Friday crossword One of the nicest things about the International Herald Tribune in print, in Singapore, is that it represents not just a way to get the New York Times news - I read nyt.com too often to really need that - but that I get the New York Times crossword, so I get to do them on newsprint. Somehow always seem much more appealing than the computer version, and this coming from someone who generally prefers to do everything online...Anyway, I just wanted to say that I finished the Friday crossword in double-quick time. A point of pride! Always like to be able to finish it without help from Rex or Google, essentially because I got JUMPIN JACK FLASH (7d: Rolling Stones hit just before "Honky Tonk Women") crossing with SOJOURNERS (30a: Visitors) straight out the bat... Death Cab For Cutie Scored a Death Cab For Cutie ticket. Woohoo!Caught my ear recently: Nada Surf, "See These Bones"; Amber Rubarth, "You Will Love This Song", and oddly, the Met Opera's production of The Barber of Seville. Big love for Girl Talk's Feed the Animals album, especially "In Step". Away From Her Lessa real review of Away From Her, more a rave: Julie Christie is brilliant in the film. Not just brilliant in her acting - which she is - but brilliant as in luminiscent. Full of the vitality and life that makes you understand why her husband (played by Gordon Pinsent) never wants to be away from her, and that makes her decline from Alzheimer's all the more sad - and all the more puzzling. Sarah Polley directs with a spare touch that seems perfectly Canadian, and imperfectly wise beyond her years.Come to think of it, between Dr Zhivago, McCabe and Mrs Miller, Shampoo, Afterglow, and this, I've seen over 4 decades of Christie's work, and it is a fantastic, devastating combination of acting chops, beauty, and, well, brilliance. New Facebook Trying out New Facebook. I like the look, although one suspects the lack of ad space might not last too long. The New Yorker Conference - Airports Have been watching the New Yorker Conference on my iPod, and I thought Paco Underhill on "Deconstructing the Airport" (chaired by Malcolm Gladwell) was very interesting, for anyone who's been stuck in the misery of standing shoeless and beltless near a security checkpoint with all your carry-on items, all the the flotsam and jetsam of modern life, sprawled out on the cold metal stand at the end of the X-ray machine.There are very nice props given near the end to Singapore - Changi Airport's playground is mentioned to encapsulate how an airport can really do things well. It's the little things, I suppose. Just the fact that Changi provides little push-carts for carry-on luggage that allow me to ease my shoulder from the burden of laptop toting is great, compared to previous experiences with the otherwise highly-regarded Narita. (Of course, it does mean I'm much more likely to shop, since I don't have to lug things around, so the airport benefits too.) Into the Wild Into the Wild was incredibly affecting in a primal way. Chris McCandless' quest for meaning, his (very American) attempt to find that meaning in one's connection to the land, and his ultimate realisation of the importance of interpersonal relationships and of forgiveness - all that brought to mind the restlessness and angst of my teenage years. That, and Eddie Vedder's distinctive voice, of course, which was perfect for a film set in the early 1990s.Now I keep wanting to listen to songs that suggest to me longing, isolation, and the search for belief: "Angel From Montgomery" (which was sung in the film), "Only Living Boy in New York", "The Boxer", "Chicago"... Violent and Crazy The Violent Femmes cover Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy", in quasi-spaghetti Western style. Word Play Caught the documentary Word Play the other day, all about the New York Times crossword and the annual crossword competition in Stamford, CT, and it inspired me to try a Times crossword. Much more used to cryptics - used to do the New Yorker one weekly, back in the day when the New Yorker ran crosswords - which I think test a different part of one's mind. But anyway: came in at 15 minutes for a Thursday puzzle... reasonable, I suppose, for a novice, but nowhere near the blistering pace of those featured in the documentary. I suspect I'm hooked, though!Word Play, incidentally, has quite an impressive list of famous people willing to be interviewed about their crossword habit: Bill Clinton, Jon Stewart, Mike Mussina, Ken Burns. I think if you're well-known it's quite nice to be interviewed about something other than what you're well-known for. New Job Well, in case anyone was wondering about the long radio silence (crickets), I've been busy moving to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and just came back from a UN conference in Bonn. Have to say that the Bonn trip made me realise how rusty my German is, and has inspired me to revive my language skills. Anyone in Singapore have good suggestions on this? Should I just go to the Goethe Institut? The legit Singapore iPhone Finally, a nice SMS marketing message: "SingTel has announced that they have signed an agreement with Apple to bring the iPhone to Singapore later this year" - with some directions to this site. Can't wait for the (rumoured) 3G iPhone... Animal Tricks Two sets of videos of unusual animal tricks.Rabbit showjumpingand Goldfish football / hoops jumping Logorrhea Just watched Akeelah and the Bee, which was really inspirational, and as tense in its finale as the best sports movies - having seen Spellbound, I was prepared to be on the edge of my seat, and I'm glad it lived