My New Car - The Mitsuoka Viewt

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Judul : My New Car - The Mitsuoka Viewt
link : My New Car - The Mitsuoka Viewt

Been meaning to blog about my "new" car for a while now but as I procrastinate the car is rapidly becoming no longer "new". LOL!!

Yes yes I know I have neglected my blog for a long time. It is increasingly intolerable to sit at an immobile computer station for hours to edit pictures and post them up... I really don't know how I used to manage to blog for like 10 hours in a row in front of the computer man. Nowadays here ache there ache and I get so distracted with Dash... Can't sit for 2 mins without him going MAMA this MAMA that. In the past I used to post all the time because I feel this insatiable need to broadcast my life with an audience, and there was simply no other avenue/outlet for me to vent my anger, share my jokes, or discuss my thoughts. Blogging was the only way.

Nowadays if one wants to share their life, there are so many alternative ways... I can tweet, I can post on instagram, I can Dayre, I can share on Facebook, I can do a life stream or shoot a video for youtube (even more troublesome than blogging so nah for that)... Of all the social media avenues, the one that requires the least effort of all is Snapchat, so that's what I've been posting on these few days...

I have become a Snap-addict of sorts, documenting my everyday life with Snapchat (id: TheXiaxue). At first, I never 'got' snapchat at all. Before stories were able to be made public, snapchat was just for sending boh liao pictures to friends, which I felt could be done easily with whatsapp so what's the point?

Plus Snapchat is so damn unintuitive and difficult to use... It was such a turn off trying to feature out what I was doing! Now, of course, I've become an expert and find navigate the app like a pro, but even now I still can't figure some stuff out, like how to record video without pressing your finger on the button (apparently it can be done), or how to get the trophies, or what the number under my name really represents.

It becomes easy to see the appeal of snapchat. Instagram has become increasingly stifling over the years with everyone using it to only post the best of their camera roll.

Picture is grainy or taken with iPhone camera? ERM NO THANKS DO NOT TAINT MY FEED. Shitty quality photos are not allowed to be posted. Or if I took 200 shots of Dash at the pool... Of those, 50 look nice. 3 is the max I will post from that series or the feed becomes repetitive and spammy, even though if I were to blog I would have posted up all 50.

I don't post "boh liao" photos which I simply find funny, like if I see a weird looking passerby, because it is both aesthetically not pleasing and intrusive on the passerby. I don't post random food pictures unless it is super gram-worthy. I don't post ugly unedited photos of myself if I can help it.

I don't know who set these rules for instagram. 

Ok fine I do know and it's me lol. But I don't know why I started being so rigid there... It's almost like over time the feed has become a certain way and I don't want to lower its standards, you know. And like everyone else has such nice pictures, I feel like cannot lose!! Plus, if you spam or post shitty pictures people tend to unfollow you. :( Instagram is such a cruel and unforgiving place, where your followers don't really know who you are and they don't care. They only want to see pretty or cute pictures.

Anyway I have ranted about Instagram before (although I hypocritically continue to use it albeit much less now). My point is not so much so that IG is becoming more canned but that it takes more effort now to post on that, so people move on to easier avenues, like snapchat.

With Snapchat you can spam because just with one tap people can skip to the next snap. You can post stupid, pointless and ugly stuff, because nobody judges there. And although it can feel lonely over there with nobody leaving comments or giving likes, it is also very liberating. It also, I feel, is an authentic representation of one's life, because it is only real time, unedited photos and videos. Plus snapchat has all these filters and stuff which makes it so fun! A new filter everyday!

Eh ok I digressed. This post is supposed to be about my "new" car.

So you guys are familiar with my cars over the past few years right?

My first car was sponsored by Duo Rewards and Downtown Car Rental!

WTF I was so fair after giving birth I don't know why! Maybe got milk in system will be fairer.

The sponsorship lasted a year and then I got my pineapple Dash car... 

(Someone pointed out my fat knees look like Dash's face. I laughed like a maniac and now you cannot unsee it can you? LOL)

I love all my sponsored cars but unfortunately all good things must come to an end... Rather than seeking another sponsorship in 2015 I decided that perhaps it is time to buy my own. 

I mean, if anyone still wants to sponsor me a car I'm more than open to it haha but I don't know, I guess my car sponsorships usually last a year and during the start of the year I will be so happy but as it ends I will have to frantically think about finding another sponsor or not having a car to drive... It is really quite stressful and as you know cars are very expensive in Singapore so it isn't an easy sponsorship to find!

As the Tyre queen sponsorship was nearing its endpoint I found myself just surfing Sg Carmart to look at cars instead of looking for another sponsor.

BUT WHAT TO BUY????

I mean, I'm sure there are girls like me around, right? I mean, not many of us, but some. And girls like me face a problem when it comes to buying cars because the car makers simply don't make cars to suit girls like me.

What do I mean?

I'm not a "car" person. I am not super informed about automobiles or love them from the bottom of my heart like car people do. I don't like racing or drifting or driving stick shift. I don't care about how fast my car can accelerate as long as it's not obscenely slow.

I mean if we are talking about dream cars obviously I would love to have a pink Bentley like Paris Hilton.

Hell, why not a sparkling Lamborghini?

"Santa, I would blow you if you drop the keys to one of these in my stocking next Xmas"

But let's be realistic here... I can't afford any of these. Not right now anyway!

And honestly, even if I get a free Lamborghini right now I won't be driving it but selling it away immediately. Ok maybe I won't sell it immediately but in a month's time lah lol enjoy it for a bit first.

The reason?

The cost of owning a super car isn't just what it costs to buy it. That's a large part of it. Everyday you keep the car instead of selling it its value goes down the drain like laosai of the curry you ate that had gone bad. That's what people call "depreciation".

So I randomly went to find the depreciation of, say, a Lamborghini Gallardo on SGcarmart. The depreciation of the random one I picked is $67,100 per year.

What that means is that the car costs you $5,600 PER FUCKING MONTH TO DRIVE IT!

How much must you earn per month that you can decide to blow $5,600 on your vehicle?? That's not inclusive of road tax, petrol, insurance, parking, ERP etc!

Imagine, if you get a free lambo right now, like Santa really gave it to you, and you decided ok lah so nice the car I drive it for a month... YOU LOSE $5,600 in value when you sell it a month later!

Damn jialat man I change my mind I will only drive it for 1 day and sell it.

That's not it...

People pay $600 road tax per year you pay $5000. Your insurance is off the charts.

But it also costs a lot to fuel. It costs a lot to repair. 

You will literally feel your heart die a little if someone scratches it - which I suspect many people will do because nobody likes a rich show off. 

Nobody wants to give way to you because fuck you rich bitch. 

Parking Pontianak sure make a beeline to give you summon first. 

And then you get a mini panic attack everytime you drive into a tight multi-storey car park. You go mega slow going up a hill in case your impractically low front bumper scrapes the ground and cost you $8888.80 to repair. 

To top it all maybe zao geng when getting out of the car.

In exchange for what? That sexy engine purr? To go super fast and break our 90km speed limit then get demerit points and cannot drive anymore? To get laid is probably the best reason but not applicable to married folk.

So yeah... Why dream an impractical dream? I mean, it is not that I can NEVER EVER afford a Super car... Maybe if I wanted it badly enough I would have worked towards that and became a multi millionaire by now. 

It is that I just won't spend that kind of money because I do not find it worth it. 

The principle of it also rankles me so much! Like why is it that if a side view mirror on a Nissan gets knocked off I have to pay a reasonable amount for a new mirror but if it's on a Lambo I have to pay an exorbitant amount? LIKE WHY? MIRROR IS MIRROR WHAT, ALL THE SAME. It's obviously trying to tok the rich people's money and I don't like the idea of being a carrot. It makes me SO ANGRY!!

I vaguely considered buying a BMW. Those look nice, right? I test drove one and I realised I didn't really like driving it. The steering wheel is super hard to turn and I can foresee that I will just get sian of having to use so much force to steer the bloody car. And its appearance is just so... masculine. 

I really would like a more feminine car... But how many feminine cars are there??

The only one that pops up in everyone's mind is the Volkswagen beetle - that's like literally the only model or something.

But a pink beetle is just so... cliched. Like every other girl drives it and I don't want to be the same as other people. I want something more unique and with more character. Also, the boot too small to put my pram. IKR, uncool.

When I was younger my dream car was a Daihatsu Copen:

Fuck it is so cute!!!!

I MEAN CMON

It's convertible (I LOVE CONVERTIBLE CARS) and actually isn't too expensive!! It is relatively unique...

However, at this juncture in my life it simply won't work. How can I possibly drive Dash and my maid out in a two seater? And the car is ridiculously small with the tiniest boot you can possibly imagine. It's really more of a motorcycle with a sidecar than a car lor lol

Actually, I love the appearance of vintage cars!!

I mean look at this cutie!! It looks SOOOO much better than the modern Beetle!!

The pro of vintage/old cars is that they are actually affordable.

The con is that it is horrible to drive an actual vintage car because they are always breaking down and cost shitloads to repair.

I know because Mike was driving an old Mercedes and it is like a grandpa with all kinds of ailments. Today aircon siao tomorrow engine cannot start next day the leather seats crack open. It's terrible.

Anyway so yeah I was shit out of options. 

It's either I am unwilling to spend that much on a model coz I don't like it that much, or the car really isn't practical at all like I can't put pram and car seat inside, or it is too old and I shouldn't buy an old car.

I resigned myself to buying a Daihatsu Materia perhaps...

It isn't expensive. It is a practical, reliable car. And it's boxy and cute and it looks like it's grinning all the time! They aren't usually pink but clearly some girl who is like me liked it and sprayed it pink (and covered the Daihatsu logo with my tattoo lol).

I thought of adding some eyelashes to the car and it will look quite cute!

And then I saw, on SGcarmart when I was surfing the exotic cars tab... 

A Mitsuoka Viewt.

I was super amused when I saw the car because it looks like an insect or an owl to me... I took a screenshot and sent the picture to my mom and Shuyin, but it never crossed my mind that I would actually buy it.

