~72 Hours After mRNA-1273 Booster...

Frankly, nothing noteworthy. The soreness of the intramuscular injection site (missed it the first couple of times) is nearly non-existent. There seems to be light pain from potential lymph node swelling in the left arm-pit, but I only notice it when I choose to notice it, i.e. also not noteworthy.

I spent a little bit of this morning reposting some of the longer Flute Forum posts that I had put up yesterday, spelling errors and all, and elaborated a little more on one of them. But that's not really noteworthy either.

I did power through The Singapore Story: Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew last night. Fuelled by a little too much energy drink/soda, and the relatively interesting subject matter of secession from Malaya that the last third of the book was talking about, I completed that book. I must say that after I had read through this volume, I can see why the Old Man treated unions the way he did---unlike in the western countries, the unions in SIN city had been tainted with communist tendencies in the past, and the Old Man had observed how they were wielded as a blunt weapon of subversion against the governing body.

I mean, he literally worked with the folks who did all that right in the beginning when SIN city was still under colonial control.

An organisational weapon that was used successfully before to force control away from the incumbent becomes a prime target for nerfing when the new person takes control: this is to be expected.

I wonder if such extreme influences still exist these days. It's hard to tell because unlike SIN city of that era, there is no obvious oppressor/emergency to deal with. The problems of today have a longer horizon than the problems of the 1950s--1960s. We are, on average, still wealthier than 80% of the world's population despite all the complaints that we have, though the nature of the complaints need to be taken into the context of actually having to prosper here in the face of mounting pressures.

Politics then shares similar characteristics as today, but with one key difference: there really isn't a strong identifiable rival to unite against per se. That could be a reason why the modern SIN city politician seems to be ``softer'' than those of that era.

But hey, what do I know? I'm an armchair critic---who knows what kind of deep negotiations are going on in the background to guarantee SIN city's continued independent existence even as the world's superpowers posture for hegemony as regional powers continue their game of subtle one-upship.

All I know is, that's probably the last book for 2021, with 《毛主席语录》 by 毛泽东 being my next book to read.

In the event that this post is the last for this year, take care, and see you all in the annual summary tomorrow.