I cringed when Kaile called me "Tiong Seng" during a msn chat. It's not that I dislike the name but he has always called me "Changsheng" but since we were talking to June(who knows me by "Tiong Seng") in that conversation so he called me "Tiong Seng" as well.
I have never identified myself with "Tiong Seng" until fairly recently. I believe there is a construction company named "Tiong Seng" (as aptly pointed out by Helen, who remembered my name from our first meeting because she was a civil engineer). I've seen many shops that had variations of that name as well, from "Tong Seng" to "Tiong Sin", from respectable Chinese medicine halls to dodgy little establishments in not very wholesome neighbourhoods, and the sight of these shops using the name never fails to cause a mini-commotion among my friends as we walk past them.
"Tiong Seng" is also, of course, an incredibly beng-ish name. The only names which are more "beng-ish" are probably the archtypical "Ah Beng" and "Ah Seng". I have always liked the name "Changsheng" though, thinking it is pretty unique and there is kind of a nice touch to it. However, I remember there was once when I was browsing through old yellow-papered Chinese books in Bras Besar and the author named a character Cai Changsheng with the exact same Chinese characters as my Chinese name. What's more, that character plays the erhu in the story, and I was playing the erhu as well at that point in my life. Freaked me out a bit back then.
I remember the simpler times back in kindergarten and primary school, when "Changsheng" is my official name in school registers and nobody ever called me "Tiong Seng". Then suddenly, in the early 90s, after I am issued with an IC which says "CHUA TIONG SENG" instead of "CAI CHANGSHENG" I am stuck with teachers calling me by my dialect name instead of my hanyu pinyin name. Well it wasn't a major issue then, since my classmates and friends still call me "Changsheng". And being the well-behaved boy that I was there wasn't much opportunities for teachers to use my dialect name. =) Mrs Wee, my upper sec Maths teacher, loved to emphasize the two velar nasals (for those who are not phonetically-inclined that's the "-ng" sound) in my name, especially when I did not hand in my homework. (Mr Peter Ng, on the other hand, used the much less phonetically challenging name "Boy index no. 7" when I was late in my Physics assignments)
It was the same in JC: teachers call me "Tiong Seng", everyone else calls me "Changsheng". In fact several of my classmates call me "CS". I became known as "Frank" in JC2, because our GP tutor loves to give us monosyllabic English names so that he does not have to struggle with the pronunciation of our names. A sample of other monosyllabic names that he favours:Sam, Bob, Jo etc etc. Of course "Frank" is just a name that I take on for a brief moment in my life; so if you know me as "Frank" you are one of the privileged few. ;p
By the time I am in NS, the balance slowly but surely begins to shift. Sergeants and officers, in their exalted positions, do not have time to bother themselves with correctly pronouncing their subordinates' names. And I wasn't about to tell my CSM that I prefer my Hanyu Pinyin name when he was bellowing at me ("CHUA TIONG SENG!" or just simply "CHUA!" ) Most of my BMT mates call me Changsheng, but in 46SAR a few of my peers are beginning to call me Tiong Seng. I believe this is the first time in my life that I have people I considered friends who address me by that name.
In NUS few people in my classes know my Chinese name. Not surprising, since most of my classmates do not know me long enough to know that name. And I am not going to see most of them after the module ends anyway so I was content to let people call me Tiong Seng. (I was quite a loner in NUS FASS!) People I know from CO, of course, still know me by Changsheng.
However, in my honours year, when my classmates are more or less a permanent fixture since everyone pratically takes the same modules, I'm slowly beginning to identify myself with the name Tiong Seng. By the time I re-enlist in 46 S3 Br I stopped telling people my Chinese name (unless the self-introduction was made in Chinese of course). In fact the abbrievation for my name gradually changed from "CS" to "TS"(I believe Atticus calls me that) without my realization, and the 11 months or so for which I was there was the first time in which I let more people know me by my dialect name instead of my Chinese name. Of course, Jianwei calls me "Changsheng" now and then to freak me out, but by the time I ORD I think I can safely say that I have eased comfortably from being Changsheng to Tiong Seng and have became perfectly fine with both names(unless someone who usually calls me by one name suddenly calls me by the other, as in the case of Kaile and Jianwei) .
Now that I'm in NIE, everyone knows me by Tiong Seng of course, in fact Desi thought "Changsheng" was my nickname...!! . So there you are, the final (maybe?) step in the transformation of my name. So which name do you know me by? Changsheng, Tiong Seng, CS, TS, Frank? Well, if you know me by any other name, then it's a name that I do not officially recognise so you are to stop calling me that name. You are also not to tell others that I have a name other than those that I have mentioned in this entry.
