Macro Grey

Penal code 377A

2007-10-17T19:33:00.000+08:00

I hope the penal code 377A doesn't get repealed. There's some 'fashionable' online petition going on. Hope the gahmen I voted in stays the course and ignore such nonsense.

Now who will protect my rights if I am drunk and some gay shit decides to stick his pecker up my arse?

ODEX

2007-08-28T14:51:00.000+08:00

There's a recent buzz on the internet of ODEX against the local anime downloaders. I'm surprised to hear of a judge ruling against ODEX demands of Pacific Internet to release 1000 names of its subscribers that download anime. Quoting from CNA,

In a surprise court ruling on Thursday, a judge decided that Pacific Internet (PacNet) does not have to give up the names of its subscribers who had been accused of ripping content from Odex. ...

The ruling raised eyebrows because two other Internet service providers (ISP) - SingNet and StarHub - had earlier been ordered to give up the names of their subscribers accused of similar violations. StarHub said the company is now assessing its options. (link)

Wow! Now who says the authorities are pro business. Hurray!! For Pacific Internet for fighting for its subscribers. Shame on the other two incumbents especially SingTel. According to news report, they didn't even resist, simply blindly comply. I guess out of this episode you wouldn't find much support for ODEX, maybe more would order animes from other online stores. After all there has been lots of complains on how slow they are at bringing in new anime and even their sub-titling is of sub standard quality. A shame compared to the high standards the fan-subs do for free. The other bad publicity are the other two ISPs. Especially SingTel. Quick to surrender without a fight. Starhub, well they did try and perhaps the Pacific Internet's team of lawyers learnt from the outcome. But StarHub can still shine, they are still weighing their options as of now.

Odex said that the settlements it is seeking are not for damages, but reimbursement of expenses incurred in pursuing enforcement matters. (link)

Well, shouldn't some of the reimbursement be given to the rightful owners?

Too bad, in the end. This whole exercise, aside from trying to make some profit re-cuperate expenses and scare all downloaders has some what failed. For more detail information, check out this thread on Hardware Forum.

ActiveRecord update

2007-08-13T18:39:00.000+08:00

Realise for some data modification on the database a simple sql session is still necessary, despite the availability of the Rails console. Learnt it the hard way today, when I tried to modify some production data and I couldn't. I couldn't because of some rules built into the update methods of the ActiveRecord model. In the end, I had to do it by firing up an sql session (eg. SQLPlus).

On hindsight, I could still get around the rules by calling the method, update_by_sql. Oh well, am still on the learning path on RubyOnRails and Ruby.

Monday before national day

2007-08-06T09:26:00.000+08:00

My joints are stiff am sleepy. È buzz of the bull has faded. I can feel it in è air. Some how less traffic and people about over the weekend. Psychological? Maybe. But the market did lose billions of dollars. I wonder how much of that is from retail investors?

STI is down 100 points and declining. Markets across Asia are in a sea of red. All reacting to the US credit bubble, delinquent sub-prime lenders. And so history repeats. Mans greed.

So some finance genius or group figures out how to pass these risk to investors by turning these debt repayment to bonds with fancy names, dividing them, repackaged and sold to investors.

Well, its the start of National day week. And markets are red. But I bet STI at least will turn green just for National day.

Fair weather weekend

2007-07-29T23:12:00.000+08:00

It has been nice & cool over this weekend. A nice reprieve from the hot weather for the past 3 months.

Despite the rain, manage to go cycling at Pasir Ris Park followed by a lunch at Changi village hawker centre. Ipoh hor-fun was good. Too bad the fried carrot cake was mediocre. So was the ayam penyet bought from the stall nearest the popular nasi lemak stall. Will try the middle of the three ayam penyet stall next time.

All is well

2007-07-26T09:11:00.000+08:00

I guess this is as good as it gets. Not too busy at work, still manage to come home by 8pm and only after playing a few rounds of table tennis. With two potential career prospect, it is just me procrastinating and not polishing up my CV. What's with me? I'm subconciously always sabotaging my own success.

Alright! Better get to doing my CV by this Fri. And maybe figure out google's api, GData.

Save the 3rd rock from the sun

2007-07-21T13:12:00.000+08:00

Climate change has never been felt so much till of late. Men has ignored timely warnings from scientist till now. Every 30 mins of TV time, I see advertisements promoting save the earth, save gaia. Concerts held strategically round the world, Live Earth gets TV coverage broadcasting to billions on Earth. TV audience, especially to the developed/developing countries. Makes me wonder, aren't these concerts itself consuming energy and in turn contribute to global warming or now the hype phrase, climate change? And where are these concert organisers from? US of A. But of course, the country and people that contribute the most to global warming. The land of excess and consumption.

Los Angeles, CA – Detailing a historic effort to engage billions of people across the globe, Kevin Wall, Al Gore, Pharrell Williams, Maná, Cameron Diaz, and the MSN Network today launched Save Our Selves (SOS) – The Campaign for a Climate in Crisis. The announcement was made at the California Science Center.

link

Yeah right, throw a 'campaign'. That's right campaign. For whom? For political mileage and corporate bottom line.

Want to save the earth? Consume less. Live simply.

170707

2007-07-17T23:33:00.001+08:00

Another year older but none the wiser. Just 20+ years ahead of job insecurity.

Wait out

2007-06-19T09:47:00.001+08:00

Left all my cash cards at home, So here I am waiting at a junction coffee shop sipping coffee while I wait for 10am. Thats right, waiting for the ERP gantry to turn off.

Its been awhile since I was at Siang Kwang. This area brings back toddlerhood memories.

Beside this shop is an alley lined with street vendors of all kinds. There was the sweet man who would spread his colourful wrappered sweets on his push cart. Five cents for 3. And then there was the yummy huat kuei, this guy had a mini portable steamer. And not forgetting tau suan served in a porcelain bowl. Ah memories.

Now the alley is just an alley. Progress. First world living standard. Street vendors have all been relocated to hawker centres or food courts by early eighties.

Cool D&D T-Shirt

2007-06-07T10:40:00.001+08:00

Cool D&D T-Shirt,
originally uploaded by MacroGrey.

DOTA Allstars new map 6.44

2007-06-05T16:29:00.001+08:00

Dota 6.44 map is out. 6 new heroes. Tried Storm Spirit, Dark Seer, Sacred Warrior, Pit Lord and Lanaya. I didn't get the time to try Dirge the undying. Would be cool, because that hero is IMBA.

Sacred Warrior is a troll that heals and does fiery damage at the expense of his health. His ultimate is good for beginners. Damage done is base on a percentage of his hit point. So for this dude, go for the strength build. He is a good healer, so he gets to stay in the lane real long.

Dirge the undying is one tough zombie, able to control the lane with the zombies that he raises, they in turn heals the hero and Dirge is a walking radiance, well better, imagine 1% of your hp goes away at his presence at regular interval. His ultimate really slows you and am not sure if damage is done. But this zombie can really push. Takes a lot of effort to stop him. With the right team, I think its possible to push very hard into enemy base at level 6. An IMBA hero that is just dying to be nerfed in the next version.

Storm Spirit is a blue panda, probably seen him before. Its the blue panda when Pandarean Brewmaster calls his ultimate and splits. Storm Spirit shoots electric bolts and can shoot them fast at the expanse of mana. Has a chance of creating a mini purge. His magical shield is also nice, making him good against magic users. Lastly his ultimate is a grapple. Just one night and I've seen creative use of it. I suck at grappling..ha ha ha.. once I brought my entire dying team close to the opposing team. Wasn't very popular after that. Anyway, grapple is cool, you could grapple an object (even trees and living things) and bring anyone around you to it. You could grapple a far away tree to escape from an enemy. Its not a blink so, I suppose your line of path must be clear.

Pit Fiend, a demon like hero. Able to do minimal area damage by raining fire at an area, cast a wall of tomb stone around his enemies. if they touch these tomb stones they are stunned for a short while. Most times they just walk right between the tombstones with ease. His ultimate is cool, he can open a portal that leads to any where in the map. Seen one creative use of it, where he transports his entire team to another part of the map. Naturally surprising the enemy in the forest.

Dark Seer, a melee intelligence hero. First skill brings every one to a point and damages them. Second skill shields and damages. Third removes negative buffs. Ultimate creates a wall, any hero that passes through an image of the hero is created. Possible deadly combo is, wall in front of him, cast first skill to pull enemy heroes through the wall creating images of them which in turn attacks his enemies.

Lanaya, the toughest to play. Then again I only had one night to evaluate and by evaluate I mean just join a game and play, trying to read their skills while farming and wondering what skill build to go for. Lanaya can hide, but only for awhile. Her ultimate is to set traps that last pretty long, cool down for the trap is also short. You could set as many traps as you want. Traps slows her enemies, but you have to manually trigger them, have yet to test if it auto-triggers. This micro manage of traps makes Lanaya a hero for advance players.

Anyway, amongst these new heroes, I guess Storm Spirit and Sacred Warrior suits my style. And maybe Dirge for his IMBA abilities. Pit Fiend if my team mates are really good.

Looks like IceFrog introduced piercing type of heroes. Lanaya and Sacred Warriors are throw dart like weapons. Sacred probably made to look like spears where as Lanaya throws her psionic daggers. Wanted to read a bit more on these new heroes but couldn't dotaportal.com seem to be down since yesterday. Maybe it couldn't handle the load.