Why? Because

1) It looks vintage and I won't buy vintage cars after dealing with Laopokasaurus. Aint nobody got time for that

2) What the fuck is a Mitsuoka like seriously nobody drives that brand in Singapore and the repair work would be ridiculously exorbitant.

3) It is almost twice the price of the Materia, which I kinda had set my heart on.

Actually, the Viewt isn't that expensive. It is about the price of a BMW 3 series with the same amount of COE time left. I mean, obviously it isn't the price of a practical, everyday car, but it isn't like have-to-sell-body-to-afford kinda price, you know.

My mom was in love with the Viewt. She said it's really very cute and she told me to take a second look at it.

I googled Mitsuoka and it turns out the brand is very interesting!!

Click here to see all of their cars! I'm gonna post some here too.

Here's one

Believe it or not they actually made these cars wtf

Here's the Himiko

Just google image Mitsuoka and you can see that they do not even have ONE car that is boring and utilitarian!!!

But that's not all that's interesting about Mitsuoka.

Some of the cars aren't even really Mitsuoka cars!

THEY CHANGE THE EXTERIORS OF OTHER CARS.

For example, my Viewt used to, believe it or not, look like this:

Hi! This is a boring Nissan March which you won't look twice at. (sorry March owners but true - especially if it's silver which is like ew the most boring colour eva)

At Mitsuoka, a group of skilled craftsmen carefully remove the car's exterior (and some parts of the interior like steering wheel) and modify it into the Viewt - BY HAND.

To produce each car takes 40 days and thats why there aren't that many mass produced! 

I imagine that a lot of love went into making mine and it makes me feel so happy. 

I think of all the BMWs being stamped out in factories everyday and how my Viewt takes 40 days to produce (on top of the time spent on making a Nissan March that is) and I think the price is well worth it. 

I am more willing to pay money to the Japanese craftsmen who put real time and sweat into making my car than to all the advertising and marketing that luxury car brands probably pays for?

And true to Japanese intricate quality, my Viewt is already 8 years old and I don't know if the previous owner just drove it very little or took very good care of it, but it was in IMMACULATE condition when I bought it. Everything was beautiful and looked and felt brand new.

Mitsuoka doesn't just remove the shells of other boring cars either. They sometimes base the designs on obsolete but beautiful vintage models!!

For example, my viewt is modelled after the mega gorgeous Jaguar Mark II.

It really looks like the Jaguar haha!! A gas station attendant actually asked me, amazed, if that's what I'm driving - which I think is quite impossible because the Mark II stopped production in 1967! Anyway it's sans the metal Jaguar in front and it says Mitsuoka instead.

I was so freaking excited because I recently watched Xmen Apocalypse and my car suddenly appeared:

I was like hitting Mike on the shoulder and going OMG OMG OMFG IT'S MY FUCKING CAR!!!!

I was so happy coz like Professor X was driving my car hahaha!!

But upon closer inspection it is actually a vintage Jaguar Mark II. *Sad face emoji* Goodness knows where they managed to find one in such mint condition but I guess it isn't so difficult to find in the states.

So... back to the purchase.

My mom told me to call the previous owner and try to haggle the price, so I did. He also told me that the car has a Nissan engine. I was like HUH WHAT DO YOU MEAN in which he started to explain it's a Nissan March inside etc.

What this means is that

1) It is not actually vintage. It is a modern, boring, reliable Japanese car pretending to be vintage. Which means you get all the good looks and none of the nasty problems, hopefully?

2) Nissan March parts are not only cheap to repair, they are easily available!

3) I thought the car would suck oil like crazy but now I guess it won't!

I just couldn't believe my luck. It's like I found a car that matched all of my ridiculous criteria. 

- Looks vintage but isn't vintage. 

- Girly. 

- Classy. 

- Beautiful. 

- Isn't ridiculously over-powered for my simple needs. 

- Fits a pram and a car seat. 

- Price is slightly beyond my budget but I can still afford it.

And it is SO FUCKING UNIQUE.

I was told by the Mitsuoka dealer (not too sure if accurate but I'll take her word) that in Singapore there are only less than 5 on the road now. Throughout all of history only 12 were ever sold here. 12!! 

Of the 5 on the road, 3 are being kept by the Mitsuoka boss in his house because he likes the car so much, so I don't even know if they are being ever driven.

In all of SGcarmart history only ONE Mitsuoka Viewt ever was sold, and it's the one I own now. 

So even if you want to buy one, I'm not sure how you can, as the Mitsuoka dealership here is closed down.

People are always leaving their cards on my car asking if I'm interested in selling, but I'm not! I love love love my car and I intend to renew my COE once it ends in 2017 - hopefully it drops further!

All that for the price of a BMW 3 series... Which is so common on the roads.

My friends kept telling me not to buy the car and just get the Materia instead, but I don't think they understand... it's a great car and it's in such mint condition and it's so damn special and rare. I don't regret my purchase at all!

After getting the car, I naturally had to spray it a vintage cadillac pink...

You can watch the car spraying ep here!!!

Thank you so much Koh Guan Chua workshop for not only spraying my car the perfect shade but also being my trusted car workshop. :) :) 

Omg the entry is getting so long-winded but I really have to talk about something else...

After spraying the car it looked so beautiful but something was still wrong... My car plate.

The previous owner had the car plate 73 on it (which he said he bid $3,000 for), his birth year. When he sold me the car the plate was not included, so I got a random number instead which was SKV6960T.

Actually the number isn't horrid as far as random numbers go, not like 104 一定死 164 一路死 something.

Till that point in my life I never really bothered about license plate numbers. To bid for a number cost a minimum of $1,000 which is just... ridiculous.

Non drivers probably don't know this... In order to get a customised plate number, you have to bid for it, and it's a closed bid, meaning you just put in an amount (minimum $1,000) and pray nobody bids higher than you, because the winning bid goes to the highest bidder.

Bloody hell it's not even like the car plates in Singapore even look nice, like the vanity plates in the states - which BY THE WAY ARE BOUGHT FOR ONLY USD$50 I CANNOT DEAL

I could have gotten this for $50usd

No sir. In Singapore you have to have the 3 letters in front (cannot choose), your number/s in the middle, and 1 letter at the back (also cannot choose). It's hideous.

The numbers from 1-100 are DEFINITELY goners, everyone bids for them.

For 2 digit numbers, be prepared to put in $3,000 and up, or you surely won't be able to get them.

For 1 to 10, I think people pay like $50,000 or something. Imagine that shit... That's the price of another car sans COE. JUST FOR THE LICENSE PLATE TO LOOK PRETTY.

Next time you see a car on the road with license plate number 1, just imagine how rich that bugger must be to GIVE TENS OF THOUSANDS FOR A CHEAP PIECE OF METAL

I just can't get over this man... If you buy a birkin at least you know some work went into making the bag. Hermes also spends so much on advertising. You buying the bag actually employs people who work on it. Or if you buy a diamond ring that's $50,000, at least you know big diamonds are rare and hard to find, therefore justifying the price a little.


BUT WHAT IS THIS CAR PLATE NONSENSE

No money was spent on marketing or advertising. It is literally intangible - just a number - printed into the same piece of hammered metal that another car plate that's FREE is made out of. Number 1 is no more rare than number 6374.

It pays nobody's salary to create this product (ok fine I suppose some administrative people probably handle the bids), since technically it isn't a product so much so as it is a variant of a free thing. It doesn't even come in a nice box. If I pay $1,000 for something at least let it come in a satiny ribbon goddammit.

SO WHY SHOULD IT COST $1,000 AND UP CAN YOU TELL ME??

Oh and btw it's not just $1,000 you have to pay, even if you win your bid. After that there is another bullshit cost of $300!!! WHY??



As if all that nonsense isn't enough, THEY ALSO MAKE US PAY ANOTHER $1,300 TO TRANSFER THE PLATE TO ANOTHER CAR.

Meaning... If I successfully bid for number XXXX and I want to change my car, I have to pay $1,300 to put XXXX on the new car!! CAN EXPLAIN WHY??

And who does all these money go to?

LTA THAT'S WHO

The same people we pay our parking fines and ERP charges to!! Wei you go and die ok you all earn so much from the rich suckers who bid for car plates why still hire people to catch us for illegal parking can you please!!!

I try to do a modest calculation:

Let's imagine the people who bid for numbers 1-10 pay $30,000 each.

Let's imagine that the people who bid for 11-100 pay $3,000 each.

We will take out a few numbers I can think off on top of my head like 11, 88, 89, 111, 888, 777, 999 which cost probably $10,000 and up.

And then there are people who pay for the not so coveted numbers but at $1,300 each, and put these people at a modest 30, although I doubt it's so little.

It adds up to like $670,000

Which is only by my very modest count! If you add in all the people transferring license plates too I bet it's like way more...

LTA should give back to the people lor!! Reduce ERP charges can?

Anyway... I am just whining because I just feel the cost of a pretty license plate is REDONKULOUS. I know I know... Age old argument of "NOBODY FORCED YOU TO BID WHAT".

I blame my mother ok... She keep saying that the license plate I was going to randomly get will start with 4 and the Chinese believe it's inauspicious. Don't know where she got her nonsense info from since afterwards I got 6960... Very far away from 4thousand you mei you.

Then she said beautiful car must have nice license plate blah blah and I was like URGH I already spent so much on the stupid car but she is right, after she said that I cannot unsee it... If you notice on the roads most pretty cars have nice license plates... It's almost like you get a gorgeous wedding gown but decide to wear crocs with it.

So I was like OK LAH FINE YOLO I ALREADY SPENT SO MUCH ON THE CAR SO FUCK IT I WILL BID FOR A NICE LICENSE PLATE LIKE A STUPID SUCKER BUT I WON'T PAY MORE THAN $1,000 FOR IT!!!!!! I WON'T!!!


Then a flat bureaucratic voice which is untouched by my passionate anarchist statement reminds me that there is an additional cost of $300 so I hastily change my statement.



I WON'T PAY MORE THAN $1,300 FOR IT, I WON'T!!!

So that was that and I went to bid for 7770, because I like 777 since it looks like a lucky jackpot number, and I cannot afford 777 (my friend has that number and bid $20,000 for it) and I tried to convince myself that the zero looks like letter O maybe. Nobody else is deceived lol...

