Switching My Subscriptions

Yesterday evening, after work, I met up with my friend Joseph for dinner at a casual Italian restaurant in Chinatown. I used to meet Joseph frequently for coffee on Sunday mornings when I went to the Chinatown Point shopping complex to buy groceries. Recently, however, I’ve been going to other places for grocery shopping, and thus our Sunday meet-ups have tapered off. It was nice to catch up with him after a long while.

Joseph and I always have numerous things to talk about whenever we meet. Yesterday was no exception, and we talked about our jobs, mutual friends, dating situation, the latest movies to watch, among others. I told him about “Painkiller, ” the latest Netflix show that I watched and enjoyed. Unlike me, he doesn’t have a Netflix subscription, so he’s been watching something else online.

Speaking of Netflix, after I got home from dinner, I screwed up enough courage to hit the “Cancel Membership” button, after watching it for years on end. It’s not that I don’t like Netflix - actually it’s quite the opposite, as I always manage to find good shows to watch on this streaming platform.

The reason for the cancellation is that I want to try watching HBO or some other streaming service for a change, and I don’t want my two subscriptions running simultaneously when I clearly don’t have the time to watch them both. My Netflix subscription ends when the current billing cycle runs out on September 16 and I will sign up with HBO right after that. If I don’t like the shows there, I will come back to Netflix unhesitatingly.

Aside from Netflix, last night I also unsubscribed from the Washington Post, of which I have been a reader for many years. It’s a great newspaper, but I find myself reading the New York Times more often, so I decided to cancel it. Instead, I signed up with Nikkei, a Japanese newspaper with a focus on economics- and finance-related news. Coming at around SGD 45 per month, Nikkei’s subscription fee is a bit costly, but I will try to get my money’s worth by reading it diligently.

When Can I Travel to JB by Train?

Over the past few days, I’ve been doing Google searches on how to cross the Malaysian border from Singapore in the most time-efficient manner. This is because I’ve been planning to go to Johor Bahru, which is commonly abbreviated as JB, for a little vacation in the near future.

Many Singaporeans travel there for vacation, doing things like shopping, dining, golfing, and massaging, as prices are much cheaper on the other side of the border, thanks to the favorable Singapore Dollar-Malaysian Ringgit exchange rate.

Even though I’m not much of a shopper, I do like to have a nice hotel stay for a day or two, where I can forget about doing household chores like cooking, cleaning, and washing. I also enjoy a full-body massage session every once in a while.

Nevertheless, were I to stay at a decent hotel in Singapore, it would easily set me back hundreds of dollars. Since JB is only a short bus ride away from here, I thought maybe I could travel there and do all the fun things at half the price of Singapore.

It certainly sounds like a good plan, but there is one catch - while JB is right next to Singapore, we can’t ignore the fact that border-crossing can be quite a hassle, taking two hours or even longer during peak periods. Therefore it’s imperative that I find a way to shorten the journey time should I decide to travel to JB.

The way things stand now, it seems that the fastest way I can cross the border is by train, which runs from Woodlands in Singapore to JB Sentral. The train ride only takes five minutes. Including the time needed to clear immigration and customs, you can cross the border within 30 minutes, considerably shorter than if you travel by bus, which is inevitably affected by traffic congestions and is therefore unpredictable.

The bad news is that the train tickets are extremely hard to come by, since the trains do not run frequently enough. I’ve learned to my dismay that for weekends, tickets up to two months in advance have been sold out, leaving me with no other choice but to travel by bus.

That’s too bad, but since I’m not in a hurry to travel to JB, maybe I should just book the tickets for a weekend in November, and wait out the intervening period patiently. Who knows, I might enjoy JB even more after being made to wait three months for that train ride!

Watched "Depp v. Heard"

Last night, while I was working out at the gym, I started watching the Netflix series “Depp v. Heard.” This is a documentary about the defamation lawsuit launched in 2019 by actor Johnny Depp against his ex-wife, actress Amber Heard.

I have only seen one Johnny Depp movie in my life, and don’t know too much about the actor, except that he is a huge star in Hollywood and is particularly famous for his role in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie series. When the trial for this defamation suit was being reported in the media, I didn’t pay too much attention to it. However, in America, the televised trial apparently generated quite a buzz, similar to the O.J. Simpson trial back in the ’90s.

Johnny Depp sued Amber Heard after Heard wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post, claiming that she suffered domestic abuse at the hands of Depp during their two-year marriage. Heard counter-sued Depp in a tit-for-tat fashion. The documentary describes the multiple incidents that occurred throughout their marriage - some of them are literally bloody, like the tip of Depp’s finger that’s been cut off, or literally sordid, involving a piece of fecal matter left on his bed by Heard.