Like all things new it comes with defects. I hear there are memory leaks. Players disconnects probably due to a crash sometimes. Encountered a check sum error while playing, good thing it was caught. A red message appeared asking us to save the replay and email to IceFrog. Well, kind of got carried away, forgot to save replay and just joined the next game :P

Rising cost

2007-06-04T07:31:00.001+08:00

With the recent rise in commodity due partly to climate change and partly to China's insatiable consumption the timing of the increase in GST to 7% will hit some hard. Though there are offset packages and salary increments which never seem to keep up with inflation, it is the low to middle income that will suffer the most.

Even sugar cane juice has increased by fifty cents! Coffee and milk will soon go up too.

There has been much news on the rise of commodities. To correct the public's view that the rising cost is not solely due to the coming GST hike.

It is unfair that the problems of other countries affect us. Being resource scarce Singapore imports most of its food. And most of our diary imports from Australia. With Australia experiencing its worst drought in years, food yield is severely down.

I hope we find alternative source of supply. But it will take time. Mean while most of us will just have to bite the bullet or eat less.

A mudder falls

2007-06-02T10:02:00.000+08:00

Sad, just read in the papers and later confirmed with some old friends that a player I use to see around in a mud I played has succumbed to deep vein thrombosis (DVT).

This was his third - and final - attack of breathlessness in about as many years. Shocked at the sight, Han Boon, a 22-year-old medical student, called for an ambulance immediately. He said: 'Every single breath was a gasp. He couldn't speak or move much.'
Then Rui Hong fell silent and became cold to the touch.
Excerpts from news article.

Oh Rui Hong, may you rest in peace. Will always remember you as the awesome Pyromancer.

I suck at DOTA

2007-06-01T13:58:00.001+08:00

Man, I suck real bad at DOTA these days. Sheesh, to think I've been playing since 2005. Its the age. Most likely. To make it worst, the people I play with are getting younger. Am amaze at their reflex. So what's an old geezer like me to do against lightning reflexes of youth? I chose Medusa, one for mana shield and for her ability to split arrows. That should allow me to farm well and have enough buffer to run right? Well wrong. I meet people who could deny my creep kills early in the game, first blood me even with mana shield. Damn these kids are good!

Well on the work front, it sucks. We had a deadline but there are major bugs that couldn't be squashed. Team is tired, been working round the clock for the past four days and there's no light at the end of the tunnel. Only just, we think we have identified the problem and is now rushing for a fix. Looks like this weekend wouldn't be much of a weekend. We didn't break for Vesak Day. Wife is shopping, at least she's happy.

Update: Next day, I scored well with Tormented Soul and Magnataur woot! This Uncle is back!

Vesak 2007

2007-05-31T02:25:00.000+08:00

Vesak day, there's a grand temple opens. Floats depicting the Buddha in different cultures are parked right beside the grand new Buddha Tooth Relic Temple along South Bridge Road. China town is lighted up with dragon post lamps and red banners are hung from lamp post to lamp post. There's a new buzz in town.

Still stuck in office, wife calls. No keys to the house, on the cab from the airport. Reaching in 15 minutes. I grab my stuff and rush home.

The beginning Asia's golden era

2007-05-30T16:59:00.000+08:00

Asia is in. Lots of cash in the region, stock markets are rising fast, China is charging ahead and so's India. It is in when Singapore films make it to Cannes. It is in when the face of Asia is the new beauty. Yes, Miss Universe 2007 is Japanese, Riyo Mori. Miss Korea made it to the finals too.

Freaking case sensitive

2007-05-30T15:13:00.000+08:00

Damn, been twiddling around for two days wondering why the hell FireFox doesn't handle document.getElementByID ? After two days I realise, its getElementById .. Yes! Lose the capital D.. Lower it. Geesh.

Till ten o'clock

2007-05-23T11:02:00.001+08:00

First time waiting at an alley off Lim Teck Seng Road. Its 9:50am waiting for the clock to hit 10 o'clock. No need to pay S$1/- to enter the ERP zone from 10am to 12pm. Notice those concrete obstacles that block access to the road? Heh, probably many motorcyclist have flanked the ERP gantry in the past.

A letter to god

2007-05-17T10:43:00.001+08:00

There was a man who worked for the Post Office...whose job it was to process all the mail that had illegible addresses. One day, a letter came addressed in a shaky handwriting to God. He thought he should open it to see what it was about. The letter read,

Dear God,
I am an 83 year old widow, living on a very small pension. Yesterday someone stole my purse. It had £100 in it, which was all the money I had until my next pension check. Next Sunday is Christmas, and I had invited two of my friends over for dinner. Without that money, I have nothing to buy food with. I have no family to turn to, and you are my only hope. Can you please help me?
Sincerely,
Edna

The postal worker was touched. He showed the letter to all the other workers. Each one dug into his or her wallet and came up with a few pounds. By the time he made the rounds, he had collected £96, which they put into an envelope and sent to the woman. The rest of the day,

all the workers felt a warm glow thinking of Edna and the dinner she would be able to share with her friends. Christmas came and went. A few days later, another letter came from the old lady to God. All the workers gathered around while the letter was opened, It read.

Dear God,
How can I ever thank you enough for what you did for me? Because of your gift of love, I was able to fix a glorious dinner for my friends. We had a very nice day and I told my friends of your wonderful gift. By the way, there was £4 missing. I think it must have been those
thieving bastards at the Post Office....
Warmest Regards,
J D Victor

passwd revealed

2007-05-16T10:25:00.001+08:00

Damn, revealed a production database password today, accidentally.

Lesson learn. While WinXP is loading applications in the background immediately after login? Never start any instant messaging while logging in. Well this happened.

1. ssh to production server
2. Start Gaim
3. Start Skype
4. start logging in
5. start logging into production database
6. at password prompt, start typing password
7. lo and behold, an irritating friend sends me an instant message.

The MSN window loads but has yet to display itself. But during this time, focus was on the hidden window just before I type the database password. Yeah, you probably guessed it, it got sent to my friend. Thankfully the clown doesn't know the exact nature of my job. But still, it is a lesson learnt.

Tribal Harley

2007-05-11T11:12:00.001+08:00

This is a ride for earth day.

Mee Sua with egg

2007-05-10T18:20:00.000+08:00

Yum! Haven't had this for awhile. Still taste as good. It is the mee sua soup with egg sold by Swee Ting at Maxwell Rd food court. The stock is sweet and tasty, use to come with seafood and mussels. Now to cut cost its just crab cake, fish cake, spring onions, some pork maybe chicken. But still good. Warms my heart and fills me tummy. That said, now I miss the mee sua in Malacca, now thats mee sua!

1-click web award 2006

2007-05-02T14:39:00.001+08:00

1-click web award 2006,
originally uploaded by MacroGrey.

Ha ha ha, check this out http://www.1-click.jp

Its the 1-click web award for 2006. Hilarious creative use of flash.
Its got Japanese men in white sports wear carrying a huge mouse
pointer. I love it when they rest, especially the old guy in front
starts bending over and starts hitting his aching back.

Labour day

2007-05-01T20:46:00.001+08:00

Son is down with a virulent flu. Getting him to take his medicine is next to impossible. Tried all ways, coax, threat, treat, walks and finally force. Problem with force is, he tends to throw up what medice we try to make him take. Any finally forced 4 out of 5ml of ibuprofen into him and he is asleep, traumatised and tired. Its going to be a long night ahead. Went to sleep with an empty stomach. That means milk feeds at 2, 3.30, 5.30am in the morning. Making milk is the easy part. Carrying him and coaxing him to sleep is tough. Better rest while he is. Its 2053h, labour day is ending.

Long night ahead

2007-05-01T20:35:00.001+08:00

Its been awhile since I was stalked by a bapok. Last night one weirdo tried to be funny with me. Wearing a pair of bright yellow crocs, long bermudas & a cap. Intentionally over took me while i was walking home from the mrt station. When I increased my pace he immediately did the same and lead by a step. With my ear phones on & listening to music I decided to ignore the wierdo. He kept turning his head to smile at me. I simply ignored him & kept my pace. It was late and my son is sick. We went our separate ways at the next junction. Good for him. Why do these weirdoes want and hope to get? On the spot blow job? To be sodomise(ed)? Go find a dog or some equally weird hang out like the pool opposite Liang Court. Oops! Its closed.

Minister's pay hike

2007-04-30T15:28:00.001+08:00

Dear Sir,

your pay keeps going up and up, but mine still hentak-kaki. Papers keep reporting Singapore economy damn good, TV also say. But I don't feel it leh. Kopi increase, other basic makan things also increase. Don't believe, compare a kg of rice in October 2006 and now. GST hike not even here. Aku dread the day it arrives, in July. Outsiders say our gahmen very forward looking. I agree. I think our capitalist also damn forward looking. Increase first, and then later say GST absorb! Tamade. Like that, no wonder that BIG supermarket will absorb GST la.

But I think hor, I am ok with your pay raise la. After all, where to find honorable and selfless gahmen calibre people? Where to find people to run a trillion dollar enterprise? After all our country is unique and outstanding. So I think you have made the right choice.
Your pay should also be outstanding. Soon we will outstand all, Singapura Boleh!

