A Happy Campaign

Interrupting my break from blogging to bring you this video - it made me tear a little bit.

In May, the two major public transportation companies in Copenhagen, Movia and Arriva launched a “Better Bus campaign” with the express goal of spreading love, positivity and smiles among passengers.

There were 3 parts to their campaign. Part 2 is where they celebrated the hard work of their bus drivers by staging 21 birthday surprises in the form of a “Flash Mob” event. Below is the video of one driver, Mukhtar’s birthday (They are singing “happy birthday in Danish). When he gets to the protest blockade, and they all turn around holding signs that say "Happy Birthday Mukhtar".



(via Superforest)

Haberdashery - Fauna

When I first saw the picture of the pandas, I thought the men were carrying stuffed toys! But they are not. More pictures here and a video here.

Cat owners "more educated" than dog owners. Word.

Super fat cats – Dexter does not belong in that gallery. Yet.

Maybe he should be featured here?

Some good looking dogs.

Rabbits have their day.

This made me laugh.

This made me cry.

Haberdashery - Earthquake Readiness

This was the headline of the supplement of the San Francisco Chronicle 20 years ago today when the Loma Prieta earthquake struck the Bay Area. This anniversary, and the recent spate of earthquakes in Asia and in the Bay Area, serves as a grim reminder of the need to be prepared. Since I moved to the Bay Area two and a half years ago, I have experienced two minor earthquakes. Each time, I only realized that it was an earthquake when it was over; in fact, during the second earthquake, I thought the trembling was caused my cat scratching the couch (hey, he is a hefty cat).

S and I have an earthquake emergency pack but it is about expire, so I am researching for our next pack. I am planning to put one together instead of buying the pre-packed kit. Besides water, food and medical supplies, I am also looking at these crank radio and cyalume sticks.



If you are interested in making your own kit, try this list from the San Francisco Chronicle. Or you can buy the emergency packs online.

San Francisco just had a major earthquake drill on Octover 15. The 72hours.org website by the city has useful suggestions such as designating an out-of-area contact person. Long distance phone service is often restored sooner than local service.

You can attend training sessions to learn basic emergency skills.

211 is the number you can dial during emergencies to obtain information. It is the number that has been set aside by the Federal Communications Commission for the public to easily access community information.

Don't forget about your pets! You can buy emergency kits for them too. We are, erm, just putting extra cat food in our kit for Dexter and will keep track of its expiry date.

Haberdashery — My Favorite Online Series

There are many good books out there. You can't possibly read them all, can you? If you have that problem too, I recommend "Digested Reads" from the Guardian — probably the first online column I followed. John Crace condenses a book in the same style it is written. It's not so much a summary as it is a literary criticism. Creative, entertaining, funny — and usually taking a piss at literature. Love. It. Here are four to get you started: Nigella Bites, by Nigella Lawson, The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton, How to Read and Why by Harold Bloom and The Associate by John Grisham.

Slate.com had "Weeklong Electric Journals" which followed someone to his or her workplace everyday for five days (usually). A fun insight at someone else's profession. I have enjoyed many of the columns including those of Neil LaBute (writer-director), David Grinspoon (astrobiologist), Ed Levine (of seriouseats.com), Dahlia Lithwick (Supreme Court and legal correspondent) and Mark Furstenberg (baker and founder of the BreadLine).

If I could ask for any talent, it would be to draw in a way that could affect people. Just like Maira Kalman. I have her book The Principles of Uncertainty. Her Elements of Style Illustrated is on my Amazon wishlist. Now, my eyes get to feast on her Pursuit of Happiness blog in The New York Times. Her monthly post provokes and idealizes and inspires. My favorites so far — May It Please The Court, Times Wastes Too Fast and Can Do.

The Guardian, again. This time a series on Writers' Rooms. There is a picture of the room in which the writer gets his or her work done, with a short write-up on the room and the process. See the workplace of Charlotte Bronte, Heston Blumenthal and Martin Amis, to get inspired.