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Monday, November 14, 2005
I am a Monica
Nope that's not my new English name, neither am I coming out of the closet (like someone I know who is) . It's just that recently I've realized that I have more "Monica(as in the obsessive compulsive characre that Courteney Cox plays in FRIENDS) " in me than I would have liked to admit.... This came as a surprise for me because I have always thought that I am a laid-back person!
The first sign of my compulsive-obsessive nature was my meticulous attention to the Japanese public transport system. I'm going on a self-planned trip to Japan in December 2005 and as part of the planning I have looked up the train/subway/bus timetables, working out the routes, where to change bus/trains, comparing the various different discount passes available, etc. I guess I went a little overboard, and I blame the over-informative websites of Japanese public transport system. I mean..the timings they give are precise up to the minute, and they include photographs of how EACH and EVERY bus stop and its surroundings look like. Even some obscure cable car service on Hakone has its own webpage with detailed timings of its operating hours! I wouldn't be exaggerating if I say that I can plan, for example, to take the 0736 bus from Kyoto Station and change to the 0748 bus at Sanjusangendo Mae bus stop etc etc.
Then, at Settler's Cafe(see previous entry), I realized that like Monica I have an obsession for boardgames rules as well. (Monica was upset at her friends not playing Pictionary according to the rules that she threw a dish at them). While my classmates seem to be fine just trying out the games with an incomplete knowledge of the rules, I find that hard to accept. haha, I mean that's the point of a game right, you want to know how the rules work, so that you can make your decisions knowing how your decisions will affect the outcome of the game. That is the reason why I always purchase original games software as well, because I need the manual so that I can know inside out the full mechanics of the game!
Having said that, I hasten to add that I am not as domineering as Monica and I do not impose myself on others. (at least that's what i think haha) Well I've always thought myself to be more of a Phoebe(almost everyone wants to be a Phoebe) or even Chandler but suddenly I am identifying myself more with Monica. haha I'm in self-reflective mood nowadays...thanks to NIE placing so much importance on self-reflections!!!
The first sign of my compulsive-obsessive nature was my meticulous attention to the Japanese public transport system. I'm going on a self-planned trip to Japan in December 2005 and as part of the planning I have looked up the train/subway/bus timetables, working out the routes, where to change bus/trains, comparing the various different discount passes available, etc. I guess I went a little overboard, and I blame the over-informative websites of Japanese public transport system. I mean..the timings they give are precise up to the minute, and they include photographs of how EACH and EVERY bus stop and its surroundings look like. Even some obscure cable car service on Hakone has its own webpage with detailed timings of its operating hours! I wouldn't be exaggerating if I say that I can plan, for example, to take the 0736 bus from Kyoto Station and change to the 0748 bus at Sanjusangendo Mae bus stop etc etc.
Then, at Settler's Cafe(see previous entry), I realized that like Monica I have an obsession for boardgames rules as well. (Monica was upset at her friends not playing Pictionary according to the rules that she threw a dish at them). While my classmates seem to be fine just trying out the games with an incomplete knowledge of the rules, I find that hard to accept. haha, I mean that's the point of a game right, you want to know how the rules work, so that you can make your decisions knowing how your decisions will affect the outcome of the game. That is the reason why I always purchase original games software as well, because I need the manual so that I can know inside out the full mechanics of the game!
Having said that, I hasten to add that I am not as domineering as Monica and I do not impose myself on others. (at least that's what i think haha) Well I've always thought myself to be more of a Phoebe(almost everyone wants to be a Phoebe) or even Chandler but suddenly I am identifying myself more with Monica. haha I'm in self-reflective mood nowadays...thanks to NIE placing so much importance on self-reflections!!!
Friday, November 11, 2005
Settler's Cafe
XQ, the last few days nothing exciting happened mah, that's why no entry. i was just lazing around and playing AOE3. Unless you want to hear about how I conquered the Native Americans meh..
Anyway, went to Settler's Cafe last night with my NIE classmates (hmm...can I call them my colleagues?). It was quite fun, although my legs and knee caps are in pain because the table was very low and we were sitting on terrible low stools. (Oh some of them were sitting on cosy comfy sofas with all the leg space but never mind.. =p)
The board games were fun..and we only a sampled a tiny fraction of the myriad choices available. The games we played were rather mind boggling and I had a headache at the end of the session ..think countless brain cells were killed in the process....or was the headache due to the incessant screaming from XQ and Desi?? =p We started with intellectual games like "Cranium" and "Blokus", and then slowly move on to the relatively brainless games like Taboo and Jungle Speed and some barnyard animal games which involve a bunch of grownups making animal noises...