But hor please, try to make our lives better la and empathise more la. I know a lot of people complain your pay damn high even higher then the other first world leaders. But please la, those leaders I am sure are paid equally or if not even more in other means. Over there, under
the table is high traffic, very busy one. That's why I don't think they negotiate at a glass table, ha ha ha. Complainers even compare your pay with other CEO. But CEO never sacrifice their weekend go around shaking hands, plant trees, cut ribbon, dance and talk talk?
Surely you deserve more just for working on weekends. And Singapore so humid.

Look around us, our neighbours are tripping over their own feet. Some try to challenge our airport, also fail (KLIA, Suvarnabhumi). Buddy, buddy want to dig a longkang to by-pass us, now terrorist ground and kena coup some more. Now gahmen there also lost. Donno what to do. MY
bros always boleh. We got first world port, they want to potong jalan. Now most customer who left ours have quietly come back. And Proton? Boleh tahan la. Pakai Petronas money to support. Belakang, Indon. Sore eyes, go and ban granite and sand. Now you give them face, sign
extradition treaty. I wonder if they can even extradite one guy back.
Before they start, I think that fella fly their plane already.

So with all this tripping, we suddenly look damn good. No. You Sir. Look damn good. With IR and maybe F1 here. Pow chiak! 2008 can increase pay again! And maybe means testing for hospital bills! Not only are your own people envious of your success, even your fellow neighbouring peers are. Maybe these peers will be attracted to join you, more foreign talent!

That is why you deserve it. We are small like a snort (pee-sai). Other normally BIG country can bicker and have their rights to voice up. We do not have the luxury. Just follow your lead lor. Chin-chai la. As long as Singapore ok, I say ok!

yours sincerely,
MG

Trattoria Italiana

2007-04-27T19:59:00.001+08:00

Hvn't blogged for awhile. Busy. Since i'm waiting for wifey at this
italian restaurant i might as well.

Basket! H20 not free. Still or sparkling? Still. Acqua Panna came.
Fiak! Wife arrive 35 mins late.

Skype chope my port 80

2007-04-26T14:34:00.000+08:00

Skype chope my port 80,
originally uploaded by MacroGrey.

Haven't blogged for ages. Has it been almost a year now? Well, what can I say? Been busy and just didn't feel like blogging.

Anyway, today I just got tired of Skype using port 80 on my WinXP machine. I'm running an intranet application on my pc. Been manually starting this sequentially for months (Webrick then Skype). Yes I know, been procrastinating. Finally got my act together, searched google and whoa, lots of people had the same experience. Seems Skype default connection port is 80 and 443! Yes 80 and 443! To change it to another go to Tools->Option->Connection. I set mine to something high. Basket why did they default it so? Using port 80 and 443 (SSL).
WTF! You'll never get that through on a unix machine unless you're root. So ok, it's about time I configure my intranet application to start automatically when my pc starts. And oh, google led me to discover a few WinXP tip, http://photomatt.net/2006/10/13/windows-tip

netstat -a -o -n
tasklist /fi "PID eq 1280"
taskkill /PID 1280

and http://weblogs.asp.net/george_v_reilly/archive/2004/09/15/230281.aspx
another bloggers experience with Skype's:80

Chicken Pox

2006-05-24T12:01:00.000+08:00

Just came back from seeing the doctor. Am told to stay indoors. Doctor has seen many case of chicken pox for the past 2 to 3 weeks. Sounds like an outbreak. And we don't hear of this in the local media. Like what news do they deem worthy enough to report? And wheres the warning from HPB?

JG

2006-05-09T09:17:00.000+08:00

I was wondering why the incumbent has been hitting hard on James Gomez. After all the poor man merely thought he had submitted a form. Futhermore has apologised. Perhaps its a polictical strategy to win more votes from his party. But after searching google, perhaps they fear him. To quote Yoda, "Fear leads to the dark side".

According to ThinkCentreAsia.org, Gomez is no novice in politics, he has written a book, Self-Censorship: Singapore's Shame, organised a polical rally titled, "Save JBJ Rally" and voted by Asiaweek as one of Asia's 50 Most Powerful Communicators and later, Asia's Top Ten "Rebels &; Mavericks". He has a news website, http://www.jamesgomeznews.com and a blog even.

Now that he has been arrested. To allay all doubts and fears of the people, I hope the government will prove to us, that he is a liar as they claim him to be. Goverments reputation is at stake here. But you know what, no matter the outcome, our government will have left a certain dark stain in all of us.

Outcome as expected..

2006-05-07T08:32:00.000+08:00

And so the incumbent party has won the day ( as expected ). But what surprised me was the increased margin in Potong Pasir and Hougang. Wow! Three cheers to the voters there for not biting the carrot ($180 milllion of upgrade funds promised). As for Aljunied GRC, close fight! Although the incumbent calls it a landslide (base on other countries standard), I think by Singapore standards, its a close 6.1% margin.

Aside from these slight change, all is well and the same. I really hope this new team will see us through difficult waters ahead. Makes me wonder, what will Singapore be like in a 100 years? Or 50. Will we still be relevant? Our success is not natural, we have little resource and land. Our past success was hugely base on our ports and skilled human capital. Our neighbours are fast catching up. How long can we run ahead? One thing that slows their progress is a stable government.

I guess in a way, we should be thankful for the incumbent. Despite their aristocratic ways and some goof ups, they are still the best. And can Singapore afford to bicker for days and months on issues? Our government is quick to act compared with our neighbours. Aside from being efficient there is little opposition in power to give them pause.

Lets hope that the incumbent will learn to be more humane, especially when implementing policies that affect our lives. If cost of living must be increased, then please, explain it clearly from all angles why. And do try to listen to all feedbacks and not just collect feedback for the sake of it. And lastly, try to spend some time with your people in your constituency.

Election

2006-05-05T09:11:00.000+08:00

Yes, its election time. Where my estate is spick and span. Its a new estate, but yet I see over zealous cleaners working hard. Town council even advertise in advance what they are going to do, build a shelter connecting our block to the LRT. Wa.. this whole new estate is so new, yet they are upgrading (so soon ah?). Pooi! If its so new, why not build it from the start in the first place?!

And the past few days election news covered by the local media is so bloody boring! Nothing but news on a man who thought he had submitted a form. Come on! Once is enough.. not pages and pages and hours and hours of reporting on it. I have stopped buying the papers. SG Rally has better coverage of the whole election rallies. Lets move on! Looks like the incumbent party finally realise this and has started to focus on real issues.

These past elections, the main topic is always upgrading. Cheh! Upgrading is not free. Don't we have to co-pay? Isn't it our money in the end. Tax payers money? I am saving my progress package payout in anticipation of new policies that will impact my cost of living.

Just two days ago, an MP in a lorry drove past my place. Waved at me and smiled that politician smile. Out of courtesy, I waved and tried to smile. Very hard to smile when MP only drive by just before election. Ok, so MP is too busy meeting the people, then what about those grass roots people?! Oh wait, they are busy too. After all don't these people have their own personal agenda? And the incumbent party dare say that the opposition is around only for the election, after the election they are nowhere to be seen. Actually he will be seen, yes. On the local media. Announcing new policies. Policies I am anticipating.

Increase in public transport (PTC fare decision delayed just before election).
More ERP (or increase charge)
GST increase
CPF cut wouldnt be restored
Higher carpark charges

Anyway, tomorrow is polling day. I better follow instructions on how to submit my vote. Don't want the election department to confront me with a CCTV footage and demand an explanation from me.

Starcraft revisited

2006-04-19T18:32:00.000+08:00

Whoa cool! Just found a StarCraft flash game from Armor Games. But the game is not the real thing, just a shoot'em up. After awhile it got boring killing those infected marines.

I remember those almost endless nights and days playing StarCraft with colleagues and friends. My favourite races were the Protoss and Zerg.

Oily politics

2006-04-19T12:15:00.000+08:00

And so the US has attacked Iraq and 'liberated' its people from a tyrant. But whats left of Iraq now? Civil war is about to break out. At this rate, this situation is going to be worst then Vietnam. US will have to try to end what they started in Iraq, especially with pressure from home to pull out US soldiers; and escalating kidnappings (of allied civilian workers) and death of soldiers in the war. There is a new tactic employed by US adversaries. Not only are they using guerilla tactic, they are using the internet and media to broadcast these kidnappings to advance their objectives. The internet, the very tool that the US created. These terrorists know of the irony and the benefits it brings (like spreading messages of hatred and violence).

Despite trade embargoes, Iran has crept back on its feet. Now that the Americans have directed attention on Iraq for the past few years, Iran has now declared that they can enrich Uranium and experts are saying that they could expedite their enrichment programs by some clandestine means ( with help from a renegade Pakistani scientist?). Dread to think of the day when they have enriched enough Uranium-235 to make a nuclear bomb. Whats more worrying is, their ability to make a dirty bomb soon.

US have always been at the background trying to manipulate the middle east for oil to spur its economic progress. As far back as the early 21st centaury? For to be a super power you need money. Wasn't it the Americans who goaded and guided Iraq into fighting with Iran, First Persian Gulf War that lasted 8 years. But too bad, a dictator rose in Iraq. Which brings them to this present predicament.

Middle East is certainly a wild and untamed beast that the Americans should surely realise by now. But the prospect of controlling oil flow is just too attractive not to try. Perhaps the Chinese might do better? Don't know, only time will tell. The Chinese have been quietly making diplomatic trips/agreements with many countries globally on securing oil. It is only recently that US goverment officials have realised this. A new player to watch out.

I suspect these few years will mark the beginning of US fall from superpower status. My best bet for the next contender is China. With the rise of China, will begin a new era.

