Book fair, not fair!

Books! Books! Books!
There were books all over the ... urr... floor!

I was slightly stunned by the spectale that waa lied out before me as I entered the 5th Exbition Hall at the Expo. And after looking around for an hour, I was feeling dissapointed.
Books haphazardly slotted into boxes, rows and rows of them upon the gray concerete floor.
And they were not even separated into fiction/non-fiction sections! The horror~!

To be fair, they did have a few shelves up, but they were also either filled with random books, or filled with Robert T. Kiyosaki's book and that Da Vinci Code guy's books. There were some by tony Buzan too, and I was tempted to buy more when I saw the signs: "Cash only" on my way to the cashier. At the feet of the signs, there were cardboard boxes partially filled with books, supposedly left there by people who gave up buying when they realized that they did not bring enough cash.

Adding to the tragedy, the ATM machines were located all the way at the other end of the Expo building. So I made my way over, only to find that there was only one ATM machine in the whole huge complex, and it was a DBS ATM (Nooooo...ooo....).

To think that I took an hour train ride just for this.

It seems that books fairs are good if you do not have a specific book in mind to buy. It is also good if you're looking for fiction books. I went there in hope of finding some writing books, and well, it would be like looking for needles in a haystack. Only the haystack keeps on getting moved around by other people. It would take a lot of time to sort out though all the boxes of books, which process would be made even more painful by irresponsible people dumping books that they pick from one stack to another stack.

Gaaah~

Western Food!

I finally decided to try the Westerner run Western Food stall at the canteern. Here's my rating so far: the stall actually serves pretty good fare for the price. I had a lasagna, with potato wedges as side dish, and a dollop of tartar sauce.

It was actually pretty tasty, reasonable for the price range of $4.50, and the potato wedges are actually pretty excellent. I might begin to frequent this stall more often. Plus, it is not often that you get greeted with "How are you today Sir?" in Singapore foodcourts.

Now, onto the meme - 6 weird things about me.

1. I like to mix my condiments. My standard concoction would be Chilli sauce + Tomato ketchup, with a ratio of 1:1.

2. I like to observe nature, but I don't think I'll be able to live in a rural settings.

3. I prefer to do things alone most of the time. That includes eating and watching movies. But I do play a lot of MMORPG.

4. I can't live without reading materials. I almost always have something to read within easy reach, wherever I am.

5. I communicate better in a 'chat' environment. It afford me more time to compose my mind and create better expressions.

6. I am irritated by people who bring their significant others to gatherings, and then proceed to virtually ignore everyone else. If they are going to do that, they might as well not come.

Country Food!

Satay, Soto, Gado-gado...

Oh, sorry, my mind was wandering...
A colleague of mine recently asked me if I have ever been to the Rice Table, and he was surprised to hear that I have never been there, being an Indonesian. I am kind of intrigued with the assumption that people who are living in a foreign country would actively seek out all the eateries that offer dishes from their home country. I have of course heard about tourists that refuse to eat anything 'local' and would go all out to find (or bring lot of) familiar food and would rather starve otherwise (disclaimer: exaggeration).

Of course there would be times when I would miss the food back home, but I don't really bother searching for it here as usually it would end up being:
1. Tasting "somewhat not right".
2. Very costly when compared to food back home.

Anyhow, I ended up having some Malay food today. It is the closest approximation that is available near my workplace. Here is where I have found other interesting trends.
1. The Malay food in Singapore is, on the average, more expensive compared to Chinese food of the same 'class', and many times, do not really taste much better. (So far, there are only 2 stalls in Singapore that I feel like revisiting)
2. Chinese restaurants in the class of Crystal Jade and Thai Village do not really have a Malay equivalents. (Indonesian restaurants are another story)

So I usually would end up paying more for sub-par food (to my tastebuds). Rice + 1 veggie and 1 meat for $3, while I can get Rice + 2 veggies + 1 meat for $2 from another chinese stall. But oh well, the craving has been minimally scratched. I might have to check The Rice Table out, as my colleague said that he has heard other Indonesians claim that it is authentic enough, and another complained that she could not get into the restaurant twice already as it was fully booked. Besides, $20 for a dinner buffet is not too outrageous (unless you think in terms of Rupiah :P).

Would you like me to verify your confirmation?

I think I am going to really, really start to dislike some synonyms. Oh, they are fun enough to learn about and use, but I do not like being unsure if what I am writing is going to be understood correctly by the intended recipients.

Recently, one of the phrase I was given to translate is: 設定確認
設定 is not really a problem as it is basically the "Settings" of a machine.
確認 is the problem here, because of the lack in context. It can be generally translated as [Confirm], that in itself has 4 meanings:
1 : to give approval to : (ratify)
2 : to make firm or firmer : (strengthen)
3 : to administer the rite of confirmation to
4 : to give new assurance of the validity of : remove doubt about by authoritative act or indisputable fact

Furthermore, the Merriam-Webster dictionary shows that [Confirm] has the following synonyms:
[Validate] = implies establishing validity by authoritative affirmation or by factual proof
[Corroborate] = suggests the strengthening of what is already partly established
[Substantiate] = implies the offering of evidence that sustains the contention
[Authenticate] = implies establishing genuineness by adducing legal or official documents or expert opinion
[Verify] = implies the establishing of correspondence of actual facts or details with those proposed or guessed at

(Notice most of the relations are implying something)

So, I translated it as: "Verify Settings", because from what I can infer, some checking is required in this context. Today, I was informed that they already have a current translation that says: "Settings Confirmation", and asked for advice. (I was not even sure of what kind of advice they wanted, as they only state that this phrase currently have 2 translations.)

I advised them that in case of problems, it would be better to use [Verify]. I could not really go into detail though, as the advice is to be written in Japanese.

To me, both words can be used to mean "to check that", but [Confirm] has a nuance of "commitment" that is lacking in [Verify]. You press the "confirm" button when you are sure that the choice is what you want, and you press the "verify" button to check if it is not.

I find it hard to explain the difference beween these nuances in other cases.

Besides, 設定確認 can be the contraction of 設定の確認 or 設定を確認.
"確認" is a noun in the former, and a verb in the latter.

Just adding an "of" would change the meaning too.
Confirmation of Settings -> Settings Confirmation = the act of confirming the settings (Passive Action)
Confirmation Settings = a type of settings (Noun)

I really need better instructions!

On Cafeterias...

One of the cafeterias near my workplace had just undergone a change in management.

Unfortunately, this has resulted in my favorite Noodle Stall gone missing. I have not managed to find many noodle eateries that server noodles that are tasty to my tastebuds, and this stall was one of them.

On the other hand, this is also the first time I have ever seen a Westerner serve food in a 'Food Court' environment in Singapore. It is one of the new stalls, and the prices are approximately 40% more expensive than the nearest competitor's. I think I would give it a try to see if a Westerner made Western food is any different :D

I will miss the noodle though...