Paint Stains

Finished two botany pictures yesterday, one of which was hilarious.

Monday, converted the US dollars in my Paypal account to Singaporean dollars. And closed my local bank account that was a US currency account. The bank officer was flabbergasted.

"You want to convert your US money to Singapore dollars today? But the exchange rate is so terrible!"

"It's not going to get better anytime soon," I said. And yes, I should have done this months ago, because I freakin' saw it coming. Anything I earn now in USD is worth less and less here. I'm not typing a sob story or anything, just a statement of fact. The US dollar is heading downwards measured against most of the world's currencies.

Saturday morning: had to go to Ikea the second time in 2 days to make an exchange. Buying new furniture is a last resort when I can't find something second hand - like a map chest. It also irritated me that I'd looked for months for something, and when I finally caved in to buy the Alex, the box we picked up on Friday had a badly chipped board - the last board I removed from the flatpacked box, to boot. Punishment for buying new furniture, I bet.

Saturday afternoon: I had very, very fun 5 hours at the Red Dot Traffic Museum that's between the business district and Chinatown here. It was an afternoon of doing quick portraits of people, with the possibility of getting your work bought if they liked it. (You're sitting to be drawn by several artists at one go.) It was my first time doing portraits from life in over 10 years. The challenge? Drawing and painting the pictures in 10 minutes, as opposed to 3 hours back when I was an art student. 10 minutes! hahaha (Results can be seen on my Facebook page, but you'll have to be on my f-list there to see this album. Hollar if you're there.) Really, it was a lot of fun. And very addictive - can't wait to do it some more. Pity it only happens there once a month!

Not a lot of online time the past 3 days; Thursday and Friday in fact felt like one loooong day with only a short fitful nap in between, the bulk of it was being bussed around Singapore WWII sites (which is practically the whole island, really) climbing to tops of hills and down into underground bunkers. Went to Labrador Park for the first time, and almost understood why people continue to want to believe that there's an underground and undersea tunnel to Sentosa from the mainland (t'would be exciting but ridiculously improbable). The somewhat unexpected twist to the 2 on-site training days? The distraction of the supernatural.

I remain somewhat irritated at myself because I know the mind (particularly the imagination) can place things in the environment that are not really there. I do not consider myself sensitive (and I am not), but I think one thing I do have is mental discipline (perhaps now than ever) and one thing I've tried to avoid from my school days (surrounded in an old girls' school by girls who loved scaring themselves) is freaking out from imaginary threats. If I think my mind has been "primed" to see something, by listening to ghost stories or whatever, I clamp down on my imagination and pump up my objective observer mind. And generally don't see stuff then. The operative word is then. I've had a couple of experiences when I was least expecting them (no priming occurred beforehand), where all the reasonings of a skeptic could not explain the clear (and freaky) phenomena witnessed, while the mind was in its normal waking state. Not drugged, dreaming or half asleep, nor experiencing sleep paralysis (not fun).

So, I believe in presences. I'm somewhat anticipating this to be harder for a Western audience to accept, then for an audience who lives here. It's been put forward before that Singapore seems to have a lot more ghost stories than, well, most other places on earth. It seems tempting to chalk it all up to rife imaginations among the populace. Or, one can admit the historical fact that a lot of shit in WWII happened on this island, a lot more suffering and massacring than seems possible for this tiny place and that is known by most. I think Singapore history, the way it is taught in schools, does not highlight just how much happened here, and how many soldiers and civilians from all over the world had their lives ended here, because this place drew people from everywhere even then. (And as always, a reminder for some foreigners: Singapore is NOT IN CHINA or even close.)

When I say the supernatural proved a distraction on my 2 full days of on-site training, it's because my group turned out to have a lot of experiences and stories to share. AURGH!!! Thanks, guys! Not helped by one the group being gifted and with prior experiences at some of the sites we went to. AURGH!!! AURGH!!! AURGH!!!

With friends and experiences like these, I truly do NOT NEED horror fiction or horror movies in my life. Seems pointless in the big picture really, when real-life spooky stuff already exists.