On my part, I hope somebody discover a real alternative energy source fast. One that is lasting, limitless and cheap. For until then, the Middle East will always be a hotbed for controversy, bloodshed, war and control.

Recent thoughts

2006-04-12T07:15:00.000+08:00

Thaksin not running as PM in next Thai government

He'll be back. You'll see.
A sad lost to Thailand if he does not see his grand plan for Thailand materialise.

Sondhi wanted for making false accusations to his King

This unscrupulous cheat deserves it. With all his loud mouth protest, what solutions does he has for Thailand? Just another political scum out to further his own cause.

Registration of SG blogs who write political content frequently

Don't think many would register. Typical gahmen (pap) style. No podcast? Bleah! Now I'll have to cramp with all the smelly uncles at the oppositions rallies. Nothing like listening to juicy opposition. Might even get to spot defamation material first hand! Besides PAP's rallies are so mundane and besides broadly publicised in all main stream media.

Cruel

2006-04-07T07:44:00.000+08:00

This is just sick. Received this image in the mail just before I slept, yuck!. Apparently theres some fetish on crushing small animals. This is just sick. The worst thing is, the internet allows these sick people to share it globally.

Lady doing the evil deed seems to be from Hangzhou. I read that they make movies out of this, and VCDs are sold cheaply on the streets in Hangzhou.

More write ups on this topic here,

01:02:03 04/05/06

2006-04-06T09:58:00.000+08:00

On Wednesday, April 5, 2006, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 AM in the morning, the time and date will be

01:02:03 04/05/06

This will never happen again in your life time.

Great! I missed it. Was busy sleeping. Like it matters.

Update: Now, wouldn't it happen again on May the 4th, 2006? The above date format uses, MM/DD/YY format, we use, DD/MM/YY format. So yeah! To those who want to make something out of this.. maybe make a baby.. now theres another chance.

Clifford Pier

2006-03-29T18:12:00.000+08:00

Went down to Shenton way today to get my expired cheque re-issued. It rained and I didn't bring an umbrella. The underground walk way from Raffles Place MRT didn't connect to PWC building. With time on my hands, I decided to pop over to clifford pier. The old quaint pier to wait for the rain (to stop). Remember reading about the pier in the papers. Was it going to be closed? Don't know. Quick search in google didn't bring up any clues. Maybe I should search gov.sg Oh well, I am digressing.

The pier is alot quieter these days. Couple of students around doing sketches of the internal architecture. Two photographers taking pictures. Wonder if its going to be torn down. Hope not. Maybe I should plan for a photo shoot for some keep sake photos. Used to be the place to wait for bum boats to take you to the southern islands (kusu, sisters, st john's). And it was crowded.

Anyway was strolling around when I spotted a teh sarabat stall there. Seems popular with the workers. Couple of old indians manning the stall.. looks authentic. Didn't get a chance to try their teh tarik as there was a long queue for teh. Besides, the rain stopped. So off I went to PWC.

n level Spicy buffalo wings

2006-03-28T15:38:00.000+08:00

Poor Kucinta had a bad experience at Buckaroos. I thought the food there was still above average, until I happen to read her blog today. Well, I wouldn't be eating there any more. Besides I have better alternatives, like eating at the originator's joint.

Buckaroos first started at a HDB block of flats off Jln Kayu. Was happening then, started by a Texan. Then the cafe/pub was spacious (due to low rent). But they had to move when HDB decided to clear the land. But Jerry's is still at Jln Kayu. Dined at Jerry's last month, food is still above average, pretty good I'll say. Jerry's was also started by the same Texan. He sold both businesses away.

Anyways, after eating n levels of buffalo wings for years, it is just fried chicken with generous (depending on the level) amount of jalapeños and tabasco sauce.

How the library changed my life

2006-03-28T07:33:00.000+08:00

Amazing! This book, Flight of the Night Hawks is supposed to be launched on April 11, 2006. And here I have a hard cover copy from the library. Cool or what?! Yup! The NLB has definitely changed my life.

Heh. As of now, it is not even mentioned on Feist's official web site.

Gorilla Pod

2006-03-27T09:31:00.000+08:00

I definitely gonna get me one of these. Beats any tripod any day.

From Joby.

Erawan shrine - Bangkok

2006-03-26T22:39:00.000+08:00

I hear and read from the local media that the 4 faced buddha beside Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel, Bangkok was demaged by a deranged man. Sadly, some bystanders took it in their hands to kill the man. Just read that those men will be charged for murder. I guess in the end, the statue of Brahma is just a statue. It is what the Brahma or 4 faced buddha teaches or represents that matters more, working to reap good karma daily matters most. Statues, images are just material.

Some in Bangkok fear that it is a bad omen, considering the current political crisis. Whereas others think the shrine did a sacrifice to absorb the current bad luck Thailand is facing.

Well I think all this is good publicity for the shrine or the 4 faced buddha itself. To me, I didn't know that the 4 faced buddha was brahma too. Because of this incident, not only do I know but have read up a bit on who and what Brahma stands for. Furthermore, after the shrine is restored, I'm sure more tourist will come to visit and pray at the shrine. So looking at a macro level, I'll say its a good thing.

More tinkering with nature

2006-03-08T16:16:00.000+08:00

SP students just made plants that glow when they're stressed. Cool! But not quite when its planned for crops.

The development of such plants could help farmers to develop more efficient irrigation of crops.

And we wonder why our cancer statistics keep rising?

Which way now?

2006-02-10T20:37:00.000+08:00

Right, which way now? At a cross road am I. Where do you want to go today?

ROD lor!

A wedding dinner speech

2006-01-22T21:30:00.000+08:00

A humble distinguished speaker spoke at my cousin's wedding. It was a long speech and I almost switched off and was happily eating my vegetables when I picked out these lines from his long speech..

When a man introduces the woman beside him, he says, "This is my wife". When a woman introduces the man beside her, she says, "He is my life"

So. Are women that noble? Looking at my mum, mother-in-law and wife. I have to agree.

Jonjon's getting married

2006-01-22T10:07:00.000+08:00

Time flies. Seems like yesterday that my cousin was just a cute 5 year old. Today, he is throwing a grand wedding dinner. Fell in love with the girl he worked with, propose to her on his knees in Sydney on her birthday.

Congrats you guys, and may you build a happy life together in Melbourne.

Elephant no more

2006-01-16T07:44:00.000+08:00

Yippee, Buangkok MRT has finally opened. With much fanfare, yesterday, while passing by I saw many people at the MRT grounds where a carnival was setup. There were many large inflatable play things for kids, sports (archery, etc...) and even a buffet. Didn't see those RGS girls selling their 'Save the elephants' T-shirts. All in all, looked like it ended past 12 or 1pm. Besides even heaven blessed the area at about 11.45am, with rain.

I am just glad that the station is finally open, for what ever co-incidental reasons.

Rain and rain

2006-01-12T18:34:00.000+08:00

Been raining heavily for days. Should be about a week of raining now. Some more today have to run to Changi to meet customer and later transport some bulky books back to office.

Looking forward to tonights get together dinner with my old estate friends. Haven't met up for ages. These are the guys (brudders) I grew up with (the early teenage years).

And for once, I'm leaving office before 7pm! Yippee.. MacroGrey is out the door....

kodesex

2006-01-11T13:02:00.000+08:00

Click here to find out what those symbols mean.

Ace in class but not the world

2006-01-11T12:58:00.000+08:00

Recently the local papers reported that our top students do very well in exams but do not make successful scientist, business men, inventors. I think its largely due to our education (exam focus) and the quest to follow a stable profession. If you are lucky, you find passion in what you do in life. While most do what Singapore feels will bring in the most $$. But never to question what it is that the individual want to do.

The main issue is, to think out of the box and to challenge the norm. We are mostly a citizen of automatons. We abide by the rules. Follow what our teachers tell us to do. We have been instilled since young not to challenge. MOE is trying to change the school syllabus to change students mindset, but yet there are OB (out of bound) markers. These markers limit more then what they are intended to do. They stifle the freedom to challenge the unthinkable. The US is also a multi-racial/religious country, but yet, they do not have these markers.. But then again, they have the freedom of speech.

I guess no matter what, we still cannot run away from the fact that Singapore is a tiny island without natural resource. We do not have the luxuries of other bigger countries. We are constantly trying to compete to stay relevant. It is this fear that will drive the majority of us to be automatons. Productive, industrious and obedient. Never to think out of the box and create. Just follow what big brother tells us. He cannot be wrong(?)

Secretary's resume

2006-01-11T06:38:00.000+08:00

Heh heh. Just got this from the mail.

Deer Sir,

I waunt to apply for the secritary job what I saw in the paper. I can Type real quik wit one finggar and do sum a counting.

I think I am good on the phone and no I am a pepole person, Pepole really seam to respond to me well.

I´m lookin for a Jobb as a secritary but it musent be to complicaited.

I no my spelling is not to good but find that I Offen can get a job thru my persinalety. My salerery is open so we can discus wat you want to pay me and wat you think that I am werth,

I can start imeditely. Thank you in advanse fore yore anser. .

hopifuly Yore best aplicant so farr.

Sinseerly,

Peggy May Starlings

PS : Because my resimay is a bit short - below is a pickture of me taken at my last jobb.

Employer's reply:......

Dear Peggy,

It's OK honey, we've got spell check..... Welcome onboard!!!

