8th entry - Carpenters, without the "the"

The Carpenters are one of my all-time favourite music groups, but till today I dont really know much about them, except that the highly successful brother and sister team made so many evergreen hit songs in the 1970s that still sound so beautiful today. Some of my favourite songs and why I love them are below...

Superstar

...Somehow I think the lyrics of this song are rather special. Its like pining for someone far away...

Rainy Days and Mondays

...Q: "Why do I think of you when I feel sad, and want to talk to someone?"
A: Because I love you, and I need you...

We've only just begun...

...This must be the best wedding song ever...

Close to you

... Expresses my desire to be close to my sweetheart...

Only yesterday

... Especially meaningful for me when I fell in love again, soon after a breakup...

... And the saddest song on earth for one who is heartbroken...! :'-((

Goodbye to love

...How often have you asked this question - "If you love me, then why are you hurting me?"...

Hurting each other

Here are some highlights from their official website:

1) Both Richard and his sister Karen had great musical talent, but Richard's gift was nurtured much earlier in life while Karen's magnificent vocals was only discovered in her teens. Naturally, what impresses most people about the group is Karen's unique, soothing voice...

2) The group did not have a smooth-sailing musical career even though they won a talent contest in the 60s (like the "American Idol" of today, albeit on a much smaller scale). It was after struggling for a few years that Carpenters became a huge success, earning recognition with Grammys awards and turning into a household name for a worldwide audience.

3) Karen Carpenter's tragic life came to an abrupt end when she succumbed to anorexia nervosa in 1983; it all started from a harmless desire to look slim (sounds familiar?). Richard, on the other hand, developed an addiction to a sleeping pill that he recovered from eventually. Richard still lives today and replies to fanmail. Karen is immortalised in the songs that she sung and the music that she and her brother dedicated much of their lives to creating, and their amazing legacy remains in the hearts and minds of many fans (including me).

7th entry - "Citizen journalism"

I explored the Stomp website recently and began to ponder over the term "citizen journalism".

Stomp (acronym for Straits Times Online Mobile Print) is touted as "Asia's leading citizen-journalism website". On its "About Us" page, the website was said to resonate with Singaporeans. STOMP reportedly won the IFRA 2008 award for Best in Online Media, surpassing more established news websites like Australia's Sydney Morning Herald, South China Morning Post, Taiwan's Apple Daily and the Philippine Inquirer. According to IRFA, the award recognises publishers who have adopted digital media as part of their total product offer to meet the major changes in how people consume news and information.

The question I have in my mind is whether the success of STOMP is really a reflection of how Singaporeans consume "news". I even wonder about what "news" really means to Singaporeans.

Perhaps I'm too "outmoded" or even parochial in my perspective. To me, "news" is a term for a concisely written, carefully worded, thoroughly proofread and sensibly edited collection of articles published by professional journalists. News reflect what is currently important to society.

Of course, the type of news depends on the audience that the media is catering to. A major newspaper will report about political decisions, social phenomenon and economic issues that impact people on a larger scale. Local or specialty newspapers on the other hand zoom in on the details of everyday events that are nonetheless important to a smaller sub-group of people.

The way news is presented to readers has tremendous impact because of its power to influence public opinion, and with great power comes great responsibility. Hence, regardless of its scale, whether the focus is local or regional or international, news must be informational and factually accurate. News should as far as possible be unbiased, and opinion should be qualified. People who publish news must be mindful of their social responsibility.

To me, STOMP is essentially an opinion based online journal. One is unable to verify any facts being published there, and people who post "news" articles without needing to be responsible for being factually accurate. It does not matter to anyone whether they have verified what they see - they leave readers to decide for themselves. People are free to express themselves in any way.

I would caution readers of the website not to believe everything that they see and read on STOMP, or for that matter, anything they read online. They must be mindful that the contributors are not professionals and they do not need to post anything factual. And everyone knows that images can be digitally altered these days using imaging software. I also feel that people who post "news" on the website should exercise greater social responsibility. They should question their own motives for posting articles especially about seemingly "inconsiderate" members of public, and examine their own behaviour.

Let the ones who are sinless throw the first stone.

6th entry - Returning to Army

Its been one year since my last "reservist" in-camp training, and I'm back again for another 2 weeks. 

A flashback to last July: I was with more or less the same group of NS buddies who returned the previous year - Daniel, Ken, Richard, LZ and SW - plus a few new faces e.g. Michael (an actor and school teacher), YS ("lifeguard") and Tay ("CO PA").  YS and Tay were both the youngest in the group, as they were recalled not long after their ORD. Most of us had a lot of fun doing a whole lot of crazy stuff e.g. looking for durians around the camp. 

Sadly, this year there are are fewer of us. Richard has served his NS liabilities and received his good service medal last year - he tried appealing to the SAF to extend his service but apparently they rejected his appeal to serve the country. I was quite sad after I came to know, as he really made good company during the 2 weeks. Daniel and Tay asked for deferrment but we do not know why... Its disheartening for the group, especially since Daniel was the "party livewire" and "class clown", and Tay knows the camp inside out and has good connections within the camp.

This year two new faces joined the group: Ng (another "CO PA") and Cheok (a horticulturist). Cheok seems pretty ok, and Ng is friendly but a bit more of a loner.

Morale among the group is lower but its not only because of the absence of our buddies. We were briefed that there was a possibility that we might be split up next year - the CO wanted to assign us to permanent vocations and projects and if they need to activate one vocation or project then the team will be brought back, so there will be no guarantee that the entire group comes back because all of us are put in different vocations...

It gets worse. Apparently, the discipline for NS-men is set to get stricter. Firstly, the Institute Sergeant Major is particular about uniformity in the dress code and the Regimental Sergeant Major is sticky about punctuality, so for the weekly runs on Wednesday and games on Friday, we need to wear the same attire and turn up on time. There is even a parade for us on the 2nd day at 0745hrs - a first for all of us. And we were told about 3 NS guys who were recently caught for using camera phones in the camp and got punished with 3 days of confinement.

Well, there is a silver lining. One of us in the group is going to walk away with a $100 voucher for the best performing NS-man in the group. I'm not sure how they will gauge our performance since most of us do not actually contribute very much in 9.5 days to be honest, but really - who the hell cares?!  We are here to have fun, and have fun we WILL!!!