Once a year, these guys apparently make their appearance on the outside. I wonder what they see on their journeys, or is everything just glare on tinted windows. I speeded up the video so that it doesn't take too much of your time and looks comical as well.
Thursday, 29 October 2009
Wednesday, 28 October 2009
All Hail KL
This the story to tell. I found that Malaysia airlines uses Linux as it's OS on the plane's little TV. We discovered that our favourite Hainanese coffeeshop in KL, actually the only one we know, Yut Kee, sells "gwailo roast pork". It was awesome and came with, get this, white wine apple sauce. The moment the loaves of roast pork appeared from the back of the coffeeshop, all eyes were on the juicy meat. Yum. We still eat too much, all the time. I could feel my chest straining sitting down at the coffeeshop. We need to go back soon.
The Mickey perversion is the logo of our other favourite Jalan Alor makan haunt, famous for its barbequed chicken wings and hoards of Japanese tourists. Beach Hut was a crowded bar we passed bar in search of cheap thirst quenchers. Noisy with working women, and worst of all, a cover charge.
The smoggy pix is of Singapore. Only up in the air one realises how miniscule lalaland is. Last discovery pix - Rocky. In Singapore, we know this snack as Pocky. Up north, it's altered to protect the innocent and prevent embarrassment of women, we suspect.
The Mickey perversion is the logo of our other favourite Jalan Alor makan haunt, famous for its barbequed chicken wings and hoards of Japanese tourists. Beach Hut was a crowded bar we passed bar in search of cheap thirst quenchers. Noisy with working women, and worst of all, a cover charge. The smoggy pix is of Singapore. Only up in the air one realises how miniscule lalaland is. Last discovery pix - Rocky. In Singapore, we know this snack as Pocky. Up north, it's altered to protect the innocent and prevent embarrassment of women, we suspect.
Tuesday, 27 October 2009
Recent Observations
1. People in the Southbound trains don't move in at Dhoby Ghaut in the morning. It's a bit of a pain when you see dancing room in the middle of the carriage and everyone else is oblivious to the hoards trying to get in. Yes, it's my fault I live along the NEL. But it's yours for not being considerate. Move in dammmit, please. That PCK campaign did a whole lot of good.
2. I am now on Starhub broadband. Honestly, it doesn't cut muster, compared with the MIO connection I had with Singtel. Between my Mac and the router, it's 130Mbps. Sounds great but no one knows what's happening with the speed through the SCV cable. Youtube comes in drips and draps, nothing really loads progressively. It's another painful observation.
3. More on HDB. After building too many flats in around the turn of the millennium, HDB decided to seriously push the Build To Order system as a means of gauging demand and not overbuilding. The situation with BTO projects is the time lag. Usually successful applicants have to wait 2-3 years before their 'dream home' comes to fit some space in the sky. They've been building Duxton flats since 2005 and they still aren't done. So what's come of that move is that the resale market has seen spectacular attention and growth. The number of property agents around is a sure sign that it's a lucrative profession worthy of pushy, sometimes conniving, sales people who want to sell you/sell your flat for that 1% commission. At flat prices averaging let's say 300K, that 1% is $3000, nearly double the average Singapore income. If an agent transacts 5 homes in a month, that's potentially $15K. It's no wonder that resale prices are going up - to feed some greedy mouths. The other reason for not having a glut of public housing is that it keeps the private property market healthy too.
4. Stuff that shouldn't be privatised, in my opinion, includes the transport system and the job of SCV cabling. Especially the latter. Looks what's happened with the soccer screening rights tussle/fiasco. Starhub has dug up the island and put in its own cable which it doesn't want to share to deliver jacked up cable TV content to 530,000 households. Singtel on the other hand owns the telephone lines. So they got smart and start leveraging that to run bigger bandwidth services, namely MIO and MIO TV. In the middle are all us folks who have to choose or get everything to watch everything we want. It's no wonder people are downloading to get their TV fixes instead of paying. Cosciences are clear I bet. Internet, the great liberator of media and controls and payment. The powers that be should have laid the cable and leased them to whoever wants to bring in cable content. Done deal. All players in, and consumers choose what they want. Well.
