Category: Uncategorized

Think Like A Freak  by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner

”Think Like A Freak” is the third instalment of the popular Freakonomics series that claims to explore the hidden side of everything while getting readers to think out of the box. ’like a freak’ as the title suggests. If you have not read the first two books, don’t worry as it is perfectly all right to read this as a standalone. Despite being rather short in length at 211 pages, it explores a variety of ideas.

Using interesting stories and real-life examples to illustrate the points, the book covers crucial, practical advice like learning to admit ”I don’t know”, asking the right questions, knowing when to quit, thinking like children meaning responding to questions and investigating your interests without regard to what others may think, and more. You also learn some interesting nuggets of information that you probably never thought about questioning, like how you can eat 50 hotdogs in 10 minutes and why Nigerian email scammers say they are from Nigeria.

The writing style is easy to understand, light-hearted and entertaining, making it a fun read. While it is thought- provoking, and encourages one to think differently, don’t expect it to change your life after a few reads, because that would of course require work on your own part. Being able to adopt its central values, however, would undoubtedly make your life a lot more interesting.

Holes by Louis Sachar

Stanley is a preteen who has been falsely accused of stealing. Between the options of jail and Camp Green Lake, Stanley picks the latter, having never been well-off enough to go to a camp. Unfortunately, Camp Green Lake is not the usual camp he had in mind. As part of ‘character building’, campers, usually juvenile delinquents are made to dig holes measuring five feet tall and five feet wide everyday under the hot sun. He must also learn to get along with the other boys around him. He falls into various adventures in unexpected ways.

”Holes” tells the realistic learning journey of dealing with harsh conditions, tragedy and failure. There are no rewards or promised success for doing good, but the protagonist chooses the right choices simply because they are right, even if he is subject to unfair treatment. It is a children’s book, but with a youthful yet mature sentiment, talking to, instead of talking down to children.

The writer weaves back and forth between the protagonist’s past and his ancestors, to the present. Often, the outcome is presented to the reader before the cause and process. However, it is not confusing to read and at times has the added advantage of provoking thought and engagement as the reader fervently turns pages wanting to know how something came about.

It is written in easy to read format where sentences and ideas are presented in short lengths. The narration is light-hearted and relaxing; in the face of unpleasant circumstances, the protagonist remains calm and maintains his sense of humour. Even children who do not usually like reading should find this book likeable enough.

This is an interesting and inspirational book for children and also adults looking for a quick entertaining read. Parents and teachers are encouraged to read this book with their young charges; many useful lessons can be imparted from analysing the storyline.

– These book reviews first appeared in a lifestyle magazine

Moving to a new place is often a stressful experience and certainly everyone deserves a well-earned rest when the move is complete. Nothing can be more frustrating than thinking you can finally sit back and settle down, only to discover some items are damaged or missing.

However, with some careful planning and preparations, you can eliminate this source of stress and really put your  feet up to enjoy your new home.

Draw up an Inventory. This is the most tedious part, but you’ll be grateful you did it. When packing your things into a box, make a list of the items inside each box. If you do not have time to list down all items, prioritise the ones that are important to you or will be needed at the new house. File these lists in a safe and accessible place. During the unpacking process, you can refer to the lists to check them off. This will be especially handy if your box contains a jumble of different things.

Number and label your boxes / storage. The labels need not be a detailed list of items (that’s what the inventory is for) but should reflect the general contents. For example: “Kitchen utensils and cutlery”. “Mum’s books”. Make a list of all your boxes. This will serve as a very important reference for you to check if any box has gone missing in the process of moving.

Pack items that belong in the same place / room together. You can unpack your boxes according to rooms later, which will make the process much easier. Furthermore, if your mover is kind enough to help you move items where you want them to be, you will be able to tell them very quickly just by looking at the labels on the boxes.

Label boxes with fragile items as such so that movers can handle it accordingly. Heavy items should be placed at the bottom below lighter, more fragile items. If it is not possible to discern the top / bottom of a box, “This way up” labels will help solve the problem.

Pad your fragile items with bubblewrap or cloth items such as clothing, curtains and towels. Using cloth items that you’re going to pack anyway helps to save space and time. Just make sure you are not subjecting your items to any form of damage. Don’t forget to inventorise them so you don’t spend hours fretting over “missing” clothing in your box of porcelain cups.

Pad empty spaces with filler items such as crushed paper, air packets and bubblewrap. Cloth items can once again come in handy. This is to prevent breakable items from rolling around spaces, bumping into other things and possibly breaking  as a result.

Do not over-pack boxes with heavy items. The boxes may break. Consider placing heavy items, like books, in smaller boxes to avoid the risk of over-packing. It will make the moving process easier and more efficient for the movers.

Do not pack valuables like your money and jewellery. You should take care of these items yourself. If you have a safe box, empty it before handing it over to the mover.

Do not expect all movers to be able to dismantle and reassemble your bulky furniture. Some movers may offer pre mium services, but being movers, their main job is to move your things. Save everyone’s time by dismantling the item yourself, but before that, photograph the set-up so you have a visual reference when reassembling it.

Read contracts carefully and clarify all doubts before engaging a mover. Some companies may not have a clause for compensating for damaged items.

