The 'Singa' - How Singapore was named

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Sang Nila Utama, an imaginative & adventurous king was restless by nature and wanted to travel to far away places. He loved hunting wild animals, so when he heard that there were stags in the jungles of Tanjong Bentam which were not easy to hunt, he was excited and took with him a great fleet of ships to Tanjong Bentam.

When the king arrived upon the island, he and his subjects had a hunting expedition that lasted several hours, slaying many wild and savage beasts, but no stags. This disappointed the king, for he had a sense of unfulfillment in his heart.

Suddenly, a large stag darted out of the bush in front of Sang Nila Utama, giving the king a shock...but the king drew his silver dagger and hurled it at the stag, only grazing the animal. The stag began to run and the king pursued it (in those days, it was either your feet or nothing)

The stag ran through the jungle and darted up a knoll. The king followed the stag up the hill, but upon reaching the summit, the stag was nowhere to be seen. There was a large rock, so the king climbed it and looked the land and sea spread out around him. In the distance, he saw a stretch of white sand - an island.

Sang Nila Utama was fascinated by the sight of the island. He turned to one of his subjects who had followed him.

'What is the name of that island?'

The subject looked into the distance and smiled.

'That is Temasek, Your Highness.'

'Then we are going there.'

The king ordered his fleet to set sail and they began on their journey towards the island.

Suddenly the once clear blue skies were covered with black clouds, heavy rain poured from them and strong bursts of wind threatened to tear the ships apart. The ship carrying Sang Nila Utama was in the very eye of the storm. The crew lowered the sails, started to bail the water from the ship and get most of the cargo for jettisoning.

However, an idea came to the king's head. He remembered a story his grandfather told him of how one of his ancestors became the Sea-King and that his crown was the only thing which belonged to his ancestor. He removed his crown immediately & threw it into the sea.

All at once, the storm broke. As suddenly as it started, the skies began to clear and the crew gave a shout of joy and set sail once more to the island of Temasek.

When the king stepped upon the island, a creature stepped out of nowhere, and the king and his men were awe-struck by the magnificent creature. It was large and moved with grace, had a black head, covered in a furry mane, a whitish neck and a red body. When the king drew his bow & arrow, the beast stared back at him with golden eyes and let out a deafening roar before leaping into the jungle.

'What sort of animal was that?', the king asked.

A wise old man stepped forth.

'I have seen animals in potraits from the Far West. Perhaps this is a 'singa', but I wonder how it got all the way here.'

'This must be a great place if it breeds such a beautiful animal. Let us live here...here on the island of Singapura.'

Footnote: The word 'singa' is actually the Malay word for 'lion'. Therefore, Singapore is sometimes referred to as the 'Lion City'.

singapore slung
wrigly's doublemint is on the 10 most wanted list in singapore. any person caught chewing gum or selling gum will be fined $50 singapore. it is against the law to spit on the ground, litter and outrage the modesty of a female, punishment is severe. remeber the international incident cause by the american bastard who got caught spray painting a car or something some years back and got cained? yeah, that's not some boogeyman fairytale your parents told you to keep you from being a fucking prick as a kid, it's real.
i'm amazed to be in singapore. the city is so clean and full of greenery. as it's location is so near the equator, it is hot, humid, but not as much as guam. singapore heat is relaxing. I read this blog the other day called tonight we "sail for singapore" or something. this couple who live in atlanta or something want to move to singapore, and they are all excited about it. yeah, i want to move to singapore too. there is such cultural diversity, nice weather, beautiful scenery, and everyone speaks english. paradise found? i guess. i was only there for a couple of hours before i had to head back to the ship due to technical difficulties of a friend, but what i saw, i liked. the MRT (subway) is so easy to use. i feel safe in sing. i could probably walk down the street in the middle of the night naked, drunk and screaming "fuck me!" and nobody would even look at me let alone lay a hand on me. too afraid of the caining, ya know. tomorrow starts my two days with crush. i'm so excited to relax with him. to whisper, kiss, drink wine, talk, bathe, sleep, eat with him. it's sure to be a good time.