up to my expectations. Anyway, this story about a mobster using $10 words in letters to his kid (offspring? scion?) reminded me of the film:Some of his letters from federal prison, which are being intercepted and scrutinized by authorities, are full of such words as "thespian," "flippant" and "sagacious," his lawyer said Thursday.A new form of gangland slang, or a coded message to fellow wise guys? No, attorney Ephraim Savitt said, just vocabulary Basciano wants the recipient -- his 7-year-old son -- to learn. Longest Drive in Singapore My friends in college used to be amused when I would say that a fellow Singaporean lived "across the country", meaning only about 30 km or so away. I guess that's what happens when you grow up in a tiny country. Anyway, this guy has compiled the longest possible drives according to Google Maps, and I tried to do the same for Singapore - thus far, my best is 60.4 km (Tuas South Ave 9 to Nicoll Drive). That's pretty piddly compared to the almost 12,000km routes recorded from America to Canada. Even Hong Kong has a 77.3km route. (Via kottke.org) 50 Best Restaurants World's 50 best restaurants, as rated by Restaurant magazine, with, quelle surprise, has El Bulli ranked first. There's also a #51-100, which includes Iggy's here in Singapore. No Japanese restaurants, though, as the Economist notes, which seems odd. Insomnia, the cost of food A very interesting article in the Guardian puts forward the suggestion that the modern problem is not about not getting enough sleep, but about anxiety about getting enough sleep. It does seem a lot of contemporary issues centre around anxiety about getting things correct: getting enough vitamins and other nutritional aspects of one's diet, for one.Meanwhile, Newsweek explores food inflation and its sources: rising worldwide demand, droughts, rising energy costs, and speculation. Odd not to mention the diversion of cropland for biofuels, the impact of which people have varying opinions. Books by friends At a 30th birthday party last night, I was reflecting how many of my friends from college had had books published in recent month, and wondering what I'd done with my life. Oh well, "30 is the new 20", as someone chirpily said.But ennui over the passage of time and remembrance of things past aside, I should give props to those friends who had books published:V.V. Ganeshananthan (V.V.? I will always know her as Sugi) - Love MarriageGarrett Graff - The First Campaign: Globalization, the Web and the Race for the White House (with a glowing review from no less than Michiko Kakutani)Jennifer 8. Lee - The Fortune Cookie ChroniclesFiction, politics, and food-as-cultural-anthropology - a nice diverse group. Met up with Sugi recently and showed her the wonders of Singapore hawker food. Congrats to all of them - lots of good reviews popping up. Back from the Philippines Back from Manila, where I caught the opening of the Little League Philippine Series with fellow Sox fanatic George. Great to see all the kids having fun playing baseball. Also met a Bill Bennett - hope I got the name right - who was an instructor for MLB, and proceeded to talk about Wally Moon and baseball at the L.A. Coliseum. Man, hadn't realised how starved I was for baseball talk.Anyway, the article by John Tierney on M. Keith Chen's challenges to cognitive dissonance research - saying in effect that a lot of the research's conclusions could suffer from the Monty Hall Problem - is a fascinating use of probability theory in an unexpected context. (Link to Chen's original paper.) The Monty Hall Problem is such a counter-intuitive one. The Thrilla in Manila Am in Manila for the next few days for work, and the moment I checked in I went out foraging for Jollibee fried chicken. And boy it was even better than I remembered. The mall had Jollibee and Krispy Kremes... my arteries aren't gonna like it, but my taste buds are ecstatic. Two years on the throne This can't be real, can it? A woman sat on the loo for 2 years.Ness County Sheriff Bryan Whipple said it appeared the 35-year-old Ness City woman's skin had grown around the seat. She initially refused emergency medical services but was finally convinced by responders and her boyfriend that she needed to be checked out at a hospital.Grown around the seat? Is that even medically possible? And it took her boyfriend 2 years before he said, "hmm, this needs to change"? Sam Roi Yot National Park So I suppose I should detail what we saw in Hua Hin and the surroundings, having thoroughly explored the area in a beat-up rented Vios (and later a Corolla Altis with even more miles on the engine). Since the beach gets all the attention, let's start with the park...Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park started as a marine park, and some of the sights are best seen from the water. After some haggling using my rudimentary Thai, we caught a couple of boats, one around the islands before landing ashore near the Phraya Nakhon cave, and another down the Kaeo Daeng river.If this park were in America, every peak would be named; every species of animal lovingly documented. Instead, it's a sleepy national park in Thailand, featuring some tremendous caves - Phraya Nakhon, which was discovered by a Thai king and features an entire throne inside the cave, is spectacular, once you brave the 430m climb to get in. (Our guide, a young woman, naturally hopped up the heights in surefooted mountain-goat-like fashion; we followed panting and pausing to catch our breath.)Sam Roi Yot also has mangroves and wetlands, with an impressive array of bird life (well, impressive if I were more ornithologically