No time to unpack right away? Then you might want to pack a suitcase containing some essentials like toiletries and a few changes of clothes to last you for a few days so you don’t have to live like a hobo or spend on things you already have. The suitcase should also contain some first aid items as well as tools for unpacking like cutter and scissors.

Packing for a move is tedious and daunting, but it also presents a good opportunity to de-clutter and generate awareness of items you already possess. The end-result is a neat and organised house, which is liberating and rewarding. The challenge is of course, to maintain this sense of tidiness for as long as possible.

If you are looking to dispose your furniture, Town Council offers removal service (up to 3 items each time, per month) to all HDB households. Visit our website at www.btptc.org.sg for our terms and condition, and arrange for an appointment.

– This article first appeared in a lifestyle magazine.
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Children of the Jacaranda Tree (Audio CD) by Sahar Delijani
Narrated by Mozhan Marno

Children of the Jacaranda Tree is a part-fiction, part-memoir narrative set against the backdrop of the  Iran-Iraq War, in post-revolutionary Iran from 1983 to 2011. It tells the stories of three generations of Iranians, struggling against their homeland’s fundamentalist regime. The older generation endures imprisonment and executions for political activism up to the 1979 revolution. Azar gives birth in Evin Prison, only to have her daughter taken away abruptly months later. Leila sacrifices love to care for the children of her imprisoned sisters. A pair of political activist parents was arrested before their three-year-old toddler. Years later, the second generation picks up the pieces in a country they don’t recognise. The next generation grows up in fear and insecurity as a new wave of protest and political strife begins, desperately seeking solace, and for some, change.

The author Delijani was born in Evin Prison. Her mother had been imprisoned there, and one of her uncles was executed. Writing from personal experience and in-depth interviews with her family members, she is able to vividly capture the unbreakable bonds between parent and child, and her fellow countrymen’s passionate dedication to their mother- land in spite of its flaws. The author narrates with lyrical prose and well-used metaphors and symbolism. Listening to the audio, it is literally music to the ears. The novel is a real eye-opener to the hearts and minds of the Iranian people, whose country many of us only know for its military unrests.

The stories of each of the main characters are touching and thought-evoking. However, they have not been strung together well, causing the overall plot to be disjointed and loose, which is a pity. Rather than having a compelling plot to carry the weight of the heavy subject matter, it becomes a series of related stories. Additionally, some of the narrative lacks essential information and description, leaving voids for the discerning listener / reader. For someone who has had first-hand experience in the subject matter, it is disappointing when the descriptions lack substance.

However, for anyone who wants a detailed perspective of suffering in Iran, or just about any country or time period under a repressive regime, this is an interesting read. Despite the grim themes of tragedy and suffering, it also speaks of survival and hope.

The Book Thief (DVD),  Produced by: Karen Rosenfelt, Ken Blancato
Screenplay by Michael Petroni  Directed by Brian Percival

For those who don’t always have time to catch new releases in the cinemas, the library is a free source of high-quality recordings of popular movies as well as carefully~selected less mainstream gems like The Book Thief.

Based on Mark Zusak’s novel of the same name, The Book Thief is set in World War II Germany. A young girl Liesel is travelling by train to a foster family in a small town. Her brother dies along the way, and while attending his burial at a cemetery, picks up a stray book and pockets it despite being illiterate. Her adoptive father encourages her to learn to read, and her love affair with books begins, prompting her to resort to risky means to fulfil her desire to read, including taking books from a mayor’s home, and rescuing a book from a Nazi book burning ceremony. She also uses her new found literacy to read to Max, a Jew whom her step family is harbouring in their basement, subsequently helping him to recover from his illness.

Following her life, viewers see, from the perspective of a preadolescent girl, war on the home front in Germany including the usage of propaganda tactics, Nazi rallies and Hitler Youth groups, daylight bombing, persecution of Jews amongst many other events. Though surviving the war herself, Liesel goes through the tragedy of losing her loved ones, right from the beginning of the story when her communist mother had to leave her children for their safety. Nevertheless, it is one of the few war time stories based in Nazi Germany that maintains light-hearted moments of childish innocence, whereby the protagonist survives to tell the story. As such, it may perhaps go down better with younger viewers and those with a weak heart for tragedies.

On the other hand, critics complain that the movie makes light of a very tragic and sombre period, and the incorporation of a supernatural being – an angel of death as the movie’s narrator, gives it an awkward touch of shallowness. Nevertheless, for all its shortcomings, this film features beautiful photography, an emotive music score and skilful acting by the main cast. Viewers who are not insistent on a strong storyline that is capable of carrying the weight of the Nazi era should find this an entertaining watch.

– These reviews first appeared in a lifestyle magazine

l see skies of blue, And clouds of white. The bright blessed day, The dark sacred night. And I think to myself, What a wonderful world.

The lyrics from a song recorded by one of greatest singer, composer, trumpeter Louis Armstrong in 1967. Indeed what a wonderful world it was then almost 50 years ago. Things were very much different then… there was no internet, smart phones, tablets and all the accompanying paraphernalia like whatsapp, twitter, facebook… Who would have imagined the onset of technology within a few mere decades that revolutionised our lives altogether.

