Cheerleaders are paid $125 per performance and $9 an hour????

"The cheerleaders were paid $125 a game, with no additional compensation. However, as of this season cheerleaders are paid $9 an hour, California's minimum wage, for all hours they work." 


Good grief - how come they are paid so low??? Time, youth, and beauty is fleeting. You cannot pay enough money to retain them - you can certainly hire them though. You can hire the time of accountants, politicians, consultants, even preachers. I'm not sure why there is such a stigma over hiring the time of a pretty woman (or two).

 http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/nfl-claims-immunity-in-oakland-raiderette-cheerleader-lawsuit-222545981.html

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My whale swim video is up.

"Go" Heat run whale swim from Yauming Chiam on Vimeo.
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One of my whale swim videos is up for viewing. It was taken last week - I used my GoPro3 Black+. video camera. No strobes. No flash. No filters. The only I used apart from the camera and the waterproof housing was a cheap plastic stick handle to mount it on.

Kiko, the fisherman's son, and Mark, a trained whale swimmer guide took us out in a long boat. We cruised around til we spotted the whale spray. The boatman followed the whales for awhile to make certain their intentions (of not breaching)  and then Mark got us into the water to swim with them.

This is one of the moments.

Life live. Live it gloriously

http://flavorwire.com/473068/25-great-pieces-of-life-advice-from-literature/view-all

“Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could.” — Faye Travers (The Painted Drum, Louise Erdrich)

I used to read a lot of books. There's not much to do on the boat so I'm getting a chance to read again. Its a good habit. Your get to learn things. lol. My brain is totally unmotivated at the moment - like a kite on a windless day.

But click on the link - and add them to your must-read collection.

One thing I want to add to that comment is - Life will break you eventually. Eventually we will all die. No one gets the chance to live forever. But some people go through life thinking that they will live forever. They work to no end. Our youth is also precious. We have to live now or we will never.

Live life. Live it gloriously.

Daniel Dennett - how to criticize without sounding like an arsehole

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/03/28/daniel-dennett-rapoport-rules-criticism/

How to compose a successful critical commentary:

1. You should attempt to re-express your target’s position so clearly, vividly, and fairly that your target says, “Thanks, I wish I’d thought of putting it that way.
2. You should list any points of agreement (especially if they are not matters of general or widespread agreement).
3. You should mention anything you have learned from your target.
4. Only then are you permitted to say so much as a word of rebuttal or criticism.

If only the same code of conduct could be applied to critical commentary online, particularly to the indelible inferno of comments.

But rather than a naively utopian, Pollyannaish approach to debate, Dennett points out this is actually a sound psychological strategy that accomplishes one key thing: It transforms your opponent into a more receptive audience for your criticism or dissent, which in turn helps advance the discussion.

Feeling very Life Aquatic now

Awesome fan art posters of my fav scuba movie - "Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou"

Yeah, the expedition feels like the movie now - we even had one crew last year eaten by a shark... just a nibble only... she's ok now.

Buying Gold Medals

There was once a father who had a son. There was a sporting event at his son's school. The father who was a smart man realized that his son would probably not win. Besides it detracted from the more important goals of studying for exams. The father still wanted a gold medal. So the father took some money from his son's college fund which his son had been working for - and hired someone to impersonate his son at the Sports event. That person won. The father gave the person some money and took the medal home. The father now had a gold medal to proudly hang in the dining room.

That parable just about sums up my opinion of the decision by the govt to stack the sporting teams with talented foreign born players.

True - other nations - including Australia also give citizenships to talented foreign born sports people as well. But Singapore goes over the top with this tactic of minting fresh citizens for the purpose of winning sports medals more so than other nations.

Seriously what the fuck is the point?

Its about the same as making a bunch of Germans, Russians, Maoris, and Africans into citizens so Singapore can field a winning soccer team, ice-hockey team, rugby, or basketball team at the next international games. Imagine it. The extend of their citizenship only goes so far as holding a pink IC.

Here's a question for you - What really makes a Singapore citizen Singaporean?

Instead of doing that cynical approach to sports - I think its much better to spend the nation's money on its own locally born citizens. Here are some examples:

1. Spend the money on training our sports teachers. Its highly important that our sports and physical education teachers are knowledgeable about the whole dynamics of muscle growth and training. Think of the amount of good it would do to the nation if the sports teachers were highly skilled and knowledgeable - they could teach entire generations of citizens to be more aware and conscious of their health and physical training.

