Food post: #2

Rob was getting a haircut so I plumped down at the local food court and sipped a beer. S$5.80 for a 630 mL bottle (For conversion to USD, about USD$4. For comparison to food, a plate of rice with 3 different curries spooned on top costs half of that, S$2.80.)

Two tables over, an older man also sipped a beer. (This is not him, but here is a picture to give you an image.)

I wondered if it was his daily ritual. And then I wondered, how much the beer cost when he was my age. I wondered, how he had reacted to beer taxes (light paternalism) [1] over the years. I wondered at all of the changes in his country during his lifetime. I wondered, what goes through his mind when he compares Singapore today to the Singapore of his youth?

[1] The excise tax on beer is S$3.50 per liter (it's S$70 per liter of pure alcohol). That's about USD$0.70 per 12-oz beer. There's also 7% GST (goods and services tax) and a customary 10% restaurant service charge.

Pictures

Sums up my impression of Singapore.

Pictures

Flying into Singapore, you can see container ships lazing about. No work for them at the moment.

 

Food post: #1

Check this off the life list: eating an entire animal in one sitting (next box after this is kill and eat an entire animal (after that is kill with bare hands or teeth and eat an entire animal)). Ordered a kabob stick called "small bird," thought I was getting some small pieces of chicken. Nope, I got a small bird, the entire thing, featherless and stretched over the skewers. Breaking off a leg was like eating a drumstick, except at 1/10th the ratio. Tasty meat, but .1 grams of protein. Getting the wing off was more trouble, though, and it had no meat on it. As I moved on to the breast, the head started looking at me. I tried to ignore it, to no avail, so I ripped the head off to get it out of my vision. But the little bugger still stared at me sadly from the plate as I put the rest of what little meat he had to offer into my stomach. At this point I started getting paranoid about diseases being carried in animals' nervous systems, and worried I'd eaten some of the spinal cord. It was hard to tell between the small bones and the thick spice rub seasoning. Blissfully the paranoia quickly passed after a moist towel, I felt clean. All in all, check that one off the list.

Daily question: #5

Complexity...Simplicity...

What do you prefer, simplicity or complexity?

What do you prefer, simplicity or complexity?

What a poignant question. I, for one, prefer simplicity.

What a poignant question. I, for one, prefer simplicity.

Simplicity...Complexity...

Daily vocation: #2

A sense of oneness, flow, in the zone.

A sense of oneness, flow, in the zone.

Daily question: #4

If all the people in the world are good, then where does evil come from?

If all the people in the world are good, then where does evil come from?