Since none of us were present when these incidents took place, we have no way of ascertaining the veracity of their accusations. However, after watching this docuseries, I got the impression that either side bears part of the blame for this nasty state of affairs. Both Depp and Heard behaved in a barbaric way toward each other, and I ended up feeling little sympathy for either of them.

What I found intriguing was the buzz the trial generated on social media, such as TikTok and YouTube, not to mention network television. In the court of public opinion, the majority of the viewers were supportive of Depp, so the cards were stacked against Heard in that regard from the beginning. It also didn’t help that the jurors were not completely sequestrated like those in the O.J. trial and were allowed to go home each night. Inevitably, some of them must have been influenced by what they saw on social media. It’s certainly lamentable, but it appears that there is no quick fix to this issue.

This is a very sad state of affairs. If there is one thing I’ve learned from the whole saga, it’s that money and fame don’t always guarantee your happiness. Be nice and courteous to those around you, and steer clear of nasty and violent people, however rich and successful they may be.

Should I Go for American or British English?

Although it was Friday yesterday, I didn’t have anyone to hang out with last night, so after work, I headed to The Coffee Bean to study English and do some reading.

My English studies are mainly centered around journal writing, where I first write my original journal entry and then have it rewritten by ChatGPT in both American and British English. While my preference is the American version and use it more often to identify areas for improvement in my written English, I do observe the corrections that are made by the British version as well. More often than not, I get to make interesting discoveries by comparing the two regional variations of English.

After reading through the corrected versions generated by ChatGPT, I usually transcribe the American version into my diary by hand. However, yesterday, I deviated from my usual practice - instead of entirely adopting the American version, I also borrowed certain segments from the British version, where I thought the writing was clearer and better, resulting in a blended best-of-both-worlds version of English.

In the course of using ChatGPT for proofreading my written English, and with the help of my online English teacher, Sean, I’ve come to discover that while being an extremely powerful tool for language learning, ChatGPT still isn’t perfect. It can occasionally generate sentences that are rather flawed, like repeating the same word twice in places that are too close together, or deviating from my originally intended meaning.

In this regard, instead of adopting one proofread version of English unquestioningly, I suppose it’s safer to compare two versions and pick and choose the better written English for each segment. The final product will undoubtedly be a neutral variation of English that can be easily understood globally, which might really be the kind of written English that I should embrace and emulate.

The Early Bird Doesn't Always Catch the Worm

For the first time in a long while, I was able to get up early enough this morning to write this journal entry. While I’m glad that I can study a bit more of English this way, I hope it doesn’t occur too often, since I’m the kind of person that needs a lot of sleep.

There is a belief shared by certain people that a morning person tends to be more successful than a night person, as exemplified in the saying “The early bird catches the worm.” However, after reading the book Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, I’ve come to believe that this is just a misconception.

According to Walker, whether you’re a morning or night person, it’s essential that you get a sufficient amount of sleep each day for your brain to operate optimally. Those who tend to wake up late are probably that way due to genetic reasons, rather than laziness. So, in an ideal situation, they should be allowed to sleep a bit more in the morning so they can be more productive during the day.

Walker surmises that in ancient times, this was probably ideal for the survival of the human species, as having both morning and night people in the same group allowed them to protect themselves from attacks by other animals by maximizing the number of hours during which at least some people are awake and alert.

In my own family, my dad is definitely a morning person. From as early as I can remember, he has always got up early in the morning, like 5 a.m. or so. My late mom, on the other hand, was a night person, and always had to be woken up by my dad in the morning. I guess genetically I am closer to my mom in that regard. For me to wake up at 5 every morning is simply an impossibility, and I shouldn’t feel embarrassed by it.

Do You Believe in Feng Shui?

I had a nightmare last night. I dreamed about running over my former colleague with a car viciously again and again. While she was badly injured, miraculously she didn’t die. Afterwards, I somehow got away with this crime and avoided being arrested for more than 20 years. 

However, for some reason my sister found out about my crime and recommended that I surrender to the police immediately. A sense of guilt was weighing on me heavily, and I considered turning myself in, while also contemplating committing suicide. I tried telling my dad about all the bad deeds I’d done, but couldn’t bring myself to do so for fear of shocking him too much. I woke up from the dream right then, without knowing what happened in the end.

Some people might attach great significance to their dreams, thinking it has a certain bearing on reality, like a harbinger of the things to come. I, for one, don’t believe that my dreams have anything to do with my real life or my future. I think of such practice as pure superstition and nonsense.  

Speaking of superstition, here in Singapore, many local Chinese people believe in Feng Shui, an ancient practice originated from China that attaches great importance to the spatial positioning of the objects surrounding us, including furniture, buildings, roads, mountains, rivers and the ocean.