Highlights of the day:
1. Joanne's rendition of having a fever during "Taboo": panting, groaning and moaning as she repeatedly placed the back of her hand on her forehead.
2. Qiuxuan's all too literal demonstration of "SPIT": so literal that we were surprised we got it right.
3. Cheryl's trademark bag of tricks which looks like she just came from China and is leaving for Malaysia. Sadly someone from the next table spilt her drink over Cheryl's mysterious bag.
4. Felicia's rather explicit and excessively informative account of how she was literally kissing the toilet door, although to her credit the toilet was really small!
5. The embarassing cheer from the pink team(consisting of Ouyang, Felicia and XQ). I only remember lots of PINK PONK PINK PONK we wear pink. we will win. etc....
6. THe meticulous green team (Shihui, Desi and Cheryl) who strategise so much during Cranium, that they spent so much time asking the blue team(Qiuxuan, Joanne, Calbin and me) questions and yet totally lacking in interest when it's their turn to answer the questions. In fact Desi is almost always at the loo and we were considering shifting to a table nearer to the washroom.
7. XQ and Desi getting visibly more and more excited and start to move threateningly towards Joanne when she was giving the clues for "Taboo", usually drowning out the rest of their team in the progress.
8. XQ made cute lovely badges for everyone in the class..a pity I cannot post the pictures of them. THanks XQ!
10. Ridiculously difficult questions like "What is the meaning of the word OTIOSE" (for the record, the word means "to serve no pratical purpose"..haha quite a useful word I must say!) and some geographical question about South Africa, capacity of a human bladder, names of astronauts, etc.
All in all it was four hours of fun and laughter. At only $12 per person! A pity some of us weren't able to make it: Janissa, Yvonne, Jacqueline, Meli
ssa and U-shan. We missed your presence!!
Here is a picture of us: as you can see, Calbin is still sore and unhappy that none of us want to play his game involving some pigs racing...or was it cows?
Anyway, went to Settler's Cafe last night with my NIE classmates (hmm...can I call them my colleagues?). It was quite fun, although my legs and knee caps are in pain because the table was very low and we were sitting on terrible low stools. (Oh some of them were sitting on cosy comfy sofas with all the leg space but never mind.. =p)
The board games were fun..and we only a sampled a tiny fraction of the myriad choices available. The games we played were rather mind boggling and I had a headache at the end of the session ..think countless brain cells were killed in the process....or was the headache due to the incessant screaming from XQ and Desi?? =p We started with intellectual games like "Cranium" and "Blokus", and then slowly move on to the relatively brainless games like Taboo and Jungle Speed and some barnyard animal games which involve a bunch of grownups making animal noises...
Highlights of the day:
1. Joanne's rendition of having a fever during "Taboo": panting, groaning and moaning as she repeatedly placed the back of her hand on her forehead.
2. Qiuxuan's all too literal demonstration of "SPIT": so literal that we were surprised we got it right.
3. Cheryl's trademark bag of tricks which looks like she just came from China and is leaving for Malaysia. Sadly someone from the next table spilt her drink over Cheryl's mysterious bag.
4. Felicia's rather explicit and excessively informative account of how she was literally kissing the toilet door, although to her credit the toilet was really small!
5. The embarassing cheer from the pink team(consisting of Ouyang, Felicia and XQ). I only remember lots of PINK PONK PINK PONK we wear pink. we will win. etc....
6. THe meticulous green team (Shihui, Desi and Cheryl) who strategise so much during Cranium, that they spent so much time asking the blue team(Qiuxuan, Joanne, Calbin and me) questions and yet totally lacking in interest when it's their turn to answer the questions. In fact Desi is almost always at the loo and we were considering shifting to a table nearer to the washroom.
7. XQ and Desi getting visibly more and more excited and start to move threateningly towards Joanne when she was giving the clues for "Taboo", usually drowning out the rest of their team in the progress.
8. XQ made cute lovely badges for everyone in the class..a pity I cannot post the pictures of them. THanks XQ!
10. Ridiculously difficult questions like "What is the meaning of the word OTIOSE" (for the record, the word means "to serve no pratical purpose"..haha quite a useful word I must say!) and some geographical question about South Africa, capacity of a human bladder, names of astronauts, etc.
All in all it was four hours of fun and laughter. At only $12 per person! A pity some of us weren't able to make it: Janissa, Yvonne, Jacqueline, Meli
ssa and U-shan. We missed your presence!!Here is a picture of us: as you can see, Calbin is still sore and unhappy that none of us want to play his game involving some pigs racing...or was it cows?