Money that goes into this field also goes into creating our own Sports Industry.

2. Raise up our own sports people. Some grumpy cynic might complain, "What for - they won't win" But Singapore spends billions of dollars on its armed forces and military. I'm not saying its wasted money (sidetopic: consider how much Hong Kong govt spends on its own military.) But if Singapore is prepared to spend so much money on its own armed forces - why not devote some money towards training and sponsoring its own locally born sports people?? Each dollar spent on a Singapore born sports person also goes to his Singapore family, his parents, his children and would quite likely encourage a Singaporean child to do the same rather than swotting for the exam in an air-con room. Some of them might even win. This is Nation-building stuff.

If you disagree with this - you might want to consider the sheer amount of man hours spent by each Singaporean male and the contributions made by his family in NS (not to mention the number of Singaporeans killed or maimed in the line of duty). NS conscripts are being paid fuck all. And what for? Don't talk about duty when you are being paid a highly exorbitant (public) salary.

We pay taxes. We stay law abiding citizens.... Wait... What for?

You might as well hire Gukhas to defend our nation... Hmmmm.... oh wait a minute.... :D

I don't mind if the (minted fresh citizens) foreign born players stay in Singapore and contribute to the culture of Singapore - but if they go back home after they won the medal and got their prize money and whatever monetary reward they were promised by the Gahmun - what's the point? Basically you hired some foreigner to win the medal for you.

It would be cheaper just to go to a shop in Chinatown and make a copy of the gold medal and put a photoshoped face next to it.

But if you are running the country like a business corporation than it does make more economic sense to purchase foreign sports talent. Cheap, efficient, sure-fire success. Using that sort of brutal logic and you will ignore the welfare of old aged citizens who can't work anymore and withhold their CPF pensions... your citizens not producing enough kids - no problem just increase the migration intake - whatever... you want cheaper workers - you want oprofits - you don't want to pay your citizens a living wage? you don't want to open another university? you don't want to spend more money on national education? NO problem - hire foreigners  - any kind of economic rational idea to promote the interests of the rich and powerful- no matter how cruel, souless is worth contemplating.

Guests

I'm staying at Alibaba Backpacker Lodge (a sizable house in Nuku'alofa owned by a former Iranian refugee)* - by coincidence members of a whale watching expedition were here too. Marine biologists by training - all very nice people. I could see that our Captain would be delighted to meet them and I brought it up with him. They came over for dinner - all 9 of them including their Aussie boat crew that they had chartered. Wow, I don't think our little ship could handle that many people on board. It was a really great time for all. An Aussie sausage sizzle.

I confess however I felt a bit claustrophobic being in such a small space with so many people. I got tongue tied and couldn't think of anything interesting to say.

But here's the strange part - one of the crew was talking to them about what we may find, the problems associated with our mission - stuff I'm pretty sure I told them the same thing earlier at the guest house. And he held their attention like a teacher in a primary school room.

Sometimes I think force of personality, charisma, gift of the gab plays a big part in any social gathering. I'm not sure why but I've keep on wanting to fade in the background. Yet I feel a slightly intense desire to participate to talk - at the same time I feel shy and uncomfortable in speaking.

I do talk but I notice they don't seem to listen. Could it be my accent or style of talking?

Its late... gotta go to sleep. The whale researchers are going to be spending a week there - and I'm hoping to catch at least one trip out with them. But despite the initial friendly banter at the start - I sense a certain distance from them now. I feel like a bee thats gone to the wrong hive. Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned that I like eating at a Tongan restaurant that served turtle meat. Maybe they think that all Chinese people are the same.

I don't know. Sometimes I'm quite clueless about group dynamics. Subtle clues, gestures, words, phrases, mannerisms and suddenly I've accidentally mixed sulfuric and concentrated nitric acid. 

boom. 

You should see the awful look in my face when that happens.

But you've got to try and not withdraw. Learn from each experience and push on. Learn more. Think more. And try and always radiate a happy positive countenance.

* The Iranian refugee who could pass off as the Shah of Iran - ran away from Iran during the Iraq-Iran War when he was 15 years old.