inclined and actually knew the names of the species), but what is really special is simply the view: mountain peaks, either covered in a carpet of lush rainforest or beautifully wizened and craggy, rise up next to the rivers and sea. Sure, the peaks are nowhere near the heights of those in other countries' parks, but they are picturesque, and their tropical setting (you see bougainvillea grow on the mountains; you also see coconut trees at the base) makes them a unique sight. Back from Thailand After a nice loooong break in Thailand (including such demanding tasks as sitting in a pool and surfing the Net at the same time), it's back to Singapore, whereupon I launched straight into the human crowd surfing that was the IT Show and emerged with RAM, flash drives, and other geeky accoutrements...Street Fighter: the Later Years amused me on my iPod while I was on holiday, and brought back all those hours spent in the arcade. Ah, wasted youth.Meanwhile, the NY Times reviews May Pang's Instamatic Karma, a photographic record of the years Lennon spent with his non-Ono Asian love. (I just wrote that sentence to have a means of using the phrase "non-Ono". Which, punctuation aside, is spelt exactly the same way as "No, No, No", the great Dawn Penn reggae hit. Is there a word for two words/phrases that are spelt the same way but distinguished by punctuation? Such as the way "resign" and "re-sign" are very different words.) Year of the Rat When I was a kid, every Chinese New Year would mean my Dad pulling out this tape of traditional Chinese New Year songs sung in English, with pretty awful translations. The worst part of that is, now whenever I hear these songs at shopping centres and the like, I just immediately think of the English lyrics ("may the new year bring you all the things you want / and the best of health and wealth to you!").Spent Day 2 at the zoo, which turned out to be the day Ah Meng died. Saw the orang utans up close, but the trainers didn't mention the death at all - heard it on the news. I suppose the only song lyric that even mentions orang utans that I can think of is Simon and Garfunkel's "At the Zoo", appropriately enough, so I'll quote the lines:Orangutans are skepticalOf changes in their cagesHappy Year of the Rat, y'all. Year of the Rat When I was a kid, every Chinese New Year would mean my Dad pulling out this tape of traditional Chinese New Year songs sung in English, with pretty awful translations. The worst part of that is, now whenever I hear these songs at shopping centres and the like, I just immediately think of the English lyrics ("may the new year bring you all the things you want / and the best of health and wealth to you!").Spent Day 2 at the zoo, which turned out to be the day Ah Meng died. Saw the orang utans up close, but the trainers didn't mention the death at all - heard it on the news. I suppose the only song lyric that even mentions orang utans that I can think of is Simon and Garfunkel's "At the Zoo", appropriately enough, so I'll quote the lines:Orangutans are skepticalOf changes in their cagesHappy Year of the Rat, y'all. Past perfect By the way, yes, I'm extremely gutted by the Patriots' loss in the Super Bowl. Still can't quite get over it. Past perfect By the way, yes, I'm extremely gutted by the Patriots' loss in the Super Bowl. Still can't quite get over it. Diet Soda This NY Times article on metabolic syndrome being linked to diet soda intrigued me - in my quest to lead a healthier life, I've cut down drastically on my Pepsi/Coke consumption in favour of water, but I still need a caffeine fix that's sated occasionally by regular cola, and occasionally by diet, which I used to think tasted disgusting. So much for trying to drink diet...Why don't they sell Diet Coke with Splenda in Singapore, anyway? Aspartame really does leave an awful aftertaste. Diet Soda This NY Times article on metabolic syndrome being linked to diet soda intrigued me - in my quest to lead a healthier life, I've cut down drastically on my Pepsi/Coke consumption in favour of water, but I still need a caffeine fix that's sated occasionally by regular cola, and occasionally by diet, which I used to think tasted disgusting. So much for trying to drink diet...Why don't they sell Diet Coke with Splenda in Singapore, anyway? Aspartame really does leave an awful aftertaste. Heath Ledger dead RIP, Heath Ledger. Mortality is a strange thing to ponder: the more you think about it, the more of it you extinguish. Perhaps one of the most affecting sets of performances this decade, for me at least, was Ledger and Gyllenhaal in Brokeback Mountain, which still sticks in my mind as an expression of regret and the ability of forces to work against emotion. Heath Ledger dead RIP, Heath Ledger. Mortality is a strange thing to ponder: the more you think about it, the more of it you extinguish. Perhaps one of the most affecting sets of performances this decade, for me at least, was Ledger and Gyllenhaal in Brokeback Mountain, which still sticks in my mind as an expression of regret and the ability of forces to work against emotion. I want! Went down to Wheelock Place to pick out Office 2008 for Mac and check out what the new Macbook Air prices would be like for Singapore. $2988 for the basic 1.6 GHz, versus the US price of US$1799 - so those travelling to the US can get a little discount shopping overseas, I guess. It looks really, really good. I just wish it would solve the aesthetic / convenience issue I have with my Macbook - not having a dock means, good as the Macbook by itself looks, you have to plug in 5 wires or so at a time, which doesn't look very clean.