Haberdashery - Words & Language

I have not been feeling well this week, so spent much time catching-up on my reading. Of course I read all the obituaries for William Safire who passed away on Sunday. While I might not identify with his politics, I always enjoyed his "On Language" columns in the New York Times. So I've started re-reading all of them — join me!

Singapore had its own language columnist - Janadas Devan. I am a big fan of his writing and miss reading his "On Words" columns in Singapore's Straits Times. I wish he would resume writing them and I wish Straits Times would have the complete archive of all his columns online, instead of only selected ones.

Another talented writer in Singapore is Alfian Sa'at. He now has a regular spot on the onlinecitizen and sometimes he dabbles about language. Try this one about Malay and Hokkien.

I enjoy the weekly Sunday Puzzles on NPR - their word puzzles are so imaginative. I have never entered in any of the contests — they are difficult! But maybe I will give the next one a try.

Shall we end on a bit of gossip? Lord Byron called William Wordsworth "Turdsworth" in a letter!

Haberdashery

I have not jumped on the Twitter bandwagon, but I chanced upon a few amusing Twitter users:

@shitmydadsays is the funniest I've seen. Not yet two months and the dude already has a book deal!

Blasphemy? Like in real life, you may have to decide on which "god" to follow - @god, @officialgodpage or @wwgt (what would god tweet).

Perhaps more useful @Foodimentary and @Vegimentary - food facts (and factoids) daily.

But is there much too much information on twitter? Oversharers say yes.

Haberdashery - Obituaries

In my collection of obituaries, my favorite is the one Christopher Hitchens wrote about Edward Said. Why can't all obits be like it instead of the staid, list-like articles?

Perhaps it's because the Brits and Americans write their obituaries differently and I am reading the wrong publications for my obituary-fix.

Good read of obituaries from a now-defunct quarterly magazine - Good Bye! I like the one of Stephen Jay Gould - I've read all his books and didn't even know he had passed.

A collection of obituaries by McG is on my Amazon wishlist.

I'd love, love to attend a Great Obituary Writers' Conference. Especially after reading an article of what goes on during the conference, for example, a discussion of "How many ways can one say 'died'?".

Happy Teachers' Day!

I just wanted to wish my sister and sister-in-law a Happy Teachers' Day which falls today, 1st September. Teaching runs in the my family - 3 of my mum's siblings are teachers, as are 3 cousins. My mum always wished one of her children would become a teacher, so my sister made her very happy when she graduated from teachers' college. My parents had a lot of respect for our teachers' when we were in school, and they made sure we had the right level of deference. This is not always the case today, which is a pity, don't you think?

Some links related to teaching:

A study that shows a teacher's success (measured by her students' scores) improves when she gets better colleagues.

Slate used to have a diary column which followed someone in a week of his life. Here is one of a teacher.

A blog about using new technology in the classroom.

Online tools from onceateacher.

Haberdashery

*picture from dee & ricky

Usually when I call my 6-year old nephew, he is playing a video game - either on Wii or Playstation. But last night, he was actually playing with his Lego set. Yes, he built a gun with his Lego bricks only because he is right now obsessed with the James Bond game he plays on Wii and fascinated with 007's guns. But at least he was away from the TV. It's been awhile since I played with those bricks myself, so I googled "Lego" to see what I could find:

Maybe this is more my speed? Lego in the kitchen - stackable containers.

Or Lego to accessorize with.

Lego advertisements.

Forget Disneyland. When my nephew and niece visit, we are going to Legoland.

This has to be my favorite - a pictorial Lego essay.

Totally unrelated to Lego, but a pretty cool video - tracking an adventure through the growth of his beard (via Loobylu):

Haberdashery

I've acquired a taste for kombucha (I like the one from Whole Foods), which is banned in Singapore. I'm wondering if I should try to make my own.