berthing blues
last night i rolled into berthing at approximately 2325. the lights were on and girls were sitting there, one doing her nails, one doing anothers' hair. i asked them if they were almost done and they said no, so i asked them if the would move to the bathroom, and i walked away. the girl doing her hair came over and started yelling, so i asked her to be quite because people were sleeping, and then she got beligerant. long story short, i'm in to work early to look up the regulations to show a senior chief who knows damn well what the fucking regulations are, but who just played dumb last night so the girl could do her hair. for the record, lights out is at 2200. fucking bitches.

dementia
when i lived in italy, i had this cat. i got her from an italian family who told me her name was pizzetta, little pizza, which i vowed to change, so i studied her personality for a while. she had this habit of suckling at skin. she would just latch on and not stop unless she was physically removed, it got to be disturbing. i named her dementia because this little bit was obviously off her rocker. the suckling didn't stop after she took up solid food as i had hoped, rather it got worse! i would be doing housework and she would be under my feet just hoping for a bit of skin to show so she could get a taste. if i let her sit on my lap while i watched a movie, she would act all calm and cool, but i could see the desire for flesh in her eyes. she would ambush me when i least expected it and i would have to throw her off. harsh? no. believe me if you had a ravenous animal sucking at your flesh you would go to drastic measures to get it off too. i finally decided to cut my losses with dementia after the newly-aquired-so-that-she-would-leave-me-the-fuck-alone kitten sterling shit in my bed in the middle of the night- while i was in it. they were both out the door that very minute. was it fair for me to punish dementia for sterlings actions? maybe not, but dementia faired far better than sterling because after a week, he was missing and dementia was pregnant. after she had her kittens she totally calmed down. did a major one eighty. i still left her ass in italy.

What the fuck?
Nothing going on really. Basically I've been working too much to do anything. I'm suppose to be going to freefall school in Oct. I can't wait. I've already completed basic airborne school at the army post. That really sucked!!! Freefall is out in Arizona. I heard its a great time out there. Have the weekends off so there is alot of partying going on during the downtime. I'm still with the same woman. A part of me is in love with here and thinks about marriage, and another part of me just wants to be free and whatever and whoever I want, when I want. I don't know what to do....guess I'll just be me and take it a day at a time. I know I'm not ready to propose......yet anyway. I know that's what she wants. What do you think?

adam
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why, why, why would he send this to me? is this his way of hurting me, or making me say that i'm in love with him, and he should forget about her and get with me? i'm disturbed, confused, irritated. what an ass.

maxim magazines guide to dating
whenever i date i guy, i can't help but feel as if everything that comes out of his mouth is a line he read in maxim. if i say, "gosh, i really like the way that dress looks on her", i can expect the inevitable reply,"it would look better on you", from my beau. maybe he's just a nice guy, and really means these things, but i doubt it. i've read maxim, it's not like this secret magazine or anything. i can't stand a maxim reply. i also can't stand the reason for these cheesy ass replies: women. men only say stupid ass things because they are afraid to say what they really think. in the dress situation, the man is probably thinking, "yes, it does", but if he were to say that, the woman would get all bent out of shape, hit him with her purse full of beauty products and run away crying. men are not stupid enough to fall for this trap women set. whenver i get the maxim reply, i read between the lines. i know what you guys are really thinking, but it's best you don't say it. other women might hear and hit you with their purses.

snapshot of phil
phil likes guns. phil has a whole aresenal back in washington. phil packs heat wherever he goes. the nra passes out buttons that say "phil for life". when phil becomes president, he will change the title to, "el presidente por vida". phils speaches will never begin with "my fellow americans..." , rather phil will stand at the podium, shotgun in hand, and say, "'sup?". one of the first things on el presidentes' to do list is to nuke michigan, specifically detroit. while some hippies may say this is a bit harsh, phil believes it neccessary. nothing good comes out of detroit anymore, not even cars. next on his agenda is making puerto rico a state, whether they like it or not. after puerto rico, cuba is next on his takeover list- watch your back fidel. once the us has aquired all the mangos, cigars, and marijuana resources of our new states, el presidente will set forth to help the world as a whole. step one is to invade the tiny island known as great britain and liberate its inhabitants from the tyrannic rien of the evil queen mother. millions of toothbrushes and the ada will be dropped by the navy as reenforcements. another worldwide justice phil will initiate is the immidiate cease and desist of the use of the word "aboot" by all canadians. militant english classes will be instructed by the most elite of navy seals.
phils world would undoubtedly be a better world. when phils name appears on the ballot, my check mark will go next to it, how 'bout yours?