Just in (.. the buff)

2006-01-06T12:51:00.000+08:00

Just got an email. Check out this fine dining restaurant in Denmark.

Never been to Denmark. Now I want to go :)

Heh. Actually its really nothing isn't it? Its just a novelty. Theres something built in us human to constantly think of sex. Its part of our biological makeup. The gist of it is to procreate. If you think about it in this logical sense, suddenly sex seems like a chore.. And it could be a reason why humans are the only species ( I think ) that find pleasure in doing it.... well ok, besides dolphins :)

Please God, just one more bubble

2006-01-05T23:50:00.000+08:00

Found this T-Shirt on sale at Cafe Express. Cool words. Anybody in the IT field can relate. And really, I can't wait for the bubble. According to my colleague he thinks the bubble is here.

I don't quite think so, despite brilliant novelty ideas like selling a dollar a pixel. And the recently sold meebo (which is a damn cool web IM interface).

Dish or digital fake?

2006-01-04T09:47:00.000+08:00

Just received an email this morning. Strangely, it is the only email, from a lady ex-colleague. Inbox so quiet, must be a calm before a storm. Anyway this came in the mail.

Man, that is one uh, one mean 'mock' dish. If its a vegetarian mock dish, I'll say its a definitely a treat for the ladies ;)

Then again, it could be some bored skilled photoshop artist.

Stepped on shit

2006-01-03T18:09:00.000+08:00

Today I stepped on shit at the public toilet. Some clown before me, flushed and the toilet bowl over flowed, spilling shit, urine and soiled paper on the toilet floor. A reflection of my current
situation (ha ha). Wading through shit at work. And guess what, in the afternoon it was my turn. I flushed after crapping like no tommorrow, and the bowl over flowed too. But no shit spewed out of the bowl, just clean water. The cleaner went in just when I left the toilet. Guess he should be giving me the evil eye the next time we meet.

Not my fault what, I tried to flush, but the bowl got jammed.

Anyway, my sole still smells of urine.. yuck! What a wonderful day to start 2006!

Happy New Year!

Exercise is bad

2005-12-29T17:20:00.000+08:00

Just got an SMS. An ex-boss just passed away while jogging. I knew exercise was bad. There is a conspiracy out there to kill us. Anyway my deepest condolences. He was a humble leader and an accomplished person. Pursued his career, hobbies and led a full life. His career credentials,

Public Service Commission scholar

Head of the Combat Simulation Group, Systems & Computer Organisation (Mindef)

Director of Information Technology Institute

Managing Director of Spectris China Ltd

CEO, Tricast Pte Ltd

COO, Asiacontent.com Ltd

My deepest condolences to his family.

Good bye, Sir.

COE drop

2005-12-29T13:59:00.000+08:00

Wow, S$9,001 for a Cat B COE (base on the results for DECEMBER 2005 2nd Open COE Bidding Exercise). I guess with the coming elections and the fear of losing your job has lowered demand further.

Furthermore with the plan to lower the cost of car ownership and increase the cost of use. I would think twice no thrice of getting a car. For those who have no choice but to get a car, I would suggest checking out the resale market. Remember, these resale cars come with higher OMV. Which will see you through to your next car.

But if you can do without a car and still desire mobility, why not try cycling? We live on an island, about 42 km end to end. Cycling at a slow easy pace of 12 km/h that would take you about, 3.5 hrs (from Changi point to Tuas). Not taking into account traffic and killer slopes. But 12 km/h is really a slow pace, so most would move faster.

Better cycling infrastructure would encourage more to cycle. See Groningen, the 'bicycle city' of Netherlands on how much time and effort has been put in. No wonder they got the award, 'Bicycle city'. At least some heart lands have cycling parks, like Pasir Ris. Hope they do more. Maybe when the grand plan of connecting all the parks on Singapore is realised.

We are so sedated. Even those who claim they exercise do not exercise enough. Once a week is not enough, I hear 3 times a week each duration about 30 mins is required.

So cycle, kill two birds with one stone. Easily said, I still prefer to take the MRT and sleep on the way :)

Day after boxing day

2005-12-27T11:24:00.000+08:00

Christmas came and went, time really flies. It is back to work. I can't help feeling that I have not shopped for a present for somebody dear. Blew quite a portion of my salary getting presents for my friends kids, this year being a bad year, no bonus and all, and CNY is just round the corner, ouch! My pocket is gonna hurt. Well, so much for Christmas. I guess I've grown out of the
Christmas period a long time ago, since the early nineties. The time where Singapore's economy was an unstoppable roaring lion.

These days, I really don't know what the future holds. So better to live frugally and be contented. After all don't they always say, the best things are free.

Dong Zhi (冬至)

2005-12-23T11:03:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was the golly day as my mum use to say. But I did a little search on the net its actually called Dong Zhi, in chinese it means the "arrival (至) of winter (冬)". Actually a chinese version of thanks giving. A time for family get together, to celebrate the past good year.

Well so much for family get together, as usual I worked late.. wife had to sms me to remind me to come home early. Came back before 9.30pm. Luckily sis in-law was still at the dinner table, she just came back too, so got to eat the rice balls (tang yuan) dish with her, while my son sits playfully on my shoulder trying to catch the coloured balls in my soup.

Here is a picture of the delicious dish my dear mum in-law whipped out in record time.

It rained on Dong Zhi, accoding to my mum, it will not rain on Chinese New Year. And she is right, I have noticed this for a very long time. The weather on Dong Zhi day is always the opposite of Chinese New Year. Which means, I better shop for a nice cooling cotton short sleeve shirt for the New Year :)

Mug shot

2005-12-19T17:31:00.000+08:00

The company next to the one I worked for has closed. On the main door (glass panel), stuck on the inside is an A4 photocopied picture of a wanted man. At least thats what the photocopy said. They even took the trouble to graphiti in red ink that we do in school, add a protruding tooth, bleeding scars, etc..

We are guessing that its probably a boss of the company that ran off without paying the staff.

Sad times, this is. Are problems too big that we have to run away from them?

I just hope in future, when we are demanding our rights and the other party is wrong and is trying their best to compensate or work out a solution for both parties, that we take into consideration that they are not running away from the problem but give credit and gratitude that they have notran away and is facing the problem bravely.

Just saw the building management staff paste a blank piece of paper over it.

Saturday's muse

2005-12-19T12:11:00.000+08:00

On Saturday, while at breakfast, I saw a Malay man
inspecting a pot of plant and later plucked and
sniffed the leaves. From his expression he seem to
recognise the plant, must be a herb. A Malay taxi
driver on his way back to his cab noticed this and
seem to affirm his finding. They chatted excitedly
about the plant. At this point, it dawned on me,
how deprived we are of nature. That herbs have to
be grown on small pots on concrete ground. Gone
are the kampong days where we grew these herbs in
our yards / garden. How far away have we drifted
/ sped away from nature. Both men look way into
their forties, old enough to remember their
childhood days, where nature was just at their
door step.

The younger generation wouldn't even bat an eyelid
if they saw the plant. Might even consider them
to be weeds and an eye sore. Not knowing that
some supplements or medication that they may
consume might contain some part of this plant.

DOTA Competition

2005-12-16T10:12:00.000+08:00

Was at E-games to watch a DOTA competition. Prize
money S$10,000. Pretty good money I'll say.
Especially for gamers and it being the school
holidays, not surprised the competition manage to
attract more then a hundred teams. Each team has 5
players so thats more then 500 participants. With
participation fee of S$15, that works out to,
S$7,500 already. And S$10,000 of sponsorship is
easy to raise. Especially when your target group
are teenagers and gamers. But I do see a few old
foggies teams (we call ourself the senior
citizens) around.

Perhaps this will start a wave of game
competitions held by LAN shops and hopefully
increase the gaming standards among us. And maybe
give us a better shot at gold in the next WCG.

Didn't see Team Zion play against God Clan A, but I saw
the ladder board, they made it to the 2nd round. Grats!

kill -9

2005-12-13T12:51:00.000+08:00

kill -9. One of my first unix commands learnt and still favour.
It is absolute, no questions asked. If process still fails to be
terminate, just execute a loop to kill -9 the process and all
its child.

Well yesterday I executed it, in real life. I breathe easier
now :D.

Now to find another process to run.

Heal Potions

2005-12-02T10:38:00.000+08:00

Wow. This would rock for Final Fantasy fans and gamers alike. After drinking these virtual hp (hit point/ health) replenish potions. Square Enix is tying up with food companies to make the real thing. Haven't tried it yet, but the review, says its herbal tea :)

Or maybe mum's cooling tea is more powderful. Anyway, another innovative merchandise in the making. Might see more of such food tieups in future? Perhaps. I will bet on it.

Exhibit Boredom

2005-11-29T16:12:00.000+08:00

Wonder what's with exhibitors / exhibitions these days. Have not enjoyed an exhibition nor expo since the hazy dot com days. Current exhibits pale in comparison with those IT ones during those times. Where exhibitors are not retailers but manufacturers and brand owners. You get to see new upcoming products and innovation. And of course, lots of freebies.

Current shows are a let down. Only a few brand owners, the rest are distributers followed by the retailers. Retailers?? If got promotions ok la. If not.. why waste time? Just go straight to your shop right? Go for lucky draw? Na. Not gonna let you farm my personal details for you to exploit later. Besides, I have no luck.Anyway here are some reviews,

IPOD flea!

