Merlion City: Outlier

Friday, May 26, 2006

out·li·er
n.

One whose domicile lies at an appreciable distance from his or her place of business.
A value far from most others in a set of data: “Outliers make statistical analyses difficult” (Harvey Motulsky).
Geology. A portion of stratified rock separated from a main formation by erosion.

Growing up, i've often suspected that i'm an outlier, as per definition no. 2. Why?

I started talking at 10 months, but didn't really attempt to walk much till i was almost 2-years old. (Why walk when u can get someone to carry u right? And of 'cos, in order to get someone to carry u where u want to go, it's important that you open your mouth to direct them!)
In nursery/kindergarten, all my classmates (at least all those i remember) always wanted a younger sibling for company. But i told my mom that i didn't want any. Didn't see the point in it.
A typical 4-year old would probably hate going for extra non-academic classes... but i used to bug my parents every week till they let me take up ballet, piano, art, and taekwando lessons!
I'm one of the rare Singaporeans who doesn't understand Hokkien.
On that same note, my standard of English probably ranks within the top 5% of all Singaporeans, and given that i spoke English almost exclusively while growing up, it's kind of weird but i listen solely to Chinese pop. In fact, i don't even know who are the members of the Backstreet Boys, U2, etc...
And today, the outlier syndrome struck once again... i went to highlight my hair and i chose Magenta Red as it was the darkest red on the colour chart. My hairdresser also said that all her clients who wanted a visible red had to add Copper Red to Magenta Red, in order for the red to be visible. But for me? This is what i got...

(My hair is really super red... if it's not obvious in the photo, that's 'cos it was taken in a rather dim carkpark.)

There u have it! My bright red hair!