alfoo was on the frankfurt-singapore leg of my flight home. he'd been to see the world cup! reporting on it, you mean? i asked, knowing he was at the st sports desk, but he'd actually taken two weeks of personal leave to go. i spotted him while waiting for my luggage, so we chatted for a bit. here's my name card, he said. everyone is always giving me their namecards these days. even addy and yeenteck gave me theirs when they started work. there's a namecard culture here, of course, though it is also true that other people are all grown up and have real jobs while the grad-schoolers are still mentally 18. poor julian and me!