Oh dear, getting into the habit of listing. Hope it doesn't put you off.
2. I am now on Starhub broadband. Honestly, it doesn't cut muster, compared with the MIO connection I had with Singtel. Between my Mac and the router, it's 130Mbps. Sounds great but no one knows what's happening with the speed through the SCV cable. Youtube comes in drips and draps, nothing really loads progressively. It's another painful observation.
3. More on HDB. After building too many flats in around the turn of the millennium, HDB decided to seriously push the Build To Order system as a means of gauging demand and not overbuilding. The situation with BTO projects is the time lag. Usually successful applicants have to wait 2-3 years before their 'dream home' comes to fit some space in the sky. They've been building Duxton flats since 2005 and they still aren't done. So what's come of that move is that the resale market has seen spectacular attention and growth. The number of property agents around is a sure sign that it's a lucrative profession worthy of pushy, sometimes conniving, sales people who want to sell you/sell your flat for that 1% commission. At flat prices averaging let's say 300K, that 1% is $3000, nearly double the average Singapore income. If an agent transacts 5 homes in a month, that's potentially $15K. It's no wonder that resale prices are going up - to feed some greedy mouths. The other reason for not having a glut of public housing is that it keeps the private property market healthy too.
4. Stuff that shouldn't be privatised, in my opinion, includes the transport system and the job of SCV cabling. Especially the latter. Looks what's happened with the soccer screening rights tussle/fiasco. Starhub has dug up the island and put in its own cable which it doesn't want to share to deliver jacked up cable TV content to 530,000 households. Singtel on the other hand owns the telephone lines. So they got smart and start leveraging that to run bigger bandwidth services, namely MIO and MIO TV. In the middle are all us folks who have to choose or get everything to watch everything we want. It's no wonder people are downloading to get their TV fixes instead of paying. Cosciences are clear I bet. Internet, the great liberator of media and controls and payment. The powers that be should have laid the cable and leased them to whoever wants to bring in cable content. Done deal. All players in, and consumers choose what they want. Well.
Oh dear, getting into the habit of listing. Hope it doesn't put you off.
Thursday, 15 October 2009
This Fortnight Or So
1. Dollah Kassim in hospital
Ever since the Singapore football team pulled out of the Malaysia Cup (after winning it), Singaporeans have hardly had a reason to come together to cheer on a local sports team. The Sunday Times carried a picture of a thousands fans showing up at Paya Lebar airport to celebrate the triumphant Singapore football team returning from winning in Malaysia. It reminded me to the double decker bus tours the European teams take through their cities when they win a title. Sadly, more people on this tiny island watch the English Premier League than support the generally pathetic S League. We're fans of clubs 10000 miles away and not the ones down the street. It will be very hard to turn that around. I'm waiting for the little sportsmen and women who represented us at the Beijing Olympics to be the ones to rally around. Dollah and his kicking kakis were the ones in the 70s, Ang Peng Siong, David Lim and Joscelin saw us splashing through the 80s. What happened in the 90s? Nothing apparently. All the best to Dollah Kassim.
2. Unsold HDB flats
Wow, 2000 flats eyed by ten times as many prospective owners. Some are in pretty nice locations. Prices are another story. There's been great debate about flat affordability with the gahmen sticking to market level pricing. That means owners seeking a cool 40 storey 5-roomer in Duxton need to commit close to $600K. Those hoping to live by Kallang River in a 4-room will need to fork out $400K. The flats next to Kallang MRT are just as insanely priced. So everyone gets into loans for the rest of their lives and hope to pay them off by the time they are too stiff to work. Well it's expensive to be ambitious eh. I fit in the category of watchers - 35 and I can't get one, unless I apply with my mom. I feel cheated.
3. Lessons in letting go
A) My boss is kinda cool in the way he deals with less-than-advantageous situations - staying level-headed. "There's no point getting ahead by putting someone else down." Don't the let the facts, no matter how obvious they may be, harden the relationships you need to move forward. I sometimes let my emotions get in the way, and need some reigning in. And it's gotta happen from within.