2005-11-25T12:56:00.000+08:00

Heh. Cute. Check out the new IPOD flea and a video of Steve Job's hyping about all things iPod for this holiday season.

More details from GizModo.

Marvelous moves

2005-11-25T07:24:00.000+08:00

Catch Hyun-Ho Choi video entry at The 10th Annual Film Fest New Haven . Its hilarious. A parody of the red riding hood story.

Hope he wins.

Free sound project

2005-11-24T18:10:00.000+08:00

Found a free sound project (http://freesound.iua.upf.edu). Its been slashed (at slashdot.org). Cool! I like their motto, sound should befree. After all its just sound, recorded from the environment.

Time to make my machine whistle. Getting tired of the usual email sound alert.

End of day ramble

2005-11-17T18:02:00.000+08:00

Autobot?

Crap

2005-11-17T15:09:00.000+08:00

Today damn busy. No time to 'pung sai'. Maybe later, I'll do a tele-conference in the toilet cubicle. Tummy also not feeling too good. Wonder if its the subway sandwich I ate for lunch. So much for eating fresh, eh?

Better not BT

2005-11-17T12:06:00.000+08:00

No more fun liao warns us about tough actions by RIAS, but its nothing new. In fact this letter in his blog has been widely circulated that it is starting to be some what like a chain letter. Doctored to suit his purpose? Perhaps, perhaps not. But I will take it with a pinch of salt.

As for downloading and sharing media, yes it is convenient and especially so with unlimited broadband. Perhaps more media content providers would want to consider providing potential customers the same convenience? Look at the porn industries, its booming! Learn from them.

Anyway, I always believe in paying for media. And you should too.

Rusty play

2005-11-16T00:10:00.000+08:00

Haven't played DOTA for awhile. Just played. I suck. Even at my favourite hero, the treant. Furthermore the opposing team team work was better. Thats the problem with public games these days. The host team (Sentinels) will have his friends, who are more likely to play better together. Whereas the Scourge will just have to take their chances. I noticed that there is a certain level of maturity now that our local boys have been playing DOTA. Nobody complains when their team mate dies as in the past, you'll get comments like,

zzzz

z

sigh

don't feed

u noob?

fuk u la.. noob!

I suppose they finally realise that passing such stupid and demoralising comments work against the greater good of the team. Which is good. This game/map teaches kids to work as a team, even at play. So, who says gaming is all that bad?

And IceFrog seems to be busy fixing major bugs for the 6.2x maps. Since 6.20 was released there were map release to fix these bugs almost every few days. Map version is now at 6.24 Hope it stabilises soon. Getting tired of checking dota-allstars before I join those public games.

My monster profile

2005-11-15T13:01:00.000+08:00

Found this at blogthings. Looks like I am a mean monstrous Iron Terror.

Iron Terror
I Feast On: Pie
I Lurk Around In: Nude Beaches

I especially like to torment: Pop Stars
What's Your Monster Name?

Pocket apps

2005-11-12T12:23:00.000+08:00

I was introduced to these portable apps today. Small portable applications running off a thumb drive is way convenient then having to carry your notebook around. Especially when you have access to a PC at your destination (like client's place). These pocket apps are drive independant, do not need windows registry. Just like the good old DOS apps. Eureka! Now I can travel light.

A blogger who has done research on this topic has blogged about it here. Whilst John Haller has been contributing such apps freely.

Thanks John!

Blog-o-dirt

2005-11-11T12:45:00.000+08:00

Love it or hate it, the use of blogs have been used to spread gossip. With the rise of blogs and its draw, they are worst then the paparazzi. Clapbangkiss Exposé on Tommorrow.sg is just such an example.

Bloggers spend considerable amount of effort to dig and air a person's past. And all the idiots with the herd mentality jumping in. Yeah, right. Kick while she's on the ground. In Hokkien they call it, 'lup chik kar'.

Strangely, few spend time to write about the good. A wise person once told me, 'Why is it that the media reports more bad news then good?'. Sadly the masses are hungry for it. The complain letters in forums are far longer and more then the praises. Why is that? I better end this, for its starting to sound like a complain.

Sakya Monastery Vlogs

2005-11-09T07:12:00.000+08:00

Cool! Monasteries these days are using current ways to reach out. Check out Sakya Monastery Vlogs and their teachings and offerings in MP3, WMV and quicktime format.

I lost my MP3 a long time ago. Perhaps its time to get one.

Yellow fuzz ball

2005-11-08T19:15:00.000+08:00

Haven't played tennis for a looooong while. Was curious to find out the latest new tennis racquets, Prince latest O³ silver racquet review at Tennis Warehouse^TM looks good. Perhaps I'll wait till its on sale before buying. After all, looking at my present situation, the only convenient sport is DOTA :D .. Yes, the finger muscles have improved. But too bad, so is the tummy!

Ok, back to the topic on tennis, awhile back I remember WTA was concerned on the decline in interest in tennis. Don't think they are concern now. With all the upcoming good looking russian babes playing pro. I for one am interested.

Maria Sharapova (picture from http://www.mariaworld.net)

Its no wonder that companies are lining up to offer attractive endorsement deals with such players. These new wave of beauties don't just look good, they play well. Anna Kournikova after retiring, is still attracting deals. Beauty sells.

DOTA : Crude exchanges

2005-11-07T13:08:00.000+08:00

Here are two DOTA chat logs. I have experienced pretty hilarious and sore exchange of words, these two are just such. May post more if I have time.

Leavers
darkhunter : -ar
An enemy has chosen Chen.
darkhunter has left the game.
kok : ...
Gibaboom : rr pls
wah : cont?
sirzul : ...
Gibaboom : how to 3v4...
wah : rr
@didas : he random ar
@didas : ccb
sirzul : cont la
wah : lol ccb
Gibaboom : cont then
fannyfine : why these world got this kind of idiots?
wah : siaz
We later won, due to perserverance and good team work. 3 vs 4.

Hokkien sore losers
lockx the Bone Fletcher has been killed.
lockx : my boney so little life alo wan gang
t½,, ¢ : if not let u farm?
lockx : haha
lockx : jkjk
t½,, ¢ : jk ur lan : )
lockx : cannot relax
Rieden€€€ : game only relax
ms lin : diam
ms lin : gt ur problem annot?
lockx : si bei guai lan
lockx : later going to own them
Rieden€€€ : me too
After awhile.... we were owning
¯'¯â,,¢,,¢ : items so many for wad.. oso lose
¯'¯â,,¢,,¢ : ¯'¯
¯'¯â,,¢,,¢ : only noe hw to use cheap char..
lockx : shh
¯'¯â,,¢,,¢ : shh ur lj lar. u not happy u can leaver
lockx : shh
wolfff : you too, not happy can leave
¯'¯â,,¢,,¢ : limpei dun wan leave u wan wad..
Rieden€€€ : he'ls lame
t½,, ¢ : eh kp la
t½,, ¢ : u smlj
t½,, ¢ : knn
fannyfine : sore?
lockx : shh
t½,, ¢ : not ur tai ji
¯'¯â,,¢,,¢ : knn limpei ai guai lan ur taiji
t½,, ¢ : cb
¯'¯â,,¢,,¢ : use ur best char to defeat our random, proud?
lockx : nobody sae bone is my best
lockx : i still learning bone dude
Rieden€€€ : you wanan random, your prob
Rieden€€€ : you random you lose, means you noob
t½,, ¢ : u kp smlj
ms lin : we gt play ur hand?
t½,, ¢ : FYUCK OFF LA
¯'¯â,,¢,,¢ : NNB
ms lin : knn ./.
¯'¯â,,¢,,¢ : u tink u pro?
ms lin : guai lan izzit?
¯'¯â,,¢,,¢ : FO lar
lockx : shh
t½,, ¢ : shh?
¯'¯â,,¢,,¢ : shh ur lj
ms lin : shh ur lan lar..
¯'¯â,,¢,,¢ : small gina
ms lin : go toilet
¯'¯â,,¢,,¢ : tmr no sch very happy?
¯'¯â,,¢,,¢ : can play until so late
lockx : u r pro
lockx : i noob
wolfff : ..... whose the small gina?
t½,, ¢ : dun guai lan
t½,, ¢ : WAT, CB, u wat
¯'¯â,,¢,,¢ : wolfff mai guai lar hor..
¯'¯â,,¢,,¢ : wu ji tmr come settle..
wolfff : not happy ar?
¯'¯â,,¢,,¢ : amk central
¯'¯â,,¢,,¢ : come lar
wolfff : k
¯'¯â,,¢,,¢ : see u wu ji anot..
wolfff : 8am
¯'¯â,,¢,,¢ : 8am limpei slping lar..
t½,, ¢ : knn u wake up fuck ur mother ar?
ms lin : 8am ur mama.. u gt c pple pua taiji in mornin...
ms lin : zzz
fannyfine : 5am la
¯'¯â,,¢,,¢ : fuck ur sis ah
¯'¯â,,¢,,¢ : buay song come find me
¯'¯â,,¢,,¢ : come amk lar
t½,, ¢ : call me lar 91238495
ms lin : smlj..
t½,, ¢ : wu ji lai
t½,, ¢ : pubor
lockx : noob
¯'¯â,,¢,,¢ : limpei wan kpkb ur taiji...
Rieden€€€ : lame asses
At this point we had wiped out every building except the 1000+ hp tree.
You have been disconnected.

