Is all over people's iTunes libraries-lah. (Yea Singlish!) Okay so a lot of these bands don't hail from The States, but a lot of them do, and all of them suck. Aside from the abundance of obnoxious Chinese pop (not all of it is obnoxious, just most of it, but I listen to it sometimes regardless), the following are some of apparantley more popular groups in Singapore that I will not be listening to:
Simple Plan
Abba
Backstreet Boys
Ace of Base
Avril Lavigne
Bon Jovie
Evanescence
Kenny G
The entire Final Fantasy soundtrack
Savage Garden
Hoobastank
LeeAnn Rimes
Destiny's Child
George Michael
Good Charlotte
Mandy More
My Chemical Romance
NSync
Bowling for Soup
Creed
Gwen Stefani
Lifehouse
3 Doors Down
Sum 41
Seriously, this stuff is in so many people's libraries. There is a little bit of good music, and I was lucky enough to find somebody who's entire library I wouldn't mind having, but his name is Nigel and I don't think he's from Singapore.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Rant #2: Pay Attention!!
Nobody here ever pays attention in class. Half the people never even show up for the lectures unless the professor takes attendance, and then even if they do show up all they do is talk the whole time. When I was still registered for Aerodynamics the professor had to stop and ask everybody to pay attention a few times. And many students bring their laptops to class
This place is so different than back home -- at least relative to engineering courses. There is little, if any, homework, almost no midterms, and the finals exams account for 50% to 80% of the final grade. Few classes need to buy textbooks; instead the professors create a whole semesters' worth of powerpoint lecture notes that can be purchased and bound at the library.
Also, the class schedules are messed up. There are no Monday-Wednesday-Friday classes that start at exactly the same time and are always in the same lecture hall. Oh no, you'll get a your first lecture on Wednesday in one lecture hall then the second one on Thursday in a completely different location and an entirely different time. How does that make any sense? Wouldn't it just be easier to keep it consistent?
And in the very rare event that there is a midterm, it's not held during the regular class hours. Instead it will be in the middle of the day on some random day of the week. What if I have another class at that same time?
And there's a two week period between the end of classes and the time exams start, I think. Why can't they just have the exams right away so I could have a whole month of travelling? What am I going to do for a whole two weeks while I wait for school to finish? Study? Are you kidding?
Ok, so I got a bit off track with the whole paying attention thing. Oh well ... I suppose I'm in class right now and not paying attention either. :o)
This place is so different than back home -- at least relative to engineering courses. There is little, if any, homework, almost no midterms, and the finals exams account for 50% to 80% of the final grade. Few classes need to buy textbooks; instead the professors create a whole semesters' worth of powerpoint lecture notes that can be purchased and bound at the library.
Also, the class schedules are messed up. There are no Monday-Wednesday-Friday classes that start at exactly the same time and are always in the same lecture hall. Oh no, you'll get a your first lecture on Wednesday in one lecture hall then the second one on Thursday in a completely different location and an entirely different time. How does that make any sense? Wouldn't it just be easier to keep it consistent?
And in the very rare event that there is a midterm, it's not held during the regular class hours. Instead it will be in the middle of the day on some random day of the week. What if I have another class at that same time?
And there's a two week period between the end of classes and the time exams start, I think. Why can't they just have the exams right away so I could have a whole month of travelling? What am I going to do for a whole two weeks while I wait for school to finish? Study? Are you kidding?
Ok, so I got a bit off track with the whole paying attention thing. Oh well ... I suppose I'm in class right now and not paying attention either. :o)
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Malaysian Bathrooms
This actually goes for all Muslim countries so travellers beware ... I didn't know this until we used the bathroom at Malaysian customs on our way to KL. Luckily I had come prepared without really knowing it.
Malaysian bathrooms don't use toilet paper. Rather than wiping they have a hose they use to wash themselves off right away. It's actually very hygenic, until you start thinking about where that hose has been. And although they wash themselves when finished, I don't believe they dry themselves.
And sometimes they will wipe with their left hands, which is why you will only see them eating with their right hand.
Also, most of them use squatters rather than toilets. They actually aren't bad to use at all and I could get used to them. Squatter = just a hole in the ground ... nothing to actually sit on. I don't usually sit on toilet seats anyways.
So it was a good thing I had a small pack of tissues on me. When we went to the bank in KL to get our money changed there was actually a roll of toilet paper -- one roll, located outside all of the stalls -- so I grabbed a whole bunch and put them in my backpack.
Point: if you travel to any Muslim country, be prepared.
Oh yea, and they don't use tampons either.
Malaysian bathrooms don't use toilet paper. Rather than wiping they have a hose they use to wash themselves off right away. It's actually very hygenic, until you start thinking about where that hose has been. And although they wash themselves when finished, I don't believe they dry themselves.
And sometimes they will wipe with their left hands, which is why you will only see them eating with their right hand.
Also, most of them use squatters rather than toilets. They actually aren't bad to use at all and I could get used to them. Squatter = just a hole in the ground ... nothing to actually sit on. I don't usually sit on toilet seats anyways.
So it was a good thing I had a small pack of tissues on me. When we went to the bank in KL to get our money changed there was actually a roll of toilet paper -- one roll, located outside all of the stalls -- so I grabbed a whole bunch and put them in my backpack.
Point: if you travel to any Muslim country, be prepared.
Oh yea, and they don't use tampons either.
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