B) There are a few yoga instructors in the studio I go to who seek to do more than bark instruction and urge you to into a deeper stretch. They enlighten students with their words. Directed at the practice, the message also applies to real life. Tension hardly gets you anywhere. Letting go lets you be flexible in handling what life, work, family, friends throw at you.
Ever since the Singapore football team pulled out of the Malaysia Cup (after winning it), Singaporeans have hardly had a reason to come together to cheer on a local sports team. The Sunday Times carried a picture of a thousands fans showing up at Paya Lebar airport to celebrate the triumphant Singapore football team returning from winning in Malaysia. It reminded me to the double decker bus tours the European teams take through their cities when they win a title. Sadly, more people on this tiny island watch the English Premier League than support the generally pathetic S League. We're fans of clubs 10000 miles away and not the ones down the street. It will be very hard to turn that around. I'm waiting for the little sportsmen and women who represented us at the Beijing Olympics to be the ones to rally around. Dollah and his kicking kakis were the ones in the 70s, Ang Peng Siong, David Lim and Joscelin saw us splashing through the 80s. What happened in the 90s? Nothing apparently. All the best to Dollah Kassim.
2. Unsold HDB flats
Wow, 2000 flats eyed by ten times as many prospective owners. Some are in pretty nice locations. Prices are another story. There's been great debate about flat affordability with the gahmen sticking to market level pricing. That means owners seeking a cool 40 storey 5-roomer in Duxton need to commit close to $600K. Those hoping to live by Kallang River in a 4-room will need to fork out $400K. The flats next to Kallang MRT are just as insanely priced. So everyone gets into loans for the rest of their lives and hope to pay them off by the time they are too stiff to work. Well it's expensive to be ambitious eh. I fit in the category of watchers - 35 and I can't get one, unless I apply with my mom. I feel cheated.
3. Lessons in letting go
A) My boss is kinda cool in the way he deals with less-than-advantageous situations - staying level-headed. "There's no point getting ahead by putting someone else down." Don't the let the facts, no matter how obvious they may be, harden the relationships you need to move forward. I sometimes let my emotions get in the way, and need some reigning in. And it's gotta happen from within.
B) There are a few yoga instructors in the studio I go to who seek to do more than bark instruction and urge you to into a deeper stretch. They enlighten students with their words. Directed at the practice, the message also applies to real life. Tension hardly gets you anywhere. Letting go lets you be flexible in handling what life, work, family, friends throw at you.
Friday, 9 October 2009
Use Somebody - Everyone Is!
Use Somebody from the Kings of Leon is one cool song. Great hook, lingering oh-oh-ohs, emphatic lyrics.
Guess what? Many other bands and artistes think so too. So much so, there's a flurry of acoustic cover scouring Youtube. Mostly female lead voices. Good renditions with their own inflexions and guitar work. Nice.
Like the song? Go buy the CD - Kings of Leon's Only By The Night. Grammy nominated. Critically acclaimed. Despite the way they sound and their European success, they're American. Like the Killers. Maybe US music isn't all about rap and twinkle pop after all.
Stolen from Wikipedia - Awards and accolades
- Only by the Night received a nomination for Best Rock Album at the 51st Grammy Awards with the single "Sex on Fire" receiving two nominations for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals and Best Rock Song. "Sex on Fire" was awarded with the Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals on February 8.
The album was also awarded "2008 Album of the Year" by the UK's Q Magazine, as well as Rolling Stone Magazine voting it as the 20th best album out of their top 50 Best Albums of 2008. The album was also awarded Best International Album and Best International Group at the BRIT Awards. The album is featured on the online article rock (music) in the online Encyclopaedia Britannica as one of rocks "representative works".
Guess what? Many other bands and artistes think so too. So much so, there's a flurry of acoustic cover scouring Youtube. Mostly female lead voices. Good renditions with their own inflexions and guitar work. Nice.