What was it like in the 60’s…well to begin with Housing Board was in its infancy having started only in 1960 and public housing moved into Toa Payoh in  1964 as the second largest satellite town (the first was Queenstown).

Work started only in December 1964 and tenders for the first building contract of 840 one-room housing units in Toa Payoh were called. The estate was to be home to 35,000 units providing a roof to some 250,000 people, with 40% of the flats to be built as one-room rental flats, and the rest as three- or four-room flats.

Today, a look out of the balcony from any of the high-rise blocks and one cannot imagine the transformation. What will it be like in the next two, three or five years?

Certainly with the Smart Nation master-plan, we will have ultra-high speed, pervasive, intelligent and trusted infocomm infrastructure. For a start, what it may also mean would be that possibly there would be more audio or voice recognition security. As it is the banks are working on this so that instead of the lengthy questioning by a tele-centre staff for verification purposes, perhaps through voice recognition this process can be carried out with less fuss. And, perhaps could this be used to get access into the lift to take you to your home? It will be an added security for residents.

Another is the use of smart technology to remotely turn on or off the lights in our homes, or activate the air-conditioners for example. A few new private condominiums are adopting smart home technologies in their new launches. Already residents are able to remotely view on their smart phones their home or office security cameras to see what’s going on.

Also in the pipeline for the Executive Condominiums is The Visionaire, at Canberra Link in Sembawang. To be completed in 2019, it will have smart lock system complete with cameras. This will allow the EC residents to monitor visitors and control access to their homes through these smart devices. Residents will also be able to control household appliances from air conditioners to washing machines remotely using their mobile phones or tablets under the smart home system.

Then of course we already have the auto vacuum cleaner or robot vacuum cleaner which can go about to clean your apartment on its own. It’s still quite expensive but hopefully prices would be lowered when demand rises.

Prototypes of robots which can iron your clothes are already in the making. So this together with the washing machine and the robot vacuum cleaner would in fact take out the bulk of a typical Singa- porean household chore. So, do we still have to clamour for foreign domestic helpers? Maybe not?

What about drones? Now they dominate the skies at the war zones but drones can offer a lot of opportunities, especially for homes with open balconies. Who knows it may well replace the delivery man who takes the pizza to your flat. And, if they can do this, there’s a lot more that the drones can deliver to your door, or balcony.

On a more personal basis, on-line shopping has become the norm. Already brick-and-motor shops are turning to the on-line shoppers, from NTUC Fairprice to Cold Storage, and even pharmaceuticals like Guardian. And in time the on-line system may be so smart that when you key in your profile, it will accurately select the items that are most likely to be of interest to your weekly shopping.

Would the letter boxes at the void decks make way for bicycle racks instead? If everyone uses the email, cloud storage and other online services, then the snail mail would be a thing of the past. Bicycles as a mode of transport may be the next in thing, with the emphasis on clean energy and environmental conservation, coupled with the rising cost of trans- port. Indeed with the government promoting cy- cling as a way of life, who knows, we may just rank alongside Denmark, The Netherlands, or even China or Japan as one of the most bicycle friendly cities in the world.

Fancy yourself cycling to school, to the cinema, or the office or to watch the National Day Parade…. Won’t it be so hassle free…. rrrr..ring, ring? What a  wonderful world it will still be.

Image from Pixabay

– This article first appeared in a newsletter for Bishan-Toa Payoh residents

Traveller’s Spanish by Elisabeth Smith

Did you know that Spanish is the second most widely spoken language in the world, after Chinese? Well check out Wikipedia. If you’re thinking of picking up a third language, for practical uses or simply to stimulate your mind, Spanish makes a good choice.

Elisabeth Smith’s “Traveller’s Spanish” is a self0learning resource consisting of a 146-page paperback book and an audio CD. It promises 450 useful words and expressions for travels, flashcards for extra practice and revision, and only the essentials for speaking without having to learn the grammar (which is often intimidating for a newbie). The audio course is incredibly helpful as you can listen to it on-the-go to hone your listening and pronunciation while giving your eyes a break.

The book covers every day situations one would come across when travelling – self-introductions, shopping, dining, public transport, directions and the like. There is a concentration on learning only 350 words, which are sufficient to get by without being ovenwhelming. The resource recommends studying the book and the CD for 35 minutes a day over six weeks, and the audio course is timed and structured according to this time format. This is highly practical and commendable. Not only does it fit into a hectic day, it allows you to make the most of the lesson before your concentration wanes. There are opportunities to practise your verbal skills and you can reinforce what you have learnt through tests at the end of each chapter.

Overall, this publication is easy to follow, well-structured and teaches the essentials, and the audio is pleasant to listen to. However, according to reviews by some users completely new to learning the language, they found the long sample dialogues placed at the beginning of each track to be daunting, although the dialogues would later be broken down for the user to comprehend. They felt it would have been better if the course starts off with more basic dialogues to allow users to get used to the verbs and pronunciation. Nonetheless, multiple replays would likely help to alleviate this issue and give the new listeners more confidence.

– This review first appeared in a lifestyle magazine