Monday, November 07, 2005
AOE3! CIV4!
Okay if you don't understand what the title means....that means you probably don't play computer games, or at least not the strategy genre. THey are acronyms for Age of Empires 3 and Civilisation 4.....two games which I expect I shall be losing sleep over for the whole of my NOvember and December holidays.....
Thanks to Javen who told me that Civ 4 will be out today..so I hit the stores after my maths class ...but sadly I was too early and they say the shipment will only arrive in the late afternoon, so I bought AOE3 instead. Hmm I already spent countless sleepless nights on AOE2 and CIV3 ..I think it will happen again. At least I am thankful it is not the exam period...when I was an undergraduate in NUS I remember the good games are always released during exam period..not that it stopped me from spending more than appriopriate amount of time on the games... =p
Anyway, was walking towards Shaw House when there is this little boy (looks like he is 10 or 11) busking at the underpass. He was playing a violin and he was so terrific....almost every passer-by stopped to listen. He was playing from a collection of Vivaldi, and unlike the numerous child prodigies that abound in Singapore, he is actually very musical and not purely technical in his playing. His violin case was full of $5 and $2 notes, I estimated at least $50 inside, not including the coins. Among all the buskers that haunt the underpasses of Orchard Road I think he was the first one that I voluntarily gave money to. I mean..he was better than the violin soloist in a concert I recently watched...and the soloist was from SSO some more * tsk tsk *
THe funny(or disgusting) thing is, there was this old lady who was wearing a gaudy dress (by dress I mean a rainbow-coloured piece of cloth which she wraps around her body) . She stood beside the boy and was listening intently with her eyes closed. Then suddenly her eyes opened and she said, "I don't like this song. Play me another one." The young boy seemed quite embarrassed and he played a different number in an attempt to appease this old lady who does not cover up enough of her body. Apparently she was not satisfied even after the boy changed what he was playing for 4 - 5 times, after which she dumped a 20 cent coin unceremoniously into his violin case and walked off, pulling up her dress in the process as it was dangerously close to falling off her body entirely. THe little boy's face was scarlet...sigh...
I then had a Grilled Chicken Foldover for lunch, in the way that it was meant to be. THanks to Calbin who did not show me the proper way to eat the chicken foldover, the last time I tried it the contents of the foldover was dropping all over the table. But I shall not be angry with him because he has enough on his mind already....including pacifying 2 angry girls, worrying about old uncles gawking at him in bedok swimming pool and browsing through photos of well-endowed male models scantily clad in skimpy bikini trunks. He assures us he is not homophobic ...hmm well maybe not the phobic part......
Thanks to Javen who told me that Civ 4 will be out today..so I hit the stores after my maths class ...but sadly I was too early and they say the shipment will only arrive in the late afternoon, so I bought AOE3 instead. Hmm I already spent countless sleepless nights on AOE2 and CIV3 ..I think it will happen again. At least I am thankful it is not the exam period...when I was an undergraduate in NUS I remember the good games are always released during exam period..not that it stopped me from spending more than appriopriate amount of time on the games... =p
Anyway, was walking towards Shaw House when there is this little boy (looks like he is 10 or 11) busking at the underpass. He was playing a violin and he was so terrific....almost every passer-by stopped to listen. He was playing from a collection of Vivaldi, and unlike the numerous child prodigies that abound in Singapore, he is actually very musical and not purely technical in his playing. His violin case was full of $5 and $2 notes, I estimated at least $50 inside, not including the coins. Among all the buskers that haunt the underpasses of Orchard Road I think he was the first one that I voluntarily gave money to. I mean..he was better than the violin soloist in a concert I recently watched...and the soloist was from SSO some more * tsk tsk *
THe funny(or disgusting) thing is, there was this old lady who was wearing a gaudy dress (by dress I mean a rainbow-coloured piece of cloth which she wraps around her body) . She stood beside the boy and was listening intently with her eyes closed. Then suddenly her eyes opened and she said, "I don't like this song. Play me another one." The young boy seemed quite embarrassed and he played a different number in an attempt to appease this old lady who does not cover up enough of her body. Apparently she was not satisfied even after the boy changed what he was playing for 4 - 5 times, after which she dumped a 20 cent coin unceremoniously into his violin case and walked off, pulling up her dress in the process as it was dangerously close to falling off her body entirely. THe little boy's face was scarlet...sigh...
