Karma bites her back

https://mothership.sg/2018/12/amos-yee-melissa-chen-deport/
One former Yee supporter, Melissa Chen, is the latest, and probably the most relevant advocate to speak out against Yee.

Hm.

What is the rule of thumb here? If someone 'breaks' the law or has intentions to shake the social truce we have going on in society, then he deserves to do time and learn.  Learn what? Well, learn that the fabric of society is delicate and careless comments can, over time, fray those stitches.

Now, this chap is hosting a webpage, forum or whatever, but it's online, with pedophilia as a theme.  

No point, crying over spilled milk.

People who want to show sympathy without really understanding the graveness of another person's source of drive, should live with the karma that comes with it.

This woman, advocated for him to be freed.  Now she's changing her mind?  
Well, guess what woman, now YOUR HANDS ARE DIRTY TOO?! You are now indirectly the cause of the misery, of these victimized children.  

I hope she is proud of what she has achieved.
Every post AY makes in this regard is now also her doing.  

This is what it means by, don't bite off more than you can chew.
But she also wanted to glorify herself, that's why she went all out.  As for our society, we are better off without him on our land.  It will just fester evil and in the long run, a waste of taxpayers money.  

Never, ever meddle, when you don't know half of it.
But, now that she has meddled, well, live well and know that the wrongs that will occur, is also blood on her hands. After all, if he was prosecuted here, there will be no hosting of any pedophilia site today by him, isn't that correct?

Chen said she was personally sorry for how this turned out, and how this might affect future activists in Singapore.

Stop trying to be the 'know all' - every society is different and it's optimal functioning level, different. Chen being 'sorry' isn't going to save those children from being exploited.  

I hear you. You and your activist group, now support pedophilia. 
You cannot support one thing/person and now change your mind and try to bail out.  Blood is on your hands now.

Drunk SQ Pilot

THE STRAITS TIMES: Singapore Airlines flight from Melbourne to Wellington cancelled after pilot fails alcohol test
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/transport/singapore-airlines-flight-from-melbourne-to-wellington-cancelled-after-pilot

Just a thought - how normal is this in reality? 
In society today, the usual brush-off is : Oh it never happens....this is a one time thing.

Sure, people die in accidents all the time - easy to say that when you or your loved one isn't the victim.  Instead of being complacent ie reactive, I would like to ask if it's really difficult to be proactive.

People don't like to rock the boat.  People rather 'close one eye'....then both eyes.....and usually, when luck runs out, it blows up in our faces.....every pun intended.  

To think that those affected passengers could have been on a doomed flight.  
To think that they paid so much just to be inconvenienced because some jackass believed his drink is more important than the hundreds of lives on that plane. "Just one for the road" right?

Kudos to the Australian Authorities for looking under the mat.  


SINGAPORE - A Singapore Airlines (SIA) flight was cancelled on Saturday morning (Sept 15) after a pilot failed an alcohol test.

Flight SQ247 was due to depart Australia's Melbourne at 7am local time and arrive in New Zealand's Wellington at 12.20pm, but the take-off was abruptly cancelled after the test.

As a result, the return flight SQ248 was also cancelled, said SIA.

In response to queries on Saturday evening, an SIA spokesman told The Straits Times: "The Civil Aviation Safety Authority officials undertook a random drug and alcohol test of all crew prior to them starting their pre-flight checks.

"The pilot in question did not pass the test due to having a higher than suitable blood alcohol limit."

The spokesman added that the pilot has been suspended from all operations until an investigation is undertaken.

He said: "We sincerely apologise to those affected by the cancellation of these flights. However, the safety of our customers and crew is our highest priority.

"We are currently working with those customers whose travel has been inconvenienced to find suitable alternate travel arrangements as soon as possible."

Passengers had posted online about missing the flight, with a few passengers expressing their frustration at being unable to fly to Wellington to catch a rugby match between New Zealand and South Africa.

In a tweet to the SIA social media account, Twitter user Muteki Iikun said: "Care to explain why your captain of SQ247 waits until boarding time to decide (he is) too ill/ drunk to fly? Will miss the 1st All Blacks rugby match I bought tickets for and flew to Wellington... to see."


In subsequent tweets, Muteki said he was stuck at the airport for more than six hours, and had no information on how to rebook his flight or leave the airport.

Can't smoke in your own home? Really?

An article appeared in the local news website : Headlines :

MPs, citing dangers of secondhand smoke, want to curb smoking in homesRead more at

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/mps-dangers-of-secondhand-smoke-smoking-in-homes-10701812

I have a few questions for the MP.

ONE: 

Isn't that an invasion of privacy? Go back to the definition of a HOME.  When we are at home, it's our personal space.  Are we really doing this? Are we going to give up what's left of our personal privacy, because of some fear of the negative health effects of 'secondhand smoke'?