ha, ha syphilis is funny
i love the fact that al capone died of syphilis. the funniest part is that he contracted it after he went into the slammer! do you think he was raped, or willingly gave up his ass to the syphilis spreader? speaking of rape, we had an incident in one of the male berthings this morning. word on the streets is that some guy's crying rape. i think that he was getting it on and got caught, so instead of saying he was gay, he said he was raped. hhhmmm. i got another e-mail from oh-so-aloof-adam. this time he was a bit less aloof. he picked up first off the late exam. now he's the hunky first class that i could have been with. i can't even care anymore. we're so over, we need a new word for over.

ha, ha syphilis
For centuries, most doctors believed syphilis and gonorrhea to be two types of the same disease. But a French doctor in 1837 discovered the uniqueness of syphilis and later went on to describe the three stages. Syphilis was treated with mercury, either orally, in vapor baths or topically. These doses of the heavy metal probably reached lethal rates. By the early 20th century, mental institutions were filled with patients whose illness could be traced to syphilis. Syphilis does not discriminate. Famous people who have had syphilis include King Henry VIII, Napoleon, John Keats, Vincent Van Gogh and Al Capone.

i put a chit in for a duty swap so that i might have two full days and nights with crush, swoon. on the opposite end of the spectrum, i got n e-mail from the oh-so-aloof adam. a one-liner, of course. why adam? what happened to you.
closeup snapshot of adam
he was off to rigorous duty, acting as the comms guy for seal teamX. i planned to visit him in virginia, but he found out he was off to the "big sandbox", and our plans got canx'ed. when he got back, it was like talking to a vietnamn vet. paranoia ran rampid. his trust in me and my love for him was shattered. he couldn't tell me he loved me anymore, he didn't love me anymore. he forgot who i was. that's what distance, a war, and anthrax vaccinations will do to a man i suppose. last i heard adam was living happily ever after with his current girlfriend, and mutual friends report him to be a different man. that's were the snapshot fades out, like it was left in the sun too long. it's now discolored, warped and useless.

my response to a 'sermon from a freed man'
adrian,
my parents sent me a book, "a purposeful life". it's a 40 day guide to living the life god wants us to have. day two says, "you are not an accident". god puts us all of us here for a purpose. although your navy experience was one of disappointment, you have impacted so many lives in ways you may not comprehend. we all remember you, and you have given some of us the strength to persevere. you served your purpose in the navy and you should not look back on it with regret. in the short time i knew you, you gave me the gifts of courage and wisdom. courage to endure the attacks set against me by the enemy, and the wisdom to love them for it. i'm a stronger, better person because of these gifts.
adrian, you have always been a free man. nobody can impose limits upon a person he or she is not willing to accept. you've moved on to impact the lives of others, and i wish you peace of mind in your experiences. godspeed.

a sermon from a freed man

(an e-mail from adrian sizemore, the departed rebel)

I was standing on my balcony last night puffing on one of my cigars and
came to a fairly emotional epiphany, I do not miss that boat one bit. I can
honestly say that there is not one thing that I miss about that boat. Some
may say, "Well, at least you always had something to do". For those who may
continue to live with that tid bit of nonsense, Go Die!!! Others could
possibly mention that, "Hey, at least you were getting paid a decent wage".
For those of you who are staying there because of that, you go die with the
other guys. Now for the, "Well at least I will get some type of
retirement", FUCK YOU. What the hell kind of retirement is $1500/mos, not
including the taxes from that, for the rest of you life. You can save your
money invest it wisely and make that much by the time you are ready to
retire. Don’t think so, well I challenge you to step out of you pathetic
little comfort zone and try it. Here is the truth, you do not need that
place. You don’t need their bullshit games and backwards doublethink
philosophy of how to live your life. Look people, those ass holes never
took a chance in there life, so who the hell are they to tell you what to do
with your life. Don’t believe me? Just take a good look at your bosses,
you tell me they stayed cause they, "Love the Navy", or were they scared?

