today was probably my eighth time visiting the shrine, but like most places i frequent; each visit holds the potential for new photo opportunities and experiences.

located at 55 market street in singapore, geek terminal is a geek’s haven – free wireless internet and power strips conveniently located for access to power source. the only items to be paid for are your food and beverages, which are really not bad.

tomorrow will be the official launch of geek terminal. too bad the geek is too far away to gravitate towards the gathering of geeks. read a review about it and see more pictures of the geek terminal.

this however, will be the closest semblance to a geek terminal.

SINGAPORE: A water spout has been spotted from the eastern parts of Singapore.Most callers to the MediaCorp News Hotline reported seeing what looked like a tornado or a twister over the sea. Most said they saw the phenomenon at about 2.30pm and that the phenomenon lasted about 15 minutes. Witnesses said it was moving in a circular motion. The water spout could be seen in several areas including Chai Chee, East Coast Park, Suntec City and Potong Pasir. CNA

“a waterspout is an intense columnar vortex (usually appearing as a funnel-shaped cloud) that occurs over a body of water and is connected to a cumuliform cloud. in the common form, it is a nonsupercell tornado over water, and brings the water upward. also, it is weaker than most of its land counterparts.” although the CNA article says that such sightings are not uncommon in Singapore, i think neither has it been so “scenically” positioned off the coast.

a friend of mine witnessed it from her office unit in suntec. the photos are taken from a colleage of hers. what i would like to know are accounts of those in the ships just off the water spout. since there are no casualties reported, i assume there arn’t any.

more pictures of the water spout that occured today

2 months after classes began, the UNSW Singapore Campus, which has already spent A$17.5 million in start-up costs, announced its closure. the closure is cite to be caused by the unviability of running an overseas comprehensive campus.

“This venture was, perhaps in hindsight, a little bit too ambitious … we didn’t have the balance-sheet strength to undertake the venture,” he said. “Geography is really important. When a student says, ‘I want an Australian degree’, what he really means is, ‘I want the experience of living in Sydney’ … The lesson we learnt is a student comes as much to a geographic destination as they do to a brand of a university,” Prof Hilmer said.

i’m personally quite surprised that location was not factored into their planning stage. however, i also suspect that the tuition fees at the Singapore campus was too high to outweigh the convenience of attaining a degree from a foreign university on home ground considering that “every 20 students fewer means A$1 million ($1.2 million) less in tuition fees. So, the first-year enrolment numbers would equate to a shortfall of A$15 million.”

if the University of Melbourne had a campus in Singapore, neither would i pay the (exorbitant) fees at the international student rate even if its supposedly more convenient. not all parents can afford to fund their children through overseas education/expenditure especially against an unfavourable exchange rate. however, there is the option of earning your own keep for a few years and then attending uni at a slightly older age than the average uni student, like i did.

you can’t put a price tag (actually you can – i have the breakdown) on the opportunity to live under the so very livable melbournian conditions.

update: mr brown’s take on the non-delivery of this venture.

i’m like a snail; i carry my house on my back. perhaps that’s why its easy for me to feel at home almost everywhere i am.

self-containment however, is double-edged; it can mean that i don’t have to go anywhere, but it can also mean that in my self-containment, i can go anywhere and depart with detached ease.