7for7

flaneurose has seen much less frequent updates starting about 2 years back. This stems partly from blogging fatigue, partly from me giving up on reading the Straits Times, and also in large part due to me working on other personal projects.

Which brings me to today's post. While flaneurose doesn't enjoy a large readership, it's far more established than my other web property, which is why I am promoting my other website here on flaneurose.

I started 7for7, a speed dating project for gay men last year in November. And I can tell you, it's been hard going getting enough participants for events. I'm starting to recall the early days of flaneurose almost 5 years ago when days would go by without anyone reading any of my posts.

While the primary motivation behind 7for7 was to hold events and meet new people, I also wanted to collect and analyze data on speed dating, and perhaps publish some interesting observations on dating dynamics within the gay community. But analytics simply isn't possible without a lot of data, and to collect that data, I need to hold events. And I need participants to hold events.

So, that's why I've decided to publicize the little fact here on my blog that flaneurose and 7for7 are in fact by the same person. Call it a blog cross-over, kind of like TV shows by the same producer.

If you're a reader of my blog, and you know someone for whom 7for7 might just be the ticket to a new relationship, do them and me a favor and tell them about it. I've already been successful at matching up at least one couple from my first event, and I look forward to doing the same for many more singles.

Blogging Break

I haven’t had much time to blog lately as I’ve been trying to engineer (no pun intended!) a career change to an actuarial position, which is a bit of a coincidence given that my last post was on the Presidential elections and one of the potential candidates happens to be an actuary. 

In any case, as a career changer, I certainly have my work cut out for me in a job search. So, expect fewer updates from me in the interim. Later.

Republished: The Two-Tier Society

The Asia Mag requested to republish my previous post: The Two-Tier Society. You can see it here.

It's always gratifying when one's work is read and appreciated. Thanks, Asia Mag!

Book List Refreshed!

I haven't been blogging lately because I've been busy with a number of things. Just out-pro'ed from my annual Indentured/Conscription Training (ICT) which took away an additional 2 weeks of my life's time.

[And which cost me an estimated $200 - $600 in lost employer's CPF contributions and increased tax liabilities from artificially raised take-home pay. Yes, PAP, I keep a detailed count, thanks to your fine examples of governance over the years, and I will certainly "better the instruction".

Some of my friends lost quite a bit more in the 2 weeks, like lost accounts, sales and commissions.]

I will also be in Nepal in a week or so for paragliding lessons, so I definitely won't be blogging for a while.

On the plus side, I had a chance to catch up on my reading, so here's my book list refreshed.

I have removed:

The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton

Lessons from Private Equity any Company can Use by Hugh Macarthur and Orit Gadiesh

This Time is Different by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff

The Pose Method by Nicholas Romanov

I have added:

America's Bubble Economy by David Wiedemer et al

Richistan by Robert Frank

The Postcatastrophe Economy by Eric Janszen

When Money Dies by Adam Fergusson (which is available for free download here.)

Blogging Break

I've been busy, and will continue to be busy for the next few weeks, so no blogging for the next few weeks.

Just got back from Bali over the Hari Raya weekend for a short paragliding holiday. I managed to get two flights in, which was helpful in exorcising the previous bad experience I had in Bali. 

I met some wonderful people on my trip and made new friends, both pilots and non-pilots alike, so it was an enjoyable trip.

But now with the holiday over, work looms, and this week, I'll be moving house as well, so there's lots to do and no time to bitch about read local news, much less blog about it.

Updates will come later when the time and opportunity to write present themselves again.

Comment moderation now enabled

I haven't blogged in ages, primarily because I've been hideously busy with stuff and also, seeing as how I haven't been consuming much local tripe content lately, there's been less grist for me to bitch write about.

Anyways, despite my blog having a low readership, comment spam has been popping up more and more often. So from here on, I'm enabling comment moderation where before there was none.

As to when I will blog again on something substantial, it will have to be when inspiration strikes. Sorry to disappoint, but fresh perspectives don't come too often.

Privacy versus Anonymity

They say that the price of fame is privacy. That’s why you hear of so many stories of celebrities hurling punches (or cellphones) at the papparazi that have intruded a little too deeply into their private lives.

A few posts ago, someone asked me in the comments section if I was former GEP, or if I was working at the NRF. I declined to answer the second question. The first I have already answered in a previous post.

Too many people confuse privacy with anonymity. The biggest difference between the two is that privacy can be reclaimed, for example with expansive mansions, bodyguards and CCTVs. That’s how the celebrities do it. In contrast, anonymity cannot be reclaimed. Once lost, anonymity is gone forever. 

It is not privacy, but anonymity, that is the antithesis of fame.

Professor X from X-Men said it best: Anonymity is a mutant’s first line of defence.