Look, I left the Navy homeless without a place to go. I had to sleep
in a hotel for a week. Yes it cost me about $236.00, to be precise, and I
had to sleep in my car a couple of nights. But every day that I faced an
uncertain future I came to the realization that hey, there really is nothing
holding me back from doing what ever the fuck I want to do. So within a
week and two days I found a really nice looking studio for $370/month. I
met a really nice woman at the unemployment office and she is taking a look
at my evals to help me build a resume. One of the Department heads at the
school I am applying for is enthused to meet me and said that she, "Will do
what it takes" to get me started there. A Counselor at the Unemployment
Security Commission is willingly bending over backwards to help me collect
unemployment, and even telling me how to beat the system.

I can keep going, but the point here is to understand that you will
never be all you want to be while you are there. Sure it's easy money, but
the rewards will never amount to what you could get if you just take a
chance and see what your true potential is. Those ass holes that are your
bosses are afraid of you and your intelligence because it’s a direct threat
to their way of life. They will hold you down and suppress you because they
are too afraid to take a chance. They are too stupid to understand what it
is you are doing so they dumb it down and make you feel incompetent. Don’t
let them ruin your lives. Let it feed your desire to be free; and when you
finally make it to the outside then you will, "Discover that you had not
truly lived".

No one is stopping you from doing what you want to do, but you.

A

p.s.
This isnt my, "Oh I miss you guys and every one there", email. Fuck that,
spread the hate and never let them choose your fate.

sex and the city, cvn70 style
i've been frequenting the smoke deck more often than is preferable. calm seas today. i saw some fish that looked like piranha jumping in and out of the water. no man overboard for me, thank you.
crush and i have been discussing the possibility of taking a roadtrip after cruise, or going to italy. i'm entirely smitten, i'm telling you what. i'm starting to feel weird about how great he is. it's like an episode of sex and the city where carrie starts dating aiden and things are great and she freaks out. "do we need drama to make a relationship work?", she asks. i'm not sure carrie. all my life i've made an effort to be appealing to just the right guy, and now that someone is recognizing that, i'm terrified. do i need the ebb and the flow of a f'cked up relationship to be happy? if he were to start calling me a whore would i be happy? i guess i think that a relationship sans drama equals a passionless one, but maybe it's time i learn otherwise. *thank you crush, for showing me the light. XO honey.*

the blushing bride: Mrs. Taunya Marie Rose

matts response to 101 things....
A:) How the f'ck did you get so cultured.
B:) What's your issue with tatoos?
C:) I would've bet the farm you were an only child... You used to come off like a spoiled brat to me...
D:) What's wrong with Men driving cars...
E:) Old Spice... That's funny...
F:) Tomorrow Never Dies and Die Another Day are my Fav' Bond movies...
G:) Black Licorice is an acquired taste...
H:) I think you "do fucking care"...