Sorry finished with my license plate story on to more pictures of my car... 

I got inspired to write this post and literally went downstairs to snap some pictures without moving my car from my lot at all lol so pardon the other car next to it.

Hi baby you so gorgeous!! This is my baobei number 2 after Dash... :D Ok lah fine baobei number 3 if I count Mike.

It says Mitsuoka

Here's the side view. In case you are wondering, the Nissan March is actually a hatchback! Mitsuoka added the extra boot space to make it look like a sedan.

I love love love the rims that come with the car because it looks so damn vintage.

Upon closer inspection of Viewt pictures online, I realised that the original Viewt does NOT come with these rims!

Scroll back up to see the Jaguar Mark II photos and you will realise these rims look like the Mark II's rims!

What this means is that the previous owner probably loved the Mark II and modified the car the best he can to look like the vintage model... That's so fucking awesome. I have no idea where he found these rims but wow are they pretty!

Here's her butt

Btw I just want to say... I have become one of those people who love their cars.

I know a lot of people who say they hate driving, even if they do own cars, but I'm not one of those people. I love driving and having a car and I can't foresee myself ever going back to public transport.

Reasons:

1) I feel safe in my car

I never do feel completely safe and relaxed in public transit, even if it's in a cab. I fear potential rape/robbery at every moment lol!! I feel that it feels so powerless and claustrophobic to be inside someone's else vehicle, like you are trapped? What can you do? Open the door and roll out ala movies meh? Then my fragile fake nose how?

I probably have some psychological problems wtf lol... Like even in taxis I sometimes feel so uncomfortable if like there is a roach in the cab (stuff nightmares are made of), or the driver is dreadfully flatulent, or the driver is having major road rage and is cursing in the car, scaring me... like I cannot just get off when I want to coz I will be stranded in some highway.

When it's my own car I just feel completely relaxed and happy when I step in. Like I know it's MY space, I'm in control.

I just hate the feeling of like after a tiring day you just want to get home quick, but you got to tolerate another 10 mins of waiting for a taxi (on a good day), and another 20 mins of being in a potential rape zone before being home in your safe haven.

Having my own car means being "safe" sooner. The moment I go into my car I feel like I'm already home.

Ok fine I know cabbies probably won't rape me but that doesn't mean one should spread their legs wide and fall asleep in cabs ok! He can always be overcome with sexual arousal and abandon all logical thought and drive you somewhere to rape you, and when he realised he will go to jail for it, decide to kill you after dissecting you!! WHY NOT OK WHY NOT

You know that feeling when you can't wait to take off your bra when you get home? Sometimes I do it in the car when I'm alone driving back lololol


2) I want to be the one driving

Ok I'm terrible at directions, I'll admit this. But I am very good at following the GPS' directions. Before I leave for somewhere I will properly do my research on the best route and where to park. Before the journey I will sometimes even turn on two GPSes in case one decides to go bonkers I still have the other.

Therefore, I believe I am the most efficient person to get me to my desired location. I really, really cannot stand it when cabbies have no idea where to go so they just anyhow try and hope to get the right place. Then when they flounder I have to be the one to guide them, which brings me to my next point:

3) I get car sick

Except when I'm the one driving that is. I've always been easily nauseous since I was a kid and I cannot go on yachts or go on long car rides without puking all the way. It's the most horrible feeling in the world I swear.

Some people love that they can do their own stuff on public transport if they aren't driving, like replying emails etc.

I have no such luxury because reading in the car will make me vomit immediately. I literally am rendered useless at the back of the vehicle, curled up in a foetal position trying not to regurgitate my guts.

4) You can put all your stuff in the car

Did some shopping and don't want to lug the goods to dinner? Put it in the car.

My car also contains all my emergency supplies.

Full range of makeup, sunblock, mints, facial blotters, panadol, pads, money, scissors, angpow packets, jacket, salon pas, 2 portable chargers, a full change of clothes including panties. Slippers for when my heels are killing me.

And I can charge my phone while driving. #winner


5) I love driving all my friends around

I even like sending them home lol #extrovert


6) Traffic jams = Free KTV session

Other people get so pissed stuck on the road but I'm quite happy leh... I just blast music and sing at the top of my voice hahahaha! And speaking of music... MY CAR, MY MUSIC. I love that I'm not forced to listen to other people's choice of songs :D

7) MY CAR DAMN CHIO I SEE ALREADY DAMN HAPPY

And I think that's the most important reason of all lol!!!!


Ok enough writing nonsense here are some more pictures....

My stupid ancient GPS that I encrusted with crystals lol

And look the pony has WATER IN HER WINGS!! WITH GLITTER INSIDE *heart eyes*

I've never seen anyone else with a customised background for their sound system lol!!! I love this sound system thingy wtf I can use car speakerphone for phone calls handsfree, got reverse camera, and can connect to phone music/spotify. Can watch videos even if you have them on dvd or in a thumb drive!

And yes my light is pink (can customise lol!!) and my fav radio station is 100.3FM I know it's damn uncool but shoo.

Ponies on my dashboard

Hanging on the rear view mirror

Ponies are love

Here's my glove full of essentials in it. The black torch is a weapon wtf

Change of clothes and slippers... This little box is under the passenger front seat! So cute...

Spacious interior and lovely tan leather seats that aren't BLACK!! Hate black shit

Got these pink hooks online and accidentally bought a pack of 10 wtf... End up nobody wanted the rest coz nobody wanted pink hooks in their cars. -_- THEY ARE PERFECTLY FUNCTIONAL OK

Here's my pouch of makeup. I don't know why I took this stupid picture.

OK this stupid blog post took me like 3 weeks to finish writing wtf... In between I went to Croatia lol!! CAN U PLEASE GO BACK TO THE TOP AND SAVOUR EVERY WORD COZ MY SHOULDERS DAMN PAIN NOW.

Been meaning to blog about my "new" car for a while now but as I procrastinate the car is rapidly becoming no longer "new". LOL!!

Yes yes I know I have neglected my blog for a long time. It is increasingly intolerable to sit at an immobile computer station for hours to edit pictures and post them up... I really don't know how I used to manage to blog for like 10 hours in a row in front of the computer man. Nowadays here ache there ache and I get so distracted with Dash... Can't sit for 2 mins without him going MAMA this MAMA that. In the past I used to post all the time because I feel this insatiable need to broadcast my life with an audience, and there was simply no other avenue/outlet for me to vent my anger, share my jokes, or discuss my thoughts. Blogging was the only way.

Nowadays if one wants to share their life, there are so many alternative ways... I can tweet, I can post on instagram, I can Dayre, I can share on Facebook, I can do a life stream or shoot a video for youtube (even more troublesome than blogging so nah for that)... Of all the social media avenues, the one that requires the least effort of all is Snapchat, so that's what I've been posting on these few days...

I have become a Snap-addict of sorts, documenting my everyday life with Snapchat (id: TheXiaxue). At first, I never 'got' snapchat at all. Before stories were able to be made public, snapchat was just for sending boh liao pictures to friends, which I felt could be done easily with whatsapp so what's the point?

Plus Snapchat is so damn unintuitive and difficult to use... It was such a turn off trying to feature out what I was doing! Now, of course, I've become an expert and find navigate the app like a pro, but even now I still can't figure some stuff out, like how to record video without pressing your finger on the button (apparently it can be done), or how to get the trophies, or what the number under my name really represents.

It becomes easy to see the appeal of snapchat. Instagram has become increasingly stifling over the years with everyone using it to only post the best of their camera roll.

Picture is grainy or taken with iPhone camera? ERM NO THANKS DO NOT TAINT MY FEED. Shitty quality photos are not allowed to be posted. Or if I took 200 shots of Dash at the pool... Of those, 50 look nice. 3 is the max I will post from that series or the feed becomes repetitive and spammy, even though if I were to blog I would have posted up all 50.

I don't post "boh liao" photos which I simply find funny, like if I see a weird looking passerby, because it is both aesthetically not pleasing and intrusive on the passerby. I don't post random food pictures unless it is super gram-worthy. I don't post ugly unedited photos of myself if I can help it.

I don't know who set these rules for instagram. 

Ok fine I do know and it's me lol. But I don't know why I started being so rigid there... It's almost like over time the feed has become a certain way and I don't want to lower its standards, you know. And like everyone else has such nice pictures, I feel like cannot lose!! Plus, if you spam or post shitty pictures people tend to unfollow you. :( Instagram is such a cruel and unforgiving place, where your followers don't really know who you are and they don't care. They only want to see pretty or cute pictures.

Anyway I have ranted about Instagram before (although I hypocritically continue to use it albeit much less now). My point is not so much so that IG is becoming more canned but that it takes more effort now to post on that, so people move on to easier avenues, like snapchat.

With Snapchat you can spam because just with one tap people can skip to the next snap. You can post stupid, pointless and ugly stuff, because nobody judges there. And although it can feel lonely over there with nobody leaving comments or giving likes, it is also very liberating. It also, I feel, is an authentic representation of one's life, because it is only real time, unedited photos and videos. Plus snapchat has all these filters and stuff which makes it so fun! A new filter everyday!

Eh ok I digressed. This post is supposed to be about my "new" car.

So you guys are familiar with my cars over the past few years right?

My first car was sponsored by Duo Rewards and Downtown Car Rental!

WTF I was so fair after giving birth I don't know why! Maybe got milk in system will be fairer.

The sponsorship lasted a year and then I got my pineapple Dash car... 

(Someone pointed out my fat knees look like Dash's face. I laughed like a maniac and now you cannot unsee it can you? LOL)

I love all my sponsored cars but unfortunately all good things must come to an end... Rather than seeking another sponsorship in 2015 I decided that perhaps it is time to buy my own. 

I mean, if anyone still wants to sponsor me a car I'm more than open to it haha but I don't know, I guess my car sponsorships usually last a year and during the start of the year I will be so happy but as it ends I will have to frantically think about finding another sponsor or not having a car to drive... It is really quite stressful and as you know cars are very expensive in Singapore so it isn't an easy sponsorship to find!

