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Showing posts from 2012

On the paucity of posts

I recognise that people searching for my name online often stumble upon this site, and I thought I should put up this post to explain why, unfortunately, dsng.net does not quite capture the entirety of me, or even the persona I wish to project. The difficult thing with maintaining this blog is that - sadly for my writing though great for my career - life as a diplomat in Washington DC is fairly demanding. Which leaves precious little time to write substantively. Meanwhile,  Twitter has taken over as my platform for spur of the moment, throwaway thoughts. I am, of course, always willing to engage either in comments below, via e-mail [daryl dot sng at g mail dot com], or on social media. If you wish to talk about foreign affairs and international relations, including US-Singapore bilateral relations, US defence and security policies in Asia, nuclear non-proliferation, and US-South Asia relations, my work e-mail address is daryl_sng [at] mfa.gov.sg

The Airport Shuffle

All these stories about Thanksgiving airport crowds reminds me of how different airports used to be pre-9/11. I recall having a ticket for a morning flight to London for an intersession break during college, and having stayed up almost all night the night before (probably to finish a take-home exam). After packing my luggage, I let myself sleep, telling myself I'd only take a short nap... next thing I knew, I woke up in my dorm room about an hour before my flight. Rushed out, grabbed a cab, made it to Logan Airport with about 20 minutes before flight time - and still managed to check in and make it to the gate in time. Those were the days.

Levon Helms

"The Weight" has been the song that my iPhone chooses to sync with my car stereo for the last few days, even before the news came out about Levon Helm. Perhaps my phone knew something.

Signal 30

Some thoughts on Mad Men, Season 5, Episode 5: I really love that Mad Men is in 1966, since it's one of my favourite years of American history. Last week after the Speck murders were referenced I said to my wife that I hoped the Whitman shootings would be next. But I was not expecting the World Cup win to be included, and was delighted to see it in this episode.  I like that Don had to correct the shooter's name and said out "Whitman". Lane punching Pete is up there for my favourite moment this season, and I think narrowly pips Megan's singing "Zou Bisou Bisou". There was a lot about Pete's manliness (at least in the stereotypical sense) in this episode: can't fix the sink, can't get the girl, loses a fight to someone whose boxing stance is straight out of the Marquess of Queensbury. Even the dinner party showed him to be essentially neutered, the Manhattan boy moving to the burbs for his wife.