thanks for your input dear

are men smarter than women?
back in the days of maincomm, i confided in matt that i thought guys were smarter than girls. he got a huge kick out of it, and promptly told all the other guys, which should have been my first indication that i was wrong. i told him that whenever i needed to think about something important like my plans for the future, my job, or flying in a helicopter, my mind inevitably turns toward my hair, or what outfit i'll wear on my next date.
monday i rode in a helicopter for the first time. i had a flight brief and they gave me this cool little life jacket/yoke looking thing in case we had to ditch out of the helo. the aircrew guys were nice, they strapped me in to a leash that would only allow me to fall far enough out of the helo to break my face open. i was nervous until we elevated off the ground then i got excited. we took off for guam and flew at about 900ft. we flew alongside the clouds, our propellars pushed them out of the way. the air smelled fresh, and since it was so windy my face became numb (lack of oxygen?) i felt like i was riding in a hammock. the approach to guam from the north is reminicent of the appraoch to lajes air base from naples, however lajes is far more picturesque. We got to guam in the nick of time because my bladder was about to explode and kill me. We went to the exchange, ate pizza, walked around, then hopped back on and did the checks for take-off. on the way back i felt more cofortable, so i sat on the floor and hung my legs over the edge, but after a while i got nervous that my shoes would fly off, so i got back inside. all the while, my main concern was whether or not i looked cute. i can guarantee that the aircrew guys were not paying any attention to me at all, they were concentrating on their very important job. i was getting worked up for nothing and i knew it. i couldn't stop thinking about my crush. what he was doing, how i wished he were there with me, all sorts of stupid things.
at sunset we started circling the ship in preparation for landing. the sunset was gorgeous. all golden against the puffy, white cumulous. i was sitting next to smelly aircrew guy, and i wanted him to be crush. i wanted to hold someones hand at that moment. would a guy think about that, or would he be thinking about cars or food or something? maybe guys aren't smarter. maybe the smelly aircrew guy wanted to hold my hand too. i'll never know.

automated information systems is comparable to a three ring circus. at any given time you can look in any one of three directions and see some freak of nature in all his glory. it's amazing.

i want to be a trendsetter. i think i would be good at it. i'm witty, or so people tell me. i coined the phrase "hell, fuck, and damn yeah", and always pride myself in marching to the beat of my own drum, however faint the beat may be. i'll never sell myself short and join a sorority, not that that makes me a trendsetter, but it does make me smart, and smart people generally know what's up. i want to be a trendsetter in the unlikeliest of places. somehwere like montana. people always expect trends to originate from the same old places like nyc, or paris. fools. always expect the unexpected. wear wranglers and cowboy boots with mud on them to posh events. don't use pantene (it coats the hair with goop anyway and will, eventually make it break off). don't be a conformist. there are more, but i'm short on time. holla.(whatever that means)

We had captains call yesterday. i hate to hear people bitch. CO asked if anyone had a problem with CMC and all sorts of shitbag hands went up. i got so pissed i started shaking. "he's not for us, he's mean. he never tells us we do a good job", etc. stupid fucks. he's not there to coddle us. he's there to put a boot in our asses. and he does recognize excellence, but he shows it in a different way. he's the one who got me my "c" school when the whole rest of the COC said no. he's the reason why i'm a second. i had to get in the first Lt's ass yesterday too. she hasn't been cleaning the head, and she was sleeping during cleaning stations. it was like i was a mom telling a kid to clean their room. nobody wants to do their job anymore. i just want to shake people and remind them that we're in the navy, not in high school. who cares if you're sick, you still come to work. nobody brought their mother along to write them a sick note. if training is after your regular twelve hour shift, who cares? where in the fuck else would you go? all in all yesterday was an angry day. i have so much work to do and too much bullshit is getting in my way. i'm going to start punching people in the neck. that will make it all better. i need to stop whining.
my crush situation is going relatively well. i think he's a bit smitten, but i can never tell. i can't wait to hang out with him. he smells so good.

oh shit son!!
what?! they had avocados on the mess decks today. i ate two. ummm avocado.

alright, other than my new crush, things have been alright. work is still retarded, and so are the people i work with. taunya is getting married soon and i'm sad i can't be there. the boys down here captured the butterfly who they named ken, and now he's missing. didn't i say they would kill it? and who names a butterfly ken? yes! mango's. i had one for the first time a couple of days ago and i'm addicted. they sure are a sexy fruit. the kind of fruit i would want to eat with a lover so we could be sticky together. plus they have such a unique taste. sort of a peachy, pinnappley, something else-ish flavor (or flavour as the brits would say. why must they add superfluous letters to words?). someone said pine cone, and while i can understand where that person was coming from, i wouldn't let it scare you off if you're thinking of trying it. alright kids, gotta go, getting past my bedtime.
ps yesterday i received all four seasons of sex and the city in the post. there goes my self esteem.

