On The Move…

We’ve been staying at a lovely house in Hyannis this past week, spending the kind of relaxing but constant-activity vacation that results from being the only designated driver in the family.  We’ve been to Salem and the MFA, to Martha’s Vineyard and the beach, and tomorrow enroute to JFK we’ll be making a last shopping-stop at the ever-incredible Woodbury Common.  We’ve had good food and taken fun pictures, and I’ve said various unwilling personal goodbyes to places and memories and habits and people.

I leave on Saturday night on the direct EWR-SIN flight.

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PS: Pictures to come, perhaps when I regain internet and computer access next week.
PPS: Jo and XY, I’ve been meaning to respond to your messages, but have been really tied up and infrequently online…  so sorry!  I’ll be back in Singapore in just 48 hours.

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Just because it should be recorded – senior move out was pretty much as bad, if not worse than The Great Move-Out Disaster of 2006, if that’s possible.  The hallways and courtyards of Quincy (and probably every other House) bore an eerie resemblance to the set of a disaster movie or urban refugee camp setting…  furniture, clothes, documents, food and luggage were strewn, abandoned and forlorn, as far as the eye could see.  Theft and looting felt rampant.  It wasn’t a happy place to be at all.

I realise that these will have been covered in the Singapore media, but hey, I’m pretty diconnected from that media.

Durex Sexual Wellbeing Global Survey 07/08

Walking Speed 

I need more sleep.

My schedule is ever more packed, although I’m not really complaining because it’s all free dinners, cool day trips and meetings with friends.

Naptime.

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Wow, it’s been a busy couple of days.  But mostly fun-busy, I think.  But perhaps that’s just selective memory.

I threw another party tonight, mostly in honor of pre-frosh weekend, although I think I eventually only met a handful of prefrosh (the rest of the time I spent running about searching for refills, cleaning up and greeting people I know).  The party was pretty successful on the whole, and it did end at about the time I’d been planning.  I’m proud that I kept fairly close to budget, despite the fine selection of finger food and cocktails served.  My favorites were the English cheddar with carmelized onions and the seafood paté on melba toast.  More pictures and so on will have to wait.

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In a couple of hours I will drive Ming, Nathan, Justin and myself down to NYC for Singapore Day.  And then at about 3am on Sunday morning I will drive Rika, Justin and myself back.  The next 36 hours are going to have to be about many naps…

The most arresting article I’ve read anywhere recently is this feature on Imelda Marcos from this month’s W magazine. 

Imelda was of course the first lady of the Philippines for quite a while (1965-1986) while her husband, Ferdinand, was President.  Outside of the Philippines she’s famous mainly for her staggering shoe collection, the cost of which is probably some small fraction of the huge sums of money the Marcos’ are accused of embezzling from the national coffers (allegedly around five billion dollars).  But the article is fascinating mainly for the richness of Imelda’s story, the people she knew (Saddam, Doris Duke and the Pope all make cameos) and the vividness of her personality. 

Much more interesting than anything that could be written about Anna Nicole.  Go read and see for yourself.

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I dreamt last night of my time in the Army, for the first time within memory.  It was a little unexpected, and nice in a way to see those familiar faces again.  I wonder what everyone is up to?  Maybe this dream was triggered by my fast-approaching return to my lieu de naissance :)

Sometimes research returns unexpected results; an example would be these choice passages from a 2003 journal article titled “Drug Abuse: Iran’s Thorniest Problem”:

“Iran has executed over 10,000 narcotics traffickers in the last decade, usually by hanging, and some 800 people are on death row for narcotics offenses.  Sometimes the penalties are carried out in public to serve as a deterrent. By 1999 it was obvious that harsh penalties were not having the desired effect.  Capital punishment for smugglers continues, but drug abusers are treated less harshly now.” (290)

And also:

“The law-and-order approach, of course, has its advocates. The police chief called last year for ‘more effective law enforcement.’ The head of the Judiciary said, ‘Drug traffickers and sellers must no longer benefit from any amnesty—on the contrary they must be severely repressed.’ And a Deputy Interior Minister complained in June 2001 about the number of executions: ‘Some 15,869 drug traffickers deserved death, but only 1,735 were meted capital punishment. The death sentence against 400 convicts was upheld, but finally only 233 were sent to the gallows.’” (292)

Sammi, William A., “Drug Abuse: Iran’s Thorniest Problem”, The Brown Journal of World Affairs 9, no. 2 (Winter/Spring 2003): 283-99

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And today I learnt another new thing: the differences in form and usage between the em-dash, the en-dash, the hyphen and the minus sign.  Who knew?

Dash.

God bless the people of Sumatra.  What awful news.

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It’s also sobering to hear that even my mother felt the tremors at home.

Oh, scrappy day.

I was distracted enough to miss my 1pm.  And that’s the least of it.

I’m going back to bed.  Wake me in the morning.

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I want to see a full, high-quality video of the Viktor & Rolf show.  Pretty unbelievable – I want to see these clothes on some covers and editorials (like that Dolce and Gabbana dress that’s everywhere right now).

A rather eventful, hectic sort of day.  Mainly it seemed hectic because I constantly wanted to just lie down and relax.  Right from the moment I dragged myself out bed at 6.15am, to turn off my alarm.  The interviews turned out successfully, judging by the outcome… at least for me.  That’s good news, I know, to have a solid, competitive and compensated summer internship offer with a top outfit in a great location.  If only the elation could be enjoyed unalloyed by thoughts of March and August, untempered by a mixed result, unaffected by the want to go to bed.  I’m also vaguely miffed at having missed the celebratory lunch.

It helped to sit in Nathan’s massage chair for about twenty minutes, although later at Lodge the sensation came back to haunt me in an unpleasant fashion against the hard, straight seat backs.  Lodge meeting tonight was…  something quite new.  The experience of having to push through that endless, narrow corridor-catwalk jammed full of bejewelled, tuxedoed officers (average age: 45) from other lodges was quite intimidating and discomfitting.  Then the prodigious feat of memory and protocol displayed by R.W. T. was breathtaking (not that Lodge isn’t usually impressive that way).  Finally, the banquet that followed was far fancier than previous events.  It reminded me of the European leg of world tour, what with the enormous platters of cheese, fruit and cold cuts interspersed with serving stations for whiskey, cocktails, wine, juice and soda.  My personal favorites were the circulating trays of beef Wellington hors d’oeuvres and bacon-wrapped scallops (yum!).  And after an hour, just as everyone was getting seated, I ran away to avoid the tedium of a two-hour long meal (especially since I was already stuffed)…  but not before lingering to hear the jazz duo (double bass and keyboard) play Antonio Carlos Jobim’s sublime Wave.

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I did no thesis work today

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PS: I still *heart* cold winters, but only with the assurance of heated interior spaces and the promise of warmer days ahead.

…and it’s not always good news.

So as a little break from going blind trying to extract information from UNODC* documents on their website…  I proceeded to continue going blind trying to extract information from UNESCO** documents on their website.  And I learn to my chagrin, that of the 192 member states of the UN General Assembly, 191 are members of UNESCO.  And the one, inexplicable and highly visible exception is… Singapore.  ???

A brief web search reveals no satisfactory reason for this anomaly, which puzzles me.  And also annoys me, since it means I’m automatically ineligible to even apply for certain positions within the organization.  How terribly bizarre.  Perhaps I’ll ask the DPM if I meet him at some upcoming event.

* United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
** United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

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Ok, it’s time to leave the museum.  When I walked in here about 6 hours ago I remember musing about the irony of how I actually somewhat envy the idea of working at a museum such as the Louvre in Paris, like an acquaintance of mine currently does.  Truth is the collections here are pretty fascinating, beautiful and important in their own right – for example practically just outside of HUCE are many extremely precious plaster casts of mesoamerican steles and other monuments that have since been damaged or destroyed.

And now I actually leave.