If I were not anonymous, I would feel less free to speak of my views, whether they are deemed controversial or not. This freedom from self-censorship is something that I value and that I will not give up lightly. So despite having written previously on some of my personal experiences and history, I will not write anything that is both current and that contains personal identifiers.

So no questions on where I work, what I do, or who I socialize with. I won’t answer any of them, and that’s that. 

The invitation redux

Perhaps it was inevitable that some of my friends who read my previous rant did not see it the way I intended. One who actually attended the party was concerned enough to send me a personal message in defense of Draycott (that shall be the pseudonym I will use for the hitherto mentioned inviter in my previous post). 

This post is to set the record straight. That rant I wrote was NOT about Draycott. I thought I had made it clear enough, but apparently not. The rant was really ruminations about the negative effects of a too-large, too systemically important banking and finance industry that has an incentive and rewards structure that is dangerously flawed. I'm not the only one writing on this; there are literally thousands of articles out there talking about this.

Lastly, and this is something I normally do not disclose  (tricks of the trade, y'know). The little anecdote about Draycott, and the title "The invitation", was my hook for the post. Or "snapper"device, as William Safire puts it. If you want a more detailed description, read this, point #5 to be specific.

So, again, to my friends who actually know who Draycott is, the post was never about him. Get that? 

Procrastination, and the spirit moves...

I haven't blogged as much in the last several months weeks as I did when I first started blogging. Part of this has to do with the fact that between work and running, and all the other things I do, there's precious little time to blog.

OK, I have to admit that it's also due to blogging fatigue. There are only so many interesting...or at least I hope are interesting, things I can say, and I'm actually fairly reticent in person, so there haven't been very many posts recently. Which reminds me, to Grace who commented on a previous post, I've written a brief reply. 

But when the spirit moves me, then I do blog. 

Otherwise, I spend a lot of time procrastinating. Which I am doing now. Heh.

As for what exactly I've been procrastinating with, well there's a blog post right there. Which you are reading now. Heh. Anyways, if you're in the mood for a little procrastination yourself...

I've been spending stupid amounts of time on mini-games like Desktop Tower Defense and the like. I think I'm a sucker for any game that optimizes a design process. Sure brings out the engineer in me.

I've also started playing Travian again. It's just so perfect for playing in the office because it takes so long and requires minimal attention. Shhh, don't tell anyone in office!

Oh, and I've been binge-ing out on tango music, go figure. The classic Por Una Cabeza by Carlos Gardel, Astor Pizzaola's Libertango, and the post-modern Asi se Baila el Tango. You have to watch the last one. That scene is smokin'...

1 year anniversary!

It's been a year since I started this blog, and I'm surprised myself that I'm still writing and posting on a regular basis. Well, not as regular as when I first started, but still, I'm amazed that I'm still coming up with ideas to blog about, as opposed to expounding or rehashing the same stuff over and over.

When I was first started, it was project in equal parts devoted to organizing my thoughts but also to see if it was possible to acquire a growing readership. The first goal was met easily enough, but the second has been a little more elusive. Still I will continue blogging as I've always enjoyed writing.

Blogging Break

I seem to be taking more frequent breaks from blogging these days. Anyways, between the larger volume of work I'm dealing with these days, getting used to a slight shift in responsibilities due to a partial secondment (which also explains the workload), and the holidays, it's a bit harder for me to find time to blog.

More to the point, I don't have many fresh leads to blog on...as in none that are interesting. It's been pretty blah for the last few weeks, and this includes the newspaper clippings I normally reproduce on my blog.

I might have new updates after CNY though. We'll have to see how it goes.

DBS and FotF redux

The Straits Times carried a story today on how DBS's tie-up with Focus on the Family drew flak. DBS has since reworded their advertisements and withdrawn the promotion. Apparently, sufficiently large numbers of people were unhappy enough to make their displeasure known.

I ranted wrote about DBS's tie-up with FotF a few weeks ago.

Apparently, it did not go unnoticed, and was posted by someone on content aggregator tomorrow.sg. This in turn caused a massive spike in traffic to my website over the weekend it was posted. So in my own way, I think I did my little part in publicising this example of DBS's dalliance with an organisation of dubious provenance. Perhaps they will be more discriminating in the future of who they get in bed with.

And as for that rejoinder from FotF (Singapore)'s president, " 'We are deeply concerned that a small group of activists has successfully intimidated a major financial institution like DBS in such an unwarranted fashion that maligns a well-intended collaboration for the cause of children and families.' Focus on the Family Singapore's president Joanna Koh-Hoe", my take is very simple.