My husband prefers Milo dinosaur, which we do make at home.

Insuring a coffee-taster's tongue for £10 million pounds.

Reduce your carbon footprint by making your own sparkling water in your kitchen.

Haberdashery

My two favorite map blogs.

Did you know every state in the US has an Official State Animal. Artist Amy Ruppel has an series of pictures based on each animal. Everytime I read "Official State Animal", I imagine them wearing suits and carrying a suitcase. (via mirrormirror)

I have many books on maps, but this is my current favorite.

"All Streets" is an image made of 26 million individual road segments in the lower 48. (via apartmenttherapy)

Remember the cat named ISBN? This is a map of libraries in the world that have cats.

An edible map.

Haberdashery

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article on reporting on the Supreme Court.

A tribute to a hero - Aung San Suu Kyi.

An untimely death - more than an obituary of Yasmin Ahmad. I agree with everything he says - it was my experience as a Malay in Singapore too. (via Jamie Tan)

I had never heard of William F. Buckley until I moved here. In May, we heard Christopher Buckley talk with Calvin Trillin about his famous, intimidating father; it was fun and funny. Whatever your political persuasion, this is a fascinating read.

My American education continues with this lesson in Bay Area slang (via cbslocalblogs):





And a new (to me) singer from my part of the world - Zee Avi of Malaysia:

College

America

Oh America, I really, really like you. You've been so good to me these last two years. But I was wondering, ermmm, if maybe you could join the rest of the world and adopt the metric system?

Haberdashery

This would make a lovely and unique gift - membership to the Cloud Appreciation Society and its companion cloud collector's handbook.

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the first manned moon landing - 10 things you may not know about the mission and then take a fun quiz to test your knowledge.

An old boyfriend introduced me to the books of Richard Feynman. I confess I read the books to impress him. Microsoft's Bill Gates bought the rights to videos of Richard Feynman's series of lectures at Cornell University to make them widely available to the public. You can watch them here.

The Minimalist's salad list had been making it's way around the blogs. Check out The Guardian's list of 100 easy, quick meals.

Scooter love

I snapped a photo of the red scooter as my husband was driving in San Francisco. We've been seeing many scooters on the road lately and we are discussing whether we should get one. Like a bright, shiny Vespa, maybe. It would be so fun, don't you think?

My favorite scooter experience - taking pictures while I was pillion-riding in India.

Haberdashery

I was strolling downtown Campbell when I chanced upon my dream life - own a recycled books store with an in-house cat named ISBN wandering around the shop and sleeping in the windows.

If you bookmark this page, you can keep up-to-date with the United Nations daily briefings.

We watched the movie Mongol over the weekend. I can't vouch for its historical accuracy, but wow, it is stunning. Also, I want their hats:

Haberdashery

I am enjoying this memoir, lent to me by Danielle.

I am studying Spanish at the local community college. But I am going to try livemocha too.

Smooth Criminal is one of my favorites - remember when he did that gravity-defying lean?

Love treasure hunts? What a cool job.

R.I.P.

I was in college when Michael Jackson came to Singapore to perform. My brother was a long-time fan. Michael Jackson's Thriller album was the first cassette tape he owned. We had planned to go to the concert separately with our friends. Then I jokingly asked my mum if she wanted to come along. I never expected her to say yes - after all she is a conservative and traditional woman who does not even speak English. But this was Michael Jackson - whose music we had played frequently in our home and whose music videos kept my siblings and I mesmerized in front of the television. So in the end, my brother and I decided to take both my mother and our younger teenage sister to the concert. In her traditional Malay garb, she sat back and enjoyed the music while her children were dancing and screaming crazily. It was the only time she ever attended a pop concert - she had to - it was Michael Jackson. And she loved telling her friends all about it.

Haberdashery

introducing dexter

What I am reading now.

How does language shape who we are?

A great way to spend a couple of hours. Side-stitch included.

Now I know my miso.