As the Tyre queen sponsorship was nearing its endpoint I found myself just surfing Sg Carmart to look at cars instead of looking for another sponsor.

BUT WHAT TO BUY????

I mean, I'm sure there are girls like me around, right? I mean, not many of us, but some. And girls like me face a problem when it comes to buying cars because the car makers simply don't make cars to suit girls like me.

What do I mean?

I'm not a "car" person. I am not super informed about automobiles or love them from the bottom of my heart like car people do. I don't like racing or drifting or driving stick shift. I don't care about how fast my car can accelerate as long as it's not obscenely slow.

I mean if we are talking about dream cars obviously I would love to have a pink Bentley like Paris Hilton.

Hell, why not a sparkling Lamborghini?

"Santa, I would blow you if you drop the keys to one of these in my stocking next Xmas"

But let's be realistic here... I can't afford any of these. Not right now anyway!

And honestly, even if I get a free Lamborghini right now I won't be driving it but selling it away immediately. Ok maybe I won't sell it immediately but in a month's time lah lol enjoy it for a bit first.

The reason?

The cost of owning a super car isn't just what it costs to buy it. That's a large part of it. Everyday you keep the car instead of selling it its value goes down the drain like laosai of the curry you ate that had gone bad. That's what people call "depreciation".

So I randomly went to find the depreciation of, say, a Lamborghini Gallardo on SGcarmart. The depreciation of the random one I picked is $67,100 per year.

What that means is that the car costs you $5,600 PER FUCKING MONTH TO DRIVE IT!

How much must you earn per month that you can decide to blow $5,600 on your vehicle?? That's not inclusive of road tax, petrol, insurance, parking, ERP etc!

Imagine, if you get a free lambo right now, like Santa really gave it to you, and you decided ok lah so nice the car I drive it for a month... YOU LOSE $5,600 in value when you sell it a month later!

Damn jialat man I change my mind I will only drive it for 1 day and sell it.

That's not it...

People pay $600 road tax per year you pay $5000. Your insurance is off the charts.

But it also costs a lot to fuel. It costs a lot to repair. 

You will literally feel your heart die a little if someone scratches it - which I suspect many people will do because nobody likes a rich show off. 

Nobody wants to give way to you because fuck you rich bitch. 

Parking Pontianak sure make a beeline to give you summon first. 

And then you get a mini panic attack everytime you drive into a tight multi-storey car park. You go mega slow going up a hill in case your impractically low front bumper scrapes the ground and cost you $8888.80 to repair. 

To top it all maybe zao geng when getting out of the car.

In exchange for what? That sexy engine purr? To go super fast and break our 90km speed limit then get demerit points and cannot drive anymore? To get laid is probably the best reason but not applicable to married folk.

So yeah... Why dream an impractical dream? I mean, it is not that I can NEVER EVER afford a Super car... Maybe if I wanted it badly enough I would have worked towards that and became a multi millionaire by now. 

It is that I just won't spend that kind of money because I do not find it worth it. 

The principle of it also rankles me so much! Like why is it that if a side view mirror on a Nissan gets knocked off I have to pay a reasonable amount for a new mirror but if it's on a Lambo I have to pay an exorbitant amount? LIKE WHY? MIRROR IS MIRROR WHAT, ALL THE SAME. It's obviously trying to tok the rich people's money and I don't like the idea of being a carrot. It makes me SO ANGRY!!

I vaguely considered buying a BMW. Those look nice, right? I test drove one and I realised I didn't really like driving it. The steering wheel is super hard to turn and I can foresee that I will just get sian of having to use so much force to steer the bloody car. And its appearance is just so... masculine. 

I really would like a more feminine car... But how many feminine cars are there??

The only one that pops up in everyone's mind is the Volkswagen beetle - that's like literally the only model or something.

But a pink beetle is just so... cliched. Like every other girl drives it and I don't want to be the same as other people. I want something more unique and with more character. Also, the boot too small to put my pram. IKR, uncool.

When I was younger my dream car was a Daihatsu Copen:

Fuck it is so cute!!!!

I MEAN CMON

It's convertible (I LOVE CONVERTIBLE CARS) and actually isn't too expensive!! It is relatively unique...

However, at this juncture in my life it simply won't work. How can I possibly drive Dash and my maid out in a two seater? And the car is ridiculously small with the tiniest boot you can possibly imagine. It's really more of a motorcycle with a sidecar than a car lor lol

Actually, I love the appearance of vintage cars!!

I mean look at this cutie!! It looks SOOOO much better than the modern Beetle!!

The pro of vintage/old cars is that they are actually affordable.

The con is that it is horrible to drive an actual vintage car because they are always breaking down and cost shitloads to repair.

I know because Mike was driving an old Mercedes and it is like a grandpa with all kinds of ailments. Today aircon siao tomorrow engine cannot start next day the leather seats crack open. It's terrible.

Anyway so yeah I was shit out of options. 

It's either I am unwilling to spend that much on a model coz I don't like it that much, or the car really isn't practical at all like I can't put pram and car seat inside, or it is too old and I shouldn't buy an old car.

I resigned myself to buying a Daihatsu Materia perhaps...

It isn't expensive. It is a practical, reliable car. And it's boxy and cute and it looks like it's grinning all the time! They aren't usually pink but clearly some girl who is like me liked it and sprayed it pink (and covered the Daihatsu logo with my tattoo lol).

I thought of adding some eyelashes to the car and it will look quite cute!

And then I saw, on SGcarmart when I was surfing the exotic cars tab... 

A Mitsuoka Viewt.

I was super amused when I saw the car because it looks like an insect or an owl to me... I took a screenshot and sent the picture to my mom and Shuyin, but it never crossed my mind that I would actually buy it.

Why? Because

1) It looks vintage and I won't buy vintage cars after dealing with Laopokasaurus. Aint nobody got time for that

2) What the fuck is a Mitsuoka like seriously nobody drives that brand in Singapore and the repair work would be ridiculously exorbitant.

3) It is almost twice the price of the Materia, which I kinda had set my heart on.

Actually, the Viewt isn't that expensive. It is about the price of a BMW 3 series with the same amount of COE time left. I mean, obviously it isn't the price of a practical, everyday car, but it isn't like have-to-sell-body-to-afford kinda price, you know.

My mom was in love with the Viewt. She said it's really very cute and she told me to take a second look at it.

I googled Mitsuoka and it turns out the brand is very interesting!!

Click here to see all of their cars! I'm gonna post some here too.

Here's one

Believe it or not they actually made these cars wtf

Here's the Himiko

Just google image Mitsuoka and you can see that they do not even have ONE car that is boring and utilitarian!!!

But that's not all that's interesting about Mitsuoka.

Some of the cars aren't even really Mitsuoka cars!

THEY CHANGE THE EXTERIORS OF OTHER CARS.

For example, my Viewt used to, believe it or not, look like this:

Hi! This is a boring Nissan March which you won't look twice at. (sorry March owners but true - especially if it's silver which is like ew the most boring colour eva)

At Mitsuoka, a group of skilled craftsmen carefully remove the car's exterior (and some parts of the interior like steering wheel) and modify it into the Viewt - BY HAND.

To produce each car takes 40 days and thats why there aren't that many mass produced! 

I imagine that a lot of love went into making mine and it makes me feel so happy. 

I think of all the BMWs being stamped out in factories everyday and how my Viewt takes 40 days to produce (on top of the time spent on making a Nissan March that is) and I think the price is well worth it. 

I am more willing to pay money to the Japanese craftsmen who put real time and sweat into making my car than to all the advertising and marketing that luxury car brands probably pays for?

And true to Japanese intricate quality, my Viewt is already 8 years old and I don't know if the previous owner just drove it very little or took very good care of it, but it was in IMMACULATE condition when I bought it. Everything was beautiful and looked and felt brand new.

Mitsuoka doesn't just remove the shells of other boring cars either. They sometimes base the designs on obsolete but beautiful vintage models!!

For example, my viewt is modelled after the mega gorgeous Jaguar Mark II.

It really looks like the Jaguar haha!! A gas station attendant actually asked me, amazed, if that's what I'm driving - which I think is quite impossible because the Mark II stopped production in 1967! Anyway it's sans the metal Jaguar in front and it says Mitsuoka instead.

I was so freaking excited because I recently watched Xmen Apocalypse and my car suddenly appeared:

I was like hitting Mike on the shoulder and going OMG OMG OMFG IT'S MY FUCKING CAR!!!!

I was so happy coz like Professor X was driving my car hahaha!!

But upon closer inspection it is actually a vintage Jaguar Mark II. *Sad face emoji* Goodness knows where they managed to find one in such mint condition but I guess it isn't so difficult to find in the states.

So... back to the purchase.

My mom told me to call the previous owner and try to haggle the price, so I did. He also told me that the car has a Nissan engine. I was like HUH WHAT DO YOU MEAN in which he started to explain it's a Nissan March inside etc.

What this means is that

1) It is not actually vintage. It is a modern, boring, reliable Japanese car pretending to be vintage. Which means you get all the good looks and none of the nasty problems, hopefully?

2) Nissan March parts are not only cheap to repair, they are easily available!

3) I thought the car would suck oil like crazy but now I guess it won't!

I just couldn't believe my luck. It's like I found a car that matched all of my ridiculous criteria. 

- Looks vintage but isn't vintage. 

- Girly. 

- Classy. 

- Beautiful. 

- Isn't ridiculously over-powered for my simple needs. 

- Fits a pram and a car seat. 

- Price is slightly beyond my budget but I can still afford it.

And it is SO FUCKING UNIQUE.

I was told by the Mitsuoka dealer (not too sure if accurate but I'll take her word) that in Singapore there are only less than 5 on the road now. Throughout all of history only 12 were ever sold here. 12!! 

Of the 5 on the road, 3 are being kept by the Mitsuoka boss in his house because he likes the car so much, so I don't even know if they are being ever driven.

In all of SGcarmart history only ONE Mitsuoka Viewt ever was sold, and it's the one I own now. 

So even if you want to buy one, I'm not sure how you can, as the Mitsuoka dealership here is closed down.