Handicap toilet use

2005-11-06T14:27:00.000+08:00

Everyone has their own view, including me. But when a 'celebrity' makes one, it gets publicised by the media. It is news worthy and it generates sales. So when XiaXue made one it stirred up quite a reaction. XiaXue is a veteran at this, one post like this and she gets her web hit counters up. So what if she loses two of her sponsors. She needs the eyeballs to maintain her pride. Sad. Then again, I do not know the full picture. I apologise for being judgemental.

But this is my current view. Handicap toilets should be reserved for the disabled, even if they aren't around. I have seen so many times where people take these things for granted. So what? Are you going to immediately vaccate the toilet when a handicap person knocks on the door? Even if the poor person might have a weak bladder? Have some compassion. And look at the MRT lifts, they are jam packed with able bodied people. Most times, when the lift is full, nobody bothers to step out and give way to the old, young toddlers/babies on strollers or a disabled person. SMRT/SBS must stick up posters and signs to tell you to give up your space is it? Perhaps SMRT/SBS should announce a canned message 'Please make way for those who need the lifts more then you!' aloud in the lifts. Wake up people! I believe what goes around comes around. These people will get their returns, in dividends!

Avian flu

2005-11-05T09:28:00.000+08:00

Its interesting to note that some people who slaughter birds at the markets seem to be immune to the H5N1 virus. Just like children in developing nations recover from Hepatitis A to gain natural immunity from it. Yes, some may develop complications and die. Natural selection at work? Probably.

As man progress, so do our food. Nothing we consume is truly natural. That includes our chicken. Steroids, vitamins, vaccination and what ever chemicals are used in their feeds to give the best yield ( or profit ). But nature adapts, it has been and always will evolve. We have sequenced the human genome, resulting to miracle drugs, but yet new diseases, viruses and bacteria are showing up, and some deadly. Just when we thought we knew everything, nature surprises us. Can man catchup? Maybe.. may be not. So far we have been reactive, instead of being one with nature. Perhaps, in some way, these vendors at the markets that are naturally immune to H5N1 have become one on that aspect.

Pooky night

2005-10-31T18:05:00.000+08:00

is celebrating in style as usual. If you are easily scared and hate gory images do not click on the google image *wink*.

Instead you might want to click on this .

Halloween is not celebrated here, except at night spots. Just more reasons to party for the boozing kind. Me? I hope to play a few sessions of DotA before the day is over and head back home to hug my baby.

Happy Pooky night.

DotA 6.19 AI

2005-10-31T13:04:00.000+08:00

Been doing pretty good on DotA. More wins then losses lately. I prefer strength heroes. You have to be patient early game, but you get to be strong late game. The strategy is, try not to let the range and intelligence heroes destroy too much of your towers early game, and you should win the game.

My favorite DoTA hero is the Treeant. Awesome hero, which hero allows you to hide, plant all seeing wards around the map and do an area stun that does damage. Excellent team player and a hero killer. Treeant has the best armour as of DotA Map 6.19b and before.

Anyway, I just found out, through Teh Blarg, that there is a new AI map, 6.19 by Cloud_str. Yipee! Its been awhile since an ai map was released. The last one by Karising was great despite some shortfalls, but given the complexities of doing an AI map I am grateful to both Karising and Cloud_str. AI maps are handy when you have no access to the net, and need to familiarise with new heroes (to me) or item build.

Recently a few people have tried to convert me over to World of Warcraft (WoW). Some are even promoting these free servers. I am amaze. I didn't know you could run a private WoW server. Wouldn't Blizzard shut you down? And why spend precious time building a virtual alter ego only to lose it when the world is no more? Being free, what is their service agreement? They don't have to oblige do they? By the way I am not against subscription based games. Just not going to waste my time and money. Besides, one bad habit(DotA) is enough. Given the amount of time practicing, I could have reduced my golf handicap by half and be healthier.

Quiet family weekend

2005-10-30T22:20:00.000+08:00

Nice to be spending time with the family. Nothing eventful, but lots for my MIL. She went shopping on Saturday, while my lil family enjoyed the ambience at TTC. Tried their coconut latte not bad.

As for today, just house keeping and a short walk in the park.

Just done with a Jackie Chan movie. Had to pause mid way as my baby was kicking up a fuss.

Baby is sleeping now, all is quiet. I am going to sleep too.

Cool storage

2005-10-28T12:10:00.000+08:00

Isn't this flash drive cute? They're from Mimoco a toy company in US. A little expensive though, but definitely an attention grabbing accessory. For now my trusty usb 1.0 thumb drive will do. Although its 256MB, it works for me. Or is it? Tiny portable storage devices comes in many forms these days, from the arty farty to the mega sized for geeks, where the hard drive is the new bling. Seagate's 5GB pocket hard drive also not bad.

Storage capacity will increase and prices will fall per GB. Yes GB, I can't believe I just used GB instead of KB. Seems like only yesterday when I was one of the few in my class who had 250MB hard drive. Yes those days the 5.25" floppy disk was in. But I wonder, what junk will we be carrying around?

"Oh, I have the entire series of Friends, Lost, Desperate house wives and my dad's favourite, Hawaii-Five O."

And how often do you watch them? Do you need them at all?

Looks like I will be sticking with my 256MB thumb drive for awhile, until the next big storage thing becomes too cheap to resist. Go china, go! hahahaha...

Biking Bungle

2005-10-26T12:48:00.000+08:00

I am always wary when travelling in groups on a bike. Looks like this outing takes the cake. Hope everyone involved isn't too badly hurt. Oncoming riders just cleared a hill, so they could not see what was ahead. Hope they are ok.

Rambling Tuesday

2005-10-25T12:40:00.000+08:00

Woke up later then usual. Had a couple of drinks last night, came back past midnight. Nothing unusual. Normally work past midnight every weekday, but I must say alcohol does help the blood flow and helps you sleep.

Anyways, halloween is around the corner, if you are on a tight budget on costumes and have a colour printer nearby, try printing these american celebrity masks, they look eerie with the eyes cut out.

Interestingly Cenk Uygur just made a logic bashing post at The Huffington Post.

Smooth traffic

2005-10-24T07:33:00.000+08:00

Web traffic is zilch for the past week. Excellent! All my blog entries belongs to me. Only me.. muahahahahaha.

I love you too!

2005-10-21T15:41:00.000+08:00

A man escapes from a prison where he's been locked up for 15
years. He breaks into a house to look for money and guns.
Inside, he finds a young couple in bed. He orders the guy
out of bed and ties him to a chair.

While tying the homeowner's wife to the bed, the convict
gets on top of her, kisses her neck, then gets up and goes
into the bathroom.

While he's in there, the husband whispers over to his wife:
"Listen, this guy is an escaped convict. Look at his
clothes! He's probably spent a lot

of time in jail and hasn't seen a woman in years. I saw how
he kissed your neck. If he wants sex, don't resist, don't
complain... do whatever he tells you. Satisfy him no matter
how much he nauseates you. This guy is obviously very
dangerous. If he gets angry, he'll kill us both. Be strong,
honey. I love you!"

His wife responds: "He wasn't kissing my neck. He was
whispering in my ear. He told me that he's gay, thinks
you're cute, and asked if we had any Vaseline. I told him it
was in the bathroom. Be strong honey. I love you, too!"

My first comic strip

2005-10-20T18:11:00.000+08:00

Ugly Singaporeans

2005-10-19T07:02:00.000+08:00

Yeah! I applaud 'Semi-charmed kinda Life' for blogging his daily encounters with ugly singaporeans. These are the kind of people I have come across numerous times.

Sadly, despite reaching developed country status, the manners and behaviour of a certain part of the population have not caught up. It is even worst when these people are educated. Wassup with you guys?

Earlier I wrote about the bad behaviour of Sengkang commuters, well things are still the same and will probably be so for a looong while.

Template changed

2005-10-17T13:01:00.000+08:00

Still busy. Trying to finish up so I can clear my year end leave. The least I've done on this blog is to change the background, it looks nicer with images. Well lunch is up. Work work..

Pressure cooked

2005-10-05T04:42:00.000+08:00

Pressure, pressure, pressure. Yes that is why I did not blog for awhile... argh! Been sleeping 4 hours daily for the most part of this year. Dead lines are always dued last week. Health is low, sleep little, consume oily food, no exercise, hours staring at the monitor, 1 man army, etc... argh! Not surprised, bad year for my sign as predicted by geomancers. Need to reap more good karma.

The write stuff

2005-09-27T19:04:00.000+08:00

Colleague recommended this online service, damn cool. Allows you to use a word processor (ala word) on a browser, but the best part is you can collaborate. Meaning 2 or more parties working on the same document. Just the thing for tight dead lines. Check it out, its called, Writely (http://www.writely.com).

Dengue

2005-09-26T14:04:00.000+08:00

Sad to hear that as of today, 11 people have died to dengue in Singapore. I never expected dengue to rear its ugly head again, this is the year 2005 not the 60s. Gone are the kampung days with muddy tracks and puddles. With our modern walk way and housing, where do these mosquitoes breed? The authorities are blaming residents. But I’m sure by now, with the national campaign and inspection from NEA officers, every household would know what to do. But yet, the statistics tell the truth. 11 has died and more cases are reported daily.