The way I understand it, Feng Shui believes that if your surrounding objects are positioned in a way that allows the chi (energy) to flow through, you’ll become rich and prosperous, and if the chi is blocked, you are doomed to failure and bad luck.

Not to disrespect millions of practitioners of Feng Shui, I don’t believe in this practice either. If Feng Shui is really as good as it’s cracked up to be, why aren’t the so-called Feng Shui masters who inspect the buildings and apartments of their clientele for a living some of the richest people in the world? Why is China, where the practice originated from and has undoubtedly the most number of its practitioners, not the most prosperous nation on earth? These are valid questions to be asked in challenging the supposed science behind Feng Shui.

That being said, I do believe that the right spatial positioning of our surrounding objects is important for us to maintain our physical and mental health. A room that’s full of clutter, for example, can’t make for a conducive space for studying or working in. If your apartment is facing west in the tropical Singapore, you’ll be fully exposed to the unrelenting afternoon sun all year round that can seriously damage your skin and expedite your aging.

I guess there are some elements of truth to the teachings of Feng Shui. It’s important for us to engage in critical thinking to determine whether they are based on science, instead of embracing them wholesale uncritically.

First National Day as a Singaporean

Today is the National Day in Singapore, and it’s a public holiday. This is the first National Day that I’ve spent since I became a Singaporean, so it’s kind of special for me. Since I was in primary school, I’ve always known about Singapore, and regarded it as a place of wonder, cleanliness and prosperity, where people of different races and cultures live together harmoniously. Nevertheless, I thought of Singapore as a faraway place that I had no chance of visiting anytime soon.

I got to know my first Singaporean friend at 14, when I was a middle school student in Shanghai. She was extremely friendly and had a favorable view of Japan, and we got along nicely. My first visit to the Lion City was in 1999 at the age of 25, when I came here for sightseeing. I was truly impressed by the cosmopolitan vibes of the city, and started harboring a desire to live here someday. My dream of migrating to Singapore finally came true in 2002, when I landed a job in a bank here. Little did I know back then that I would go so far as to become its citizen more than 20 years later. If this is not destiny, I don’t know what is. 

It’s a good thing that this year’s National Day falls right in the middle of the workweek, as I was feeling quite tired yesterday. I felt as though I didn’t have enough sleep the previous night, even though I slept for seven hours. Out of no choice, I ordered a latte with an additional espresso shot at the Starbucks downstairs in the afternoon, something that I normally don’t do. The extra caffeine let me work until the end of the day without feeling sleepy.

After work, I headed to The Coffee Bean at Raffles City, where I transcribed my latest journal entry that’s been proofread by ChatGPT into my diary. This physical action of putting pen to paper helps me learn about the issues with my English writing and how they should be amended to sound more natural. Although I possessed good writing skills to begin with, this writing practice with the aid of ChatGPT is truly transforming my English. I look forward to the day when I can express myself in this language with perfect ease. I need to keep working at it in the meanwhile.

Embracing Modern Technology in Language Learning

Yesterday, I learned about the ChatGPT extension called Talk-to-ChatGPT, which allows me to speak with ChatGPT by voice instead of by text. With this extension, I’ll be able to have a virtual conversation in English all by myself, without having a human conversation partner.

It’s definitely a cool feature, but it will surely present a challenge for those language teachers who make a living by having conversations with their students. For them to survive in this era of uncertainty, I think it’s crucial for them not to reject artificial intelligence outright. Instead, they should embrace the technology and incorporate it into their work as much as possible, to enhance the quality of their teaching.

Would a human language teacher be made obsolete by AI? That is a million dollar question. Lots of people seem to think so, but I personally disagree. 

With the voice recognition technology, I could practice English conversation with ChatGPT for hours. However, my purpose of having such practice to begin with is to be able to converse with native speakers, so it would become pointless if I didn’t speak with my human teacher every now and then. Interacting with my teacher allows me to verify my progress and experience what it feels like to speak English in real-life situations.

As an English learner, I should also fully leverage the latest technology to accelerate my learning. 

My online English teacher Sean used to help me proofread my writing, which took up a great amount of time out of each learning session, leaving me with relatively little time to ask questions. That has changed drastically since I started utilizing ChatGPT for proofreading.

Freed from the onerous task of rewriting my English sentence by sentence, Sean and I can now delve deeper into the fundamental issues with my written English, such as why certain amendments need to be made, and if my phrasing can be accepted regionally, whether it’s in America or in Britain.

Technology is revolutionizing the way we learn languages. Instead of feeling threatened by it, we should embrace it where necessary. It might sound counterintuitive, but utilizing AI extensively allows us to focus on the areas where we really excel as humans compared to machines. So long as we use modern technology wisely, we should be able to survive and thrive.