cost of treating sick smokers. The states in 1998 accepted a settlement of $246 billion over 25 years (the price of a pack rose by 45 cents shortly afterwards). In return, the states agreed to end all claims against the companies. But the settlement tied the state governments to tobacco’s purse-strings; they now had an interest in the industry’s success.

I’m not against the sale of tobacco. People who stupidly choose to start smoking despite all the education and warnings are…well…stupid. But yes to government banning smoking in indoor places so that their smoke will not give me cancer (it has already given me asthma)…best example is when I go clubbing in NYC, I don’t reak of smoke afterwards! What a difference it makes vs. coming out of Zouk and having to wash your hair 3 times and soak ALL your clothes overnight to get rid of that ghastly smell.

Ok, this is a topic that you may not wanna read when you are eating. It’s about toilets. Specifically, toilet clogging.

Two nights ago, the Fat Cat did a VERY VERY bad thing and peed on the carpet…right in front of me. Angrily, I put on my cleaning gloves and used paper towels to clean up as much of the mess as possible. I threw the paper towels down the toilet. Then the toilet overflowed. FUCK! So I spent the next 2 hours cleaning up the carpet AND the toilet. I wasn’t very happy.

Last night, for no apparent reason, the fucking toilet overflowed again. FUCK!

Thus, a discussion ensued between the Chansidines. Every time I have used toilets in American homes, it’s a nerve-wrecker because the flushing system SUCKED big time. I’ve had horrible episodes with American toilets, and it’s not just me. It’s happened quite often to pretty much everyone I knew. The solution is plenty of courtesy flushes; but sometimes, even courtesy flushes don’t work. I asked Pat if he realized that American toilets sucked compared to Singapore ones. Jogging his toilet memory back, the realization dawned upon him that I was right. The toilets in America did suck, even in the million dollar homes in Palm Beach he’s been in, they were horrible. We wondered why. Was it because the manufacturers of toilets here were simply bad? Was it the water? Was it the system? His thesis was that perhaps the American sewage systems were older than the Singapore ones.

I did a google investigation today, and VOILA! I found the root of our problem!

In 1994, the Energy Policy and Conservation Act set a national manufacturing standard of 1.6 gallons per flush (“low-flow toilets” vs. the 5-7 gallons used before) and made it illegal to sell toilets with higher per flush use of water!

Obviously, this has led to a movement seeking to repeal the law and driving to Canada to buy higher-flow toilets.

This has torn my fundamental believes apart. I don’t agree with the government intruding on our toilets, yet they should take steps to limit water wastage. Apparently, the law (along with others) actually did work to cut down water consumption.

Water savings from residential ULF toilets (1.6 gallons or less per flush) have been well documented. Monitoring of residential water use in a number of cities, including Tampa, Phoenix, Austin, and Oakland, has shown water savings from ULF toilets to range from 23% to 46%, despite an increase in average flushing frequency in some homes
- Monolake

And yet, I don’t ever wanna fucking have to unclog a toilet ever again!

You know, Americans like to ask me (not without a giggle) about Singapore’s ban on chewing gum, and what not. I used to think that America was the land of the free. After all these talk about banning ipods in the street, and reading about this and that bans in America, I’m beginning to think that America and Singapore are more similar than we think.

Oh and by the way, NYC has been rated the top cloggiest city by Scott!

This is the first time I have lived in a place where there are 4 distinct seasons and it’s darn fun! Weather reports are actually crucial here.

Today is the first offical day of spring, but it was still 23F when I left for work this morning. Tomorrow, however, it’s gonna hit 60F and high temps are gonna stay 50F and above all of next week. HURRAH! After 3 months of cold weather, I’m ready for a change. Out comes the spring fashion!

It’s a day for linking news articles.

This one about warnings about sleeping pills is really funny:

The agency’s review was prompted, in part, by queries to it from The New York Times last year, after some users of the most widely prescribed drug, Ambien, started complaining online and to their doctors about unusual reactions ranging from fairly benign sleepwalking episodes to hallucinations, violent outbursts, nocturnal binge eating and — most troubling of all — driving while asleep.
Night eaters said they woke up to find Tostitos and Snickers wrappers in their beds, missing food, kitchen counters covered with flour from baking sprees, and even lighted stoves. Sleep-drivers reported frightening episodes in which they recalled going to bed, but woke up to find they had been arrested roadside in their underwear or nightclothes.

Hilarious! Baking sprees while tripping out on Ambien! Hahahahah! They should make a drug that makes you do all your household chores while asleep.

Americans and their drugs man. A pill for every ill. Everyday you see a drug commercial on TV. You can buy shit at the local pharmacy that’s strong enough to trip you out for a bit (ever take Nyquil? ha! I did a search for Nyquil on my blog and found this post more than THREE freakin’ years ago! Man! That’s when cameras, cellphones and ipods were twice their current average size! I feel old! And P.S. Mr Just Right turned out to be Mr Just Perfect).

I just finished watching the entire Star Wars 6 movie series last weekend. Star War was always around my life, my brother’s toys, on TV re-runs, etc but I was too young to remember the first Star Wars movie my mom took us, and I never did sit down to watch an entire movie. The first Star Wars movie I watched was Episode 3 when it was released. I really liked it but now I know I didn’t understand much of the story.

So I commited to watching the series Episode 1 through 6 (1-3 being the new ones; 4-6 being the classics). Complete fan now. Now I understand the hype; but I don’t quite understand why Star Wars fans keep flailing on the new (1-3) episodes. I can’t conceptualize how episodes 4-6 were watched without having watched 1-3 because everything seems to have so much more meaning in it.

In any case, the U.S. Post Office is placing R2D2 mailboxes in the city!! How cute is that?

Ohhh and ya gotta check out this Time article about The Empire Strikes Back dated 19 May 1980! Did you know: “For Darth Vader, Lucas wanted a sinister sound. Burtt put a tiny microphone inside a scuba tank regulator and found what Lucas wanted: the sound of labored, but mechanical breathing.”

And I just had an amazing revelation after reading this quote from Yoda:

When Luke doubts that he can raise his spaceship from the swamp, Yoda stamps his foot. “So sure are you?” he demands. “Tried have you? Always with you it can’t be done. Hear you nothing that I say? Try not. Do! Do! Or do not. There is no try.”

Yoda speaks Singlish!

Good article from the Int’l Herald Tribune about Singapore’s relations with her neighbours. Nothing very new, except I didn’t know we had stockpile’s of sand, and it’s a good summary.

The island nation of Singapore has emergency reserves of imported sand.

The sand is there to secure Singapore’s insatiable demand for concrete, a reminder of Singapore’s vulnerability as a nation without a hinterland to supply it with vital resources.

Singapore’s government is now being forced to tap its sand hoard after its usual supplier, Indonesia, abruptly banned exports in February, citing the impact of a recent Singapore construction boom on its beaches and island environments.

Read more here.

Oh, and the quote in title was from, surprise surprise, Mahathir.