TWO:

Are we all aware that people get cancer even when they don't smoke, never smoked?  Standing at the bus-stop, waiting for the bus = inhaling carbon monoxide.  Measure the diameter of the exhaust pipe from a vehicle and I wonder, which has a larger diameter.  

In case people have failed their Math, let's just do a visual comparison.  

Larger hole = more emissions.

Why are we not putting a ban on vehicles? We can try walking or cycling instead.  

That way, our society goes totally SMOKE-FREE.  NO BIAS.

THREE:

It was cited, US PUBLIC HOUSING - well, for the past few weeks, I read what Ministers have stated and they said, HDB flats belong to lessees.  We are not tenants.  We are owners.

By the same token, how can such suggestion of such laws even be considered?

Are we being consistent or are we only using terms according to our fancy?

WAKE UP CALL

You don't get cancer just because you have inhaled cigarette smoke.  Try the pollutants thriving in a busy city with 6 million people and rising.  Try looking at our vehicle population.  If we are going to try to preserve life, try going back to the stone-age era, where we don't use gas,coal, charcoal, whatever else.  Try giving up the air-conditioning in Malls and Homes and Vehicles. Try giving up GMO foods.  Try giving up processed foods.

Don't just pick and choose.  

Want to do something, then BASAH TERUS! Do it all the way.

Half measures don't work.  They never have.

Secondary Students and Flexible Rules

The world has certainly changed - employees are no longer thinking about long term goals - the trend is INSTANT GRATIFICATION.

Every student has a student handbook, where school rules are listed clearly.  Under serious offences are matters like USING VULGARITIES.

What happens when a student uses FUCK on a teacher because she was caught?
I was told that the Discipline Committee investigated the incident by talking to the affected class and not the teacher who was offended.

After one week, nothing was done ie teacher wasn't given an apology, verbal or written.

Then I was told that the girl in question was in the school basketball team, which incidentally qualified for the Nationals.  Wow.  I guess that gave her a carte blanche because being on the team that brings victory to the school is more important.

Where have we gone wrong? Frankly, although I haven't been asleep all these years, something obviously did.  Perhaps my life was chasing big dreams and not in the development of our nation's future that I didn't notice.

In order to fix our society, we need to stop chasing accolades and focus on nurturing.  Back then, good manners were important.  Good manners created good environments and the society I grew up in, where working hard was serious business and talking back was not what people from decent families do.

Funny thing, a friend told me that when such issues surfaces, it's always the teacher's inability to build teacher-student rapport.  What happened to respecting your elders? Aren't teachers older and deserve respect? Shouldn't other teachers support younger teachers and not bash them?

Perhaps our Ministry, in trying to even the playing field, just lost us our edge.

Back then, students had to fight to get into top schools....students had to be of a certain capability, both grades and sports and attitude.
These days, looks like anything goes.
It's no wonder teachers leave the profession when they can ie when they are still young.

FFXIV - EUREKA - in a nutshell

If there was a guide written since the release of this Raid/Instance, I did not read it.  My fault.

In 12 days, I finally got to the Elemental Cap (level 20).
Considering that I'm not a student on holiday or a student, neither am I jobless, in-between jobs or a home-maker ; EUREKA is a nightmare.

From Level 1 - Level 19 : I travelled on foot.  I do not play this game with friends so no one gave me tips on how to get to the Mount stage.  I play solo. People golf and shop for leisure, but I game. 

From Level 1-15 : I had no idea what people were shouting about when I see ELEMENTAL ANEMOS.  Reason : I play on a JP server.....I don't read Japanese.  I can speak and understand spoken Japanese, but cannot READ.

TWICE - after Level 11, I lost 25% of my elemental exp.  I did not rage quit.  It was a lot, since I solo kill a lot of mobs. 

WHY SOLO KILLING?  WHAT ABOUT FATES?
Well, I'm an outsider in the eyes of at least 70% of the JP server.  I have E underscored in my Character Profile, so I am plague. 
As I was levelling up.....no one invited me to a 'PT' (party).  All the JP players, use a key stroke on their keyboard, which looks like they are raising their hand in a gesture to say ME TOO....I use a standard English Keyboard. There goes that idea.  So I sprint all the way to low level FATES like NUMBERS/ANEMOS/TELES/CALLISTO only to find that SELFISH gamers who are already on their mounts, started killing the mob.  I get it, they can't wait forever for the noob on foot....but these are LOW LEVEL fates, so did they not think for a moment that noobs need that fate?
Even if they wait, they do not party low-levels unless they 'know' you.

It was the loneliest 12 days of my free time. 

I have, on 3 occasions, jumped onto my level 60 WHITE MAGE, to resurrect another JP player, between level 6-12.  They were killed near where I was solo killing stuff, so I ran back to the town, changed class, and sprinted back to them.  They are J underline, but as a fellow gamer, I don't see why that person has to loose his/her hard earned EXP.