Like the song? Go buy the CD - Kings of Leon's Only By The Night. Grammy nominated. Critically acclaimed. Despite the way they sound and their European success, they're American. Like the Killers. Maybe US music isn't all about rap and twinkle pop after all.
Stolen from Wikipedia - Awards and accolades
- Only by the Night received a nomination for Best Rock Album at the 51st Grammy Awards with the single "Sex on Fire" receiving two nominations for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals and Best Rock Song. "Sex on Fire" was awarded with the Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals on February 8.
The album was also awarded "2008 Album of the Year" by the UK's Q Magazine, as well as Rolling Stone Magazine voting it as the 20th best album out of their top 50 Best Albums of 2008. The album was also awarded Best International Album and Best International Group at the BRIT Awards. The album is featured on the online article rock (music) in the online Encyclopaedia Britannica as one of rocks "representative works".
Wednesday, 7 October 2009
Milking It For All Its Worth
Today I sent a number of Tweets about Ris Low. And then I Googled. Get this:
- Ris Low is mentioned 166,000 times on the web
- Zoe Tay is mentioned 32,500 times, 5 times less than the reigning Miss Singapore
- "Fsnn Wong marriage" has 11,800 mentions, more than 10 times fewer than Ris.
- She's not far behind Xiaxue which has 205,000 mentions.
It's amazing how much media attention has gone into portraying Ris first as a bimbo with bad grammar and enunciation, then as a criminal. In a month, she has managed to capture our imagination, change the way we speak, change the way we make fun of each other. Newspapers have mentioned her to varying degrees and she been on the front cover more times than any other Miss Singapore. The radio stations, from the noisy Class 95 DJs to the hilarious Radio 913 crew, have taken the piss out of the Youtube video countless times. Radio 913 is even running a 'Beat The Boomz' contest. I am just waiting for her to appear on CNA.
I feel that Miss Ris should take her fame, in whatever form it exists now, to the max. Do radio, do TV, make TV commercials, write memoirs on how bitchy the Miss Singapore competition is all about and what it took to swipe someone else's credit card. Go all the way man. It's not very often that fame like this comes around, albeit accidental and slightly negative. As long as she doesn't resort to porn, she's better than Paris. And she's almost gonna beat Xiaxue on Google, who's spent years being herself to get endorsements and popularity. Go Ris go, I say. Squeeze sloppy media sponge for every last drop.
- Ris Low is mentioned 166,000 times on the web
- Zoe Tay is mentioned 32,500 times, 5 times less than the reigning Miss Singapore
- "Fsnn Wong marriage" has 11,800 mentions, more than 10 times fewer than Ris.
- She's not far behind Xiaxue which has 205,000 mentions.
It's amazing how much media attention has gone into portraying Ris first as a bimbo with bad grammar and enunciation, then as a criminal. In a month, she has managed to capture our imagination, change the way we speak, change the way we make fun of each other. Newspapers have mentioned her to varying degrees and she been on the front cover more times than any other Miss Singapore. The radio stations, from the noisy Class 95 DJs to the hilarious Radio 913 crew, have taken the piss out of the Youtube video countless times. Radio 913 is even running a 'Beat The Boomz' contest. I am just waiting for her to appear on CNA.
I feel that Miss Ris should take her fame, in whatever form it exists now, to the max. Do radio, do TV, make TV commercials, write memoirs on how bitchy the Miss Singapore competition is all about and what it took to swipe someone else's credit card. Go all the way man. It's not very often that fame like this comes around, albeit accidental and slightly negative. As long as she doesn't resort to porn, she's better than Paris. And she's almost gonna beat Xiaxue on Google, who's spent years being herself to get endorsements and popularity. Go Ris go, I say. Squeeze sloppy media sponge for every last drop.
Friday, 2 October 2009
Cows That Have Names Produce More Milk
I broke out into laughter when I read this. Year after year, the Ignoble list surprises me with new and inventive ways to spend taxpayer's money. The Ignoble Awards are given to the best and brightest who seek to prove the dumbest things. This year's list of winning projects by subject are (as stolen from the BBC site):
Veterinary medicine: Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson of Newcastle University, UK, for showing that cows with names give more milk than cows that are nameless.