People are always leaving their cards on my car asking if I'm interested in selling, but I'm not! I love love love my car and I intend to renew my COE once it ends in 2017 - hopefully it drops further!

All that for the price of a BMW 3 series... Which is so common on the roads.

My friends kept telling me not to buy the car and just get the Materia instead, but I don't think they understand... it's a great car and it's in such mint condition and it's so damn special and rare. I don't regret my purchase at all!

After getting the car, I naturally had to spray it a vintage cadillac pink...

You can watch the car spraying ep here!!!

Thank you so much Koh Guan Chua workshop for not only spraying my car the perfect shade but also being my trusted car workshop. :) :) 

Omg the entry is getting so long-winded but I really have to talk about something else...

After spraying the car it looked so beautiful but something was still wrong... My car plate.

The previous owner had the car plate 73 on it (which he said he bid $3,000 for), his birth year. When he sold me the car the plate was not included, so I got a random number instead which was SKV6960T.

Actually the number isn't horrid as far as random numbers go, not like 104 一定死 164 一路死 something.

Till that point in my life I never really bothered about license plate numbers. To bid for a number cost a minimum of $1,000 which is just... ridiculous.

Non drivers probably don't know this... In order to get a customised plate number, you have to bid for it, and it's a closed bid, meaning you just put in an amount (minimum $1,000) and pray nobody bids higher than you, because the winning bid goes to the highest bidder.

Bloody hell it's not even like the car plates in Singapore even look nice, like the vanity plates in the states - which BY THE WAY ARE BOUGHT FOR ONLY USD$50 I CANNOT DEAL

I could have gotten this for $50usd

No sir. In Singapore you have to have the 3 letters in front (cannot choose), your number/s in the middle, and 1 letter at the back (also cannot choose). It's hideous.

The numbers from 1-100 are DEFINITELY goners, everyone bids for them.

For 2 digit numbers, be prepared to put in $3,000 and up, or you surely won't be able to get them.

For 1 to 10, I think people pay like $50,000 or something. Imagine that shit... That's the price of another car sans COE. JUST FOR THE LICENSE PLATE TO LOOK PRETTY.

Next time you see a car on the road with license plate number 1, just imagine how rich that bugger must be to GIVE TENS OF THOUSANDS FOR A CHEAP PIECE OF METAL

I just can't get over this man... If you buy a birkin at least you know some work went into making the bag. Hermes also spends so much on advertising. You buying the bag actually employs people who work on it. Or if you buy a diamond ring that's $50,000, at least you know big diamonds are rare and hard to find, therefore justifying the price a little.


BUT WHAT IS THIS CAR PLATE NONSENSE

No money was spent on marketing or advertising. It is literally intangible - just a number - printed into the same piece of hammered metal that another car plate that's FREE is made out of. Number 1 is no more rare than number 6374.

It pays nobody's salary to create this product (ok fine I suppose some administrative people probably handle the bids), since technically it isn't a product so much so as it is a variant of a free thing. It doesn't even come in a nice box. If I pay $1,000 for something at least let it come in a satiny ribbon goddammit.

SO WHY SHOULD IT COST $1,000 AND UP CAN YOU TELL ME??

Oh and btw it's not just $1,000 you have to pay, even if you win your bid. After that there is another bullshit cost of $300!!! WHY??



As if all that nonsense isn't enough, THEY ALSO MAKE US PAY ANOTHER $1,300 TO TRANSFER THE PLATE TO ANOTHER CAR.

Meaning... If I successfully bid for number XXXX and I want to change my car, I have to pay $1,300 to put XXXX on the new car!! CAN EXPLAIN WHY??

And who does all these money go to?

LTA THAT'S WHO

The same people we pay our parking fines and ERP charges to!! Wei you go and die ok you all earn so much from the rich suckers who bid for car plates why still hire people to catch us for illegal parking can you please!!!

I try to do a modest calculation:

Let's imagine the people who bid for numbers 1-10 pay $30,000 each.

Let's imagine that the people who bid for 11-100 pay $3,000 each.

We will take out a few numbers I can think off on top of my head like 11, 88, 89, 111, 888, 777, 999 which cost probably $10,000 and up.

And then there are people who pay for the not so coveted numbers but at $1,300 each, and put these people at a modest 30, although I doubt it's so little.

It adds up to like $670,000

Which is only by my very modest count! If you add in all the people transferring license plates too I bet it's like way more...

LTA should give back to the people lor!! Reduce ERP charges can?

Anyway... I am just whining because I just feel the cost of a pretty license plate is REDONKULOUS. I know I know... Age old argument of "NOBODY FORCED YOU TO BID WHAT".

I blame my mother ok... She keep saying that the license plate I was going to randomly get will start with 4 and the Chinese believe it's inauspicious. Don't know where she got her nonsense info from since afterwards I got 6960... Very far away from 4thousand you mei you.

Then she said beautiful car must have nice license plate blah blah and I was like URGH I already spent so much on the stupid car but she is right, after she said that I cannot unsee it... If you notice on the roads most pretty cars have nice license plates... It's almost like you get a gorgeous wedding gown but decide to wear crocs with it.

So I was like OK LAH FINE YOLO I ALREADY SPENT SO MUCH ON THE CAR SO FUCK IT I WILL BID FOR A NICE LICENSE PLATE LIKE A STUPID SUCKER BUT I WON'T PAY MORE THAN $1,000 FOR IT!!!!!! I WON'T!!!


Then a flat bureaucratic voice which is untouched by my passionate anarchist statement reminds me that there is an additional cost of $300 so I hastily change my statement.



I WON'T PAY MORE THAN $1,300 FOR IT, I WON'T!!!

So that was that and I went to bid for 7770, because I like 777 since it looks like a lucky jackpot number, and I cannot afford 777 (my friend has that number and bid $20,000 for it) and I tried to convince myself that the zero looks like letter O maybe. Nobody else is deceived lol...

Sorry finished with my license plate story on to more pictures of my car... 

I got inspired to write this post and literally went downstairs to snap some pictures without moving my car from my lot at all lol so pardon the other car next to it.

Hi baby you so gorgeous!! This is my baobei number 2 after Dash... :D Ok lah fine baobei number 3 if I count Mike.

It says Mitsuoka

Here's the side view. In case you are wondering, the Nissan March is actually a hatchback! Mitsuoka added the extra boot space to make it look like a sedan.

I love love love the rims that come with the car because it looks so damn vintage.

Upon closer inspection of Viewt pictures online, I realised that the original Viewt does NOT come with these rims!

Scroll back up to see the Jaguar Mark II photos and you will realise these rims look like the Mark II's rims!

What this means is that the previous owner probably loved the Mark II and modified the car the best he can to look like the vintage model... That's so fucking awesome. I have no idea where he found these rims but wow are they pretty!

Here's her butt

Btw I just want to say... I have become one of those people who love their cars.

I know a lot of people who say they hate driving, even if they do own cars, but I'm not one of those people. I love driving and having a car and I can't foresee myself ever going back to public transport.

Reasons:

1) I feel safe in my car

I never do feel completely safe and relaxed in public transit, even if it's in a cab. I fear potential rape/robbery at every moment lol!! I feel that it feels so powerless and claustrophobic to be inside someone's else vehicle, like you are trapped? What can you do? Open the door and roll out ala movies meh? Then my fragile fake nose how?

I probably have some psychological problems wtf lol... Like even in taxis I sometimes feel so uncomfortable if like there is a roach in the cab (stuff nightmares are made of), or the driver is dreadfully flatulent, or the driver is having major road rage and is cursing in the car, scaring me... like I cannot just get off when I want to coz I will be stranded in some highway.

When it's my own car I just feel completely relaxed and happy when I step in. Like I know it's MY space, I'm in control.

I just hate the feeling of like after a tiring day you just want to get home quick, but you got to tolerate another 10 mins of waiting for a taxi (on a good day), and another 20 mins of being in a potential rape zone before being home in your safe haven.

Having my own car means being "safe" sooner. The moment I go into my car I feel like I'm already home.

Ok fine I know cabbies probably won't rape me but that doesn't mean one should spread their legs wide and fall asleep in cabs ok! He can always be overcome with sexual arousal and abandon all logical thought and drive you somewhere to rape you, and when he realised he will go to jail for it, decide to kill you after dissecting you!! WHY NOT OK WHY NOT

You know that feeling when you can't wait to take off your bra when you get home? Sometimes I do it in the car when I'm alone driving back lololol


2) I want to be the one driving

Ok I'm terrible at directions, I'll admit this. But I am very good at following the GPS' directions. Before I leave for somewhere I will properly do my research on the best route and where to park. Before the journey I will sometimes even turn on two GPSes in case one decides to go bonkers I still have the other.

Therefore, I believe I am the most efficient person to get me to my desired location. I really, really cannot stand it when cabbies have no idea where to go so they just anyhow try and hope to get the right place. Then when they flounder I have to be the one to guide them, which brings me to my next point:

3) I get car sick

Except when I'm the one driving that is. I've always been easily nauseous since I was a kid and I cannot go on yachts or go on long car rides without puking all the way. It's the most horrible feeling in the world I swear.

Some people love that they can do their own stuff on public transport if they aren't driving, like replying emails etc.

I have no such luxury because reading in the car will make me vomit immediately. I literally am rendered useless at the back of the vehicle, curled up in a foetal position trying not to regurgitate my guts.

4) You can put all your stuff in the car

Did some shopping and don't want to lug the goods to dinner? Put it in the car.

My car also contains all my emergency supplies.

Full range of makeup, sunblock, mints, facial blotters, panadol, pads, money, scissors, angpow packets, jacket, salon pas, 2 portable chargers, a full change of clothes including panties. Slippers for when my heels are killing me.

And I can charge my phone while driving. #winner


5) I love driving all my friends around

I even like sending them home lol #extrovert


6) Traffic jams = Free KTV session

Other people get so pissed stuck on the road but I'm quite happy leh... I just blast music and sing at the top of my voice hahahaha! And speaking of music... MY CAR, MY MUSIC. I love that I'm not forced to listen to other people's choice of songs :D

7) MY CAR DAMN CHIO I SEE ALREADY DAMN HAPPY

And I think that's the most important reason of all lol!!!!


