Mid-January Notes

Yay! New year!

I’m having a good January. I had my favourite food on the first day of the year.

seafood soup

Yanji Seafood Soup at Marsiling Mall Hawker Centre

I don’t know if it’s objectively good or if I’m nostalgic for Ah Ma’s cooking. It reminds me of the Teochew steamboat my grandma used to put together. Flavourful, comforting, filled with yummy ingredients, and so great with a steaming bowl of rice (or two). I could eat this everyday.

I learnt 2 things this month that made me feel silly.

  1. I had always thought that the Japanese were so cute for referring to Mount Fuji as Mr. Fuji. Fuji-san? Adorable! No. It’s Fujisan. SAN as in MOUNTAIN! It’s embarrassing because I READ CHINESE! 富士山! 山! It’s right there! In my defense, 山 really is pronounced shan in Chinese, AND my Duolingo classes informed me that 山 is said yama in Japanese. I discovered my boo-boo when I learnt that there are two ways to pronounce kanji, Yeah, はt the fuck… (は, which I learnt to pronounce as HA can also be pronounced WA sometimes. -_-)

  2. “What—Sera Sera—what will be, will be” Uhhh, it turns out nobody’s name is Sera! “Que sera, sera” literally translates to “whatever will be, will be.”

2026 Ins and Outs

In

  • selfies, self-portraits
  • AI agents
  • AI guardians
  • video notes on messaging apps
  • phone calls
  • sending pictures of your friends to them when they show up in your featured photos
  • calling out bad behaviour with love and respect
  • slow mornings (≥2 hours)
  • swimming
  • time-boxing social engagements
  • listening to podcasts, watching videos at 1x speed
  • transition lenses

Out

  • gel nails
  • 3-5D lash extensions
  • gossip
  • getting drunk
  • SaaS
  • vibe coding out of laziness
  • spending any time on/with people you dislike
  • social masking, false harmony
  • playing pickleball in residential areas
  • mocking, cyberbullying influencers

Sheng Wang live in Singapore 10th January

I had a great time seeing Sheng Wang at The Theatre at Mediacorp. Chris Garcia opened. I wish I understood Spanish, a lot of it went over my head. Wang was hilarious. The hardest I’ve laughed at an IRL show.

I always get the cheapest (lousiest) seats for shows like this and this might be the only time I’ve regretted doing so. The Theatre is not very good.

Night Safari

I visted the Night Safari for the first time in a decade or so. It felt like the last time I visited. It’s dark and strange and feels like an eerie dream. Binturongs perched on thick branches. (Imagine a red panda, but midnight-flavoured, and twice as large.) A white tiger! Hyenas tracking my movement. Should I not have made eye contact? Owls. Owls are peculiar birds. A red lanky wolf pacing its enclosure. It’s known as a maned wolf, but where’s his mane? Its defining feature is surely its long, thin legs. Picture a wolf-fox with long, thin legs. From a distance he looks like he might be taller than me, even on all fours. It’s not safe. He could absolutely jump out of his enclosure if he so chose. He reminds me of the Kiriko in Hunter x Hunter. Oversized porcupines huddled together (about ten), forming a straight line. I was too afraid to stay and discover why. One of them rattled its quills and shrieked, I think. Or was that sound made just from the quills rattling? In any case, it was shrill and shook me to the core. The most adorable creature was also strange. The armadillo, which means “little armoured one” in Spanish. It is cream coloured, and hard to spot. It looks like a cross between a bug and a rodent. I am enamoured (ha) by its wood-ear-mushroom-looking ears. Delightful. It’s all very surreal. Perhaps if I saw these animals during the day I wouldn’t feel about them the way I feel about them now.