getting better all the time
the past two days have been the best since arriving at the uss carl vinson. maybe it's because i've been working on troublecalls for my squadron and haven't been in automated information systems, or maybe it's my new crush. god. i can't help but get all swoony. it's my biggest weakness. i'm happy. there, i said it.

orange crush
something about someone with a dangerous/important job that sets my heart a pumping. swoon.

the beginning of a new beginning
there is a butterfly in the automated information systems. the guys say it's from the rotting fruit in the storeroom below us, and it may be, but to me it's a divine symbol of change. things are going to get better. if a fragile, winged insect can survive on this dog-eat-dog ship, than i surely can. it's perched above a printer, and hopefully it lives for a couple of days without being killed. there's something about things that fly and boys wanting to kill them. go figure.
in other news: one of the handsome men i have a crush on is paying me a bit of attention. it makes me blush. hopefully he's not a schizophrenic, pathological liar. i'm sure he's not, he's too cute for that.

adam
once upon a time, in a land two oceans away, there happened a great romance. adam and i started dating shortly before he was due to transfer to norfolk. it was an easy relationship, one that required little effort, it just clicked. he moved away, and we planned for me to transfer to norfolk when i was due, a year later. i ended up deciding to tranfer to california for several reasons: 1. i will never, ever go to norfolk for duty. 2. his job would require him to be gone a lot. 3. i was going to sea duty and didn't want to be "that girl" who followed her boyfriend to a place that she didn't want to be, and put my goals on the back burner 4. where was the guarantee that it would work?
essentially, after i decided not to go, adam went on deployment and it crumbled from there. we planned to reunite in San Diego when we both transfered again (oct 2004), but i just don't know. i still write him e-mails, and once in a blue moon, he'll write me a one sentence cliche, but mostly my efforts go unrequited. i still love him, compare men to him, and hope for a fairytale ending. will it happen? who knows. do i regeret my decision. sometimes.

we had corn dogs for lunch today. i was happy. my new burt's bees bay rum exfoliating soap smells super yummy. i can't explain the smell because it has so many notes to it, but it is reminicent of this incense that taunya an i burned back in high school that we got from pacific avenue in santa cruz. it came in all these metallic colors and smelled better than any other incense ever has, and ever will. it was all bundled up and tied with a string. ah, santa cruz. in high school we used to jump through hoops, skip school, lie, cheat and steal just to spend an hour there. some of my best memories, or lack of them happened on pacific avenue or on the 45 minute (sometimes less if i was driving) drive to and from our mecca. my little jetta, with the sunroof open and pauls boutique blasting was all we needed. well, that and a joint. those were the salad days, to quote a quote. i miss them.

alright, so my posts have been a tad on the bitter side, but whose counting? i hate whiners as much as the next guy, especially if the next guy is doing the whining. it's fine for me to do it, but not anybody else.
contrary to plan, i did no diving in guam. it just became too difficult to try and figure out where to go, and what time i needed to be there, or what to bring. a fucking hassle.
so, what did i do in guam? i stayed out of the sun and saved my future self from cancer. i watched sex and the city over and over and over. it's the fucking visual equivalent to a fashion magazine, with all of their fucking great clothes, and cute boyfriends and park avenue apartments. women should not be allowed to have sex and the city marathons. it lowers the self esteem, distorts self views, blah blah...and a lot of other psycho babble. i "bonded" with the girls in berthing. i ate a lot of junk food and saved my future self from a healthy cholesterol count. i caught up on my precious sleep (i averaged 14 hours a day), a hobby i have severely neglected since joining the navy. and that's about it. i did go out one night in hopes of catching the eye of some handsome pilots, but i was more or less ignored by all the good looking guys, and relentlessly hit on by old men and lesbians. i even had on a very risque tank top with spaghetti straps that revealed a lot, but not too much according to the girls i was with when i bought it. ahh me. those handsome guys just don't know what theyre missing (wink).
so i guess that's caught up. oh, believe me there was a lot more that happened behind the scenes, but a lady never tells all. or so i hear.