Ok enough writing nonsense here are some more pictures....

My stupid ancient GPS that I encrusted with crystals lol

And look the pony has WATER IN HER WINGS!! WITH GLITTER INSIDE *heart eyes*

I've never seen anyone else with a customised background for their sound system lol!!! I love this sound system thingy wtf I can use car speakerphone for phone calls handsfree, got reverse camera, and can connect to phone music/spotify. Can watch videos even if you have them on dvd or in a thumb drive!

And yes my light is pink (can customise lol!!) and my fav radio station is 100.3FM I know it's damn uncool but shoo.

Ponies on my dashboard

Hanging on the rear view mirror

Ponies are love

Here's my glove full of essentials in it. The black torch is a weapon wtf

Change of clothes and slippers... This little box is under the passenger front seat! So cute...

Spacious interior and lovely tan leather seats that aren't BLACK!! Hate black shit

Got these pink hooks online and accidentally bought a pack of 10 wtf... End up nobody wanted the rest coz nobody wanted pink hooks in their cars. -_- THEY ARE PERFECTLY FUNCTIONAL OK

Here's my pouch of makeup. I don't know why I took this stupid picture.

OK this stupid blog post took me like 3 weeks to finish writing wtf... In between I went to Croatia lol!! CAN U PLEASE GO BACK TO THE TOP AND SAVOUR EVERY WORD COZ MY SHOULDERS DAMN PAIN NOW.

Has someone been upgrading the simulation?

- Hallo sahabat Berita Hari ini, Pada Artikel yang anda baca kali ini dengan judul , kami telah mempersiapkan artikel ini dengan baik untuk anda baca dan ambil informasi didalamnya. mudah-mudahan isi postingan yang kami tulis ini dapat anda pahami. baiklah, selamat membaca.

Judul : Has someone been upgrading the simulation?
link : Has someone been upgrading the simulation?

An article in the Independent by Matthew Norman suggests that we have slipped into a parallel universe, propelled through hyper-space into another reality. The evidence is Jeremy Corbyn as Leader of the Opposition, Leicester City top of the English Premier League, Brexit, Novak Djokovich losing at Wimbledon and so on.

My suspicion is that we haven't landed in a parallel universe. It is more likely that that we living in a computer simulation which from time to time needs to be updated, leading to temporary anomalies like neutrinos going backwards in time or Wales advancing to the Euro 2016 semi-finals.

Perhaps we will wake up tomorrow and find that something even more improbable has occurred, the inauguration of President Trump, Pete Best joining Paul McCartney for a reunion tour or Boris Johnson going into a monastery.

Or Google Inc. as number five research institution in the world, up from 195th two years ago, ahead of Yale and Princeton. That might actually give us a clue as to who is running the simulation.

An article in the Independent by Matthew Norman suggests that we have slipped into a parallel universe, propelled through hyper-space into another reality. The evidence is Jeremy Corbyn as Leader of the Opposition, Leicester City top of the English Premier League, Brexit, Novak Djokovich losing at Wimbledon and so on.

My suspicion is that we haven't landed in a parallel universe. It is more likely that that we living in a computer simulation which from time to time needs to be updated, leading to temporary anomalies like neutrinos going backwards in time or Wales advancing to the Euro 2016 semi-finals.

Perhaps we will wake up tomorrow and find that something even more improbable has occurred, the inauguration of President Trump, Pete Best joining Paul McCartney for a reunion tour or Boris Johnson going into a monastery.

Or Google Inc. as number five research institution in the world, up from 195th two years ago, ahead of Yale and Princeton. That might actually give us a clue as to who is running the simulation.

Can Grit Save Higher Education?

- Hallo sahabat Berita Hari ini, Pada Artikel yang anda baca kali ini dengan judul , kami telah mempersiapkan artikel ini dengan baik untuk anda baca dan ambil informasi didalamnya. mudah-mudahan isi postingan yang kami tulis ini dapat anda pahami. baiklah, selamat membaca.

Judul : Can Grit Save Higher Education?
link : Can Grit Save Higher Education?

American, Australian and British universities are facing a serious input crisis. The number of students capable of anything resembling a conventional university education is drying up and the spectre of extinction is haunting British and American campuses. London Metropolitan University is closing two campuses and cutting 400 jobs.  Twelve of those jobs will be managerial ones so the situation must be really desperate. Hull University has closed a campus at Scarborough. The Open University is closing several regional centres with 500 plus jobs at risk.

Meanwhile small colleges in the US are shutting down: Dowling College, New York, Burlington College, Vermont, Tennessee Temple University and no doubt more to come.

Many English speaking universities  have tried to cover the deficit by aggressively recruiting international students. That is helping a little and science and technology departments in the Russell Group, the Group of Eight and the Ivy League are becoming increasingly dependent on graduate students and faculty of East Asian origin or descent. But the number of students who can perform adequately at degree level is not infinite. There are signs that the Flynn Effect has run its course even in China and there seems to be an increasing large amount of test and credential fraud, plagiarism and ghost-writing associated with the influx of international students.

The problem is compounded by the pressure to admit increasing numbers of historically underrepresented  groups who may come with substantial loans and grants but are often inadequately prepared for higher education. Such students frequently find that attending classes with classmates who perform much better is a deeply painful and humiliating experience, all the more so since they have from childhood been steeped in a warm bath of self esteem and excused almost any anti-social behaviour.

The admission of increasing numbers of unprepared students can also have serious consequences down the road towards and after graduation. More students with poor ACT or SAT scores or failing to graduate on time, if ever, means that ranking scores will suffer, with serious consequences for applications and admissions, and that employers and graduate schools will be less welcoming.

So we have increasingly desperate efforts to find something, anything, that will predict academic success but where less able students can do just as well or better. The problem is that so far nothing has been found that matches the predictive validity of standardised tests that are highly correlated with general intelligence.

There has even been a serious proposal by a group of elite admissions officers to reward applicants for doing ordinary things like baby sitting or punish them for a lack of authenticity in their resume compliant extra curricular activities. Taken seriously this would effectively randomise university admissions and turn US higher education into a flat swamp of mediocrity.

The latest in a succession of attempts to find the really effective non-cognitive factor that will transform American higher education and achieve the holy grail of true diversity is something called "grit", supposedly discovered by Angela Duckworth a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania and a certified genius and author of an instant New York Times best seller. Grit is supposed to be a combination of passion and perseverance and is claimed to be important in determining job and academic success. It is allegedly a better predictor of success than IQ, health, good looks, or even social intelligence. It is, it would seem, "going to change the world".

Unfortunately, a thorough meta-analysis suggests that grit is almost the same thing as conscientiousness, a long established personality trait, and that its impact on academic success is modest and much less than that of cognitive ability.

And so the search for the Really Significant Non-Cognitive Factor continues.

American, Australian and British universities are facing a serious input crisis. The number of students capable of anything resembling a conventional university education is drying up and the spectre of extinction is haunting British and American campuses. London Metropolitan University is closing two campuses and cutting 400 jobs.  Twelve of those jobs will be managerial ones so the situation must be really desperate. Hull University has closed a campus at Scarborough. The Open University is closing several regional centres with 500 plus jobs at risk.

Meanwhile small colleges in the US are shutting down: Dowling College, New York, Burlington College, Vermont, Tennessee Temple University and no doubt more to come.

Many English speaking universities  have tried to cover the deficit by aggressively recruiting international students. That is helping a little and science and technology departments in the Russell Group, the Group of Eight and the Ivy League are becoming increasingly dependent on graduate students and faculty of East Asian origin or descent. But the number of students who can perform adequately at degree level is not infinite. There are signs that the Flynn Effect has run its course even in China and there seems to be an increasing large amount of test and credential fraud, plagiarism and ghost-writing associated with the influx of international students.

The problem is compounded by the pressure to admit increasing numbers of historically underrepresented  groups who may come with substantial loans and grants but are often inadequately prepared for higher education. Such students frequently find that attending classes with classmates who perform much better is a deeply painful and humiliating experience, all the more so since they have from childhood been steeped in a warm bath of self esteem and excused almost any anti-social behaviour.

The admission of increasing numbers of unprepared students can also have serious consequences down the road towards and after graduation. More students with poor ACT or SAT scores or failing to graduate on time, if ever, means that ranking scores will suffer, with serious consequences for applications and admissions, and that employers and graduate schools will be less welcoming.

So we have increasingly desperate efforts to find something, anything, that will predict academic success but where less able students can do just as well or better. The problem is that so far nothing has been found that matches the predictive validity of standardised tests that are highly correlated with general intelligence.

There has even been a serious proposal by a group of elite admissions officers to reward applicants for doing ordinary things like baby sitting or punish them for a lack of authenticity in their resume compliant extra curricular activities. Taken seriously this would effectively randomise university admissions and turn US higher education into a flat swamp of mediocrity.

The latest in a succession of attempts to find the really effective non-cognitive factor that will transform American higher education and achieve the holy grail of true diversity is something called "grit", supposedly discovered by Angela Duckworth a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania and a certified genius and author of an instant New York Times best seller. Grit is supposed to be a combination of passion and perseverance and is claimed to be important in determining job and academic success. It is allegedly a better predictor of success than IQ, health, good looks, or even social intelligence. It is, it would seem, "going to change the world".

Unfortunately, a thorough meta-analysis suggests that grit is almost the same thing as conscientiousness, a long established personality trait, and that its impact on academic success is modest and much less than that of cognitive ability.

And so the search for the Really Significant Non-Cognitive Factor continues.

David Cameron, Donald Trump, Leicester City, University Rankings and the end of deference

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Judul : David Cameron, Donald Trump, Leicester City, University Rankings and the end of deference
link : David Cameron, Donald Trump, Leicester City, University Rankings and the end of deference

Recently there have several setbacks for the experts on both sides of the Atlantic. In May 2015 the pollsters, armed with all the techniques of scientific social science, got it very wrong about the UK general elections, drastically underestimating the Conservative margin of victory.