Peace: Stephan Bolliger, Steffen Ross, Lars Oesterhelweg, Michael Thali and Beat Kneubuehl of the University of Bern, Switzerland, for determining whether it is better to be smashed over the head with a full bottle of beer or with an empty bottle.
Biology: Fumiaki Taguchi, Song Guofu and Zhang Guanglei of Kitasato University Graduate School of Medical Sciences in Sagamihara, Japan, for demonstrating that kitchen refuse can be reduced more than 90% in mass by using bacteria extracted from the faeces of giant pandas.
Medicine: Donald L Unger of Thousand Oaks, California, US, for investigating a possible cause of arthritis of the fingers, by diligently cracking the knuckles of his left hand but not his right hand every day for more than 60 years.
Economics: The directors, executives, and auditors of four Icelandic banks for demonstrating that tiny banks can be rapidly transformed into huge banks, and vice versa (and for demonstrating that similar things can be done to an entire national economy).
Physics: Katherine K Whitcome of the University of Cincinnati, Daniel E Lieberman of Harvard University and Liza J. Shapiro of the University of Texas, all in the US, for analytically determining why pregnant women do not tip over.
Chemistry: Javier Morales, Miguel Apatiga and Victor M Castano of Universidad Nacional Autonoma in Mexico, for creating diamonds from tequila.
Literature: Ireland's police service for writing and presenting more than 50 traffic tickets to the most frequent driving offender in the country - Prawo Jazdy - whose name in Polish means "Driving Licence".
Public Health: Elena N Bodnar, Raphael C Lee, and Sandra Marijan of Chicago, US, for inventing a bra that can be quickly converted into a pair of gas masks - one for the wearer and one to be given to a needy bystander.
Mathematics: Gideon Gono, governor of Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank, for giving people a simple, everyday way to cope with a wide range of numbers by having his bank print notes with denominations ranging from one cent to one hundred trillion dollars.
Veterinary medicine: Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson of Newcastle University, UK, for showing that cows with names give more milk than cows that are nameless.
Peace: Stephan Bolliger, Steffen Ross, Lars Oesterhelweg, Michael Thali and Beat Kneubuehl of the University of Bern, Switzerland, for determining whether it is better to be smashed over the head with a full bottle of beer or with an empty bottle.
Biology: Fumiaki Taguchi, Song Guofu and Zhang Guanglei of Kitasato University Graduate School of Medical Sciences in Sagamihara, Japan, for demonstrating that kitchen refuse can be reduced more than 90% in mass by using bacteria extracted from the faeces of giant pandas.
Medicine: Donald L Unger of Thousand Oaks, California, US, for investigating a possible cause of arthritis of the fingers, by diligently cracking the knuckles of his left hand but not his right hand every day for more than 60 years.
Economics: The directors, executives, and auditors of four Icelandic banks for demonstrating that tiny banks can be rapidly transformed into huge banks, and vice versa (and for demonstrating that similar things can be done to an entire national economy).
Physics: Katherine K Whitcome of the University of Cincinnati, Daniel E Lieberman of Harvard University and Liza J. Shapiro of the University of Texas, all in the US, for analytically determining why pregnant women do not tip over.
Chemistry: Javier Morales, Miguel Apatiga and Victor M Castano of Universidad Nacional Autonoma in Mexico, for creating diamonds from tequila.
Literature: Ireland's police service for writing and presenting more than 50 traffic tickets to the most frequent driving offender in the country - Prawo Jazdy - whose name in Polish means "Driving Licence".
Public Health: Elena N Bodnar, Raphael C Lee, and Sandra Marijan of Chicago, US, for inventing a bra that can be quickly converted into a pair of gas masks - one for the wearer and one to be given to a needy bystander.
Mathematics: Gideon Gono, governor of Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank, for giving people a simple, everyday way to cope with a wide range of numbers by having his bank print notes with denominations ranging from one cent to one hundred trillion dollars.
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