I am all for families and children, especially the less privileged in our highly unequal society. I just prefer that the businesses I patronize contribute to secular charities, and failing that, at least to charities that do not fall under the charter of organisations as controversial as FotF, or charities which are not as freighted with religious/moralistic overtones. Certainly, I have no desire for my consumer dollars to be channelled to an organisation with an ... what is that word, agenda.

I have to hand it to Joanna Koh-Hoe though. Her press statement was perfect; she must be a lawyer in her day job. It struck just the right balance of "deep concern" for how interloping activists had hijacked her organisation's mission (is anyone safe from those disgusting prurient g*ys?), of how a major financial institution had been "intimidated" (shame on you DBS!), and how "unwarranted" (cue hand wringing) an attack on her organisation's "well-intended" efforts for (suffer the little) children.

Reactions?

I have added the new Reactions page element to my blog.

This gives readers the option of leaving one-click feedback instead of wordier comments. It's one more way for me to get some idea of what people are interested in reading. Not that I would 'play to the gallery', but it's nice to know if what I write is appreciated.  

And in case you're wondering who reads this blog, here's some information courtesy of Google Analytics:

This blog has got a very light but increasing readership of perhaps 25 regular readers (ignoring the effect of ad filtering mechanisms that block web analytics software), with numbers spiking considerably whenever I blog on something topical e.g. the Minibonds fiasco.

Most visitors are naturally from Singapore, but a surprisingly large number are based in London and the USA. I can only surmise that these are overseas Singaporeans. Other visitors come from all over (I had a visitor from Lesotho, go figure), but they typically do not linger, bouncing away after just a few seconds.

If the sample of visitors to my blog is any indicator, Firefox is becoming almost as popular as IE these days. Safari, Opera and Chrome account for only a tiny sliver of visitors.

And contrary to what you might think, of the people who read my blog, I know only a few people personally. I know this because the URL to my blog can be found in only one place that is linked to me personally, and that is my Facebook page (which I have configured to have strong privacy settings). Only a tiny number of referrals to my blog come from Facebook. 

Book List

You might have noticed a new Amazon widget I added to the right of the screen.

It's a list of books that I am currently reading or want to read. Don't think of them as recommendations. After all, I haven't read all of them yet.

Instead, they're books on topics or ideas that I am currently interested in. That said, I have fairly high standards for what I read, so the books on the list are generally highly rated reads.

I've chosen an eclectic mix of books to cover a broad range of topics, but I've kept the list short at 8 books. People on my Facebook will see that these 8 books are a subset of the 30 books I keep on my IRead shelf.

I will update the list of books periodically to refresh the selection and to reflect my evolving interests.

Why I won't be blogging on Obama, and other big big news

There's been a great deal of news coverage and opinon pieces published out there on the historic election of a black President of the United States of America.

Every time a momentous news event like this one occurs, I find myself in a bit of a quandary.

On the one hand, the news really is historic and of course I have my own opinions on it. But on the other hand, so much has been said on what this or that portends that I don't have anything new to add.

One of the principle reasons why I like to blog is that I like to explore new angles and fresh perspectives on issues that I consider important, or on issues that I feel deserve more attention than they currently receive.

So, on that note, my stated policy on this blog is that I will not blog on any "major" event unless my perspective is fresh or at the very least, under-explored. So for any readers out there who wonder what I'm thinking about such and such an issue, rest assured, I do have my opinions and I do think about implications and consequences. It's just that I don't always blog about these things unless I feel I have some new insight to offer.

“All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions.” - Leonardo da Vinci

So, I've decided to re-start blogging.

"You mean you used to blog?!"

Actually yes, a few years ago, for a brief moment after graduation.

But it was poorly conceived, I was feeling vulnerable, major life changes were about to happen at that time, and I needed an outlet.

Come to think of it, I have no idea what happened to that faintly confessional blog that probably makes me cringe to read about it. With any luck, no traces of it remain on the web.

I have writer's cringe syndrome: I cringe everytime I read something personal I wrote a while back. Sometimes, this applies to opinion pieces published on the web as well.

This blog is going to be different from the previous one I started. It'll deal mainly with my thoughts on subjects important to me, and less so (or not at all) on personal issues.

It's a blog mainly for my own record. As a side-effect of writer's cringe syndrome, sometimes I experience an epiphany when I re-read something I wrote a while back. As in, "what was I thinking...idiot!".

So it helps to chart the evolution of my thoughts as time and knowledge progresses.

Hence, this blog is mainly written by me, for me, though naturally, since this is a blog, I'm expecting other people to read it as well and perhaps leave a few thoughts of their own. Otherwise I would just keep a diary.

It's going to be mainly text, with few pictures. Why? Because I'm lazy, that's why. The style may be lacking in detail, but that's because I keep most of what I know in my head and it's too painful to type it all out. Requests for more detail *may* be entertained. Links and tags should be plentiful.