Now they seem to be doing even worse with Donald Trump. Pundits have queued  up to denounce him as a racist, misogynist, transphobic, xenophobic, anti-semitic, Ku Klux Klan appeasing liar. Successive ceilings above which he could not possibly rise have been declared only to evaporate and replaced by another. And yet he has won the Republican nomination.

Pundits, critics and mainstream journalists are now predicting that his campaign will implode. that he will never have enough money, needs the support of the party grandees, does not have enough support among women, Hispanics, gays or trans people, is a poor organiser, does not read from a teleprompter, has disgusting hair, talks in slow monosyllables, fails to grasp the nuances of various things and so on. Perhaps this time the army of the qualified and credentialed will be right and we will have another wonderful four or eight years of a Clinton presidency with Bill as the First Gentleman. Or perhaps not.

Then there is  Leicester City winning the premier league title, against 5000 to one odds.  At the beginning of the season was there anyone who predicted anything other than relegation?

The press has had a multitude of stories about the experts of various kinds who have been humbled by Leicester's rise. John Micklethwait of the Economist has recounted how every year but the last he bet on the team winning the premiership title (later on the story was betting that they would come top of their division). Had he not forgotten to do so so this year then he would have have won 100,000 pounds.

I too have a story about the perils of underestimating Leicester City. A few decades ago I was the owner of a complete set of LCFC autographs some of which I got from from my father who went around the town as an inspector for the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance and occasionally got souvenirs from the organisations whose books he helped tidy up.

I got Gordon Banks's by queueing up at Lewis's in Humberston Gate and Jimmy Walsh's, then Leicester's captain just arrived from Glasgow Celtic, because he lived down the road in a semi detached now worth 130,000 pounds (Jamie Vardy's car is more than that) although I had to suffer the public embarrassment of being called a wee laddie by Mrs Walsh.

But at some point in the early or late seventies after Leicester left Division One, I gave the autographs away to somebody I can't remember. Today four signatures from that era plus Norman Wisdom are worth 275 pounds on ebay. That was an error even worse than selling an authentic vinyl copy of the Dylan Royal Albert Hall bootleg, now worth thirty, for ten dollars.

And of course we have the Brexit vote. It is unlikely that that there has ever been such unanimity about any matter of public concern from the various components of the dominant elite. Nearly every vice chancellor, all the managers of the premier league plus an imposing array of pop stars, rock stars and film stars have admonished the great unread (some of whom probably don't have passports!) that no decent person could possibly even dream of voting Leave.

The universities further elaborated on the perils of Brexit. Think about all the money that we get from the EU for research. The merit of this argument may have been blunted by the revelation that the field that got the most from the EU was Education.

The polls conducted with the latest markers of rigour such as sample sizes and margins of error, appeared to confirm that the British electorate was fully aware of the wisdom of their intellectual betters.

But clearly the academic elite had absolutely no idea about what was going on in the minds of over half of the population just as they had no idea of what was going on in the minds of Republican voters.

One wonders whether the economic catastrophe supposed to follow Brexit will actually be so catastrophic. A fall in the value of the pound or the FTSE index is not really a problem if you don't have any shares or pounds to start with.

It is possible that even the university rankers may also be suffering a loss of credibility. Last year the "revered" QS reported that the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University were overtaking the Ivy League, a claim that met with some scepticism even, or especially, in Singapore, and the universally "trusted" and prestige dispensing THE rankers do not seem to have received very much support for their pilot projects in Africa and the Middle East.

Perhaps the age of deference to expertise is coming to an end.

Recently there have several setbacks for the experts on both sides of the Atlantic. In May 2015 the pollsters, armed with all the techniques of scientific social science, got it very wrong about the UK general elections, drastically underestimating the Conservative margin of victory.

Now they seem to be doing even worse with Donald Trump. Pundits have queued  up to denounce him as a racist, misogynist, transphobic, xenophobic, anti-semitic, Ku Klux Klan appeasing liar. Successive ceilings above which he could not possibly rise have been declared only to evaporate and replaced by another. And yet he has won the Republican nomination.

Pundits, critics and mainstream journalists are now predicting that his campaign will implode. that he will never have enough money, needs the support of the party grandees, does not have enough support among women, Hispanics, gays or trans people, is a poor organiser, does not read from a teleprompter, has disgusting hair, talks in slow monosyllables, fails to grasp the nuances of various things and so on. Perhaps this time the army of the qualified and credentialed will be right and we will have another wonderful four or eight years of a Clinton presidency with Bill as the First Gentleman. Or perhaps not.

Then there is  Leicester City winning the premier league title, against 5000 to one odds.  At the beginning of the season was there anyone who predicted anything other than relegation?

The press has had a multitude of stories about the experts of various kinds who have been humbled by Leicester's rise. John Micklethwait of the Economist has recounted how every year but the last he bet on the team winning the premiership title (later on the story was betting that they would come top of their division). Had he not forgotten to do so so this year then he would have have won 100,000 pounds.

I too have a story about the perils of underestimating Leicester City. A few decades ago I was the owner of a complete set of LCFC autographs some of which I got from from my father who went around the town as an inspector for the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance and occasionally got souvenirs from the organisations whose books he helped tidy up.

I got Gordon Banks's by queueing up at Lewis's in Humberston Gate and Jimmy Walsh's, then Leicester's captain just arrived from Glasgow Celtic, because he lived down the road in a semi detached now worth 130,000 pounds (Jamie Vardy's car is more than that) although I had to suffer the public embarrassment of being called a wee laddie by Mrs Walsh.

But at some point in the early or late seventies after Leicester left Division One, I gave the autographs away to somebody I can't remember. Today four signatures from that era plus Norman Wisdom are worth 275 pounds on ebay. That was an error even worse than selling an authentic vinyl copy of the Dylan Royal Albert Hall bootleg, now worth thirty, for ten dollars.

And of course we have the Brexit vote. It is unlikely that that there has ever been such unanimity about any matter of public concern from the various components of the dominant elite. Nearly every vice chancellor, all the managers of the premier league plus an imposing array of pop stars, rock stars and film stars have admonished the great unread (some of whom probably don't have passports!) that no decent person could possibly even dream of voting Leave.

The universities further elaborated on the perils of Brexit. Think about all the money that we get from the EU for research. The merit of this argument may have been blunted by the revelation that the field that got the most from the EU was Education.

The polls conducted with the latest markers of rigour such as sample sizes and margins of error, appeared to confirm that the British electorate was fully aware of the wisdom of their intellectual betters.

But clearly the academic elite had absolutely no idea about what was going on in the minds of over half of the population just as they had no idea of what was going on in the minds of Republican voters.

One wonders whether the economic catastrophe supposed to follow Brexit will actually be so catastrophic. A fall in the value of the pound or the FTSE index is not really a problem if you don't have any shares or pounds to start with.

It is possible that even the university rankers may also be suffering a loss of credibility. Last year the "revered" QS reported that the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University were overtaking the Ivy League, a claim that met with some scepticism even, or especially, in Singapore, and the universally "trusted" and prestige dispensing THE rankers do not seem to have received very much support for their pilot projects in Africa and the Middle East.

Perhaps the age of deference to expertise is coming to an end.

Article in the Japan Times and an Unsuccessful Comment

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Judul : Article in the Japan Times and an Unsuccessful Comment
link : Article in the Japan Times and an Unsuccessful Comment

Here is an article published in the Japan Times. followed by a comment which I attempted to post.

Todai tumbles from top of Asia university rankings to seventh place

LONDON – The University of Tokyo, locally known as Todai, lost its crown in this year’s Times Higher Education Asia University rankings released Monday.

After occupying the number one spot for the past three years, the University of Tokyo came seventh in a list of Asia’s top 200 universities. Times Higher Education described this year’s results as “challenging” for Japan and blamed a lack of funding and poor international outlook for the country’s position.

Singapore achieved unprecedented success in this year’s rankings by taking the top two places, with the National University of Singapore at the top and Nanyang Technological University joint ranked second with Peking University, the highest-ranked Chinese institution.

A total of 39 Japanese universities made it into the top 200, with 14 listed in the top 100.

Kyoto University (11th), Tohoku University (23rd), Tokyo Institute of Technology (24th) and Osaka University (30th) all made the top 30, with four more ranked in the top 50.

Phil Baty, a Times Higher Education rankings editor, said, “Japan claims almost a fifth — 39 — of Asia’s top 200 universities in this year’s table, making it the most-represented nation, in joint place with China.

“However, while the list proves Japan has strength in depth, the majority of its universities appear in the bottom half of the table; just 14 Japanese institutions make the top 100, compared with 22 in China.

“Furthermore, Japan’s top-ranked institution — the University of Tokyo in seventh place — has been knocked off the number one position after three years at the helm. It is Japan’s only top 10 representative. Meanwhile, China, Singapore and Hong Kong have two, while South Korea has three.”

Baty notes that the past few years have seen a shift in the balance of power from West to East in terms of higher education funding and performance.

Comment

Todai fell from 1st place in last year's THE Asian rankings to 7th this year, while Nanyang Technological University rose from 10th to 2nd. Changes in International outlook and funding levels could not have had such a large effect in the space of just 12 months.

It should be noted that this year THE did a recalibration of the weighting of its indicators. That for research and teaching reputation, in which Todai does much better than Singapore and Hong Kong universities, was reduced from 33% to 25%.The weighting for industry income, in which Todai has an average score and Nanyang Technological University an almost perfect one, was increased from 2.5% to 7.5%.

In addition, THE has changed the process of collecting and analysing citations data, including not counting large-scale multi-author projects, in a way that has worked to the detriment of the University of Tokyo and to the advantage of the Singaporean universities.

The recommendations of THE should be taken with a big bucket of salt.

See University Ranking Watch

Here is an article published in the Japan Times. followed by a comment which I attempted to post.

Todai tumbles from top of Asia university rankings to seventh place

LONDON – The University of Tokyo, locally known as Todai, lost its crown in this year’s Times Higher Education Asia University rankings released Monday.

After occupying the number one spot for the past three years, the University of Tokyo came seventh in a list of Asia’s top 200 universities. Times Higher Education described this year’s results as “challenging” for Japan and blamed a lack of funding and poor international outlook for the country’s position.