Went down to a local cluster of copy shops yesterday, did not expect to come out with an armload of beautiful full-color prints the same day, but I did. Did not expect the guy at the shop to painstakingly ask me if the print colors were OK, but he did. Did not expect him to make adjustments to the digital files in order to get the results I wanted, while I watched, but he did. Was not sure he'd charge me for the adjustments, and he didn't. Was not sure he'd charge me full price for the "misprints" (seriously, they look fine) and he didn't.

To top everything off, you were allowed to -- nay, expected -- to bargain. And to ask for larger discounts for larger orders. (Seriously, I love this the most, and that nobody looks at a price list or uses a calculator.)

And then I went to a second copy shop after the first shop (just for kicks) and bargained some more even though I had nothing by that time to print. Heh!

I swear I nearly got teary some moments, incredulous that I could get this kind of speed and service again.

Ah, guys, how I've missed thee!

The day before Singapore's National Day (her Independence Day), Jason collected his Singapore Permanent Resident Identity Card. It is blue. (Mine, for a Singapore citizen, is a pink card. It also happens to work out as far as our color tastes and genders, I suppose...) Meanwhile, while he was out getting his card and doing bank stuff with IC in hand, I was out doing a tour (solo) with a local school, who had arranged mass day trips for half its students the day before National Day. There must have been over 15 tour buses involved, each carrying over 40 students. It was like a military operation. We had our orders, schedules, gathering points at appointed hours, and etc.

Some minor hitches, but overall , all went well, especially considering the scorching weather and the tight schedule. The class I got was great, and had very capable and helpful teachers. I couldn't have asked for more. I kept fawning over them, I think. The day went by too fast, was in fact cut short unexpectedly, and so I didn't get to tell them the best war stories, which I'd promised them earlier in the day. Thwarted!!! I dare say we all were disappointed. And the students were such a good audience, too. I might get a massive ego from this job.

After that, had a sore throat and minor headache again, but they went away quickly enough. Must have been the high I also got from the whole thing.

On National Day, my parents and I went to watch Royston Tan's 881, that was made out in the movie trailers to be comedic. Which it was. And brilliantly done. CG effects and corny laser weapons even managed to fit in the obiang kitsch-iness of kung-fu-esque face-off scenes. But in the end, none of the trailers or reviews had prepared the audience for the heart that was present here, and done so subtly, with lines so carefully restrained (as opposed to overwrought), that just the tiniest gestures during the quieter scenes were drawing out buckets of tears.

I enjoyed the movie more than the National Day Parade. Not that the parade was bad, but the pacing was spotty (haha, I'm critting it like a movie), and the emcees had some really silly-sounding lines to say. But the military displays were kinda impressive, and I have to give kudos to the way that water, the bay, the bridges and the floating stage were utilized for the show. (I had to wonder if the Coliseum in Rome, which apparently was capable of being deliberately flooded for the staging of mock naval battles saw this kind of technical display. Things were transferring from water to "land", land to water again with nice smoothness.) I didn't like some of the chapters of the show that were such head-scratchers that paragraphs of gibberish had to be spouted to explain them... I'm not unintelligent, thank you, I just think that certain items couldn't make, or didn't have a clear point. Jason also got to understand why I said our parades have a lot of snark potential. There is something Disney-esque about them, if you go for that kinda thing.

And lastly: Dear Singaporean content gatekeepers, I'm sorry if some of you have been scarred by post-modernism, but obscurity of message != Art.

Woo! It's the weekend!

I know, I know. We hates spam. But the inbox is remarkably quiet now that I put a image verification script (read: human confirmation) on my site's contact form - and now it feels like nobody likes me or wants to recommend their new Cialis or Viagra supplier.

The craft fair (Art Market) this weekend was pretty fun! It all went by kind of fast - and though most of it was sitting on my butt for 15 hours (the length of the event) I still was knackered by the end of it, taking all of Monday to recover, then all of yesterday feeling sick. :P I wonder if this means I should never do this full time.