But of course, there are kind JP players on the server I am on, TIAMAT.  As mentioned, I did not go over tips or REDDIT or live letter or whatever the Square forums had.  I just log in and go go go.

When I hit level 17, I was very excited - MOUNT TIME.....so I rushed to the area of the final Magicite, only to have to cc A TON OF MOBS, mostly above level 20 (player cap is 20, mob level is as high as 23) and then find out that there is this UNDERTAKER GUY roaming at my destination.
I got hit by a table fan looking mob......almost cried in real time, coz of the 25% EXP loss. but thought of SHOUTING for help.
One JP Scholar came in, alone.....he gave me a RES, I thanked him profusely.....and never went back in there again.  Screw the mount.

Yesterday, Sunday, I was already level 19.  Mid-way.  I thought, lets go take a peek at that grave.  So I did, only to find that the UNDERTAKER GUY was there, then was gone!  I realised then that it's a timing thing.  So many people couldn't be on their mounts otherwise.  So I went in, snucked here n there and got my last Magicite and my MOUNT quest.

To sum-up, I only understood this board after 10 levels.....I never knew how to spin it when we are not in the city.  I kept clicking it, but nothing happened.....so I got fed-up and only changed the elements when in town - manually i.e moving the Magicite from arm to arm.

Gamers, who are born and raised in the world of online games, may find me stupid, but you know, it's ok.....I got through a gamers madness, juggling real life responsibilities, without the JP community solo and traversing the map ON FOOT, until I was 50% into level 19.

So, I'm better than I thought.
Whether that community recognises my E-underlined profile - never bothered me, until EUREKA.  All that jibberish in chat, made me feel like an outcast.

Not anymore.
I have done it solo.
Thank you JP gamers for showing me how much better I really am than you make me feel.

Parking no longer free in SCHOOLS from Aug 2018

Singapore
Teachers to pay for parking in schools from August

Teachers at all national schools and junior colleges will soon have to pay for parking, following a car park policy review for schools. (Photo: TODAY/Koh Mui Fong)
26 Mar 2018 03:06PM (Updated: 26 Mar 2018 05:02PM)

SINGAPORE: Teachers will have to pay monthly season parking rates if they want to park their cars or motorcycles at their school car parks from Aug 1 this year, the Ministry of Education (MOE) confirmed on Monday (Mar 26). 

During the school term, the monthly season parking rates for cars is S$75 for an uncovered lot and S$100 for a sheltered lot. This is lowered to S$15 and S$20 for an uncovered lot and sheltered lot respectively during the school holidays. The annual rate for parking in an uncovered lot is S$720 while that for a sheltered lot is S$960.

For motorcycles, the monthly season parking rates during the school term is S$13 for an uncovered lot and S$14 for a sheltered lot. During the school holidays, the rates for uncovered and sheltered lots are S$2 and S$3 respectively. For the full year, it costs S$123 for uncovered lots and S$135 for sheltered lots. 

Monthly season parking rates for schools
Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/teachers-parking-schools-car-park-pay-10076794

Of course there will be disagreements about this, but frankly, it's about time Parking Charges apply, as long as a lot is being used.

For starters, this is in line with the Policy here which is, to discourage the use of private cars, when we have a usually decent public transportation system.  Also, most teachers live near the schools they are posted to - there are exceptions but most do.  Feeder buses are efficient for getting from home to school and vice versa.

Let's compare this to the non-teacher, who drives to work in the CBD.  Parking charges there are exorbitant - lots are few and companies are allocated a fixed number of lots per month under the season parking fees, which is several times more than what MOE has recommended.  It doesn't matter how much the non-teacher is drawing in terms of his salary or how far he lives from his office. Yes, these office staff start work at 9am, but most arrive hours earlier, to beat the peak hour vehicular and people traffic. 

MOE has given consideration, in that during school holidays, teachers pay a much reduced fee - it's the lowest that I know thus far in terms of parking for everyone else.

I have read comments about, service to the nation.  Well, to me, service means, perhaps, doing work for free?  I believe our teachers are NOT under-paid.  They are paid enough and MOE has scaled the recommended fees accordingly ie still less than parking in say, Singapore Land Tower.

Time for everyone to be treated the same.  Not charging for parking is almost a bias towards a profession.  
There are solutions, easy solutions - there is CAR POOLING - which is done among staff members of an office. There is a choice to find another parking area, and then hopping onto a train/feeder bus to get to the office.  What the hoo ha is, is beyond my understanding.

Singapore needs to keep our roads less congested and there must be a price to pay for maintaining a car.  Also, with GRAB and taxis, it makes using a car more of a luxury for shuttling within a neighbourhood.

Kudos to MOE!