Singapore achieved unprecedented success in this year’s rankings by taking the top two places, with the National University of Singapore at the top and Nanyang Technological University joint ranked second with Peking University, the highest-ranked Chinese institution.

A total of 39 Japanese universities made it into the top 200, with 14 listed in the top 100.

Kyoto University (11th), Tohoku University (23rd), Tokyo Institute of Technology (24th) and Osaka University (30th) all made the top 30, with four more ranked in the top 50.

Phil Baty, a Times Higher Education rankings editor, said, “Japan claims almost a fifth — 39 — of Asia’s top 200 universities in this year’s table, making it the most-represented nation, in joint place with China.

“However, while the list proves Japan has strength in depth, the majority of its universities appear in the bottom half of the table; just 14 Japanese institutions make the top 100, compared with 22 in China.

“Furthermore, Japan’s top-ranked institution — the University of Tokyo in seventh place — has been knocked off the number one position after three years at the helm. It is Japan’s only top 10 representative. Meanwhile, China, Singapore and Hong Kong have two, while South Korea has three.”

Baty notes that the past few years have seen a shift in the balance of power from West to East in terms of higher education funding and performance.

Comment

Todai fell from 1st place in last year's THE Asian rankings to 7th this year, while Nanyang Technological University rose from 10th to 2nd. Changes in International outlook and funding levels could not have had such a large effect in the space of just 12 months.

It should be noted that this year THE did a recalibration of the weighting of its indicators. That for research and teaching reputation, in which Todai does much better than Singapore and Hong Kong universities, was reduced from 33% to 25%.The weighting for industry income, in which Todai has an average score and Nanyang Technological University an almost perfect one, was increased from 2.5% to 7.5%.

In addition, THE has changed the process of collecting and analysing citations data, including not counting large-scale multi-author projects, in a way that has worked to the detriment of the University of Tokyo and to the advantage of the Singaporean universities.

The recommendations of THE should be taken with a big bucket of salt.

See University Ranking Watch

THE's bespoke Asian rankings: the strange decline of the University of Tokyo and the rise of Singapore

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Judul : THE's bespoke Asian rankings: the strange decline of the University of Tokyo and the rise of Singapore
link : THE's bespoke Asian rankings: the strange decline of the University of Tokyo and the rise of Singapore

Times Higher Education (THE), in conjunction with their prestigious summit in Hong Kong, have revealed this year's Asian University Rankings which use essentially the same methodology as the world rankings but with some recalibration.

The most noticeable aspect of the new rankings is that the University of Tokyo (UT), which was first in 2013, 2014 and 2015, has now suddenly dropped to seventh place, behind the National University of Singapore (NUS) in first place, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore up from tenth to second, Peking University, the University of Hong Kong, Tsinghua University and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Tokyo is not the only Japanese university to suffer in these rankings. Tokyo Institute of Technology has gone from 15th last year to 24th, Osaka University from 18th to 30th and Tokyo Metropolitan University from 33rd to 52nd. 

The rise of NTU and the fall of Tokyo need some explanation. When we are talking about institutions with thousands of students and faculty that produce thousands of papers, citations and patents, it is not good enough to say that one has been investing and networking and the other has not. The time from the publication of budgets via research proposals to publication and citation is usually closer to a decade than to a year.

Let's take a look at the details. Between 2015 and this year UT suffered a modest fall for teaching (a cluster of five indicators) international outlook and industry income, a substantial fall of 5.6 points for research (a cluster of three indicators) and a large fall from 76.1 to 67.8 points for field-normalised citations.

Evidently the methodological changes introduced last year by THE and Elsevier, their new data partners, have had an effect on the citations indicator score of UT. The changes were excluding papers, mostly in physics, with a large number of authors, switching from the Web of Science to Scopus as a source of data about papers and citations and reducing the impact of the "regional modification" that awards a bonus to universities in countries with a low citation impact.

Meanwhile NUS rose 4.7 points for citations and NTU 9.7 points. It would seem then that these changes contributed significantly to Tokyo's decline and to the ascent of NUS and even more so that of NTU.

There is another factor at work. THE have told told us that they did some recalibration, that is changing the weighting of the indicators. They reduced the weighting of the teaching reputation survey from 15% to 10% and that of the research reputation survey from 18% to 15%. The weighting for research productivity and research income was increased from 6% to 7.5% each  and for income from industry from 2.5% to 7.5%.

So why did THE do this?  It seems that it was done after consulting with Asian universities because "many Asian institutions have only relatively recently arrived on the world stage, with investment focused on recent decades, so have had less time to accumulate reputation around the world."

But one could say something similar about all the indicators: Asian universities have only recently arrived on the world stage and so have had less time to accumulate research funds or research expertise, build up their faculty, develop international networks and so on.

And why give the large extra weighting to industry income because "many Asian nations have put their universities at the forefront of economic growth plans, where industry links are crucial?" Perhaps some countries have plans where industry links are not crucial or perhaps other criteria are equally or more crucial. In any case, industry income is  a very questionable indicator. Alex Usher of Higher Education Strategy Associates has already pointed out some of its flaws.

Anyway, whatever THE 's ostensible reasons for this recalibration, the consequences are quite clear. Taking points from the reputation survey has worked to the disadvantage of UT, which in THE's 2015 reputation ranking had scores of 18.0 for teaching reputation and 19.8 for research reputation, and in favor of NUS which had scores of 9.2 and 10.9. The scores for NTU, the University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology are much lower and are withheld. It is not clear what the exact effect is since this year the reputation scores are subject to an "exponential component" which has presumably reduced the spread of scores and therefore UT's advantage.

It is not possible to determine the effect of giving extra weighting to research productivity and research income since these are bundled with other indicators.

Giving a greater weight to industry income has hurt UT, which has a score of only 50.8, and helped NTU with a score of 99.9, the University of Hong Kong with a perfect score of 100 and Kong Kong University of Science and Technology with a score of 68.1.

It appears that Japanese universities do relatively badly in these rankings and those in Singapore and Hong Kong do so well largely because of the changes last year in the collection and processing of citations data and the recalibration this year of the indicator weightings.

The co-host of the Asian summit was Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the list of "prestigious university leaders from around the world"  includes those from Hong Kong, Singapore and China but  not from Japan.

Times Higher Education (THE), in conjunction with their prestigious summit in Hong Kong, have revealed this year's Asian University Rankings which use essentially the same methodology as the world rankings but with some recalibration.

The most noticeable aspect of the new rankings is that the University of Tokyo (UT), which was first in 2013, 2014 and 2015, has now suddenly dropped to seventh place, behind the National University of Singapore (NUS) in first place, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore up from tenth to second, Peking University, the University of Hong Kong, Tsinghua University and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Tokyo is not the only Japanese university to suffer in these rankings. Tokyo Institute of Technology has gone from 15th last year to 24th, Osaka University from 18th to 30th and Tokyo Metropolitan University from 33rd to 52nd. 

The rise of NTU and the fall of Tokyo need some explanation. When we are talking about institutions with thousands of students and faculty that produce thousands of papers, citations and patents, it is not good enough to say that one has been investing and networking and the other has not. The time from the publication of budgets via research proposals to publication and citation is usually closer to a decade than to a year.

Let's take a look at the details. Between 2015 and this year UT suffered a modest fall for teaching (a cluster of five indicators) international outlook and industry income, a substantial fall of 5.6 points for research (a cluster of three indicators) and a large fall from 76.1 to 67.8 points for field-normalised citations.

Evidently the methodological changes introduced last year by THE and Elsevier, their new data partners, have had an effect on the citations indicator score of UT. The changes were excluding papers, mostly in physics, with a large number of authors, switching from the Web of Science to Scopus as a source of data about papers and citations and reducing the impact of the "regional modification" that awards a bonus to universities in countries with a low citation impact.

Meanwhile NUS rose 4.7 points for citations and NTU 9.7 points. It would seem then that these changes contributed significantly to Tokyo's decline and to the ascent of NUS and even more so that of NTU.

There is another factor at work. THE have told told us that they did some recalibration, that is changing the weighting of the indicators. They reduced the weighting of the teaching reputation survey from 15% to 10% and that of the research reputation survey from 18% to 15%. The weighting for research productivity and research income was increased from 6% to 7.5% each  and for income from industry from 2.5% to 7.5%.

So why did THE do this?  It seems that it was done after consulting with Asian universities because "many Asian institutions have only relatively recently arrived on the world stage, with investment focused on recent decades, so have had less time to accumulate reputation around the world."

But one could say something similar about all the indicators: Asian universities have only recently arrived on the world stage and so have had less time to accumulate research funds or research expertise, build up their faculty, develop international networks and so on.

And why give the large extra weighting to industry income because "many Asian nations have put their universities at the forefront of economic growth plans, where industry links are crucial?" Perhaps some countries have plans where industry links are not crucial or perhaps other criteria are equally or more crucial. In any case, industry income is  a very questionable indicator. Alex Usher of Higher Education Strategy Associates has already pointed out some of its flaws.

Anyway, whatever THE 's ostensible reasons for this recalibration, the consequences are quite clear. Taking points from the reputation survey has worked to the disadvantage of UT, which in THE's 2015 reputation ranking had scores of 18.0 for teaching reputation and 19.8 for research reputation, and in favor of NUS which had scores of 9.2 and 10.9. The scores for NTU, the University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology are much lower and are withheld. It is not clear what the exact effect is since this year the reputation scores are subject to an "exponential component" which has presumably reduced the spread of scores and therefore UT's advantage.

It is not possible to determine the effect of giving extra weighting to research productivity and research income since these are bundled with other indicators.

Giving a greater weight to industry income has hurt UT, which has a score of only 50.8, and helped NTU with a score of 99.9, the University of Hong Kong with a perfect score of 100 and Kong Kong University of Science and Technology with a score of 68.1.

It appears that Japanese universities do relatively badly in these rankings and those in Singapore and Hong Kong do so well largely because of the changes last year in the collection and processing of citations data and the recalibration this year of the indicator weightings.

The co-host of the Asian summit was Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the list of "prestigious university leaders from around the world"  includes those from Hong Kong, Singapore and China but  not from Japan.