I then had a Grilled Chicken Foldover for lunch, in the way that it was meant to be. THanks to Calbin who did not show me the proper way to eat the chicken foldover, the last time I tried it the contents of the foldover was dropping all over the table. But I shall not be angry with him because he has enough on his mind already....including pacifying 2 angry girls, worrying about old uncles gawking at him in bedok swimming pool and browsing through photos of well-endowed male models scantily clad in skimpy bikini trunks. He assures us he is not homophobic ...hmm well maybe not the phobic part......
Friday, November 04, 2005
Have I changed?
Too many people are saying that I have changed. Have I changed? (If you have known me for more than one year, and have been in touch with me recently you are in a position to answer)
Well...2005's been an eventful year. It's the year I ORD. It's the year I went into NIE. It's the year that I went to Switzerland. It's the year that I am going to Japan. It's the year that I chose to (almost) sever all my ties with the COs I am in. Still I do not think that I have changed(much). It's the circumstances around me that have changed. I remain stoic as the world continue to evolve.
I can hardly believe that all of a sudden I am so detached from CO. And yet in a way I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't that difficult or unbearable. You say I used to be so involved, so committed. You remind me of the countless times I cancel on appointments because of last minute rehearsals. You recount the fact that I was hardly ever free during weekends because all my free time was taken up by CO. Ya ya blah blah blah.....
Well I certainly did not sign a life contract when I joined any of the COs. Yes i was involved and committed and that pained me most when I see what is happening. I reiterate: I have not changed. It's the circumstances that have changed.
You say that I have turned my back on CO? You say that by picking up the violin I'm betraying a good friend? That's so illogical and crappy that I normally will not bother to rebuke you, but I shall. For your info my first involvement in music was when I took organ lessons at Christofori. I played euphonium in my pri school band before I joined CO in sec school. I played classical guitar before I picked up any of the numerous Chinese plucked string instruments that I now play. If it makes you feel better, maybe you can view it as me returning to my Western musical roots instead of me turning my back on CO. But seriously I couldn't care less.
Not playing in an orchestra does not mean I'm no longer involved in Chinese music. I won't be surprised if I'm still spending more time on my instruments than the average CO member. I can appreciate music as a member of the audience; not being on the stage does not make me less of a musician. Besides I have never said that I'm not going to join CO anymore, I'm just saying that maybe the COs that I have been playing at are not the place for me to be in anymore.
And if it pleases you, you have just spoilt my mood for the whole weekend.
Well...2005's been an eventful year. It's the year I ORD. It's the year I went into NIE. It's the year that I went to Switzerland. It's the year that I am going to Japan. It's the year that I chose to (almost) sever all my ties with the COs I am in. Still I do not think that I have changed(much). It's the circumstances around me that have changed. I remain stoic as the world continue to evolve.
I can hardly believe that all of a sudden I am so detached from CO. And yet in a way I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't that difficult or unbearable. You say I used to be so involved, so committed. You remind me of the countless times I cancel on appointments because of last minute rehearsals. You recount the fact that I was hardly ever free during weekends because all my free time was taken up by CO. Ya ya blah blah blah.....
Well I certainly did not sign a life contract when I joined any of the COs. Yes i was involved and committed and that pained me most when I see what is happening. I reiterate: I have not changed. It's the circumstances that have changed.
You say that I have turned my back on CO? You say that by picking up the violin I'm betraying a good friend? That's so illogical and crappy that I normally will not bother to rebuke you, but I shall. For your info my first involvement in music was when I took organ lessons at Christofori. I played euphonium in my pri school band before I joined CO in sec school. I played classical guitar before I picked up any of the numerous Chinese plucked string instruments that I now play. If it makes you feel better, maybe you can view it as me returning to my Western musical roots instead of me turning my back on CO. But seriously I couldn't care less.
Not playing in an orchestra does not mean I'm no longer involved in Chinese music. I won't be surprised if I'm still spending more time on my instruments than the average CO member. I can appreciate music as a member of the audience; not being on the stage does not make me less of a musician. Besides I have never said that I'm not going to join CO anymore, I'm just saying that maybe the COs that I have been playing at are not the place for me to be in anymore.
And if it pleases you, you have just spoilt my mood for the whole weekend.
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
LIfe's Unsolved Mysteries #1
Does anyone use water bottles from the brand "Thirs.t"?
Can someone tell me why is there a net-like layer made of thin wire across the opening of the water bottle? Sure, it does not impede the flow of the water and I can still use it like any other water bottle but why is this thing there? Have been pondering this for some time.....
Can someone tell me why is there a net-like layer made of thin wire across the opening of the water bottle? Sure, it does not impede the flow of the water and I can still use it like any other water bottle but why is this thing there? Have been pondering this for some time.....
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