My guess is it is the public areas (drains, vacant land, parks, etc). Are they checked and cleaned properly? But who cleans and check? Outsourced cleaning companies. Most companies have down sized and implementing cost cutting measures to stay afloat or to beat the competition, I am guessing cleaners are over worked and probably have to clean more streets and drains. Upfront this saves the company, but in the long run wouldn’t quality of work be affected? Furthermore, these companies have to bid aggressively to win tenders put out by various government agencies and statutory boards. Cheapest wins. But at what cost?

Perhaps it is time for the relevant authorities to rethink on their tender system. But I hear in order for an agency to not award the tender to the cheapest bidder, they have to write a long justification. Now which officer would want to spend the effort, stick his neck out for that? Isn’t it easier to just sit back and just go with the flow? It is the safest thing to do, if anything fails, the officer is just abiding by the rules. Sure they can hammer the vendors, but remember these vendors are struggling to make ends meet. But hammering these vendors is too late as in this Dengue case. How many lives must be lost before somebody re-look into this?

Redirected traffic

2005-09-23T12:39:00.000+08:00

Chuckle. Its amazing what foot prints can lead to. I commented on Mr Brown's blog awhile back (last week?) and should not have left a url link. One url link and suddenly I get 56 visitors from Mr Brown. So much for keeping a low profile, eh? Anyway, page loads have come down. Only visitors are the random ones directed by blogspot (when you click on the next blog button above).

Referring links
56 www.mrbrown.com
2 www.blogger.com
1 firetide.blogspot.com
1 xmengax.blogspot.com
1 mfeld.blogspot.com
1 fistfulofthink.blogspot.com
1 lutiesong.blogspot.com
1 blogs.feedster.com
1 notesfromtheheartland.blogspot.com
1 feedster.com
1 yiwennie.blogspot.com
1 www.sea-garfield.blogspot.com
1 technorati.com
1 tablebayman.blogspot.com
1 karsmarski22.blogspot.com
1 trendythird.blogspot.com

Dead beat fliday

2005-09-23T12:07:00.000+08:00

Slept at 4.15am last night. Tired. Work is still undone. Wish I could just let go, sit back and relax for a week. Anyway at this rate, the axe should fall on my head soon.

Discovered a blog from tomorrow, am surprised that people are so open these days. Then again we are a developed nation and our values are very much westernised or at least the younger generation, I suppose I shouldn't be, but still it surprises me that she is Singaporean. And besides, its her journal, despite it being public. But hey, I believe she has the right to write anything, as long as she is comfortable about it herself. Just hope the authorities don't clamp down, especially when local media start reporting on her blog.

Beng and Bangla

2005-09-21T07:28:00.000+08:00

This may be hilarious to some, but I find this beng a big bully. Listen to this conversation.

Kick the habit

2005-09-20T23:15:00.000+08:00

Many a times I wanted to. I know it is wrong but time and again there is always a reason. Minutes to hours, hours to days, days to weeks and weeks to months. It is now the 3rd quarter of the year and today, yes, today is the day or rather tonight, I ended it. Yet, during dinner I still hear that voice, an excuse, just one more time, it is only one last time. I quickly tried to clear my thoughts and decided to end it, before the excuse got louder. The voice as if in desperation, gave me an excuse, ‘finish your dinner first’. And so I did it. Yes. Finally. Enough. How much more of the year will you ruin? I know it is right. I should breathe easier now, but I don’t. Is this the withdrawal syndrome? Probably. Like the past habits it took awhile to get over it. For now I will focus on other important tasks.

I now have 1.3GB of free space. Yippee!

A Woman's Secret . and her Prayer

2005-09-19T07:55:00.000+08:00

An email my dear wife forwarded to me.

There was once a man and woman who had been married for more
than 60 years. They had shared everything. They had talked
about everything. They had kept no secrets from each other
except that the little old woman had a shoe box in the top
of her closet that she had cautioned her husband never to
open or ask her about. For all of these years, he had never
thought about the box, but one day the little old woman got
very sick and the doctor said she would not recover. In
trying to sort out their affairs, the little old man took
down the shoe box and took it to his wife's bedside. She
agreed that it was time that he should know what was in the
box. When he opened it, he found two crocheted dolls and a
stack of money totaling $25,000. He asked her about the
contents. "When we were to be married," she said, "my
grandmother told me the secret of a happy marriage was to
never argue. She told me that if I ever got angry with you,
I should just keep quiet and crochet a doll." The little old
man was so moved; he had to fight back tears. Only two
precious dolls were in the box. She had only been angry with
him two times in all those years of living and loving. He
almost burst with happiness.

"Honey," he said, "that explains the dolls, but what about

all of this money? Where did it come from?" "Oh," she said, "that's the money I made from selling all the dolls.

A Prayer. Dear Lord, I pray for Wisdom to understand my man;
Love to forgive him; And Patience for his moods;
because Lord, if I pray for Strength, I'll beat him to death.

Supply and demand

2005-09-13T19:42:00.000+08:00

Heh. Just found this in my mail box. An interesting supply/demand concept. But I don’t think it will work. Singaporeans aren’t the type. Besides those who drive do need to drive or can really afford it. Anyways here is the “concept”.

This is a rather lengthy story but if the concept is applied to the petroleum industry en masse, it just may work.

A man eats two eggs each morning for breakfast. When he goes to the grocery store he pays 60 cents a dozen. Since a dozen eggs won't last a week he normally buys two dozens at a time. One day while buying eggs he notices that the price has risen to 72 cents. The next time he buys groceries, eggs are 76 cents a dozen.

When asked to explain the price of eggs the store owner says, "The price has gone up and I have to raise my price accordingly". This store buys 100 dozen eggs a day. He checked around for a better price and all the distributors have raised their prices.

The distributors have begun to buy from the huge egg farms. The small egg farms have been driven out of business. The huge egg farms sell 100,000 dozen eggs a day to distributors. With no competition, they can set the price as they see fit. The distributors then have to raise their prices to the grocery stores. And on and on and on.

As the man kept buying eggs the price kept going up. He saw the big egg trucks delivering 100 dozen eggs each day. Nothing changed there. He checked out the huge egg farms and found they were selling 100,000 dozen eggs to the distributors daily. Nothing had changed but the price of eggs.

Then week before Thanksgiving the price of eggs shot up to $1.00 a dozen. Again he asked the grocery owner why and was told, "Cakes and baking for the holiday". The huge egg farmers know there will be a lot of baking going on and more eggs will be used. Hence, the price of eggs goes up. Expect the same thing at Christmas and other times when family cooking, baking, etc. happen.

This pattern continues until the price of eggs is 2.00 a dozen. The man says, " There must be something we can do about the price of eggs".

He starts talking to all the people in his town and they decide to stop buying eggs. This didn't work because everyone needed eggs.

Finally, the man suggested only buying what you need. He ate 2 eggs a day. On the way home from work he would stop at the grocery and buy two eggs. Everyone in town started buying 2 or 3 eggs a day.

The grocery store owner began complaining that he had too many eggs in his cooler. He told the distributor that he didn't need any eggs. Maybe wouldn't need any all week.

The distributor had eggs piling up at his warehouse. He told the huge egg farms that he didn't have any room for eggs would not need any for at least two weeks.

At the egg farm, the chickens just kept on laying eggs. To relieve the pressure, the huge egg farm told the distributor that they could buy the eggs at a lower price.

The distributor said, " I don't have the room for the %$&^*&% eggs even if they were free". The distributor told the grocery store owner that he would lower the price of the eggs if the store would start buying again.

The grocery store owner said, "I don't have room for more eggs. The customers are only buying 2 or 3 eggs at a time. Now if you were to drop the price of eggs back down to the original price, the customers would start buying by the dozen again".

The distributors sent that proposal to the huge egg farmers but the egg farmers liked the price they were getting for their eggs but, those chickens just kept on laying. Finally, the egg farmers lowered the price of their eggs. But only a few cents.

The customers still bought 2 or 3 eggs at a time. They said, "when the price of eggs gets down to where it was before, we will start buying by the dozen."

Slowly the price of eggs started dropping. The distributors had to slash their prices to make room for the eggs coming from the egg farmers.

The egg farmers cut their prices because the distributors wouldn't buy at a higher price than they were selling eggs for. Anyway, they had full warehouses and wouldn't need eggs for quite a while.

And those chickens kept on laying.

Eventually, the egg farmers cut their prices because they were throwing away eggs they couldn't sell.

The distributors started buying again because the eggs were priced to where the stores could afford to sell them at the lower price.

And the customers starting buying by the dozen again.

Now, transpose this analogy to the gasoline industry.

What if everyone only bought $10.00 worth of gas each time they pulled to the pump? The dealer's tanks would stay semi full all the time. The dealers wouldn't have room for the gas coming from the huge tank farms. The tank farms wouldn't have room for the gas coming from the refining plants. And the refining plants wouldn't have room for the oil being off loaded from the huge tankers coming from the oil fiends.

Just $10.00 each time you buy gas. Don't fill it up. You may have to stop for gas twice a week but, the price should come down.

Think about it.

As an added note...When I buy $10.00 worth of gas that leaves my tank a little under quarter full. The way prices are jumping around, you can buy gas for $2.65 a gallon and then the next morning it can be $2.15. If you have your tank full of $2.65 gas you don't have room for the $2.15 gas. You might not understand the economics of only buying two eggs at a time but, you can't buy cheaper gas if your tank is full of the high priced stuff.

Also, don't buy anything else at the gas station; don't give them any more of your hard earned money than what you spend on gas, until the prices come down..."