Exchanged lots of info with my neighbouring vendors. Made contacts and learnt stuff as far as the Singaporean market for art goes. People will buy prints, but they want small prints, and cheaper. Kids love pictures with mushrooms, but alas 6-year-olds do not have a lot of buying power at craft fairs. Foreigners really are likelier buyers than anyone else, if only because they may have more experience with craft fairs and what artists need to charge for handmade goods. And horror/goth sells, especially to teens. I ruminated a lot about this... I myself was not immune at that age, but damn if I want to paint depressing stuff anymore. And there is apparently a need for computer game artists here, but I have to admit, lucrative as that may be, I can't see myself working in that happily unless it's something like SimCity/Civilization/Caesar and that genre but I probably don't have the right art skills for it. Plus RPG is all the rage nowadays. (It's almost hard now to recall the time RPG and fantasy were not mainstream. Ah, Janet, you were always ahead of your time!)

At the same Art Market was a booth from Wanton Doodles, and their generous supply of 3M post-its. They were very doodle-able. They got 5 doodles out of me over the 2 days.

Also painted 3 ACEOs while there. One below, 2 more behind the cut. No apologies for the Cupcake Monster; I put all the blame on those evil little confections.



( More, more )

Not Dead Yet from Spamalot playing in my head as I can post here after my surgery and say that: It went really well! (Aside from the nausea and starvation I had coming out of anaesthesia because I couldn't hold down my food for several hours after.) So many things (about the care, speed of treatment, ease of getting necessary drugs and diagnosis, paperwork, and of course cost) were different this time from the last experience in Raleigh, that calling it the difference between night and day is an understatement. The contrast is close to, I think, the difference between the deepest depth of hell and a lower rung of heaven. Even physical pain was way less this time. So many things were different. It's just too much to even write about. Never again do I want to experience American healthcare. Not in the state it is currently. And I feel bad for writing this.

The patron saint of the hospital where I had the surgery this last time was St. Francis of Assisi. This surprise was very welcome on the day of my admission.

Meditation rocks. Just wanted to throw that in. I'm looking forward to the 2-day workshop with the venerable Thubten Chodron at the end of this month. She's in Singapore at the time as I - the universe really likes me this month! Her writing just clicks and has made a difference more than anyone else I've read before. For the past 2 weeks, I've stopped cussing at people. No more "F%^king George W Bush!" Starting to read DailyKos with more calm - which I always thought had to be impossible. Alas, I still do think people can be stupid, and I'm still occassionally cussing at electronics.

And now, it's something like back to work for me - got one art commission on the table, and some PHP work to do. I've got a library of script components I can now put together to make CMSs ... because I still can't find a free CMS I like - it's not like they aren't good (e107 looked terrific, trying it out) but most of their features and scripts are so bloated compared to how my coding style is developing, I can't quite commit myself to liking and committing to one. I'd spend too much time stripping it down, down, down.

Talking about which - I'm going to get to work. See ya later!

jlundberg has made the announcement on his LJ that we are moving to Singapore (back to Singapore for me) in a year. I could write a long post about this, but jlundberg already put the long post on his LJ, plus I'm tired and my arms are cramping from painting and cutting mats the past 2 days. (Two cons on consecutive weekends? What was I thinking?)

I will probably make a long post when we return from Des Moines. Jason covered most of it, probably much nicer than I ever could. We have much to look forward to in Singapore, but I remain pissed that the stick driving us over the sea was at least as big as the carrot. "Let down" probably sums my feelings up about everything.

So before I go play Patrician III to veg out, I'm going to ask, anyone reading this going to DemiCon?

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/7/15/132936/405

Recommend it, rate it, troll-rate it, your choice. I'm sorry it was so long, but the story does span over a year, and describe my personal experience with US healthcare. And then, I will probably piss everyone off by describing Singapore healthcare in contrast.

The topic of healthcare is big, and there are no easy answers. But my main thrust behind the piece is this: it is complete bullshit to believe that no better healthcare system exists in the world than the one the US neocons want.