Tinker, Tailor

I posted this on my twitter a few days ago:

was thinking as i got up the bus that i shouldn’t be wearing a t-shirt to work. then i saw this guy wearing a google t-shirt. lucky dude.

I was reminded of that incident as I was looking through some of the pictures I’ve taken recently on my phonecam. Yes, I do have his picture.

But really, while I prefer wearing a t-shirt to work, it’s not such a big deal.

If I ever end up in a job that requires me to wear more formally, I doubt I’d care too much if I meet someone else who wears a t-shirt instead.

But reading this post from Google drove me insane with jealousy:

Life at the Googleplex is often full of fun surprises. One day, I was asked if I could do a massage interview. I was already a big fan of our massage program, and I was familiar with doing interviews at Google, but I didn’t know about massage interviews. Regardless, it sounded Googley, and I decided to help.

Getting a massage at work is a favorite perk among Googlers. As with anyone we hire, our massage therapists have to go through an interview process…but the actual interviews are a little unique. We ask the therapists to do what they do best — give massages. And as Googlers, it is our duty to help with the hard task of receiving table or chair massages as part of the interviews. Though we do have to write detailed feedback about the massage, just like any other interview, in this interview, all I had to do was close my eyes and relax. Who knew interviewing could be so easy!

If you ever know how much I love massages, you’d understand why I got so furious. Any girl who can properly massage me can unlock my heart. Almost any girl.

People have been complaining about me taking pictures on the MRT, so I decided to take some on the bus.

I was sitting directly across this old man in his 60s, when he flicked a sweet wrapper onto the floor.

Yes, he flicked it, without bothering to be discreet at all.

So I glared at him.

He glared back.

I took out my trusty camera phone.

Which was when I noticed his belly.

The bulging belly was so fascinating to me that I decided to forget about taking a picture of his face, and capture the side view instead.

Totally awesome.

Looks like there’s some International Museum Day thingy (IMD’07) starting tomorrow, where there’s a whole bunch of museum-related activities.

I’m most interested in the first one tomorrow:

Curatour by Low Sze Wee
SINGAPORE ART MUSEUM
18 May, 7.30 - 8.30pm
Be amazed by the diversity of Southeast Asian Art in this gallery tour by a leading curator.

Except that I still can’t find anyone who’s free to join me.

Speaking of the Singapore Art Museum, I was there not too long ago, and this art piece caught my eye:

No I’m not referring to the one on the extreme left, although she’s not too bad either. I put her in the picture to give a size reference (she’s over 1.7m tall).

I’m referring to that large bluish-greenish-pinkish-whitish art piece on the wall, which has this 3D effect.

When I first saw it, I was struck by how realistic the 3D effect was.

Then I stepped closer.

And I soon realised that the 3D effect wasn’t just realistic - it was actually 3D.

After viewing it from the left, you’ll want to view it from the right too, just to convince yourself that you’re really ok.

And trust me, it’s really tempting to want to touch the thing, just for that extra confirmation. But of course I didn’t touch it. Really.

Anyway, here’s the label beside the art piece:

By some Anthony Poon. Cool stuff. Could do with a less cryptic title though.

I wonder if I can buy this on ebay.

Hello, you may call me Shuwen, even though that’s not my real name. I’m not telling you my real age, but I look like I’m 15. Maybe I am.

I look like a regular school girl when I’m in uniform, but look a little closer and you’ll see a tiny shiny speck just under the right part of my lower lip. Yup it’s a piercing. And if you noticed my left hand, you would have seen my little tattoo.

I’m not your regular school girl.

Speaking of school, when I was in primary 6, I once brought a cat into class. It was a stray cat I found outside school, and I decided to adopt it.

And guess what? The cat started meowing! All my classmates turned to look in my direction, so I quietly told them that I had a cat.

Thankfully, by the time Teacher came in, the cat was silent.

Then, my luck eventually ran out, and it started meowing again. Teacher turned to look, and my wonderful classmates all started meowing as well!

Teacher wasn’t pleased of course, so she scolded the class, asking us shut up. My classmates had no choice but to obey.

And the cat started meowing again.

Teacher turned back and glared at me. “Shuwen be quiet!”

But the cat kept meowing.

Teacher wasn’t too pleased with me, so she marched towards my desk.

When she reached, she looked at my bag, and that was exactly when the cat jumped out. Teacher gave a shriek. She wasn’t pleased at all, especially when the rest of the class was snickering at her reaction.

She was so displeased that the threw the cat out of the classroom. No more cat.

Interesting story huh? Well, you wouldn’t have had a chance to know of this story if that weird guy standing near me in the MRT wasn’t eavesdropping when I was relating this story to my friend sitting across me. You wouldn’t have known of this if he didn’t pretend to be me by writing from my perspective in his blog. And you wouldn’t have known how I look like if he didn’t take these pictures of me.

Notice the tattoo on my left hand?

Sipping on my Big Gulp. Yeah I could get fined $500 for doing this, but I don’t give a shit.

I’m tired of drinking this.

I bet some old people are going, *sigh* youngsters nowsaday ah…

What do you think would happen if you did an experiment, where you gave 2 groups of people free flow of ice cream, and the only difference was that the first group was given medium-sized bowls, and the second given large ones?

Would the 2 groups scoop the same amount, or would the bowl size affect how much they scooped and ate?

Or, what if you did another experiment with another 2 groups, and for one group, you gave them 7 colours of M&M’s, and for the other group you gave them 10 different colours of M&M’s?

Would both groups eat the same amount, or would the variety of colours affect how much they ate?

If you want to know the answers, check out Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think. Mindless Eating is a book about the psychology of eating. The author Brian Wansink is a scientist who has conducted numerous studies on the subject, including those experiments mentioned above.

On second thoughts, for my own personal safety, I better reveal the results.

Here’s what happened to those ice cream eaters:

Those who were given the huge bowls dished out huge amounts. In fact, they dished about 31 percent more - 127 more calories’ worth of ice cream. […]
Big dishes and big spoons are big trouble. As the size of our dishes increases, so does the amount we scoop onto them.

And the M&M’s?

Most people know that all M&M’s taste alike. The color is just added to the coating. There’s no way they should eat different amounts.

But they do. The person with 10 colors will eat 43 more M&M’s (99 versus 56) than his friend with 7 colors. He does so because he thinks there’s more variety, which increases how much he thinks he’ll like the M&M’s and how much he thinks is normal to eat.

Speaking of losing weight, this book is stuffed with many, many more such fascinating insights into our psyche when it comes to eating, which would help one lose weight almost effortlessly (albeit quite gradually).

Heck, even if you don’t need to lose weight, the stuffing in there is still equally fascinating.

This book is for people who eat. Enough said.

It’s not everyday that you see a guy knitting at Starbucks. Or anywhere else for that matter.

Looks like he was knitting a sock or something.

Update: I’m told that he’s crocheting, not knitting. They’re all the same to me